Phaedras & Friends

I spoke in meeting today

2011-06-26T18:55:00.005-05:00

I have been home from Africa/Turkey for three weeks now and I have gotten flummoxed every time someone asked me how my trip was except when my family asked how my brother is and then I just got annoyed. In general though, I traveled across the most intensively different landscape I have ever traveled and felt tongue tied to explain, describe, refer to or anyway capture what that means. A travel

Victoria Falls

2011-05-28T02:58:00.002-05:00

We spent yesterday morning touring the Victoria Falls power plant. It was fascinating to see the turbines and the buildings. Everything about it is enormous and a feat of engineering. The original turbines built by the british in 1938 are still there and are still running. After a mediocre game drive we had dinner by the river and watched the sunset. I have been travelling for 2 weeks now and

Bulawayo and a train

2011-05-24T04:20:00.002-05:00

We took the train from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls. The train is over 100 years old and the details in it are amazing. It is also surprisingly comfortable. We slept easily to the rocking of the train that made several stops seemingly in the middle of nowhere that people got out and started walking across fields. The stars were breathtaking. I think it will make me sad to look at the stars in

Leaving Nairobi

2011-05-20T00:29:00.002-05:00

I fly out to South Africa today following a week in Nairobi. I have been to see baby elphants, giraffes and the masai market. It has been awesome, from the matatu buses to the death defying street crossings. Life in Nairobi is not for the faint of heart. I can see why westerners get addicted to here. Life feels more immediate and edgy. Life also moves slower and yet much more seems to happen

Nairobi

2011-05-16T02:19:00.002-05:00

I have landed in Nairobi. Kenya is a long way from Boston. A really really long way. The things I have forgotten so far, my hat, my immunization record and enough pages in my passport. Apparently I have traveled enough since 2004, that I am at risk of running out of pages during this trip. Never even occurred to me to check. That should be glamorous. That should mean an adventurous life, but

Travels

2011-05-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in awhile. Life has managed to completely overwhelm me and time and space to think about things has been nearly completely absent. Fortunately I am taking a three week break and going on an amazing trip to Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Turkey and I am hoping to capture my thoughts here. If I really pull it together I will even post photos!

Christmas

2010-12-26T10:58:00.000-05:00

I used to really hate Christmas. It was always a time of extreme stress and difficult human dynamics compressed into a short time span. Now, finally, Christmas exists as the time I get to see good friends and hang out with family and friends. That said, the holidays are still exhausting, because often you only have a few scheduled hours to see people, you don't get to see very often. Those

Constructive activities

2010-10-31T10:30:00.003-05:00

Alas, it has been forever since I last posted. Life has gotten overwhelmingly hectic and complicated. I chaperoned a BAGLY dance last night, which felt good but also had the effect of reminding me of just how much adolescence sucks ass. On the upside, I also went to my first woodworking class, which was kind of awesome. I highly doubt that I will ever be a master craftsman, but it felt cool to

Constructive Ideas

2010-07-25T17:24:00.002-05:00

I have been thinking in terms of activities that I can do now to lower my carbon footprint (getting off of airplanes was a huge leap in that direction) and improve the quality of my food supply. I am thinking that it will be crucial in any food constrained situation to know how to preserve food that you grow during harvest season. I found this:NOFA/Mass is a community including farmers,

New Direction

2010-07-18T15:30:00.002-05:00

So I spent a week on a third world beach and came back to my beautiful home, good friends, family and proper soap. I also realized that the daily onslaught of the end is near news is too overwhelming to digest and not really helpful. So for a little while, I am going to try a new direction. I am going to post the best ideas that our out there on how to change the direction we are going. Links

The system is broken

2010-07-06T08:57:00.005-05:00

Sometimes you sit in your house with the electricity running, clean water coming through the pipes, food in the refrigerator and think how fcuked up can it really be? Really fcuked up is the answer.Berry writes in “The Peace of Wild Things”:When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where

You fcuking a**holes

2010-07-01T16:56:00.001-05:00

Seriously? The Dutch fall into the first group. Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a major spill, one much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway. "Our system can handle 400 cubic metres per hour," Weird Koops, the chairman of Spill Response Group Holland, told Radio

There is no answer

2010-06-13T17:35:00.002-05:00

Now it appears there is a possibility that the well is compromised beneath the sea floor and that there are already leaks coming from disparate locations on the sea bed. We are going to kill the planet, not just for us but for all living creatures.

