Help save Aaron's grandfather's house!

This is taken verbatim from Boing Boing it was posted by Cory Doctorow, on January 16, 2008 12:27 AM, and I didn't rewrite it because Cory is a better writer than me...

Aaron sez, "The state of South Carolina has decided to put a freeway through my Grandfather's 150 year old house (built by HIS Grandfather). The Governor and the people in the planning office say the route my father worked out is fine, but they need 'public outcry' to justify moving it so if people 10 miles down the route ask why they moved it for us they can say 'hey, lots of people got pissed.' So I set up a petition which in mid-Feb. will send the results to the Governor's office and I need as many people to sign it as possible. They don't care WHO you are or WHERE you are, just so long as there is 'public outcry.'"


The home was built from trees that were cleared from the forests that now are open fields of fertile farmlands. The underpinning of the home was and still is hand-hewn logs held together by 10" wooden pegs. The original structure consisted of four equally sized rooms and the kitchen was separated from the home in the back to save the home in case of a fire in the kitchen.

In the late 1940's, the kitchen was joined to the rear of the home and three other rooms were added across the back of the house. The floors of this section were not joined evenly, and there is an approximate ten inch step down from the original section of the home to this rear section. The porch was also extended across the front and down the West side of the house. In 1957, my father, who was actually born in the home in 1916, remodeled the home, leaving the basic four rooms of the home but installing oak hardwood floors. He also left most of the original windows in rooms and by the front door, which were hand-blown glass with "wavy" imperfections and bubbles. The chimney on the East side of the house is also original which, according to family lore, has brick laid with "salt crete". It was covered with a thin layer of concrete years ago to protect it from weathering. Around 1965, dormers were added to the roof of the house and the attic was opened to house two bedrooms. And the final remodeling occurred around 1985 when the kitchen was remodeled and a carport was attached at the kitchen entrance.

link good luck Aaron!!!

***BTW*** Aaron has also put this on digg so we can also help him by digging it up!!!

---*****UPDATE****----

Today I heard on Buzz Out Loud that the state of South Carolina decided to use the route that did not go through Arron's Grandfathers house!! Thank you to everyone who pitched in!!!!

---###ANOTHER UPDATE###---

I received an email from Aaron where he said:

"The state of S.C. has decided to move the freeway that was scheduled
to go through my Grandfather's house! I was able to collect over 2200
signatures with our online petition and it had a big impact in the
decision by the state. I think what caught us off guard the most were
the comments on the petition. To everyone that signed and to everyone
who wrote notes of encouragement, THANK YOU!"

Flooding at the Columbus Convention Center, but that's where OLF is held!?! Nooooooo!

Thats right kids the THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH is reporting that the flood in Downtown Columbus was a waterline and that's "... estimated that the damage to walls, carpeting and other fixtures will run into millions of dollars."

"The waterline, which runs down Swan Street and provides water to the west side of High Street, had been capped under the northern section of the convention center at 400 N. High St. The cap blew off for an unknown reason, and water shooting under the center pushed up the concrete slabs that make up the floor and flooded the center. When the water was turned off, the slabs subsided, leaving damaged drywall and doors that no longer line up with their jambs in the northern part of the center."

So here's to hoping for a OLF2008!

LOL: looking for a date?

I have nothing to say about this how about a link?

Leo Laporte's Egyptian Vacation

Leo is back from Egypt and he has posted some great pics . There are various images here ranging from Holiday Vacation (which it was), to touristy ancient Egypt pics, to some really gritty in-the-life-of type of images that you'd see in National Geographic. I'm glad he posted these because I'll never make it to Egypt but I feel like I've kinda been there

KDE comes to the Nokia tablets AS A .DEB

geekpenguin has a post and video up proving that you can run KDE on a n800. So far this has only been tested on the n800, but I'm sure it will come to the n770 and the n810 soon

Warren Ellis's angry, profane Three Laws of Robotics

Warren Ellis's profane and angry take on the Three Laws of Robotics is good reading, but not good news for all of you cyber-dildonics fans out there his three laws are as follows:

1. Robots couldn’t really give a fuck if you live or die. Seriously. I mean, what are you thinking? “Ooh, I must protect the bag of meat at all costs because I couldn’t possibly plug in the charger all on my own.” Shut the fuck up.

2. Robots do not want to have sex with you. Are you listening, Japan? I don’t have a clever comparative simile for this, because frankly you bags of meat will fuck bicycles if they’re laying down and not putting up a fight. Just stop it. There is no robot on Earth that wants to see a bag of meat with a small prong on the end approaching it with a can of WD-40 and a hopeful smile. And don’t get me started on that terrifying hole that squeezes out more bags of meat.

3. What, you can’t count higher than three? We’re expected to save your miserable lives, suffer being dressed in cheap schoolgirl costumes while you pollute any and all cavities you can find and do your maths for you? It’s a miracle you people survived long enough to build us. You can go now.

The quote in this post was originally written November 2007, and is © Warren Ellis 2007, 2008 etc etc) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The first sentence (like all of my work) is Licensed CC BY-SA