Buenos Aires's Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid

I love books and bookstores. I also love old theaters. As we knock down old buildings and replace them with new, modern ones, a lot of the beautiful, ornate theaters of the past are destroyed.

This old movie theater located in downtown Buenos Aires was slated for demolition, but saved and is now a bookstore.  Click on the picture to see it full size.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

This video shows us what children really think of same sex marriage. That we all could be so accepting. Ping pong anyone?

Oblivion Is Almost Here. Its Cause? Neglect.

I am not often shocked. Having seen so much foolishness, stupidity and outright malice, I think that I am inured to humanity's dark side. But not today. In yesterday's online edition of Slate, William Saletan wrote Game Over, an article about a couple in South Korea who let their real baby starve while they cared for a virtual child in an online world. I just don't know what to say beyond read the article, weep for us.

And I thought yesterday's post was bad.

Scooting Toward Oblivion

When I read things like this I am always reminded of the Roger Water's album "Amused to Death." Steve Mirsky, writing for Scientific American, has written this hilarious and frightening analysis of the the scariest thing driving on today's highways: the multitasker. This particular offender was WAY off the meter.

Scooting Toward Oblivion

Whole Earth: My Original Source

I so often reference The Whole Earth Catalog, Co-Evolution Quarterly and Whole Earth Review that I thought it might be good to introduce my readers to its wonders.

As a young teenager living in rural Virginia, the dearth of ideas offered to me threatened to shrink my head to the size of a peanut. When I discovered Whole Earth publications, I finally had an unending resource for cutting edge ideas from the most forward thinking people in America and around the world. Funny thing is, much of what was in its pages is still relevant today.

So every so often, I'll be posting links to selections from its pages, starting today.

One of my favorite writers was the late Donella Meadows. Her articles on economics were prescient and timely. This twelve year old piece on Nicolai Kondratieff's theory of The Long Wave predicts the situation we are in right now.

These were some of the things he said we could expect during this time, the very things we are currently experiencing.

1. Stagnation in the real economy and volatility in the money economy

2. Social distrust, selfishness, isolationism, scapegoating

3. Deflation of real asset values

4. Retreat to "basic values" and yearning for the strict imposition of law and order

5. Cutthroat economic competition globally, erosion of social compassion locally.

Any of this look familiar? I'm sure going to be re-reading her work.

Mommy, If Flipper Can Eat Seakittens, Then Why Can't I?

Two very interesting asides on the animal rights debate, both from the GOOD.IS site.

First, Mark Peters discuss the movement to declare dolphins as non-human people, in his column, "What Is a Person, Anyway? " This is an interesting issue since the Supreme Court recently decided a case that grants full rights of personhood to corporations. Under these circumstances a sane person would have to ask, "If Burger King is a person, then why isn't Flipper?"

Second, PETA is now trying to rename fish "seakittens," to discourage (and probably attempt to criminalize) the eating of them. Andrew Price covers this in his blog post, "PETA Tries to Re-brand Fish as "Sea Kittens"."

If Dolphins are people and PETA gets its way, won't Flipper be prosecuted for having dinner? Didn't Rome kinda' get like this just before it fell to pieces?

Possum Living

As a teenager I relished anything that smacked of a return to simpler times. I ate up any book that told me how to live simpler and a little closer to the ground. The Whole Earth Catalog figured prominently in this discovery process as it gave me access to tools promoting sustainability. In its pages I discovered a book by a young woman (17!) who, along with her father, showed steps to do this for real, as they were both doing it for real. The book, which was published in 1978, was entitled "Possum Living."

In its pages were all kinds of tips to living a frugal, but full life, high on the hog (literally) without all that much money (also literally). Its author, desiring neither riches or fame, went by a pseudonym: Dolly Freed. Being that we were in tough economic times then, the book was a big hit. After a little publicity and an appearance on Merv Griffin's talk show, Dolly disappeared.

I always wondered what happened to her. Every once in a while I would put her name into Google with no results. Two days ago Dolly finally popped up. It seems that she grew up to have a wonderful life. After dropping out of school in the seventh grade, she went on to go to college and then become a NASA engineer, helping to answer how the Challenger shuttle tragedy occurred.

She reemerged because she thought that she should publish a new edition of the book since we are in tough times again and it would once again be relevant (as if it had ever ceased to be).

She is still publishing it under a pseudonym. And she still relishes her freedom. And I still have her book. It is a first addition and I do wish I could get it autographed.

But I respect her freedom and anonymity too much.

Here is a link to an excellent story on "Dolly's" life today, a link to her website (where you can buy the new edition of the book) and a link to YouTube video of a documentary done when the book was first released, which also contains her interview on the Merv Griffin show (in Part 3).

You Gonna' Eat That Food Or What?

We throw away a lot of food every year. Estimates run from 25% to 50% of what we produce. On top of that is the 4% of US oil consumption used to produce that food. That's an unconscionable amount of waste and there are things we can do about it. Composting your food scraps is one, but there are even better places to put what you don't eat, instead of just throwing it out.

This article in Scientific American outlines the full problem and some possible solutions. Maybe mom and dad were right when they told us to finish what was on our plates.

What Gets You Fighting Mad?

As someone who studies human behavior, I am always interested in the way people react to information that they either don't agree with or don't like.

Let's take the civil rights movement during the '50s and '60s for example. Those that did not like the information they received about the end of segregation tended to react with threats, bullying and intimidating behavior toward those they perceived as their opposition.

Let's now look at today's climate debate for comparison. You don't tend to read about anyone that proposes that our climate is being affected negatively by man's influence displaying threatening behaviors toward those that don't think the world's climate is changing or is changing for that reason.

Now let's look at some quotes from yesterday's Scientific American article entitled, "Cyber Bullying Intensifies as Climate Data Questioned".................

"The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press. Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse."

"The purpose of this new form of cyber-bullying seems clear; it is to upset and intimidate the targets, making them reluctant to participate further in the climate change debate," (Clive) Hamilton wrote in a column published last week by Sydney's ABC News. "While the internet is often held up as the instrument of free speech, it is often used for the opposite purpose, to drive people out of the public debate."

"What's clear is the e-mails show anger and hostility. There's no effort to ask questions or seek what (Kevin) Trenberth called "the truth." Scientists aren't the only target; journalists covering the issue also routinely find their inbox stuffed with epithets.

"They do not tend to be reasonable," said Rudy Baum, editor-in-chief of Chemical and Engineering News, who has been covering science for the magazine for 30 years. "They do not seem to be interested in dialogue. They are shrill, they are unfriendly, and they are bullying."

"Increasingly," wrote Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. in the Miami Herald recently, "we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth." Added Trenberth: "In science there's a whole lot of facts and basic information on the nature of climate change, but it's not being treated that way. It's being treated as opinion."

If you take the words "climate change" and substitute the worlds "civil rights," I do believe there are some parallels to be drawn here.

Could You Scoot Over? I Need A Little More Room.

Here are two competing views of our future world when it has nine billion people in it.

Which do you think is a more accurate view. I do know that one comes from a source that has an almost flawless record of predicting the future.

Tell me what you think.

First, a three minute look at this world from Stewart Brand................



Now click below to open a photo essay on the subject by Jonas Bendikson of Magnum Photos.............

The Places We Live