Recycled Island: plastic fantastic?

An artist's impression of Recycled Island.

A floating city of half a million people on a vast plastic island. Does that sound like Waterworld? The vision could soon be a reality if Dutch conservationists have their way. Recycled Island is a plan to clean up 44 million kilos of plastic waste from the North Pacific Gyre, which stretches from California to Japan, and provide 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles) of sustainable living space in the process. Solar and wave energy would provide power for islanders while sustainable fishing and agriculture could provide their food.

According to the website for Whim Architecture, which designed the concept: "The proposal has three main aims: cleaning our oceans from a gigantic amount of plastic waste, creating new land and constructing a sustainable habitat."

There is an estimated 100m tonnes of plastic flotsam in the Pacific Gyre, where ocean currents cause it to accumulate. The floating dump covers an area one and a half times the size of the US.

Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) was the first to find the huge, floating plastic dump in 1997. On the foundation's website, he described it as "just absolutely gross – a truly disgusting plastic cesspool. [It] has to be burned into the consciousness of humanity that the ocean is now a plastic wasteland".

Because petroleum-based plastics are non-biodegradable, any plastic that enters the ocean stays there, continually breaking into smaller pieces until it is ingested by marine life or deposited on the shore. In a 1998 survey, 89% of the litter observed floating on the ocean surface in the North Pacific was plastic. In the Central Pacific Gyre, the AMRF in 2002 found six kilos of plastic for every kilo of plankton near the surface. By 2008, that figure had risen to 45 to one.

Birds like albatrosses eat the larger pieces which block their stomachs, while smaller pellets can cause fatal intestinal damage in fish.

Recycled Island could be a unique opportunity to save marine life. "The project should be carried out with great care so no negative influence to the environment is made," states the project's website. "Our ideal is to return more balance to the environment and set an example of how an environment-friendly habitat could be created."

Cian Luanaigh@'The Guardian'

Recycling!!!

What If Mad Men's Don Draper Designed Facebook Ads?

(Click images to enlarge)

Trying to convince their clients that "everything ages fast," Brazilian ad agency Moma mocked up some hilarious vintage 1960s-style ads for Facebook, YouTube, and Skype. (Including charmingly broken Brazilian English.) Yes, there's even a Keyboard Cat cameo.

The ads are currently being published in Meio & Mensagem, a Brazilian newspaper.

@'Gawker'

♪♫ Breathe Owl Breathe - Own Stunts

Karl Rove Wants WikiLeaks 'Criminal' Julian Assange 'Hunted Down And Grabbed And Put On Trial'

JPBarlow

Wyclef Jean, to Sean Penn's charge that he diverted donations: "I am Haitian." What's more Haitian than kleptocracy?

Confessions of a slum landlord

TorrentReactor Buys and Renames Russian Town

TorrentReactor, listed among the five most popular torrent sites on the Internet, has surprised friends and foes by acquiring a small town in central Russia. The town formerly known as Gar has reportedly been bought for the equivalent of $148,000 and was quickly renamed after the Russian-based torrent site.

The last time a torrent site attempted to buy some land, the plan miserably failed. Early 2007 The Pirate Bay launched its ‘Buy Sealand” campaign. The plan was to raise enough money so they could buy the micronation of Sealand and offer “high-speed Internet access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay.”
Within a few weeks the campaign raised some $20,000 from potential citizens, but this wasn’t enough. Sealand turned out not to be an option as it was prized at 750 million euros, which equals to nearly one billion US dollars. Other alternatives were considered but most islands lacked a proper Internet connection.
Now, three years later the Russian based torrent site Torrentreactor has reportedly bought some land of their own, without any help or funding from the outside. TorrentReactor founder Alex informed TorrentFreak about the peculiar move which puts the torrent site on the map in rural Russia.
The town of Gar, founded in 1958 by a religious group connected to the Russian Orthodox Church, was bought for 4.5 million rubles ($148,000 or 115,000Eur). Gar is located in the center of Russia and has only 214 inhabitants who make a living from selling home-grown vegetables in a nearby town.
With the financial injection from TorrentReactor the people of Gar (now the people of TorrentReactor) will be able to get connected to the Internet. Right now, there are only three computers available in the entire town, and just one is connected to the Internet via a dial-up connection.

