BE ALERT

I didn't know Charlie Stockley, but he was a friend of a friend and he died on Christmas Eve at the age of 38 - SF Chronicle. He had cystic fibrosis and desperately needed a lung transplant that tragically didn't arrive in time. Hearing about children's deaths always gets to me, but there something even more cutting hearing about a peers death, a stronger reminder of my own mortality. His site, that my friend Kyra, made to update people on Charlie's condition now reads:

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Charlie Stockley on the night of December 24th. As we search for meaning in this terrible loss, we fervently believe that Charlie's courageous battle with Cystic Fibrosis has inspired countless people to register as the organ donors that someday might save the lives of others in his situation. Although Charlie didn't receive the lungs he so desperately needed, we know he would be happy if only one person was helped by his struggle. Charlie's family wishes to express their most sincere gratitude for the love, prayers and support that sustained them during this difficult ordeal and demonstrated how many lives were touched by this remarkable man. If you are thinking of sending commemorative flowers for the family, instead please honor Charlie's memory either by registering as an organ donor or making a contribution to any chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We welcome and appreciate any words/thoughts you have in our guest book below, too.

I had already registered as an organ donor, but this is another reminder that gifting our organs can save real lives and the whole thing is a reminder how tenuous all our lives our. So please, if you haven't done so yet, consider registering as an organ donor.

At lunch this week, I got a fortune that read "Opportunity only comes along once. Be alert". There's a lot of truth in that and really there no time for clinging to the sadness we collect in our lives. And obviously I'm referring to other stuff that is going on in my life, but at the same time we need to have patience for things to take the time it does and not push our experiences away. The dialectical tension between sucking the marrow out of life and finding the patience for life's tiny changes is one I'm quite familiar with and no closer to any definitive answers. Ah, the process of constantly finding the balance as life swings around us...

Blogzy? Blazy?

OK, I know I haven't been writing much lately. Partly because I've been doing more off-line journal writing, partly because I've been busy-busy at work lately, and partly just because I've been blog lazy recently. It's not that I haven't been doing lots of blog worthy stuff recently, but finding the time and energy to write about them has been hard.

For example, I hosted a lovely Santa Lucia party on Wednesday with a fiend crowd of good friends in attendance. Sadly I neglected to take any photos, but ah well.

Monday I went and saw Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng speak about their new book, What is the What, as part of the City Arts series. I was sleepy-tired but enjoyed the chance to see them chat, though I would have liked to hear more about their writing process and how it was to write someone else's autobiography as fiction and what is was like to have someone else write about their life in a first person narrative.

And part of the reason I was tired was from going to the most excellent Bootie party on Sat. Took some pics there, but still have yet to upload them.

Ah, back to the laziness again. Oh week, all thing wax and wane as I stressed in a talk I gave last week on why I am a Buddhist. It was quite interesting to think about and a subject I'd like to write more on. Soon.

caffè con moderno

Sugarlump Coffee Lounge finally opened for real down the street from me the other week. I went to a preview party party last month, which Cynner_SF documented and saw the ultra-mid century decor, and the excellent bookshelf (Two copies of Moby Dick for perusal). But despite it's royal swankiness, there's still something comfortable and relaxed about the place. Good addition to the neighborhood.

Rare Cloud Forms Above Antarctica

This is a very insteresting article on a very strange natural phenomena. Photo in the News: Rare Cloud Forms Above Antarctica: "Nacreous clouds"

More photos of Nacreous clouds

Green themes

Last night I used my CityCarShare membership for the first time. It was amazingly easy and actually a lot of fun. I've got about three lots in walking distance from my place, and another across from my Buddhist center. I'm so glad to be living a care-less life right now. Hopefully I'll still be saying that when the rains come.

I used the car to drive over to my step-bro's house. While there, he showed me the plans for the 2007 Burning Man Manbase. In line with next year's green theme, most of the structure will be re-usable and only the Man will and his minimal supporting structure will be burned. The rest will this huge mountain of a shade structure and two auxiliary "foothill" shade structures. Should be sweet and a radical departure from recent Manbases. Looking forward to seeing it on the Playa.

