Watch the Nova presentation on E.O Wilson.
NOVA | Lord of the Ants | Watch the Program | PBS
Thanks to Elaine Schele for the link.
Sounds From The Wild: Noisy New World Monkeys : NPR
Introduction to microcontrollers with Arduino
todbot blog » Blog Archive » Bionic Arduino Class notes 1 & 2
Thirty years ago this month I arrived in New York with less than $50 in my pocket. Parked my pickup in Jersey, where it was stripped and destroyed in a month or so. No computers, no internet, no VCRs back then, just a day job in a music publisher's warehouse and at night, a band that was going nowhere. Played at CBGB (Country Blue Grass and Blues, that's what Hilly thought would be performed there - punk was a couple of years away). In the audience, only 3 people, all friends of the band, including a brilliant and sexy woman who became my wife.
Now, with two smart and talented sons grown up and moved out, a career in television behind me, the life that Lyn and I built (all based on her good ideas and boundless confidence) reaches a point I couldn't dream of at age 24. In the middle of a personal retooling, a community movement and a technological revolution, I'm dreaming of another 30 years with Lyn. But every day is a blessing.
Daily News - Let's hear it for the girls
Click "MORE" for the complete text of today's Daily News story on Lyn and the Lower Eastside Girls Club.
Let's hear it for the girls
A lower East Side club aims to raise $5 million.
If anyone can do it, it's these young ladies
By AZADEH ENSHA
(PHOTO) Rosario Dawson hobnobs with club member Tamara Oliveras, 8 1/2.
(PHOTO) Guest teacher Gigi Cohen helps Kay-Ann Phipps, 15, with a photography project.
(PHOTO) Valerie Galindo (l.) and Carmen Leandry staff the club's bakery, Sweet
Things. 'Words can't even describe how much I love this job,' Galindo
says.
The Champagne was flowing, the gowns were sparkling and the celebs were
mingling with mortals. But it wasn't a big movie premiere or fashion
extravaganza that brought 600 well-heeled guests to Bowery hotspot
Capitale Monday night.
It was the plight of a group of girls, ages 8-25, who want a place to
hang out.
The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York, a community center that's
been without an official home since its creation in 1996, is trying to
raise $5 million toward a facility in their neighborhood.
And so far, they're doing a spectacular job.
"Everyone understands how unfair this situation is," says co-founder and
executive director Lyn Pentecost. "I have two sons, so I know what
resources are available to the boys. They have two full-functioning
facilities. There's no comparable space for our girls."
The star-studded benefit on Monday was just one way the group is
collecting cash for their project. With two girl-run eateries, a
seasonal farmer's market and more initiatives in the works, the group
has launched one of the most unique fund-raising campaigns in the city.
At the end, they may well achieve their goal: The first-ever Girls Club
building in New York, a 48,000-square-foot complex that will house an
80-seat screening room, art gallery, care and counseling services and
more. The girls who benefit from the club's services will have access to
high-speed Internet. It will also be the first and only all
environmentally sustainable youth center in the country, complete with
geothermal walls and solar panels.
To date, the Girls Club has raised a whopping $2 million toward the
state-of-the-art facility. "I feel a sense of responsibility to the
neighborhood," said Rosario Dawson at Monday night's gala. The actress
grew up on the LES, and was discovered outside her apartment building at
the age of 15. "A lot of kids get lost in the school system and end up
dropping out or getting pregnant. I want them to have more choices than
that. The best way to do that is through a mentorship program like the
Lower Eastside Girls Club."
Also on hand at the 600-person benefit were fellow Girls Club supporters
Rashida Jones, Chloe Sevigny, Charlotte Ronson, Zac Posen, Billy Crudup
and Claire Danes.
"Girls need a haven. They need an equal chance," said Jones, who has
hosted events for the organization. "I was a Brownie growing up, and
that gave me a sense of community, which is especially important for
girls. Strong foundations start young, and I support groups who help
create them."
