Front page | Satellite Sentinel Project

The internet is changing what it means to be a citizen in the world today. We are seeing indeed, a world becoming a "global village". We observe democratic uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. We see private persons standing up to the Pentagon, and revealing it's secrets.

Now another new thing. The Satellite Sentinel Project. Again citizens are using real time satellite imagery to watch the world's hot spots and make the doings public. The armies of the world can no longer hide.

"We can't allow another deadly war, and we surely cannot stand by in the face of a genocide threat. We were late to Rwanda. We were late to the Congo. We were late to Darfur. ... [ we propose to ] systematically monitor potential hot spots and threats to human security, in near real-time, with the aim of heading off humanitarian disaster and war crimes before they occur."

Big Think

Big Think is one of the new media. Experimental. Different mix. No earlier models. Micro Talks. No props - person talking on white background - nonmoving close camera. Short - only 3 or 4 minutes. Riveting. Stopper ideas. Thinkers. Curiousers. Active about 2 years. Fairly large archive now.

Here is a celebration of the 10 most popular videos on their site last year. This is definitely not youtube.

"This years top videos included a rant about the distractions that are limiting workplace productivity, an evolutionary biologist's take on the problems inherent in modern dating, and a suggestion by Stephen Hawking that we must abandon the planet."

And here's another tidbit spotted on BigThink, Karen Armstrong "How to Die Well".

Welcome to Av8n.com

This is mostly about aviation. But it is also about the new kind of citizenship promoted on the internet of folks who just share understandings.

John S Denker has written a most thorough manual of flight instruction "See How It Flies". In this he has broken with many long standing traditions and instructional paradigms. Many of the best traditions and paradigms continue in his scheme. He is no anarchist. But he gathers into a new mix, the physics of flight, current accident rates and causes, and a most practical common sense. He is as concerned to communicate how to stay alive as to how to fly the plane. See also his lecture "CFI Seminar - Takeoff, Landing and Maneuvering".

And he makes his book of instruction (and more) freely available! John has a double life as a PhD in Physics and as Aviation Enthusiast. Bio.

Snake Oil? The scientific evidence for health supplements

This interactive balloon chart took David McCandless a month to do. He collated the entire medline database to grade "evidence" and did keyword search at google to measure the public interest in any supplement. Spend some time with it. Interesting. And if you'd like check out his TED talk, The Beauty of Data Visualization on this and other aspects of his present interest in putting modern, often incomprehensible data into understandable context.

The Videos of RSA Animate

About a dozen interesting 11 minute lectures by current leading minds, are offered by RSA Animate, a new project of a very old London group. They are illustrated during the talk in a most unique way by. Well worth the listening. Their models of community and the change upon us, are most intriguing.

"For over 250 years, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."

The videos are also collected on youtube

HTwins.net - The Scale of the Universe

the size of things outside our normal lives is hard to comprehend.
things get incredibly bigger and also smaller than we can really fathom.

this site starts of with a few things a centimeter or so in size.
familiar things. manageable.
then you move a slider for bigger or smaller. and each pops up or down a factor of ten.
familiar things. still manageable.
suddenly you are seeing how small viruses are and how large planets are.
less familiar things. still manageable.
then there you are
so small "it makes no sense to be smaller" - strings and quantum foam
so huge "we can't see any further" - the very edge of creation
completely unfamiliar, yet still manageable.
well done.

Space.com : The Black Hole That Made You Possible

here's an excellent series of 4 short 5 min videos on space.com on black holes. they are rather well hidden on their site and don't show up on searchs for black hole info though lots and lots of data does.

"the black hole that made you possible" is a series of 4 episodes. here is the link to the first episode. the others are presented on the same page.

the lectures have wonderful animations and space telescope shots, and are very up-to-date in terms of changing, quick moving dance between theory and observation on this subject.

YOUNG GALLERY

View a spectacular sample of the work of Nick Brandt. Black and White photography of Africa. And should you choose to purchase, only a few thousand euro!

13 things that don't make sense

A head scratching list of 13 things in New Scientist. Each little summary opens to a larger backgrounding article if one of the themes catches your fancy.

Welcome to The Responsibility Project by Liberty Mutual

An insurance company is sponsoring a novel idea - exploring responsibility in our everyday lives. Here is a growing collection very worth sharing. The front page film about a family talking about phone texting and driving is good. Also check out the 3 dozen or so short films intended to spark conversations on moral themes under "Film & Video". The one called "Lawyers" and also it's consequent comments, is particularly illustrative of the site's perspective.

