Link Log for January 12

Well, first off...Chatabout's stepped down from its role of providing Bubblews with a good example. Feh. I wasted a lot of my limited computer time there, too. Drat and blast.

But should the first link that pops up here be something funny? Here is something funny:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30709273

Distilled water isn't new. Distilling water from sewers isn't new. Deliberately drinking water that had been distilled from solid sewage is...quite a publicity stunt. But seriously, back in the 1970s I wrote some conceptual fiction about a society where sewage was cooked dry, the steam distilled for non-drinking water and the solids baked to burnable carbon; of course they had more advanced technology (and "Plumber" was an honorific title for highly educated specialists, like "Doctor" or "Pastor"), but the crude rudiments of the technology Bill Gates is touting worked, even here, even in the 1970s. Nice to see Gates trying to work with it. If anybody can turn sewage and garbage from pollution into valuable resources, without the yuck factor and by-products that put older people off doing it when Gates and I were kids, Gates might be the one.

I currently live near a relatively clean river. While living near Washington, however, I used to enjoy the annual, later the monthly, Anacostia Cleanup Marches. (Actually I did a lot of them in a kayak.) Folks near the James River in Virginia have proposed something that at least adds variety to what may have become a routine...

http://www.shiverintheriver.com/

Would any Tennessee bill readers like to (or find time to!) connect with me?

http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_6c151870-9a0c-11e4-8c3a-1b943a67bac4.html

http://connect.freedomworks.org/node/195382 is my "node" page at a nationwide U.S. news and politics forum. If you click on the link, then delete "node/195382" from your browser, you'll get the site's home page and be able to find prospective e-friends in your State.

John Stossel Twittered a good quote:

Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior. – Dee Hock

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't taken the thirty-day blog improvement challenge; with the loss of two paying social sites, the prospect of using the Internet as an ordinary uncreative odd job with hourly wages, and the legislature starting Wednesday, it's too much on my plate. That said, this explanation of what web sites mean by "meta" is new and potentially useful information for me. Possibly also for you.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-seo-modern-marketer-optimize-your-posts-ht

Got any little flat bits of things--buttons (or broken buttons), ribbon, wrapping paper, holiday cards with writing on the backs, tiny beads you're never going to string--that could become part of a collage? Coral Levang takes up collaging as an art form:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/9686159-my-christmas-wish-list-takes-a-hard-right-turn

That's all I have time to read today. I had dedicated this day to Chatabout--won't be doing that again for a while--and didn't have time to visit everyone's Google +. Google + works on the computers in Gate City, so I'll pick up there tomorrow. Now I really have to check out lis.virginia.gov...Virginia voters and taxpayers are welcome to visit that site too. (No, you won't connect with me there, but you'll certainly find things to post about at Freedomworks.)