St. Peter’s Square at Night

June 12, 2024March 23, 2024Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Those in Rome, especially those there for the first time, are likely to visit the Vatican, or at least St. Peter’s Square if they couldn’t get tickets to the Vatican that are mostly booked in advanced for a while. While amazing, the Vatican hardly feels holy with the streams of people being flushed through all day, practically everyday. St. Peter’s Square outside of the Vatican is also quite crowded during the day that it is a very unfulfilling experience, in my opinion.

However, I was at St. Peter’s Square one night at about 9 p.m., and saw it was rather empty. Sure, there were people around, but it was empty enough it felt like I was in God’s private waiting room given the vast space around me, rather than among the throngs in a protest or pilgrimage, depending on how you think people judge God’s handling of the world these days. If you can, I would highly recommend you go to St. Peter’s Square at night after 9 to get a more fulfilling experience, though the homeless sleeping under the roofs of buildings extending over their entrance stairs leading to the Square isn’t exactly fulfilling. But you know, seeing those in need and suffering does remind you of the range of states the world is in far more touching to the core than the armies of tourists during the day where many are doing idiotic things.

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Inside the Vatican and St Chapelle

June 11, 2024March 23, 2024Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Europe has many breath-taking cathedrals. Quite many, in fact! Each time I was in one while I was in Europe, I said a lot of prayers. Most of the time I was in them, I just enjoyed the experience without my smart phones. However, the occasional time I was in them, I took a minute to pull out the phone and did a panoramic capture of the space just by rotating around. Here are the two I did, the Vatican inside of Rome, and St. Chapelle in Paris.

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US & Italian COVID-19 Individual Case Totals Will Pass China by this Weekend (at latest)

March 25, 2020Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Look at the stats…

https://twitter.com/digitalcitizen/status/1242974680597835776

US now stands at 65,578 cases as of March 25. China has 81,667 cases.

16,069 difference, but China is only gaining marginally now, like 100 a day.

At this rate, the US could pass China this weekend, possibly Saturday, at barely more than 8,000 per day, which is well lower than the past few days!

However, Italy will likely be first.

At 74,386 cases as of March 25, or 7,281 short and gaining about 5,000 per day, Italy is certain to pass China Saturday.

The US may or may not pass China first, but the US will definitely win the race in the foreseeable future, unless COVID-19 hits hard some poor countries not able to deal with it from lacking resources rather than a bad attitude.

Good luck, USA! Start praying if you haven’t already.

Data from European Centre for Disease Control and the Johns Hopkins University website. The former has a little lag, collecting data at set European times that’s a bit early for North American reporting, rather than JHU that is live as data comes in. However, JHU doesn’t have data tables available for download to look at most recent daily new cases to project.

Facebook Friends Diversity Tagging Challenge

February 6, 2009March 19, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

How diverse are your friends in terms of geographical origin, and culture with a lot of that? How does that compare to your friends’ friend diversity.

Find out by tagging your friends on these Facebook friends diversity tagging challenges.

The first one is of Asian countries.
The second is of European countries by flags.
The third is of European countries by coat of arms, for the smarty pants.
The fourth is for Canadians counting friends from various provinces and territories.
The fifth is for Canadians counting friends living in various provinces and territories.

Ideally, I know I’d have memes with more than just “regional” representation for diversity, but it’s hard to tag and make out over 150 countries on a meme, you know. It’s also hard to make one for the 50 US states. Other regions, meanwhile, just don’t have enough. But you can probably count on the fact that you probably have lots of friends either like you and/or like each other so in a way, these memes are not bad for design. Most Europeans, for example, probably have lots of European friends to really give the meme an honest effort. I have lots of Canadian friends like my fellow Canadian friends to give the meme a good go at filling it all out. Anyway, that’s what I have. I apologize if there isn’t one that suits you.

Here’s how to get these graphics for your tagging fun: