Taplin Sums it Up

I’ve enjoyed Jon’s thought exercise on the choices and conditions and players that have brought our country to it’s current state of political and economic instability (perhaps I should say ‘Unsustainability’).  Not being as well versed a student of history as he, I appreciate his insights into the roots of our current allegiance to President Woodrow Wilson’s idea to enter WWI in order to “make the world itself at last free” as instrumental in leading the country down this path.  Also, the public airing of the unspoken understanding of Congress’ and the Military Industrial Complex’s concept of ‘Weapons = Job Programs’ reminds me of my High School’s motto:  “As the Sowing, The Reaping.”

What exactly are we, as a nation, looking to harvest with our current efforts?  In the same way that a neighborhood looks unhappily at a crackhouse on the block, it is becoming more and more apparent that the world looks angrily at a country who continues to pour more than half it’s revenues into the tools of war.

The article(s) sprawl and he doesn’t reach concrete conclusions that we can move on.  But regardless, it is compelling and comprehensive indictment of our national behavior.  It also provides a valuable background to view the ideas and actions of this administration against.  I agree with many of his ideas and think that they are worth your time.  Give it a look and see what you think.  I read the articles over a period of a week or so, so take your time.

Chuckle…

Somethingawful’s current photoshop contest sez it’s opposite day at the magazine rack.  I can only imagine how I looked laughing out loud by myself in the car… click the image to see the other entries.

I Heart Prognosticators

Robert X. Cringely, my favorite technology cheerleader/pundit/futurist has etched the date for the end of commercial television as we know it - July 22, 2015 - 7 years from today.   His Column lays it out in all the relevent market driven, technology oriented forces that will come to bear at that point in time. From I, Cringely @ PBS.org

“I’m not saying here that you shouldn’t buy that new DTV, because it will fit into most any emerging system. But I am telling you that the era of the television programmer, where some guy at the network or down at your local station thinks he knows in what order and on what days the audience really wants to watch TV, well that era will be gone forever, seven years from today.”

This may or may not be interesting to you personally, but what I want to mention that this is one industry that will be affected in this one way.  But the technology inflection point exists for all industries.  Please take 20 minutes and watch this talk by Futurist and Statistician Ray Kurzweil at the ever popular Ted Design conference.

I love the possible future that he lays out.  People often get turned off and react badly to phrases like “The End of Humanity as we know it.” But the way that his ideas for our immediate future play out along the geological time scale leads me away from discussing the ‘if’ of these ideas straight to the ‘what are we going to do when’ conversation.  Watch this, and then weigh in on what ‘The End of Humanity’ means to you.

YB a Human? May be a question we get to answer in our lifetime.  Humanity as a choice, not an imperative.  I think that question exists today anyway.  The choice to be something else in the future may contain less morality than it does today.  More on this later….. For now, here comes the future!

Go Ride a Bus

My procrastination on a recent trip back to see the family in Saint Louis, MO forced me to spend $240 on a bus ticket ($80 more than the plane ticket I found the week before but didn’t purchase - Curses!).  And I’ll tell you what, I couldn’t have guessed at the amazing amount of perspective that I would gain from the trip.

Getting on the bus earlier than usual, I finally landed a spot window seat and an empty seat.  Hoping that I would get to keep both seats for myself, I looked up at a heavily tattooted individual with slight reluctance as he asked if he could sit down in the empty seat.  After making a little small talk, and with some (hopefully) gentle exploratory questions, it turns out that he was on his way from Indiana to Spokane.  He said that he was excited to be heading for a new place after getting stuck in Indiana for “a little while”.  A little while turned out to mean 25 years in federal prison.  He had entered the system in 1982 and was 4 days out after serving his full 25 year sentence for robbery and forgery.  He was 23 when he went in and now, on day 4 as a citizen, he was a young 48.  Keep in mind, that besides the tattoos and the pony tale, he spoke softly and thoughtfully.  After talking for a couple of hours, he mentioned that it was more than he had conversed with anybody in 10 years!!

I was astounded.  Here was a person who had, for all intents and purposes, just been born.  The world we take for granted day in and day out effectively didn’t exist in 1982.  Yes, I’m speaking hyperbolically but think about it!  No Internet, No CDs/VCRs/DVD/Blue-ray players, No Hybrid cars, the entire retail system (except for sears) is different, No franchises, No Coffee Shops, the Cold War was still in effect (Communists not terrorists were the fashion) and on and on, .  I was three when he went inside!!

It was fascinating to watch him look around as we drove down I-70, wide-eyed.  And it begs the question, what would the 1982 version of you think of the world we live in today.  What’s better?  What’s worse?  It’s not actually that much time in the sense that anyone reading this was most likely alive in ‘82.  But think about what people were hoping for in 1982.  Think about what we hope for today.

I can tell that this post is all over the place and not very focused, but it’s because the sheer amount of change in national and world thought in that period is staggering.  I don’t even know what my point of writing this is except to say that after talking with him, I was amazed by his level of patience and gratitude.  He wasn’t bitter, he wasn’t looking to get revenge for the time taken from him by the guys who (allegedly) testified against him.  He was just excited to get back out on a motorcycle and explore the country that has been just out of reach over two 40 foot razor wire fences for the last two and a half decades.

The Soapbox I do want to hop up on is that in those 25 years, there were exactly zero rehabilitation programs offered to him in federal prision.  That means no jobs skills, no GED program, no college courses, no Vo-Tec training, no internet or computer access.  This man came out the other side, in my opinion, remarkably well adjusted, certainly more patient and ready to take life one day at a time.  But what a waste.  And what the fuck do the wardens expect people to do when they’re done serving time like that?  ChannelBV and the NYTimes spent some time ruminating on these questions recently but I’m unaware of concrete action for change in our federal penal system.

He spent most of it corresponding with friends found @ PrisonPenPals.com and reading popular fiction like Koontz and Hillerman.  Can you imagine?

I gave him the address to this blog and so I hope that after he takes a few courses at his local library, he can hop on here and know that meeting him was a profoundly moving experience for me that threw the idiocy of my current career malaise and housing issues into sharp relief.

Thank you sir for reminding me to be “… Grateful for the good already received, and thus be fitted to receive more.”  I’m going to try and remember to keep looking at the world through new eyes like you are.  It is a gift.

…Speechless…

I’d post it here but the video from break.com, well, it’s breaks my blog.

But never fear, click here to watch the hands down best catch of the baseball season. Any baseball season. Ever. And it was performed by a minor league…..ummmm, ball….girl. Yeah, believe it, go watch.

Gentrification Indicators

Traveling in Denver recently, I passed by my old neighborhood.  Besides obvious indicators like the recent arrival of the Tattered Cover to my old stomping grounds, gentrification is in full effect.  A proliferation of luxury condos and trendy restaurants are creeping slowly West on Colfax from Colorado.  I saw one change that really made the evolution more interesting:  a Rent-to-Own furniture store had gone out of business and had been reoccupied by a Starbucks (The symbol, for better or worse, of an area who’s residents have cash to toss at a $4 glasses of sugar-milk).  It wouldn’t have meant anything to me more than a small nod to the march of American progress (such as it is) but Jon Taplin pointed out this excellent article on the growing polarization between two classes in this country - The Investor class and the Lottery class.  From the article,

The institutions that encourage thrift have moved uptown, catering to upper-income Americans with an ever-expanding array of tax-advantaged opportunities to invest and build wealth. The potential “small saver” has been left behind as prey to new, highly profitable financial institutions: subprime credit card issuers and mortgage brokers, rent-to-own merchants, payday lenders, auto title lenders, tax refund lenders, private student-loan companies, franchise tax preparers, check cashing outlets and the state lottery. Once existing on society’s margins, these institutions now constitute a large and aggressively expanding anti-thrift sector that is dragging hundreds of thousands of American consumers into profligacy and over-indebtedness.

Not having given the issue as much thought as some, I’ve always wondered what exactly it was that was so distasteful about credit cards, rent-to-own shops, payday loan stores and their ilk.  As Jon points out in his article,

These companies in the sub-prime credit market collected $17.1 billion in late fees last year.

Far from encouraging responsible behavior, these companies have built their businesses enabling people to make choices that will damage their financial future.  This is not an amazing aha! moment for me per se.   I’ve chosen to live without credit cards for the better part of a decade specifically to deny my own ability to make those poor decisions (agreed, I should be able to manage the problem through logic instead of such a drastic measure but…..). The generally icky feeling I get from these businesses is due their choice, their conscious choice, to profit from the likelihood that people will continue to make bad choices.  That is a business decision, a socially destructive and reprehensible business decision.  The people who are making the bad decisions are not blameless in this situation but they are literally being preyed upon by these institutions who make no effort to educate and correct the bad decisions that they see being made every day.

Barbaras article offers some solutions including increased public education, creation of new thrift-promoting organizations and a re-purposing of state-run lotteries (which I’ll get into in a second).  I would encourage you to read and think about these solutions and to vote with your dollars - join a credit union to support your local borrowing community, don’t work for, rent, or sell your property to organizations who’s values run counter to the general welfare of humanity and don’t support organizations verbally or monetarily who engage in this type of predation.

