Every once in awhile you hear about something so wrong – that you get angry.  We are glad the person stealing this christmas tree was caught captured and is facing multiple charges, what he did was despicable.

Multiple vehicles have been stolen at local Mobile, Alabama gas stations in recent months. And we’re not talking about low numbers. The police department says that more than 800 vehicles were stolen just in 2015. Sadly, only 300 of those had been recovered.

In one incident recently, Rick Dillon had pulled into the parking lot of a Circle K at the corner of Knollwood and Grelot road. It was on a Thursday morning at approximately 10:30, says Dillon. He had left his keys in his vehicle and went inside the store. His car was gone when he came back out. Since then, he has received some great news.

They found his car in Harrison County, which is around an hour away in Mississippi, Dillon said. He adds, he received some bad news as well. His car had been wrecked both in the front and back.

Over the past few months, there have been several cars stolen from convenience stores, Mobile Police Department’s Officer Terence Perkins said. The issue is the owners left their cars running, he added. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us know the disaster caused by earthquakes, hurricanes, and even droughts. However, a natural phenomenon that we might not realize could devastate our technology-driven society is space weather. When there are variations in the environment between the sun, Earth, and the whole solar system, this is referred to as space weather. To put it exactly, space weather describes the solar energetic particles, coronal mass ejections,and solar flares that could impact our orbiting planets, specifically Earth.

A huge solar storm strikes only around once every 500 years, however, it can leave devastating consequences. One particular devastation is that it could damage our worldwide power grids permanently. Solar flares can also mess up global positioning systems and their GPS tracking and GPS navigation applications by causing telecommunication and power outages and disrupting satellite transmissions. Read the rest of this entry »

New Years is the time when many people join the fitness bandwagon. Now, workout enthusiasts are getting creative their exercising using GPS trackers to go on routes that create art with the mapped workout. Perhaps this might be a helpful way to keep those New Years resolution fitness goals past February?

When people who exercise with their GPS tracking device that supports a computerized map, their workouts have the potential to end up on the map. The technology can create a map outline of the exercise route. Usually, though, it’s in the form of a nonsensical shape.

However, some recent fitness enthusiasts have discovered that if they choose their route carefully, they can be more creative and make pictures or words with their workouts using GPS tracking technology.

Bret Lobree is one such exerciser, who rides his bicycle to draw pictures like a turkey when he uses his GPS tracking app. This is what he did this past Thanksgiving, when he rode 52.9 miles just to make a drawing of a turkey on the map. Read the rest of this entry »

27 year old war veteran, Ben McBean, was seriously injured while serving in Afghanistan. Rather than focusing on the things he can no longer do, he decided to turn his attention to something he could do to honor those who have died in the line of duty.

His solution was to run a 31-mile path around the city of London in the shape of a poppy.

Appropriate for a Poppy Day celebration, though it may be, it posed a specific challenge for McBean who had lost his left arm and right leg as a result of a mine blast in 2008.

McBean used GPS tracking to trace his path around the city marking the outline of the poppy and then called on others to fill in the flower by running through city streets. Altogether, people ran 7,500 miles.

It wasn’t just about the running, or even the symbolism for McBean. It was an opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the Royal British Legion who had supported him through his lengthy recovery after his injuries occurred. People who participated in the “filling in” of the poppy were encouraged to engage in their own fundraising and awareness building efforts. Read the rest of this entry »