Still Sweating

I'm down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where apparently, the climate has moved toward tropical rainforest. It rains 5 out of 7 days at noon for about 15 minutes and then again around 10 o'clock at night for another 5 minutes. The humidity is through the roof (when you feel beads of sweat sliding down your legs after being outside long enough for a popsicle you have to know something ain't right) and when the sun is out everyone heads for the shade only to develop inappropriate sweatlines everywhere you can imagine.

But, the word on the street is that 2007 is on pace to be the second hottest year on since 1860, and its only just getting to be July.

I'm ready for some snow.

Facebook gets useful

One of the things i hate about all the socnet craze is lack of actual real-life utility these communities provide. Don't get me wrong, I love cruising through my friend's (and non-friend's) photos and gawking at whats-her-name who now has kids with whats-his-face, but beyond that the socnets out there are really being under utilized as organizing tools for the dirtworld.

Facebook is aiming to change that. I found (finally) an application that they've put together that may actually provide a community service for all of us Facebook users. It's called CarPool and its one of the better apps that FB has put out there for users to organize offline.

It fits into your profile page on FB and allows your friends to see both the rides you're offering or rides you're desiring in the coming days or weeks. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this app is that it actually shows you your history of Carpool usage -- and then breaks down the amount of CO2 you have saved as a result of sharing rides.

Carpooling is gaining in popularity especially among the younger generation who sees conserving energy as a daily activity. Integrating the idea into a socnet like Facebook is taking it to a new level of online organization. I'm glad Facebook is starting to open up applications that aren't all about, say, a fortune cookie that reads me my daily automated fortune.