ProPublica: Feds Warn Residents Near Wyoming Gas Drilling Sites Not to Drink Their Water.
”In the meeting Tuesday, the agency shared results from tests of 23 wells, 19 of which supply drinking water to residents. It found low levels of hydrocarbon compounds — various substances that make up oil — in 89 percent of the drinking water wells it tested. Methane gas was detected in seven of the wells and was determined to have come from the gas reservoir being tapped for energy.” If we hear an explanation of natural subsidence, I’ll go off.
365/244.
SF New Mexican: After repairs, 1880s-era Spitz Clock will start ticking again.
”It is like trying to rig a ship inside of a wastebasket.” The clock’s a major photo attraction on the northwest corner of the Santa Fe Plaza.
365/243.
My office buddy, the Western Scrub Jay who seems to enjoy watching me work ... or else I just fascinate him with the tapping noises from my keyboard. Whichever, he’s a joy to see.
SF New Mexican: Rosetta Stone releases Navajo language software.
”For native English speakers, for example, learning Navajo is less about the words and more about rearranging the sentence structure and putting the verb last.” That being said, knowing Latin will help you out then. Verbs at the end!
SF New Mexican: Local news briefs.
Top item explains the fire smell last evening. Lightning-caused fire over in Pecos.
Goodbye to “Cowboys and Aliens.”
Jon Favreau gave us a nice Twitter goodbye, now Olivia Wilde (’13’ of House fame) gives a longer-form farewell. I understand she hurt her back during a horse stunt; hope she feels better soon.
[It always strikes me as funny that visitors discover things we residents don’t necessarily notice. Never knew that Body had regular gym machinery. I’ll have to go check it out. And the comment about Birkenstocks and melanoma was spot-on - for certain sections of town.]
365/238.
Dusk is a fantastic time to go walking along Canyon Road. Fewer cars on the narrow roadway than during the day. and peeping in windows is fun, too. Remember a sweater. It’s chilly out there!
Slate: How can female Democratic pols advertise themselves in the age of Palin?
Mentions our local Governor battle.
The Atlantic: Where the Creative Class Jobs Will Be.
Yowzer, look at Boulder. Albuquerque over Santa Fe.
Sandra walks in …
“YOU’RE in LONG pants?” Shorts are my summer uniform. I draw the line on them at 60 degrees F.
Macworld: Motorola’s Android 2.2 rollout: What a mess.
I’ve heard more people complaining about their Droids and an update lately. I overheard at least a half-dozen expletive-laden conversations about it during Indian Market.
Meme generation, and thoughts about the old blog.
I’ve been noticing an effect here on the blog. You all know I work hard to be ‘first’ to a particular kind of eclectic story ... and you all notice I don’t seem to get any cred for it. My dominance as a meme generator ended in 2004, but most significantly in the months after Twitter opened the floodgates. My thousands of unique visitors a day dropped to below 500 within six months. In the last few months, a pattern has been becoming all too clear to me, a pattern that has been gradually becoming more clear since that time:
There’s now a social aspect to news.
I’ve seen this effect over and over again now. Being first to a story does not matter as much as posting a story when the social conversation is peaking. The story’s only important now when everyone else is talking about it. Even folks who I know read this blog regularly, will pick up and post a story I’ve reported days before from another source than mine - when it’s peaking in popularity. I felt it was a stab in the back, until I realized the importance of the social buzz. Folks seem to feel safer forming opinions and expressing opinions within a group environment, where the consensus can be built from multiple sources. Most importantly, however, building consensus opinion is now entertainment.
I was discussing this with Brian Tercero (Santa Fe’s Twitter powerhouse and Wordpress MU master) at a party the other night, and he suggested watching Twitter trends and perhaps delaying posts until trends peak to maximize reach. Traffic has never really been my goal, reputation and authority are ... but Brian laid out convincing argument that popularity, social trending and authority are now inextricably linked.
My ‘00’s romanticism of how weblogs should influence people is no longer accurate, nor is this ‘old school’ romanticism effective. This has been niggling at the back of my brain for a while, but this romanticism got laid out on the road and run over a couple of times Saturday night.
It was also mentioned by party host and occasional commenter ‘Eric of Santa Fe’, that one of the main reasons he frequents my blog is for Santa Fe news ... Santa Fe ‘flavor.’ I’ve gotten away from that a bit, and it needs to be restored.