Um just so we are keeping track

2010-06-10T07:37:00.002-05:00

Oil catastrophe, we killing the bees, bats and snakes and now the sun is coming after us.

Fcuk, we are killing the bees

2010-06-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phon,

Oil Volcano

2010-05-19T12:56:00.003-05:00

I had been trying to avoid the oil volcano story because it is so overwhelmingly depressing and demonstrative of human suicidal tendencies that I am deeply uncomfortable with....and then you see a news bit that makes you say, well hell we are so idiotic we deserve an extinction event.And see this. BP has refused to let independent scientists inspect the site so that they could estimate the rate

34 and counting

2010-04-30T10:35:00.004-05:00

Another birthday passes and my mind checks its internal gauges for insight into the state of its union. Mental, physical, emotional. The goal is healthy balance. The goal is quality of life. The goal is to feel acutely and correctly the experience as it happens and to learn from what has gone before. That has not always been the goal. Once upon a time the goal was a good story, didn't necessarily

hmmm...water wars anyone?

2010-04-12T12:01:00.000-05:00

Now, as drought-stricken California weighs whether to give private companies more control in managing its scarce water supplies, a new lawsuit claiming the Resnicks violated utilities law by making money from a vast, taxpayer-funded underground reservoir is causing a stir in the state Capitol."Water is a public resource, owned by the people," said Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San

Updates

2010-04-06T21:32:00.002-05:00

The below is a post from October 2009. I was searching for something in my mails and blog and came upon this. I am on vacation (at home) right now attempting to find some sort of balance. I found this and realized I could at least assess my progress based on my objectives before the current exhaustion set in. So here is my score:1. Nope2. Indeed, I am consistently growing in my contributions to

Botox provides a teachable moment

2010-03-28T13:49:00.003-05:00

They found that there was no change in the time needed to understand the happy sentences, which aligned with their hypotheses, since the Botox did not prevent the participants from smiling. But the subjects did take slightly but significantly more time to read the angry and sad sentences after Botox treatment. These data suggest that preventing the participants from frowning actually made it

Not sure how I feel about this...

2010-03-16T11:10:00.002-05:00

but it is fascinating to see it detailed out:Human Rights begin at home. Clean up own backyard China urges U.S.China's Information Office of the State Council published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009"yesterday. The full text of China's State Council assessment of U.S. human rights violations as published in Xinhuanews follow:There are several sections to it,

Oh Walmart, can you really change?

2010-02-17T17:42:00.001-05:00

The program, which Walmart calls Heritage Agriculture, will encourage farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses to grow crops that now take days to arrive in trucks from states like Florida and California. In many cases the crops once flourished in the places where Walmart is encouraging their revival, but vanished because of Big Agriculture competition.Ron McCormick, the senior

Terror

2010-02-14T22:28:00.003-05:00

I spend an inordinate amount of time on planes and an even greater time in transit. I end up being an observer of people having real lives more than I get to have a real life. The other result of this life job is having significant limbo time to read. I tend to read novels, but given the length of the flight and my general level of energy, I will also read magazines. Today on the way to Nashville

hibernation

2010-02-10T16:07:00.002-05:00

As storms pound the coast and February marches on, I feel as if my body has gone into hibernation. I read stuff that normally would have amazed me and my response is muted, quiet. I wonder if I have made the progress I meant to make, but even with that currently feel as if it will figure itself out regardless of whether or not I analyse it. I hope this is hibernation and not me giving up on

not so noble reason

2010-01-12T16:01:00.002-05:00

you consume data you have no interest in before speaking to the crowd? The crowd's disapproval would have been swift and brutal otherwise. Excellent ROI.