Paul Creditor, a lawyer, said he joined his wife at a $2,500 table so
the girls could have "somewhere to call their own. They're entitled to
all the benefits guys are entitled to. That's why we're here, and that's
why we're going to bid on things." And bid they did: The benefit auction
raised $150,000 toward the goal.
Among the group's other projects is Sweet Things, a girl-run bakery with
a just-opened cafe of the same name. The Avenue C storefront (the cafe
is on E. First St.), offers cupcakes, cookies, granola, tea and coffee,
and also sells Girls Club tees. The shop is also helping raise money for
the new building by selling brownstone-shaped gingerbread cookies.
Valerie Galindo, 19, became a charter Girls Club member in 1996.
Today, she's got a paid, part-time position she adores: Sweet Things
associate.
"This is nothing like my other jobs," says the LES success story with a
smile from her post behind the bakery counter. "I used to fold clothes
and there's nothing I like more than baking. Words can't even describe
how much I love this job."
In summer, members take part in a farmer's market downtown, selling
organic vegetables and specialty herbs. The club's third business, the
Fair Trade and Girl Made gift shop, opens in December.
In addition to raising money, the club's projects help keep idle hands
occupied.
First-year Girls Club member Sada Davis appreciates having something to
do.
"Girls need a place to talk about girl things and do girl things," says
the 16-year-old Seward Park High School student. "It keeps us out of
trouble. I had nothing to do after school, and my friend told me about
this place. I do photography and dance. It's really fun."
Now, the club is renting two floors on 56 E. First St. The location is
one of many the organization has called home since its inception,
including its first - the back of a sock shop on Avenue A.
"When we started out, one of the first things we did was ask the guys if
we could share their facility, and they said absolutely not, so we
decided then and there to create our own place," said executive director
Pentecost. "This project is something that's been one of our goals from
the beginning."
If it succeeds, the new building - which is set to begin construction in
winter 2005 - will be able to accommodate five times the 350 girls the
club now supports.
And no one can put a price on the sense of family the club offers girls
like six-year member Kay-Ann Phipps.
"I don't have a sister in real life so I consider the people here to be
my sisters," said the 15-year-old University Neigborhood High School
student.
Phipps says the club has helped her thrive - both socially and in
school.
"I was failing my classes, and the tutoring they have really helped me,"
she said. "I'm on the honor roll now."
Apart from tutoring, the club also offers flamenco classes, a museum and
book club, arts and crafts, as well as fitness and nutrition classes.
For LES Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who rallied the federal
government for $400,000 toward the creation of the new building in 2002,
the effort to secure a facility is a personal passion.
"When you look at the faces of these girls, you can't help but to try
and get them their own institution," she says. "They can rediscover
skills and dreams they never thought possible. They could be learning
entrepreneurial skills that will help them be the future business
leaders of America."
Pentecost is also fighting hard to make that happen.
"We're getting there," she said. "If anybody wants to write a check, let
me know."
Originally published on October 21, 2004
CNN.com - Study confirms sleep essential for creativity - Jan. 21, 2004
Also for problem-solving. And I'm still awake now at 3am?
The MacArthur Fellows Program - 2003 MacArthur Fellows Overview
Here's an interesting meditation on the history of race consciousness in Mexico, relating it to present-day Proposition 54 debates in California.
Berkeley Daily Planet - Mexican History Offers Hints of Prop. 54 Impacts
From a cult to a movement. A report on the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University and the issues it raised.
The Village Voice: Features: Cyborg Liberation Front by Erik Baard
Okay, I'm a child of the Sixties. They have weblogs and websites now, in addition to radio.
Phil Austin's Blog of the Unknown
Inside the mind of Firesign Theatre
NPR : Firesign Theatre, Now Playing on NPR
A close friend and near-mythic figure in my world is Alonso Mendez. He is recovering at the moment from back surgery after weeks of pain. All of us wish him speedy recovery. We've got jungles to hike, rivers to float, ruins to discover, temascals to sweat in - hang in there, Alonso!
