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Al Tompkins, Poynter faculty member


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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


1. Check out MSNBC's interactive flood map.

2. You have to check out this interactive presentation from The Des Moines Register showing the aftermath of the tornado that hit Parkersburg, Iowa.

3. Check out this washingtonpost.com video series on how technology is changing our lives. Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales and Buzzmachine.com's Jeff Jarvis are among those interviewed.

4. What are the laws about journalists attending juvenile court hearings or reading juvenile court records?

5. SensibleUnits converts distances and weights into objects. For example, two miles is equal to 40 Airbus A380s side by side or 9.9 Eiffel Towers.

6. See this New York Times multimedia story on how prison inmates are training dogs to help soldiers who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

7. Scientific American offers five ways to spot a fake photo. Read this story that goes along with the tip sheet.

8. Pure Digital is launching an even cooler version of its uberpopular "Flip" cam. The Mino is even smaller than the Flip, and it costs less than $180. And the Vado is similar to the Flip but cheaper: $99.

9. Ethicist Art Caplan weighs in on allowing a blade-running athlete to compete in Olympic track and field.

10. Some have called Seesmic "YouTube meets Facebook." It's a social networking site with mega video capability. What if news sites allowed people to post comments via video rather than just text?

11. Blogger.com is better than ever now that you can post vertical photos. And Google Docs has upgraded its feature that enables you to embed a presentation in your blog.

12. iCue is a new NBC News site that uses archived news and political video in educational ways.

We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and links.



Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.





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'Plan the Span' -- Seeking Community Input
I got a great note from Dave Schleck, deputy features editor of the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.:

Basically, someone at a public meeting mentioned the idea to build a high-rise bridge over the Hampton Roads waterway -- our region's most infamous traffic congestion point. In many ways, it's a completely impractical idea ... but it's fun to picture a Golden Gate–like bridge over our flat terrain, so I asked readers to draw what "their bridge" would look like and mail it to me.
 
Some folks inside my building thought no readers would bother to participate. Well, I've received dozens of "snail mails" and e-mails with people's bridge pictures, and we've posted some of them on the Web site. We'll also follow-up with another "print" story in a week or so. Our marketing department also did house ads and developed a logo/slogan for the effort.

See the "Plan the Span" page.

See the readers' designs.

My favorite so far [PDF], which is designed to promote global trade, was sent in by Larry Teachworth of Hartfield, Va.
Posted at 2:30:20 PM

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