On a Jet plane

2010-01-11T15:31:00.001-05:00

Wherever you go, there you are, so they say. Where are you when on a plane reading material on the how the military industrial complex needs to consolidate its organizational management after consuming an issue of adbusters magazine and barely processing a holiday season of family, friends and their (and my) unknowably fascinating interior landscapes? The recommendation of mindful therapists

Family

2009-12-17T14:09:00.003-05:00

Last night, I met the family of the fellow I aim to have as my companion. It has nearly a decade since my last meet the family encounter and alas, I have evolved less than I had hoped....My whole life I have read fiction, non fiction, biographies, philosophies etc in the hopes that somewhere in there I would glean the type of insight that enables a person to see clearly in the moment the tapestry

It's that time of Year again

2009-12-16T15:51:00.003-05:00

I have been keeping this blog since 2006, which seems such a long time ago. I fear that it has proven less valuable than I hoped and am sure that I have not grown significantly in my capacity to write in a way that conveys my impressions of the world. In fact, with the unending disaster that is this embarrassing attempt at health care reform, I am finding my interest in how the world runs itself

Let it be true!

2009-12-09T17:13:00.000-05:00

Apple's alleged Kindle-killing tablet appears to be on the runway for a spring 2010 takeoff. And in what may or may not be related news, two top-drawer US publishers are holding back ebooks of dozens of their upcoming major titles until the same time frame.According to one analyst's "supply chain sources," mass production of Apple's long-rumored "iPad" is scheduled to ramp up in February, with

Frigging Fascinating

2009-12-01T16:40:00.001-05:00

This makes so much sense once you think about it.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T20:18:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I am moving this weekend and enjoying the holiday season for quite possibly the first time in my life. It's amazing.

The things that move us

2009-11-10T00:26:00.003-05:00

I should go to bed soon. I am tired and have a long day in front of me. Still, I want to know...if you can not ever know your story till it's written, how can you know how well you are writing it? And really, if we are honest, given what we know about how memory works, even when its written, we likely still don't really know. So we live and then die barely knowing what we have done and yet

moments in time

2009-11-04T11:36:00.002-05:00

I am having problems at work. It seems like everything I'm assigned to is blowing up in spectacular fashion. Hopefully it will pass with no significant calamities but it has made me aware of how disconcerting it still is, despite my wizened age, when the ground you are standing on shifts suddenly. I really thought that part of getting older would be getting better at life. I am beginning to

This year's assignment

2009-10-04T17:46:00.002-05:00

As I come into yet another holiday season, I struggle with what I did with the last year of my life. SO..this year I am publishing an assignment list that I can either check off or give myself a fail at next year. Same time.1. Make a list of 50 things that I want out of life. Get input on possibilities from coterie. 2. Explore opportunities for expending energy on making a concrete difference.3.

Thoughts on singlehood- updated

2009-09-18T16:48:00.003-05:00

I wrote about being single and its implications on life a little less than a year ago. I was a long time singleton, who assumed on a fundamental level that I would stay single. I am good at being single. I am well suited to having a well developed life and personhood as defined by me and me alone, but alas I find myself once again in a relationship.So the plans would have to be altered if this

Holy Crap, so cool!

2009-09-18T08:42:00.001-05:00

Kid helps save the world!"At that time, I didn't have a lot of knowledge about engines. I knew that there must be some problem with the engine's combustion [to have all that black smoke coming out] and I knew that an engine is about the combination of two elements: gas and air. I started looking into the gasoline side, but there had been lots of efforts to improve the gas - all sorts of additives

Being Alpha

2009-09-14T13:50:00.002-05:00

I am pretty sure that I have a naturally competitive personality. I have always wondered about the nature/nurture question as it impacts gender identity. Specifically, since there is anatomical proof of structural differences between male and female brains, what of it. Are there traits that are universally female or male?An interesting study by Gneezy, Leonard, and List (2008) explored the role

After watching the healthcare speech

2009-09-09T21:13:00.003-05:00

I needed some good news. Here is what I found.Blueprint for a better worldMeet the forgotten 90 percent of your brain: glial cellsSir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

oh shit!

