Monday, June 28, 2010
Eight of the world's strangest houses
As more and more people rebel against ticky-tacky, cookie-cutter homes, options are growing for more unique, satisfying dwellings.
Popular Mechanics' Chris Sweeney recently created a great list of 18 of the world's strangest homes. And though there are arguably some even stranger ones out there (the toilet-shaped home, for one, or the coral castle), one of the things we like about Popular Mechanics' list is a strong focus on sustainability.
The Popular Mechanics collection focuses on designs that think outside of the box and approach sustainability from a holistic perspective. Some include recycled materials, but recycling itself isn't usually the central theme.
You don't have to live in a house built out of discarded tires, bottles, or vehicles to "go green." There are many ways that we can all go green in our homes, no matter what they look like or where they are located. Switching to more efficient light bulbs and appliances, trying out energy monitoring devices, and boosting insulation are a few examples.
For the greenest of Popular Mechanics' strange houses, look below:
Photo: Courtesy of Free Spirit Spheres
Free Spirit Spheres
Looking like something from Star Wars, suspended tree houses known as Free Spirit Spheres excite the imagination. Made by Tom and Rosy Chudleigh from British Columbia, the "tree houses for adults" are handmade from local wood.
The spheres are recommended for meditation, photography, canopy research, leisure, wildlife watching and other activities, and they can be ordered fully loaded with plumbing, electricity and insulation. Some are available for rental, and DIY kits are offered. They reportedly sway in the wind.
Photo: www.arquitecturaorganica.com
The Nautilus House
Perhaps what Gaudi would have envisioned if he were asked to decorate a sea shell, the Nautilus in Mexico City was completed in 2006 by architect Javier Sensonian of Arquitectura Orgánica. Sensonian practices what he calls "bio-architecture," and has designed buildings shaped like snakes, whales and other living things.
The Nautilus was built for a young family who wanted something that felt more integrated with nature, and it is filled with lush vegetation. The front door blends into the colorful mosaic facade.
Photo: RobertBruno.com
The Steel House
One glance at the fantastical Steel House, and you'll never forget it. Designer Robert Bruno wanted it to look somewhere between animal and machine, and we think he succeeded. The unique home is perched on a bluff near Lubbock, Texas, and minimizes disruption to the area by resting on top of four skinny legs.
Steel is long-lasting and highly recyclable, so green builders have been giving it a second look in recent years, especially for roofing. Inside, the Steel House looks more H.R. Giger than Martha Stewart, and it doesn't look like the most practical living space, but it definitely is thinking outside of the four-walled box.
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/251/eight-of-the-world-s-strangest-houses.html
Working on a (Temp) Dream
Welcome to the freelance economy, where workers are atomized, badly compensated and strangely optimistic.
By Richard Greenwald
We are living at the dawn of the freelance world, as more and more people find themselves working as consultants, contract workers or freelancers. This change in the way we work is as profound as the shift that occurred during the industrial revolution.More than 25 percent of all working Americans are, whether they want to be or not, temporary laborers, and that number will surely rise in the coming years. (According to the Freelancers Union, which represents almost 100,000 contract workers in the New York City metro region, freelancers already comprise 30 percent of America's workforce.) Job security and 9-to-5 jobs are becoming a relic of the past. This year's college graduates enter a fragile economy offering more risk than guarantees, and far fewer jobs than applicants.
As corporations have prospered and gained labor flexibility, most workers have watched their futures decline. Neoliberalism has unlocked capital, freeing it from national borders; workers are increasingly a temporary, disposable expense. Firms can now hire on a project basis (anywhere), and no longer need to invest in large facilities or workforces.
Many readers of this magazine have tried to understand the complacency of today's workers, particularly younger ones, who find themselves temping. Some of that complacency has to do with the growing freelance economy.
The larger social impact of freelancing has been well documented, but what is missing is an understanding of those businesses that encourage or are enriched by the new "gig" economy. We know little about the businesses that prop up freelancers, simultaneously nurturing and feeding off them. In fact, we tend not to think of these businesses collectively as an industry. But we should. From consultants to self-help book authors to the rise of "co-workplaces," which provide freelancers with social interaction, an industry has developed that serves as both freelance cheerleader and parasite. It has defined the new gig culture, and it is time that we begin to understand this industry's place in our economy.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6107/working_on_a_temp_dream/
Texas Nationalist Movement Wants the Lone Star State to Become an Independent Republic. Bye-Bye!
