World
Think Small
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
“Matthew Adams outside his 120-square-foot house by Modern Cabana on his 160 acres near Red Bluff, Calif. He wanted a well-designed dwelling that would have the least effect on his land.”
Minimalism and thinking small meshes well with eco-friendly culture and attempts to live off the grid. From an article at the NYTImes.
A wave of interest in such small dwellings — some to serve, like the Shepherds’ home, as temporary housing, others to become space-saving dwellings of a more permanent nature — has prompted designers and manufacturers to offer building plans, kits and factory-built houses to the growing number of small-thinking second-home shoppers. Seldom measuring much more than 500 square feet, the buildings offer sharp contrasts to the rambling houses that are commonplace as second homes.
A Good Day for America
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The Democrats finally make the move to regain power and I couldn’t be more excited. My parents live in Northen Virginia so it was a victory on many levels. San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman Speaker of the House. She’s also the first speaker to post to a blog.
In 100 hours, the top five oil companies will take in $4.3 billion in profits.
In 100 hours, $1.1 billion will be spent on the war in Iraq.
In 100 hours, the public debt will grow by $4.9 billion.
In 100 hours, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies will gain $2.6 billion in profits.
In 100 hours, the top CEOs will earn an average of $2 million each.
In 100 hours, a minimum wage worker working 8 hours a day will earn $171.67.
And if all goes as expected, in less than 100 hours my sixth grandchild will be born.
I want my grandchild to be born into an America where government is for and by the people. I want my grandchild to be born into an America that rewards and values hard work. I want my grandchild to be born into an America where you are not labeled a terrorist coddler when you honor the Constitution.
I want my grandchild to be born into an America where if the U.S. Central Command judges the situation in Iraq to be near chaos, with “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically”, if the top intelligence agencies tell you that the war in Iraq is inspiring the very terrorism it was purported to prevent, and if four highly respected military newspapers say of the Secretary of Defense that “his strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised...[he] must go” that you fire your Secretary of Defense and change the course.
I want my grandchild to be born into an America whose government honors its duty for accountability and oversight.
I want my grandchild to be born into an America that inspires innovation, that leads with dignity and diplomacy, that rejects fear mongering, and whose leaders start each day remembering that the Constitution begins with the simple but revolutionary phrase “We the people,” which announced to the world that here, the people rule.
You can see her full post here - One Hundred Hours.
Rumsfeld resignation summarized in Mac OSX screenshot
Via Boing Boing
Extinction alert for 800 species
Thursday, January 05, 2006
In the BBC article, “Extinction alert for 800 species,” researchers have compiled a global map of sites where animals and plants face imminent extinction.
"It’s impossible to know or predict how long these species might have; but certainly within the next few decades, if these sites aren’t protected, they will be gone."
Smart Cars
Thursday, December 29, 2005
The MIT Smart Cities research team’s car. Image: Franco Vairani/MIT Department of Architecture
Two recent articles reveal the possible future of cars - powered with intelligent algorithms, semi-autonomous, and made for urban and natural terrain.
From Say Hello to Stanley in Wired:
“Stanford’s souped-up Volkswagen blasted through the Mojave Desert, blew away the competition, and won Darpa’s $2 million Grand Challenge. Buckle up, human - the driverless car of the future is gaining on you.”
From Robot car: streets ahead in cities of the future:
“...the MIT team started from scratch to come up with their own concept: a stackable, shareable, electric, two-passenger car. “Imagine a shopping cart - a vehicle that can stack - you can take the first vehicle out of a stack and off you go,” says Mr Chin. “These stacks would be placed throughout the city. A good place would be outside a subway station or a bus line or an airport, places where there’s a convergence of transportation lines and people.”
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Help
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Here you are, like me, online. Probably in the comfort of your own environment, listening to your favorite music, a warm summer night - surfing the web. Everything’s normal. But no farther than a plane ride away, hundreds of thousands of people are enduring what no one should ever have to go through - sheer chaos, death and devastation while the government sits by idly, gathering in meeting rooms to plan the next mindless spin. The President returns early from his vacation to provide this bit of insight: “I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this — whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud,” Bush said.
Insurance fraud? Far from it.
Anger, Desperation Mounts Amidst Inadequate Help And Supplies
New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken.
Why the Levee Broke
Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet federal funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay for the war in Iraq.
Waiting for a Leader
It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America “will be a stronger place” for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won’t acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.
Wikipedia for all
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
One of my all-time favorite websites is the wikipedia - partly because I’ve used it for many years to look up terms, concepts, historical facts; also because I like to link to its pages for terms where I want to provide context; but mostly because of its altruistic and utopian perspective.
Imagine a world in which every person has free access
to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.
- from wikipedia
There aren’t many things in this world that focus on access to knowledge and being free. These two goals are counter to any major corporation and their quest for global monetary domination. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve always had respect for academia and nonprofits. Their mission is distinctly different.
To me, that difference also plays out distinctly in our experiences of the site itself. Just as a purely commercially-driven entity like TVGuide.com has blinking banners, four frames of moving flash ads threatening the squeezed content area, the Wikipedia, a nonprofit, completely publically-supported free “encyclopedia” provides clear, readable navigation, helpful indicators, and an endless wealth of content and interaction for the individual and the communities.
Global knowledge communication? Seems like a much better concept of the world to me.
Go to the Wikipedia site: Wikimedia needs your help in its 21-day fund drive. See the fundraising page.
