This Sunday, March 21, Grand Hampton will be hosting a Fresh Market Day.
Grand Hampton
8301 Dunham Station Dr.
Tampa, FL 33647
11 am -3 pm
Be forewarned, however, that inclement weather may prompt cancellation. From the email message –
“The weather report currently shows a 40% chance of rain for Sunday. It’s our hope that the rain will hold off until later in the day, making for a good market day.
“In the case however that the weather report shows 50% or more on Sunday during the hours of 11 am – 3pm, the market event will be canceled and the re-schedule date for this event will be on Sunday, April 18th, 2010.”
This event is open to the public.
Bike Friendly and Pet Friendly.
Bathrooms available and Parking close to the Market.
Makers is a short subject documentary, filmed at Austin’s Maker Faire, 2007, about the people behind the do-it-yourself counterculture and their inventions.
You’ll see a life-sized MouseTrap game, a live performance of the EepyBird Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments, and some amazing footage of inventions of all shapes and sizes – some of them going wrong in unpredictable and dangerous ways. Featuring Adam Savage
Makers is the first project of Blogphilo New Media. All subjects are filmed with full permission.
For information on how to obtain a DVD copy, a High Definition copy, or for information about distribution rights for broadcast or inclusion in a larger work, contact Brian Boyko, the producer and director, at brian.boyko@blogphilo.com
If you would like to use a clip from Makers in your own projects, the movie is available to NON-COMMERCIAL projects under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. Commercial entities looking at obtaining the rights to sample or incorporate the work should contact brian.boyko@blogphilo.com
I would be interested in turning this project into a feature-length film if funded. I believe there’s much more to be uncovered.
Running Time: 26:40, Format: 1024×576 pixels (can be squeezed to PAL anamorphic)
Filmed on HDV, Canon HV20, post-production in Apple Final Cut Pro.
(Thanks, LB!)
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Cory Doctorow reads from his book Makers. Most of his talk is about the importance of fighting corporate-driven intellectual property laws like ACTA. Reads for 10 minutes, speaks for half an hour and then takes questions.
We, along with Friends of Clean City, are proud to initiate the 4th Annual Tampa Clean City Day during “The Great American Clean Up” (March – May). Tampa Clean City Day is scheduled for March 20, 2010 at Raymond James Stadium – 4201 N. Dale Mabry Hwy. from 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM, which will be the main staging area and registration. This will be the kick-off for the “Keep Tampa Clean Campaign”. If you would like to help clean up on the Hillsborough River, register at the Green Armada Web site. Volunteers will be assigned to help clean up their Tampa Neighborhoods within our 5 Districts (New Tampa, North Tampa, East Tampa, West Tampa and South Tampa). View site plan.
The Tampa Clean City Day “Clean Up Initiative” Main Objectives are:
• Promote the City of Tampa Anti-Litter Campaign (Treasure Tampa – A Clean City is Worth Preserving)
• Beautification Projects
• Address litter, recycling, trash and debris citywide
• Partnership/Sponsorship Opportunities
• Citywide Trash Receptacle Program
• Implement the Adopt-A-Street Program
• Through volunteers (private/public sector) move the City of Tampa up into the Top 10 Cleanest Treasured Cities within the United States
To make this event a success, we are seeking 25 Volunteer Site Captains from different parts of the City. The responsibilities of the Site Captains include:
• Identifying a site within your neighborhood/area of interest that needs attention
• Attending a one hour orientation and training session prior to the day of the event
• Recruiting volunteers to remove litter and debris
• Recycling and special landscape projects
• Distributing supplies provided by the Clean City Division on the day of the event
• Reporting site results at the end of the clean up
“Cleaning Up Tampa From The Ground Up” will take a collective effort on everyone’s behalf, as the City of Tampa is comprised of 333,040 city residents within a 116.1 square mile radius.
We invite you to be part of the City of Tampa “Clean City Initiative” to make the City of Tampa a cleaner place to live, work, play and visit.
We hope to see you there! “I am Tampa”, Doing my part!”
This week I’m peeved about the point-of-sale quiz. I saw an extreme example of it the other day when I got my haircut. The woman ahead of me, escorting her son, got the quiz when she arrived. She was asked to provide her name, the child’s name, their address, her phone number, and a zip code.
It turned out that even though I haven’t been to this place in years (seriously, like FOUR years) they still had my name in the system. They looked me up by phone number.
Every time I go to a bookstore I get the “Do you have a card?” “Do you want a card?” “Why don’t you use your card?” Or, even worse was when I was with JB and she considered getting a card at B&N and listened to the whole rigamarole before learning that there would be a charge for the card. When she declined the clerk was kinda snotty.
I think grocery stores used to be worse, but these days all I get is “paper or plastic?” when I forget my “green” bags (probably stitched together by enslaved children in some maquiladora) and “Any coupons?”
Some of these intrusions I don’t mind. My grocery store doesn’t bother me, and the pizza place being able to look me up by phone number doesn’t bother me (though if they’re keeping those kind of records they probably know if you’re a decent tipper or not).
The questions that drive me nuts are inquiries about my address and phone number. Just stop. I just want a simple transaction buying my widget with cash. You don’t need my home address, work phone number, cell phone number, zip code, and email address.
Even more annoying is that I know it isn’t the clerk’s decision to annoy me with these questions. Some suit somewhere decided that collecting demographic information can really help them target their advertising. So, I won’t be a jerk to the clerk, but having no way to vent my displeasure isn’t very satisfying either.
