Good Read: Hubert’s Freaks by Gregory Gibson

A rare book dealer named Bob Langmuir finds photos taken by Diane Arubus.  Will he ever get his payday?  The adventure continues beyond the book; stay tuned to Gregory Gibson’s blog

This is a great read, perfect for summer. Grab your beverage of choice, snuggle into your recliner and let Mr Gibson take you through a story filled with unforgettable characters, alive and dead.   My sister and I went to the Arbus exhibit at SF MOMA two years ago, almost makes me feel like I’m part of the story. Maybe, in some sense, anyone who’s been fascinated with an Arbus photograph is part of this story.  NYT article

” …what is simple and commonplace will be legendary.” Diane Arbus

Large Hadron Collider delayed

Lifted the photo from the article here

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator complex that will collide opposing beams of 7 TeV protons together in order to explore the validity and limitations of the highly successful current theoretical picture for particle physics, the standard model, which is known however to break down at sufficiently high energy. It is being built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, where it is undergoing commissioning while being cooled down to its final operating temperature of approximately 2K. The first beams are due for injection in August 2008, with the first collisions planned to take place about two months later. The LHC will become the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. The LHC is being funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. (Wikipedia)

GREEN LOG HOME & LIFESTYLE AWARDS ANNOUNCES WINNERS

From World-Wire

GREEN LOG HOME & LIFESTYLE AWARDS ANNOUNCES WINNERS IN WEB’S FIRST DEDICATED, ECO-SOCIAL AWARDS

MERIDIAN, IDAHO, June 17, 2008 –/WORLD-WIRE/– Demonstrating the best ways to live green, a non-profit organization in Idaho believes it has found the award-winning formula to “building a healthier tomorrow one home at a time.”

Over the past five months, the Green Log Home and Lifestyle Awards has tapped the power of Internet social media, from YouTube and social news to social networking and blogging, to nominate, educate and celebrate green products and services at their best.

After being nominated in categories such as sustainable home energy, water conservation, landscaping, and 15 other design and materials solutions, over 200 nominees were recognized in an Academy Awards-style press conference hosted online by PRNewswire. The on-demand press conference let visitors listen in as executive director Jennifer Hetherington announced the nominees. A video on innovative recycling solutions playable on YouTube and numerous other video sharing sites was also visible. Voting was then opened up to Netizens across the Internet at various online locations using portable polling technology by social media company Vizu.

The penultimate Winner’s Circle Winners and Honorable Mentions were judged by a combination of voting and judging by a distinguished panel including experts from ENS, the Environment News Service.

And the winners are… (with comments from the Environment News Service):

SIPS & Building Systems
Durisol Building Systems
“Durisol utilizes superb recycled materials, and a unique bonding system.”Green Insulation & Systems
BioBased Insulation
“BioBased Insulation uses a broad, renewable resource base, which contributes to the success of this product.”

Lighting Solutions
Solatube International
“Solatube is a highly effective way to curb energy use in the home.”

Radiant Heat Systems
Warmboard
“The best product in this category is Warmboard, with its very innovative design.”

Green / Sustainable Interior Design
Wright Design
“Wright Design is invested in a deep belief of using sustainable products. It is easy to see her commitment to the Earth when viewing her work.”

Flooring: Alternative Green Materials
EcoTimber
“EcoTimber applies a unique, fastidious dedication to certifying their products as sustainable. EcoTimber has led the way in this field.”

Reclaimed Wood & Flooring
Aged Woods
Precision-milled from old, destined-for-the-dump barn wood. Flooring that is 100% reclaimed from old buildings.

Green Stains & Finishes
Timber Pro Coatings
Timber Pro Coatings received enough public support to place them ahead of our judging panel’s choice. Congratulations!

Green Hardware
Nature’s Hardware
Knobs, handles, sinks, bath accessories and more that incorporate natural renewable or recycled material. The perfect green mix!

Green Cabinetry
Young Furniture
Build the kitchen of your dreams with minimal environmental impact!

Green Countertops & Surfaces
Vetrazzo
Vetrazzo, member of the USGBC, provides a new, creative use for recycled glass, including glass that cannot be recycled elsewhere. Beautiful, green countertops!

Green Home Furnishings
Green Culture
With the majority of online votes, GreenCulture is our 2008 Winner for Green Home Furnishings. Congratulations!

Sustainable Landscaping
Sustain Dane
Sustain Dane received just enough of the popular vote to them above our judge’s choice. Congratulations!

Renewable Energy & Efficiency Solutions
Water Furnace
“This product should have a huge impact on the marketplace. It is using a large, untapped resource.”

Water Conservation & Systems
Sustain Dane
Sustain Dane is the people’s choice in two categories. Congratulations!

Green Products & Informational Web Site
Green Log Home
Green Log Home is a great resource on sustainable design and green building.

Best Green Roofing
ecoShake
“This product could change the way roofs are installed. Innovation at its best.”

Best Green Blogs
Green Right Now
“This is a very accessible site that is both informative and beautiful. Great information.”

