Charlie Rose leads a wonderful discussion about Muslims in America

Together with Andrea Elliott a NYTimes Reporter and Reda Shata Sheikh they touch on The Abstract Concept of "America", Objective Media and the mutual fear that Muslim and American cultures have shared of each other in recent years.

Billy Joel is awesome.

The first link that comes up when performing a Google search for "we didn't start the fire." Each segment of the lyrics links to a website dealing with that particular topic.

THE ID PROJECT

"Based in New York City's East Village, The Interdependence Project is a grassroots, community-oriented project. We offer weekly meditation classes, lectures and discussions inspired by the Buddhist philosophical tradition and other contemplative education systems."

They podcast Wednesday night lectures and are an active network of artists and activists

for more info visit www.theidproject.com

ecotechdesignsciencerevolutionblog.

check out deltaFIRST.

work in progress.

the 11th hour

i strongly recommend seeing the 11th hour.

i don't want to preach, but i will say that it offered a philosophical, system-view of the current global crisis that went above and beyond simply showing the effects of global warming and scaring the viewer into action. it's def. worth your time.

xoxo mp

La Blogotheque Delivers

Video Blogger La Blogotheque has been capturing "Take away concerts"


Description from the website

The Take Away Shows are a Video Podcast produced by the french weblog La Blogothèque. Every week, we give away a session, shot with a band, in an unusual, urban environment.

Sessions are always filmed as a unique shot, without any cut, recorded live. We usually haven’t much time to record them, so the groups have to be spontaneous, to improvise, play with what they have with them, and with their environment, whether there’s a public or not.

The use of a single unedited shot, and real camera distance audio reveals the setting to the performers at the same time it does the viewer. The musicians are discovering and exploring their own music in this new context in real time.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Dirty Projectors


Au Revoir Simone:



The Arcade Fire in an Elevator (note the great "magazine playing"):


Andrew Bird:

the death penalty is fucked up.

a bit on patents...

Atlantic Works v. Brady (107 U.S. 192 (1882) (per Mr. Justice Bradley):

"The process of development in manufactures creates a constant demand for new appliances, which the skill of ordinary head-workmen and engineers is generally adequate to devise, and which, indeed, are the natural and proper outgrowth of such development. Each forward step prepares the way for the next, and each is usually taken by spontaneous trials and attempts in a hundred different places. To grant a single party a monopoly of every slight advance made, except where the exercise of invention, somewhat above ordinary mechanical or engineering skill, is distinctly shown, is unjust in principle and injurious in consequences.

"The design of the patent laws is to reward those who make some substantial discovery or invention, which adds to our knowledge and makes a step in advance in the useful arts. Such inventors are worthy of all favor. It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges thuds [sic - serves(?)] rather to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith." (pp. 199-200)

via Patents & Nonobviousness

Make a Baby

more here

until proven innocent.

No good has ever come from feeling guilty, neither intelligence, policy, nor compassion. The guilty do not pay attention to the object but only to themselves, and not even to their own interests, which might make sense, but to their anxieties.

Paul Goodman (1968)

Origins

You can vote for that?

I'm not quite sure why this is taking place, but over 90 million people are voting for the "new 7 wonders of the world". Arbitrary?

Second Life Skepticism

Second Life Chairman talks about the future of second life, Blogger things it's silly.


http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=second_life_chairman_s_stump_speech_take&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&ref=rss

It's two'fers at the Exist Tent! Let's Party!

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

from Thoreau w/ love

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
-Henry David Thoreau

Jens Lekmans' Myspace Page

Musician/ Artist Jens Lekman Removed all music from his myspace page and converted it into an internet poem



he utilizes two urls for this which are mirrors of each other
www.myspace.com/jenslekman
and
www.jenslekman.com/myspace.html

Eco Quiz

2.3 Planets for DouglasEinar (see Pat's post)

the people vote on morality issues

this is interesting

Measure your ecological footprint

here


I thought I was pretty good with my ecological footprint, but aparantly we would still require 2.2 earths if everyone lived the way I do now.

chippies post your scores

the forging of the lock

somewhere, in some city, town or hamlet, there is a child being born. somewhere pure spirit is inspired into form. and even now the lock takes shape. mighty is the anvil that forges light, sound, discomfort, pain, roughness, dampness, hunger, smells-all impinge on subconscious memory, forging the lock that bars the door to the infinite.
there is something both sad and beautiful about this-sad because it seems sad to see spirit deny itself-beautiful because self determination is beatiful. for this infant, wherever it is being born at this moment, is free, even as each member of the entire human race is born free-free to determine his destiny-free to discover the source of his being and the immensity of his power.

--- opening paragraph to "Three Magic Words" by U.S. Anderson

very interesting book thus far. can't vouch for the whole book but there is definately good stuff within the first part at least.

check it out if you want