So, what to do? My solution is to write a blog post and to get my hair cut somewhere different next time. Part of my decision on where to shop is to frequent the places with the least cross-examination at the point-of-sale.
We don’t have the political will (or money) to build a train that goes halfway across the Florida peninsula. China is preparing to build (and finance) a train that runs from London to Beijing.
“Railway passengers will be able to travel from King’s Cross to Beijing in just two days on a journey that would be almost as fast as by airplane under ambitious new plans from the Chinese.”
I suppose we actually have the money to get projects like this done, but we prefer to spend our money blowing up yurts in Afghanistan.
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.
(Robert Sheckley is one of my all-time favorite writers. This story was published in Galaxy Magazine December, 1952 and the copyright was never renewed so it has fallen into the public domain. The illustration is by EMSH aka Ed Emshwiller. This is a story about carelessly going into so much debt that it will take several generations of descendants to pay it all off. I hope you enjoy it.)
If easy payment plans were
to be really efficient, patrons’
lifetimes had to be extended!
Carrin decided that he could trace his present mood to Miller’s suicide last week. But the knowledge didn’t help him get rid of the vague, formless fear in the back of his mind. It was foolish. Miller’s suicide didn’t concern him.
But why had that fat, jovial man killed himself? Miller had had everything to live for—wife, kids, good job, and all the marvelous luxuries of the age. Why had he done it?
“Good morning, dear,” Carrin’s wife said as he sat down at the breakfast table.
“Morning, honey. Morning, Billy.”
His son grunted something.
You just couldn’t tell about people, Carrin decided, and dialed his breakfast. The meal was gracefully prepared and served by the new Avignon Electric Auto-cook.
His mood persisted, annoyingly enough since Carrin wanted to be in top form this morning. It was his day off, and the Avignon Electric finance man was coming. This was an important day.
He walked to the door with his son.
“Have a good day, Billy.”
His son nodded, shifted his books and started to school without answering. Carrin wondered if something was bothering him, too. He hoped not. One worrier in the family was plenty.
“See you later, honey.” He kissed his wife as she left to go shopping.
At any rate, he thought, watching her go down the walk, at least she’s happy. He wondered how much she’d spend at the A. E. store.
Checking his watch, he found that he had half an hour before the A. E. finance man was due. The best way to get rid of a bad mood was to drown it, he told himself, and headed for the shower.
The shower room was a glittering plastic wonder, and the sheer luxury of it eased Carrin’s mind. He threw his clothes into the A. E. automatic Kleen-presser, and adjusted the shower spray to a notch above “brisk.” The five-degrees-above-skin-temperature water beat against his thin white body. Delightful! And then a relaxing rub-dry in the A. E. Auto-towel.
Wonderful, he thought, as the towel stretched and kneaded his stringy muscles. And it should be wonderful, he reminded himself. The A. E. Auto-towel with shaving attachments had cost three hundred and thirteen dollars, plus tax.
But worth every penny of it, he decided, as the A. E. shaver came out of a corner and whisked off his rudimentary stubble. After all, what good was life if you couldn’t enjoy the luxuries?
B. C. Manion at 83 Degrees reports on some green businesses in Tampa.
“Jennifer Dutkowsky, founder of Why Not Boutique at 3217A S. MacDill Ave., in south Tampa, says she opened her shop in November 2008, after sensing a need in the market.
“‘Tampa – it’s headed toward green, but it’s not green,’ Dutkowsky says.
“Items at her shop include organic clothing, reconditioned jewelry, soy candles, recycled glass vases, Envirosax bags, stainless steel water bottles, greeting cards, natural skin products and soaps.”
“At Tampa Street Market, 4715 N. Florida Ave., customers can pick out some funky furniture, buy works by local artists, stock up on handmade stationery or choose other gifts.
“Owners Charles and Amy Haynie create and reclaim furniture, with the goal of providing customers a unique piece that will last.
“They call the style of the furniture they create ‘industrial cottage.’
“‘It’s strong. It’s a lot of metal, and solid, simple lines, mixed with a little bit of softness,’ Charles Haynie says.”
It’s time to start planning some kids activities for the summer. Tampa Theatre hosts a kids film camp throughout the summer. You can sign up for different ages, different classes and different times. Check out their web page for complete details.
“At Tampa Theatre Film Camp, students will create live action and stop motion animation movies on Mac computers using programs like I-Movie and Garage Band and footage they shoot with digital cameras. Each student will premiere his or her film on Tampa Theatre’s big screen and receive a copy on DVD.”
Only members of Tampa Theatre can register until the end of the month, and registration is open to the general public on April 1.
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR WEEK AT SUMMER CAMP
Monday and Tuesday: Hands-on training sessions for various aspects of filmmaking (how to use the digital camera and programs, lighting, sound, on-camera acting, storytelling, creating storyboards and scripts, editing, etc.)
Tuesday and Wednesday: Break out into production teams, create storyboard and scripts for your group film projects. Begin filming when ready.
Wednesday and Thursday: Continue filming with group. Download footage from digital camera to iMac computers. Edit with iMovie or iStopMotion programs.
Friday: Complete editing. Screen the completed films for parents during the last hour of camp. (Morning session 11am-noon; Afternoon session 3-4pm)
There will be a Film Camp Film Festival Saturday, August 28th. Sounds like fun!
Once upon a time there was a brand named Smuckers.
Smuckers didn’t like gay people (or men who act too “feminine”), and so it made up a lie about the importance of “family values” (or something vague and disingenuous and meaningless like that) and used that lie to justify its unkind actions toward a certain incomparably gifted and adorable figure skater. This story will take us from Mississippi to Wyoming to Canada and back, full of details and scandal and unitards(!) and even a moral at the end, I promise.
But before you read the story, you might need to know a little bit about a man named Dan Savage. Dan Savage is a writer, sex-advice columnist, editor, journalist, and occasional media pundit. Several years ago, in response to ridiculously homophobic comments made by then Senator Rick Santorum, Dan decided to exact his revenge by inviting his readers to submit fun, new definitions for the word “santorum.” The winning definition can be found here, although I must warn you not to follow this link if you are the squeamish sort, or are bothered by things poo-related. So anyway, inspired by Dan, I have created a fun, new definition for the word “smuckers.” Read on, and you will learn all of this and more!
Our story began when I learned, in the space of a few short weeks, about three separate instances of anti-gay discrimination that share a common theme. I know this particular brand of anti-gay discrimination isn’t new, but perhaps, as many Americans become more tolerant of non-heterosexuality, this brand of anti-gay discrimination is becoming more common? As a sort of last-ditch effort on the part of the desperate to exert some control over others? Anyway, this brand of discrimination is not overtly aggressive or explicitly insulting. It’s often even accompanied by statements of acceptance (e.g., “I don’t hate homo-sex-uals”), and it is usually masked behind seemingly pro-social statement about the importance of love and family and “this is in everyone’s best interests.” What it always involves is some group or body or organization that has some sort of power (age or money or authority) over specific individuals, and it uses that power in a bullying kind of way to suppress people’s rights to live and behave how they want to, and to date/have sex with/fall in love with who they want to. And the backlash against the specific “offending” (read: gay) individuals then spills over onto other people, so that the powerful group or organization ends up punishing a much larger group of people than simply the specific individual or individuals who first evoked its ire by being so dirty, dirty gay.
Here are the cases that share this theme:
1. 18-year-old high school senior, Constance McMillen, asked officials at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi if she could bring her girlfriend to the senior prom as her date. Constance’s principal said no, on the basis that it blah blah blah (insert vague, meaningless blather here). When the Mississippi ACLU sent a letter to the school board on Constance’s behalf, the school responded by canceling the senior prom altogether rather than changing their “no same-sex prom dates” policy. (Oddly, the school board also has a “no female persons shall wear tuxedos at prom” policy. Constance has to sue for the right to wear a tuxedo to her prom. Is it just me, or is this downright creepy? I can’t help but wonder if the school board’s policy on prom clothing extends to underwear as well. Do they require all female persons to wear a certain type of underpant? Possibly so. This would explain the “no tuxedos” policy, as the only way to enforce the underpant policy is to make all of the young ladies pull up their skirts and show their underpants. Tuxedo pants would just make it too darn hard to check out the girls’ underpants!)
Powerful group: Principal and school board
Dirty, dirty gay count: 2 (Constance and her girlfriend)
Punishment count: All of the students who were planning to attend the senior prom. Most likely more than 2.
2. Until recently, two schools in Wheatland, Wyoming, participated in a program by the Anti-Defamation League called “No Place for Hate.” The goal of the program is “to teach young people about tolerance and respecting differences.” As part of the program, the schools display banners that read “No Place for Hate” and, in smaller print, list the names of three groups that sponsor the program: Qwest, the David and Laura Merage Foundation, and the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado. Balking at the presence of the words “gay” and “lesbian” on the banners, school trustees ultimately voted to remove the banners at Wheatland High and West Elementary on the basis that the banners “push a pro-gay marriage agenda.” The District Superintendant, Stuart Nelson, claimed that although the banners were removed, the No Place for Hate program would still be allowed to continue in the two schools. To which Bruce DeBoskey, the regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, replied “Dude, really? Are you serious? Um…” Okay, he didn’t really say that. What he did say was that the two schools would actually not be allowed to participate in the program unless they were going to honor the ideals of the program to its fullest intent. So now Wheatland High and West Elementary are proud members of the “This Is Most Definitely a Place for Hate” program, which is sponsored, probably, by Smuckers (see case #3 below).
Powerful group: 4 school trustees who voted to remove the banners
Dirty, dirty gay count: Hmm, this one is difficult to count, since the dirty, dirty gay was actually a printed logo. Let’s go with 2, the words “gay” and “lesbian.”
Punishment count: All of the students who valued the “No Place for Hate” program and requested that the banners be replaced (request denied). Also, all of the kids who get bullied in those two schools and who might not have gotten bullied if the “No Place for Hate” program had been retained. Most likely more than 2.
3. In response to a recent online poll asking skating fans “Who would you like to see guest star with ‘Stars on Ice’?,” voters selected figure skater Johnny Weir, the three time National Champion and two time Olympian who has a reputation for being “flashy,” “fun,” and “entertaining” (for instance, Johnny designs his own glittery skating costumes, stars in his own reality TV show, and skates to non-traditional tunes such as Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”; see picture below). Despite Johnny’s popularity with skating fans, however, sponsors of the “Stars on Ice” show, which include Smuckers and IMG Entertainment, will not invite him to participate because they claim that he is “not family friendly” enough. It is possible that this jab at Johnny’s character is not about homophobia. After all, Johnny himself has made no public declarations of his sexual orientation, claiming that what he does sexually, and with whom he does it, are private details and irrelevant to his athletic career. So Smuckers either assumes that Johnny is gay and dislikes him on the basis of this assumption, or they merely object to the fact that he violates gender roles. And this is odd for the very glaringly obvious reason that all male figure skaters violate gender roles, in that “wearing a spandex unitard and ballet dancing on ice to classical music” are behaviors that are stereotypically feminine, not masculine (trust me on this; I study gender roles for a living). Another odd thing about Smuckers’ “not family friendly” statement is that, from all of the evidence we can glean about Johnny, he is actually quite “friendly” with and to his family. His mother and aunt often travel with him to skating competitions and shows, and he helps support his family financially given that his father is unable to work for medical reasons. So there is no discernible way in which Johnny Weir is “not family friendly,” or at least any less “family friendly” than any other gender role violating male figure skater, and yet these were the words that a representative used to explain Smuckers’ refusal to invite Johnny to skate in their show. Strange, because according to Smuckers’ website, “honesty” is one of their Basic Beliefs and a guiding principle in their organization. So why do I feel like I’m being lied to?
Powerful group: The J.M. Smucker Company
Dirty, dirty gay count: 1 (Johnny, who may or may not be gay, but who will play the role of the dirty, dirty gay in today’s episode of “Go Smuck Yourself”).
Punishment count: There’s Johnny himself, who has said that he would have liked to be in the “Stars on Ice” program, and then there are all of the skating fans who voted for Johnny as their most wanted guest star. I have no idea how many people voted, but I’m assuming it was more than 1.
You see what I mean? It’s no longer fashionable or acceptable to go up to the nearest gay man or lesbian (or bisexual or transgender person) and kick them in the crotch or punch them or pull their hair. And since they can’t use these direct, explicit, in-your-face kind of anti-gay discrimination tactics (which, come on, they’re just itching to do), these groups and authority figures and corporations fall back on the only kind of anti-gay punishment they have at their disposal: They deny something valuable or desirable to the larger group as a way of getting indirectly at the dirty, dirty gay.
And this, my friends, is what it means to get “smuckered.” To get smuckered is to experience an unfortunate or painful outcome – to have something desired taken away, or to be denied an opportunity that you want and deserve – at the hands of some more-powerful-than-yourself institution whose ultimate goal is to reduce the rights of non-heterosexual persons. As I hope I’ve demonstrated, you don’t have to be gay to get smuckered. Constance McMillen got smuckered, but so did all of the non-gay students at her high school who had been looking forward to their senior prom. Lots of kids in Wheatland, Wyoming got smuckered real good by their own school trustees. And Johnny Weir – talented, sweet, family-loving, maybe-or-maybe-not-gay Johnny Weir – got smuckered right up the ol’ salad shooter by America’s favorite makers of jellies, jams, and condiments! He got smuckered by the very masters of the smuck.
We have reached the end of the story. I promised you a moral, didn’t I? Hmm. I’m feeling a tad cynical and sad right now, so happy moral conjuring is difficult. But I suppose, if I have to come up with a moral, it is this: Love yourself. Be good to others. Stand up for your own, and for other people’s, rights. If you have kids, teach them to be themselves and to stand up for their rights (Constance McMillen is a great example of what can result from good parenting. Have you seen this kid defend herself? Holy mother of god, she is awesome).
And most importantly, don’t let the smuckers get you down.
***
Smucker:noun. A powerful entity that uses bullying tactics such as over-punishing (punishing groups instead of individuals) as a means of suppressing the rights of relatively less powerful non-heterosexuals: “Can you believe that smucker canceled our senior prom, all because Constance wanted to attend with her girlfriend?”
Smucker:verb. To use bullying tactics such as over-punishing as a means of suppressing the rights of relatively less powerful non-heterosexuals: “If the Anti-Defamation League insists on pushing their pro-gay-marriage agenda in our schools, we’re just going to have to smucker them!”
Smuckered:verb past perfect. To have been on the receiving end of a smucking: “Well, Johnny, it certainly looks like you have been smuckered!”
(Author’s note: If you like my definitions, please feel free to spread the word!)
Creative Loafing kicks off their annual tournament food competition. This year is the search for Tampa’s best ribs. First round voting in the Tournament of Ribs ends Monday, so get your votes in.
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CL also has top-notch food historian Andrew Huse writing about Tampa’s [hot as the] devil crab.
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Grid 57 (a hyperlocal crime-watch blog for Tampa’s Grid 57) passes along this reminder of the importance of paying attention to what happens in your neighborhood.
“March the 1st two neighbors were in their front yard chatting when they witnessed suspicious activity. They took the time to document the tag number and the description of the person driving. Just a few moments later the same suspicious person robbed a store at gunpoint. Because those alert citizens, officers located the suspect via the tag number & great physical description. That person had been responsible for 4 recent armed robberies. Now he is behind bars….moral of the story…..NHW works! Also listen to your instincts and record information, you never know when it will catch a BIG FISH! Thanks”
I couldn’t think of a peeve this week so I asked my Facebook friends for some of their peeves.
JD doesn’t like it when people use too many question marks and misused apostrophes bother SB.
CP thinks that when you’re in a public bathroom you should have the decency to do a courtesy flush.
LR does not like hair and food to be near each other. Keep hairbrushes, hats, and ponytail holders off the table and kitchen counters.
NP (who works the circ desk at a library) gets annoyed when people ask to “rent” library materials.
JW hates lousy parkers.
“Not a huge Hummer that can’t park in the lines, but a little compact that is angled so grotesquely that there is no possible way for you to get into (or out) of the space next to it.”
JD, but not the JD who hates too many question marks, doesn’t like competition commuters, “people who think commuting to work is a competition to see who gets there first.”
