We have friends down from Anchorage this weekend that turned us on to the Degree Confluence Project. The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories are posted on the web site.

To date, 152 countries have successful confluence visits. 3276 confluences have been successfully mapped to date. While mathematically there are 64,442 confluences, the project came up with 16,165 that discount the many confluences near the poles as well as a number in the oceans.

The successful confluence visits have pictures and stories. Some of them are amazing. See our friend Doug’s 9 visits as an example. Cool!

You know the phrase – it’s said with some disdain, frustration, disappointment, or dejection.

Well – it happens. My partner Heidi Roizen’s assistant (Mary Bush’s) father-in-law Chuck Bush just won the $44m California Saturday jackpot ($17m lump sump payment after taxes.) I’ve never met Chuck, but Mary is awesome and my understanding is that Chuck is too. So – good people do win these things.

The next time someone groans out this phrase, tell them to be optimistic – it could happen (of course, you have to “suit up, show up, and play the game” also, but that’s a different metaphor.)

My friend Jenny Lawton had a good post on women, voting, and the creative / entrepreneurial efforts of Torrey Strohmeier. Amy and I were talking about women’s rights the other night recalled that women didn’t have the legal right to vote until 1920 (after the amendment was first introduced in 1878). Amazingly, women weren’t eligible to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship until 1977.

If you’re a woman (or a supporter of women’s rights), go to She19 and take a look. Remember the story, be thankful for our rights, and buy a t-shirt.

My wife Amy sent me the following Voltaire quote (via A Word A Day).

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Something to chew on…

I predict that the upcoming national election activity will put blogging on the map as a broad populist activity.

The Associated Press just ran an article titled Democrat Convention Credentials Bloggers. The Dems seem to be embracing blogging while the GOP is still trying to figure it out (per a statement from GOP spokesman Leonard Alcivar).

A year ago, I helped fund the startup of an organization in Colorado called the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. RMPN’s mission “is to provide an independent, credible voice to counter the policies of the far right, hold our elected leadership accountable, and promote concrete solutions to improve the quality of life for the Rocky Mountain region.”. From the beginning, the organization has extensively used blogging as one of its central communication mechanisms. RMPN has found their use of blogging to be incredibly effective.

In the last major cycle, email played a big part. In the primaries, everyone was startled by the huge early fundraising success that Dean had using the Internet. I think blogging is going to be the central technology theme in this cycle.

Thank god Al Gore invented this Internet thing.

I’m not a horse racing fan, but my wife is so I’ve gotten to “enjoy” the Triple Crown this year. In case you’ve been asleep, Smarty Jones is going for a triple crown and – if he wins – would be the first horse since 1977 to take it. I just saw the final of the Belmont Stakes (don’t click the link if you don’t want the surprise to be ruined). However, the race had a great finish that’s worth catching tonight on ESPN or your local news.

I was in Grand Central Station yesterday admiring the shiny food court (I hadn’t been there since leaving town on 9/11). I bought a decaf latte at the Italian coffee place in the middle (I can’t remember the name). My cup came wrapped with a coffee sleeve with an ad on it that said “Starch Away – Blocks Carbs by Reducing Calories from Starchy Foods!” I turned to my wife Amy and said – “look at this – can people be this stupid?”

Apparently the answer is yes. I went to the Starch Away web site and discovered that it’s sold almost everywhere. After poking around on the web for a few minutes, I was relieved to immediately find critical articles on it. According to the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter “No one, particularly people with diabetes, should take starch blockers sold over the counter.”

At least our government makes these kooks put a disclaimer on their advertising and product stating “These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administation. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

I’m going to go exercise so I can have pizza with an extra dose of carbos for lunch.

The NY Times redeems itself (after the lousy blogging article) with And for His Next Feat, a Billionaire Sets Sights on Bush – a good profile on George Soros.

I have been fascinated with Soros for a while and found his recent book The Bubble of American Supremacy very thought provoking. Soros’s activity and character has been aggressively attacked by the Republican National Committee which confirms that he’s risen about the noise level.

Soros’s tag line – which he stays on message about as effectively as George W. Bush does in and after his state of the union address when he defines the Axis of Evil – is “I have come to the conclusion that the greatest contribution I can make to the values that I hold would be to contribute to the defeat of George W. Bush in 2004.”

According the the NY Times, Soros’s major contributions to date include $10 million to Americans Coming Together, $2.5 million to MoveOn.org, and $300,000 to Campaign for America’s Future.

Look for a lot more from Soros as the campaign unfolds.

I don’t care whether you agree or disagree with Kurt Vonnegut – he’s still an amazing and provocative writer at age 81. His essay Cold Turkey was sent to me by one of my partners. He included a Bush Approval Rating Meter in his subtle email to me.