The Last Photo

Ivan Cash asks people near Auburn, Alabama, to tell about the last photo on their phone:

Last Photo - Alabama from Ivan Cash on Vimeo.

Exploding glass

Destin (an engineer from Huntsville, AL, and the host of Youtube channel "SmarterEveryDay", with 1M+ subscribers) explains a phenomenon known as "Prince Rupert's drop".     There's some really good high-speed video of what happens:

Which Way Are You Facing?

I found this project very, very interesting.   It provides a way to quantify certain underlying divisions that I've always felt and heard discussed.    Certain states or regions have not only a location in the U.S., but an orientation:   that is, the people there think of themselves as connected with certain other locations.

Here's a link to the big map of new "states", but be sure to check out the interactive map as well.   It lets you see, comparatively, how much time your county spends on the phone with each county in the country.   All sorts of interesting connections emerge.   One I noticed was that on the phone, Alabama is not closely connected with Mississippi.   Over text-messaging, however, it shifts alignment away from Georgia and toward MS.   This fits well with my own anecdotal observations that younger people in Alabama have more interaction with Mississippi (especially the coast) than older people.

Large, publicly-available data-sets are going to start showing us a lot more about ourselves as we go forward.

ht: Strange Maps; Adam Brown

Siloam

Captain of this site's blogroll, Douglas Wilson preached in Tuscaloosa recently, and spoke about seeing the meaning in the recent tornadoes.   Bear with him a while while he sets things up, and he'll then get right to the point.    Well worth a listen.

Page with download / stream links...

Fort Morgan, 1864

Fort Morgan, one of two forts guarding Mobile Bay, shortly after its surrender in 1864.

Link to page with high-resolution version...

James Spann on Tornado Lessons

James Spann has written a post on the lessons he takes from the April 27 tornado event.   Roughly, his points are:

• Stop issuing so many false-alarm warnings.
• Scrap the siren system.
• Weather radio needs to be location-aware.
• TV is being watched on many different devices.
• Social media is key.
• Weathermen need to be on-screen.

Read the full article to see his reasons for each.

Tornado Stories

Challen Stephens of The Huntsville Times follows the path of the Hackleburg tornado:

But Braden [...] wouldn't come outside. Kienlen said that Braden told them that this is Alabama, that he wasn't afraid of tornado warnings. "You could feel your ears popping," Kienlen recalled. The wheels from underneath Braden's trailer landed on the shelter door. They worked to let one person squeeze out to clear the exit.

Outside, just a few feet away, Braden lay dead atop the rubble.

Full article...

WP: Southern States Cooperative

"Southern States Cooperative is a agricultural supply cooperative owned by more than 300,000 farmers in the United States. Southern States Cooperative supplies farmers with feed, seed, fertilizer, farm supplies and fuel. As of 2008 there were over 1200 retail locations in 23 states."

Sackcloth & Ashes

The Birmingham News:

More than 1,000 people gathered at Boutwell Auditorium Friday night, wearing burlap sacks, their foreheads dabbed with ashes, to observe what was proclaimed by Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford as "a day of prayer in sackcloth and ashes."

Read more...

Political stunt or honest repentance?   Interesting either way.