Ah. The Glory that is YouTube

I had largely ignored the YouTube revolution but tonight I found some videos I might never have seen otherwise, ones by Kahimi Karie. Lovely indeed.

The Internet Speaks Tonight

I heard this fascinating story on KALW about the Listening Post, an installation piece now at the San Jose Museum of Art. I have to say I've never been to the San Jose Museum of Art and in all honesty didn't even know they existed. But this Listening Post sounds like it's worth the trip down. Basically, the project collects conversation snippets from public forums all around the Internet in real-time and the text is played through a voice-synthesizer and displayed on a grid of green LED screens. Sounds very cool on many levels

i FREEDOM FIGHTER BOMBING love you

another tragically amazing A Softer World.

This Year's Cubitron

Last year's cubitron was a simple 10' x 10' cube. But this year cubitron was back, bugger, rounder and with much more complex patterns.

Burnt Man

I'm still feeling fairly spent from this year's Burning Man and asociated events, but I finally upload my photos and some videos to share.

The fist is this amazing walking spider vehicle that was cruzing the Esplanade one afternoon. Enjoy.

The best spam ever

I got the my favorite spam of all time. It came with the subject line "day care" and followed with this amazing prose-poetry. I very much want to know more about the Tibetans Mordecai and Rait, and our mysterious narrator who promises two sets of twins to the wind. The worst part was the lame image attached. Not nearly as original.

Then there was nothing for it but to take those two Tibetans withus. Understand, these people think that Mordecai and Rait wereone and the same person. Theres a monk in the firstniche in the passage. But there was that dead horse, and Iwas starving hungry. They have made their winterquarters in a little monastery near here and were easy to find. Theres a British resident, anda Moravian mission, and astronomers up at the observatory. Tsang-Mondrong and Tsang-yang were our chief perplexity. Next day after that they changed my cell mate. Well, you cant start while the storm lasts, he said presently. We could not quiet him until Narayan Singh crawled out and pretendedto scout through the storm. Some of em asked to see it, but I only showedthe tube what it was in. The room he had brought us into was a large one, heavily beamedand ceilinged with hewn planks. According to Grims theory, that is the secret of the strength oftheir enduring race. Neat they tries to setmy friends house afire. Chullunder Ghose seizedhis hands and slapped the backs of them. Comes five of the Tibetans after me, reckoning theyll catch metheir side of the Zogi-la. I helped him to enter Tibet but I never heard ofhim again. He has said hewill visit my house tonight. I lost the way, and it stormed, covering up my tracks and theirs,too. I guess a cow feels that way in the shambles. I was put in witha monk who had to tell me all the passwords. I have known quite a number of men who have entered Tibet, heanswered, many more than you imagine.

What Id rubbed on warmed me and I didnt hurt so much, but my headbursts every step I take.Presently a bell rings, and theres silence.Night marches are almost impossible, and by daylight it is hopelessto try to escape observation.Narayan Singh coveredhim with an extra overcoat. I makes the horse step lively, and thesnow coming from behind me covers up the tracks.Half a dozenmay have found it but I think all the others perished.If theyd skin you,that ud be a mild thing! I am perhaps a little wiser than I was, but it may be I am onlylazy and afraid. There came a more than usually violent gust of wind that seemedto shake the earth. I promises her two sets o twins in three years. What Id rubbed on warmed me and I didnt hurt so much, but my headbursts every step I take. Presently a bell rings, and theres silence. Night marches are almost impossible, and by daylight it is hopelessto try to escape observation. Narayan Singh coveredhim with an extra overcoat. I makes the horse step lively, and thesnow coming from behind me covers up the tracks. Half a dozenmay have found it but I think all the others perished. If theyd skin you,that ud be a mild thing! I am perhaps a little wiser than I was, but it may be I am onlylazy and afraid. There came a more than usually violent gust of wind that seemedto shake the earth. I promises her two sets o twins in three years.

