Humanize the Earth!

Malaria is 2nd to HIV/AIDS

Article in Time Magazine today about malaria is interesting. The Humanist Movement has been working on a campaign to stop malaria for almost two years in various places. I’m working on getting all of the info in one place so we can talk more with Drake Zimmerman about his work with the Rotary Club on Malaria.

The latest figures suggest that malaria sickened 300 million people last year and killed 3 million — most of them under age 5. (AIDS last year killed just over 3 million people.) What makes the malaria deaths particularly tragic is that malaria, unlike AIDS, can be cured.

By the way, here is a link to an interview I did on Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview program with Jerome McDonnell last fall.

Chicago’s first 3000 Rider Critical Mass

There are lots of ways to change the world, through activism of all kinds, philanthropy, organizing, voting, etc, but one of my favorite ways is to simply act as if the world we want to live in already exists. Critical Mass is that for me. Hope to see you there next Friday and the last Friday of every month.

From: John Greenfield
To: CHI-CRIT-MASS@UIC.EDU

Chicago’s first 3000 Rider Critical Mass
For more information contact Hui Hwa (”He Wa”) Nam 773-425-2454
hhkiwi@yahoo.com http://www.chicagocriticalmass.com

What: a free, fun, friendly party-parade with more than 3000 people on bicycles
When: Friday, July 30, 5:30 PM
Where: under the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza, Washington and Dearborn
Who: anyone who likes to ride a bicycle - all ages and abilities
Why: because “Bikes Are Fun!”

What would it be like if one in every 1000 Chicagoans showed up for a bike ride, without entry fees or corporate sponsorship, but just for the love of cycling in the city? The 3000 Rider Critical Mass is our chance to find out.

Critical Mass is a bicycle ride that takes place every month in more than 300 cities worldwide. It’s also a movement to promote bicycles as a viable form of transportation.

Here in the Windy City, cyclists gather at Daley Plaza at 5:30 PM on the last Friday of every month. Around 6 PM the crowd usually votes on a route map. After a few laps around the Picasso sculpture we hit the road for a leisurely parade through the city streets. The ride generally lasts about two hours or 10-15 miles.

Chicago’s Mass has a crazy, joyous, high-energy atmosphere, but it’s also peaceful and inclusive. As we roll along we wish pedestrians and motorists a “Happy Friday” and hand out flyers inviting them to join us on next month’s ride.

In the past year the ride has drawn between 75 riders (for January’s sub-zero ride to the Baby Doll Polka Club by Midway Airport) to more than 1000 (during last year’s 1000 Rider Critical Mass ride to the 31st Street
Beach.)

This month bikers from Critical Mass hope to shatter all attendance records with the 3000 Rider Mass. We are promoting the event hard to a new audience with posters in bicycle shops and coffee houses, flyers on every bike in the Loop, press releases and a 1/4-page ad in the Chicago Reader, paid for by donations from riders.

The route is never predetermined, but one proposal calls for a tour of the North Side’s public housing projects and sidewalk café districts, the two areas where the Mass usually gets the best response from spectators. This map would end with a public party at Montrose Beach.

We’ve never had a Mass this huge before, so nobody knows what to expect. Although the purpose of the event is not necessarily to disrupt car traffic, it’s possible that motorists may experience some delays. All Chicagoans are encouraged to avoid driving that night. Walk, take public transportation or, better yet, join us for the bike ride!

————————————————————-
The CHI-CRIT-MASS list is for discussion of chicago’s critical mass. It is a public list and postings are not confidential. Absolutely no commercial spam permitted.
Unsubscribe by sending a message to: listserv@uic.edu
in the body of the message say: unsubscribe CHI-CRIT-MASS Contact the CHI-CRIT-MASS list owners at: CHI-CRIT-MASS-request@UIC.EDU

Comments {migrated later}:

I’ve met up with Critical Mass rides before, but never took the time to do the ride. I’m going to plan on doing this one, see you there.

Congrat’s on your new folding bike too.

Wal-Mart’s Vision

Thinking about
Gift Hub: Wal-Mart’s Vision of A Better World from Black Commentator, my new friend Phil posits that “The biggest threat to small town self-development and entreprenurship is the the brutal big box retailers, and other firms larger than countries and more ruthlessly hierarchical than any goverment bureacracy.”

UN Monitors for Bush-Kerry

I love that in the “greatest democracy on earth” Lawmakers request that UN monitor Bush-Kerry election

“With serious questions about voter disenfranchisement particularly in the African-American communities and poor communities still hanging over the 2000 presidential race in Florida, we need your help,” the letter to Annan reads

Humanist Movement documents

At the Giving Conference I promised to make some documents available from the Humanist Movement. This is just a start but includes Silo’s Collected Works Volumes 1 & 2 which also includes Humanize the Earth, a book in 3 parts. Silo is the pen name for Mario Luis Rodriguez Cobos, an Argentine from Mendoza all his life who started the Humanist Movement in 1969 with a speech now called The Healing of Suffering. I’ll add more as I get more documents online.

Comments (migrated later}:
Welcome to blogging, Ted - and thanks for linking to my blog.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy the process of finding your voice, which I’m sure is right there waiting to blossom into it’s very own richness.

Niece on the way!

I’ve known for a couple of months or so that I was going to be an uncle again (actually my status doesn’t change as I’m an uncle now and still will be, but my nephew will have a sibling by December) and this time it’ll be a neice!

How to start a blog

I’m a total novice at this point (just started this morning), but perhaps that point of view may be helpful for others wanting to start blogs?

