Archive for March, 2009
organizing a revolution
As I compile the bible for our new millennium, I will include Here Comes Everybody as “The Book of Clay”. For, it is a gospel that explains the “structure” of the organization in an internet society. In his exploration of the newly augmented ability for humans to organize, Clay Shirky exposes the power and depth [...]
a union with eating
When reading Charles Eisenstein’s Ascent of Humanity a few weeks ago I was amazed at the depth and breadth of his scholarship. Unfortunately the book is so tremendous, weighing in at over 600 pages its enough to scare most people off. The Yoga of Eating is a focused piece of writing that takes all of [...]
my first experience hosting couchsurfers
Last summer I posted my profile on Couchsurfing.com, a site that is dedicated to bringing cultures together by linking travelers looking for a place to stay with empty couches. At the time I enlisted, my home was in Brevard, NC on the campus of Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute and so I set my status on [...]
looks like I tweet about Charlotte a lot
TweetStats.com allows you to build a Wordle of all your tweets. Looks like I tweet about Charlotte a lot.
exploring the ramifications of a shorter week
As the financial crisis deepens and our policy makers try increasingly desperate measures to prevent all prior debts and methods of wealth distribution from becoming meaningless, now is the time to explore some possible adjustments to our lives that can make interfacing with our human aspects sustainable.
a misplaced reliance in rational faculties
Through In The Dark Places of Wisdom, Peter Kingsley covers the roots of the Western system of thought as revealed through the lives of Plato, Pythagoras and Parmeneides. Essentially, the Phoenicians brought eastern spiritual traditions with them when they fled the Persians. Through the methods of ‘incubation’, simply sitting quietly, these Greeks developed the most [...]
the 5 schools you don’t want to lose to in any sport
Now that we are all struck with March Madness (and all those mainstream BCS conference fans are wondering where Gonzaga and Cleveland St. are located) its time to reveal the five teams that are so painfully represented in every sport, losing to them makes a 4 seeded ACC team getting blown out by a 13 [...]
planing my trip out to Vancouver, top 10 reasons for me @ UBC
It’s official, I’m flying out to visit my first choice for my M.Sci Materials Science (and maybe PhD) , The University of British Columbia. So why UBC? The school seems to be a perfect fit for not just me, but Jane as well. If you are saying, “Justin, didn’t you get into Stanford? Why wouldn’t [...]
existence becomes painful with a little dose of Sartre
If I could sum this book up in one word: painful. In two words: painful and tedious. In several hundred words: As my first exposure to Sartre’s thoughts on existence, Nausea is an effective demonstration of how the novel can lead the reader to examine the surrounding world in a different way. Sartre’s observations can [...]
an easy transition to a producer economy?
Recently I’ve been struggling with the idea of the steps required for peaceful transition into what I would like to refer to as “producerism”. Producerism meaning the the new aspect of society that sees us making more of the things we use in our daily lives. We’ve been promised independence through prosperity, through economic growth, [...]
