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June 29, 2006
Good obit writing
Bringing the dead to life takes a certain talent, for the obit pages in many newspapers are as popular as the sport section. And it was the sensibilities required for the job under discussion at the 8th Great Obituary Writers International Conference.
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Bringing the dead to life
Posted by thdyck at June 29, 2006 | Comments (0)
Internationally renowned designer, sustainability architect and author of Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough, argues that we can only think of our future cities if we think about what our intention is as a species.
The question for designers of what is dubbed the Next City is how to love all species all the time.
Mr McDonough's ideas for the Next City are about to be played out in China where his company has been charged with building seven entirely new cities.
His book has been adopted as government policy in China, which needs to house 400 million more people in the next 12 years.
The cities he has planned are a far cry from Milton Keynes.
Everything in his cities is designed from the molecule up. They meet the usual requirements for cost, performance, and function. But they also mean business when it comes to ecological intelligence and social justice.
"The goal is a safe, healthy, just world, clean air, soil and power, that is elegantly enjoyed.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Eco-designs on future cities
Posted by thdyck at June 29, 2006 | Comments (0)
G8 as moral absolution
Developing world economist and businesswoman Jacqueline Novogratz brought Professor Dawkins' thinking into focus, arguing that we need to fully engage with "developing worlds" to move away from "them and us" thinking.
"The world is talking about global poverty and Africa in ways I have never seen in my life," she said.
"At the same time I have a fear that the victories of G8 will see that as our moral absolution. But that is chapter one; celebrate it, close it and recognise we need a chapter two - a 'how to'.
"The only way to end poverty is to build viable systems on the ground that can deliver services to the poor in ways that are sustainable," she said.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Universe 'too queer' to grasp
Posted by thdyck at June 29, 2006 | Comments (0)
June 27, 2006
Micro-enterprise to distribute power and water in Bangladesh
The real invention here, though, may be the economic model that Kamen and Quadir hope to use to distribute the machines. It is fashioned after Grameen Phone's business, where village entrepreneurs (mostly women) are given micro-loans to purchase a cell phone and service. The women, in turn, charge other villagers to make calls.
"We have 200,000 rural entrepreneurs who are selling telephone services in their communities," notes Quadir. "The vision is to replicate that with electricity."
During the test in Bangladesh, Kamen's Stirling machines created three entrepreneurs in each village: one to run the machine and sell the electricity, one to collect dung from local farmers and sell it to the first entrepreneur, and a third to lease out light bulbs (and presumably, in the future, other appliances) to the villagers.
The Segway creator's next entrepreneurial spin - Feb. 16, 2006
Posted by thdyck at June 27, 2006 | Comments (0)
A poor, black South African's theology of death
BBC NEWS | Africa | Dicing with death on SA trains
Posted by thdyck at June 27, 2006 | Comments (0)
June 20, 2006
Viewpoints: The urban world in 2050
The urban landscape depicted by Paul Theroux in his classic 1986 novel O-Zone, where the rich live in artificial "green" enclaves protected by private corporate armies from the environmentally devastated areas surrounding them that are populated by the rest, will soon move from fiction to fact.
These trends can be reversed, but only by moves that would truly be revolutionary, among them a rigorous regime of very deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions; an end to the poverty and inequality creating programs of the World Bank, IMF, and World Trade Organization; a new economic relationship based on justice and equity between the North and the South that would involve strict controls on the operations of transnational corporations.
If the 20th century is any indication, sceptics say, such deep-seated changes can only come after terrible wars and social turmoil.
But perhaps the increasingly common realisation among the rich and well-off that their privileges can no longer be purchased at the expense of the misery of the many and the destruction of the planet might just be the spectre that can bring about a relatively peaceful transition this time around.
BBC NEWS | In Depth | Viewpoints: The urban world in 2050
Posted by thdyck at June 20, 2006 | Comments (0)
June 17, 2006
Angelina Jolie gives one-third of her income to charity
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Jolie 'terrified' during delivery
Posted by thdyck at June 17, 2006 | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
A Week in the Life of the Organ Scholar at Jesus College, Oxford
Hannah Seward (Organ Scholar)
Name: Hannah Seward
Organ Scholar: 2001-2005
Course: BA English and Modern Languages (undergraduate four-year course)
From: Kent - Ashford School
Living in: Own accommodation in Oxford
Written in: August 2005
Monday: Even though the week officially starts on Sunday, each week has the feel of building up to Choral Evensong the following Sunday, so I'll start with Monday. 6 am: I seem to have lost the ability to stay up late to finish essays, so must resort to early morning efforts - the morning is spent typing up something about Shakespeare's late romances (missing several lectures, but needs must...). 12 noon: Cycle into College in time to send email reminders about singing lessons. I try to send them earlier than this, but am particularly forgetful and busy at the moment. Lunch is always a social event at 1 pm regardless of food quality (though this is invariably excellent compared with anything I could concoct...). Unfortunately my post-lunch JCR-chat-and-tea-drinking hour has to be curtailed by an English tutorial at 2 pm. There are three of us in the tutorial and today my tute partner Kate is reading out her essay, which means my hastily typed one has to be surrendered to Dr Kewes for marking. The tute, as ever, keeps us on our toes.
Jesus College Oxford - A Week in the Life of the Organ Scholar
Posted by thdyck at June 14, 2006 | Comments (0)
June 7, 2006
This civil war is normal to us
Somalis are suffering. Yesterday when this fighting resumed people were not shocked.
People are coming to realise that this sort of fighting is not going to terminate. It is endless.
We have a saying in Somali: "Markii ay timaado waqtigayga dhimashada, waan ogahay waan dhiman doonaa, marka waa inaan shaqadayda iska wataa." It means that when my death time cometh, I know that I will die and so I must keep on with my work until then.
When we see each other and greet one another, this is what we say.
BBC NEWS | Africa | 'This civil war is normal to us'
Posted by thdyck at June 7, 2006 | Comments (0)