Root Down

I went to ROOT division's 2nd Saturday event this week and was really impressed by both the space, the scene and the art. My favorite pieces were by Melissa Hutton who did the chairs at Brainwash back in the day. Her latest stuff has some amazing colors and really pop in a pleasant way while still playing of nolstalgia imagry. Nice stuff.

All-natural, locally sourced, trans-fat-free IT'S IT

Intetresting that IT'S IT would produce a special sandwich just for Googlers, as revealed at Official Google Blog: I scream for (Google) ice cream. I wonder if they are considering offering this "elternative" IT'S IT to the general public (without the Google co-branding of course). I for one would be interested. I love me some IT'S IT, but all-natural, locally-source, trans-fat-free, that sounds great too.

"1 Way Ticket" to ride

I don't read a lot of web-comics, but this one looks like a good one. It's a rock 'n' roll comic with those heavy, sloppy inks I like with a definite Paul Pope influence. It's hard to really see where the plot is going in just two pages, but they're nice looking pages. The artist is Daniel Warner, new name, but some one that could be worth watching.

Lucky 13?

All the talk around Al Gore's movie Inconvenient Truth reminded me of this sea-level rise Google map mash-up San Francisco flood map. Turns out my place is good up to 13 meters, but a few more feet puts water at my doorstep. Not so bad, but the funny thing is that the Marina and the Mission both get hit pretty hard. Hmmm, it might be nice to hold onto those ice caps.

The Walking Dead vs. Lost

I'm a late convert to the TV series LOST, and just watching the 12th episode last night where Claire is taken by Ethan and Charlie nearly dies. It was excellent TV and expertly written. Then this morning I was thinking of Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof's introduction to the latest collection of Robert Kirkman's comic book series Invincible.

"LOST is a comic book... Or like one... Here's two things I learned from reading a gazillion comic books:

Thing One: I like lots and lots and lots of characters. I get bored easily, so the Justice League is infinitely more compelling then just Superman alone. The X-Men rock harder then Wolverine's solo albums...and even the Midnighter can't hold my interest for too long if you strip away The Authority.

Thing Two: I like my stories complicated and sprawling. I want surprises. I want to be rewarded for being a loyal reader... like I'm part of a secret society. I don't want to be spoon-fed. I want to think. I want to be part of a universe where anything can happen... and often does. And I like RISK.

Robert Kirkman has mastered Thing One and Thing Two."

Damon's absolutely right, but the series that actually illustrates this the best is his other creator owned series The Walking Dead. While LOST chickens out and lets Charlie live, The Walking Dead regularly kills off major members of it's sprawling cast. Kirkman has written that no one is safe in this series, not even the main protagonist, Rick. And I believe it. Rick just recently lost a hand to a sadistic survivalist-warlord. I don't feel the same sense of danger for LOST's Jack. In TV, star actors are usually hired for entire seasons and are rarely let go mid-season. But for comics, any character can be written out at any time, all of them just lines on paper. And that's big part of why comics can take bigger risks. Of course, in mainstream super-hero comics like Superman and Spiderman, no one can stay dead for long, but outside of the icons, character can die and stay dead. And in creator-owned project anything goes. No matter, how big a TV show runner is, they don't have that kind of freedom. So while LOST is very well done and I'm may be surprised by latter episodes, it seams clear that The Walking Dead "rocks harder" to use Damon's parlance, just because it takes a lot more risks and really ANYTHING can happen. The structure of TV just doesn't offer those possibilities, no matter how quirky and off-beat a series is.

UPDATE:

Okay, I'm wrong. Lost does take some major risks and will kill off main characters. The writers are doing it right, and writing along the lines of some of the best comics.

