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Room to Read’s mission is to partner with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children’s literature, constructing schools, and providing education to girls.

All based in San Francisco, Twitter, Room to Read and Crushpad a facility that allows enthusiasts to create their own barrels of wine without owning a vineyard. Crushpad provides grapes, storage, bottling and their expertise.

What started as team building activity at Twitter may someday become “the largest social wine making project in history” according to Crushpad founder Michael Brill. A Pinot Noir and Chardonnay will be released in the summer of 2010. You may purchase the wines now by following this link and follow the progress of the wine making by following the Twitter project here.

Kansas Citians may get involved by purchasing the wines; there will be ‘Tweetups’ throughout the country and wine tastings will be announced.  Current Twitter members may follow progress @fledgling.

You read it right, you may now step out of line at the Johnson County DMV’s (Department of Motor Vehicles) by reserving your place in line on the Internet. The Johnson County system, according to Qless, is the only motor vehicle office in country with an online reservation system. The only system close according to the KC Star article is one in New Hampshire but it does not text messages to users.

Here is how it works: Go to the DMV site – look for GET in LINE at DMW then click on the city link you plan to visit (782 N. Ridgeview Road in Olathe or Mission at 6000 Lamar), click on YES to agree to the terms of use, choose your language and you will be told how long the estimated wait is then enter your cell number, click Next and your place in line is secure. You may then click continue and you will be sent to a printable confirmation page.I tested the system and my wait time was initially 9 minutes at 7:30 when the Mission office opened this morning. I received my first text message almost immediately after entering my cell number then another three minutes later, then another three minutes later which suggested I should think about returning to the DMV office. The next text said, “Sorry, we still haven’t heard back from you, so we had to give your spot to someone else. You have nine hours to rejoin the front of the line – reply with “J”.The system is available during business hours which are 7:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday excluding holidays. According to the Star article, officials from the DMV say the system will ease the pain of waits up to 2 hours when renewals are due at the end of each month.

Kudos to Johnson County!!

The complete title of the book is Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today’s Students and was written in 2007.  All the percentages are undoubtedly higher today.

Still think Facebook and Twitter and all those other ‘darn social whatever you call them things’ are just a waste of time?  The X and Y generations (born 1965 – 1985) combined make up a demographic (over 100 million) larger than the baby boomer generation (born 1946 – 1964 – approx 75 million) . 

Beginning as early as this Friday and continuing until November 30^th the killing of deer in Shawnee Mission park will commence. I had heard that the shooters/killers were to use bow and arrow but according to a Kansas City Star article, the shooters will use ’sound’ suppressed rifles. Does that mean Cupid and Vixen will not hear when Dancer and Prancer are shot?  

I don’t know about you but I really enjoyed setting out for the park a little before dusk and enjoying the docile creatures getting ready to bed down for the night. Back to reality…apparently …all shots will be taken at short range and the deer will be baited to a secluded area of the park where all shots fired will be directed toward the interior of the park.

According to the Star article, the park district wants the deer population (try not to think to think Cupid and Dasher here) to be reduced to 50 deer per square mile. Wildlife experts estimate there are currently about 200 deer per square mile in the park. The park is 3.5 square miles. Yikes do the math, that is 525 deer, right? 525 times say an average of 50 pounds per Donner, I mean reindeer, I mean deer is 26,250 pounds or over 13 tons of meat.  

What is done with all the meat? Can’t we at least feed the meat to the needy or have a huge barbeque or a free venison give away? I’ve had venison before and I do not remember it as remarkable but it is supposed to be lean (or is that Bison) and I think it tastes like chicken (or is that rattlesnake).

Owners of nearby real estate received letters from the park district this week and were assured that the work by the reindeer killers/shooters would be done safely. I am not a dog owner but if you live nearby you’d be well advised to keep your dogs inside beginning this Friday and thru November 30^th.

According to the 2008 census many are moving to the suburbs and away from Kansas City’s downtown areas.  The population of Kansas City, MO.  gained approximately 2% since 2000 whereas Spring Hill, KS.  was up 92%,  Gardner, KS. was up 86%, Olathe, KS. was up 29%, Desoto, KS. was up 19%, Lenexa, KS. was up 16% and Overland Park, KS. was up 15%. 

What does all of this mean?   My guess is the prospect of a light rail system in the near term is comatose if not dead.  As much as the Sprint Center and the Power and Light district have created a reason to go downtown, apparently it is not enough to motivate people to m0ve there. 

According to a Kansas City Star article ”…employment in Johnson County exploded 70.7% from 1990 to 2008 compared to Jackson Counties’ scant growth of 2.3% job growth.   In the Star article Doug Davidson, president of CERI, said  “Johnson County is a desirable place to live and raise a family.”   “It has great school systems. Its adult population is one of the most highly educated in the nation.  Employers that want highly educated workers are attracted to Johnson County.”