RT @griffintech: Please consider buying this case, if not for you, buy it for a friend http://bit.ly/CELxd

I’ve never met Dave, but I know through his tweets that he works for Griffin Technology, makers of some cool iPod accessories. Based on that I followed the link, expecting to see Griffin’s latest product. Instead I found a blog post about Griffin and inkswell donating some custom iphone cases to the Molly Fund.

I also learned about Molly Rowlee, a five-year-old who lost her life to Lymphoma this past July, just five months after she was diagnosed. I hadn’t heard of Molly before today, but her story hit me really hard, not only because of her age, but also because the Rowlees live in New Hampshire, not too far from where my wife and I are rasing our three-year-old daughter.

It’s strange that it took a guy from Nashville to let me know about a worthy cause in my own backyard, but that’s what happened. From the beginning, I’ve wanted SNHParents to be a place where families share the best of New Hampshire with each other. It seems only right that it also be used to share ways we can help those in need.

So take a minute and read about Molly. If you’ve got an iPhone, consider getting one of the custom cases. Thanks to generosity of Griffin Tech and inkswell, the entire purchase price benefits the Molly Fund.

Don’t have an iPhone? Make a donation or just help spread the word.

“In these tough economic times, even the smallest acts of kindness go a long way towards helping our neighbors,” said Traci Bisson, owner of The Mom Entrepreneur and creator of the blog. “All NH residents are struggling this season, but the majority still want to support their neighbors any way they can.”

If you haven’t made your holiday donations yet, or even if you have, give the site a look and see how you can help.  Thanks to the recent financial downturn, many of us might be tempted to cut back on our usual charitable giving, but this year our neighbors could our help more than ever.

By providing access to this information, the service hopes to help New Hampshire residents quickly find critical information without resorting to calling 911 for non-emergencies.

Visit www.211nh.org to learn more. On the site you can also view the list of available information. Click on “Find Help” in the menu and you’ll see the following major categories:

• Basic Needs,
• Consumer Services
• Criminal Justice and Legal Services
• Education
• Environmental Quality
• Health Care
• Income Security
• Individual and Family Life
• Mental Health Care and Counseling
• Organization/Community/International Services
• Target Populations

There are a variety of ways to search the categories, or you can enter your zip code and browse for resources specific to your community. Using the browse feature, it took me less than a minute to find the state office responsible for day care licensing.

With access to important information literally a few button presses away, 211 New Hampshire is a resource that all New Hampshire residents should know about.

The study focused on “13 performance indicators of access, quality, costs, equity, and the potential to lead healthy lives, the authors find wide variation among states, including distinct regional patterns. Across states, better access to care is closely associated with better quality of care.”
The executive summary, as well as links to downloadable versions of the report are available here.

We’ve had good luck with doctors so far, but fortunately we haven’t had too many visits, and those we’ve had have always been to our chosen pediatrician. How about you? Do you think the New Hampshire ranking was on the mark?

[Foster's Daily Democrat]

New Hampshire also ranked highly on the list of “Healthiest States,” passing our neighboring states in our move from last year’s #5 ranking to this year’s #2 spot behind Minnesota. Vermont, Maine And Massachusetts came in right behind us.
And if that’s not enough to convince you that New Hampshire is a great place to live, consider that CQ Press also named NH the “Safest State” for 2008 (up from last year’s #3 spot).

Visit the CQ Press website for the full lists and additional information:

• Crime State Rankings 2008
• Health Care State Rankings 2008
• State Rankings 2008

What’s Street View?

The Street View feature puts you “in” the map. You can move up and down streets and see things as if you were driving down the street in real life. Just search for an address on Google Maps as normal. If the address is in a Street View area you’ll see a “Street View” button. Click this and then click the little person on the map to start your virtual trip. You can click the photo to move up and down the street as well as pan around 360 the images

So What Good is It?