2009-08-19T10:57:00.000-05:00

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Seven young Chinese women suffered permanent lung damage and two of them later died after working for months without proper protection in a paint factory using nanoparticles, Chinese researchers reported.Nanotechnology, or the science of the extremely tiny, is an important industry. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter while nanoparticles measure between 1 to 100

Now can we jail him?

2009-08-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

The documents show that staffers in Rove's office were actively seeking to have Iglesias removed after Republican figures in New Mexico complained that he was not pursuing voter fraud cases they wanted. In 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent an e-mail to another Rove aide saying, "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY."

time management

2009-08-01T12:21:00.003-05:00

I used to be able to manage life. I used to be excellent at scheduling, being super punctual, etc. Now I'm like some crazy lady walking around dropping things and forgetting stuff and unclear on how anything is getting done. I prefer the old me and would like to re-create her asap.

thoughts

2009-07-12T12:57:00.003-05:00

It is hard to know one's self. It is even harder to try to dicover the truth of one's identity while allowing new evidence to suggest that your current understanding is not whole. i.e. growing up well is hard.

Time

2009-06-19T01:34:00.001-05:00

Scientists are reporting an advance toward a memory device capable of storing data for more than one billion years.Alex Zettl and colleagues note in the new study that some of today’s highest-density experimental storage media can retain ultra-dense data for only a fraction of a second. They note that William the Conqueror’s Doomsday Book, written on vellum in 1086 AD, has survived 900 years.

Practicing compassion

2009-06-02T11:36:00.004-05:00

These last couple of days, it has been harder than normal to believe that there is goodness in everyone.Quakers recommend that, in our relations with each other, we should strive to respond to "that of God within everyone." In my own thinking, I have always related this to a supreme principle of respect. At least part of respect includes believing that everyone is capable of goodness. And at

This is what fanaticism does

2009-06-01T14:39:00.002-05:00

From Andrew Sullivan:My wife and I spent a week in Dr. Tiller's care after we learned our 21 week fetus had a severe defect incompatible with life. The laws in our state prevented us from ending the pregnancy there, and Dr. Tiller was one of maybe three choices in the whole nation at that gestational age. My wife just called with the news of his murder, weeping. I can't really come up with some

Pro "lifers" murder again

2009-05-31T12:57:00.002-05:00

A lightning rod in the bitter culture war over abortion, George Tiller had already been picketed, bombed and shot in the arms.He was shot to death just after 10 am (1500 GMT) in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, police and city officials said.

Why is this not front page news in the US?

2009-05-28T09:23:00.001-05:00

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.Detail

I have to stop reading the news

2009-05-21T10:35:00.002-05:00

From super creepy big brother things to financial chicanery and batshit crazy prosecutors, the news is making me nuts. Maybe if I take more walks along the Charles I'll chill out.

Hives

2009-05-12T07:45:00.004-05:00

I get hive outbreaks from an unknown allergen that sometimes will go away with two benadryl and sometimes, will take me out and require IV steroids to stop the reaction. This happened to me last week. I was walking home when the reaction started and by the time I got home and took the benadryl I knew it was going to be a bad one so I called a taxi to take me to the hospital. Now I am smart

Costa Rica Trip Thoughts

2009-04-27T18:41:00.003-05:00

So I traveled by myself for a week in Costa Rica. There were several reasons for going by myself, but at a base level, mostly to see if I could do it. Well I did it. I nearly drowned (Thanks for the shitty signage J.W. Marriott Guanacaste) but I did it. I was able to clear my head a lot and think about some stuff that I have needed to think about. No grand conclusions, but I feel less harried.

