Scarlett Johansson’s Eye Color vs. Zoning

Scarlett Johansson

I’ve been trying to do some research on zoning boundaries as they relate to Culver’s Two Mile Zoning Boundary and some general concerns I have regarding the marketable property that Marshall County Economic Development Corporation  (MCEDC) has to offer prospective businesses.  (Watch for a future post on this when I get my facts straight!)

This post is just some venting on my part regarding how miraculous and FRUSTRATING the Internet can be.  I am constantly amazed at the amount of information that is at my fingertips via the Internet.  Likewise, I am dumbfounded sometimes by how hard it is to find something I’m researching.  I knew I wanted to see the actual Indiana Code for this issue.  I knew I could find it at www.in.gov, the Indiana government website.  I could not believe how difficult it was to find from that point forward!  I can’t tell you how many variations of 2 mile zoning boundary I entered into their search box trying to find the code section.  Eventually I found a court case that referenced it, giving the code number (IC 36-7-4-205) which I could enter and find that what I was looking for was, “Establishment; extent of territorial authority of comprehensive plan; inclusion of contiguous unincorporated area; fire protection territories; incorporation of new towns in county”.  How could I not figure that simple name out?  Grrrr!

The fact that it is not called the Two Mile Zoning Boundary is just one of the facts that I learned in this exercise, so I guess it was worth the effort.  I’m just not sure why it had to be so hard though, when I can find inane information such as Scarlett Johansson’s eye color by just typing it into my browser address bar.  (I typed in “Scarlett Johanson’s eye color” and it popped up on the Google search with three entries on the first page that didn’t even have to be opened to give me the answer…)  They’re green by the way…  And her name is spelled with two s’s which I didn’t have to know to have the eye color answer pop up…  Of course I am just taking that information on faith.  I have no idea whether they’re truly green or not.  But why should I doubt aceshowbiz.com, huffintonpost.com and chacha.com?  (chacha further informed me that they are a lovely shade of green and Huffington Post gave me a nice picture of Ms Johansson for me to link here.)  Don’t get me wrong, I still find it amazing what I can find.  It’s unfortunate that it’s only easy when you’re looking for something everyone else wants to know too.

And a final caution:  Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.  I’m enough of a cynic that I won’t believe Ms Johansson’s eyes are green until I look into them myself.  But I’m not holding my breath on that either.

RAGBRAI ’12

Becky is off for RAGBRAI 2012.  She drove to the east side of Iowa today.  She’ll camp tonight in Clinton, catch a bus to Sioux Center on the west side tomorrow and start the 500+/- mile ride back on Sunday.  Seven days of biking (the shortest day is 42 miles, the longest is 104 miles, if she does the Karras Century Loop), tent camping, cold showers, Port-a-Potties and fair food.  Yeehaw!

Not my thing, but I think this will be the 10th year she’s done it.  Our sister-in-law, Toni, will be going with her.  This must be Toni’s 5th or 6th time.  Apparently this sickness is contagious, but you have to be someone susceptible!

Becky rode nearly 1300 miles in preparation this year.  Sometimes that’s down around 1000 and sometimes as high as 1800.  Wish her luck!  It would take more than luck for me to accomplish what she has.

Becky usually emails me or calls me once or twice a day and generally I reformat that into an update email blast that I send out to anyone interested.  Let me know if you want to be on the list for the updates.

Energy from Footsteps

A company in England has come up with a paving tile that harvests the energy from footsteps.  Pavgen has developed technology that converts the kinetic energy from foot steps into electricity that can be stored and used for a variety of applications.  The tiles are designed to compress 5 millimeters in order to collect the energy.

Pavgen pavers will be installed in the mall at the 2012 London Olympics and are expected to provide enough energy to power half the mall lights.  (See CNN story here.)

*  Image borrowed from CNN.com