Milked Almonds

My family was macrobiotic when I was a kid. So since we didn't eat any dairy, we made almond cream for our waffles instead of whip cream. It was a fairly involved process of soaking the almonds, pealing off the skins and then blending them with the right amount of water. It was actually really good stuff that I miss. So imagine my surprise to find out that almond milk is being sold commercially now, by Blue Diamond no less! They're selling it as Almond Breeze®, which I think is a pretty strange name. Part of me is amazed that milk alternatives have come so far in 25 years, but another part of me is horrified that corporate almond growers are finding new avenues to sell their products. But it tastes pretty good, though not as good as homemade. Makes me want to make my own Almond cream though....

Saucers Sighted

This weekend I went and saw my sister, Slyvia's latest play, The Farmington Armada. It's a series of mostly comedic shorts, all based on a 1950 newspaper account of several days of regular saucer sights in Farmington, NM. Sylvia has roles in two of the most surreal scenes, one of which she plays a "visiting" bartender that literally pulls it out it's ass. Certainly needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Alan Moore' Lost Girls

This week the Onion's A.V. Club has an excellent interview with the incomparable Alan Moore in anticipation of the long awaited "Lost Girls". I remember hearing about this project back in the early nineties, when it was first started, but after sometime it took on a semi-mythic status as the Alan Moore pornography project that would never get published. So a few months ago, I was a bit surprised to hear rumblings that it was actually going to see print. I have to admit I had some hesitations about ordering the massive thing, but ultimately decided I needed to see it myself to see what I thought.

I'm definitely intrigued after reading this interview and seeing him write so intelligently and passionately about the book and the status of pornography and sex in Anglo-American culture. I think if it doesn't challenge my own sensibilities a bit, I may be disappointed.

Beth Orton: baby on stage

Went and saw the fabulous and visibly pregnant Beth Orton last Saturday at the Filmore. She was even more amazing live then I had heard and I was very glad I caught her this time around, since it could be a while before she tours again. But I was quite proud of her to see her out on the stage rockin' the belly and just plain rockin'!



On another note, I uploaded this vid using VideoEgg and quite impressive video publishing tool that I've been working with this week for implementation at dogster. should be great to have it out there in the community in the next few weeks! Can't wait to see what people do with it.

House of Masks on the Esplanade!

This week theme camp addresses were announced and once again the House of Masks will be on the Esplanade! This time it's at 8:30 @ Esplanade, right next to the Kostume Kult. So after people costume up, they can come by and make a mask. This year we'll also be setting up some playa side kickball games.

For all your last minute Burning Man spending, check out the "Official" retailer of Black Rock City Playazon.com which now stock the indispensable "Hands-Free" Merkin Flashlight
and tons consumer goodness.

Last weekend I took up the Black Rock Desert. My camp-mate, Todd, had to go out to the Burning Man Ranch to check in with the crew that are constructing the Man Base structure. It's a rather complex structure this year that is designed to actually raise and lower the Man. Should be amazing to see it out on the Playa in a few weeks.



We also did an amazing drive through the High Rock Canyon along the Lassen-Applegate Wagon Train Trail. It's very hard to image people passing through those parts in the 1850's but they did.


More Photos

MasterCard Add spoof

My brother, Ilo, sent me this. Pretty well done.

New wheels!

Since starting my new job, I've been riding my bike to work about four days a week. But what I've been has been my 15-20 year old beast of a bike, that had been out to Burning Man for the past few years. So after taking my friend Jeff's bike for a spin the other week, I decided it was a time for a new bike. Saturday I went over to Pedal Revolution and picked out a 2005 Fuji Silhouette. What a difference to be riding something lighter, with better running gear and missing the left over playa dust

Lounge Unit #1

Lounge Unit #1
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

Man, I'm exhausted. A few of my camp mates got together today to build a prototype of the units that are going to makes up our lounge this year. We knocked it together in a few hours and learned a lot for building the next one. Only eight more left to build!

Naughty Bees

Tuesday, my friend Sara got hooked up with tickets for the "adult" version of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, so she, Pam and their friend Alison and I all went to check it out. It had enough risque language that I wondered what the "clean" storyline was, but the stuff that actually sort of bothered me was the "ethnic humor". One of the main characters was Korean, and the word she got to spell were all Japanese words like miso. And then when she asked for it to used in a sentence, of course, the sentence was "Miso horny". But on the other hand, the play did have an Asian Jesus...

