The Viridian Design Movement

Key concepts
email troubles, open-source activism, gasoline price spikes, barcode scanners, phonecams, green building products, Khaki Green, Andrew Marshall, climatic disaster movies, Exxon-Mobil, Exxon Valdez, techno-Valentine gifts, the erotic appeal of SUVS stuck in mud, Art Center Design Conference, nano-shaving, drowned island of Niue
Attention Conservation Notice
The Viridian Pope-Emperor has been traveling for weeks. This Note clears out a backlog of most any Viridian topic vaguely of interest. Could prove highly time-consuming.

Links:


http://www.worldchanging.com (((The favorite Viridian website ever. With email increasingly dysfunctional due to spam and viruses, sites like Worldchanging are oases of sanity. I am getting so many bounces off Viridian email now that I wonder how much longer this email medium will remain a plausible means of communication.)))

http://partnerships.typepad.com/civic/2004/01/top_10_open_sou.html

The Top Ten Open-Source Tools for eActivism.

  1. ActionApps (On-line Magazine/Content Sharing)
    http://www.apc.org/actionapps/
  2. PostNuke (Slash Forums/Portals)
    http://www.postnuke.com/
  3. Drupal (Blogs)
    http://drupal.org/
  4. Active (News Posting)
    http://www.active.org.au/doc/
  5. phpList (eNewsletters)
    http://www.phplist.com/
  6. phpBB (Forums)
    http://www.phpBB.com/
  7. WebCards (eCards/email2friends)
    http://webcards.sourceforge.net/
  8. TWiki (Wiki/Group Documentation)
    http://www.twiki.org/
  9. Back-End (eActions/ePetitions)
    http://www.back-end.org/
  10. FPDF (eLeaflets/ePosters) (Dynamic PDF/Graphic Generation)
    http://www.fpdf.org/

Link:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gas16.htm "Summertime shocker: Gas could hit $3 a gallon "Winter weather, bolstering demand for heating fuels, already has cut U.S. crude stocks to the lowest level since 1975."

Link:
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,61936,00.html
Longtime Viridian Imaginary Product, the web-linked barcode scanner, takes several steps closer to reality. "Introduced three years ago in Japan and less than a year ago in the United States, camera phones are well on their way to becoming the most popular consumer device in history. According to research firm IDC, more than 80 million have been sold worldwide."

Link:
http://www.cnet.com/
CNet Digital Living
THIS WEEK: VALENTINE'S DAY: TECH LOVE
"Topping Valentine's Day gift lists are cell phones, presumably to simply stay in touch or maybe to keep tabs on the significant other's whereabouts. Next in line are digital cameras for capturing those precious romantic moments. And at number three are MP3 players, some of which can hold dozens of hours of love songs. Or you could be like the oh-so-romantic 1.1 percent of CNET's users declaring their love with a wireless networking device."

Link:
http://www.buildinggreen.com/press/topten/index.cfm

TOP 10 GREEN PRODUCTS SELECTED BY BUILDINGGREEN

(((Nice list. I have promptly put these green products into Viridian Order, with the wack cool techie stuff at the top, and the tedious allergenic hypochondria at the bottom.)))

"TOTO USA makes a sensor-activated faucet that uses a tiny hydropower generator to keep its battery charged." (((Yowzah!)))

"Mirra office chair from Herman Miller Inc. uses a minimal number of components, each of which is labeled for disassembly and refurbishing or recycling."

"Hot Water D'MAND from Taco, Inc. is an electronically activated water-pumping system that quickly delivers hot water to fixtures."
"Case Systems laboratory casework is now made entirely from wheatstraw particleboard." (((Get it now for your mad science lab.)))
"EnvironOxide pigment from Hoover Color Corp., a pigment recovered from abandoned coal-mine drainage. (((Yum!)))

"MemBrain 'smart' vapor retarder (...) changes permeability according to relative humidity. (((How'd the heck they do that?)))