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
The following E-mail BuzzFlash received merits our wackiest news release of the week award. Only Sarah Palin could fully appreciate it.
Texas Nationalist Movement
POC: Dave Mundy, Media Coordinator
press@texasnationalist.com
(281) 415-4013
National office: (409) 527-4929
NEWS RELEASE
TNM TO SUE MEXICO FOR RETURN OF ARTIFACTS
NEDERLAND, Texas – The Texas Nationalist Movement is preparing for a lawsuit against Mexico for the return of artifacts taken to Mexico City during the Texas Revolution.
"It has been known for some time that the Mexican government is in possession of the true Alamo flag and many other artifacts captured during their invasion of Texas and we want them back," TNM president Daniel Miller said. "We are going to initiate the suit in federal court and will appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if necessary."
The move is part of a longer-sought exchange of artifacts recovered by each side during the Texas Revolution of 1835-36.
An article in the Texas Observer relates the tale of a 1998 expedition by Texas officials to Mexico City, seeking to recover the flag of the First Company of Texan Volunteers from New Orleans, dubbed the "New Orleans Greys" because of their distinctive uniforms. The two companies of riflemen were welcomed by the settlers of East Texas, who gifted them with, according to the Texas Observer article by Lucius Lomax, "…a flag, made of blue silk, about the size of a bath towel, bordered by white fringe. The silk featured the likeness of an eagle, wings spread, and below the eagle the words, 'First Company of Texan Volunteers from New Orleans.'"
The flag was captured at the Alamo and returned to Mexico City as war booty. In the years since its re-discovery in the archives of the National Museum of History at Chapultapec Castle, several different administrations in both Austin and in Washington have sought its return. At one point, former Texas Gov. George W. Bush's administration offered to trade a number of artifacts captured by Gen. Sam Houston's victorious army at the Battle of San Jacinto for the flag – but every effort has met with suspicion and disinterest by the Mexican government.
CHEVROLET CRASHES CHEVY
by Jim Hightower
Good news, people. General Motors has turned a profit! However, there's bad news, too: GM's top executives are insane. By which I mean bonkers, loopy, bull-goose crazy.
How else to explain the carmaker's recent effort to rebrand "Chevy," one of the most iconic brand names ever to come out of America? A June memo, floated down from the executive suite of corporate headquarters in Detroit, directed all employees to henceforth stop saying "Chevy." Instead, decreed two vice presidents who signed the astonishing document, "We'd ask that whether you're talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertising, or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet moving forward."
Holy Don McLean! He's the fine singer and songwriter who penned the classic refrain" "Bye-bye Miss American Pie/ I drove my Chevy to the Levee/ But the Levee was dry." Excuse us Mr. vice presidents, but it's suicidal corporate goofiness to mess with a brand that is so positively ingrained in American culture.
Well, say the two veeps, it's a matter of marketing consistency. As their memo explains, "The more consistent a brand becomes, the more prominent and recognizable it is with the consumer." Yoo-hoo, boneheads, a foolish consistency has been defined as the "hobgoblin of little minds."
Cannabis Reduces Infant Mortality
Surprisingly connections between "Failure-to-Thrive" and Cannabinoids.
 Image from a story about the Use Of Non-Psychoactive Cannabinoids In The Treatment Of Neurodegenerative Diseases from Science Daily |
(NORTHERN CALIFORNIA) - Years ago, a friend of mine, a good Christian lady, had a child with "failure to thrive". She had CPS all over her, looking for even the tiniest trace of child neglect. They found none. The child was well cared for, but she just didn't seem that interested in eating. Her bottles often went half finished.
I believe that those bottles of formula, given from birth, were major part of the problem. Our bodies make chemicals called "endocannabinoids" that are closely related to THC and cannabidiol (CBD). Endocannabinoids control many bodily functions and are excreted into breast milk. When lactating female rabbits were injected with CBD, a non-psychoactive, plant-derived cannabinoid, there was "a significant accumulation of the drug in milk." [1]
Endocannabinoids are also detected in human and cow's milk, with the highest levels occurring the day after giving birth. This healthy dose of naturally-occurring endocannabinoids stimulates the suckling reflex in newborn mammals, including humans[2].