Update:
I was at Raleigh's in Berkeley last night and there was Derrick Trumbly who played Leaf Coneybear, the Haight-Ashbury kid who discovers he's actually smarter and a better speller then anyone thought. I wanted to go up and tell him, I was the real Leef, but let him just enjoy his beer instead

Inconvenient Truths

Yesterday, I work up to NPR talking about a tyrant ruling over America. It took me quiet some time to figure out that they weren't speaking about our current tyrant, but rather King George III, in the Declaration of Independence. Later in the day I saw Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth and the footage of the 2000 election broke my heart as always. The railing at the current the administration was actually fairly minimal. But bigger then all that, was the message the Al Gore was trying to present in his slideshows and now in this film, that the time for action to prevent catastrophic global warming is now, and that using today's technology and simple steps, we, Americans have can have a profound affect on the problem. Of course that's because we, and our over consumption of resources, are a major part of the problem. Later this month, my Buddhist center is giving a serious of lectures on conscious consumption, which I'm really looking forward to.

The Snake Takes Shape

 

The Superman Knocks Twice

I saw Superman Returns last night at a sneak showing my brother's company was doing. Bryan Singer has made a big damn movie for sure with some spectacular visual effects, but at the same time with a lot fewer characters then the X-Men movies, he was also able to give us a lot more intimate character moments. For instance, like Peter Parker's learning to web-swing in first Spiderman movie, Superman Returns shows us a new aspects of his origin that we've never seen before, in this case Clark's discovery that he can fly.

Additionally, Superman Returns is very much a love letter to the first Richard Donner Superman movie with numerous "in-references" that are often exact recreations of lines and scenes, but at the same time fit into the more modern story. In a sense Kevin Spacey is playing Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor, while still doing enough to make it his own. A lot was made about using unused Marlon Brando footage, but really they were just backdrop, setting the tone for the film as a whole. But they did help tying the movies all together.

There was a major story element, that worried me a little bit just because it's a large departure from comic continuity but I'm curious to see where it goes. But who knows? Comics continuity could begin to echo the movies. The rumor is that Richard Donner will be joining Geoff Johns as a writer on Action Comics later this year.

Roadside Show & Tell!

My book club buddy Alison is currently crossing the country as part of her Roadside Show & Tell. She's an amazing artist and her travel log is almost as amazing. It makes me hungry to take my own road trip across America, something I've never done. It really is a strange and fantastic country that I'd like to see more of eventually, but foreign shores tempt as well.

DogBlogged

Yesterday, I appeared on the Dogster Blog. Pretty sweet! So far, it's been great getting up to speed with the dogster pack and I'm really looking forward to building some cool functionality for the dogster/catster community and helping build the place up as the best place on the internet for us pet lovers to hang out.

Update: I also launched my first dogster/catster code today, re-designed storefronts. They feature excellent photos by my friend Gabriel Branbury. Check them out the DogStore and CatStore.

Thar be dragons in de Mission!!

Mission Dragons
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

The mini-park next to my house is finally coming together. This week a dragon or so sort of serpent started to rise out of the ground. It looks there might be some light or water feature to it as well. Either way it should be a dramatic change from the old scrub grass lot.

Kickball Sunday

mini-kball june467
Originally uploaded by GGPkickball.

Jordon took some awesome kickball shots last weekend. This one looks like I'm about fall over backwards while juggling the ball.

Yes, dogs!

Yesterday was my first day at dogster.com/catster.com. It was great to meet the members of the team I hadn't met before, like Greg, Steven, Randi and her dog Ripley. Mostly I was just getting the lay of the land and meeting the architecture, but today I hope to crawl through some code. I can already see really making a diffeerence for the site and the company. It's going to be fun, which is something I was missing from Visa for far too long. Woof! Woof!

