Today in 1937

My mother would always tell me not to "burn a bridge". Meaning, don't tick someone off - you may never know when your paths will cross again. The older I become the more I see what she means. Today, we celebrate a bridge. This bridge would be very difficult to burn.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened on this day (May 27) 1937. FYI - the first day was for pedestrians only. There are some cool sites on the Golden Gate Bridge:

Golden Gate Bridge site: Has general information and cool web cam - fog and all.

Golden Gate Bridge site/Historical Photos: Cool old photos.

Golden Gate Bridge site/Virtual Walk: No...really.

History Channel: General history and background.

- .... . / ..-. .. .-. ... - / .-..-. - . -..- - .-..-. / -- . ... ... .- --. .

Today (May 24), in 1844 the first "text" message was sent by Samuel Morse over a telegraph. The words? “What hath God wrought?".

From the History Channel:
1844 : What hath God wrought? In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message--"What Hath God Wrought?"--was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question, taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23), had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents.

Morse, an accomplished painter, learned of a French inventor's idea of an electric telegraph in 1832 and then spent the next 12 years attempting to perfect a working telegraph instrument. During this period, he composed the Morse code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages, and convinced Congress to finance a Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line. On May 24, 1844, he inaugurated the world's first commercial telegraph line with a message that was fitting given the invention's future effects on American life.

Just a decade after the first line opened, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid communication it enabled greatly aided American expansion, making railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted across the great distances of a growing United States. (History)


LTM - I have NAC, but OTOOH I think Morse is ROFLOL.

C'YA - Todd

Memorial Day Weekend Fuel Prices

One of the biggest travel days of the year is upon us - Memorial Day Weekend. So where's the cheapest gas, how much will it cost to travel to Aunt Edna's and how are gas prices even decided? Go to these sites for the information you need. Thanks to the Librarian's Internet Index for the help.

As far as the solar car? Where's the bike rack?

Where is the Cheapest Gas?: http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/default_V3.asp OR http://gasbuddy.com/

How much will it cost to travel this weekend?: http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/

How gas prices work?: http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm

Staff Cookout 2007

Thanks to the Staff Association for a great staff cookout. It was a beautiful afternoon for a day at Cleveland Park.

Public Service at its Best

Cathy - a longtime member of our staff - was asked by a patron to take a ride in a glider. You know, one of those things pulled by another plane into the clouds. Reluctantly, Cathy went along with the idea. Here is Cathy as she is strapped into place.

New Neighbors

The Headquarters Library will have new neighbors. A new development with condominiums and shops is under construction on the same block as the Library. The project is on the corner of Broad and Liberty. The first picture is looking from Denny's Plaza back toward the Library. The second picture is from the Library looking back. The parking lot to the Library is in the foreground. Construction should be completed in 9-12 months. It's a cool thing.

Is it Coke, Soda or Pop?

Growing up in South Carolina, a soft drink was always referred to as a Coke. This was especially true in Spartanburg, because of a Coca-Cola bottling plant within two miles from the center of town. By the way, the Spartanburg plant was the first to bottle the plastic two liters back in the late 1970's.

Anyway, the question stands - is it a Coke, Soda or Pop? Alan McConchie decided to quantify the question. Since about 2002, McConchie has measured responses. Here is the map: Pop vs. Soda. The map allows you to "mouse over" the legend to see which region prefers Coke, Pop or Soda. There is a county map that allows you to see specific allegiances. You can enter your town to place a vote.

By the way, according to the map, 50%-80% of folks in Spartanburg still refer to a soft drink as a Coke.

Do You See a Resemblance?

This is not new information. I stumbled across this the other day. I am not an "emoticon" user, but I did find the background and origins interesting.

The first known transmission of an emoticon:



19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use :-(

If you are interested in the entire story you may visit Scott Fahlman's website:

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

More on Kansas

I have had some interesting reaction to the Greensburg, Kansas photos posted on Monday (photos). I spoke with Kim Harp, legislative reference librarian at the State Library of Kansas, and she told me that the library in Greensburg is destroyed. If you would like to help the Greensburg Library in Kansas you can visit this web page: Greensburg / Kiowa County Library Relief Fund .

***If I was so inclined, I would put a bunch of legal mumble jumble here, but in the end, I would say that your participation is personal, and I would verify how donations were handled before giving.

Libraries' Instant Messaging Service in the News

In today's Spartanburg Herald-Journal - there is an article about the Libraries' IM service. Go here to read the article: SHJ. For those who don't know, you can reach our IM services by going to the Libraries' homepage - www.infodepot.org and clicking on the "Instant Messaging" button.

On a personal note, thanks to Emily for cleaning-up all of the typos before printing the "discussion."

Have you seen the photos?

Over the weekend the town of Greensburg, Kansas was devastated by a massive tornado. Here is a link to aerial photos of the community after the tornado. Go here.

Why the posting on Greensburg? I don't know - except to say - the images have made me pause and think.

National Library Legislative Day 2007

I returned from Washington, DC today. Yesterday was a very full day of meeting with Congressional staff as well as Congressman. The delegation from South Carolina met with Senator Graham's and Senator Demint's staff. In the afternoon, we divided our groups and covered House members. I was on the team that met with Henry Brown, Joe Wilson and Bob Inglis. On the House side we met with staff and the House members.

The message was twofold...appropriations and policy. On appropriations my job was to speak to LSTA and the President's request for $226.18 million for LSTA grants. Folks in Libraryland support the request. On additional appropriations - we covered e-rate and its importance, and the GPO's request for $46 million. On the policy side of our discussion we covered the closing of military base and EPA libraries, net neutrality, the Patriot Act, the National ID card and much more.

It has been a crazy week, but in the end we (the SC delegation) communicated the importance of library's, and the work we all do to make South Carolina a better place.

I am attaching two pictures. The first picture is of Bob Inglis with half of the SC delegation: Tom Gilson, Ray Turner, Inglis, me, Quincy Pugh, and Elizabeth Shupping.

The second picture is just interesting. The first amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the Freedom of Speech, but it does not guarantee that anyone will listen.