MM gets irritated when people ask a question and then interrupt the answer.
Finally, the other MM’s peeve used to be having to interact with people. But since his daughter was born he’s decided that interacting with some people can be pretty nice. Yay for babies!
“Centrally located and set on the front lawn of historic Hillsborough High School, you will find between 60 & 80 vendors selling a vast mixture of local, handmade and/or homemade products.”
A sample of what you will find this Sunday:
Conventional & Hydroponic Produce
Florida Grown Herbs, Plants & Orchids
An assortment of Fresh Cheese and Local, Free-Range Eggs
Locally made Jams, Jellies, Salsa, Dips, Seasonings, Sauces and Oils
Freshly made Desserts and Baked Goods
Organic Coffee & Tea, Organic Vegan Lunch Dishes, Italian Specialties, German Bratwurst, British Pies, Crab Cakes, Hungarian Specialties and more…
Local Artisans offering handmade Soaps, Jewelry, & Eco-Friendly Apparel
Be sure to check out their webpage to learn more about the market, to learn how to become a vendor, or to show your support by becoming a friend of the market.
“Seed bombing, also known as “Seed Grenades” is a technique of introducing vegetation to arid soils or otherwise inhospitable terrains. A seed bomb is a compressed clod of soil containing live vegetation that may be thrown or dropped onto a terrain to be modified. The term “seed grenade” was first used by Liz Christy in 1973 when she started the “Green Guerillas”. The first seed grenades were made from condoms filled with local wildflower seeds, water and fertilizer. The seed grenades were tossed over fences onto empty lots in New York City in order to make the neighborhoods look better. It was the start of the Guerrilla Gardening movement.”
Florida Gardener offers this recipe for a seed bomb.
Basic Ingredients:
5 Cups Dry Terracotta clay
3 Cups Dry Gardening Soil or Organic Compost
1 Cup of seeds*
1 – 2 Cups of water (preferably not tap) in a Spray Mister
Step 1: Sift Dry Terracotta clay through a strainer to remove large chunks
Step 2: Mix in Dry Soil or Compost
Step 3: Add seeds*
Step 4: Blend everything together well
Step 5: Mist water onto the mixture while stirring. Spray enough water to allow the mixture to stick/bind together.
Step 5: Take a healthy tablespoon of the finished mixture and roll (in the palm of your hand) into round balls.
Step 6: Put seed balls in the sun to dry completely for a day or two.
Step 7: Toss seed balls onto chosen area.
Step 8: Wait for rain to allow seeds to germinate.
If the Alaska Permanent Fund is good enough for Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters and Alaska’s libertarian population, why isn’t it good for the rest of America?
If we take Republican leaders at their word, the states are supposed to be laboratories of liberty, each trying their own strategies of improving the general welfare, with the most successful being adopted by the Federal government. Obama has urged Democratic leaders to adopt this Republican philosophy into the Health Care Reform bill.
For those unfamiliar with Alaska’s successful experiment with socialism, the Alaska Permanent Fund is rooted in the Alaska Constitution’s assertion that the natural resources of Alaska belong to all Alaskans, and it is the legislature’s responsibility to develop these resources for the “maximum benefit of its people.”
“The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of its people.”
In 1976 Alaskans amended their constitution so that –
“At least twenty-five per cent of all mineral lease rentals, royalties, royalty sale proceeds, federal mineral revenue sharing payments and bonuses received by the State shall be placed in a permanent fund, the principal of which shall be used only for those income-producing investments specifically designated by law as eligible for permanent fund investments. All income from the permanent fund shall be deposited in the general fund unless otherwise provided by law.”
The money collected through the rentals, etc., is then managed and invested by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and every year the earnings are split among the citizens of Alaska, providing just over $1,300 to each Alaskan last year.
Given that this policy is embraced by Republicans and Libertarians alike it should be easy to adopt something similar on a national scale. (I’m joking, of course. If Obama adopted the GOP platform wholesale, Republican leadership would continue to accuse him of being a craven Marxist.)
In addition to the 30+ years of experience we have to draw on in Alaska, we also have an endorsement from F. A. Hayek, a Nobel Prize winning economist and favorite among the Libertarian crowd. In The Road to Serfdom, at the beginning of the Security and Freedom chapter, he writes –
“There is no reason why in a society which has reached the general level of wealth which our has attained the first kind of security [the security of a minimum income] should not be guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom.”
Similarly, Nobel Prize winner and conservative favorite Milton Friedman argued for a negative income tax, where people whose annual salaries fall below a set minimum receive money from the government to bring their annual salary up to a minimum set by the legislature.
While this system might allow the more bohemian or lazy among us to lounge around all day watching television or blowing their government funds on cheap weed, it brings a lot more positives than negatives. People in abusive relationships would find it easier to move out on their own if they knew they’d be able to pay rent. If it’s applied to everyone, the stigma of being on the dole is removed. If the fund is sufficient then unemployment insurance becomes an issue of the past. In fact, a program like this could conceivably reduce taxes since many of the programs funded by tax dollars would be less necessary if everyone received a sufficiently large enough stipend.
But, where would this money come from?
It would be drawn from multiple sources; revenue from the spectrum auction, and from government-owned utilities; inheritance tax and partial repayment of the funding upon death; sin taxes and consumption taxes; as well as resource sharing from the 44 million acres of US public land currently leased for a pittance to oil and gas companies.
We know that there are some drawbacks. This is a disincentive to work. But, the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. Research shows that improving income inequality reduces crime, improves health, increases access to education, reduces some taxes, reduces poverty, improves children’s health, and improves the general welfare.
