E.O. Wilson @ TED

One of the world’s most distinguished scientists, E.O. Wilson is a professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard. In 1975, he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, a work that described social behavior, from ants to humans.

Drawing from his deep knowledge of the Earth’s “little creatures” and his sense that their contribution to the planet’s ecology is underappreciated, he produced what may be his most important book, The Diversity of Life. In it he describes how an intricately interconnected natural system is threatened by man’s encroachment, in a crisis he calls the “sixth extinction” (the fifth one wiped out the dinosaurs).

In this video, E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize. He makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, that we should all learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we’re still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; yet we’re still steadily destroying nature. Wilson identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), using the acronym HIPPO, and makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere.

If done properly, this is gonna be huge!!!

Images from the Retreat

Back from the retreat and I took several pictures- random shots- not meant to be art pieces, but just capture the environment. See below for the real reason I put this up…

Now to the real reason…

As you can see, this is a feed from Splashcast.net. They, in turn, pulled in the images from flickr.com where I uploaded them using their batch upload desktop application. That means there are four applications being utilized for this one post:

1. wordpress blog
2. splashcast.net “channel”
3. flickr.com image repository
4. flickr upload application

Why is this even interesting? The interest lies with the music project that I’m working on which combines professional content sources with community generated content. It’s a web 2.0 mashup!

Shambhala Mountain Center

I’m attending a “rights of passage” session with my eldest son for one week at the Shambhala Mountain Center. It is a retreat designed to help a child begin the process of separation from his/her parents in a healthy manner.

Most cultures around the world have some kind of ceremony or activity that marks this transition. Perhaps you are given a sling shot and must now tend to the safety of the family’s herd of yaks. Maybe in an agricultural community you become responsible for an important part of the harvest. Whatever it is, it signifies the first change in your status from child to young adult. You begin to take responsibility for yourself and your immediate community.

In the West, there aren’t too many opportunities for this kind of new responsibility to be assumed by a child. One area that each of us can be tasked with is to begin to understand our minds. In particular, how to quiet our minds so that we may better understand ourselves and thus be a better citizen of the community. At this retreat, my son will be engaging in activities that cultivate a quiet mind- calligraphy, Kyudo (Japanese archery), haiku and of course, meditation.

Sounds good, no?

BTW- The Shambhala tradition was begun by Chogyam Trungpa in the early 70’s. Historically, when Tibet was occupied by the Chinese in the 1950’s, the great teachers fled and ended up scattered across the globe. Chogyam was one of those teachers who made it to the States. He took Tibetan Buddhism and combined it our western cultural mentality to make the Tibetan wisdom more approachable. As with many forms of Buddhism (so I’m told), it is centered around sitting meditation. Being, not doing…

Here are some wonderful photographs taken by Chogyam Trungpa during his life. They are really quite fascinating.

The Police- live!

Saturday, June 9, 2007
Pepsi Center, Denver CO

The Police took center stage on Saturday after 20-some years of being ex-super star musicians. I suspect the lure of $1M per show was too tempting. I don’t think Sting needed the money, but Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland may have been in another boat entirely. The two of them seem to have kept a lower profile in the music world.

I seem to recall the Copeland had some success in the music production end of the business, but that momentary attempts with other bands didn’t gain much traction. I bought two Animal Logic albums, but they haven’t stood the test of time and I recently sold them for $2/disc to a music store.

Here is a video of the night taken from a small digital camera that also captured video. The quality gives a sense of what was experienced.

Prius on the Horizon!

Yup, I’m taking the plunge! I’m buying a Toyota Prius!

It’s part of the 40th celebration and an effort to walk the talk. We live in a small enough environment that the stop-start advantages of a hybrid really make sense. If I was primarily logging freeway miles, a diesel would have been my choice, particularly the VW Jetta TDI. The lines on those keep getting better.

So here’s the pricing that I have in front of me. First, you should know that I’ve tried haggling. There doesn’t seem to be any maneuvering room as these just sail off the lots. It’s hard for me to accept that as I always am looking to strike a deal based on invoice, not MSRP.

If someone knows better about this, then by all means, contact me immediately. The car is to be delivered on Friday, but I’ve only put down a deposit of $500.

Pricing:

25,639 – Standard model with Package 4 (HID headlights, 6-CD changer, premium sound, Bluetooth, MP3/iPod connection, homelink)
24, 895 – discount
+ 1,550 – leather and heat seats
+ 2,184.81 – taxes
$ 28,828.81 total

Again, if you know how to get a better price, contact me or this is what I’ll end up leasing for. BTW- I’m leasing as the technology will be changing so much in the next few years, that I don’t want to own. In about 5 years, I’ll buy a used hybrid.

