I *REALLY* hate the keyboard on my laptop.

Spent too much time last night trying out some cool Drupal modules, so I’m a more urgent need of coffee than usual.

Dom

Five minutes into his speech and I’m already hating Bobby “Mr. Sincerity”Jindal.

RT @yelvington: Irony: Recession has awakened the slumbering newsroom, yet robbed it of resources it needs to reform and embrace the net.

I’m annoyed by this too: RT @lancearmstrong: I heard from lots of folks that Versus cut off Tour of California coverage for hockey. Lame!

As noted in my last post, today is the 40th anniversary of the National Scenic Trails System Act.

Yesterday, photographer Bart Smith completed a hike of the entire system. 

Bart Smith completed over 37 million steps this morning, plus nearly 100,000 photographs in his 16-year shooting trek of all the National Scenic Trails (NTS). No other person can boast this astounding photo/hiking feat, covering over 16,500 miles and 34 states. To celebrate, Smith flies immediately to Washington, D.C., where he will join the 40th National Trail System Anniversary festivities.

Amazing.

I can’t let this go by unnoticed, so I’ve come out of blogging hibernation to celebrate a milestone. Today is the 40th anniversary of the National Trails System Act of 1968.

The act made possible a system of national trails, including National Scenic Trails, National Recreation Trails, and a series of connecting and side trails. Later, National Historic Trails were added to the system.

Most notably, the act formally established and promoted the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. The Continental Divide Trail was added about 10 years later.

There are some trails established by the act or later added to the system, like the Overmountain Victory Trail, that may never see completion. Mounting budget difficulties and encroaching development are to blame.

But overall, the act was a bold and lasting step to preserve and promote outdoor recreational opportunities and historic areas.

How often do we get a chance to celebrate something the federal government did that was done right? This is one.

Map of National Trails System

Brian Arner caught a CBS Sunday Morning report on how there’s a renewed interest in bicycling because of gas price increases. He noted how progressive one city has been for making its streets safe for cycling, which has increased cycling there tremendously.

As a cyclist who rides in a city that essentially has no bike lanes, it’s fascinating to see what Portland, OR, has done in establishing a 300-mile bike network. I wonder what kind of cultural changes we could experience in Knoxville if we had a similar commitment from community leaders?

As Brian does, I wish our area would follow Portland’s lead. Sadly, I don’t that expect to happen soon.

It’s true there are many bike paths here, when just 10 years ago there were almost none. But bike paths aren’t practical for bicyclists who wish to go fast or go cross town.

Lately I’ve been studying maps and driving new routes home from my office to scout a possible way for me to ride my bike to work. By car, the route I normally take is just over 20 miles one way, a very doable distance if I went instead by bike. But the route would not be safe on a bike. It includes four-lane roads and narrow two-lane roads without so much as a shoulder.

And that’s typical for East Tennessee. The roads are either busy, narrow, twisty, hilly, or more commonly, all of the above.

Still, I’m intent on trying to find a ridable route, even if East Tennessee never becomes another Portland.

Apparently it was released a week or two ago, but I just came across a new Google Maps feature: walking directions.

It works like Google’s driving directions, except it maps out a more direct route using as many two-lane roads as possible.

Walking on roads isn’t my idea of a good hike, but the mapping feature is an interesting idea. It might have some good cycling applications, too, though I think Bikely.com is better suited for that kind of mapping.

Interestingly, as I investigated more about this feature I came across an article at PopSci.com, which said some people are expressing privacy concerns about it. But reading on, I discovered the writer is somehow mixing the StreetView feature with the walking directions feature.

It seems any new Google Maps add-on causes a slight stir with Internet users who are concerned about privacy. The Street View feature, which lets you see a 360-degree photo of the location you intend to visit and then view a succession of images as you travel the virtual route online, is well within legal limits, says privacy expert Mike Spinney from the Ponemon Institute, a think tank that studies privacy issues.

That confusion aside, I doubt there’s any legal grounds for this. I’m by no means a lawyer, but I know you can’t have the same assumption of privacy on your street curb that you have in your home.

A bigger concern should be a concern for Google’s lack of reasonable expectations for walkers and hikers.

I mapped a walking trip from my hometown to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where my younger son will start college in a couple weeks.

Walking directions to Ann Arbor, MI
543 mi – about 7 days 11 hours

Sure, that comes with a disclaimer.

Walking directions are in beta.
Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.

That doesn’t come close to warning you that hiking at this pace will kill you! Do the math. To walk 543 miles in 7 1/2 days you’d average just over 3 miles an hour — without stopping to rest, sleep, or eat.

I guess that qualifies for “unfamiliar areas.”