new deal 2.o website

Looks like this might be a good resource for in depth info about our financial system:

We go behind the headlines to explore the questions at the heart of the economic debate, offering both short, digestible explanations of the issues as well as more in-depth discussions around the finer points of the public conversation.

Some of their reporting, opinon and analysis should help determine:

What Caused the Crisis?

Like you, we want to know how our financial system imploded and determine how we can avoid future chaos. To that end, we have assembled thought leaders, former government officials, historians and intellectuals to write an open letter to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission – a group of people recently appointed by Congress to "examine all causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis." The letter requests the adoption of guidelines critical to the success of the investigation.

1 million wild spiders make tapestry on display at AMNH

On display at the American Museum of Natural History in NY.

A dozen more people were needed to draw the silk from the spiders with hand-powered machines, with each spider producing about 80 feet of silk filament.

Hat tip kottke.org.
At NPR.org.

Andre Agassi with Tavis Smiley was very open

A clip.



Head over to Smiley's website to watch the entire 23 minute interview. Agassi explains how he overcame his crushing depression he suffered from while winning 8 Grand Slams.

The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education.

Exercising power v. doing better work

This will be a classic quote:

An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose the ability to win by doing better work.

From Paul Graham writing about the mistake Apple is making with their App Store re: relationship with developers.

Microsoft sponsors event for people to bring their Macs

Opps!
Link has photo of Microsoft sponsored conference where every one is using a Mac Book Pro.

Nor'Ida a week ago on Friday the 13th

2 highest tides were Thursday night, and this one Friday morning. Photo taken about 837am Friday the 13th. There was about a foot of water in our yard at the 2 highest tides. These highest tides on our street were hours after the "official" high tide. 3rd high tide of Nor'Ida, Friday afternoon, still had a couple feet of water on our sidewalk & street encircling our property.

Watch Yankees win World Series in 3 minutes & 24 seconds

Starts with fans leaving buses before game. Highlights include grounds crew, hot dog grill, popcorn machine, home runs, & dancing pitchers. Ends with fans leaving.

Watch at NYTimes.com in full screen with speakers blasting.

The game is played to Chopin’s Waltz No. 5, a score Mr. Caplin chose to complement the antique sensibility of the piece.

Be a master rock setter instead of a professional cloud manager

It's never too late to change your education or career.
Check out this master rock setter's work at FastCompany.com.

Copyright Watch, which collects & monitors copyright law worldwide, launches

Since we:

...we are all authors, publishers, and sharers of copyrighted works.

About Copyright Watch:

Our dream was to build a user-friendly resource of national copyright laws to help citizens of the world undertake comparative research.
-
Finally, we hope that Copyright Watch will help document the importance of copyright to all aspects of cultural life and human freedom.

Jon Stewart v. Lou Dobbs tomorrow night

The gay illegal alien homophobic death panel crowd get's their cage match Wednesday night. Watch it live on Comedy Central. Tivoing this will be like Tivoing the Super Bowl.

Bird lover trades a view of a pelican for $1.25M 2006 Bugatti Veyron

From AP News.

Buy your own Bugatti here.

Here's some pelicans for free.

Kayak at our front door during Nor'Ida

Some one named the storm Nor'Ida. I like the name. Hated the storm and it's affects.

Here's a friend at our front door. This is not at the highest of the 3 high tides.

Note: water did not come over the Chesapeake Bay beach to our front door. It did not come over the shore at Crab Creek, nor over the banks of Pleasure House Creek. This was from our storm drains that feed into one pipe. Logical huh? You may be asking, why doesn't the City have "plugs" or some kind of engineering in the appropriate place for big storms like this? Follow this blog, and we'll explore why.

Andrew Zuckerman's film and photography work about birds is phenomenal

Andrew Zuckerman: Bird project. Spend some time here if you like/love birds. Under Photographs, be sure to check out the Andean Condor, Greater Bird-of-Paradise, Jackass Penguin, Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise, Wattled Currasow - really, check them all out. Under Films, check out Behind The Scenes, and Promo - Secretary. Audio is great too.

This is his official site - has audio when opened. I recommend viewing this on the largest screen possible, like your big screen TV. Under Photographs, be sure to see the Egg, Water - again, all of them.

Under Film, watch at least Wisdom - "It's about being decent." "You can't get to wonderful without getting through all right." "I think it's love." "If you're ever going to create a peaceful world, ..." Just watch this. Gain wisdom. The website for Wisdom has even more about this project. Check out Making Of > How It Was Made. "I had no experience interviewing any one before."

His movie, High Falls.