Here's Rube Goldberg's contribution to photography:
Rube's Picture Snapping Machine
Deconstructing all those formative hours watching cartoons in the early 60's. It wasn't time wasted. It was a pre-postmodern education!
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Pillaging the cartoon universe
New York doesn't get better than this. From a gala dinner with internet visionary educators, to the Bowery Poetry Club and Rick Shapiro. The funniest, scariest, most verbally gifted human I have ever seen. If I'm not in the jungle listening to archaeologist stories over beers, I want to be laughing (uneasily) at this guy. Guess I'm a New Yorker after all.
Think I've turned the corner on this one. The author of this meditation is an ex-bond trader. Pobrecito!
Fast Company | What Should I Do With My Life?
For anyone checking this weblog for the first time, or puzzled by the content, a welcome and a word of explanation.
I am a 20-year veteran of the television networks, now dividing my time between New York's Lower East Side and the lower east side of Mexico, the mountains and jungles of Chiapas. I still edit TV documentaries some part of the year. But I also pitch Maya-related stories to broadcast and cable outlets, with mixed success, and have produced reports on the archaeology and culture of the region. In the last 8 months I have been working with a number of people here, in Mexico and Guatemala, to protect the Usumacinta River, its ecology and the Maya ruins on its banks, from a proposed hydroelectric dam.
And I am concentrating on one project to bridge the digital divide in my New York neighborhood - a plan to provide free wireless broadband to the housing projects on the East River, from the future home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, on Avenue D.
First priority: finding a company that can donate or deeply discount a significant amount of bandwidth, through fiber or wireless links.
Anybody have any suggestions?
The U.S. Department of State International Information Programs helpfully provides a transcript of comments by Fox and Bush in a photo op press conference.
Here's what they give us from Fox's comments:
Q: (Asked in Spanish.)
PRESIDENT FOX: (Answered in Spanish.)
PRESIDENT BUSH: (Speaking Spanish.)
Q: For President Fox -- it's the same question, basically. For President Fox, are you prepared to support the U.S. position at the U.N. and vote for a resolution authorizing force? And for President Bush, are there any consequences for nations that don't support our position at the U.N.?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The only consequence, of course, is with Saddam Hussein. And if the U.N. does not pass a resolution which holds him to account, and that has consequences, then as I have said in speech after speech after speech, if the U.N. won't act, if Saddam Hussein won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. Q: President Fox?
PRESIDENT FOX: (Answered in Spanish.)
END 11:18 A.M. (L) (end transcript)
Alright, I'm getting a little crazy here, but these Mexican movie posters are great, admit it!
(click on thumbnail for larger image)
From the Library of Congress, Origins of American Animation, 1900-1921.
This great group of unjaded media misfits is holding a contest, seeking submission of short videos with a message, sly or otherwise.
I'm a little too jaded, I guess. But I'll think about it.
A favorite comic strip from my childhood has added a new character, a nerd named Chip Gizmo, as you can read on MSNBC's site in Beetle Bailey makes way for information age.
Yes, I've got the digital camera, but I'm the last guy in New York without a cell phone, I don't listen to CD's or mp3's, and I don't need a PDA. Yet.
If I did, I'd get this Sony CLIÉ Handheld. But I don't need it. Really.
Since I seem to be talking to myself, waiting for some friends to join in, here's a story from a favorite weblog, Boing Boing.
Our Transhumanist Government
A draft US Government report says we will alter human evolution within 20 years by combining what we know of nanotechnology, biotechnology, IT and cognitive sciences. The 405-page report from the US National Science Foundation and Commerce Department, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance", calls for a broad-based research program to improve human performance leading to telepathy, machine-to-human communication, amplified personal sensory devices, and enhanced intellectual capacity. People may download their consciousnesses into computers or into bodies on the other side of the solar system, or participate in a giant 'hive mind' -- a network of intelligences connected through ultra fast communications networks.
Here's the pdf file in question. Remember, it's 405 pages.
All this and big-brained mice as well.