Carnaval 2006

At about 7:30 AM Sunday morning the Samba started thumping. The Carnaval parade starts about a half a block from my house and all the groups assemble along both side of Bryant. For a change the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I went up to the roof to see what I could see, but there were too many trees in the way. Guess I could have checked that before I invited a bunch of people over ;) So we down to street level and watched some of the parade. Then after a while more people showed up and we went back to the apartment to hang out. It was really good to have people over. I should do it again soon.

My pics
Lars' awesome shots
Julian's excellent photos

web box

I found this pretty cool web-based file sharing tool today. Back in the day, there was xDrive and all that, but you had to download a clunky client piece. Box.net is entirely web-bases with lots of web 2.0 functionality(Tagging, RSS feeds, etc.) To try it out, click the link below

Ground Rio

This weekend is Carnaval in the Lower Mission. Last year, I was just getting back from New Zealand, so I was jet lagged and overwhelmed. But this year I plan to be up on my roof on 24th Street watching the Parade. I'm right on the first few blocks of the parade and lots of groups will be setting up, so expect to be up early Sunday morning with the sounds of samba booming.

My out of control "To Read" stack

My out of control "To Read" stack
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

I have to say my reading stack is getting more then a little out of control. I'm realiy trying to get through some books, but then there's the magazines...

Ah, will it ever shrink?

Six Feet Over

I'm totally behind the curve on this but just this weekend I finally watched season five of Six Feet Under. Wow! This show pulls on my heart-strings on so many levels, but never feels manipulative or cheesy. I think one of the reasons I identify with it so match are the parallels to my own family, two older brothers and a significantly younger sister, with a more distant, needy mother. When bad things happened to any of the any of the siblings, can't help but imagine the same things happening to my own brother or sister. Whenever the repression and alienation between the Fisher's comes to the forefront, I connect to those same issues in my own family. It's sad to think that the series is really over, but I know it's something I'll want to watch over and over throughout my lifetime and see different things in it. There's definitely that sense of richness there. I'm going to miss the idea of new episodes to watch though.

FLICKR SMASH!

So yesterday Flickr quietly announced they where joinng the gamma irradiated crowd, and going from beta to gamma with a brand new site navigation and some enhanced functionality. Now I have even more reason to love Flickr, especially with the much improved, faster and larger Organizr. Funny, just the other day I had posted a request for a full-screen Organizr, but I'm surethey had heard that before.

Yahoo Mail beta vs. Gmail

Aggh! Everyday it seems like Google and Yahoo are battling it out for all my "Wow, that's really cool!" For Yahoo's cool AJAX livesearch.alltheweb.com, Google strikes back with something amazing like sketchup.com. Then you have similar products like del.icio.us and google.com/notebook. But the heart of the battle for me has been web email. For years I've been a loyal users of Yahoo mail and stood by it as other systems dropped by the wayside. But a few months back, I decide to really give Gmail a try and I was hooked. I loved to idea of threaded email, plus all the pretty colors! Then Yahoo released the beta of their new Yahoo mail and was drawn back. It's certainly the most Windows-like, AJAXy web client that I've ever seen with all sorts of cool functionality, like dragging emails into folder, tabbed browsing and Right-Click options. But this week I decided to go back to Gmail, primarily because it's just simpler and quicker to work with, but also it's just easier to keep a clean Inbox with Gmail. A really basic need but it's just where I want to be right now. It's great to have the competition bringing some great Web 2.0 applications, but the decisions over which to chose are killing me!

Small town tragedies and pointless deaths

This story on Morning Edition, Small Indiana Town Remembers Fallen Marine, got to me this morning. It just breaks my heart hearing about very normal, ordinary people caught up in the carnage of Iraq. Of course, they made their choices, but still no expects it to happen to them. I mean this guy was making plans for his future and expected to make it out of Iraq and live a full adult life. But not to be... And that strikes me as very tragic, that sacrifice of life with hardly a purpose at all.