[Technorati tags: wikipedia, nonprofit, open source]
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The Corporation
Friday, June 03, 2005
I was already entirely aware that we live in a world dominated by corporate messages and influence, controlled by the unending influence of money and profit, but the documentary, The Corporation, paints a much more specific portrait. The current paradigm of greed over humanity is spiraling out of control at a rate much faster and more significantly than any of us realize. We need to find ways to change this paradigm and allow other forms to emerge. Learn more about the issues and what you can do about them at www.thecorporation.tv.
Help Tsunami victims
Sunday, December 26, 2004
There are many places to donate aid to help Tsunami victims, but here are some of them:
Tsunami Relief
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
http://www.ifrc.org/helpnow/donate/donate_response.asp
Save the Children
http://www.savethechildren.org/
Risk society
Friday, November 12, 2004
1) On Bush’s plan to turn America into an ownership society at the New Yorker.
“The ownership society promises freedom, but at the price of a huge shift in risk, away from government and society and onto individual citizens.”
2) Chart showing the average IQ in states voting for Kerry or Bush.
So blue
Thursday, November 04, 2004
The BBC has a map that shows red and blue states from past elections dating back to 1948 (click on the tab “Past Elections"). Now how do we get the map to look like 1964 again?
Depressing 2004 election map:
Another reason to love SF
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Ithaca had it’s share of progressives as well, but I’m very happy to be in a city where “such soul-deep loathing of George W. Bush is common in the Bay Area, a region dyed the deepest indigo on the bluest state on the electoral map.” Now I just hope people across the country wake up (!) on Tuesday and vote this guy out of office.
Read more in: Bay Area bluest in blue state.
Love Parade 04
Monday, October 04, 2004
I’d heard about the Berlin Love Parade festival and stopped by the site once in a while. This is the first year Love Parade San Francisco is being held in the US. This city definitely supports electronic music and dj culture, and gave roots to the progressive peace movement to begin with.
Apparently, we’re right on the parade route for most events here (there’s always seems to be festival going on in SF) so we just went up a few blocks to the start of the parade. People were letting loose - lots of big wigs, wacky costumes, angel wings, cowboy hats, naked people of all ages, genders, and subcultures, giant floats and dancers. Long live faux fur and blue wigs! House music blasted down the parade route with djs spinning on top of flatbeds and floats. We followed the Om Records float for a while to catch good house tunes. Then, as we neared the embarcadero, we found ourselves next to the jolly green froggy van, a group dressed like bumblebees, and a dj that was playing funky soulful beats. A great combination with the perfect sunny weather. Feelin’ the love!
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Dean Switches to Apple Ads
Sunday, February 08, 2004
How odd to see Dean’s message being funneled/filtered through Apple’s Switch campaign. Take a look at these Dean ads that ran in Wisconsin.
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Happy year of the monkey!
Creative minds at work
Saturday, December 20, 2003
I ran out of time to do a 30 second commercial for the moveon.org contest, but over 1000 other people managed to squeeze it in! I can’t wait to watch these over the holidays. Go now, sign up, vote. The winning commercial will be televised during the week of the President’s state of the union address in January.
“It’s your turn to fight back against the propaganda being beamed at you by the current administration’s media mavens.”
Cast your voite at www.bushin30seconds.org/
Streams and Wetlands at Risk
Sunday, September 28, 2003
The Bush administration is considering eliminating Clean Water Act protection for small streams and wetlands that appear isolated from rivers or lakes. Already the administration has issued guidance that eliminates federal protection for 20 million acres of wetlands. Without federal protection, these streams and wetlands-- and downstream rivers and lakes-- would be at risk of pollution and flooding.
Do Not Call
Friday, August 29, 2003
Last day to get your number on the national Do Not Call list.
The Accelerating Rate of Change
Saturday, August 09, 2003
Futurist Ray Kurzweill says that “the whole 20th century, because we’ve
been speeding up to this point, is equivalent to 20 years of progress at
today’s rate of progress, and we’ll make another 20 years of progress at
today’s rate of progress equal to the whole 20th century in the next 14
years, and then we’ll do it again in seven years. And because of the
explosive power of exponential growth, the 21st century will be equivalent
to 20,000 years of progress at today’s rate of progress.” But is it all
progress? What about recessions? “If you look at the economy as a whole,
either per capita or just the total economy, it is growing exponentially.
But the various recessions, even the Great Depression, are relatively minor
features that you really see in this chart that is a big exponential. And
what’s interesting is that when the recession is over, including the Great
Depression, it starts back to where it would have been had that never
occurred in the first place. It does not represent even a permanent slowing
down or delay in the underlying exponential.” Kurzweill says that the
really pervasive phenomena is the exponential growth. “We have exponential
growth in productivity. Even that is understated because we’re measuring
the value in dollars of what can be accomplished. But what can be
accomplished for a dollar today is far greater than what could be
accomplished for a dollar 10 years ago.” The acceleration of the rate of
change will have numerous impacts, not least of which will be “the whole
concept of what it means to be human” as humans merge with their
technologies to become different beings. (Perspectives on Business
Innovation Issue 9 Aug 2003)
http://www.cbi.cgey.com/journal/issue9/understanding.htm
Is erosion helping Himalayas to grow?
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
“A tectonic aneurysm in Tibet. Does erosion, which occurs over years or decades, influence mountain-building, which requires eons? Do surface forces like wind and rivers contribute to tectonic shifts miles below the earth’s surface?
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