Pioneer Institute sponsored this graphic depiction of the 2011 Commonwealth of MA budget. This seems to be a great tool for those who want to examine this subject in depth. There is also a graphic depiction of the Federal budget.
gmoke
My friend, Tom Blue Newell, Uncle Scam, Deacon Blue, Nostrildamus, a Harvard Square busker and street performer ( http://www.unclescam.org ), stopped by this morning. He’s thinking about a new show, especially since he expects to be recuperating from an operation this season. He wants a “Rascal,” a motorized wheelchair with solar power that might also serve as a puppet in his show. He already uses an amp for his performances and has a battery system mounted on his cargo trike. He even has a little bit of solar. He envisions a solar awning to charge the batteries that can run the wheelchair and power his audio and other equipment, too. He also needs a place to keep it in Harvard Square. He’d like something in the works within two weeks and a usable machine within two months.
Continue reading Solar Street Performance VehicleSince it seems that we can’t expect too much out of the international or national policymakers for the next couple of years, I’ve been thinking that the next logical step for 350.org and the climate movement is to do it ourselves. That could take the form of an ongoing global brainstorm on local, practical solutions where people who are working on projects can report their successes and failures, trade ideas on what works and what doesn’t, and help us all climb the learning curve faster as well as replicate successes quickly and modify them appropriately for different local conditions.
There are a number of people already thinking and working along these lines (appropedia, globalswadeshi, the coalition of the willing, global system for sustainable development…*) but they are dispersed, not networked, and there is no central nexus you can point people to. This is something that needs to be done in order to make do it yourself climate change happen. If done right, it would eliminate a lot of unnecessary duplication around the world and could build a community of practitioners that could be brought to bear on specific areas and problems like an Emergency Rescue Squad or ecological SWAT team.
Continue reading DIY Climate Change: Ongoing Global Brainstorm
That afternoon seeing
the small child play in the snow
watched over by his father,
I remembered I’d never seen a snowman
here.
In the fading winter light,
I went out to the same little plaza
and with a gloved hand
lifted three small lumps of snow,
delicately, each in one piece,
and placed them
one on top of the other
to make a tiny snowman,
something like a Jizo,
the roadside statues seen
in Japan to remember the souls
of dead children and the aborted.
Yuki no Jizo
Jizo of snow
It was Martin Luther King Day
in Martin Luther King Plaza
right beside the library.
January 19, 2010
revised December 25, 2010
Williams College is offering a course in Political Aikido during its winter session. Robert Kent, the instructor, believes that this is the first time that a course combining physical practice in the art along with deep discussion of the principles of non-violence has occurred in a college environment. It’s about time.
Continue reading Political Aikido at Williams CollegeOn 12/7/10 Zhengrong Shi, the founder and CEO of Suntech, one of the largest PV manufacturers in the world spoke at MIT, which has about 45 faculty now involved in solar research. The event was a joint presentation of the MIT China Energy and Environment Research Group, MIT Energy Initiative, and MIT Energy Club.
My telegraphic notes follow.
Continue reading Suntech CEO at MITContinue reading Global Online Climate Change Brainstorm – November 14Coalition Movement Camp II: Connecting the Dots
November 14, 2010, 2.00pm to 6pm EDT: http://movementcamp.orgThe Coalition Movement Camp series brings new players and possibilities into view and allows us to connect the dots between them. Our goal is to consolidate our collective powers and prepare for a collaborative web development project unlike anything the world has seen.
The inaugural Coalition Movement Camp took place on October 10, 2010. Participants included representatives of Appropedia, OpenKollab, Metacurrency, 350, Dadamac, CoopAgora, JAK Bank, GreenTribe, and Gaia10. For eight hours, we brainstormed ideas towards a new generation of internet platforms and collaborative strategies for the climate crisis. Details of the 10/10/10 Coalition Movement Camp can be found on the Coalition blog ( http://cotw.me/invite101010, http://cotw.me/camp101010 ).
On November 14, 2010, the conversation continues.
Continue reading Climate Collaboration ContestTo members of the Climate CoLab community,
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Climate CoLab contest, as well as a major upgrade of our software platform.
The contest will address the question: What international climate agreements should the world community make?
The first round runs through October 31 and the final round through November 26.
In early December, the United Nations and U.S. Congress will be briefed on the winning entries.
We are raising funds in the hope of being able to pay travel expenses for one representative from each winning team to attend one or both of these briefings.
We invite you to form teams and enter the contest–learn more at http://climatecolab.org.
We also encourage you to fill out your profiles and add a picture, so that members of the community can get to know each other.
And please inform anyone you believe might be interested about the contest.
from I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked by Upton Sinclair
Continue reading End Poverty in California(12-13) It is easy to imagine the unemployed of California in a system of production for use because of the efforts which they have made to establish such a system for themselves. All over the State self-help and barter groups have sprung up. There have been literally hundreds of them, and for a year or two I had been hearing stories of their achievements. In Compton, an industrial town south of Los Angeles, they served 19,745 meals at a total money cost of less than one-half cent a meal [in 1934 or $0.08 in 2009 dollars]. My friend, Hjalmar Rutzebeck, author of “Alaska Man’s Luck,” was active in the UXA (Unemployed Exchange Association) of Oakland, and told me marvelous tales about the complicated procedure whereby a group of several thousand hungry men would manage to make something out of nothing. They would find a farmer with a crop of peaches rotting on the trees, and who needed to have his barn painted. They would find a paint merchant who would accept some canned peaches in return for paint. Some of these operations were extremely complicated, involving an elaborate circle of activities with a dozen different participants.
As part of Secretary Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft initiative,Tech@State
http://www.state.gov/statecraf…
connects established leaders, new innovators, government personnel, and others to work together on 21st century technology solutions to improve the education, health, and welfare of the world’s population.In its first iteration, Tech@State: Haiti,
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/…
participants from the private sector, NGOs, academia, the Haitian Diaspora, and the public sector demonstrated and discussed their innovations in Haiti. The event served as an idea and technology exchange among participants and ignited those attending to collaborate on current and future projects in Haiti and in other nations.The second iteration, Tech@State: Mobile Money,
http://www.state.gov/statecraf…
will be held August 2, 2010.
Video at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/…