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JerseySmarts.com

Finding Restaurants, Bars, Hotels, Events, & More!

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Howdy everyone! I thought I would take some space on the blog to talk about a website that I ran across the other day called Qype. This site gives information about restaurants, bars, hotels, events, and more in your area. Let me preface the rest of this post by saying that clicking this link or the rest of the links in this post will take you to a website based in the United Kingdom and focusing on London, England attractions. However, by changing the “location” at the top of the page, you can direct the site to find you restaurants, bars, hotels, and events in your country. For example, I found some information for places to eat in Michigan and New York during my browsing around the site.

Anyway, Qype focuses on providing you with the information that you seek on a variety of topics. Whether it be shopping, eating / drinking, arts or anything else that you are interested in, Qype can find the information for you! Even if you’re looking for something like Indian restaurants in London – Qype can find it for you. Even something as uniquely European as hostels in London – Qype will find it for you!

You’ll find that Qype is easy to navigate and use. In fact, all information is categorized for easy access and you should have no problem navigating the website. I was doing some research on the site and found information such as cinemas in London arranged very nicely on the page and easy to review. Plus, Qype has an option where you can choose to see the place or event displayed on a map – talk about being very helpful (especially for those of us who may be directionally challenged in the car!).

This site will show you where to find the best places and deals. And let’s be honest – it doesn’t hurt to cross reference what you already know is going on with a website like Qype just so you can be sure you’re not missing out on a better event. And hey, some of you might actually find some value in adding events that you may be attending to this site. In any event, I think that you’ll enjoy this website and all of the features that it offers – go see for yourself!

You Gotta Love Technology – Google Street View

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Oh man…Google is getting out of control (and it’s hilarious). In an article posted on FOXNews.com earlier today, it was reported that a wife is filing for divorce from her husband because she caught him cheating on her via Google’s Street View service. As the article states:

A furious British wife has called in divorce lawyers after spotting her husband’s car parked outside another woman’s house — on Google. She saw the Range Rover while using the Internet giant’s new Street View service to snoop on a female friend’s home. The hubby had claimed he was away on business, but his missus recognized his SUV immediately because of its blinged-up hubcaps.

Wow! Talk about getting the short end of the stick! This guy is out there trying to do his thing on the side (which he shouldn’t have been doing anyway) and he has to watch out for his wife being able to literally look right outside of his mistress’ home?! I love it!

Now we’re going to see a boom in the car rental industry because cheating spouses aren’t going to want to get caught by Google’s Street View. Awesome.

Stunning Freedom of Speech Restriction at Virginia Tech

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Every once in a while I surf to some websites that deal with higher education policy and how freedom of speech is being handled on college campuses. The website (called Minding the Campus and linked to the left) posted an article the other day regarding a “Loyalty Oath” that professors are being asked to sign on to at Virginia Tech. I did a little bit of digging and the entire text of the loyalty oath can be contrived from the information posted at this link.

Honestly, it’s gratuitously boring and not worth getting into the details on the text itself on this blog. However, the Minding the Campus website did make the following comment in its article:

Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is attempting to force faculty to take an ideological oath to “diversity.” Promotion and tenure will depend on a willingness to embrace the vague but militant ideology dear to the left side of the political spectrum.

And the article goes on a little bit more with a quote from a critic of the policy. From my view – which is admittedly the 10,000 feet above the issue level – I never really liked the concept of a forced diversity in terms of developing a curriculum or a pedagogy. In other words, I think history should be taught as it was, I think the great works of literature that influenced the world should be taught as they are, I think that testing should be provided based on the minimum levels needed to succeed in society and not include any type of cultural or socioeconomic bias.

It’s a tough thing to write about in this type of blog entry format, but maybe an example will help. As an English major in college, I was forced to take a class called African Women’s Literature. That’s cool – I like to study up on new topics within the realm of what I “like” and English was obviously a subject that I liked. However, the class was so far out of sync with the rest of the curriculum that it was truly an awkward (not educational) experience. I know why the course is included in the curriculum at the time – to increase the diversity of study for English majors. However, most if not all of the concepts, readings, and discussions from that class are completely gone from my mind now because they have no bearing on anything around me…and this is coming from a guy who frequently volunteers his time in black communities.

And that’s just it…that’s the point. When a university is trying to integrate “diversity” into its foundation, they generally wind up missing the point entirely. If my alma mater wanted to be sure that its English students received worthy instruction on topics related to the black population or are historically famous in black literature, then there are any number of excellent American authors, politicians, and activists that could have fit that bill, but within the context of non-racially segregated themed courses. To say it another way, why couldn’t we cover W.E.B. DuBois when we talked about early 20th Century literature? Why couldn’t we talk about Frederick Douglass when we studied war-related literature?

As it turns out, my old college canceled the course in African Women’s Literature (thank God). I guess someone with some stroke over there had the same thought that I had and the same thought that Minding the Campus has regarding the situation at Virginia Tech.

California Congressman Speaks on Organic Foods

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While browsing around the New York Times website I came across an interview posted on one of their internal blogs. The interview was with Representative Sam Farr from California’s 17th district. Representative Farr is one of the leaders of a bipartisan caucus in the Congress that focuses on organic agriculture. I thought I’d share some pieces of that interview here for your reading enjoyment.

Question: What needs to be done to ensure our food is safe?

Answer: Food safety has to go back to the field. [Read the full interview for more on this answer]

Question: How significant is it that there is now a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, the first since World War II?

Answer: I think it’s incredible. If there was a statement about values and priorities, it’s that vegetable garden at the White House. In politics, we learn that you ought to practice what you speak. I think for the Obamas, it shows their sincerity to the issues around food. And what a great demonstration, particularly for children, to eat fresh fruits and vegetables out of their own gardens.

Again, nothing major or groundbreaking coming out of this interview, but it’s nice to see that one of the newspapers with the widest readership in the United States has, at least on their website, an area dedicated to talking about one of the most overlooked pieces of creating a new, healthy agricultural system in America. There are so many health problems that can be traced back, in part, to the unhealthy diets of Americans or at least to the core difference in the types of “food products” that we are consuming today versus what our ancestors (even as recent as a few decades ago) consumed.

I hope that more organic agriculture discussions pop up in the mainstream media because, as Representative Farr suggests, food safety (and growing “real foods”) has to go back to the field.

Busy Day of Running Around the State

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Today is going to be a busy day running around New Jersey for me. I have to go up to Wayne, New Jersey today for a Sigma Pi Fraternity New Jersey Pledge Province Workshop. This is somewhat exciting since I am no longer the Province Archon for New Jersey and I get to sit in the back of the room and just enjoy the show. I’ve been kept up to date on how this workshop was planned, though, and it sounds like it’s going to be a great day for our undergraduates.

Once that event is over, I have to get back down to Monmouth County to meet up with some of my fellow alumni to “celebrate” the 40th anniversary of our chapter’s chartering at Monmouth University. We tried to have an actual anniversary cocktail hour and dinner at the university to celebrate and while the response was very good, the action (guys sending checks to reserve tickets) was woefully underwhelming (less than 4% of total membership paid to attend). We had to cancel, obviously.

In the mean time, feel free to check out some of this site’s partners by clicking around to some of the links on the left and right side of this blog. There are some really great websites linked here – go and see for yourself!

So while I go running around New Jersey, remember to check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!