Once you get past the “golly gee” factor, you may start thinking of ways to use this. Here are a few I came up with while playing with it:

1. “See” a New Destination Before You Actually Go There
   Visit local destinations from your computer and find landmarks to make it easier to find them when you’re surrounded by the distractions of driving.
2. House Hunting
   It’s a buyer’s market right now. Check out the neighborhood around potential houses before you visit the house.
3. Remember Summer
   The Street View images currently being used were taken this past summer (the Telegraph article linked below pinpoints some of the Nashua photos to August 2). Ok, this may be another “golly gee,” but on a snowy day like today, it’s just nice to see images of New Hampshire in the summer. So even though it’s snowing right now, you can “stroll” around without bundling up.

What About Privacy Issues?

Ok this is where things get interesting. To create Street View, Google drove around taking pictures of local streets, and the property all around them. In doing this, did they capture anything that couldn’t be seen by any one else driving or walking on those same streets? It’s unlikely. Of course, if you or your family were visible from your street when it was mapped, you’re part of the site for everyone to see. And that’s where things could get interesting. There are already sites that catalog interesting Street View images, for example streetviewr. So what if Google saw something you’d rather they hadn’t? No problem: Google provides a link to report inappropriate images on the “Street View Help” link. But is that enough?

Let us know what you think: Is Street View a great feature or an invasion of privacy?

February 17 Nashua Telegraph Article
Feburary 14 Union Leader Article

Although the information the site provides isn’t new and is available from other sources, Cyberhomes makes it easy to access by combining it with maps from Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. Just enter the address of a house you’re looking at and you’ll be able to access to neighborhood home values, school information, and comparable home sales. Plus you can access basic demographic information for a neighborhood as well as compare a home’s zip code against the state and US averages for certain factors. The site also includes a reading room with useful articles to help you make the most of the available information. Although similar to Zillow.com, Cyberhomes includes information from Fidelity’s real estate professionals. This information, combined with the site’s focus on community information, make Cyberhomes a valuable addition to the homebuyer’s toolkit. Well, that is if there’s information available for the neighborhood you’re considering.

You see, because Cyberhomes uses public information, the site is only as good as the data supplying it. Unfortunately, the information available for New Hampshire tends to be thin out as you move away from the southeastern parts of the state. For example, there was only one home with information in Keene, NH. However, there was no additional information for the neighborhood or the city. This problem isn’t exclusive to Cyberhomes: it affects many websites that use public information. These sites should get better as more New Hampshire cities and towns get their information online. For now though, Cyberhomes is useful primarily to families looking to buy a home in east of Routes 3/93. Or in Massachusetts, but let’s keep that our little secret.

If you’re looking to purchase a home in other areas of the state you can always contact the town/city clerk or chamber of commerce. Or, you know, ask your realtor. Sure, it’s not very “web 2.0,” but you’ll probably get the same information in the end.

Just visit www.goodsearch.com and enter an organization name to see matches. A large number of New Hampshire nonprofits are already in their system or you can browse the complete list of registered nonprofits to pick one before you search. Of course you can choose to support your favorite national organization.

Once you’ve selected your organization, just enter your search topic and you’ll see your results (GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo!, you should get the same results). And since your choice is stored on your computer, you’ll only have to enter it again if you decide to support another nonprofit. There are also toolbars and browser plugins available to make it even easier to use GoodSearch.

The 10 towns on the list are:

• Millerton, NY
• Milford, PA
• Yachats, OR
• Waitsburg, WA
• Paia, HI
• Parkville, MO
• Silver City, NM
• Peterborough, NH
• Tuscumbia, AL
• Collinsville, CT

Maybe it’s time to update the “a good place to live” slogan?

[Union Leader]

At #85, Salem was the only other New Hampshire entry in the top 100. Massachusetts had a better showing with five cities in the Top 100:

• 7 – Milton,
• 21- Chelmsford
• 48 – Eaton
• 73 – Westborough
• 94 – Wilbraham

New Hampshire also showed up on some of Money’s other lists including the “Youngest” (#2 Durham, #17 Hanover) and the and “Most Singles” (#2 Durham, #21 Hanover).

That sounds pretty good, but compare that to the other countries mentioned in the article:

• Japan: 61 mbps
• South Korea: 45 mbps
• France: 17 mbps
• Canada: 7 mbps

Pretty sad, huh? While I’d like to congratulate NH for this ranking, the truth is we’re near the top of a pretty sad list.

