Rat thoughts

On Sunday evenings, our local RTV affiliate shows old episodes of the 80's TV program That's Incredible!  It was an early reality television show featuring people performing stunts and stories of unusual or miraculous events.  It was hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby.

On this particular episode, they show a child named Dustin Domine, son of Randy and Shelley Domine.  Dustin was born with a rare immune deficiency which confined him to a sterile hospital environment for the first two years of his life.  He eventually received a "miraculous" new medical treatment which allowed him to live at home and live a semi-normal life.   "Miracles of Medicine!"  End of story.

Nearly 30 years later, I can punch that name into Google and find out immediately what became of little Dustin.  Unfortunately, the story didn't have a happy ending. 

I wonder if the producers of the show had ever imagined the existence of the Internet and the ability to instantly search for names, places and events.

When I bought my new phone, I opted for the "Phone as Modem" plan.  For an extra $25 a month, I can get high speed internet access on my phone and on any computer I plug into the phone.  Sprint installed a new tower nearby just a few months ago.  I was getting 100-200 Kb download speeds until a couple days ago when they must have upgraded the tower to EV-DO Rev A.  Now I'm getting 800-900Kb download speeds, only slightly slower than our usual ISP.

Anywho, because our usual ISP has been flaky of late, I've been relying more and more on my phone for my Internet connection.

Today I noticed that google.com keeps redirecting me to google.ca.  And when I tried to go to Google Maps, it redirected me to the Canadian version.

I switched over to Microsoft's Virtual Earth and tried using the "Locate Me" function.  It shows that I'm in Toronto, Canada, somewhere near the corner of Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue East.

Gee, I didn't know Canada had so many cornfields.

Google Video has Radar Men from the Moon, a super cheesy Sci-Fi serial from the 1950's with George Wallace as Commando Cody. It also stars Clayton Moore, who is of course, much more famous for his role in the Lone Ranger.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.684543,-113.912086&spn=0.243639,0.317677&t=k&hl=en

Anyone have any idea what this is? It's near Salt Lake City (along I-80 just east of the Utah/Nevada border.)

The US government is censoring Google Maps/Google Earth.

Try looking up Washington DC. The Capitol building is nothing but a blur, and the White House has a plain, flat brown roof. Several other buildings are blurred out or have solid color roofs. There are other "omissions" that I've found, like the artificial oil pump islands in Long Beach Harbor. The labels are there (in Google Earth), but the islands are missing.

Oddly enough, the Pentagon is there in all its glory, without censorship. As is Cheyenne Mountain. I guess oil is more important than the military. But then again, we've known this for several years now....