“Bing Maps Guides Public Transit - Softpedia” plus 2 more

Bing Maps Guides Public Transit - Softpedia
You Guide: Urban Cow Half-Marathon -- new name, same big cowtown fun - Sacramento Bee
Telescopes Up! A Guide to the Night Sky's New Stargazing Season - msnbc.com

Bing Maps Guides Public Transit - Softpedia

Posted: 17 Sep 2010 12:29 AM PDT

Bing Maps added transit guidance to its directions options, for every one of you Eco-friendly public transportation users out there! So now, you can continue taking the bus, the subway or whatever local rail you want, without risking of getting in the middle of nowhere, because you can turn to Bing Maps and establish the best route in advance.

This feature is actually a very important one, as the interest in public transportation is continuously growing, and the networks are developing to accommodate more and more people.

In the United States alone, there are over 10.7 billion public transit passengers a year!

As this is the first release of Bing Maps transit directions, the service will cover only 11 cities, but no need to worry as more will come, and quite soon apparently!

For now, the new Bing Maps service will be very useful to you if you take public transportation in: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Vancouver.

As it can be seen on the screenshot, every route option features transit information on the side, so that users would easily compare route options depending on what transit they know and which one they prefer.

Bing made transit options available for bus, subway, local rail and light rail and information about the transit routing can be found on Bing's AJAX site.

Besides the transit novelties, Bing maps has also made major improvements on business details and information about landmarks.

You also can open movie house detail pages and see movie listings added to the Nearby panel, besides many details on hours of operation on these listings.

Still, the best way of understanding why Bing is excited about the new services is to explore Bing Maps yourself and try out all the new features, and to help you out, click here!

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

You Guide: Urban Cow Half-Marathon -- new name, same big cowtown fun - Sacramento Bee

Posted: 01 Oct 2010 12:05 AM PDT

We're still in the tons- going-on season in Sacramento, and this weekend includes one of the region's most popular and venerable races: the Urban Cow Half-Marathon.

The name is something of a story, but the point is, the run will start and finish in Land Park on Sunday and will attract about 6,000 runners. So if you're not one of those folks but might be out for a walk or jog in the area, stop by and cheer for your neighbors.

By the way, if you do go out to watch this or any of the other big runs coming up in the next few months, here's how to cheer for runners:

First off, cheer. Just standing there makes it seem like you don't care. And say things like, "Looking good," "Way to stay tough," "Great job," "You look awesome."

In short, lie. Because when you're a runner and you're tired, it's particularly encouraging to hear you're not falling apart. Makes it seem like your effort is getting you somewhere.

It does not help to say, "Only two miles (or five blocks or whatever distance it actually is) to go." When you're struggling in a race, if you can't see the finish line, any distance sounds like forever.

Also, and you probably know this: "Is that all you've got?" is not helpful.

By the way, this is the first year the race will go by the Urban Cow title. It had been the Cowtown Half-Marathon since 2005 (and the Sacramento Half before that), but some race director in Fort Worth, Texas, who has an older claim to the name Cowtown, apparently got worried that people would somehow confuse California and Texas, and asked the Sacramento folks to cease and desist.

So race director Rich Hanna took suggestions for a new name, though there was a consensus that "cow" should stay in the title, cows, of course, being a universal symbol for speed and endurance.

In any case, Urban Cow it is, which means Hanna and his crew can keep using all the adorable cow images they have.

The half-marathon and relay start at 7:45 a.m. near Sutterville Road and Freeport Boulevard. A 5K goes off at 8 a.m. There's no race-day registration, but runners can still register today, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Fleet Feet Sports on J Street or 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the race expo in Land Park near the start line.

For more information or a course map: www.urbancowhalf marathon.com or (916) 492-8966.

Big Crush, for real

It's Big Crush weekend in Amador County, the annual passport-style celebration of the harvest with music and food and parties, and this Saturday and Sunday, visitors will get something special: an actual crush.

The wineries schedule the weekend for early October because in normal years, the harvest is pretty much over and it's time to party. Also, it's easy to entertain visitors.

But this bizarre wine grape-growing year was a mess for everyone. Winter stayed forever, so the grapes got a late start; the summer was mild, so they grew slowly; then this sudden, weeklong heat wave got everything ripe and ready to pick all at once.

"It's like someone turned on a switch," said Jamie Lubenko, executive director of the Amador Vintners Association. "Everyone is working like crazy."

Which means the vineyards will be busy and the wineries will be crushing and getting the juice to fermenters at top speed. It also means visitors will get a good chance to see it all happen, though you'll probably run into some winery folks with sticky hands from the grape juice.