“Most of it will be split among villagers and the rest will be used to re-equip the local school, repair roads, purchase agricultural equipment and machinery. Also torrentreactor.net company decided to pay for broadband Internet connection in the settlement which will result in about 900,000 rubles ($30,000) because there are no networks nearby,” TorrentReactor says.
Although some might see it as a vanity buy, or an overly expensive marketing campaign, the TorrentReactor team stresses that the humanitarian motive came first.
“We realize it’s just a drop in the ocean comparing to the amount of money needed to help thousands of other villages. But we at least do something to support complete strangers. We are proud that we are able to do so and hope we will be proud of this in the future,” the TorrentReactor team said.
According to TorrentReactor the local authorities were skeptical about the deal at first, but they went ahead with it after the right price was negotiated. TorrentFreak contacted the Tomsk authorities for a comment on the unusual deal, but thus far they are yet to respond.
Because we were unable to verify the deal from both ends, we have to inform our readers that TorrentReactor is known to carry out pranks and ludicrous actions. Earlier this year their partner site shipped condoms to the RIAA, MPAA and various other anti-piracy outfits, informing them that their bullying tactics are not appreciated.
Although the condom action was verified and legit, TorrentReactor’s latest announcement has not yet been officially confirmed by Russian authorities. TorrentFreak readers who live in the area or have more information are encouraged to get in touch with us to provide additional details.

via torrentfreak

for details see the TorrentReactor site:
The majority of villagers found it hard to define what a website is and none could describe what torrentreactor.net Internet portal might do. But some of them tried to make assumptions. Two leading theories were heard:
* Torrentreactor.net is a large american nuclear station. (Villagers thought it was located on the outskirts of Toronto. But after they were explained that Toronto is the largest city in Canada some of them change their views.)
* Torrentreactor.net is an environmental organization fighting against building new nuclear reactors around the globe which is clearly stated by «net» suffix (in russian «net» means «no»).

Mike Huckaby @ Kapterka [djstation.ru 90.0 Fm 30.12.09]

  

Prepare for 'Zero History' narrated by William Gibson

The Poetry of William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs is generally considered a novelist. To make the case that he was also a poet is neither revisionist nor perverse but absurd. After all, Burroughs paid about as much obeisance to genre or medium as he did to the law. His work consistently ignored the traditional boundaries between forms of creative production — to the point where, if you were really to collect Burroughs’ “poetry,” you would be hard-pressed to explain why you might leave out Naked Lunch. It may well be the most “poetic” text he ever wrote.

And what of the cut-up? Is it poetry, prose, or something else altogether? Oliver Harris has broached the question in his essay “‘Burroughs Is a Poet Too, Really’: The Poetics of Minutes to Go.” Harris writes that, in Minutes to Go, poetry “is not understood in terms of words on the page but as the ‘place’ reached by a particular use of chance operations on pre-existing words.” It is a method “to be grasped by doing,” not a “content to be understood by interpretation.” This insightful analysis could serve as an introduction to this somewhat quixotic attempt to collect the poetry of William Burroughs, and Oliver Harris has very graciously allowed RealityStudio to republish it.

Poems by William S. Burroughs

• Cut-Up Poems from Minutes to Go (1960)
• Dead Whistle Stop Already End (Floating Bear 24, 1962)
• Spain & 42 St. (Floating Bear 24, 1962)
• Where Flesh Circulates (Floating Bear 24, 1962)
• Fear and the Monkey (Pearl 6, 1978)
• Pistol Poem 2 (A William Burroughs Birthday Book, 1994)
• Pistol Poem 3 (A William Burroughs Birthday Book, 1994)
  
  @'Reality Studio'

New York Governor Signs Needle Exchange Bill

New York Gov. David Paterson (D) Saturday signed into law a bill, A08396A, that will protect needle exchange participants. Although needle exchanges are permitted in New York, some participants in such programs have been arrested for possession of needles and syringes, while others have been charged with drug possession for residues left in syringes. The new law is designed to address that conflict between public health law and penal law.

