Fresh Fish Food for Thought

Please to enjoy this amazing video on the future of farmed fish, and a call to arms to rethink the way we farm globally.  It's worth the time spent.


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Greening the Cube

Wouldn't it be great if all our privacy needs at work were this relaxing and fresh?  Jebus, I'm coveting this right now!  The oxygen alone would boost productivity.  Props to Julio Radesca de Carvalhom, a recent graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven for the design.

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How bout some satirical blues for the afternoon?

Woody Guthrie sings the Mean Talkin' Blues . . . about some mean, mean anti-union, anti-planning, hate mongers . . . sound familiar?  Maybe we could call it the Twenty-Ten Hate-Talkin' Blues . . .

Lyrics after the jump . . .

Sand artist in Union Square

Came upon this in Union Square yesterday . . . everybody loved it, from the youngest to the oldest passer-by.  All done in carefully poured colored lines of sand . . . I'll have to check in on it today if I have time.  Two more pix after the jump . . .

London sky-scraper integrates turbines

Lately London has become the city to watch when it comes to contemporary architecture, and this 42-story tower is no exception.  Three huge turbines are embedded into the concave facade of it's uppermost section, and are projected to provide 8% of the power the building needs. . . a small percentage compared to some, and far from a carbon-neutral building -- this is at the very least what every tall building should incorporate.  If you've ever opened a window above the 30th floor of any building, you'll know that there's plenty of potential for energy whipping around up there!  Full gallery from Inhabitat HERE.
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Starbucks litters art all over public space to encourage itself.

I was biking through Madison Square Park yesterday, minding the business of enjoying a brilliant sunny day in NYC, when i was stopped in my happy tracks by an unwieldy crowd which had collected itself on the [triangular bit of] square.  I saw this:  Thousands of cups (and more to come) filled with varying hues of coffee and milk (wasted) forming the silhouette of a huge redwood tree.  I was immediately intrigued and irritated.  As it turns out, it is a messy, soggy, ill-conceived eco-art nightmare that -- through it's wastefulness -- seeks to remind us to use FEWER cups.  Ok, so I got a free refillable mug out of the deal, but meanwhile can I have my public space back?  When did city parks become billboards for wealthy corporations and their fake good green deeds? I'm holding my breath for the Pampers version.

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Idiot Gen. James Sheehan blames gays in Dutch Army for Srebrenica genocide.

Somehow without moving his mouth, Sheehan sticks his foot in it.  Unbearable.
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China plans high-speed rail to Europe. Really? I'm jealous.

They've already got the most advanced high-speed rail system in the world, and now the Chinese have announced plans to extend it to Europe.  This means a two-day trip from King's Cross to Beijing!!  Detractors say this is the modern Imperialist equivalent of the Via Publicae -- a move to cement China's supremacy across the continent -- but others doubt it will ever come to fruition . . . the perceived benefits beyond passenger service being somewhat limited for the cost.  The US, for all it's "security" spending abroad, could take a page from this strategy book and strengthen our domestic infrastructure in a similar way to vast benefit. FULL STORY from the Edmonton Journal.
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Secret Fusion is the Bomb Doggity

Everybody in New York knows when a new hit restaurant opens, or closes, or becomes the next big thing, or gets handed off to the Bridge and Tunnel patrons (or *gasp* tourists), but sometimes in NYC you stumble across a culinary gem when you least expect it.  I have a guilty pleasure.  I advocate for reducing meat in our diets for the health of our bodies and the planet, but every so often a person can indulge in one of our city's mainstays of street eats:  The Hot Dog.  So I found myself hungry on Bleeker the other day in front of a joint called New York Hotdog and Coffee.  The title was bland and a bit odd -- the food was anything but!  I tried the Bulgogi beef dog (okay two), and Andy had the Kimchi Bulgogi hamburger.  WHAT?  I know.  That's what I said.  The Dogs in this place are Korean fusion creations and wild American twists that are so much more interesting and delicious than the name implies!  Bulgogi is a slow marinated grilled sliced beef wonder, and Kimchi, for those of you who don't know, is a pickled cabbage creation spicey and sour and wonderful -- with more pro-biotics than yogurt, but lower in fat and calories, and that I'm now putting on everything I eat forever.  The delicious fries made it through from the American tradition, and the wieners themselves were high quality 100% beef brisket (delicious and somehow magically low-calorie) on delicious potato rolls snuggled in with pickles.  I love New York for just this kind of find -- strange delicious fusion right under your nose.  Healthy fast food -- who knew?