Bloodsuckers

2009-04-07T09:56:00.000-05:00

Soros says U.S. faces lasting slowdown | Reuters: "'What we have created now is a situation where the banks who will be able to earn their way out of a hole, but by doing that, they are going to weigh on the economy.'Instead of stimulating the economy, they will draw the lifeblood, so to speak, of profits away from the real economy in order to keep themselves alive.'"Bloodsuckers.

Thinking

2009-03-21T20:04:00.002-05:00

I had thought that there were things I would know by now. Compassion would tell me to be patient with myself and the time it takes to understand those things....but timing is a bitch. This I know for sure. So there will be things I miss because I missed the opportunity to be in that moment and let that moment bring me somewhere else.

Invest immediately in Pitch Forks....just in case

2009-03-17T22:46:00.000-05:00

Short version: New Fed program will rape you more than you are already being raped, like with bayonets.TALF details suggest Obama doesn’t get it - Credit Writedowns: "Marshall Auerback here. As Ed lucidly suggested to me by e-mail: “We see the Fed giving a loan for assets at the price as reported on the institutions’ books. Otherwise, you have to take a write-down just to get the loan. That’s a

Flying

2009-03-17T00:54:00.003-05:00

It's work week 11 of 2009 and I am on my 7th trip this year. An amazing flight as far as the sky scenery goes, but after finding a certain level of calm last week, it's not enough to soothe me. I feel as if I am lurching through time and its only moments where I feel like I am in any sort of present tense.Certain jokes I make feel as if I am pretending to be a me that is familiar to the people

I got the news today

2009-03-12T13:56:00.003-05:00

Several friends of mine got laid off today at work. Everyone else is on IM trying to figure out where else the ax fell. Modern day felling of armies.WASHINGTON – The net worth of American households fell by the largest amount in more than a half-century of record keeping during the fourth quarter of last year.The Federal Reserve said Thursday that household net worth dropped by a record 9 percent

Engineering gone wild

2009-03-09T00:51:00.000-05:00

Cool lady and once again Massachusetts baby!

2009-02-28T01:18:00.001-05:00

Mme Duflo has, above all, developed and promoted the concept of "scientific" testing of anti-poverty programmes – what works and what doesn't but also, crucially, why things work and why they don't. She believes – and has proved – that the effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes can be explored by "random testing", in the same way pharmaceutical companies test drugs. Esther Duflo

Because sometimes women do fight back.

2009-02-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the

Love

2009-02-26T10:24:00.002-05:00

um, yeah you think?

2009-02-25T12:43:00.002-05:00

Former Fed Chairman Volker speaks to Canadians..states the obvious.There is a certain interest in what's going on in the financial world. And I will disappoint you by saying I don't know all the answers. But I know something about the problem. Let me just sketch it out a little bit and suggest where we may be going. There is a lot of talk about how we get out of this, but I think it's worth

We need to understand this

2009-02-25T11:38:00.003-05:00

I am necessarily consumed by financial/political news, so can easily understand why this economic crisis seems so opaque and overwhelming. The system is clearly collapsing, but why? What drove such a complete collapse? I am not going to pretend to have some witty answer to that question, but there is a component of the wall street incentive structure that should be understood by every citizen on

I might become French, They seem to get it

2009-02-13T10:20:00.002-05:00

Communism is dead, most pundits--the mainstream, stupid ones anyway--have been telling us since the USSR shut down in 1991. As it turns out, the libertarians were wrong. Half-right, anyway: Human nature may be inherently individualistic, as free market capitalists claim, but it's also inherently social. When economies boom, most people are sufficiently satisfied to leave well enough alone. Who

Democracy Now! | Bill Moyers asks: "Why will Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! never show up on 'Meet The Press?'" (watch video)

2009-02-11T16:07:00.000-05:00

Democracy Now! | Bill Moyers asks: "Why will Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! never show up on 'Meet The Press?'" (watch video): "JAY ROSEN: You know what’s really striking to me about this, is Lawrence Wilkerson, who worked for Colin Powell, when he retired from the government, he said that the people in power: Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld especially, were, in his view, radicals. That the radicals

Grow your own food!

