John Tracy

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Chilling words by Dan Rather about his view on the news the CIA has evidence of Russian tampering with the US Presidential election.

The Founding Fathers worried about a demagogue rising to power backed by a foreign adversary. That notion seemed to diminish to the point of a quaint anachronism over the centuries as our democracy solidified and our strength as a world power grew. No longer.

My favorite quote of the post comes at the end:

Perhaps it is too strong to suggest that to countenance what Putin and Russia did in our presidential election with a shrug or a justification forfeits the right to call yourself a patriot, no matter how many flags lapel pins you own…

Google released a new maps tool called Timelapse. This tool allows one to cover over 3 decades of change anywhere on earth. Naturally, I focused on areas I know. Lake Martin suffered from a strong tornado that touched down on April 27, 2011. The path was over 50 miles long and the tornado reached a max strength of EF-4 with estimated wind speed in excess of 170mph.

The tornado was so strong its path of destruction is clearly visible in the the timelapse I have included below. Seeing the path show up in satellite imagery brought a new understanding of just how powerful tornadoes can be, and also how long they take to recover from.

In the embedded data below, notice the pathway that immediately appears at the 2011 mark.

It looks like YouTube will also be live-streaming the first presidential debate tonight. I know a lot of places are doing this, but YouTube is important for two reasons:

1. It provides access to the young voting audience frequently called Millennials.
2. This will stream on a variety of devices, not just computers, but also phones, tablets, and set-top boxes.