So, if it’s good enough for Sarah Palin, Alaskan Republicans, and Libertarian economic philosophers, why isn’t it good enough for all Americans?
Speaking of new restaurants, it’s now official. The Refinery has replaced the Bungalow Bistro. The new owners kept the name and menu for a couple of weeks while they planned their renovation, ordered signage, and created a new menu. If you use Facebook, be-fan The Refinery and get updates on specials. Or follow them on Twitter at TampaRefinery. Tonight is “cheap date night.”
“CHEAP DATE NIGHT. We wanna bring back Friday Date Night and to do this we are going to bribe you. Select bottles of really good wine (including champagne) will be $15 all night. So, you could EASILY get away with a $35 tab for 2 people for the entire night. You can thank us on Saturday.”
And, here is the dinner menu until March 7. Menus change regularly so they can serve seasonal vegetables they get from Urban Oasis Hydroponic Farm. For the less adventurous palates there will always be “Craig’s List” which this week includes steak and a hamburger.
The new issue of UC Tampa is up. This issue has some great articles, but of special interest to me is the post on Urban Core 2.0, about some ingenious ideas for continuing the renovation downtown. Reading all the way through to the end I see that it’s actually a reprint of an article written by B. C. Manion for 83 Degrees.
“Now that the Riverwalk and three brand spanking new museums stand poised to spawn downtown Tampa’s long-awaited rebirth, imagine adding a terrace garden on the north end near Interstate 275 — and envision the south end without a waterfront convention center.
“Add a daily farmer’s market in the midst of the urban core, a much greater mixture of housing stock, more eclectic places to work, play and relax, and new ways to enjoy the surrounding river and bay waters above, beneath and on the surface.”
If you are a Go enthusiast, or would like to learn how to play, drop by one of the Tampa Go Club meetings 3 – 6 pm on Sundays at the International Boba House (between USF & University Mall) 2764 University Square Drive.
“Go is a fascinating board game that originated in China more than 4,000 years ago. Also known as baduk, wei ch’i, weiqi, and igo, it is played today by millions of people, including thousands in the United States. In Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan, it is far more popular than chess is in the West, and professional players compete for large cash prizes. Its popularity in this country continues to grow, more than fifty years after the founding of the American Go Association.
“It is said that the rules of go can be learned in minutes, but that it can take a lifetime to master the game.”
“What the episodes of the Project 3.0 show will demonstrate is exactly how we’ve self-capitalized this company basically without any financial resources whatsoever,” explains Arnauts. “Our philosophy is that everything is a joint venture. So, what the show really demonstrates is how these business relationships have evolved from the very beginning, and how we’ve been able to build out this building.”
I also deeply heart the Roosevelt guys, and am delighted that we’re surfing the same neuro-space. Their first show was Re:Create, the Art of the Upcycle, and they expect to continue the theme of re:creation.
“We’re going to carry on with the theme of (the ‘Re:Create’) show, which was upcycling – taking disposable items or things that people consider garbage, and making them into something either of use, or just giving it a value.”
Elinor Ostrom is one of my intellectual heroes. She recently won the Nobel Prize in economics for her research on common property and cooperation. She’s interviewed at Yes! Magazine.
“Elinor: Well, I don’t see the human as hopeless. There’s a general tendency to presume people just act for short-term profit. But anyone who knows about small-town businesses and how people in a community relate to one another realizes that many of those decisions are not just for profit and that humans do try to organize and solve problems.
“If you are in a fishery or have a pasture and you know your family’s long-term benefit is that you don’t destroy it, and if you can talk with the other people who use that resource, then you may well figure out rules that fit that local setting and organize to enforce them. But if the community doesn’t have a good way of communicating with each other or the costs of self-organization are too high, then they won’t organize, and there will be failures.”
“But when people can communicate, particularly on a face-to-face basis, and say, “Well, gee, how about if we do this? How about we do that?” Then they can come to an agreement.”
100,000 Garages is an effort to create a network of fabbers. Check out their “Our Big Idea!” page for an explanation.
During the presidential debates Tom Brokaw asked the candidates if they thought “economic, environmental, and energy challenges” would best be solved by a Manhattan Project-style effort, or 100,000 garages across America independently generating ideas and solutions.
Picking up on this idea of 100,000 garages the creators of the site are working to connect designers and makers from around the world.
“Many of us pondered what WE might do in one of those 100,000 garages, recognizing that the answer for many of today’s current challenges can be found distributed in our own innovation, creativity, and productivity. The idea, then, is to bring together those who need to get things made – be it innovators, designers, or just regular folks looking for new solutions or new stuff – with “Fabbers” who have the technology tools for production.”
We are in the middle of a manufacturing revolution. For those involved in this revolution, and those who watch culture along the fringes, this is old news. Mainstream America and policy makers, however, seem to be completely unaware of the revolution taking place.
Logo created by Conal for the Ryerson and Western Online Journalism students 11-part series on maker culture
As long as this manufacturing revolution stays on the fringes it will have little economic impact. If we can harness it, support it, incubate it, we have the possibility of generating an economic boom akin to the Internet economy of the 1990s.
But, just as it was difficult to determine the future of the “information superhighway” in 1993, it’s difficult to see where this manufacturing revolution might lead us. CompuServe and AOL still looked like pretty good ideas in the early Internet years. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia were unimaginable (or at least unimagined).
If the desktop computer drove the rise of the Internet, what will drive the rise of independent/boutique/small batch manufacturing? The 3D printer is as good a place to start as any.
