joshedwards.com

One Year’s Worth of Driving

Josh — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:11:30 +0000

I registered the Jetta today and discovered in the last year I drove 5045 miles.

That’s not even 100 miles a week!

Stop SOPA

Josh — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:05:36 +0000

If any of you visited the site on Wednesday, saw the redirection to the SOPA Strike website and were confused or worried, I apologize.

It was a late-night, last-minute decision to join in on “Black Wednesday” so I didn’t have time to warn you.

For more information about the protest visit SOPA Strike or your local library …

SOPA Strike

Josh — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:26:39 +0000

Just because I like a good protest, this site’s going dark as part of SOPA Strike.

So when it hits midnight you’re going to see some serious shit.

Burj’s King Kong Moment

Josh — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:00:43 +0000

I thought this was a fascinating take on the Burj being in the new Mission: Impossible movie: “The Burj Khalifa two years later: With help from Hollywood, the world’s tallest building asserts its status as a global icon, but real estate and urban planning problems remain“.

No More Presidential Coins

Josh — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:11 +0000

Looks like I spoke too soon! Apparently the U.S. Mint is not going to make any more of the Presidential $1 Coins for circulation, check out this article from three weeks ago: “Treasury to stop producing unneeded dollar coins“.

The Administration will still be required, by law, to continue to produce a relatively small number of the coins to be sold to collectors, at no cost to taxpayers. Instead of producing 70-80 million coins per President, the United States Mint will now only produce as many as collectors want.

The program was only 20 Presidents deep when it was canceled, but there is still a 1.4 billion coin backlog hanging out in Federal Reserve Bank vaults.

The real losers are the fans of Chester A. Arthur; his coin is coming out February 16, 2012, but only to collectors.

Another Maine Quarter

Josh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:00:24 +0000

I used to follow coins and collecting more. With so many changes recently in pennies, nickles and quarters my numismatic interest has severely waned.

First we had the 50 State Quarters program.

Then District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarters. The Westward Journey nickel series, the Lincoln bicentennial cent, the Union shield cent and the terribly unpopular Presidential $1 Coin Program (who can wait until 2014 for the Warren G. Harding coin?!?)

Thus I was surprised to read about a new Maine special quarter coming out this year. Apparently the “America the Beautiful Quarters Program” started in April of 2010?

Oops.

Check out the article in the Bangor Daily News, “Bass Harbor lighthouse, Acadia to appear on new quarter“.

It’s a pretty cool coin, actually:

Happy New Year

Josh — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:25:31 +0000

At some point I’d like to sit down and put together a “Year in Review” for 2011 – it’d be a doozie.

Until then here are some fun facts about Maine from the Bangor Daily News:

The Institute for Economics & Peace ranked the Pine Tree State the most peaceful state in the country in its first U.S. Peace Index. Factored into that: The number of homicides, jailed inmates and police officers.

Related to that ranking: Maine recorded the lowest rate of violent crimes in the U.S. in 2007, according to the U.S. Census. The figure: 118 incidents per 100,000 people. South Carolina, on the opposite end of the spectrum, counted 788.

Read the rest at, “The ways Maine is No.1“.

Lowe’s Feels VERY Dumb Right Now

Josh — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:15:02 +0000

You might have heard how the other week the Florida Family Association protested Lowe’s advertising on TLC’s “All-American Muslim” show until they canceled their ads. Protests on the order of Tahrir Square erupted on the internets.

Now it turns out this ~~hate~~ religious group is only one dude.

Wow.

Check out the New York Times article: “Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims“.

Sarcasm in Print

Josh — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:24:10 +0000

We talking about this almost two years ago (see SarcMark).

Check out this article from the Washington Post: “Should sarcasm have its own font style?”

I may be guilty of using the faux-html code, like: < sarcasm > great idea .

All-American Racism, from Lowe’s

Josh — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:11:55 +0000

Lowe’s has sunk below Walmart in corporate crassness: “All-American Muslim Meets an Un-American Advertising Pullout“.

Lowe’s pulled its ads following a protest campaign from the Florida Family Association, which objects to the show, in essence, because it portrays Muslims too positively. That is, it argues the show is “propaganda” because it portrays peaceful, ordinary Muslims without mentioning horrible things that other Muslims have done. Right: because a decade of news reports, eight seasons of 24 and constant political grandstanding have done a bang-up job of utterly ignoring Islamic extremists.

Bonus points for mentioning the PPH.

Love the Poniewozik …