"American Pride latex paint (...) is made largely of acrylated castor oil. "BioBase 501 soy-based foam insulation (...) derived in part from soybean oil. "Keim Mineral Systems' mineral silicate paints are permeable, nontoxic, noncombustible, durable and contain no VOCs.

"EnviroGT wall and corner guards made by InPro Corp. provide an alternative to conventional vinyl wall and corner guards."

Link:
The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,582584,00.html?=yes "Global warming may be bad news for future generations, but let's face it, most of us spend as little time worrying about it as we did about al Qaeda before 9/11. Like the terrorists, though, the seemingly remote climate risk may hit home sooner and harder than we ever imagined. In fact, the prospect has become so real that the Pentagon's strategic planners are grappling with it."

(((It seems that Andrew Marshall of the Office of Net Assessment, the "Yoda of the Pentagon," has finally noticed the increasing likelihood of the Viridian "Khaki Green" scenario.)))

Link:
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9882

"In an article published Jan. 26 in Fortune magazine, Marshall released the findings of an unclassified report‹written by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall of the Global Business Network‹entitled 'An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.' (((Viva GBN!)))

"The ONA-commissioned report, using the well-established scenario-planning techniques developed at Shell's planning unit, generated a plausible future scenario in which the thermohaline conveyor collapses in 2010. What follows that oceanic shut-down sounds apocalyptic and yet the authors contend, is quite plausible.

"By 2020, average rainfall in Europe drops 30 percent; 'megadroughts' affect Southern China and Northern Europe; massive boatlifts of people from the Caribbean attempt to enter the United States and Mexico; China is unable to feed its population due to the combination of droughts and violent monsoons and flooding; Eastern European countries invade a weakened Russia to seek minerals and energy; nuclear India, Pakistan, and China go to war over water, land, and refugees.

"In all 400 million people could be forced to migrate from uninhabitable regions. In the United States, the East Coast population areas experience severe shortages of freshwater; flooding creates an inland sea in California's Central Valley and disrupts freshwater supplies for Southern California; and energy disruptions are commonplace due to storms, ice and conflict. The authors make the point clear: this is not a prediction, this is a plausible scenario given what we know now."

(((The upside for military boffins? This is a global emergency regime with martial law; we'll all be in uniform. Those not busy killing non-state "terrorists" will be piling the sandbags.)))

Link:
http://www.thedayaftertomorrowmovie.com/ (((Also makes a great disaster movie for Fox, eh? Maybe those sandbags will be sold to us by Halliburton!)))

Link:
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23638/story.htm "USA: Study Says Five Percent of Greenhouse Gas Came from Exxon" (((Five percent? Why, those clowns wreaked all that hell for the sake of a mere five percent!)))

(((But then again, Exxon is known to be grumpy about being held accountable:)))

Source
Houston Chronicle Jan. 28, 2004, 10:44PM

"Exxon Mobil ordered to pay $6.75 billion for Valdez

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay about $6.75 billion in punitive damages and interest to thousands of fishermen and others affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

"Exxon Mobil has 30 days to appeal the order by U.S. District Judge Russel Holland, who ordered the Irving-based company to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages and about $2.25 billion in interest.

"The money is to go to 32,000 fishermen, Alaska natives, landowners, small businesses and municipalities affected by the 11-million gallon spill in Prince William Sound.

"'We have now closed the trial court doors for the last time in this litigation after 15 years,' said David Oesting, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. 'We're definitely on track to the end of the entire dispute.'

"Exxon Mobil said it plans to appeal. Spokesman Tom Cirigliano said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has twice vacated Holland's decision in the case. The judge had been ordered by the appellate court to reconsider the damages awarded in an earlier ruling in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year about punitive damages.

"'This ruling flies in the face of the guidelines set by the appeals court,' Cirigliano said." (((Unlike a burst supertanker, which merely oozes into one's face.)))