The Green Log Home and Lifestyle Awards were founded by PrecisionCraft Log Homes [www.precisioncraft.com] led by Jim Young, president and the co-chairperson of the Log Home Council for the National Homebuilders Association. Sponsors of the Awards were PrecisionCraft, Mountain Architects, Chase Bank, Home Buyer Publications, Ecological Home Ideas and BuildGreenRadio.com . To find links and info for all the nominees and learn more about award-wining environmental solutions, visit the Green Home Products gateway pages online at or at the GLA blog at .

For further information, contact:
Jennifer Hetherington
Green Log Awards, Inc.
711 E. Broadway Ave, Meridian, ID 83642
800.729.1320
jhetherington@greenlogawards.com

Kucinich presses Articles of Impeachment

Scott McClellen is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary committee on June 20th.

Evasion of Congressional hearings by the Bush Administration

New Atlas Captures Changing Face of Africa’s Environment

When is someone going to press questions about their global warming positions on Obama and McCain?  Do we look to Africa to lead the way?

From ENS

New Atlas Captures Changing Face of Africa’s Environment

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 10, 2008 (ENS) - Environment ministers from across Africa gathered in Johannesburg today were presented with a new atlas that uses hundreds of satellite images and maps to show how the continent has changed over the past 35 years. Some changes are viewed as negative - glaciers melting, cities and suburbs replacing forests, wild animals disappearing into cooking pots - but others are seen as positive - forests and rare species recovering due to better management practices.

Launched by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is hosting the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, the atlas features over 300 satellite images taken in every country in Africa in over 100 locations. It was compiled by the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

(…)

Steiner said, “The atlas also, however, clearly demonstrates the vulnerability of people in the region to forces often outside their control, including the shrinking of glaciers in Uganda and Tanzania and impacts on water supplies linked with climate change.”

“These underline the urgent need for the international community to deliver a new climate agreement by the Climate Change Convention meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009, one that not only delivers deep emission reductions but also accelerates the flow of funds for adaptation and the climate proofing of economies,” he said.

.

earth speaks

Holodyne: Information systems that are holographic in nature. From “holo” meaning “whole” and “dyne” meaning “unit of power” and in “dynamite” or “dynamo”. Holodynes are considered holographic thought forms that have the power to cause. They are thought to exist within the water molecules of the microtubles.

Victor Vernon Woolf, The Dance of Life

An integral part of Holodynamics is learning to track (identify), and transform, the potential of holodynes that are blocking the unfolding or manifestation of potential. Regardless of how it may appear, the intent of all holodynes is positive. During a tracking the state of consciousness is neither rational (particle) nor emotional (wave), but what Dr. Woolf calls presence (quantum).  When a person is present it’s possible to see and experience things that are outside of normal experience.

The tracking I’m going to describe took place over a month ago; I was tracking a depression that had begun two weeks previously.  After the initial ten or fifteen minutes, I saw myself laying on the ground in a meadow with Mt. Rainier in the background. There were three male shaman standing by my right side, my head was also on the right.  I had died, they were performing a ritual for my spirit journey. I felt and saw myself melting into the earth, where I journeyed, experienced and saw things that gave me an understanding I had not had before of the complexity of the web of life, the consciousness of Mother Earth, and the effect our way of life is having on the Earth.

Over the last month, as the information has self-organized, I’ve consciously realized several things. First, that there are holodynes of place, information systems that are linked to specific geographic locations.  We call it culture. These holodynes are absorbed by every living thing in an organic process. It is why we are so tied to our place of origin, our “roots”.  Until recently, the food we ate was grown locally, and this is the primary means of transmission of information.  The plant and animal DNA, the bacteria, the water and the minerals all ground us to place.  The Native Americans apparently knew this, I suspect all indigenous peoples know this. Place informs culture in humans and evolution in all plants and animals.

When one culture is superimposed over another culture the results are generally a disaster.  I’m thinking specifically of the discovery of the New World by Europeans, or the imposition of  Jewish monotheism on European culture, or the rupturing of the cultural ties of Africans to their homeland because of slavery.

Global warming will bring us together with a global mass consciousness of who we really are. Carl Sagan spoke so eloquently about it,  Earth is home to all of us.

A confused post, but worth reading

I had a nice evening last night. My cranial sacral therapist came over for dinner (soup, salad, garlic bread and dessert). I enjoyed her company a lot and look forward to cultivating a new friendship. It was so much nicer cooking here at the apartment than going to a restaurant; sometimes I miss cooking for people. We talked politics, she asked me if I listened to This American Life. (I do, but not as regularly as I would like). She mentioned the hour they did on habeus corpus and the prisoners at Gitmo. It’s great coverage of an important issue without all the screaming and rhetoric, just the victims telling their stories. Here

I do so wish someone would bring this up in the debates. Is that too much to ask? “Who is willing to go on record as the President who restores habeus corpus?” I would hope any Democrat would jump on that in a second.

This is a nice link Walk Score.com - enter your address and you’ll get a score on walking access to necessary shops and such from you house/apartment.

I thought I’d do an update on the environment and global warming. Two things…scientists have found that the Ward Hunt ice shelf in the Arctic is ready to break apart. Why this isn’t front page news, I don’t know. I searched the NYT - zero coverage in the last seven days, a classic Black Swan. You can read the full story here

Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.