The law, also known as the Governor's Program Bill No. 23, will: 

Clarify in the Penal Law that a person does not act unlawfully by possessing a hypodermic needle or syringe if he or she participates in a needle exchange or syringe access program authorized under the Public Health Law;

Provide that possession of a residual amount of a controlled substance on a needle or syringe does not constitute a criminal act if the individual is permitted to possess such needle or syringe under the Public Health Law; and

Require the Division of Criminal Justice Services to periodically notify law enforcement agencies and prosecutors about the right of individuals to possess syringes under a qualifying public health program and how to verify that a person is participating in such a program.

"The success of needle exchange and syringe access programs has been repeatedly verified to be instrumental in reducing the transmission of blood-borne diseases," Gov. Paterson said. "I proposed this legislation to prevent people from being arrested unnecessarily, thus ensuring that syringe users are not deterred from participating in these important programs." 

"I want to commend Governor Paterson for signing this landmark legislation," said Sen. Thomas Duane. "By signing the syringe access legislation, Governor Paterson has once again put New York at the vanguard of a good public health policy that has proven to reduce transmission of HIV and other blood-borne diseases. Furthermore, New York's Penal law now finally conforms with its rational and compassionate health policy." "Throwing an infected syringe into the gutter, out of fear of prosecution for possession of a trace of substance, is bad for public health and safety," said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. "Stopping the arrest of drug users for possessing a used needle is a common sense way to protect public health and safety."
"It's important that we encourage drug injectors to utilize our public health programs without fear of arrest," said State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines. "Syringe exchange programs help reduce transmission of HIV and offer access to drug treatment and other services to those most in need. We encourage injectors to return all used syringes so they are not disposed of in a way that would put others at risk." It is a good day when, in some small way, the imperatives of public health are not sacrificed on the altar of the drug war. Saturday was a good day for New York.

Location: 

Albany, NY

United States

See map: Google Maps

@'Stop The Drug War'

Little Feat's Richie Hayward - not good news...

Richie Hayward

From his wife...

UPDATE NO. 1, yesterday...
Really rough night.....
Fever up, chills, fever down....tepid baths,.fluids, more fluids..cold
cloths,....lots of toilet time....confusion....then calm around 3:30
am.....normal body temp....and a few hours sleep x
However this am....
Off to the hospital.

UPDATE NO. 2, this morning...
Richie is in ICU now.
Within one hour in emerg....he had a chest xray, blood work done, saw
the specialist and doc on call, was on IV antiobiotics, and liquid ventilin.
He will be there for three days....four if needed....then another few on
the ward on IV antibiotic.
Richie has pneumonia on both sides of his lungs. fear is liver failure,
and kidney function is being kept close.
His Oxygen levels were very frightening...which is why he is in ICU.
They want to have him on 24 hour Oxygen, as well as seven days worth of
IV antibiotic.
It is the "liver friendly" antibiotic so as to not cause failure....and
his physio is coming in tomorrow to help loosen the chest area.
He is confused....and tired....and scared,...he was sad to see me leave
tonight.....but I promised him I will be back by 8:30.

UPDATE NO. 3, this afternoon...
I was called in this am at 6:00 to be with him, as the decision was made
to put him on life support systems.
His Oxygen levels were 45-55 thru out the night, and he needs to be
above the 90 zone. He was just not able to do it on his own.
The pneumonia on both sides is so pronounced, that he fought a good
fight,....and now the machines need to take over for him, and make
rainbows happen.
They have him on Liver Friendly med's,...but a couple of them are
necessary to fight the infections, and they may hurt his liver. He is
being monitered 24 hours a day,...with a private nurse taking stats at a
desk right beside him.
His Liver is the main concern.
They will keep him on Life support as long as it is needed until his
lungs can take over and do the work themselves.
<http://www.nojazzfest.com/chat/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=352580>

(Thanx Robbie!)