Rethink how much space you need!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16348594
27.12.11
temporary space
Finally folks are seeing that resource-intensive permanent structures might not be the best solution for the ebb and flow of meeting people.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/its-time-to-rethink-temporary/
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/its-time-to-rethink-temporary/
22.12.11
America's War Within
States spend billions on local homeland security
http://projects.cironline.org/police-grantsThe wars in Iraq and Afghanistan represent only a fraction of the billions spent to battle terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001. Lawmakers in Washington have shelled out some $34 billion over the last 10 years to state and local law enforcement. This map shows how much each state has raked in by grant program and fiscal year, based on data obtained from the Department of Homeland Security. Click on "per capita spending" to see how the rankings of those who came out on top dramatically shift when a state's population is taken into account.
Life is easy
This is Jon Jandai, from Pun Pun Center for Self-Reliance near Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Life is easy. Build your own house, grow your own food, have plenty of free time.
"The four basic needs, food, house, clothes, and medicine much be cheap and easy for everybody. That's civilization. But if we make these four things very hard for many people to get it, that is uncivilized."
Life is easy. Build your own house, grow your own food, have plenty of free time.
"The four basic needs, food, house, clothes, and medicine much be cheap and easy for everybody. That's civilization. But if we make these four things very hard for many people to get it, that is uncivilized."
20.12.11
1959 urban planning film from National Homebuilders Assoc. rings true on poor development
"Once, the land seemed inexhaustible."
US now exports more oil than it uses each year
from Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter
U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels are soaring, putting the nation on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011 for the first time in 62 years.
U.S. Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter
U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels are soaring, putting the nation on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011 for the first time in 62 years.
A combination of booming demand from emerging markets and faltering domestic activity means the U.S. is exporting more fuel than it imports, upending the historical norm.
According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday, the U.S. sent abroad 753.4 million barrels of everything from gasoline to jet fuel in the first nine months of this year, while it imported 689.4 million barrels.
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Most folks know the United States is the greatest consumer of oil in the world, but we are also one of the greatest producers: we're #3 behind Saudi Arabia (#2) and Russia (#1) (source: Huffington Post). My apologies to Alaska and Gulf wildlife. -Lauren
19.12.11
know your vegan sources
Vegan Unaware Pineapple He’s Eating Once Used To Beat Cow To Death
http://www.theonion.com/articles/vegan-unaware-pineapple-hes-eating-once-used-to-be,10250/
PRONTO International
PRONTO International Mission: To improve maternal and neonatal outcomes by developing sustainable and effective low-tech, high-fidelity obstetric and neonatal emergency simulation training curricula for use in limited-resource settings.
I am assisting this organization with the design and production of PartoPants.
We re-use materials as much as possible, including donated hospital scrubs, to keep the technology replicable and inexpensive.
I am assisting this organization with the design and production of PartoPants.
We re-use materials as much as possible, including donated hospital scrubs, to keep the technology replicable and inexpensive.
17.12.11
what is the point of biomass fueled robots?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=biomass-fueled-robot
9.12.11
great song: Truth by Alex Ebert
lyrics:
The truth is that I never shook my shadow
Every day it's trying to trick me into doing battle
Calling out "faker" only get me rattled
Want to pull me back behind the fence with the [cattle]
Building your [lenses]
Digging your trenches
Put me on the front line
Leave me with a dumb mind
With no defenses
But your defenses
If you can't stand to feel the pain then you are senseless
[Since] this
I've grown up some
Different kind of fighter
And when the darkness come let it inside you
Your darkness is shining
My darkness is shining
Have faith in myself
Truth
I've seen a million numbered doors on the horizon
Now which is the future you choosen before you gone dying.
I'll tell you 'bout a secret I've been underminding
Every little lie in this world come from dividing
Say you're my lover, say you're my homie,
Tilt my chin back slit my throat take a bath in my blood get to know me
All out of my secrets
All my enemies are turning into my teachers.
Because, lights blinding, no way dividing what's yours or mine when everything's shining
You darkness is shining my darkness is shining
Have faith in ourselves
Truth
Yes I'm only loving, only trying to only love
That's what I'm trying to do is only loving
Yes I'm only lonely loving feeling only loving
Till I'm feeling only loving
Ya say it ain't loving ain't loving my loving
But I'm only loving only loving only loving
Only loving the truth.
8.12.11
Seattle Times article: The Great Recession's toll: Tallying the impact in the Northwest
For most of us, Washington's economy has never been this bad. Since the mortgage bubble popped we've lost more jobs faster, and recovered more slowly, than at any time since the Second World War. That includes iconic slumps such as the Boeing Bust, the early-'80s double-dip and the dot-com crash barely a decade ago. As these charts and graphs show, the recession has fallen hardest on people in the lower-middle and working classes -- folks who were just getting by or maybe starting to make some headway when the bottom fell out. Statistics can't capture the pervasive sense of economic dislocation the slump has engendered. But they can at least help us understand what's happening and to whom.
6.12.11
How Algorithms Shape the Landscape
"the physics of culture"
"we're designing for this kind of machine dialect"
regarding the fiber-optic cable laid between Chicago and New York, aided by bulldozers and dynamite: "that is a kind of manifest destiny, and we'll always look for a new frontier"
related links:
2010 Flash Crash
Netflix Pragmatic Chaos code
from newgeography: Wall Street Plays Occupy Whitehouse
Despite his occasional remarks that decry “fat cat”’ bankers, Obama has effectively serviced the financial bigwigs. Bank prosecutions have declined markedly under Obama — to levels not seen for more than 25 years. Obama has even tried to derail aggressive bank prosecutions pursued by state attorneys general, most of them liberal Democrats.
Read the full post here.
coolest stair designs
Why waste all that space? These are amazing!
http://dornob.com/10-clever-under-stair-storage-space-ideas-solutions/
http://dornob.com/space-saving-staircase-shelves-for-floor-to-ceiling-storage/
snobby urban bike riders: interesting post on Salon.com
Are urban bicyclists just elite snobs?
As cycling's popularity rises, the cyclists are despised. If riders want to change cities, they need a new attitude
Welcome to the new urban order: the Jag-driving New Yorker columnist is a philistine better suited to the suburbs of Wichita. Meanwhile, the city’s bicyclists are an entitled, imperial cabal cruising around on Trek Bellville three-speeds, an insidious locus of unchecked power and influence. How is this possible? As the blog Bike Snob NYC put it, someday in the future, “humanity will marvel that there was once an age in which a mode of transportation as inexpensive and accessible as the bicycle was considered ‘elitist.’”
5.12.11
quote on freedom from David Foster Wallace
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