June 2012
0 posts
Welcome - The Data Journalism Handbook →
Anyone can do it. Data journalism is the new punk... →
‘There’s a great democratisation of data going on. Rather than the numbers belonging to the experts, they belong to all of us - and data journalism is part of that reclaiming of the facts. Even at the OECD, users’ voices are part of the process, making up the core analysis that lies at the heart of the Better Life Index on wellbeing.
‘And, just to be clear - data...
What data can and cannot do | News |... →
‘The current wave of excitement about data, data technologies and all things data-driven might lead one to suspect that this machine-readable, structured stuff is a special case. The zeitgeist at times bears an uncannily resemblance to the optimism of a loose-knit group of scientists, social scientists, and philosophers at the start of the 20th century, who thought they could eschew...
May 2012
37 posts
Renewable Energy Industry ‘Could Transform Irish... →
‘Ireland could potentially export as much energy as we consume ourselves as part of the Government’s strategy for Renewable Energy 2012 – 2020, it was claimed today.
‘It is also suggested that as many as 10,000 jobs could be created by 2015 in the wider green economy.
‘However, commentators stress the importance of the Government sticking to its own strategy to avoid the loss...
The Work & Writing of Laurie Penny: Not NATO: a... →
penny-red:
So the divine Molly Crabapple and I overcaffeinated ourselves and decided we should start teaming up on some art journalism. I wrote two pieces for the Independent about the Chicago protests, and Molly drew illustrations based on photos I took and sent to her. They’ve been published at The New…
Cognitive Democracy — Crooked Timber →
‘In this essay, we outline a cognitive approach to democracy. Specifically, we argue that democracy has unique benefits as a form of collective problem solving in that it potentially allows people with highly diverse perspectives to come together in order collectively to solve problems. Democracy can do this better than either markets and hierarchies, because it brings these diverse...
FBI raids Park Ridge renewable energy company -... →
‘FBI and local law enforcement officers raided a Montvale home and a Park Ridge building that houses several renewable energy companies Thursday in connection with a probe into fraud in the bio-diesel industry, a company executive and police said.
‘The Park Ridge raid took place at a building at 52 Park Ave. containing Caravan Trading Co. LLC, which is described on its website as an...
Watch(via The Endangered Waters Beneath Our Feet – News Watch)
Why TED Is a Massive, Money-Soaked Orgy of... →
‘There was a bit of a scandal last week when it was reported that a TED Talk on income equality had been censored. That turned out to be not quite the entire story. Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist with a book out on income inequality, was invited to speak at a TED function. He spoke for a few minutes, making the argument that rich people like himself are not in fact job creators and that...
What can we do about urban food waste?:... →
‘At a workshop on food in cities at Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark last week I learned: that the largest food exporter in Sweden is Ikea (meatballs); that for every meal eaten in a UK restaurant, nearly half a kilo of food is wasted; that about 40 percent of the food produced in the United States isn’t consumed; that every day, Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl;...
Renewable energy firm's lease signals good jobs in... →
‘A Latin American renewable energy company has signed a lease to take 13,500 square feet of space in the Commerce Gold building on Australian Avenue. The firm, TAO Sustainable Power Solutions, is the U.S. subsidiary of Vale Energy Solutions, a Brazil-based renewable energy corporation. That company, in turn, is part of Vale, a major Brazilian conglomerate, with interests in mining, energy...
Mine developers make push to use renewable energy... →
‘American Vanadium’s plan to add small-scale solar and wind facilities to the mine site its developing just south of Eureka provides the perfect opportunity for the company to showcase a potential use of the vanadium mined at the site, says president Bill Radvak.
‘American Vanadium of Vancouver recently engaged Hanlon Engineering and Architecture of Tucson to evaluate the installation...
