quackquack

Carl Malamud, Washington’s I.T. Guy. From the article: “His art is in figuring out how to free documents that aren’t restricted by secrecy but by the fact that the government has failed to put them online.” Via @timoreilly.

Ephphatha Poetry: “Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black” - Tim Wise via Seekinginthezeitgeist

I’m not sure what Bible Glenn Beck is reading, but it must be some modern-day “Jefferson Bible” version, one with all the bits he doesn’t agree with expurgated. One can’t read the Sermon on the Mount or any of the Hebrew prophets and come away with the idea that the Bible teaches “Whoever dies with the most toys wins!”

Recently, however, there has been an uncomfortable sense that God is calling us to make and advocate for changes more difficult and radical than adding solar panels or a green roof…. The willingness to confront both our own failings and the ways of the prevailing culture are among the qualities that have enabled Quakers to influence history out of proportion to our numbers.

A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms.

Click for video:

A.K.A. the Deshler-Morris House, where George Washington really did sleep! From the National Park Service site:

President George Washington also briefly occupied the Deshler-Morris House, a two and a half story stuccoed stone house at 5442 Germantown Avenue. The National Park Service restored this building to the way it looked when George Washington was the occupant between 1793 and 1794. A group of dedicated volunteers provides tours of the property, while the National Park Service continues to maintain the house and grounds. Here in 1793, the executive branch of the government dealt with the problem of Edward Genet, the former French minister. He had commissioned privateers in American ports to prey on British ships along the American coast and in so doing jeopardized relations and risked war between Great Britain and the new nation. The next summer, Washington rented the house again hoping to protect his family from yellow fever, while he carried out his duties as president. The home became known as “the Summer White House.”

My mother Liz says she was given a lot of reading to prepare herself to give tours. I’m not too worried about qualifications, as we had framed pictures of Germantown on our walls growing up (she carefully cut out her favorite scenes from a neat old book and framed them herself with red felt matting!). I think the “summer White House” was actually one of the pictures on our walls!

Riding the Metro: Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington. Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

Theo in front of Mercury Capsule: Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington. Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

Cookie Time: Francis has a snack break at a DC Starbucks. Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

Landing Gear: Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

Hanging there: Trip to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington. The place was really too big and warehouse-like for two small kids and even the potentially-interactive exhibits (like the tour of the airplane cockpit at the bottom of this page) were just plexiglassed-off looks inside.

It’s hard to imagine now but there was a time in 2006 when Youtube didn’t own the video world, back when it was an independent project from some of the Paypal kids. I preferred its competitor Jumpcut, which allowed you to do simple editing online—splicing videos with pictures, adding headlines, etc. Then came the feeding frenzy: Google gobbled Youtube and Yahoo scored Jumpcut and the fate of the video services quickly followed the fortunes of its new masters.

Jumpcut is officially closed now, so I’m downloading my videos from there. They’re all short enough to repost to Flickr (another Yahoo property (so why couldn’t Jumpcut auto-import into Flickr? Grr…)). So here’s my archives from the early days of user generated video:

Francis Makes a Mess (Summer 2006)
This was a daily (sometimes hourly) occurence a few summers ago.

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Loading the FGC Gathering Truck (Summer 2006):
A big moment for American Friends, 2006 was the first time the main annual gathering of liberal Quakers was held on the West Coast. Jerimy P and Stephen D. boarded a rented truck a week before and drove the FGC Bookstore from Philadelphia to Tacoma, Washington.

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Theo sings the Thomas Song (Spring 2007):
The Thomas the Tank Engine song as sung by 3-1/2 year old Theo (don’t be confused by his initial description of it as the “Gordon Song”!),

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Francis Sings Elmo (Spring 2007)

Bridge Views: A very narrow bridge over the Delaware, the mega-SUVs were all skimming the rails by an inch. New Jersey State History Fair at Washington Crossing State Park.

Marching orders: New Jersey State History Fair at Washington Crossing State Park.

Snacking: New Jersey State History Fair at Washington Crossing State Park.