Some of the 30 participating wineries may keep visitors at a distance from their operations, but they will feed people and let them taste lots of wine and provide lots of music. The performers will include – once again – an accordion player at Bray Vineyards, which goes by the motto "You don't know how much you actually like accordion music until your second glass of wine."

Tickets for the Big Crush are $35 for the weekend or $25 for just Sunday. You can get them and more info at any participating winery, at www.amadorwine.com or (209) 245-6992.

Sierra Curtis fun

Or, if you want to do some eating and tasting without that pesky grape harvest, the Sierra Curtis Park Neighborhood Association has its 20th annual tasting and silent auction Saturday at Sierra 2 Center on 24th Street.

The association will have offerings from 50 wineries, 20 restaurants and eight breweries, and expects more than 400 people. Tickets are $30 in advance for association members and $40 at the door, and $35 in advance and $45 at the door for nonmembers. The money benefits the association and local schools.

Tickets and info are at www.sierra2.org or (916) 452-3005.

Reach the Bee's Rick Kushman at (916) 321-1187 or rkushman@sacbee.com. Listen to him Tuesdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK).

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.

If you choose to use our "reply to comment" feature, you should note that the length of the quoted comment will count against the size limits for your comment.

Telescopes Up! A Guide to the Night Sky's New Stargazing Season - msnbc.com

Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:48 PM PDT

The end of September marks a transition in the night sky. With the bright stars of the Northern Hemisphere summer disappearing in the west, even brighter stars of winter will rise in the east in a changing tapestry of deep sky objects.

The shift in Earth's seasons is a good time for skywatchers to prepare for the next round of stargazing.

This sky map shows some attractive targets in the Northern Hemisphere as September passes to October.

New skywatching season tour

For skywatchers with good weather, there is a wealth of potential targets to hunt for at night. Here's a night sky tour for the new skywatching season:

First you'll need some clear weather away from city lights. Granted that, the Milky Way will appear in the western sky, arcing up overhead. [ Great Milky Way Galaxy Photos ]

Looking beyond the big constellations of the Summer Triangle, we find the neat little constellation of Sagitta, the Arrow, which is surrounded by interesting objects.

Just above the Arrows tail is Brocchis Cluster, popularly known by the more prosaic name of the Coat Hanger" because of its appearance: a straight line of stars topped by a very obvious hook. Above the point of the Arrow is the Dumbbell Nebula, one of the brightest and largest planetary nebulae in the sky.

Moving away from the Milky Way, we spy two of the richest globular clusters in the sky, to which 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier gave the numbers 2 and 15 in his catalog. Look a bit farther south and you are in the watery constellation of Aquarius, where you can find two more planetary nebulae.

The Saturn Nebula is very small and very bright, so it can be easily be mistaken for a star; its easy to see how Messier overlooked this object with his poor-quality telescopes.

The Helix Nebula is the opposite of the Saturn Nebula: very large and very faint. It is probably the nearest planetary nebula to the sun, 700 light-years away, and is nearly half as big as the moon in apparent diameter. You will likely need a telescope equipped with a narrow band or OIII filter to spot it, unless you are blessed with really dark skies.

Beyond the Milky Way

When we get well beyond the plane of the Milky Way, we begin to see more distant galaxies.

Two of the brightest galaxies in the sky are just above and below the two chains of stars that mark Andromeda. Above Andromeda is the large, bright Andromeda Galaxy, visible even in the centers of our cities.

With a telescope you can easily see one of its satellite galaxies, Messier 32. Its other satellite, Messier 110, is much more difficult to spot in urban skies, and may require a trip to a dark sky site.

Both satellites are farther away from the main galaxy than most people expect because photographs of the Andromeda galaxies are often overexposed, making the Andromeda Galaxy look much larger in pictures than it appears in our telescopes.

Just below Andromeda is a much more challenging galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy, in the constellation Triangulum.

Although almost as bright as Andromeda on paper, the Pinwheel Galaxy is much more difficult to spot in the sky because it lacks any central condensation and fades away to nothingness in all directions. Its easy to sweep right past it in anything but the darkest country sky.

Be sure not to overlook the interesting galaxy NGC 253 known as the Silver Dollar Galaxy in the little-known constellation of Sculptor. Tucked underneath the constellations Cetus and Aquarius, this constellation and its many galaxies are virtually unknown to observers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere know these sky targets well, especially the treasure that is NGC 253, one of the brightest edge-on galaxies in the sky.

Although difficult because of its low altitude for northerners, the galaxy is still a fine object and worth searching for. Although 10 million light-years away, it is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions.

Maps Guides

Friday, October 1, 2010

“Bing Maps Guides Public Transit - Softpedia” plus 2 more

“Bing Maps Guides Public Transit - Softpedia” plus 2 more

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts