Humanize the Earth!

Eastern Standard Tribe, by Cory Doctorow

I haven’t read Eastern Standard Tribe, by Cory Doctorow yet. I’m about to get started on it. I wanted to share a bit from the preface about art and copyright and all sorts of good stuff.

To that end, here is the book as a non-physical artifact. A file. A bunch of text, slithery bits that can cross the world in an instant, using the Internet, a tool designed to copy things very quickly from one place to another; and using personal computers, tools designed to slice, dice and rearrange collections of bits. These tools demand that their users copy and slice and dice—rip, mix and burn!—and that’s what I’m hoping you will do with this.Not (just) because I’m a swell guy, a big-hearted slob. Not because Tor is run by addlepated dot-com refugees who have been sold some snake-oil about the e-book revolution. Because you—the readers, the slicers, dicers and copiers—hold in your collective action the secret of the future of publishing. Writers are a dime a dozen. Everybody’s got a novel in her or him. Readers are a precious commodity. You’ve got all the money and all the attention and you run the word-of-mouth network that marks the difference between a little book, soon forgotten, and a book that becomes a lasting piece of posterity for its author, changing the world in some meaningful way.

I’m unashamedly exploiting your imagination. Imagine me a new practice of book, readers. Take this novel and pass it from inbox to inbox, through your IM clients, over P2P networks. Put it on webservers. Convert it to weird, obscure ebook formats. Show me—and my colleagues, and my publisher—what the future of book looks like.

couplehood

Not sure I’ve ever written here about couple relationship.  Somehow it always felt too private.  Well, maybe so.  And, I feel I’ve got to do some writing, so forgive me if this is a bit raw.

Pressure.  She feels pressure being in a “couple” which means she can’t see her friends when she wants to.  So she wants to not be in a couple.  Cooking together is okay and going for walks is okay and watching movies curled up together on the couch is okay and being intimate is okay and even spending the night is okay, but then “goodbye.”  That’s what she said.

It sounds pretty alright, actually.  Maybe I’m “confused” now because I could call her up and invite her to get together and she could say “no.”  Rejection, yes?  No more expectations or “scheduled time.”

Yes, it sounds pretty alright.  The letting go of the formality.  And just letting things flow.

Is that what I’m hearing from her?  Is that what I want?  Yes, I think so.

Why do you do what you do?

reposted again to liven this place up a bit

edited (thanks to Michael) to add http://www.wdydwyd.com/

Drive and Rally to Stop Genocide 29&30 April, 2006

This effort to stop genocie in Darfur is so new it doesn’t even have a proper website yet. If you’d like more info on the planning, please see Drive and Rally to Stop Genocide.

Edited to add link to Gifthub: Drive for Darfur

new (to me) Burley Django recumbent bicycle

Written today at work:

I bought a used Burley Django last fall and with the exception of riding it home, haven’t ridden it since then … until today. My Dahon needs new pedals and my commuter needs a wheel true that I was too tired for last night, so I dusted off the Django and off to work I rode. About 5 miles. To downtown Chicago. Foolish? Yes, probably.

Anyway, it doesn’t seem to fit right. The handlebars are so close to my chest that my elbows were a bit sore from being so bent, nowhere near the 90 degree recommendation.

I’m not sure how to fix that.

Then tonight:

Okay, I rode it home in that crunched position, then took out some allen wrenches and found the bolt you mention. I was able to adjust the stem so it’s quite a bit further from my body. Then I found another adjustment place that made the stem shorter, because with it more upright, it was too long to see over.

How far away from my body should the handlebars be? And how high should my hands be when riding?

update 4/14/06:

I got about two pedal strokes from the house this morning when I realized this wasn’t going to work.  My knees were hitting the brake levers.  So I increased the stem-tilt further, and lengthened the stem (opposite yesterday’s adjustment).  The difference it made today to have my hands away from my body was amazing!  I felt so much more stable and able to manuver. 

I also noticed that I was sitting on a metal bar.  Turns out I was sitting more upright than the seat was adjusted for.  When I slouched down, I found I was actually sitting on the seat!  This meant the seat needed to be moved away from the pedals so I stopped to do that, too.

I’m thinking this afternoon’s adjustments will be to rotate the handlebar toward me to provide a more natural placement for my wrists.  I may also need to lengthen the stem a bit more as my knees were still making contact with the brake levers just a bit.

Today was a really fun ride!  Totally different from yesterday.  What a difference a few adjustments make!

account of arrest

A bicyclist was killed.  During a memorial for him four people were arrested.  Here is a piece from one of them:

The Constitution of the United States of America
Article One
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or;
prohibiting the the free exercise thereof; or  abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Let me rephrase that as it concerns me; Congress shall make no
law…..Prohibiting the freedom of speech……or the right of the people to
peaceably assemble.

I participated in a Memorial for a fallen biker.
Someone I feel was just like me. I forget that this was  a fifty year old
Hispanic male, with a completely different history and religion. And I am a
36 year old white woman from a completely different background.

This man Issah was just like me. I never met him, but he was my brother.

Why would anyone expect his brothers to do anything else but to memorialise
Issah. He was just like most of us. We are all different. But we all see
that bikes are fun, bikes a a reasonable way to navigate these city streets.

I gathered with people just like me.  To honer Issah.  And I was arrested,
handcuffed,extremely tightly,and thrown into a paddy wagon. In front of my
step daughter- who cried.
What happened to my right to peaceably assemble? ??????????????????
Yeah the cops wanted us to disperse. But We Have the Right to Peaceably
Assemble. Blah Blah they have to protect us from ourselves, Blah Blah.
Whatever law they cite is superseded by The Constitution of the United
States of America. I have the right to peaceably assemble. I was peaceably
assembled. And I WAS ARRESTED.

A lot of  people want to know about the handcuffs. I come from a cop family.
Yes I do. And I asked about the handcuffs. Apparently it is police procedure
to handcuff tightly. So a prisoner cannot escape the cuffs easily. There is
another function of handcuffs- that you lock them in place so they don’t get
tighter. My handcuffs were not locked. As many of you know, I was the first
arrested. Yeah I have a big mouth. So what. All I said is ” A man just got
Killed here, he was torn into three pieces.” That’s enough to get arrested
in 14. As they separate prisoners, and I was the only woman in my private
Paddy Wagon Compartment, I got plenty jostled around By Evil KenEvil on the
trip back to the station. The cuffs were tight to begin with. They were
unbearable before we even left Western and Cortez. I kept thinking “Well
they will remove them soon, as soon as we get to the station.” They did not.
They kept the cuffs on and they kept their prisoners waiting. I also should
mention I was wearing a messenger bag. My wrists were not tight to my back,
but a few inches from my back. I was in pain. I also asked my cop family
about the acoustics of a Paddy Wagon. Specifically, could an officer hear me
outside of the Paddy Wagon asking for help. I was told that it is indeed
certain that a prisoner can be heard from inside the Paddy Wagon. My cries
and those of my companions who tried to get help were unheeded. It bothers
me greatly that those sworn to serve and protect would ignore a cry for help
by one in pain. In desperation I started kicking the door. I was threatened
that I would be charged with criminal damage to government property. Again I
pleaded for someone to loosen the cuffs. At this stage my hands and fingers
were stone cold- from lack of circulation. A nice lady cop, I think
Wojokoski, finally assisted me. I was still the last taken out of the wagon.
The officers turned the lights out before allowing me to exit “to save
electricity.” They kept me cuffed longer inside the station while they
tracked down the arresting officer-the Sargent -to issue instructions. He
ordered I be cuffed to a rail during processing. So while I was being issued
tickets for “Obstructing Traffic” (I never left the sidewalk) and “Refusal
to cease and desist” (?) I was cuffed to a silly rail. My Wrists were red
and the skin compressed from the cuffs. Three days later, I have small
bruises on my wrists. I think it was obvious that I posed no danger to law
enforcement officials. Thanks again to lady officer Wojokski  for stopping
the pain.

What’s the big deal? What”s illegal or wrong about a memorial? What is wrong
for that matter about meeting in a public place and going for a fun bike
ride with fellow citizens? NOTHING I SAY!  And I plan on doing it MORE
FREQUENTLY in the future.
Congress shall make no law….Probating the Freedom of Speech…….or the
Right of the People to Peaceably Assemble.  Any other argument is Bullshit,
pure and simple. I am guaranteed these rights as an American Citizen.

Brenda Eileen O’Connor

Omidyar Members Conference

The second annual Chicago version of the Omidyar Members Conference is July 14-16th, 2006 in Oak Park (just outside of Chicago). See our past proceedings and our new invitation. Please join us and pass on the invitation!

social map

I think this is cool as heck! The resolution isn’t that great here, so click the image to see the original at CommunityWiki if you like. I love the idea that we’re starting to be able to see not just the social networks consisting of individuals, but also the communities where those individuals interact. If you’re inspired to create a map like this starting at one of your communities, put a link in the comments and I’ll publish the image here as well. In fact, CraoWiki has one now too.

Car crashes kill 400 times more people than terrorism

Car crashes kill 400 times more people than international terrorism does in developed countries
The death toll from car crashes in developed countries is almost 400 times greater than the number of deaths caused by international terrorism, reports a study in the latest issue of Injury Prevention.