When newborn mice are given a chemical to block the effect between endocannabinoids and their CB receptors, the mice simply don't know how to eat.Yet, if the blocking agent is mixed with an equivalent amount of THC, the mice eat and grow normally[3].
CB receptors work kind of like an ignition switch. First, you need the right kind of "key" (the right-shaped cannabinoid) to go into the "keyhole" (the receptor) to turn on the "engine's" action (suckling, stopping pain or inflammation, or maybe killing a cancer cell). Phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids from plants, like THC) can mimic the effects of your endocannabinoids- they can turn on the same "ignition switches" as your body's own cannabinoids. The blocking agents (antagonists) are like sticking a broken key stub in the keyhole. You can't get a real key in, and the engine can't turn on.
Scientists have bred mice that do not have CB receptors. They are poor, sickly things, prone to all sorts of ailments. Some scientists believe that there are people like those mice, having fewer than normal, or dysfunctional, CB receptors. And infants born with this condition have growth failure resulting from an inability to ingest food, just like those newborn mice[4].)
If "failure to thrive" infants were being breast-fed, they would get at least some of their mother's normal endocannabinoids from her milk. If she were using cannabis, logically, her breast milk would contain not only her own endocannabinoids, but also the phytocannabinoids, THC and CBD. In CB receptor-deficient children, an extra dose of phytocannabinoids could make the difference between "failure to thrive" and a healthy child! However, since receptor deficiency is inheritable, the mother may be deficient, too, and unable to give her child sufficient amounts of endocannabinoids in her milk.
But all this is just conjecture on my part. Just me, grouping together various studies to make a theory about "failure to thrive" babies. Medical science surely isn't going to say that having Mom smoking a little pot in the evening is going to help her baby do better, is it?
Well, tonight, I found a study that seems to say just that! It's a sad little thing- an abstract of a study on the death of babies- yet vital facts can be learned from those soulless statistical studies. This one gave the infant death rates per 1,000 live births, and the drugs, if any, that the mother used during pregnancy.
A total of 2,964 babies were drug-tested at birth to see if they were positive for drugs- cocaine, opioids or cannabis were studied. 44% of the infants tested positive for all varieties of drugs, including the 3 being studied. During the first two years of their lives, 44 babies from the original group, died. Since statistics are a drag to slog through, I'll cut right to the chase- the deaths per thousand live births- the numbers tell the story.
"No drugs at birth" deaths....... 15.7 deaths per 1000 live births
"Cocaine positive" deaths.......17.7 deaths per 1000 live births
"Opiate positive" deaths.......18.4 deaths per 1000 live births
"Cannabis positive" deaths.... 8.9 deaths per 1000 live births [5]
The cocaine and opiate babies have a higher death rate than the "No drugs" babies- that was to be expected. But look at the "cannabis" babies! Having extra cannabinoids in their bodies at birth (and likely later, from 2nd hand exposure, or breast milk) seems to have some sort of a protective effect. The "cannabis" infants have a mortality rate almost half of what the "No drugs" infants have!
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june272010/marijuana-infants-sc.php
How to spend $1 billion on G20 security
The question as to how Canada could possibly spend C$1 billion ($960 million) protecting world leaders for just three days becomes progressively easier to answer the longer you spend in southern Ontario, the central province where the Group of Eight and then the Group of 20 are meeting this weekend.
That isn't surprising when you work out how money will be needed to pay the 10,000 police who could be called up. My taxi driver was fuming when he picked me up at the airport and his mood didn't improve as we crawled past large groups of police not doing very much. "Look at that horse. He probably earns more than I do," he fumed.
This morning we got on a bus for the two-hour drive north to the lakeside resort of Deerhurst, in the middle of prime cottage country deep in the woods, where the Group of Eight leaders are meeting. At first we could see the occasional police car here and there but the closer we approached our target, the more security we saw. Every path leading into the forest seemed to have a black and while Ontario police car blocking the way.
