not just random

Lately, it has been interesting to follow the presidential debates. As media fact checks reveal, not all statements uttered during the debates are factually correct. This is disappointing for the viewer, who may want to get a clearer understanding of each candidate’s position.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this fact check occurred in real time and the results could directly impact the flow of the debate? Maybe a team of researchers could continuously examine and verify any claim made and report results back to the debate moderator. If a claim was found to be false, the moderator could call the candidate on it right then and there.

Alternatively, siren sounds and/or intrusively blinking yellow or red lights may be suitable.

At the end of last year, when the days around here were short, gray and wet, I brought home a copy of Where To Go When. The book describes vacation trips, sorted by month and contains sample itineraries, price ranges as well as lots and lots of beautiful photos. It’s a large-format, visually pleasing book that belongs on a coffee table and always invites browsing and daydreaming of future trips or possible adventures.

Major travel websites tend to work best when customers already have a pretty good idea what kind of trip they are looking for. It is a fairly active and probably increasingly crowded market though. More and more, companies are emerging that offer web services that aim to help customers discover trip or vacation ideas.

Intended date ranges along with desired weather are useful criteria for a vacation planning. Unfortunately, it turns out that those combinations are as of yet fairly underutilized among travel websites. I recently came across World Reviewer. They present weather data by month using an intuitive google maps mashup on their World weather page.

They do have other interesting features on their site, but the world weather visualization really stood out to me. I think, major travel websites will probably do well including similar features as additional travel planning tools.

I was recently in a similar predicament as Simon describes in No “Geodreieck” in the UK?, the ARISTO brand. I have not been able to find the mentioned tool locally, nor at the usual online locations here in the states.

Very surprising.

It actually wasn’t easy to find a German office supplies online store that ships worldwide either. Klammeraffe24.de appears to be the solution. Let’s see how long delivery will take.

Update: They arrived on July 25.

I applied and received an invite for startup school, but eventually decided against making the trip down to Palo Alto. There has just been too much going on lately.

This is very convenient though: There is a live video feed available. Very cool.