2009-02-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

California California is facing its worst drought in recorded history . The drought is predicted to be the most severe in modern times, worse than those in 1977 and 1991. Thousands of acres of row crops already have been fallowed, with more to follow. The snowpack in the Northern Sierra, home to some of the state's most important reservoirs, proved to be just 49 percent of

Evil Fucktards Defined-read the whole post

2009-02-04T11:40:00.001-05:00

And they have done and are doing a bucket load of things to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of NORMAL seeds. They've bought up the seed companies across the midwest. They've written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and

Fantastic news people, friggin fantastic

2009-02-04T11:27:00.000-05:00

Chinese earthquake may have been man-made, say scientists - Telegraph: "The 511ft-high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies just 550 yards from the fault line, and three miles from the epicentre, of the Sichuan earthquake.Now scientists in China and the United States believe the weight of water, and the effect of it penetrating into the rock, could have affected the pressure on

USA: Safety of Tasers questioned as death toll hits 334-mark | Amnesty International

2009-02-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

USA: Safety of Tasers questioned as death toll hits 334-mark | Amnesty International: "The call came as the organization released one of the most detailed reports to date on the safety of the stun gun. The report “USA: Less than lethal?” is being published as the number of people who died after being struck by Tasers in the USA reached 334 between 2001 and August 2008.“Tasers are not the ‘

I love Massachusetts

2009-02-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

Daily Kos: Tired of Being Lectured by the Rich About Need for Austerity:"Example 2: I was in line at the grocery store last week when I had to pull out my food stamps to pay for my tiny amount of groceries (here in Mass., they give us what looks like a debit card).One of the wealthy, trophy-wife yentas who lives around here (I've seen her in the store with her 2x older husband) in line behind me

What Red Ink? Wall St. Paid Fat Bonuses - NYTimes.com

2009-01-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

"Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year."

things

2009-01-26T20:14:00.003-05:00

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants andsophisticates, of considering happiness as something ratherstupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is thetreason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and theterrible boredom of pain.I have been in thinking mode again. raging, enormous, impatient and inherentlyunsatisfying. I have thought too

these times

2009-01-19T21:51:00.005-05:00

I can say the sunBurns much brighter todayI can see my path thoughClouds darken my wayYeah I've got this feelingIt's something I find hard to explainSee I wasn't lookingBut girl I'm glad I fell in your wayI don't get to watch the inauguration tomorrow because I will be working. I mean I will follow it on the sites who are made up of people who are as deeply invested in this moment as I am and

Fuck Yeah

2009-01-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

When Bush came into office the US had a US$237 billion surplus. Three days after 9/11, on September 14, 2001, his approval rate was 86%. By mid-2004, the budget deficit was in excess of $400 billion - and growing. (Thanks in large part to a big bipartisan majority in Congress having happily passed his $1.35 trillion package

anywhere in the multi verse

2009-01-16T13:32:00.003-05:00

my brother and I have many odd arguments. One of our more recent ones is what it means to be an outlier. My definition was that you had to think outside of not only what society defined but also what your family judged you on to be a true outlier. my brother leaves for what might be described as another universe from what we know soon. here's hoping that being an outlier can be a good thing.

assholes

2009-01-14T10:26:00.002-05:00

So the world is going to hell and these assholes are still trying get away with it. I think we need to reinstate public shaming. Make them stand in stocks in front of the Wall Street bull.

