I am working on displaying zip codes in Google Maps for the Energy Justice Network power plants map. I'm using ZCTA (zip code) shape files that come from the Census Bureau. You can convert them from shapefile to kml using Geocommons. Unfortunately I need to do this for all 50 states - so it will take a while.

Now the really CRAZY part was that I was unable to get my KML files to show up in Google Maps. They showed up fine in Google Earth.

I did some work for a friend who is starting a youth Kensington Soccer Club - Kensington is a Philadelphia neighborhood. It's a very basic drupal website.

If you happen to live in the area, he could use coaches and other volunteers!

I recently got the landfills layer of data working on the Energy Justice Network Map. It features 2000 landfills from the EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program data set.

Go to the National Map - and turn on the layer (using the radio buttons) to see the landfills!

The UK is having an election in 20 days.

Current Polling (Averaged)
Labour - 27% - 267 seats
Conservative - 33% - 255 seats
Liberal Dems - 29% - 97 seats
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/
and
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/ukpr-projection-2

Labour is in third place in the polls, but first place in the seats! Some of this bias makes up for the natural bias in electoral systems to the rich (as people who vote more often). However, in this case, the UK goes way beyond reversing the bias.

My community has several capitalists exploiting the working class and we need you to send us union organizers!

I've found an original version of Marx's Das Kapital in my community and apparently he was actually against a massive state apparatus. Someone tell the Leninists!

I think an activist version of the Facebook game "Farmville" could be fun, educational, and popular.

I've recently been reading about software defined radio and am very tempted to buy either the Pegasus or Q1SR.

Here are some musings. Note: I'm not an electronics expert!

Crystal radio
The first generation of radio. You needed a crystal (or diode). Lacked any amplification and thus you needed a good antenna. Had terrible selectivity (rejection of adjacent stations).

Tubes

Somebody should develop a website that maps lead content in soil. Is there such a thing? Users could have their soil test and then post the results.

I've been doing some gardening. My guess is that our house (in Philadelphia) has lead. The neighbors three houses down have lead. I could test the soil, or if there was a website and most of the houses in my area that were tested had lead I could just assume we had it.

Cons (What the liberal media won't tell you)
Inadequate cost containment. Increase in healthcare as faster than inflation (6.7%/year vs 2% for inflation or 4% for GDP growth plus inflation). For many Americans, the government subsidies are a temporary stopgap. For the government to pay the the subsidy, they'll have to increase their spending (and thus taxes) at a rate faster than inflation - already a problem as the government has a massive deficit and is facing fast growth in medicare/medicaid and social security costs.

Obama is working on several initiatives to increase global warming at a rate faster than that of the Bush administration.

The US Military
They are the largest source of pollution and global warming of any of the federal government programs. Obama is increasing the military budget (currently at one trillion dollars when you count all of it) at a rate faster than inflation, and is promoting greater US involvement in the military occupation of Afghanistan.

Coal

I love polls. I can spend hours looking at the crosstabs. Unfortunately the issues that I care the most about are rarely asked in commercial polls. They miss the fundamental radical questions that get at the root of social problems.

I want to know
-what radicals think of Obama over time (and compare that to the Green Party, Ralph Nader, etc)
-how Trotskyites are doing versus anarchists and socialists
-what radicals think about LGBT marriage
-the ebb and flow of revolutionary sentiment (percent of activists who want to overthrow the US government)