George's Creek SRC Worm Races

Enjoy the "fast paced" action of worm races during summer reading club at the George's Creek Library.

Take a walk with Google maps

from Read/WriteWeb by Frederic Lardinois

Google added walking directions to its Google Maps product today. The walking directions ignore one-way streets and Google Maps tries to give pedestrians the most direct and flat route possible. As Google itself acknowledges, the Maps database does not currently have a lot of information about sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, or if a specific street is simply too busy to cross. They are, however, working on improving these aspects of their maps.

Walking directions are available everywhere Google offers driving directions.

Google will only allow users to chose the walking options for routes shorter than 6.2 miles (or 10 kilometers). Because of the limitations in its database, it is calling the walking directions a 'beta' products, but, of course, that doesn't mean much when it comes to Google products.

HealthMap: Global disease alert map

Healthmap.org

According to a Discovery Channel news release,

Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking Web site, culls through news Web sites, public health list servs, the World Health Organization's online pages, and other Web sites in six different languages to pinpoint outbreaks of disease that real-world doctors can then act on.

HealthMap gathers information from the Internet and filters it, removing, for example, duplicated or irrelevant information. It can pinpoint an incident of bubonic plague in Siberia, for example, while ensuring that a "plague" of home foreclosures in northern California doesn't show up on the free access Google Maps.

So far the program identifies about 95 percent of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the World Health Organization or the Centers of Disease Control announce them.

Regional Publishers and Writers Open House coming September 6.

Get ready for the 2nd Regional Publishers and Writers/Artist Open House on September 6 at the Washington Street Library. We are again working with the Center for Creative Writing at Frostburg University and the Allegany Arts Council to bring this event back and link it ot the Arts Walk planned for that Saturday.

Possible discusison topics include:

• Current themes and trends in Nonfiction publishing
• Current themes and trends in Fiction publishing
• How has new media like Facebook and blogging affected getting published?
• Roundtable discusison on poetry today
• Roundtable discusison on short stories today
• Roundtable discusison on photography today
• Roundtable discusison on local art show opportunities today
• Roundtable discusison on fiction today
• Roundtable discusison on nonfiction today
• Roundtable discusison on "keeping your muse" staying focused in an era of multi-media, multi-channel, multi-tasking ADD world.

let us know if you think if other topic of interest to the community.

For the walkers and step counters among us

There is a fun new site called Walk Score. According to the web site "Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Living in a walkable neighborhood is good for the environment and good for your health. We help people find houses and apartments in walkable neighborhoods."

You can also use it when traveling, just type in the address of where you are staying and it can tell you what venues are in "walking distance".

Self Check Out project tips

As we explore how to install self check out machines at Wash St, South, LaVale and Frostburg I thought I would share this set of tips from an IT manager in Ohio on his blog "Geek in the Stacks."