Friday the 13th Nor'Easter

Damage. Bunch of damage. A lot damage in our neighborhood could have easily been prevented. My guess is, it will be fixed.

Link between falling minimum wage, cheap food & obesity

From the National Bureau of Economic Resesarch:

Growing consumption of increasingly less expensive food, and especially “fast food”, has been cited as a potential cause of increasing rate of obesity in the United States over the past several decades. Because the real minimum wage in the United States has declined by as much as half over 1968-2007 and because minimum wage labor is a major contributor to the cost of food away from home we hypothesized that changes in the minimum wage would be associated with changes in bodyweight over this period. To examine this, we use data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 1984-2006 to test whether variation in the real minimum wage was associated with changes in body mass index (BMI).

From Grist.org article & the study:

[E]ven though lower income persons are more likely than higher income persons to be obese, obesity has increased most among higher income persons in recent years, as might be expected if changes in the price of food away from home were driving increases in obesity.

You know, how fast food has gotten cheaper relative to making your own lunch/dinner with healthy food at home, eating out more often piles on the weight more easily.

Take the Single-Use Plastic Emergency Response (S.U.P.E.R.) Hero Pledge

Learn about PlasticPollutionCoalition.org:

Plastic Pollution 101: The basic concepts

Plastic is forever.

Plastic has become a plague.

Plastic affects human health.

Recycling is not a sustainable solution.

The Pacific Garbage Patch.

Take the pledge:

I will follow the “4 Rs” of sustainable living in the following order of preference:
Refuse:

Just say NO to single-use and disposable plastics like bags and bottles, straws, cups, plates, silverware and razors. Instead, bring your own shopping and produce bags to the market. Carry a reusable bottle with you for drinking on the go. Bring your travel mug to the coffee shop. Pack your own utensils. Skip the straw. (Plastic straws are for suckers!) Bring your own containers for take-out or ask for non-plastic disposable packaging.
Reduce:

Reduce waste: buy in bulk, choose products with the least packaging, look for products and packaging made from renewable resources, and avoid plastic packaging and containers. Choose products that have the least amount of disposable parts, like razors with replaceable blades and toothbrushes with replaceable brushes.
Reuse:

Reuse preferably nontoxic (glass, stainless steel) containers and goods to make less waste. Bad habits are disposable, containers are reusable.
Recycle:

Recycle what you can’t refuse, reduce or reuse. Recycling is a last option because it uses energy, and there may not be a market for the refabricated materials.

I will be a S.U.P.E.R. Hero!

Then go to Fake Plastic Fish and show your plastic:

Take the challenge. Collect your plastic waste (both recyclable and non) for one week or more. Then photograph, tally, and post it here. What can we learn about our habits and lifestyles by examining our waste? And what changes can each of us make to leave the planet a little less trashy?

Refuse plastic bags.

Beautiful photos of albatross chicks killed by being fed plastic

Watch this in HD full screen. The music is powerful too.



From Chris Jordan's YouTube page:

The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

From the photographer's website, ChrisJordan.com:

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

The music for Midway. Message from the Gyre is "15 Aftermaths" from "Vol 1. : Battle Cry".

The long, complex journey that leads us home. This is the first song I ever wrote, when I was 15-years-old.

From MidwayJourney.com:

Midway Atoll, one of the remotest islands on earth, is a kaleidoscope of geography, culture, human history, and natural wonder. It also serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food.

Do something!

Help fund the artists by donating or buying their work.
Ban the use of plastic bags near our waterways.
Forward this story to every one you know.
Never use helium balloons.
Never litter.

Originally saw this at MNN.com.

Wall Street Execs should donate 100% of their bonuses to help Vets get health care

From Bloomberg news, Wall Street bonuses are up 60% vs 2008:

The firms -- the three biggest banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- will hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses, according to analysts’ estimates.

The big banks continue to get free money from us in the form of 0% Fed Funds Rate, Federal Guarantees in various forms and other programs amounting to trillions of dollars a year most you aren't aware of. They are continuing to make mad money, taking the same risks they took before they blew up the economy and got bailed out, and are paying larger bonuses on top of that.

Vets, who have proudly served their country, die every day due to a lack of health care.

From a research team at Harvard Medical School, their study found:

A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.

The solution?

The Bank Execs should donate 100% of their bonuses we helped them make to fund a Health Care System that would insure 100% of all Vets.

Vets deserve no less.

Yeah! Congress passes Health Care reform

Health Care Bill passes House.

New 18 button mouse simplifies computer use

From the geniuses at OpenOfficeMouse.com:



How does Apple have a chance with their Magic Mouse?

Hat tip about the 18 button thing goes to Daring Fireball.