The truth is, NH, like the US in general, is suffering a split identity when it comes to Internet access. Like other well-populated areas in the country, Southern NH is doing fairly well. We often have a number of choices when it comes to accessing the Internet. I love my Verizon FiOS service, but if Verizon leaves NH, I can (hopefully) go with something similar from FairPoint or switch my voice and data plans to the cable company.

However, you don’t have to go to far north of the MA border to find people who don’t have any broadband options. Often, the only choice is dial-up. This may just be an inconvenience right now. After all, being able to view YouTube videos easily certainly isn’t high on the list of life’s necessities. But as businesses push more and more services online, reliable and fast Internet access will become less of a convenience and more of a requirement. And right now, there’s very little sign of improvement any time soon.

But there is some good news. New Hampshire did score well compared to the other New England states mentioned:

• Massachusetts (5th): 3.0 mbps
• Vermont (21st): 2.0 mbps
• Maine (35th): 1.5 mbps

To learn more about the importance of Internet access speeds and what you can do to help urge our government, state and federal, to fix the situation, please visit speedmatters.org.

You can also find complete program information on the Nashua City Website.

From the press release:

“New Hampshire does an outstanding job in a number of quality of life areas,” said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. “The state has the lowest crime and poverty rates in the country. In addition, the citizens of New Hampshire are employed, well educated and involved in their communities.”

Morgan Quitno Press’ 2007 reports also ranked New Hampshire the fifth healthiest state (behind VT, MN, ME and MA) and the third safest (behind ND, VT and ME).

And all this after being named a great place to raise a family in 2006 (also for the fourth time in a row).

Way to go New Hampshire!

Click here for a list of polling places across New Hampshire.

The larger communities are divided into wards, each with a different polling place. If you’re unsure in which ward you live, don’t hesitate to contact your local officials.

Happy voting!

But don’t feel too bad, Rhode Island was fourth on the list ($20,798), Maine 7th ($20,239), Vermont 11th ($19,482), and Connecticut 12th ($19,440). You’ll notice Massachusetts isn’t in that list: Our neighbor to the south came in at 21st with an average debt of $18,169.

Time to start those college savings accounts!

[NHBRDaily]

We don’t have a dog, but it’s been interesting watching our cat, Lena, adjust to the baby. I gave her a bit of a warning by bringing our daughter’s knit cap home from the hospital the first night. Lena was curious at first, but much more interested in being petted. When we brought our baby home a few days later, Lena disappeared into the basement at the first cry.

Lena’s much better now, but still keeps her distance. Interestingly, she will find us if we don’t respond to our daughter’s cries fast enough for her. I’m curious to see what happens when our baby becomes more mobile…will Lena retreat to the basement again or will she take a more active role as a “babysitter?”

However, there is a bright side: a new school food policy goes into effect tomorrow, July 1st. The article quotes the expiring USDA policy as “disallowing only ‘foods of minimal nutritional value.’” Googling that phrase brought up this page and the following list:

Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value

• Soda Water
• Water Ices
• Chewing Gum
• Hard Candy
• Jellies and Gums
• Marshmallow Candies
• Fondant
• Licorice
• Spun Candy
• Candy Coated Popcorn

The first item prohibits soda, but I really have to wonder how effective the rest of the list is. After all, how many schools were serving candy corn (which I now know is a ‘fondant’) or cotton candy before the list was created?

To be fair, it’s been a long time since I’ve sat down to a school lunch. Can anybody give me an idea of the options available to students today?

[NH Business Review]

For 4th year in a row, NH tops to raise kids

Despite a significant jump in its percentage of poor children, New Hampshire led the nation in a the annual Kids Count report on health and well-being of children and teenagers…The report measures each state’s progress on 10 statistics, including infant mortality, poverty rates, single-parent families and babies born with low birth weights.

–

I know individual New Hampshire cities have had similar honors in the past, but it’s great to see the whole state recognized. And for the fourth time in a row no less!

[Manchester Union Leader via Ninth State]