It's hard to believe that it's only been 12-years since the tire-fire of 1996, and the subsequent closing of I-95 for the emergency reconstruction of a not-insignificant portion. It's even more incredible to realize that the stretch that runs through Center City (and the bane of most of Center City's development worries) has only been less than 3-decades. Furthermore, the whole system wasn't effectively started until 1965, and wasn't completed until the very end of 1985 (with the completion of construction of the airport segment), costing half a billion ($500m) dollars.

Photo from Flickr user kgradinger with Creative Commons license.

Since it's quite likely you may not be making it to work (or home), and you want to get your road-on, try Wikipedia, the Philadelphia Inquirer's map suggesting alternate routes, and PhillyRoads.

With memories of the Minnesota I-35W collapse fresh in our memories, and reports of a crumbling national infrastructure, it's not a bad idea to consider the condition of the roadway (either national, state-owned, or local) passing beneath your bottom, lest you 'kiss your ass goodbye'.

Update: Philly.com has an archived interactive map displaying regional bridges and their ratings. Alas, the newspaper archives require registration.

Do you maintain a weblog and attend college? Would you like $10,000 to help pay for books, tuition, or other living costs? If so, read on.

We're giving away $10,000 this year to a college student who blogs. The Blogging Scholarship is awarded annually.

Find out more here.

Not having a laptop is detrimental at these things. That said, a PDF of my scanned notes is embedded here.

(9:40am) I'm sitting here in the Radisson at the BlogPhiladelphia conference. I don't know if this will constitute live-blogging, since my Dell Axim x50v is not exactly known for long battery life.

I'll do the deep thoughts at Akkam's Razor, but I'll put the fun stuff here.

We're coming on the halfway point, which will bring a chance to schmooz. There's only 1 person here I know, a couple I recognize from online, but the vast majority of people I don't know.

That said, here's some highlights, lowlights, and observations:

•Our nametags should have had screencaps or URLs as well as names.
•Nice touch with the Green efforts - recycling, no bottled water, reduced food packaging, etc.
•There isn't much of a corporate presence.
•Getting a look at someones desktop is interesting - what's their background? How are their icons arranged? What apps are running in their taskbar? What browser do they use? What OS?
I think there's an 80/20 PC-to-Mac ratio. For blogging platforms, I've seen WP, TP, MT, and blogger. For tech name dropping, I've seen (on the screen) or heard Twitter, various video and podcast apps, and such.
•To read: The Open Source Beer Project from Neal Stewart of Flying Dog Brewery.
•Contests: 90 submissions for a Viddio dog contest equates to 850k page views.
•Some people left print to go online to gain opportunities to return to print.
•Whichever wifi access point they are using is S-L-O-W. I hope it isn't sponsor Earthlink.
•I really like the 'Unconference' concept. More to come on that...

More to come in general...

You may have heard about this already, but it's news to me.

SEPTA has released two new features on their website - the ability to view the status of individual (Regional Rail) trains along with the ability to plan your trip by entering starting and finishing addresses, covering elevated and subway systems, regional rail, light rail, and buses. Alas, no Google Transit as of yet.

Google just created one of the awesomest things ever - you know have the ability to annotate maps and share them with other people. There's a brief post at MicroPersuasion detailing the new features. A userguide and instructions can be found here, and a map that I created for PhillyFuture can be found here.

Integrating the "Where" into Your Blog...

The next step for all things blog will likely focus on localization, as people begin to search out content in close proximity to themsleves (and also to serve up relavent advertising).

Tagging your blog with geographic data brings value to your readers, whether you run advertising or not.  This will particularly be useful as Google has embraced the GeoRSS standard.

The April issue of Philadelphia Magazine has an article on Brian Tierney, titled Press Lord 2.0, with the following lead:

Can a self-made adman with big ideas and a Walter Annenberg fascination save the Inquirer and Daily News? Maybe. But when Brian Tierney's finished, the newspaper business may never be the same[.]"

Congratulations to fellow-Delco blogger Daddy Democrat, who's "mistakes were made" (original) graphic is featured on the front page of NPR's "On the Media". The image was created with Plasq's software package ComicLife, which is sadly Mac-only.

For those of you eager to comicize photos, either your own or other notable or newsworthy images covered under fair-use or in the public-domain, try this Flickr tool at fdsflickrtoys, Web 2.0 app Comeeko, or do it the old-fashioned way.

