29/05/2009

Global Think-Tank?

This is an idea I've sorta stolen from Warren Ellis. You see, once upon a time he wrote about an organization called Global Frequency that solved urgent problems that threatened the very existence of life as we know it.
That sort of problem solving capability isn't what I'm interested in, although it might be needed in the future. You never know, after all.

But what I was thinking was more of a a think-tank that works around the clock, different experts exchanging places as people sign on and off. But I'm not talking about experts in the normal sense either. Depending on the situations, problems, resources at hand at the various locations, the political climate, and so on, it'd take a lot of manpower to get it operational, and from there getting it efficient might not even be possible. The administration alone would probably be a nightmare.
But if it was possible to get it going, starting out with, for example: working out a sustainable method to reduce starvation in a certain region in Africa.
First you need to look at the general state of the country, what does the infrastructure look like? How stable is the country? It'd be a bad idea to start a project in a country that at any moment could erupt into civil war, or other types of conflicts for that matter.
The food production might be seized by militant groups in the name of their cause, so that means there would also be a need for some form of security.
But all of this is after the organization has been formed.
Considering that my thought is to keep it mainly a humanitarian organization, the main problem as I see it is funding. Who do you work for that wants to pay you for creating such things as running water, simple and environmentally friendly techniques for producing electricity in places where there are none?
Then UN comes to mind. That's pretty much it actually. I can see the EU being interested in hiring this type of organization, but mainly for developing nations wanting to become a part of it.
We'd also have to develop alternative methods for existing techniques that'd be of use, thanks to the patents.

But what about the administration of it then? Would it be better to have supervisors out controlling the various projects with local personnel? Teams doing the projects in part and gradually phasing in local talent? Coordinators supervising various projects in a region, or even inside a country?
Which would be best? To finish the project yourself and then hand it over to the locals, or let them do it themselves? What would be most efficient, most economic, and would it more or less of a difference depending on which you chose?
Maybe it'd be better to work out scenarios of different types in advance and then try to think of a solution? Which leads to another question: should the problems we as a group work on be the problems of today only? Or should we include the ones of tomorrow?
Need to think more about this. Ideas, suggestions, etc. would be most welcome. Even if it might not be possible to create such a group, we could at least develop a concept. Hopefully it might inspire and aid others with similar goals.
Leading by theoretical example, you might say.
I'll think it over some more, and I hope you do too. If you think of something write it down, I definitely will.

Yellow Mold Will Kill Your Family

Yellow Slime Mold Timelapse from sesotek on Vimeo.

5 hours of moving, breathing fungi condensed into mere moments.



26/05/2009

Linky

This another one of those lazy posts where I just hand over some links of interest of the last couple of days.

First of: Sequential Trauma, which is a school project that plays with the medium of comics. For some reason I only really like the first page. Imagine it as a stand alone page, or turning into the world as he now sees it. It could possibly turn into a brilliant teaching aid of sorts in my mind.

Grinding also had an interesting post about so called Seed Bombing. Which seems like a really good idea, and also lead me onwards to the Guerrilla Gardening movement.
Original article @ Inhabitat.

Jamais Cascio posted about history, family, and information on Memorial Day, over at Open the Future.

And then Laurie posted about rape over at Penny Red. Which lead to a long list of all kinds of comments, all pretty interesting for the most part. As well as Laurie herself providing a few links which are pretty disturbing.
Especially this one, which may appear to be mainly about a rape game, but is more an interesting commentary about the legal and social views of rape in Japan. Pretty frightening stuff if you ask me.
As well as some teenage gang rape.

And yes, I have spent the morning reading about rape. Something that really makes you question yourself as a sexual human being.

More links might show up later on. I've got a hundred of them laying around, so I might as well read them and throw them up here sooner or later. It's also a good way of storing them for reading when away from your computer, or in case of a crash or similar.

23/05/2009

While You Were Asleep

This happened:

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Via Grinding.

Since this is more an online journal than anything else, posting has never been really regular. Still, there has been lots of things on my mind lately, and it might just be time to put it to print to get a bit of an overview. That's something I do from time to time. Writting things down helps me organize my thoughts, and is part of the reason while I still have a blog. If I blogged for attention I'd probably have killed myself by now.

Oh, and I might also take the time to mention that I've also started writting for another blog. It's made up of 10 people, all who enjoy writting things. So that's what's going on basically. There are stories being told, all kinds of stories. Long ones, short ones. Nothing too long though. Or at least not yet. I suppose it might happen? I'm really not sure what's ok to do. I'm just gonna improvise and then see how people react. Hopefully I manage to escape hired killers and smart bombs for now. Oh, and it's called Orrot. I'll throw up a link somewhere on here as well. Might take me a while. Might not.



04/05/2009

Blue People

Are very real it seems.
Or how about a blue man?
A blue woman?
And here's the name of the medical disorder: Methemoglobinemia.
I know, I know. Wiki is lazy, but checking the links and sources are pretty useful most of the time.
Now go do that.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Just watched this documentary a few minutes ago and I'm not really sure what to say. I'm angry, sad, disappointed, confused and quite a few others I'm not even sure what they are.
I'm not angry because it happened so much as I am angry that the ones that have the ultimate responsibility for it will never be punished. Some even got rewarded for their disregard for human rights, approval of torture, and of course for covering their asses while a few MPs took the fall.

How many people died at Abu Ghraib? How many have died at Guantanamo? Why did the previous American government approve of the use of so called extreme interrogations?
Has the policy been revised? Are there any plans to? What about a formal apology from the current president on the behalf of the American people?
How can you go from trying to maintain a standard that is above the Geneva Convention to going far far below it?
Is the American military and intelligence really this bad at their jobs? You get the feeling that their was no real regulations, no rules or much control in general over what was going on. People where trying to ignore it, just like the Germans living around the concentration camps were during World War II.
Is this how far we've come? What is in our future if this sort of thing is allowed to happen, and is even encouraged by the government of one of the biggest nations at this point in time?
Since when did it become "do what's necessary" instead of "do what's right"?
Since when does the ends justify the means?
But the one question I keep hearing over and over in my head is just a single word: "Why?"

Blog Archive