This and that

Lost in the last ten years.

And what we may have in the next ten.  And how we might be able to provide power.  And provide jobs.

Holy shit... San Francisco police out of control.

Caturday cat.  Kinda.

Polar vortex, my ass.

Revolutionizing the government.

The weirdness of those who attack birth control.

Making proper bread.

Friday Flotsam

Tom Tomorrow: a Year in Crazy part one.

Peak food and peak oil?  We're all gonna die anyway!

Omg, they've killed Sean Bean!  Again.  And again.

Mistakes were made...

Those duck guys are really yuppies... with beards.

The 'poorest' president may actually be the richest.

The future is now.  Really.

Hacking your education.

Bill Moyers

We need to dream

Dream

I don't think sunscreen's gonna help....

Nasa scientists braced for 'solar tsunami' to hit earth:

Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.
It is likely to spark spectacular displays of the aurora or northern and southern lights.
Scientists have warned that a really big solar eruption could destroy satellites and wreck power and communications grids around the globe if it happened today.
Nasa recently warned that Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”.

And the oceans are dying:

Phytoplankton Population Drops 40 Percent Since 1950

Researchers find trouble among phytoplankton, the base of the food chain, which has implications for the marine food web and the world's carbon cycle

And our economic future is diminishing. Deflation could be coming. Republicans could take back Congress.

Our cereal could be poisoned with unknown chemicals.

But all is not lost! Buy gold! Glenn Beck says it's the thing to do!

What would we do without science

Hijacked from The Sailor at SteveAudio:

Legos will never be the same...

Augmented Reality Toys.v2 (Work in progress) from Frantz Lasorne on Vimeo.

Technology that will change the world!

I want a house built out of Legos

And a car and a computer and ... and ...

I know they can do it because they're inventing things like this: Lego Mindstorms

If not Legos, how about Bug Labs?

The future is going to be so exciting if we don't kill ourselves first.

(Remember the snap together houses, Ikea's BoKlok? It can be done!

How will we explain this mess?

How will we explain ourselves to our grandchildren?

Ruining Iraq's future

One child at a time. Via Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo:

in 2002, a united nations emergency preparedness report estimated that roughly 1.26 million iraqi children would die in the event of a conflict there. just how many children have died as the result of the war in iraq is unclear, but what of the ones who live? what sort of life, if any at all, awaits them?

according to dr. abdul kareem al obaidi, who is the chairman of the iraqi association for child mental health, iraqi kids are suffering serious psychological and behavioral problems (depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, substance abuse, high rates of truancy, etc.) that weren't common in iraq's roughly 16 million children prior to the war.

....what can be salvaged for those children is uncertain. but while we're liberating their country and spreading democracy there, perhaps we should give some thought as to what sort of future we're mapping out for iraq by leaving its people with a population of damaged children who will one day become broken, angry adults with clear memories of how they came to be so.