Scientists traveling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada’s far north. The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area’s largest shelf. The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.

(BBC)

*Another bit of news not seen in America is the UN Climate Change Conference being held in Nairobi. The WWF presented a paper on the extinction of bird species:
The researchers found declines of up to 90 percent in some bird populations, as well as total and unprecedented reproductive failure in others.

They estimate that bird extinction rates could be as high as 38 percent in Europe, and 72 percent in northeastern Australia, if global warming exceeds two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - currently it is 0.8�C above those levels.

“Robust scientific evidence shows that climate change is now affecting birds behavior,” said Dr. Karl Mallon, scientific director at Climate Risk Pty. Ltd of Sydney, Australia, authors of the report.

To look at some wonderful photos of birds of North America by an amateur photographer named David Hemmings, click here. I loved the slideshow!

In Bonn, Germany last Monday, the UN opened another conference on biodiversity:

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel Monday urged governments to take stronger action to protect the diversity of life. Opening the largest UN biodiversity gathering yet, Gabriel warned that the world is not on the right path to protect the diversity of species and said the world would not reach its agreed target of the year 2010 for reversing biodiversity loss.
Nearly 7,000 participants from 191 countries opened the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity in Bonn on Monday. Before the meeting closes on May 30, participants are expected to take steps to conserve and sustainably manage the world’s biodiversity in light of what UN officials are calling “the alarming rate of loss of species, compounded by the pressures from climate change.”

Please note: Germany HAS an Environment Minister!

and finally,

Global Warming Sticker Shock

WASHINGTON, DC, May 23, 2008 (ENS) - If global warming continues unchecked, by 2100, New York City will feel like Las Vegas does today and San Francisco will have a climate comparable to that of today’s New Orleans. In 2100, Boston will have average temperatures like those in Memphis, Tennessee today.

These higher temperatures will be uncomfortable financially as well as physically, according to a report released Thursday by researchers at Tufts University, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC.

Over the next 100 years, global warming will increase the average temperature across most of the United States by 13 degrees Fahrenheit and by 18 degrees in Alaska, the report estimates.

The last article is lacking, it ignores the science that warns of the onset of a sudden ice age due to changes in the Atlantic current.

*All these articles are available on ENS - Environmental News Service - they deliver to your In Box.

Memorial Day 2008

“War is not inevitable.” V. Vernon Woolf (to the heads of the Russian military)

Last night I found stories of some of the returning GI’s. They are all recipients of the Purple Heart, wounded in action. It reminded me of Chris Hedges book, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning; the best book I know of about why.

I remember the exact moment I knew that I could not support the war In Viet Nam. The HS I attended was located between McCord AFB and Ft. Lewis Army Base in Washington State, there were always a substantial number of students from service families, perhaps 20% of the student body. This was at a time when Viet Nam had yet to divide the country, but news from the front was being covered in Life, Time and Newsweek. I read. I read about our GI’s using flame throwers to incinerate the VC who would dig tunnels and hole up in them. I had already known about the atrocities of WWII, had seen photos of the death camps in Europe. None of it made any sense to me. I didn’t want to believe that my country would sanction burning people alive underground, I remember hearing screams and the smell of burning flesh, wondering how anyone survived doing that to another human being. I remember getting into a discussion with another student (male) about the situation, he was all gung-ho, ready to sign up as soon as he could, dismissing my questions as irrelevant to his agenda. I was both astonished and dismayed at his attitude, a reaction I have not outgrown. I also learned that you cannot change a mindset.

The question persists, “is it possible to change?” Could Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day become more than a remembrance, days when we honor the service and sacrifice? Days to take a hard look, face the realities of what those words mean? There is still a romance about “going to war”. It is the ultimate addiction, the test, the dance of death, the use and abuse of power in the hands of people so young they cannot see the ramifications, cannot see that they are being manipulated. As Hedges notes in his book, it brings people together for a common cause, provides community, a sense of belonging and purpose that is unequaled in normal life.

Anyone who has seen the photos of the Earth from space knows how beautiful, small and vulnerable the planet is. Can we overcome the past, imagine a future of mutual respect and diplomacy? That’s where we were headed at one time, the genesis of the United Nations. My generation has utterly failed to keep faith with the Declaration of Human Rights, passed in 1948. Here is the Preamble, the full text is here

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, The General Assembly Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Movie review - “The Visitor”

THE VISITOR

Written and directed by Tom McCarthy; director of photography, Oliver Bokelberg; edited by Tom McArdle; music by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek; production designer, John Paino; produced by Mary Jane Skalski and Michael London; released by Overture Films. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes.

WITH: Richard Jenkins (Walter Vale), Haaz Sleiman (Tarek), Danai Gurira (Zainab) and Hiam Abbass (Mouna).

This is a critic’s pick from the NYT, and the review by A. O. Scott is better than anything I can write. The casting and acting in the film lends credibility to what could have been, in other hands, an exercise in sentimentality. This is the kind of movie experience that keeps me going back to the theater; it should put Richard Jenkins in the running for the Oscar. See it. You won’t be sorry.