Nature's Best 2008

Here is a lovely lot of world pictures.

/home

Here is a lovely presentation of an amateur astronomer in Austria, Johannes Schedler. He is most gifted. There is art in his compositions and high science in his descriptions. Enjoy.

Bolivia Rising

BOLIVIA: Peoples Conference model of inclusion offers only path forward on climate change

we are called to justice.

but sometimes justice is too hard, too large, too out of our league to consider. here is a story about how ordinary people can respond to such calls. the forwarded post below announces and links to a summary report of the recent climate conference held in cochabamba to save mother earth (pachamama), attended by 35,000 people. these people were not the officials that seem unable to cope with climate change, but ordinary folks who cared enough to cousel together on what needs to be done and what might compose an alternative frame to the failure of kyoto and copenhagen.

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com is an excellent window into the gentle revolution happening in south america. it is english, not spanish, and that makes it efficient also. it invites independent news folks to post articles and so is input from many perspectives. i highly recommend the feedblitz subscription of this blog.

one of the characteristics of this new "bolivarian revolution" that has been gathering momentum in south american this last decade is it's desire to find a new inclusivity. a blend of capitalism and socialism. partners not masters with the elites and the north. with a voice and justice for the poor and aboriginal. to work on a new kind of society with fair rules. new constitutions with rights to water, education and health. sustainable goals.

many are unaware of this. it finds no mention whatsover in the mainstream media, though it may well be the most respectful and successful social experiment on the planet.

http://democracynow.org is an independent english source that attends these developments.

Oneness: The Big Picture | Link TV

Global Spirit is a series hosted on Link TV. Here is a sample: an excellent discussion between Deepak Chopra and Riane Eisler, and host Phil Cousineau centered upon a 2005 movie "One". This movie documentary asked 20 questions of a range of persons, exploring the meaning of oneness. It is a string of pearls sort of film with little pearls of wisdom from voices like Father Keating, Thich Nhat Hahn, and many interesting citizens. Its High Def Streaming for 75 minutes. Very worth while. No commercials.

Mark O'Connor and Ruby Jane - Fiddle Melancholia

This sweet little fiddle duet (at PopTech) is the best example I've ever heard to illustrate the sound of "just intonation".

With "just intonation", every note relates to every other note in an exact ratio: 1:2, 2:3. 4:5, etc. The brain does the math and identifies such notes as "musical". Fretless stringed instruments and wind instruments necessarily play "just" music. So also the untrained human voice (a child's nursery song). It is a characteristic of traditional music.

Modern (last few centuries) music has invented fretted instruments and keyboard instruments with "tempered intonation". The advantages are: one can play in any key without retuning the instrument, and more easily play with other instruments. The disadvantage is that any given note may be up to 3% variant from it's proper frequency in a given key. Since tempered instruments have an even difference of the 12th root of 2 between the 12 note intervals of an octave.

We've got used to this modern convenience, and seldom notice the slight dissonance between "just" and "tempered" instruments. But in such a case as this lovely bit of Americana, we are reminded how much such pure traditional music can move the heart.

old poems to new life - TED

This beautiful half hour concert at a recent TED conference will settle your spirit and please you muchly. Natalie Merchant put 6 years into searching out lovely old poems for children and presenting them in plainsong.

CBC - Being_Erica

CBC have just put pretty much all their TV online - and in HD. Here's a way to catch the best at a time of your convenience.

Being Erica. This show is surprising. It's a strange mixture of time-travelling sci-fi and the issues of Generation X. But the appeal is it's deep spirituality. The key idea of the series is to ask "what would it be like if you could return to the scene of your regrets in life?"

If like me, you missed it, I encourage you to take it in now that it's online. This links to the first episode of the TV series on CBC this last 2 years.

Video | Economist Conferences

The Economist sponsored a "Media Convergence Forum" in New York in October 2009, and here put online, 21 videos from that conference. The first one, "Future of Media" is a top notch panel discussion on changes and possibilities on topics of Music, News, Cable, Web and Citizenship. Other panels are about kids, social media, privacy, and marketing. A lot of demo videos also.

Bolivia Rising: Communitarian Socialism in Bolivia

Bolivia Rising is an excellent source of news on the encouraging democratic political reformation of Latin America. Various independent voices are here published in English. This essay is a good example - a summary of the present position, some few details on what peaceful revolution looks like ... what justice looks like! Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA)

Ambassador Eikenberry's Cables on U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan#p=1

These leaked secret documents from the US Afghan Ambassador reveal the folly of 8 years and the complete lack of civilian program to create stability. Click here for the back story.