Korea: Intact Culture

Anne Hilty writes some great articles on life in Korea for Seoul Selection and this week her topic was Korea's "Intact Culture" and what that means for foreigners visiting or living in Korea. It's a very well written and compassionate explanation for what can often be an uneasy relationship between Koreans and foreigners. I was talking at a party this weekend about what living in Korea was like and struggling a bit. It's hard to really convey to people who really know very little about Korea.

A Very Special Celebration of Phil

Phil & the ladies - Pamela, Cindy, Shanna, Phil, Gretchen & Pamela
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

Thursday was my friend Phil's birthday and a big ol' crew of us got together for dinner at the Last Super Club to celebrate. It was absolutely flippin' AirWolf!

and the baby came also

My niece, Zoe, drew this for me and wrote this about it.

"On the table was a pie and some green apple juice. And inside the tent was the big sister and the brother was outside on the sand. But anyway they wanted to camp at the beach. So they brought their hammock and they brought their tent and the baby came also."

50,000+ words per Dollar!

So was just reading about Amazon's new Concordance feature and had to check out one of my favorite books and see how it rated. What a bargain!

Though these are some pretty good word for your dollar here too.

Leef Dog

Yeah! I'm going to be changing jobs soon and moving over to Dogster.com to work with my friend John and crew. I'm very excited to be simplifying my life (read not commuting), working with cool people and pushing my tech skills in different directions. I'm really looking forward to it.

empty nest

empty nest
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

The pigeon chick I've been watching for the last few weeks has disappeared. It was getting pretty big and full feathered, so I'm guessing it was just time to leave the nest, but haven't noticed it flapping around. So who know...

Pollan Attack!

Went and heard Michael Pollan speak at the City Arts & Lectures last night. What an amazing passionate and humorous speaker! He spoke primarily about his new book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma in which he goes explores four different modes by which food is produced in this country, industrial factory farming, industrial organic, "grass" farming or pasture based agriculture, and hunting and gathering food, and then has four different meals from the food each of these systems produces. The first part of the lecture was pretty depressing with lots on the marriage between capitalism and corn (particularly for animal feed), and the only consolation I had was my participation in the worst parts of factory farming is pretty minimal just by virtue of being a vegetarian. Though even with that, it was a good wake-up call to my own complicity in my food choices. Michael Pollan a much more forceful speaker then I expected, and far more radically anti-capitalist. He mentioned that Omnivore’s Dilemma was recently referred to as the Das Kapital of food.

Can't wait to read the book. Maybe we can choose it for our next book club book. In closing he suggested two sites www.eatwell.com and www.eatwild.com for further information and steps.

Rejected by El Dorado County DA

I just called the El Dorado DA's office and my case has been rejected. Whew! I knew it was going to be, but still a relief. Now I can put that whole DUI incident behind me. But I do wonder if I should pursue some action to try to help prevent the same thing happening to others like me?

softer world

Today's Softer World is a good one.

Secret Wars Re-Enactment Society

Very over the top, but looks like it was fun to put together.

Ira Flatow: Science Tuesday

I went to see Ira Flatow's City Arts & Lectures talk Tuesday night. It's always strange to see an accomplished interviewer interviewed, but he had some really good things to say about paying more attention to the politics and budgetary policies surrounding science in this country. I very much agree with him, that our current messianic administration and affiliated allies are really trying attack science and put unverifiable faith on equal footing with science. It's truly a sad state of affairs, but he also said some very encouraging things about science education and education in general being local issues and not federal and that it was up to local voters and communities to voice up in how they want their schools to be run. But too many otherwise liberal well-meaning people are pretty cheap when it comes to ponying up for even their own local schools.

He also said some interesting things about the unknown future of radio broadcasting. Apparently the Science Friday podcast has 6 million downloads, while all the other NPR podcasts have about 13 million downloads. Of course, most of the other popular NPR shows are being sold as downloads on audbile.com rather then podcasted, which is a whole other topic, the increasing commercialization of public broadcasting.