Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA) will offer a sustainability workshop, November 6 – 12, in Akumal, Mexico.
I began volunteering for CEA in 2000, and Akumal is as close to paradise as I’ve ever experienced. Located 60 miles south of Cancun, the shallow, crystal-clear water and sandy beach of Akumal Bay define tropical perfection. Shops for renting snorkel and dive gear are right on the beach. The small, but stunning, Tulum ruins hug the sea 10 minutes south of Akumal, and the jungles hide many, many small sites that you can visit on your own or with a guide. Additionally, local guides can lead exceptional nature walks, and CEA staff give entertaining and educational presentations nightly.
The course will cover alternative technologies for the production of energy, the treatment of wastewater, and the disposal of solid waste. The course will be taught in Spanish, though nearly all of the instructors and students will be bilingual. See more details at http://www.ceakumal.org/sustainability_workshop.html.
Contact Ed Blume (ed@ceakumal.org) for more details on Akumal and tips on how to get there as cheaply as possible.
Words With Jerry Brown
The most enduring and intriguing California politician of our generation is sitting in a sidewalk café, enjoying a balmy offshore breeze in this city’s upscale Belmont Shore district. Yet not a single passerby knows it’s him.
Laid-back shoppers stream past in linen sundresses and camouflage shorts. This decidedly un-hip man is slightly out of place in his conservative gray suit, fussy dress shirt and white Carroll O’Connor eyebrows. He’s not Arnold, instant traffic-stopper. Yet if anyone peered closely, they’d probably recognize the burning eyes of Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the darkly handsome upstart governor of the 1970s, now a gray and balding 68-year-old.
He’s just emerged from a nearly invisible summer to launch a blatantly negative TV ad against his rival for attorney general of California, and he’s finally granting interviews — including one to me. Barring a brilliant turnaround by his lesser-known but respected competitor, Republican state Sen. Charles Poochigian of Fresno, Mr. Brown will be the next California attorney general.
I voted for Jerry once, in the 1992 Presidential Primary.
Website Tracks 911 Calls
ohn Eberly wasn’t looking for controversy. The 31-year-old Ballard resident just wanted a better way to track the whereabouts of fire trucks and emergency vehicles in the city, a service he said could help people avoid traffic bottlenecks, protests or dangerous situations such as gas leaks.
For the past year, Eberly has operated Seattle911.com, a Web site that until this week took real-time feeds of 911 calls from the Seattle Fire Department and plotted them on Google Maps. The site developed a cult following, with up to 200 unique visitors per day. The Seattle P-I incorporated the service into its Web site.
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Schneier, the security expert, says the Seattle Fire Department’s decision raises an interesting social question about the use of public information. He said it is the same issue as posting political donations or property records on Web sites.
“What the Fire Department is saying, which is interesting if you think about it, is that we are going to rely on the inconvenience of automating this to give you privacy,” Schneier said. “The government is not saying, ‘Hey, this data needs to be secret,’ they are saying, ‘This data needs to be inconvenient to get to.’ “
Amazing
State Rep. Steve Wieckert says he will push to rewrite state laws to enable visiting National Football League teams to continue their pre-game stays in Appleton.
First, however, Wieckert, R-Appleton, said he will request a state attorney general’s opinion on whether existing statutes allow police to restrict traffic while ushering visiting-team caravans from Appleton to Lambeau Field.
A legal opinion offered by Nancy Peterson-Bekx, a former prosecutor and current criminal justice instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, has thrown into question police escort practices in place since NFL teams began staying in downtown Appleton in the early 1980s.
Peterson-Bekx said state police agencies cannot disregard traffic laws except when responding to emergencies, or during specifically exempted duties.
British Gentry, Fiddling While the Abyss Looms
The time will soon be ripe for fresh political leadership. With a presidential election just a couple of years away, we need to start looking for viable new candidates, fellows with those outside-the-Beltway views voters are said to cherish.
I’d like to suggest the American electorate consider the merits of Captain Shotover, the straight-talking old salt currently and eternally presiding over “Heartbreak House,” George Bernard Shaw’s comedy about British gentry waltzing toward the apocalypse.
Qualifications? He has military experience and fresh ideas. And he’s not beholden to big business types, whom he colorfully refers to as “those hogs to whom the universe is nothing but a machine for greasing their bristles and filling their snouts.” Which reminds me: He already has a crack speechwriter on staff.
True, the candidate has a few glaring liabilities. The rumors about his alcohol consumption are well founded. But there’s always rehab. The attention span is a little short, but is that such a problem in politics these days? Of course he’s a fictional character too. Considered from all angles, though, that may not be a drawback. Imaginary people can’t send instant messages.
A timely, well done presentation of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House. Free ebook. Now playing at New York’s Roundabout Theatre. Thanks to the Rep’s Rick Corley for suggesting this play.
“Tagging” Air Passengers
Philanthropy from the Heart of America
In the last five years, though, something utterly unexpected has happened. The decline has stopped. More people are moving to Ord, the county seat, than leaving, and the county’s population is likely to show its first increase this decade since the 1920’s.
The economics of rural America have not really changed. If anything, the advantages that Chicago, Dallas, New York and other big cities have over Nebraska have only continued to grow. But Ord has finally figured out how to fight back.
It has hired a “business coach” to help teach local stores how to sell their goods over the Internet and to match up retiring shop owners with aspiring ones. Schoolchildren learn how to start their own little businesses — like the sixth-grade girl who made a video of the town’s history and sells it at school reunions — so they will not grow up to think the only job opportunities are at big companies in Omaha or St. Louis. Graduates of Ord High School who have moved elsewhere receive mailings telling them about job opportunities back in town.
Funny
Markets in Everything: 7:11
the Chicago White Sox] have just announced that for the next three seasons, their evening home games will begin at 7:11 p.m. instead of the customary 7:05 p.m. or 7:35 p.m. Why? Because 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain, is paying them $500,000 to do so.
Energy Robin Hood to speak Oct. 18, Pyle Center
Randy Udall sees himself as a modern-day Robin Hood of sorts, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Udall heads the Community Office for Resource Efficiency in Aspen, Colorado, which oversees the world’s stiffest tax on energy use. The tax, called “REMP” or Renewable Energy Mitigation Program, requires owners of new homes larger than 5,000 square feet to pay fees of up to $100,000 for excess energy use. — The Osgood File, July 31, 2003
Randy Udall, whose father (Morris) and uncle (Stewart) were conservation giants, will discuss America’s energy challenges at 7:00 p.m. on October 18, 2006, at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Madison.
Udall also write prolifically and insightfully on energy issues and the coming end of cheap oil. His articles include: Stud Muffins and Kilowatt-hours; When will the Joy Ride End?; Methane Madness; Cleopatra to Columbia.
He will also speak at 8:30 a.m. on the same day at the Monona Terrace during the Sustainability Energy Efficiency conference of the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance.
Sponsored by Madison Peak Oil Group, RENEW Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and Wisconsin Green Building Alliance.
Links:
Community Office for Resource Efficiency – www.aspencore.org
Madison Peak Oil Group – www.madisonpeakoil-blog.blogspot.com
RENEW Wisconsin – www.renewwisconsin.org
Gaylord Nelson Institute – www.ies.wisc.edu
Wisconsin Green Building Alliance – www.wgba.org