Link:
http://www.carstuckgirls.com/ Viridian Design Contest stalwart Reid Harward remarks: "I'm sure you've seen this, but it strikes me as having an articulated Viridian sensibility." (((Uhm, maybe. "Carstuckgirls" seems to be a fetish site for daintily accoutered models driving large, ugly vehicles into bogs of mud. Thanks for letting us in on this one, Reid! Without you, we're nothing!)))

Link:
http://www.artcenter.edu/designconference (((Since Chee Pearlman is throwing this thing, hey, this gig is bound to be good.)))

"Stories from the Source: Design Excursions Out of the Ordinary March 18 - 21, 2004"

"We have been delighted by the warm response to THE ART CENTER DESIGN CONFERENCE to date. Steelcase has signed on to provide comfortable auditorium seating, Maharam and Design Within Reach are graciously contributing the stage design, WIRED is hosting the opening night party, and GM is throwing a spectacular closing night gala. (...)

"But the real excitement, of course, is what's coming together on the stage. Renowned journalist and design aficionado JOHN HOCKENBERRY has been named Master of Ceremonies. (...) Our roster includes DAVID BALTIMORE, Nobel Prize-winning biologist and president of the California Institute of Technology; LEE CLOW, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Worldwide of TBWA\Chiat\Day; MAIRA KALMAN, poet and illustrator extraordinaire; BOB LUTZ, Chairman of General Motors; BRAN FERREN, co-founder of Applied Minds; EIKO ISHIOKA, Academy Award winning creative director; ANDREW STANTON, Oscar-nominated Pixar director; SANDRA TSING LOH, humorist and cultural commentator; FRANK GEHRY, Pritzker Prize-winning architect; BRUCE MAU, designer and author; CHARLES ELACHI, Director of Jet Propulsion Labs; RICKY JAY, sleight-of-hand performer; and many others.

"Go to the website at
http://www.artcenter.edu/designconference or call the Design Conference line at 626.396.4229 for more information.

"We look forward to seeing you in Pasadena!

"Warm regards,

"Chee Pearlman Guest Program Director

"Erica Clark Senior Vice President, International Initiatives Art Center College of Design

"Richard Koshalek President Art Center College of Design"

Link:
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2004/01/15/over_the_edge/

(((From no less a man than Tucker Viemeister comes the nano-future of shaving:)))

"On the eve of Gillette's introducing a new shaver, the Boston Globe published our concept for future shaving that we called: 'Disposable micro razor pads.' You just wipe one of the pads over your face. Microscopic enlargement shows the tiny sharp cutting ribbons (like a mini cheese grater) ­ but they are so small that they can't cut the skin, only 'grate' the ends of the beard. Next, look out for larger shaving pads for women (like mittens)!

"Just thought you'd like to know what the best brains in the industry are thinking about in our spare time!"

"See ya tucker viemeister springtime-usa"

(((And, as a grand finale, the drowned island of Niue (see Note 00399) loudly refuses to perish, flaming reporters via Internet.)))

Link:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34946.html

"FOTW: Niue is NOT dead. Nor will it ever be"

By Drew Cullen "Posted: 17/01/2004 at 06:09 GMT

"Flame of The Week

"Niue is Dead! Long live .nu!

"From: 'miss amanda' "Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 11:48 PM

"i am emailing concerning your article on Niue....................... Niue is NOT dead nor will it ever be................ those are rumours about the population, Niue ofr one will not give in to New Zealand Rule.......... What do you know about Niue anyway? You havent been there! What is your point in this article!!!!!!!! Half of, well most of your articcle was full of crap!!! Incase you care the isaldners are actually helping each other.......... now the niuen domains, YOU HAVENT EVEN BEEN ON THEM! the ones you talk off you act as if you knwo what happens on the boards! unless you knwo how to speak or translate Niuen you really need to find yourself a hobby and stop ditching a country you dont know never been to or even going to go to!"

"Flames are published unedited, in full. They may not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Register."

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
YOU REALLY NEED TO FIND YOURSELF A HOBBY
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O


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