Ben Shoemate's Notebook

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via http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelleoshen/2215156535/

Interesting Google Maps discoveries are a dime a dozen, but a missile in flight is a rare find. The shot below shows a missile in flight over Utah near the town of Circleville (direct link on Google Maps here)

It’s hard to be sure from the shot, but the Missile appears to be an AIM-9 Sidewinder used by the US Air Force. It’s also a considerable distance from the Utah Test and Training Range, so it would appear to be out of place.

Oh. My. God. Giant hat tip to JLFinch's recommended diary: here's McCain's selection for the Vice Presidency of the United States, Sarah Palin, answering a 2006 policy questionnaire:

Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance

I don't even know what to say to that... I think the only possible response is a long, drawn out pause, followed by a vigorous beating of your head against the wall.

Fun facts: when John McCain's grandfather graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906, the Pledge of Allegiance, as first written, was only fourteen years old. It would not be made the official pledge of the United States until 1942, six years after John McCain himself was born.

When John McCain was born, the words "Under God" were not in the Pledge. They would not appear there until 1954, during McCain's senior year of high school.

Either McCain's graduating class included Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (hey, maybe Palin will ask him), or McCain's own vice presidential candidate doesn't know a stick of history -- but still feels perfectly qualified to opine on it anyway. What a completely non-comforting thought.

Google watchdog Phillip Lessen has scanned and posted a printed comic he says he received in the mail from Google today describing the company's forthcoming open source browser Chrome. The link to Chrome is currently a 404. Long rumored to be in the works, this appears to be the first formal acknowledgment that Google really is working on its own browser - and it looks very cool.

Will you drop Firefox and use Chrome instead? Take a look at what the Google browser will offer - we're pretty interested in it.

Chrome is being framed as a browser for applications instead of just web pages. Here's what Google thinks that should look like.

• It's built on Webkit, the browser framework used to power Safari and the iPhone.
• It's faster. Smarter implementation of Javascript rendering will make pages more responsive and let your browser do more than one thing at once.
• Smarter memory management. A sophisticated approach to data storage across time and tabs will keep the browser in top shape.
• Crash-free app browsing. Applications will be partitioned in the browser so if one crashes, it won't crash your whole browser.
• Tabs on the top. Instead of tabs being displayed below your address bar, inside the browser - they'll ride on top of each browser window. We'll see what this is like for the user, we do wonder.
• Quick navigation. Your most frequently visited pages will be available in a point and click navigation, like Opera's Quick Dial.
• Gears integration. Google Gears will be integrated throughout the experience for offline use, local storage of information and all kinds of other magic that Gears-heads are working on.
• Open source. The browser appears to be entirely open source, Google says it wants other companies to borrow from it just like it learned from them.

These are just a few of the new features and strategies you'll see applied in Chrome. There's no mention of when it will be available, but we'll be watching closely. For now, check out Lessen's post for more details and discussion.

Chrome looks pretty hot to us; it seems to include many state of the art details and several things that will push the envelope. Google, and millions of us, may love Firefox - but that's no reason to stop innovating elsewhere.

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