Coal Industry To Northwest: 'Back Away From Your... →
‘Seattle woke up yesterday to a litany of coal export insults, front page in the Seattle Times: “…an explosion of diesel exhaust”; “… long, traffic-snarling trains”; “…more accidents and marine vessel groundings”; “…poison aquatic food webs.”
‘….and that’s before the story turns to “the most far-reaching issue: the potential effect new markets for coal could have on greenhouse gas...
Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Mandalas | Tricycle →
‘Mandalas are important in Tibetan Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism there are two principal types of mandalas, which are quite different from each other and have completely different purposes and functions.’
—by Himalayan art scholar, Jeff Watt, via Sam Mowe at Tricycle
Rubin Museum of Art
Five Reasons a Non-Computer Nerd Might Want to... →
‘Though coder Jeff Atwood thinks coding isn’t for non-computer geeks, we can think of a lot of reasons normals should learn computer language. Atwood, on his blog Coding Horror, miffed by the “everyone should learn to code” meme, likens coding to plumbing. It’s not for everyone. “Look, I love programming. I also believe programming is important … in the right...
tech_spec →
The science of learning « bluyonder →
‘The work of cognitive scientists is becoming increasingly important to the work of teachers as we seek more effective ways to engage learners. This week, I’ve started reading John Medina’s book Brain Rules. Medina writes in the introduction that if you want to ‘create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design...
Upsurge | Tricycle →
‘In the Fall 2008 issue of Tricycle, contributing editor Clark Strand interviewed author, activist, and entrepreneur Paul Hawken about “the Movement with No Name,” which Hawken had recently documented in his book Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being, and Why No One Saw It Coming. The book draws from a vast range of sources—including the author’s own longtime...
share your food knowledge →
Really great food tips!
Everything you know about Anonymous is wrong -... →
‘What is Anonymous? To some critics, the protest actions taken under the banner of Anonymous will be used by governments to exercise their repressive impulses. Internet critic Evgeny Morozov puts this position in no uncertain terms: “Hacktivists keep supplying the industry with strong examples as to why more public money should be spent beefing up Internet security and surveillance...
'Knowledge societies’, not just knowledge... →
‘In an interlinked world, it is as important to create a “knowledge society”– where the benefits of knowledge are shared for the good of society – as it is to create a knowledge economy, Rajesh Tandon, an international expert on participatory research and development, told a regional conference in Malaysia on university-community-industry engagement. ‘“The future of...
Twitter Hits Back at Court, Prosecutors Over... →
‘The company pointed out to the judge that in rejecting Harris’s standing to oppose the order, he had selectively quoted the company’s terms of service, leaving out one important part. It was true that in agreeing to the terms of service Harris granted Twitter the right to publish his Tweets, but the terms of service also stated that users “retain your rights to any Content you submit, post...
Poet Joshua Clover and 11 Students May Face Prison... →
‘If you haven’t heard: The administration of UC Davis is holding poet and professor Joshua Clover and 11 students accountable for their alleged role in protests that led to the shutdown of a campus US Bank. “District Attorney Jeff Reisig is charging campus protesters with 20 counts each of obstructing movement in a public place, and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, the protesters could...
Shanghai Expression: Graphic Design in China in... →
From posters and advertisements to book covers and magazines, this book presents a dazzling panoply of modern graphic design in China. Beginning with the basic traditions of Chinese graphics, the authors show how the writer and artist Lu Xun became the center of cultural revival in the new China. We see Art Deco coming to China in the Shanghai Style, and the birth of a dynamic national design...
Caochangdi and the Demolition of Beijing's Art... →
‘The warning arrived early on an April morning in 2010: a sheet of paper emblazoned with the red seal of the local party. “Notice,” it said, in big, bold Chinese characters. “Due to the rapid development of our cities, our village belongs to a demolition area. The date for demolition is uncertain.” The village secretary personally delivered the notice, one of hundreds issued that day in...
The honeybees are still dying - Boing Boing →
‘The eerie mystery of the vanishing honeybees has not been put to rest.