I started at Blogger.com. I signed up for a free account and gave my new blog both a name (Humanize the Earth!) and an address http://tedernst.blogspot.com . People that already have a website can get fancy and host the blog there, but it’s much easier (especially for those of us that don’t know what we’re doing) to just let blogger do what it knows best and make the site at blogspot.

Anyway, I chose a template (colors and style of the pages) and that was it. Then I learned a bit about making links in a post and all that jazz. Blogger (or perhaps blogspot, I’m not sure which) seems to have comments automatically as a feature, but I’ve heard that there are other providers for comments that may be better for some reason. I do notice already that some blogs have comments that you can link to directly whereas my site does not allow that at this point.

The next thing I added was my blogroll in the right column. I went to blogrolling.com and signed up there for a free account. Maybe someone knows of an easier resource because it did take some exploring to figure out how it works. I entered my first two links manually (cutting and pasing URLs and titles), but then I found the BlogRollThis feature which means it’s very easy to add any site to the list. Does anyone have an easier way for me and others?

That’s where things stand right now. Hopefully I’ll figure out more as I go and I will be sharing that as well.

{comments migrated when changing commenting method}

We look forward to reading your thoughts and following your dreams. Blogging is another form of personal journal, only public.

If you want a great aggregator, try www.bloglines.com. They also have a “Bloglines this” tool that you can put in your browser when you run across other blogs you want to track - it uses RSS feed to your Bloglines page. It gathers all the news and blogs into one place where you can organize them and read them each day rather than chasing all over through your bookmarks.

By the way, we choose the same blog format www.colbys.blogspot.com

Best of luck from one of the OS gang in expanding your blog readership.

Walkabouts in Chicago

So this past weekend was the Giving Conference in Chicago and met a ton of really wonderful people, all doing and being wonderful for the world. Jonh wrote about his post-conference afternoon and I thought I’d share mine as well. The conference officially ended at noon but Jonh and I ended up at lunch with 8 people before Jon and Susan headed off on their walkabout. The other 6 of us reconvened across the street at a coffee shop for more really important work that needs to be written about if the ideas get that far. Then we walked Phil to the train to the airport and reconvened by Buckingham Fountain, a jewel of Chicago, in the grass in the shade for another couple of hours of big and small ideas, primarily about a community commons and how the structure of the Humanist Movement might provide a guide of sorts.

This is the conference that just won’t end! By now it’s around 6pm and another of our group had to head out. The other 4 of us went back to the hotel where 2 would work together on a project and Julie and I ended up walking back to the lake to share more about our individual experiences that the scientists say we couldn’t possibly have, among other topics.

Eventually we joined back up with Charles and Laurie to get some dinner. We couldn’t find anyplace open so jumped is a cab in Printers Row, asked him to take us to someplace open and ended up in River East. After dinner and more ideas big and small, we walked Charles to the train at Clark/Lake and then there were 3. This is where the Picasso comes into the story.

I still have a lot to think about in terms of what is a commons and how do we continue to build our futures within our networks while connecting among all our networks. Exciting work ahead!

{comments migrated when chaning commenting method}
Welcome to the blogosphere. Added you to the blogroll at gifthub and look forward to trading riffs.
Phil
—-
Thanks for the follow-up, Ted! Now I’m really sorry I couldn’t stay for the whole weekend! Welcome to the conversation.. Phil will wind up being grandfather to thousands of blogs if he’s not careful!

Best, Lenore

New Dahon Folding Bike

I tried to go to a Chicagoland Folding Bicycle Society meeting last night but it was cancelled. I’ve been shopping for a folding bike for a week or two and wanted to ask people abour their sweet rides in person. Instead of doing any more searching or shopping, I just went over to Rapid Tranist Cycleshop, told them I was looking to spend between 3 and $400, found out they don’t really have a pricepoint there (they have lower and higher), and walked out with a $470 Dahon Speed P8 and a $70 bag to put it in. The bike folds down into a pretty compact package and then goes into the bag. The bag then has straps to make it a backpack. I rode home on my everyday bike with it on my back. It’s only 25 pounds. One of the most important reasons I decided to buy a folding bike is that our Metra commuter train system doesn’t allow bikes, but it does allow luggage or bags. Especially if I put my helmet in the bag, the bike simply isn’t a bike when getting on the train. Strange, but true.

{comment added later}
Susan wrote: “Why does it fold?”

The bike folds for many reasons, but the most important one for me is so that it can go on the Metra (as long as it’s in the bag that I bought with it). Here in Chicago and suburbs our busses have bike-racks on the front so a regular bike is fine. Our el system allows bikes but not from 7-9am and 4-6pm so there’s another good place for a folding bike. The Metra is our commuter rail and never allows bikes. :-( When will they learn?

The Bean & the Picasso

Thursday night before the Giving Conference, we gathered somewhat under The Bean. Sunday after it was all over, a couple of us passed under the Picasso. Here’s a Chicago Tribune editoral about the names.

For me these two sculptures do a fine job of bracketing the weekend’s experiences, though the future continues so the closing isn’t so closed. The Bean left me with “What is that?” just before the conference actually kicked off. And that’s what I thought about the conference too. What is this going to be? I kept thinking it all through the conference as well.

At the end of the weekend, three of us passed under the Picasso in Daley Plaza and noticed that while we thought some of the forms were familiar, they were pieced together in a while different way, leaving the impression of something totally new. That’s also how I feel about the conference.