Then the checkpoints started. At the first one we were waved through by no fewer than seven tanned policemen, who didn't seem to be doing very much. Just outside the resort a large grey observation balloon hovered in the air. Our bus stopped and waited and waited and all we could see were barricades and police, many of whom were watching the fence which had been erected around Deerhurst. About two dozen police motorcycles sat deserted outside the Algonquin Animal Hospital.
http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/2010/06/25/how-to-spend-1-billion-on-g20-security/
Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order: An Interview With Marie-Monique Robin
by Mickey Z.
In a review of these two projects, Leslie Thatcher writes: "What Marie-Monique Robin most effectively documents are the perverse effects - the moral, social, technological, economic and market failures - of Western society's economic organization, most specifically with respect to science and the products of science and, ultimately, with respect to the preservation of the public commons and human life on the planet."
My conversation with Marie-Monique Robin follows:
Mickey Z.: Was there an initial spark that led you to this project that took three years and investigations on four continents to complete?
Marie-Monique Robin: My "story" with Monsanto began in 2003, when I made three documentaries for the Franco-German channel ARTE (to which I pay a tribute for the quality of its programs) about the reduction of biodiversity.
MZ: Please take us through those documentaries and their connection to Monsanto.
MMR: The first, "Biopirates," told how corporations like Monsanto were holding abusive patents on living organisms which are contributing to a new drastic reduction of biodiversity. At that I time, I heard about a company called Monsanto which already held more than 600 patents on living organisms. The second documentary, called "Wheat: Chronicle of a Death Foretold," told the story of cultivation of that golden cereal, from the very beginning 10,000 years ago until today and explained how the practices of industrial agriculture that brought the "green revolution," made thousands of local landraces and varieties disappear, a dramatic evolution which will be accelerated by GMOs [genetically modified organisms]. At the same time the so-called green revolution provoked a huge contamination of the environment through the massive use of chemical pesticides, "biocides," which "entered into living organisms, passing one to another in a chain of poisoning and death," as Rachel Carson wrote in "Silent Spring." Finally, I made a documentary, called "Argentina: The Soybeans of Hunger," about the cultivation of Roundup Ready soybeans in Argentina, where I depicted the environmental, social and health disasters which the introduction of Monsanto's GMOs represent. Today, they cover 60% of the area under cultivation in the country.
Close encounter with socialized medicine
At least that's what the onlookers who witnessed the incident and pulled the barrier off me said as I lay on the ground, bleeding from head and knee on King Charles Street, only a block from 10 Downing Street and just outside a museum honoring Winston Churchill and his World War II Cabinet.
Still conscious but a little bit woozy, I hadn't yet realized I was about to have a close encounter with the National Health Service, a.k.a. the United Kingdom's form of socialized medicine.
My wife, Karen, and I were in London on vacation, visiting the usual tourist attractions, including the Cabinet war rooms where Churchill and his advisers gallantly organized the defense of their country against Adolf Hitler's rampaging armed forces. Getting injured in a freak accident on a Saturday afternoon was not part of our vacation agenda.
I kept telling my worried wife and the gathering crowd that I was OK, despite all that blood. Another tourist, a doctor from Florida, assisted Karen in applying facial tissues to the gash in my head.
He began asking me questions: "Who is the prime minister?"
Before I could answer "David Cameron," he realized I was an American and changed the question to, "Who is the president of the United States?" adding, "Not that you have to like him."
"But I do," I replied, "for the most part."
The good doctor was trying to find out how badly injured I was, and when he could see that I hadn't lost either consciousness or most of my blood and marbles, he jokingly informed me, "I am indeed a doctor, but I'm a gynecologist." He said I probably needed to go to the hospital, but warned – with an unstated but obviously negative attitude toward what the Brits call the NHS – "you'll most likely be there for seven hours (before they get to you)."
What if Rolling Stone Had Covered Gen. Douglas MacArthur?
By Don Davis
"THANKS, MR. HASTINGS, FOR SHARING THIS WONDERFUL NEW 'TOBACCO' WITH ME — IT MAKES ME FEEL AS IF MAYBE WE SHOULD SIT DOWN AND TALK WITH THE CHINESE."
http://satiricalpolitical.com/2010/06/27/rolling-stone-mcchrystal-douglas-macarthur/