Having benefited directly from Colorado State Lottery funds that went to create potions of my town’s beautiful river park, I appreciate what that the state makes funds available for good, community-centric projects like this one.  The difficulty remains that, when the statistics show that the source of these funds is collected from people who can least afford to part with it, it should be clear that our State has no business encouraging this kind of behavior.

Besides, a portion of the whitewater park in BV was funded entirely by concerned citizens and built with local labor.  It’s good to remember that there are always other solutions.

Photo Credit

4 Words - Albino Squirrel Diorama Gallery

Yes.  Found in the basement of a Wisconsin funeral home.  Thank you extremecraft via Boingboing.  Link to Flickr Gallery.

Now my day is complete.  And it’s only 9:30.

 YB a creative taxidermist?  Yes.  Rhetorical question.

Cameras, Methane and a Moment of Zen

So, my fantastic younger brother hooked me up with this camera over Christmas - 8 megpixel photos, 720p HD Video, and it fits in my back pocket! Best. Gift. Ever.

Now I’m free to pull it out and be shooting 8 seconds after I see a shot that I want! My current gig is out in C Springs @ the New Penrose - St. Francis Hospital / Medical Complex. The Hospital is gorgeous and huge and will be a real asset to the community once it opens on 8.8.08 (that auspicious day the presages to host more weddings in Asia than any day in history). My only qualm is that is built on the site of a former landfill and methane plant, the leftovers of which you can see below. My question is this, if methane is known to be a supremely effective greenhouse gas, why is Colorado Springs choosing to vent it into the atmosphere un-mitigated?

It is a peaceful place out amongst the pipes - kind of a Mad Max post apocalyptic feel with the turbines creeking in the breeze.

I think I can safely ask a city YB Who UR? And what does a choice like this say about your position on environmental stewardship… Perhaps venting is the best choice (better than gas pocket build up and explosions from a careless cigarette, right)

George W., Unplugged

Wow, a tour of the Oval office by the prez, that the press office just, sorta, forgot to edit, despite the president’s obviously made-for-TV-post-production vocal style. *shaking head* Our country continues to suffer this foolish man. Barak! Hurry up and get in there!

Link to video @ Whitehouse.gov

Photo Credit 

Oh BoingBoing, how I’ve missed you!

Working out in CSprings for the past month or so has seriously cut into my online wanderings.  Thankfully the gig only lasts another couple of weeks after which I can get refocused on the fun stuff.  That said, I dipped back into BoingBoing.net land today and was not at all disappointed.  These folks and their readers are the undisputed masters of creative absurdity and I am deeply grateful to them for sharing the inner workings of their mangled minds with the rest of us.  Because, seriously, where else would you find custom mario levels designed to sing along with Anime theme songs?  For 11 Minutes?  On YouTube?  Oh yes, it’s there all right, you just need a filter like BoingBoing to sift it out for you.  Go ahead.  Press Play.  I dare you not to be enthralled……

Project Bloggers take a Lesson

Matt Shumaker has set the bar high with his E-Cumbent project tracker blog. The project is a 2 wheel recumbent bike conversion to electric assist (I’d say, it’s almost a full EV conversion project). The beauty of it is that the bike is driven by a fist-sized RC electric motor and a large handful of Li-ion battery packs sourced from his local hobby shop. This is relevant because, besides his gorgeous metal work to mount and gear the system to work seamlessly with pedal power, the actual power system looks to weigh in at less than 10 pounds! In stark contrast to the electric scooter I took for a test drive today that tips the scales with 60+ pounds of lead acid batteries and a direct drive brushless hub-mounted motor. The scooter tops out at about 25 mph while the recumbent cruises at 35 and is being regeared for 50 mph! Check the video!

I corresponded with Matt who guesstimated that his total investment in the project (bike purchase not included) thus far is about $1100 and 60 hours (with another 20-40 hours to go before the project is largely complete). Certainly not for the average enthusiast, Matt’s skill with machining metal and RC components is obvious from the site. But his results give me real hope for perhaps building on his experiences to power a true commuter single person vehicle. Putting his work into place on a 3 wheeled tadpole trike with 2 battery packs and a full velo-faring ala aerorider should net a 50-75 mile range enclosed single person full electric vehicle capable of 50+ mph. The question is, as always, how much $$?

Worth noting as well, is the other end of the Spectrum: My friend, Bill Dube built and runs the worlds fastest electric drag bike - the Killacycle. It goes zero to sixty in 0.9 seconds (that’s 9/10 of a second) and tops at an EV world record 168 mph in the quarter mile. You might have heard about the batteries in the new Tesla Motors roadster from A123 Battery Systems? Well, here’s where they got stress tested first.