‘In the last few weeks, three separate studies explored the effect of insecticides on honeybee and pollinator health. One paper linked neonicotinoids, a new class of systemic insecticides that have come into widespread use in recent years, to impaired honeybee navigation; a second noted the effects of low levels...
The Lizard parable →
‘A lot of people ask me for advice on whom to vote for in the Presidential elections, since they can’t seem to make up their mind regarding the choices that are presented to us (Morsy, Abulfotouh, Moussa, etc..). Unfortunately, I can’t articulate my opinion on the whole matter better than the way Douglas Adam did in his saga the Hitchhiker’s guide To the Galaxy trilogy of five, regarding the...
The Port Huron Statement: A midcentury manifesto... →
‘Recently, I saw the same spirit I had witnessed in the South 50 years ago — the spirit that inspired the Port Huron Statement — in the actions of undocumented undergraduates risking deportation to stand up for the Dream Act. I saw it in the Wisconsin movement to recall Gov. Scott Walker, and in Occupy Wall Street’s insistence that 1% of the population shouldn’t control such a...
Another Genetic Quirk of the Solomon Islands -... →
‘In the Solomon Islands, about 10 percent of the dark-skinned indigenous people have strikingly blond hair. Some islanders theorize that the coloring could be a result of excess sun exposure, or a diet rich in fish. Another explanation is that the blondness was inherited from distant ancestors — European traders and explorers who came to the islands.’
—By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Hug Shirt | CUTECIRCUIT →
“The Hug Shirt™ is a shirt that makes people send hugs over distance! The HugShirt was invented by Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz the co-founders of CuteCircuit, the London based award-winning design company. Embedded in the shirt there are sensors that feel the strength of the touch, the skin warmth and the heartbeat rate of the sender and actuators that recreate the sensation of touch,...
Amanda Palmer, Kickstarter, and Everything –... →
‘First, as background: Musician, creative person and delightfully weird human being Amanda Palmer put up a Kickstarter page to fund/sell her upcoming musical album, her first full-length production in a few years. She had a goal of raising $100,000 in a month; she raised that sum in something like seven hours, and three days in, she’s at (checks, it’s 10:20am as I write this line) $439,481....
Confessions of an #Occupy Tweeter [Mayday Recap] |... →
“…first guest column, written by the guy who runs @OccupyArrests, a twitter dedicated to tracking the number of arrests in the Occupy movement.”
Weyland Industries →
People in control of Project Prometheus…
Occupy Oakland attempt to revitalize momentum met... →
‘Thousands of protesters took to the streets, BART stations and banks around the Bay Area on Tuesday — at times dancing to bongo drums in San Francisco or fleeing tear gas in Oakland — to express frustration at economic inequality and corporate greed and renew momentum for the Occupy movement.
‘Protesters and union organizers shut down ferry service at the Larkspur and...
May Day protests turn violent in downtown Seattle... →
‘May Day protests and traffic jams quickly turned to vandalism and chaos in downtown Seattle Tuesday, resulting in eight arrests, late school buses and an emergency order from Mayor Mike McGinn.
‘After vandals smashed cars and business storefronts, McGinn signed an order allowing police to confiscate such potential weapons as sticks. He worried that vandalism could continue during...
Arrests on Lower East Side as May Day Protests... →
‘On a rain-dampened morning, the widespread May Day protests coordinated by Occupy Wall Street got off to a relatively slow and calm start in New York, but by 11 a.m. Tuesday, many hundreds of protesters had massed in Bryant Park under the watchful eye of the police and private security.
‘Earlier, small bands of protesters spread out around Midtown, often moving quickly from place to...
Glowing fish reveal secrets of pollution -... →
‘What’s black and white but green all over? A genetically engineered zebrafish that’s helping scientists figure out how endocrine-disrupting pollutants damage the body.
