Public Potluck Picnic

Spinning off from the last Design Nerd Jam which focussed on the convergence of a green and creative city, our group decided to organize an informal unstructured potluck picnic on the luscious grassy hill beside Science World. Fredrick who I met randomly in my group was keen to help organize and he put together the invitation. I sent out some emails and facebook invites and prayed to the weather Gods. They listened. It was lovely afternoon with a great little spread of tasty food and delicious conversation. Next time, more activities like kite flying, music playing, croquet and Frisbee. One highlight was Bruce showing up with his electric bike and mini sound system. Nerdtastic.

Weird

larytta - souvenir de chine - video directed by körner union

so weird. but i couldn't stop watching... trying to get posting again. starting with videos. more writing and personal work to come soon.

Feeling tiny, yet connected

Well.  

Here we are coming around the southern tip of San Juan Island druing the first leg of Round the County 2008.  Can't get much closer to weather than this, for now.

Far away, however, I read about the Asian skies.  Poisoned with soot, smog and toxic chemicals, the by product of massive developments in all industry categories - transportation, agriculture, building, cooking, and general mass production and export to the west.

''The imperative to act has never been clearer,'' said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, in Beijing, where the report, titled ''Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Regional Assessment Report With Focus on Asia,'' was released.

Story via World Business Council on Sustainable Development.  Link here.

Eep.

LaP: Learning at Parties

I was at a party Friday night. It was full of costumes, revelry and merriment. At one point well into the night, we stepped outside and enter into a fantastic conversation about energy. I remember that I could see the nearly full moon reflecting in the window of the house. Djs behind the glass. Dance floor behind the DJ. I don't remember how the conversation even started. LC proposes Manhattan Project 2.0 for renewable energy. "Do it. Put 500 billion into it!!! (as opposed to spending it on the war on terror)". I wasn't aware of the Manhattan Project (until I asked). No, I was thinking about the Manhatta Project which I JUST read about in article about Spatial History on World Changing. It is similar to the Lost Creeks of Vancouver but I think that bringing spatial history and place into the discourse adds new layers of richness and relevance to the project.



Spatial history asks:

What did our cities look like pre European history?

What was this place???

What has it been?


Basically, anything regarding place.

Hello baby hawk

Walking home yesterday, we had an encounter. So close to home. In the city.

Talk nerdy to me

 
Amazing Czech biking history from Fransisco.  What a nerd.

Ms. Li Shurui - long now thinker and artist.

I happen to think this photo is incredibly powerful. An article in the New York Times featured a hand full of contemporary artists who are said to be quietly emerging to stardom, in Beijing. Female artists are nearly invisible in a male dominated force. Brave souls.

Photo: Natalie Behring for The New York Times

It may say something about Ms. Li's present and future thinking, though, that when asked to name a cultural role model, she pointed neither to other artists nor to contemporary politics, but to the deep past: to the seventh-century ruler Wu Zetian, who through a combination of brains, beauty, unsparing ambition and tenacious hard work, became China’s first and only female empress.