Primary good that can be presnetly produced via Ponoko: a bat box. Sounds simple, admittedly, but it’s well suited to the current production capabilities of Ponoko. Additionally, this qualifies as a “primary good” precisely because, by housing bats in one’s yard, it’s possible to 1) control insect populations, and 2) accumulate valuable fertilizer from the bats for use in localized food production. Bee hives and relate systems are another good example, though the need for wire mesh is slightly beyond the current Ponoko capabilities. Another: cold frames. Worm farm. The list goes on.
Primary good that can be produced via Ponoko with modifications to its capabilities: A hand pump. This would probably require the ability to work with metal, in both sheet and tube form. I recognize that this is well beyond the current capability of Ponoko, but it’s not theoretically that big of a change. Also, if you added the ability to work with sheet metal and pipes/tubing, the universe of potential “primary” goods would open quite quickly (e.g. solar water heaters, stoves, etc.).
MonthOctober 2009
India’s growing status as an economic superpower is masking a failure to stem a shocking rate of infant deaths among its poorest people.
Nearly two million children under five die every year in India – one every 15 seconds – the highest number anywhere in the world. More than half die in the month after birth and 400,000 in their first 24 hours.
A devastating report by Save the Children, due out on Monday, reveals that the poor are disproportionately affected and the charity accuses the country of failing to provide adequate healthcare for the impoverished majority of its one billion people. While the World Bank predicts that India’s economy will be the fastest-growing by next year and the country is an influential force within the G20, World Health Organisation figures show it ranks 171st out of 175 countries for public health spending.
Guardian: Two million slum children die every year as India booms
(via Cryptogon)
Two years before the 9/11 attacks on America, George W. Bush told a Houston journalist if elected president, “I’m going to invade Iraq.”
Bush made the comments about starting an aggressive war to veteran Houston Chronicle reporter Mickey Herskowitz, then working with Bush on his book “A Charge To Keep,” later brought out by publisher William Morrow.
This disclosure was uncovered by Russ Baker, an award-winning investigative reporter when he interviewed Herskowitz for his own book, “Family of Secrets” (Bloomsbury Press) about the Bush dynasty. However, Baker says, when he approached The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times with the potentially devastating story to President Bush prior to the 2004 presidential election, they declined to publish it.
Gloval Research: Governor Bush told Houston Journalist: If Elected. “I’m Going to Invade Iraq”
Why is this only coming to light now?
(via Jorn Barger)
Evgeny Morozov makes a case similar to the one I made in my essay “Birthers adn the Democratization of Media“, only looking at dictatorships abroad (specificaly Iran and China).
This book advances the material in Alli’s groundbreaking first book, “ANGEL TECH” (Original Falcon), a compendium of techniques and practical applications of Dr. Timothy Leary’s 8-Circuit Brain model for Intelligence Increase. After twenty-plus years of research and experimentation, Antero’s earlier findings have been significantly updated and enriched in this new body of work. Includes a comprehensive 8-week course of study and practice, the author’s “Neurological Autobiography of Outside Shocks and Hedonic Upgrades,” a forum featuring Alli’s responses to questions from former students, accounts of his in-depth encounters with Christopher S. Hyatt and Robert Anton Wilson, and much, much more (click book image for excerpt). Published by Vertical Pool.
8 Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body
Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US
Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of “no first strike.” This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.
Reality: Iran’s military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates. […]
Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.
Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.
Juan Cole: Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True
SIT on the steps of Mexico’s El Castillo pyramid in Chichen Itza and you may hear a confusing sound. As other visitors climb the colossal staircase their footsteps begin to sound like raindrops falling into a bucket of water as they near the top. Were the Mayan temple builders trying to communicate with their gods?
The discovery of the raindrop “music” in another pyramid suggests that at least some of Mexico’s pyramids were deliberately built for this purpose. Some of the structures consist of a combination of steps and platforms, while others, like El Castillo, resemble the more even-stepped Egyptian pyramids.
Researchers were familiar with the raindrop sounds made by footsteps on El Castillo – a hollow pyramid on the Yucatán Peninsula. But why the steps should sound like this and whether the effect was intentional remained unclear.
New Scientist: Mayans ‘played’ pyramids to make music for rain god
(via Electric Children)
LA Times highlights several “vampire hunting kits.” Above is one by Alex CF. Read my interview with Alex here.
There’s something so quaint and tidy about a kit for eradicating evil. Some of these vampire hunting kits are “authentic.” Some were assembled by artists aiming to capture the antique beauty of the things. Others are straight up hoaxes.
LA Times: Vampire Hunting Kits: Travel-Sized Boxes of Pain & Vengeance
Nature has long perfected the construction of nanomachines, but David González and his fellow researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Utrecht University under the leadership of Spinoza Award winner Bert Meijer, have brought the construction of artificial supramolecular structures a step closer. The researchers managed to carefully control the self-assembly of guanosine, one of the building blocks of DNA.
The natural world is a shining example when it comes to the self-assembly of molecules. However, it has not disclosed all of its secrets yet. Controlling the shape and structure of self-assembled systems continues to be a stumbling block for scientists. Yet such structures, in which the different molecules cooperate with each other, can have unrivaled characteristics. Self-assembly could provide the way forward for the future mass production of nanomaterials, nanodrugs and nanoelectronics.
Science Daily: Nanotechnology: Self-assembly Of Building Blocks Of DNA Can Now Be Easily Controlled
(Via Chris Arkenberg)
The Laramie Project 10 Years Later is an expanded version of the stage play about the murder of Matthew Shepard, and includes an epilogue based on interviews with one of Shepard’s killers, Aaron McKinney.
Pierotti logged more than 10 hours of interviews with McKinney, but failed to get the killer to express any remorse.
“As far as Matt is concerned, I don’t have any remorse,” McKinney is quoted as saying in the script.
When pressed again on the question of regret, McKinney said he was sorry for Shepard’s family and that his life had taken such a bad turn.
“Yeah, I got remorse. But probably not the way people want me to,” McKinney said. “I got remorse that I didn’t live the way my dad taught me to live.”
CBC: Laramie Project adds killer’s words as epilogue
I don’t think that hate crimes should be punished any more or less harshly than other murders. But this should put an end to the discussion over whether Shepard’s murder was a hate crime.
(Thanks Josh)
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