Wow

2009-01-07T15:18:00.001-05:00

Five days have passed since a BART police officer shot and killed an unarmed rider on a station platform, but the officer has not given a statement to investigators about what happened and the transit agency has apparently not forced him to do so. Muni catching 50 percent more

Even though you knew, still really creepy to see it reported

2009-01-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

An e-mail written by a senior FBI agent in Iraq in 2004 specifically stated that President George W. Bush had signed an Executive Order approving the use of military dogs, sleep deprivation and other tactics to intimidate Iraqi detainees. The FBI e-mail--dated May 22, 2004--followed disclosures about abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and sought guidance on whether FBI agents in Iraq

moments

2009-01-04T18:33:00.002-05:00

I'm in Logan airport about to go through security...on my way to Omaha. I have the gear, noise canceling ear phones, kindle books and comfy outfit and slip off shoes. Still I wish the decision I made didn't mean I have to be here pretending that it doesn't really sadden me that sitting in an airport watching planes take off meant potential for adventure and magic instead of the overwhelming sense

Are we human?

2008-12-27T17:22:00.000-05:00

Pay my respects to grace and virtueSend my condolences to goodGive my regards to soul and romance,They always did the best they couldAnd so long to devotionYou taught me everything I knowWave goodbyeWish me well..You've got to let me go

Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better | Society | The Guardian

2008-12-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better | Society | The Guardian: "Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.The

Time in a bottle

2008-12-22T11:21:00.002-05:00

Gobekli Tepe was first examined—and dismissed—by University of Chicago and Istanbul University anthropologists in the 1960s. As part of a sweeping survey of the region, they visited the hill, saw some broken slabs of limestone and assumed the mound was nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery. In 1994, Schmidt was working on his own survey of prehistoric sites in the region. After reading

Massachusetts rocks!

2008-12-19T09:53:00.001-05:00

BOSTON – His repeated warnings that Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff was running a giant Ponzi scheme have cast Harry Markopolos as an unheeded prophet. But people who know or worked with Markopolos say it wasn't prescience that helped him foresee the collapse of Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud. Instead, they say diligence and a strong moral sense drove his

Women's rights activist beheaded in Iraq - CNN.com

2008-12-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

Women's rights activist beheaded in Iraq - CNN.com: "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen broke into the house of a women's rights activist in the volatile northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Thursday and beheaded her, police said."

Thoughts on singlehood

2008-12-16T11:52:00.005-05:00

Nobody wants to go it on their own And everyone wants to know they´re not alone. Somebody else that feels the same somewhere? There `s gotta be somebody for me out there. Nobody wants to be the last one there And everyone wants to feel like someone cares. Somebody else that feels the same somewhere? There's gotta be somebody for me out there.One could rightfully fault me for using

Where we should be aiming for!

2008-12-16T11:01:00.000-05:00

Japan as ground zero for no-waste lifestyle - Yahoo! News: "At Toyota's Tsutsumi assembly plant in Nagoya, Japan's answer to Detroit, evidence of a more environmentally sensitive car industry is on display before you even walk through a door. What was once a vast, gray expanse of industrial might has come to life – literally.Large trees – 50,000 were planted in May – dot the visitor parking lot

Breathtaking

2008-11-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

That’s when Eisman finally got it. Here he’d been making these side bets with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank on the fate of the BBB tranche without fully understanding why those firms were so eager to make the bets. Now he saw. There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors’ appetite for the end product. The firms used Eisman’s bet to synthesize more of

Oh yeah, this is really happening

2008-11-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States, which prides itself on being the breadbasket of the world, will see its agricultural exports drop 10 percent next year and, for the first time since the late 1950s, will cease to be a net exporter of food, according to a government projection. The forecast, released

Racism is breathtaking

2008-11-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Many people made it clear that they were deeply apprehensive about Mr. Obama, though some said they were hoping for the best.“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch

Amazing

2008-11-10T23:06:00.001-05:00

Sing Fat Lady, Sing loud!

2008-11-04T21:44:00.001-05:00

Police continue search for missing pregnant girl - NC Wanted

2008-11-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

Police continue search for missing pregnant girl - NC Wanted: "Durham, N.C. — Durham police continued this week to search for a missing 12-year-old girl who is pregnant.Investigators believe that Tekenya Wooten ran away from her home at 3529 Manford Drive on Saturday, Oct. 18. Tekenya is eight months pregnant.Police Chief Jose Lopez said that Tekenya's disapperance does not meet the requirements

Because those assholes are wealthy enough?