This must be a big deal, as I'm seeing some conservative attacks on Josh Marshall's TPM and TPMMuckraker, who have been the pitbulls on this story.

The conservative blogosphere is deep in the 4th Stage of Republican Grief - Evoke Clinton (either one), in that Clinton fired all the US Attorneys at the start of his term as well.   This is true, and customary.

A few distinctions - while it is true that US Attorneys serve "at the pleasure of the President", and may be fired at any time, it is the manner, method, and machination through which this occurred that is troubling.

I've been seeing more and more people discussing LinkedIn (coverage in CNN/Money, Businessweek), a service that is similar to MySpace, but for grown-ups.  Think of MySpace, but focused on what you do for a living, your experience, accomplishments, and education, who you know, and who is willing to vouch for you (as a recommendation).  In a world where who you know frequently overshadows what you know, our formal and informal social networks are sometimes the most useful tool we have!

Now, what can this sort of thing be used for? 

PhillyFuture reader TrekMedic215 has some post-dated items on his blog that he'd like to draw your attention towards.

The earlier of the two is a poll regarding Speaker of the Mouse [sic] Nancy Pelosi and her "hypocritical stances" on children and abortion.

The newer of the two focuses on a "crisis" manufactured by the usual suspects such as Michele Malkin and the grassroots "Victory Caucus" regarding plans for attempted vandalism by some group (ANSWER) against the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on 3/17/2007 in Washington, DC. TrekMedic215 says the following as to the post-dating of the posts:

Hey, Sillys**ts [TrekMedic215's demeaning commentary to Phillybits for pointing out the posting "problem"], the reason I post-dated this poll was to give people a lot of time to see it and vote on it. As I generally post frequently, the ability to view it would have dropped quickly and the number of votes would have only been a handful. That's hardly enough to quantify the result.

And before you start bitching about me skewing the target audience, bear this is mind:

Howard's PhillyFuture is populated with all sorts of leftist bloggers, Socialist bloggers, "Progressive" bloggers, and well-intentioned Democratic bloggers.

Therefore, plenty of people from both sides of the aisle have had a chance to express their opinions.

MataHarley, you have to take SillyS**ts with a grain of salt.

His ignorance of that facts and my constant reminders are a source of grief to him and his ilk.

He's only bitching because the numbers proving his lack of a grasp of the obvious are not in his favor.

Please be sure to stop by to vote and participate in the fair and balanced (tm) conversation.

Odds are if you're a local, you know just how bad local radio is. You may consider WDRE to have been the lone bright spot in our recent broadcast history. But alas, WDRE has been dark for over a decade now.

Not necessarily. Andrea from Metroblogging Philadelphia posts the following:

Oh WDRE, how I loved you. I've missed you these past ten years! I still remember that sad night on February 7, 1997, sitting in my friend's car listening to the final hours. We shared a lot, and I don't know how I would have made it through high school without you.

But hooray! This Wednesday (February 21st) we will once again be together. Yes. Yes. Yes.

From 8–11pm WDRE takes over Y-Rock on XPN, and we, the alternative rock fans of Philadelphia, can relive the best years of local radio—even if it's just for three hours on a Wednesday night. Jim McGuinn (of course) will host, with former DRE DJs, music, and memories.

WDRE's (wiki) original web page can be found mirrored here, and WXPN's live stream can be found here.

The Illadelph chimes in on Philadelphia's shameful recycling record (5%).

As we enter 2007, the Year of the Pig as well as The Next Mayor, I humbly suggest reading A Smoke-Filled Room. That should satisfy your hunger for Philly politics - for a statewide view on legislation, hit up Above Average Jane.

Mac at pesyapostrophe mentions that a now-New Jersey Street will be running for Philadelphia Mayor. I concur with her assessment - shenanigans are sure to ensue.

Duane at Secret Dead Blog is going Straight. To. Hell.

Geeky Mom contemplates pulling the plug on her blog, in light of the criticism from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League regarding John Edwards' bloggers suppossed anti-Catholic statements (Matt from A Tattered Coat has more on the incident, and Fred at the Slacktavist has some background on Bill Donohue).

Owen at Asymptomatic clocks in reminding us that Daylight Savings Time is going to be a little different this year, in the hopes of easing energy consumption.

Anyone else come across anything news worthy?