Monday, December 19, 2005

Homeland Security puts Mounted Officers on Border

The Department of Homeland Security homepage leads with a story about 1,700 new Border Agents being deployed along the southwest border with Mexico.

This photo accompanies the story, and it made me wonder: Couldn't they cover more of the border by spreading out a bit?

23 Squidoo: Wikipedia meets About.com

George alerted me (after his sister alerted him) to a new web site: Squidoo. Squidoo just opened their beta launch to the public, and I think it's a cool idea.

Their tag line is "Everyone's an expert on something," and this is the core idea of the site. You can create your own "Lens", a web page on their site that serves as a resource and a launch point to more information on the topic of your choice.

I've already started a few lenses, including this one on Human Origins.

I guess what I like about squidoo is that it allows people with an interest in something to share that interest with others. Building a Squidoo lens is much easier than launching your own blog on the subject, since they provide little building blocks for your page (er... lens).

They recommend that if you already have a blog, you should still create a Squidoo lens on your topic and then include links back to your blog. One of the building block tools they offer is one which easily integrates an RSS feed, so you could include headlines and excerpts from your blog right on the Squidoo lens.

The system is crearly still buggy, and I've lost some work while trying to create content. I'll be patient, though... after all, it's free.