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Grayson introduces PUBLIC OPTION bill!!! YES! [fist pump]

Bill Opens Up Medicare To Anyone Who Can Pay For It  . . . from his website:

"Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-8) today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The “Public Option Act,” also known as the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act,” would open up the Medicare network to anyone who can pay for it.

Kid with his head on straight won't stand up

This awesome kid, of his own accord, decided one day that he wouldn't stand and say the Pledge of Alleigence until all Americans really had liberty and justice.  Pretty cool for a 10 year-old.  He received a GLAAD Media Award.

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Mika Kicks Ass

I've always like this Mika.  Now his new song is the anthem for the upcoming movie Kick Ass which may or may not be funny, but certainly features Nicholas Cage -- which is a huge shame.  I'm sick to sobs of him.


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Why is this bowl of leaves SEVEN DOLLARS?

Why is the average salad -- just a bowl of leaves and some nuts and berries -- so much more expensive than a slain cow that had to be reared to adulthood, and fed, and slaughtered?  Why does my deli dude scribble $7.75 to $10 on the top of my lunch order when it is all veggies and weighs just ounces?  Why does the government tell us to eat according to the pyramid on the right, but fund food industry according to the one on the left?  And why oh why are we so fat?  It's largely about subsidies.

No grime, no crime. Durban students scrub-tag their world

A group of students in Durban, South Africa have taken to removing grime from buildings and retaining walls, in what could be seen as pro-community graffitti or positive negativity.  Less is certainly more :) 

Gallery HERE from inhabitat
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Queensboro Bridge nude and gleaming

I don't know exactly when it happened, but the Queensboro Bridge has cast off her tarpy wrapping, and is showing off a new coat of buttery paint.  I noticed on my bike ride to work yesterday  . . . maybe I'm just excited that Spring is Springing . . . like a big steel buttercup.
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You've got to be carefully taught. UPDATE

THIS VIDEO WAS MADE PRIVATE BY ITS CREATORS.  That's cool.  Everybody has the right to privacy, I suppose.

No trauma, no irreversible damage, nothing more than a few questions for clarification, a relatively mild shift of world-view, and acceptance.  Those who claim that teaching children about same-sex couples is harmful should watch this candid moment and repent.  Rather, teaching children that some love is inherently despicable and to be shunned is the real abuse of the easily-molded young mind. 

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

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R&H, South Pacific

Google maps bike routes and who took my front wheel?

Well it's about time!  We've been asking forever, and Google has responded, so now you can map your intended path on dedicated bike lanes, shared lanes, and bike paths all over the world!  From their blog:

"Today we've added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the public support for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that

The Hertz Locker

I couldn't help it.  Hertz offers this version in burgundy for only $324.00!!

I hope it wins this Sunday.  I heard that if you see it, you feel like you're there.
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Porn for Bibles on campus.

At the University of Texas San Antonio, an atheist group is having a "smut for smut" exchange, offering porn for traded-in bibles.  You have to wonder if a nice copy of Darwin wouldn't be more to the point, but I guess it wouldn't have the same appeal . . . UTSA is complying with their stunt saying:

"As long as students are not violating laws or violating the Constitution, they have the freedom of speech and assembly."

Good for them. More from the AP HERE.
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Critical Mass in danger of dying in S.F.

San Fransisco, the city that berthed the movement, may be shutting Critical Mass down.  In 1992, in an effort to bring attention to cyclists' rights, SF's biking community started a monthly semi-organized group ride.  They called it Critical Mass.  Since then the idea has spread to just about every major metropolitan area, and now San Fransisco's  Police Cheif is thinking about ending it all.

"It is a mass of people that causes massive problems and San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon is questioning its existence. "We definitely are looking at the process, evaluating it, looking at where we can improve," said Police spokesperson Lyn Tomioka. The idea that this could be one of the last Critical Masses in San Francisco, delights some of the officers who have to protect it. "I think that if we have our chief behind it and he wants to do it, I'm sure there's going to be an end in sight," said Sgt. Neil Swendsen."

From GOOD.

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A pound of flesh

This chart from The OilDrum shows the amount of energy it takes to bring a pound of each food to the table.  There is interesting discussion in the comments about whether the beef numbers are skewed by grain/grass feed, but I'm just glad that cheese isn't the worst.  It's my guilty pleasure.
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Canoeing down Canal?

A design competition to envision the metropolitan areas around New York/New Jersey adapted for rising sea levels of the future opens soon at MOMA.  The five teams set out to solve the inevitable problems a 5-10 foot rise in sea water would bring to our sea-level metropolis.  Each team was given a section of New York's diverse waterfront, and tasked to birth conceptual solutions.  VIDEOS HERE of each team's work.  And more pix after the jump . . .