This is all I am going to say about the financial crisis

Something a lot of people on all sides can agree upon.

Breaking news: Adding Sweeteners, Senate Passes Bailout Plan

Just so you know, it has always been my policy to avoid hot-button political and social issues. There is enough of that material out there. Occasionally, an irresistible item will pop up, but I'd like this weblog to be an oasis, a break from the troubles foisted upon us by the agenda-driven media and a blogosphere plagued with partisan outbursts, slurs, attacks and bickering.

I have opinions and convictions and I keep an eye on things, but to be honest, I'm so burned out on it all. Therefore, this is my recourse. A productive and edifying one that I hope many of all persuasions and backgrounds can enjoy. I know these issues are important and vital, but I hope you all can pick up the slack for me while I just do my thing.

The world has never been short on emergency.

Thanks, Dad

Tuttle Kids - Lady Be Good

Holy smokes!

I'm always torn between the two viewpoints that swing from:

a) Today's kids are zombie idiots that can't read and are dooming us to an Idiocracy type scenario.

to:

b) Today's kids are brilliant with more savvy in more ways than older generations could ever realize.

Seeing stuff like this makes me swing toward b).

Obviously it's both, with a bit too much a) and a lot in between. I don't think that the extremes have really changed all that much since I was a kid, but the "average" seems to have dropped a bit.

Jack Tuttle
via Bifurcated Rivets

Poorism

The New York Times ran a story last week on slum tourism.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the positive side, I think it can be a worthwhile experience for all involved, raise a little consciousness, spread some cash around...









photo: John Maier for The New York Times

Incidental slumming is acceptable. Institutional, exploitive 'poorism' is not.

Zooming by in a bus snapping pictures is lame. Hanging with the locals is cool.

Critics are reminiscent of those down on ecotourism.

There are obvious connections with Dark tourism, as well.

Here is a good brief from Christine Bowers on Foreign Policy with some relevant and related links, including Robert Neuwirth's blog on squatter cities.

via disinfo.com

San Francisco homeless to get free phone numbers

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Google announced on Wednesday a plan to partner with all the homeless shelters in San Francisco and offer free phone numbers and voice mail accounts to homeless individuals, giving people the ability to distribute their own phone numbers and retrieve voice mail messages left for them whenever and from wherever they choose.

Kudos to Google. That kicks ass.

I think it's shameful and beyond comprehension that we have so many homeless here in the U.S.

I had some friends visiting from Australia a while back and I asked them what it was about America that struck them the most. They said, "The poverty and homelessness." They could not understand that a nation so wealthy could have so many destitute people. It was truly shocking to them. They told me that to live on the street back home, one would have to want to.

I am a capitalist at heart, but I think in a country where we throw around billions like penny-candy on all sorts of ridiculous boondoggles and pork-barrels, that it's quite acceptable, even honorable, even mandatory that we break off a little for those that are struggling. (and I'm not talking about a social welfare system that gives so little that its so-called beneficiaries are locked in a poverty cycle with little chance of escape; that is obviously not working) It is well within our abilities to properly educate and empower our people so that poverty and homelessness would be just as alien to us as it is to the Aussies, with a minimum of social welfare. It would be good for the economy and it would wash some of the stain off our collective souls.

While we're at it, let's pay and educate our workers well enough so that they can live decent lives. A few meager percentage points off corporate margins and war spending would go a long way. Higher paying jobs would make working a far more desirable option, people would spend more, more would get done and businesses would still prosper. Better educated workers would make wiser and healthier decisions and therefore would put less strain on governmental, economic, insurance and health-care systems while forcing businesses to sharpen their games to compete. It's a win-win scenario.

I've been homeless before, (and worked 40 hours a week while being so) and I can assure that people don't want to live like that. They want the opportunity and ability to improve their lives. For those few that are so screwed up that they can't function in society, well, we have to take care of them. For real. End of story.

via Disinfo.com

19.20.21

Tokyo has a population of over 35 million.

It has been predicted that there will be 19 cities with over 20 million people in the 21st century and that by 2050, over 2/3 of the world's population will live in urban areas.

With the global population growing toward 7 billion and the emergence of megacities, the human species is faced with problems and realities on a scale for which there is no analog in history.

Somebody has to study this. The results are going to have to amount to a far cry more than an 18 minute presentation at the TED conference.

via Noteworthy blogging TED2008