On a pro-bono project for the Ottumwa High School Class of ’72 (OHS) I decided to do a bit more by providing three paragraphs of content and giving a vague launch date. This info will let folks know they reached the right site and give them an idea when it will be live. As we get closer to an actual launch date, I may tweak the language on it to make it more accurate. This relevant language will also help front load search engines with the key terms used to find the site.

In addition, there’s a form where alumni can sign up to be notified when the site launches.

There’s a story on your NBC.com that seems to be auto-generated* from an anonymous comment at Topix.com. I have to say that I loathe the pastor that is accused in the comment. But I think that you had better confirm/source the story quickly or risk ruining NBC credibility.

NBC Link: http://www.nbc.com/news/2010/08/06/pastor-terry-jones-arrested-for-child-pornography/

Link listed as source: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/gainesville-fl/TFKP4EG8R3D46JVEM

It’s in a forum, not a news site and appears to be the first message posted by the anonymous member. The anon member joined the same day as the post, August 4, 2010.

Will help if I can,

Mike Conwell
Computer Consulting Company

*one thing that fascinates me is that a comparison between the two stories seems to have had some stylebook modification. “Gainesville Florida” was inserted in front of mayor and “Qur’an” was replaced with “Koran.” If there’s an intern scraping stories to add to your news site, he or she should probably be fired.

Update: I’m showing the statements below only for the sake of documenting. I do not trust what is said in these statements. This has more to do with the ongoing death of journalism than it has to do with the parties below:

Updated 12/1/2010: NBC link is now 404′d and I can’t find any stories on NBC’s site by using their internal search mechanism.  There’s not a retraction either.

Three Baby Owls from driveway

Last Friday, saw that we actually had three owls in the family. Much easier to see in the video and pics then in real life. Here’s the best shot. I apologize for the shakiness as I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Sunday evening, find it’s three owlettes and a parent watching over. Have a still shot of the parent, and YouTube of the three cuties not waking up. Shot these while standing on the roof and STILL being eaten by mosquitos.

Closeup of Momma / Papa

Baby Owl on our Porch

I’ll see if I can get a better picture.

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OperationEmbarassYourCongressman.com moved from production site to a parking site yesterday.

Courtesy of the soon to be release ipSnipe.com

From today, a quote from http://tehranbureau.com/psst-column/:

3:19 PM ET — “Today they sounded very different…” Via reader Allie, Tehran Bureau has accounts from all over the city. Here’s one: “All the friends I spoke to today have been relatively depressed for the past few days. But today they sounded very different. They said while the security forces were trying their best to separate the demonstrators, the city overall was alive and filled with peaceful protests. Their voice sounded excited, and much more confident and determined than in recent days.”