3D PRINTING
At this early stage it’s difficult to tell if the 3D printer is the virtual reality gloves or the cell phone of this dawning age.
3D printer from the Evil Mad Scientist 3D Printer Project
To hear the technophiles tell the story we’ll soon be using 3D printers to print out everything from dinner to human organs. It’s the first step to realizing Star Trek’s replicator.
While there are lots of options for hobbyists, from Fab@Home to RepRap, 3D printers are still too hinky for the Wal-Mart crowd, and it won’t really be mainstream until middle-class families can pick up an inexpensive model at their favorite big box store.
Regardless, the desktop 3D printer is in some ways the holy grail of the current maker culture. If everyone has a desktop manufacturing contraption, then we will see an economic boon that parallels the desktop computing revolution. Companies will pop up to provide materials, support, software, and to fill the hundreds of little nooks and crannies that have yet to be considered.
A Fab@Home fabber
So, who are these people so eager for a homebrew manufacturing revolution? Before I can answer that I think it might help to provide a little history about the United States and its manufacturing enthusiasts.
MAKER PAST
The United States has a long history of gadget enthusiasm. Shortly after the Revolutionary War, and well into the nineteenth century, the mechanical arts, aka the useful arts, played an important role in the psychic geography of the nation. The useful arts were so salient to the founding generation that they included them in the Constitution in Article 1, Section 8. Among the many responsibilities of Congress is -
“To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”
The useful arts in this context specifically meant invention; think Benjamin Franklin and his bifocals or Franklin stove, or Whitney and his cotton gin. Invention at the time was largely an individual endeavor. Annual agricultural fairs devoted a lot of time and space to the mechanical arts, showing off improvements and inventions to improve the farmer’s lot. In 1812 Harvard established a chair for the Application of the Sciences to the Useful Arts, where Jacob Bigelow re-introduced the word “technology” to the English language to describe this new area of research.
By the end of the nineteenth century some of the most famous men in America were gadgeteers. Howe and Singer and their sewing machines, Morse and his telegraph, Bell and his telephone, and especially Edison and his hundreds of inventions, captured the popular imagination.
The independent gadgeteer as a heroic icon started to vanish after Ford and the Wright brothers. The first World War revolutionized technological development, and Ford’s factory system pushed corporate interest away from the private inventor to in-house inventions that could fit neatly into new manufacturing systems.
By the 1930s the independent inventor was seen as sort of a crank. At best, inventions were something to occupy engineers during time off from their real jobs. The homebrew creator received gentle ribbing from Rube Goldberg, and the stereotype of the eccentric basement inventor was born; a man too attached to the romantic era of invention past, working in his basement creating flubber, intermittent windshield wipers, or perpetual motion machines that never quite worked.
After WWII invention became firmly locked into the labs of the military-industrial complex. The mechanical arts became a quaint part of history, and the maker culture was diminished to the world of hobbyists with their clubs, magazines, conventions, and the rest of the accoutrements of geekdom.
The residue of this 19th century culture of the useful and mechanical art persisted through the 20th century in science fairs and shop class. But even the venerable shop class has come under fire over the last quarter century, and been dropped by more and more schools. (See Shop Class as Soulcraft for a terrific meditation on the importance of learning to work with your hands.)
MAKER PRESENT
The origins of the current maker culture can be traced back to the computer homebrew clubs of the 1970s that built their own computers, their sibling activities of building robots and rockets, as well as the do-it-yourself (DIY) mentality of Whole Earth Catalog and punk rock.
It was this DIY culture that spawned Jobs and Wozniak and their revolutionary Apple computer. But the subsequent innovation and creation wasn’t in making new objects, it was in creating new software, a sort of new literature for the engineering set. The return of garage inventors became instead the rise of garage software programmers.
Maker enthusiasts remained, but they remained on the fringes. Survival Research Laboratories, formed by Mark Pauline in the late 1970s, made wild, dangerous robots, but was always seen as a type of outsider kinesthetic art. Rocket-building enthusiasts finally saw their time arrive in the mid-1990s with the implementation of the X Prize, which offered big money to someone who could homebrew a rocket that reached orbit. And, building your own computer became a rite of passage for a special brand of teenage computer nerds.
Cory Doctorow elaborated on this maker culture in his recent novel Makers (2009). (My review of Makers can be found here.)
Tech conferences are an important part in spreading tech culture, and O’Reilly has drawn from this culture to create the Maker Faires.
“Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. So much to see, you will need 2 days to see it all!”
Maker Faires have been held in San Francisco, Austin, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Rhode Island. Upcoming Faires are scheduled to take place in San Francisco, Detroit, Queens, and Nairobi, Kenya. Wikipedia reports that the first Faire in San Francisco in 2008 –
“… included a human-sized mousetrap, kinetic squid sculpture, bicycle-powered music stage, a solar-powered chariot pulled by an Arnold Schwarzenegger robot, and over 500 booths from different makers. There were approximately 65,000 people in attendance.”
The huge turnouts for the Faires are not the only signs that Frauenfelder and O’Reilly’s reading of the zeitgeist was correct. The rapid success of the arts and crafts site Etsy, “your place to buy and sell all things handmade,” is also evidence that there is a sizable maker culture out there creating stuff.
Etsy allows independent artists and craftspeople to sell their wares to interested buyers. Like Make magazine it was also launched in 2005. By now Etsy is approaching $20 million in sales each month, solely on tens of thousands of craftspeople selling to hundreds of thousands of buyers.