Jobs + Gates Interview

Funny video interview with these two giants. Interesting to have a small insight of a more involved relationship that any will ever know. I can’t help but look at them and wonder what is going through their minds or how they might behave at a conference table.

It looks like I can’t embed this link so it plays here. You’ll have to CLICK to connect.

Willow Lane- Design

The design-build process has begun for a rental house that I will be putting on Willow Lane this summer. The house will be the first phase of what I hope will be a two phase project. Phase one entails cleaning up the property, site work, landscaping and a rental house. Phase two will entail more landscaping, addition of a coi pond and fountain, and the construction of a straw bail house.

I created a floor plan that was a mashup of two models from Bar Vista Homes. Of course, I made some tweaks. Pre-fabs are meant for that, dammit! Bar Vista is a front-range factory home builder. I found them last summer after interviewing a number of pre-fab companies and, most importantly, talking with some builders who had studied the field for clients.

These pre-fabs are built in a controlled environment using stick-built practices. They assemble the walls into boxes using a manufacturing line model. Shear walls are put up everywhere ’cause these boxes have to travel at 65 MPH. Try that with your custom built house! I’m trying to utilize their efficiencies and do as much work in the factory as possible. The less site work the less additional or higher cost. Labor and materials in the Roaring Fork Valley are substantial.

The thing about a pre-fab is that there are certain design elements that when studied, scream “modular!” or “mobile home!” or “cheap housing!” An attempt to subdue those qualities may fool the viewer into believing this was a stick-built custom home.

Who knows, I may actually achieve my goal of building a house for a reasonable square foot cost. I’m shooting for $150/sq.ft. in an area that is double and triple that cost depending on the finish. The devil is in the details and I’m workin’ those details!!

Here is a link to the most current elevations where the window placement went from shite to improved. The factory designer appears to be fairly lazy and didn’t put the windows on the elevations where the floor plans had indicated. Additionally, the roof won’t have bird-box fascia and eave endings. Also, the roof pitch is 7:12, not the displayed 5:12.

Tomorrow the manufacturer will send back my initial numbers. I’ll post those… just because I can… and someone actually may benefit from my research and work.

More later…

Memorial Day thoughts

We arrive again at a day of remembrance that has lost its original meaning. Memorial Day has something to do with old soldiers, but the true thinking surrounds the details of a trip- where we can drive and how much will the gas cost?

What does it mean to me and how should I communicate it to my children? This is where I must always return…

I would say that Memorial Day is a time to remember fallen soldiers. Young men and women who died in the ultimate political expression- war. War is, after all, a political tool wielded by those in power who have determined that words and actions can no longer achieve the desired results. Thus we go to war to force our perspective of “right”, our interpretation of “moral” and our world view over the other group. War is about domination and controlling the message.

But what do I tell my children?

I will take them to a cemetery and show them that when young people die, the world loses potential. That the liberties and ideals that we wrap around wars, the words of democracy and freedom- those things were never enjoyed by those that have perished.

They have lost the ability to grow old. They will not have the chance to feel what it is like to raise a child through the various stages of maturity. They will not be able to pick flowers and give them to a beautiful woman. They will not participate in bettering a community. Their potential will never been seen.

Most likely, the fallen soldiers of past wars, died in fear. They died holding a gun, sweating, panting, aching and paranoid of what lay around the next corner. They died knowing the instant before they were hit, that their life was about to end. In most cases, death in a war is not glorious. It is frightening. It is painful. It is pointless…

I don’t want to hear President Bush utter one word about the glorious sacrifice of our nations youth to combat terrorism. Coming from a man who did everything possible to skip out on his duty, the words are hollow. His words are meaningless platitudes. He plays a role and the act of this actor is not worth observing.

I would rather go have a picnic in a cemetery and observe the loss of potential.

World Trade Center Towers Collapse

So, here we are five years after 9-11-01 and footage of that days events are still coming out from personal sources. I just happened to come across this video on Google Video. It serves as a reminder to the events that have changed our country.

What is difficult is that as it recedes in our memories, its impact also diminishes. My children have no remembrance. It doesn’t affect my daily life. Neither does the war which began and continues to this day. These images were used as a pretext for other agendas.

I hope this video stays up for years to come so it can be accessed… lest we forget.

Willow Lane Project

This summer I will be building a small house (1406 sq. ft.) on a piece of property that is 1.5 acres. It’s a beautiful lot with trees, privacy and flat ground.

Over the coming months, I will attempt to keep on ongoing record of the process. This blog will serve as my online construction journal with movies, pictures and questions…

Here is a quick video of what the property looks like right now.