2008-11-04T11:28:00.000-05:00

Editorial - So Little Time, So Much Damage - NYTimes.com: "The administration has taken other disturbing steps in recent weeks. In late September, the I.R.S. restored tax breaks for banks that take big losses on bad loans inherited through acquisitions. Now we learn that JPMorgan Chase and others are planning to use their bailout funds for mergers and acquisitions, transactions that will be

WTF?

2008-11-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

Mercenary Firm Offers to 'Detain Troublemakers' on Election Day (Updated) | Danger Room from Wired.com: "CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, 'detaining troublemakers' and making sure voters 'do not get out of control.'"

I love me some science!

2008-10-23T07:39:00.000-05:00

Leukaemia drug can halt, reverse MS - Yahoo! News: "LONDON (AFP) – Researchers at the University of Cambridge said Thursday they have found that a drug originally developed to treat leukaemia can halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis (MS).In trials, alemtuzumab reduced the number of attacks in sufferers and also helped them recover lost functions, apparently

Let it burn baby, Let it burn.

2008-10-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Truthdig - Reports - The Idiots Who Rule America: "Andrew Lahde, the Santa Monica, Calif., hedge fund manager who made an 870 percent gain last year by betting on the subprime mortgage collapse, has abruptly shut down his fund, citing the risk of trading with faltering banks. In his farewell letter to his investors he excoriated the elites who run our investment houses, banks and government.“The

I feel so much safer, you?

2008-10-20T15:43:00.000-05:00

The Atlantic Online | November 2008 | The Things He Carried | Jeffrey Goldberg: "We took our shoes off and placed our laptops in bins. Schneier took from his bag a 12-ounce container labeled “saline solution.”“It’s allowed,” he said. Medical supplies, such as saline solution for contact-lens cleaning, don’t fall under the TSA’s three-ounce rule.“What’s allowed?” I asked. “Saline solution, or

Random thoughts

2008-10-16T10:49:00.002-05:00

It has been nearly a year since i started my quest to live mindfully in response to a deep bout of cynicism.Mindfulness is concentrated awareness of one's thoughts, actions or motivations.I will say outright that the effort has in fact made a significant difference in how I interact with life. It has made me appreciate and be aware of dynamics that before were mostly appreciated in theory and in

PROGRESS WORTH CELEBRATING!

2008-10-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

Ugandan community outlaws female circumcision - Yahoo! News: "KAMPALA (AFP) – A community in eastern Uganda that has practiced female genital mutilation 'since time immemorial' has banned the ritual, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.'The community decided that it was not useful, that women were not getting anything out of it, so the district council decided to establish an ordinance banning

Sex really is bad for you.....

2008-10-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

ABC News: The Oral Sex Cancer Connection: "The virus is transmitted by direct contact. You only get HPV in the location it attaches to, so it never travels through the bloodstream.So just exactly how it gets in the mouth may stun you.'There is absolutely a link between oral sex and oral cancer,' said Dr. Ellen Rome, of the Cleveland Clinic.Although no proof exists yet, there is a chance that HPV

Zack Exley: The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game

2008-10-14T15:19:00.000-05:00

Zack Exley: The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game: "We saw glimpses of the potential for this kind of organizing campaign in MoveOn's 2004 and 2006 volunteer operations, the Dean Campaign and even the Bush and Kerry campaigns. And there are great examples of this kind of organizing if you go back to the social movements of several decades ago. But the Obama campaign

Are the times begining to change?

2008-10-14T08:18:00.001-05:00

RAFAEL LARA GRAJALES, Mexico – An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers, officials said Monday. Hundreds of people attacked police as they were trying to load the 34 immigrants into a van Sunday in the