By spocko, on April 24th, 2013% Just signed up to back this Solar powered charger of USB devices. I’ll use it for my iPod touch, iPhone and old fashioned flip phone (Kyocera! $9 Virgin Mobile)
The guy who’s in charge of this is great. I’ve build about a dozen of his solar chargers. I’m not building this, but I would rather buy from him than from some big company.
You’ve got access to sun and need a charge this is the green way to go,
This is my first Kickstarter backing and I find the process interesting. His update and history of getting this done is funny and interesting.
He’s a teacher and I’ve corresponded with him and he really likes explaining what is going on and why it works.
I backed this at the 85 dollar level to get the solar cells and Battery pack I can’t wait to get them. I’m writing this post on an IPod I just charged with my USB charge I made from one of his kits.
If you are a maker you might want to go to browndoggadets.com and create one now while waiting for the bigger one via the Kickstarter.
By spocko, on April 16th, 2013%
I had a dream last night where I approached SF from Sausalito at night on the water. I was in a pick up truck with Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing and as we came over hill I was suddenly in a sea kayak at water level. The sun started hitting the city from the east with a dark sky behind it. The reflected lights off the buildings looked like fireworks. I remember in the dream trying to take a picture with my cell phone and knowing it wouldn’t do justice to the image. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life.
When I work up I had this thought and tweeted it:
I wish I could show you the photos from the dream I just had. Gorgeous sunrise over SF while in a truck with @xeni coming from Marin.
— Spocko (@spockosbrain) April 16, 2013
I’m a photographer, I’ve done sea kayaking before. I just spent a while looking for a photo that captured that image, but couldn’t find one. The one above is the closest.
Now I could try and recreate it, but I really wish I could capture the . . . → Read More: I dreamt of the beauty of San Francisco last night
By spocko, on April 15th, 2013%
O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us. (O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us.)Robert Burns,
One of the interesting things about this Dove campaign is that it is coming from a company and an industry that has spent decades pushing products to help women and men to doubt themselves, because it sells products. How many items would be sold with a, Hey, you look great, you don’t need our product!”campaign?
Of course Mitchell and Webb do a great funny skit about how the advertising industry do this to women vs. what they do to men. Link
Just like if you don’t have anything to fear you don’t need things to protect yourself. Selling anxiety and fear is a big business.
Today, following the Boston Marathon bombing, their will be a lot of people wanting to use fear to sell things, revenge, more wars, more restrictions of civil liberties, more hate. Always ask, “Who benefits from a specific responses?” Is that response what the person or person wanted? Why would we give them what they want?”
. . . → Read More: O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us. -Robert Burns
By spocko, on April 15th, 2013% Lots of post apocalypse movies coming out this summer. This might be one of the most useful tips.
Later I will teach you how to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.
By spocko, on April 15th, 2013% Jimmy Dore and Frank Conniff discuss Obama’s proposed Social Security cuts on the Jimmy Dore Show
I thought this was a very interesting discussion. I think that there are plenty of people like Frank, who think that Obama is a really smart politician and is offering up chained CPI knowing that the Republicans will not accept it and then when the Republicans don’t raise taxes he will say, “Look, I was being reasonable, but the Republicans aren’t, so I’m raising taxes.”
Frank thinks that no cuts will be made to Social Security and that Obama will be seen as reasonable and it won’t hurt the Democrats in 2014.
Jimmy Dore thinks that Obama is just a bad negotiator.
Tonight on Virtually Speaking Digby & Gaius Publius will be talking about the President’s budget and the politics of the Chained-CPI, how that affects the 2014 campaign. (What are Republicans really up to?)-
9p ET/6p PT – Listen live and later
Virtually Speaking with Digby and Gaius Publius 4-14-2013
I expect that Digby and Gaius will present the case that Obama has been pushing this kind of “Grand Bargain” since 2006. That he only stops when he is in campaign mode.
. . . → Read More: Obama, Bad Negotiator or Super Ninja Politician?
By spocko, on April 13th, 2013%
So I was just listening to the David Feldman Show and they were talking about how actors dealt with fans, especially if the actor/actress was no longer a star. One of the people who has impressed me as a human being and a writer is Wil Wheaton.
You watch this video and you see a real guy, remembering something and meeting with a fan. What is interesting about this interaction is that in a way the power balance has changed. The woman now has some sort of show, and Wil is less of a celebrity to her than to her 12 year old self. That is one of the weird thing about fandom, the power differential. Some celebrities know how to deal with it, others don’t.
I’m posting more light stuff these days because I realize all I’ve been writing are castor oil posts about what we should be doing. Time for some variety. I may be half Vulcan, but I’m also half human and my human half has a funny bone (which my Vulcan brian would point out is neither funny nor a bone.)
By spocko, on April 12th, 2013%
Stealing Time | Sci-Fi Time Travel Short Film from Finite Films on Vimeo.
This was interesting. What I like about it was that it also had constraints, which is interesting, like some of the improv games I’ve played in the past.
One of the fun parts of watching this is to check the mental boxes to see that they met all the constraints. Here they are.
When a down-on-his-luck inventor builds a time machine to change the past, he unwittingly sets off a disastrous chain of events.
This short film was made based on the following constraints: • Cannot take place entirely in one location. • Someone must say the words “time travel.” • Two characters must have a long-standing rivalry. • When one character was a kid, he/she used to wish he/she could travel back in time to see real-life dinosaurs. • One character is a wine lover and is very picky/elitist about their wine. • One character prefers bubble baths to showers. • Someone has to say: “I have to go back.”
By spocko, on April 12th, 2013% The folks at Teehan+Lax Labs have designed a web tool that makes it easy to create videos from publicly available Google Maps data.
This hyperlapse tool puts you in the driver’s seat of the Google Street view car anywhere it’s been in the world. Hyperlapse videos made using Google Street View data
Google Street View Hyperlapse from Teehan+Lax Labs on Vimeo.
I think I’ll create some videos of interesting places I’d love to drive around but never would because of the location.
But my first video will be to trace the path of fictional characters in novels based on real locations. Maybe Sam Spade’s Maltese Falcon route in present day SF?
h/t my friends at io9.com
By spocko, on April 5th, 2013% 
I used to work with a great organization called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Beyond their four tenants of social justice, simple living, spirituality and community, they also had some interesting bumper-stickers. I’m a sucker for a good bumper-sticker.
One from Pope Paul VI said, “If you want peace. work for justice.”
the winds of skagit. by heanster, license via Creative Commons
I was thinking about that today after listening to Kevin Gosztola talk about his coverage of the Bradly Manning trial on the Sam Seder show. (You can listen to the show here, or watch it here, tell Sammy Spocko sent ya.)
Kevin talked about the Manning case, the legal definition of a whistle blower and how the government was all hopped up to get justice, but he was struck by how this cry for justice (and punishment) wasn’t being applied to people who had committed war crimes. Kevin is there every day, he knows how Manning was treated. He knows how he has suffered and what it has been costing Manning for trying to help expose bad actors.
And I thought. “How is the failure to bring war criminals to justice impacting me personally?”
I think we have . . . → Read More: How Do Justice Failures Effect You?
By spocko, on March 31st, 2013%
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