Patch reports that nearly 60,000 people turned out for early voting in Maryland, March 24-29, but that accounts for just 1.88% of eligible voters statewide. UMBC public policy professor and chair Donald Norris, quoted in the story, suggests these early votes will have little impact on the overall election turnout.

“Virtually nothing improves voting turnout except when people are really, really excited about what’s going on in a campaign,” Norris said. The GOP presidential primary candidates are now trying to energize Republican voters across the state through local speaking appearances.

Wikidata is a new project that “aims to create a free knowledge base about the world that can be read and edited by humans and machines alike.” The project was started by the German chapter of Wikimedia, the organization that oversees Wikipedia and related projects, and is he first new Wikimedia project since 2006.

Wikidata has its roots in the successful Semantic MediaWiki project, and the Wikidata development team is lead by Dr. Denny Vrandecic, a well known member of the Semantic Web research community and one of the Semantic MediaWiki creators in 2005. The project is funded by Paul Allen’s AI² foundation (which funded Semantic MediaWiki), Google, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Wikidata will expose the data that underlies Wikipedia and other sources as RDF and JSON and also allow people and programs to query the data as well as adding or editing data.

For more information, see an Wikipedia’s Next Big Thing on Techcrunch or the Wikimedia press release on Wikidata. You an also see a recent Wikidata presentation by Denny and view his talk on the nascent Project at the 2011 Wikimania conference.

Wikimedia fans in our area will find it easy to attend Wikimania 2012, which will be held July 12-15 at George Washington University in the Washington DC area.

Luke 13:31-35 (NIV)

³¹ At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

³² He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

³⁴ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁵ Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Reflection:

Today we are constantly bombarded by various influences and trends (i.e. fashion trends, diet fads, self-help advice, facebook, etc.…). And as we interact with the world around us, we may find ourselves trying to fit in, make it, or be right with the crowd. Jesus also faced many outside influences/pressures, but He refused to give in and He remained focused on the mission at hand- a mission God the Father had given to Him.Even in the face of death threats, He boldly states His intention to continue His mission, ministering for the next three days and beyond.There would be no change of plan. Jesus remained on the narrow road that led to Jerusalem and His death because His heart longed to gather His people “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Jesus had tears for the ones who would reject and kill Him.

Responding to the message:

Let us spend time in prayer once again receiving the Father’s heart for the mission He has set in our lives; making the decision to stay on the narrow road and resisting the temptation to give in to outside influences.Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit’s filling to receive fresh tears for our generation.