‘Actually, this zebrafish isn’t quite green all over - it glows greenest in parts of its body where the chemicals are most active. The pollutants in question are “estrogenic compounds,” or...
April 2012
31 posts
Rural Life Without the Hard Edges - NYTimes.com →
‘Would you like to live a year of your life in someplace stunningly beautiful? A place where the views stretch to the horizon? A place surrounded by forest and lakes where birds are all that break the morning stillness?
‘We are nine months into just such a year after moving our family from the New Jersey suburbs to a cabin off the grid in the woods of Maine, and it is not that hard —...
Shell, Iogen scrap plans for biofuel plant, 150... →
‘Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Iogen Corp have scrapped plans for a commercial-scale biofuel plant in Manitoba, spelling the loss of 150 jobs and raising questions about widespread and near-term use of fuel made from agricultural waste in Canada.
‘The Iogen Energy joint venture had been studying building a plant to make ethanol from straw and other plant waste, rather than from food crops...
Greener Gadgets →
All about living green plus widgets and more…
Study: Antarctic ice melting from warm water below... →
‘Antarctica’s massive ice shelves are shrinking because they are being eaten away from below by warm water, a new study finds. That suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting.
‘The western chunk of Antarctica is losing 23 feet of its floating ice sheet each year. Until now, scientists weren’t exactly sure how it was happening...
Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation - Blog... →
“ASC’s most recent citizen science excursion took us far into the Elk Horn Mountain Range in the Helena National Forrest. We partnered with 12 veterans from the Fort Harrison VA to search for signs of the elusive lynx and contribute to an important body of research to understand the biodiversity present in the Helena National Forrest. We spend two days deep in the woods searching for...
Tech Billionaires Plan Audacious Mission to Mine... →
‘“In my view, its questionable how the economics of asteroid-retrieval works if you’re going to bring it to the ground,” said Brophy. “It makes more sense if you’re going to use the materials in space.”
‘Asteroids contain one substance that is of extremely high value for astronauts: water. Water can be used for drinking and it can be broken into its constituents. Oxygen is valuable...
In Pursuit of Riches, and Travelers’ Supplies, in... →
‘On Tuesday, a new company called Planetary Resources Inc. will unveil its plans to mine asteroids that zip close by Earth, both to provide supplies for future interplanetary travelers and to bring back precious metals like platinum.
‘The venture may sound far-fetched — perhaps along the lines of Newt Gingrich’s campaign promise to colonize the moon — but it has already attracted some...
U.S. News - American seeks political asylum in... →
‘Yonas Fikre, 33, says he spent more than three months in a Dubai detention center in 2011. In a lengthy Skype interview with msnbc.com, he described sleeping on the concrete floor of a frigid jail cell, and enduring regular interrogation, beatings and stress positions that caused him to collapse or black out.
‘He was released in September, he says, but is just now going public with...
London's Overthrow - China Miéville →
A shorter version of this essay was published in the New York Times Magazine, on 4 March 2012.
Paris Review – Period Piece: Rammellzee and the... →
‘An enigmatic presence in New York’s downtown art scene, Rammellzee wasn’t just another crazy guy with three pairs of Geordi La Forge glasses perched on his very busy skull. He imagined train cars linking different phrases, a sort of “Conjunction Junction” on aerosol fumes. He sharpened graffiti’s Wild Style letter-arrows into barbs and harpoons, a defense mechanism (he called it...
The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation... →
‘One of the more transformative technologies ever developed for the world’s poor farmers is a water-lifting device called a treadle pump.
‘It looks and operates much like a Stairmaster exercise machine that you’d find in a gym. But the dollar-a-day farmers who use these devices are not trying to lose pounds; they’re trying to gain them.
‘More than 850 million people in the...
Viking robots found life on Mars, scientists say -... →
‘New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows that NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.
‘Further, NASA doesn’t need a human expedition to Mars to nail down the claim, neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller, with the University of Southern California’s Keck...