Cool of the Week.com

This will make your hair stand on end!

I haven't personally been totally sucked into the You Tube culture quite yet, but this one video, from very cool web site, Vidaday.com, is slowly pushing me towards being a web video junky.

Check it out here!

Watch the New DC Ballpark Go Up!

Came across this site by browsing about the new Nationals ballpark. It's actually quite a nice site, as the interface with the webcam is top notch.

Check it out here!

ScribeFire - cool Firefox Add-on

ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

New Zealand Inzanity!

A little over a week ago now, I had an intern at work whose father suddenly passed away. Now, his father lives in Fiji and is Fijian, and our intern is also from Fiji, working off of a student visa, and living here in DC.  Last Friday morning, we were working desperately together to try to get him home to Suva as quickly and economically feasible as possible. We found an airfare, through the help of our travel agent that would have gotten him into Fiji in about 24 hours, and required him to pretty much leave immediately and get to the airport.

Now, here's the stickler. He would have had to go through Auckland's international terminal, and layover for about 3 hours, while he waited for his connection to Suva. The New Zealand Government has restrictions on some Pacific Island nations requiring a transit visa to pass through the airport, even if they're not leaving the airport. OK...understood...fair enough. His layover would have been 3 hours and 15 minutes if everything was on time. Having had this transit visa problem before with other co-workers, we had him call the New Zealand embassy in Washington to ask if he needed a transit visa. Yes...any layover over 3 hours would require a transit visa, and it would take them 5-7 days to process it. So, we're talking a difference here of 15 minutes! He told them his father just passed away, and he needed to get home as soon as possible. They might as well have said "...we don't care if your father just died, rules are rules...", which they pretty much did.

I understand the need to follow rules and regulations, but couldn't the embassy make an exception this time for the 15 minutes, or even have someone at the airport escort him for the additional 15 minutes, in case he posed some kind of security risk. There are rules, and then there is reasonable common sense, and finally there is compassion. The New Zealand Government did not exhibit either common sense or compassion on this occasion.

If you're as ticked off as I am, then please email the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, DC, and give them a piece of your mind.

- Bob

Pearl Jam, Doing Their Part...

Pearl Jam is partnering with CI (Conservation International) to offset the carbon footprint associated with their 2006 concert tour. Chat live with Stone Gossard on August 14, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. EST about Pearl Jam's committment to reducing the negative effects of climate change. Visit http://www.conservation.org/cilive for more info and to pre-submit your questions for Stone.

Conservation International believes that Earth's natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally and economically.

Their mission is to conserve the Earth's living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.

- Bob