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What are you doing to respond to the climate crisis?

Orion magazine has a brand new section, of interest to all Gristmill readers, where folks from all over are encouraged to write in and share what changes their families, communities, churches, etc. are undertaking to respond, now, to the climate crisis, peak oil, etc. I've seen so many ripe ideas posted on Gristmill, BioD's plug-in hybrid bike being a good example. So have a look at some of these great ideas and initiatives (a clustered, renewably-powered, affordable housing community in Missoula, for example) in the first installment of this section, called Making Other Arrangements, and share your own projects and ideas.

Where to find green news

Lately I’ve been feeling guilty about the fact that I frequently fail to cite where I find the links and articles I blog about. (Adding a "via so and so" or "hat tip: such and such" is good blog etiquette.) It’s not deliberate, it’s just that by the time I get around to blogging on […]

Good one, Google

I’ll admit it. Google’s Gmail Paper April Fools Day gag got me late last night when I was all tired and groggy and indignant: “Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re […]

An excellent new photo blog

My new favorite blog in the whole wide world is Shorpy, "the 100-year-old photo blog." It’s just what it says: it collects old pictures. That description doesn’t do it justice, though. It’s fascinating. For instance, check out this picture of Miss America contestants from 1927 — interesting to see how standards of beauty have and […]

Internet TV that doesn’t suck!

I confess I had never heard of VBS.tv before they wrote us. It’s an internet TV station that grew out of Vice magazine. Poking around their site, I must say it looks pretty damn cool. Raw, but cool. I’ve been wondering when a viable internet TV production outfit will pop up. Maybe this is it. […]

Goes Web 2.0

Big Picture TV, whose tagline is "talking heads, talking sense," has relaunched its website with a significantly improved design and a nicely implemented tag system (coming soon to a Grist page near you!).

They've migrated to Flash-based videos that can be browsed by category, tag or both, as well as speaker. And as I originally wrote, their speaker list is quite impressive.

I'm still not a fan of the talking head video approach (I need more visual stimuli), but their new site is clean and well organized. Check it out.

Hood Games: Stop clearcutting the youth

Over at Treehugger TV, there is a new video about Comet Skateboards (a green 'board manufacturing company) and their community event, Hood Games:

In addition to raising funds and for a sustainably designed skate park in downtown Oakland CA, Comet has collaborated with others to put on Hood Games. Hood Games 4 took place in Oakland, and brought together a truly remarkable gathering of the skateboarders, parents, and friends for a full day of music, art, and of course -- ecofriendly skateboarding!

For more information about Comet Skateboards, check out this InterActivist and this Current TV video. And of course, their website.

What do you mean I can’t sell my gold-plated ivory-billed woodpecker?

As Google continues its march towards global domination with the launch of Google Checkout, Gristmillers can sleep soundly tonight knowing that the following prohibited items can't be sold/bought via the new service:

Endangered species: Plants, animals or other organisms (including product derivatives) in danger of extinction

Precious metals: Bulk sales of rare, scarce, or valuable metals

The fact the former has to be listed is depressing. Luckily it will be a four-day weekend for Grist to lift the spirits!

Virtual ecosystem

Want to learn about the interconnectedness and dependencies of an ecosystem? Build one yourself.

In Second Life, a virtual world where people reinvent themselves, buy real estate, create and sell products, have sex, host charity events, film movies, etc., Laukosargas Svarog has created her own ecosystem on the virtual island of Svarga:

The result of a year's work, Laukosargas Svarog's island of Svarga ... is a fully-functioning ecosystem, adding life or something like it to the verdant-looking but arid pallette Linden Lab offers with its world. It begins with her artificial clouds, which are pushed along by Linden's internal wind system.

"If I was to turn off the clouds the whole system would die in about six hours," she tells me. "Turn off the bees and [the plants stop] growing, because nothing gets pollinated. And it's the transfer of pollen that signals the plants to drop seeds. The seeds blow in the wind, and if they land on good ground according to different rules for each species, they grow when they receive rain water from the clouds. It's all interdependent."

Cool!

(Via BB)