MAKER FUTURE
So, what is the future of this nascent popular culture?
One interesting possibility is the rise of the Arduino circuit board (coincidentally, the Arduino circuit board, like Make and Etsy, also launched in 2005).
“What’s really remarkable, though, is Arduino’s business model: The team has created a company based on giving everything away. On its Web site, it posts all its trade secrets for anyone to take—all the schematics, design files, and software for the Arduino board. Download them and you can manufacture an Arduino yourself; there are no patents. You can send the plans off to a Chinese factory, mass-produce the circuit boards, and sell them yourself — pocketing the profit without paying Banzi a penny in royalties. He won’t sue you. Actually, he’s sort of hoping you’ll do it.
That’s because the Arduino board is a piece of open source hardware, free for anyone to use, modify, or sell.”
This open source circuit board can be used to cheaply install “brains” into art and craft objects, potentially upping the possibility for creating truly novel and desirable objects.
And, that’s what this movement is still waiting for; the maker culture version of the killer app.
$20 million a month generated by Etsy is a lot of money, but it’s peanuts compared to Microsoft, or Apple, or Ebay, or Google. Will there be a killer object that compels everyone to want to participate in the current maker culture? Will the suite of designs become so obviously desirable that non-hobbyists will start buying 3D printers?
Desktop 3D printers currently sell for around $5,000 to $15,000 (or (if they ever come back in stock) get a MakerBot for under a grand). High demand can drive the price down, but it’s still not clear what the quality of the built objects might be. If you’re Jay Leno, and you have the money to spend, you can buy a high-end 3D printer that produces parts for your rare car collection.
A popular home appliance 3D printer will need be able to work with a cheap, easy-to-use goop. (Perhaps we’ll see a new domain for the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup industry to launch themselves into.) It didn’t take much for American consumers to accept planned obsolescence or a culture of fashion that made it necessary to purchase new items annually, so cheap knock-offs from your home printer might not be that much of a problem. Another possibility is that this might be a boon to the plastics industry. However, a petroleum-based goop that serves as the three-dimensional ink might make high-quality, solid objects, but might not appeal to an audience that is primed to lean to the green.
If home appliance 3D printers never take off perhaps start-ups like Shapeways, which allows you to use their printers for your design, will find their niche.
Manufacturing plants in China are already ready to embrace the small-batch manufacturing culture, a sort of larger-scale version of the Shapeways manufacturing for the independent designer. This why you can get your own face on a bobble-head, or get action figures made of all your co-workers.
On a larger scale, start-ups like Local Motors are using factories in China to do their small-batch manufacturing. Local Motors designs and manufactures limited editions of automobiles. (Here’s an earlier post on Local Motors. Picture below is the forthcoming Miami model.) (I learned about Local Motor’s in Chris Anderson’s “In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits.”)
MAKER CULTURE IN TAMPA?
Which raises the question, where’s the maker culture in Tampa?
There are “17,000 manufacturers in the state with a 400,000 workforce,” according to this report at Bradenton.com last summer. And places like the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center at Hillsborough Community College are working to train workers for those manufacturers, but that’s not really in the spirit of the creative independence of the maker culture.
We hear over and over that we are an information economy, we are a service economy. Our era of manufacturing has passed on to China, India, the maquiladoras, and anywhere else where labor can be had for a pittance. But, the future of manufacturing is not engraved in stone. With the right sort of support, incubation, and creative energy, we can bring manufacturing back home, recreated in profound and unexpected ways.
***
UPDATE: Joseph Flaherty spoke at “at Ignite Boston 7 on how custom manufacturing technology is going to change the way we build.” He posted his talk and included his slides.
“Food Creation consists of a food printer that would accept various edible ingredients and then combine and ‘print’ them in the desired shape and consistency, in much the same way as stereo lithographic printers create 3-D representations of product concepts.
“For example carrot could be served as foam or parmesan cheese as a strand of spaghetti! So if the kids don’t want to eat broccoli or brussels sprouts, how about shaping them as candy or ice-cream?”
Hmmm, independent research consistently shows that cell phones increase the risk of tumors and cancer. Fortunately, research by the cell phone industry shows there is no risk! Whew, that was close.
Christopher Ketcham has a great article in GQ about the controversy surrounding cell phones. Increasingly, the evidence is confirming that cell phones are a real health hazard.
“The only honest way to think of our cell phones is that they are tiny, low-power microwave ovens, without walls, that we hold against the sides of our heads.”
I’m not much of a cell phone user, but I dream of a world saturated in Wi-Fi (which is also implicated in the article). Usually when I dream of annihilating the human race it’s a lot less subtle.
“All of these concerns—the danger of microwaves issuing from the phones we place next to our skulls, the danger of waves emitted by the cell towers that dot our landscapes—also apply to the Wi-Fi networks in our homes and libraries and offices and cafés and parks and neighborhoods. Wi-Fi operates typically at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (the same frequency as microwave ovens) but is embedded with a wider range of modulations than cell phones, because we need it to carry more data.”
Ketcham closes with this awesome quote from George Orwell.
“The machine has got to be accepted, but it is probably better to accept it rather as one accepts a drug—that is, grudgingly and suspiciously. Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous and habit-forming. The oftener one surrenders to it the tighter its grip becomes.”
***
UPDATE – Research at the University of South Florida suggests that cell phones can improve memory and reverse dementia. Yay! My wi-fi is making me stronger!
(Thanks, JV)
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This Sunday, March 21, Grand Hampton will be hosting a Fresh Market Day.
