Local

I'm already looking forward to a new bridge (well, old bridge fixed) over the Minnesota River that will be open by 2010.

Always looking for new routes and exciting places to visit without a car! Where is it? Old Cedar Ave is just below 77 here. They are going to replace a bridge that has been closed for the past 5 years.

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Google is going to add the Twin Cities to its transit integration on google maps. I used google maps in Portland when planning trips on the buses and it was incredibly helpful.

Now if we can just get Google to help with Minnesota's total and blatant lack of ability/interest to use modern technology to allow citizens to know what is happening at all levels of government. Every try to get a transcript from a court case? Or follow hearings in the Leg without going there? It is much more difficult than it should be. Government is failing to offer citizens access to the information we need to be informed.

Wow. I'm pretty pumped about the Republican National Convention coming to St. Paul. I've heard rumors about a Michael Franti free concert at the Capitol and now I find that Rage Against the Machine will be performing on the Target Center during the RNC.

Unfortunately, tickets for it go on sale on Saturday morning, when I'll be camping. Hrm. Maybe Michelle or Kimmi can help me out?

Also, Steve Earle will be playing Harriet Island as part of an SEIU rally on Sept 1.

Local folks may want to tune into AM 950 on Wed evening at 6:30pm to hear me talk about a local network and a lawsuit I have been following closely.

You should be able to listen online here.

The explosion was more of a CRACK than a BOOM or even the KABLOOMY I hoped for. It was actually a stunning experience. Missed what this is about? Read about it here.

I put my smokestack demolition photos on flickr and in my gallery.

And finally, the smoke drifted over downtown St. Paul.

Update:The best video I've seen thus far is from the Strib which shows just how slow it goes down.

Also, a video from the explosion...

I just read about a local bike shop / coffee shop / bike art gallery in Minneapolis called One on One Bicycle Studio. I guess they have new and used bikes. I'm gonna have to stop by over there to see what it is like. Sounds interesting!

Wanna see something big go boom? I do! Saturday morning, June 28, a smoke stack near the High Bridge in St. Paul will be imploded at 7:30 AM. I read about it first on MPR.

The bigger story is that Xcel Energy has been converting a coal plant to natural gas, which will result in fewer emissions and make St. Paul a better place to live, even if the electricity is a tad more expensive. It is still insanely cheap relative to its utility!

I met Ed last year on a trip to Winona to learn about a fiber optic network. He is an interesting guy that does many interesting things - but his work to stamp out gang graffiti was recently profiled in an online video.

Michelle and I attempted the 100 mile Lakeville Ironman bike ride today. Michelle has a roundup of her experience. It was cold and eventually snowy/rainy. Breezy out of the Southwest, which sucked as the first 40 miles went right into it on rolling hills.

We could have tried a shorter route and stuck with Kris Scheid, but we felt ambitious and went for the full bodega. Started a bit after 7:00. Rest stops at 23 miles and 33 or so. At 35 miles, Michelle was really struggling (this was as we faced a tough wind, doing some 7mph up hills). So she decided to hit the sag wagon, which was disappointing but she clearly needed to rest.

I pushed on and barely picked up the pace as the wind got more brutal. Finally, around mile 40, the course headed west and we got the wind at our back. At mile 54 we got the next rest stop. I wasn't feeling great, but decided to push ahead for the next one which was only 11 miles down the road.

The tops of hills were killing me, but I was often hitting 20mph on straightaways and downhills. But the horizon showed dark dark clouds coming from the Southwest. At the next stop, I took a long waited bathroom break and started feeling better. Michelle was nearly back at the start by now (sag wagons make lots of stops).

I started getting back on the bike, and stared at the clouds. I was contemplating it when I overheard another guy say, "Put on your rain gear now or you may regret it." It was cold, my bike was just overhauled and I didn't want to get it all nasty on the first ride back so I decided to abandon. Put my ride in the wagon and talked with some of the other soft folks. 5 minutes later it started raining. 20 minutes later it started snowing. I feel good about the decision.

This was my second structured ride (Mpls was the first) and I hope to do a lot more. I enjoy riding in large groups of people with mechanics on call and food breaks. Riding with Michelle is also lots of fun even though she gets mad at me every time!

Happy days - the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a Minnesota law to ban the sale of certain video games to minors. Looks like parents will not be able to rely on stores to decide what is appropriate for their kids.

But Chief U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum ruled in July 2006 that violent video games were protected speech, even for children. He found the state failed to prove its claim that playing violent video games caused lasting harm to the psychological well-being of minors.

Rosenbaum also faulted the state for failing to address other forms of violence in the media. And he held that the state's dependence on a voluntary rating board to determine which games should be restricted was unconstitutional because it did not permit immediate judicial supervision of the ratings.

This opinion totally shot down the rationale for these stupid video game laws (as advanced by many Democrats, including Hillary ... I think Obama is also on the censorship wagon here but I could be wrong).

"Indeed, a good deal of the Bible portrays scenes of violence, and one would be hard-pressed to hold up as a proper role model the regicidal Macbeth," Wollman wrote.

If kids were so influenced by video games, we would expect more to be getting lost in pipes, chasing coins, and eating every mushroom they saw. The overwhelming majority understand the line between video games and real life.