Why OpenStreetMap

by philrw
65 words - 1 min read
Personal

comparison of four online maps

OpenStreetMap is in the upper left. Google, Bing, and MapQuest are all represented by comparison.

Here’s the link to the above map so you can compare for yourself! Who knows, by the time you check it out, Google may have caught up! :)

By the way, I’m the one who first modified the McCaslin DDI interchange on OSM. It has subsequently been refined by others.

Faxes From the Far Side • Damn Interesting

by philrw
184 words - 1 min read
Miscellaneous
Fascinating; I did not know this: Billions of years ago, the moon rotated around its axis faster than it does today. But early in the moon’s history, the drag of Earth’s gravity caused the moon’s rotation to slow to what appears to be a halt from an Earth perspective. One hemisphere of the moon always faces the Earth, and the other always faces away, with Earth’s gravity acting as a tether. In other words, the moon revolves once around the Earth in the same time it takes to rotate on its own axis—a phenomenon known as tidal locking.
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2015 Likely to Be Hottest Year Ever Recorded

by philrw
155 words - 1 min read
Personal Rants and Raves
Okay, folks, here’s what it boils down to (pun intended): the next few decades will see more intense and frequent droughts, flooding, crop failures, food insecurity, mass migrations (Europe’s current refugee “crisis” is mild by comparison), severe weather, and conflicts over ever-dwindling natural resources as our home planet’s climate change forcibly changes our behaviors. Humans generally suck at nonviolent conflict resolution, so there will probably be much violence. The world will be divided between the nations as “haves” and “have-nots” even more so than today as our humanitarian relief effort resources are reallocated to deal with domestic crises.
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