So I’m going to be doing some experimenting here, watching my stats a little closer to see what trends within the blog. This blog is really an extension of my own wide-ranging curiousity, shaded a bit by what I know certain readers enjoy reading.
I picked up “The Four Hour Workweek” the other day, and though I have doubts about the ethics behind some of it (my brain screams ‘con’ at some of the chapters), I cannot deny the author’s contention that maximizing effectiveness is the way to go. This blog is not at all effective. In fact, it’s almost a living fossil, a coelacanth. Time to change things up a bit, narrow the focus, play to my strengths. I need to take into account how you all are absorbing your information.
Should I echo posts in Twitter? Use Twitter as a sideblog of sorts? Focus more on longer narratives? Local color? Emphasize art more than tech? More/less photography? Show you how I’m remodeling my house? Deemphasize politics? Add video? Do a podcast? Do all these things? None?
Let me know, if you have time in your busy days, what you come here for ... what you’d like to see here. I know what I’m planning to do (it’s a surprise), but I’d like input. I’m interested.
365/235.
Two thunderstorms just merged, a little to the north. This is the main shot, here’s the southernmost tip of that left-hand monster.
Our late August storms are usually not as potent as those in June, and it held true in this case. It’s sort of spread out widely and lost its power. We may still see rain out of it, but not the sharp, torrential downpours of June.
Sure beats watching TV, however. New Mexico skies are endlessly entertaining, for those with eyes to see (and ears to hear).
Later: A funny little pic from Indian Market, on the photoblog.
You’ll forgive me if I’m running a bit late this morning.
Indian Market weekend is, as you know, the high point of Santa Fe’s year ... and the whirlwind of activities require enormous amounts of energy. Esp. if you try to see and do as much as we tried to.
From my amateur observations, it looks like Indian Market did extremely well. Previous years, there was a pall of sadness on Sundays because of lack of sales. This year, there was an aura of happiness and celebration. Buyers were out, art quality was extremely high ... it was a great Indian Market (except for tent flaps, a minor gripe - see previous post).
This is why I gave up on the clothing contest and left.
They need to raise that tent over the seating area by about two feet. Or ... and I’ll volunteer to do this ... duct-tape the flaps to the top of the tent. Put an adult on stage in a headdress, you can’t see a blasted thing. Completely frustrating. I know some of you will cry no tears that I didn’t shoot the clothing contest, but it’s something I enjoy and I missed my annual ‘thang’. Oh, I could have sat closer ... but who wants the ‘look up’ perspective under people’s chins? I sit at the back, with a very long lens, to get an almost straight-on perspective. Just wasn’t gonna work today.
365/233.
These young ladies from the Haida Nation were selling some incredible cedar woven baskets, and posed for me. The craftsmanship level pegs the top of the range this year ... if you haven’t been to Indian Market in a while, get yourselves over there. We spent more time than usual because of exceptional worksmanship on baskets, weavings, pottery, jewelry ... so much incredible creative work. Inspirational. Don’t miss it.
365/232.
Unspectacular, sorry. Things got in the way, my planned shot didn’t process well. This is part of downtown Santa Fe, in the lull before Indian Market starts tomorrow. No problem with 365 shots for the rest of the weekend, however! Stay tuned.
365/231.
Tonight’s sunset is subtle. Can you hear the crickets chirping, as the light slowly slides off our globe?
NewMexiKen: Driving Across America.
Take a drive with Ken across the USA.
SF New Mexican: Santa Fe on the rebound?
Salon: Fox News parent firm gives $1 million to GOP group.
”The RGA helps elect Republican gubernatorial candidates. Government filings show that it raised more than $19 million during the second quarter, compared to more than $9 million in the first quarter. [snip] The Democratic Governors Association reported raising $9 million in the second quarter.” Get ready for the phalanx of attack ads.
NewWest.Net Needs Contributors, Stories.
One o’ the mountain men …
… at the Mountain Man Trade Fair at the Palace of the Governors on the Plaza. Many had cleared out by today (I’d hoped to go yesterday), but there was still an impressive layout of period firearms, knives, swords, powderhorns, moccasins, skinware, blacksmithing and assorted ironmongery. I nearly shelled out for a skunkskin cap. Some of the firearms had been restored, some not. A couple of impressive small cannon ... I was thinking about one for general hooliganism (scaring turnarounds in my driveway, unwanted solicitors, etc.).
Later: And an abstract on the poor, neglected photoblog.
365/227.
St. Francis, doing the hula (click to see what was really going on).
