NYT
The
NY Times and
WIRED are reporting on protests in Moldova against the communist government that were organized through Twitter and other social networks.
A crowd of more than 10,000 young Moldovans materialized seemingly out of nowhere on Tuesday to protest against Moldova’s Communist leadership, ransacking government buildings and clashing with the police.
The sea of young people reflected the deep generation gap that has developed in Moldova, and the protesters used their generation’s tools, gathering the crowd by enlisting text-messaging, Facebook and Twitter, the social messaging network.
–NYT
To read stories from the protests, check out the Twitter tag
#pman.
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Or open source design for independent
micronations.
The idea is this:
The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit organization conceived about a year ago by Patri Friedman and Wayne Gramlich, is proposing a framework that would make it possible to permanently settle on the ocean. Their vision, inspired by the culture of web 2.0, is to crowd-source the development of government.
seasteading
What they have done is designed a bare platform, called a seastead, that is about the size of a city block. They are encouraging everyone to share their idea for a permanent civilization on the ocean through
The $1000 Seastead Design Contest (submissions due May 1st, 2009). Contestants are to expound upon the platform in any way they see fit – "It may be a hospital, a casino, a residential community, a cricket stadium, or something entirely different." The idea is to share and to collectively reach this goal. Designs for the seasteads will be released under a Creative Commons license.
Wendy Sitler-Roddier
[They are] hoping to create a platform in the sense that Linux is a platform: a base upon which people can build their own innovative forms of governance. The ultimate goal is to create standards and blueprints that can be easily adapted, allowing small communities to rapidly incubate and test new models of self-rule with the same ease that a programmer in his garage can whip up a Facebook app.
–WIRED and BLDGBLOG
As compared to other projects of this nature, The Seasteading Institute is trying to build a modular framework which allows for many different ideals. Because they don't focus on one specific model that could fail, the project is much more sustainable. Although I do not particularly subscribe to Libertarianism, I have interest in projects like this for their forward thinking ideas. The Seasteading Institute is not responding as much to climate change, but to societal change. Maybe there is something we can learn from their model.
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Waterpod Project (renderings by James Halverson of Lux Visual Effects)
A recurring theme for the future seems to be alternative housing. The Waterpod Project intends to be a model for the future of architecture and living. It is concerned with the same basic problems as other projects, climate change and increasing world population, but takes a different approach. Where
Polar Cities and
Lilypad are primarily concerned with physical survival, Waterpod is interested in creativity and expression.
The Waterpod is inspiring because it has moved past the hypothetical, it is currently being constructed in New York. Being a model for future building, sustainability is the key. The Waterpod is being built on a retired industrial barge using salvaged materials. It features three domes to be used for artistic space, sleeping quarters, and agriculture.
It is currently scheduled to launch in New York in May, 2009, from the Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens, navigate down the East River, explore the waters of New York Harbor, and stopping at each of the five boroughs it will dock at several Manhattan piers on the Hudson River, then beyond.
–Waterpod Structure
Waterpod artist residency building
To begin with there will be five residents who will live and work and be completely sustained on the barge. They plan to travel around to teach, give tours, and have exhibitions. They hope to be a model and inspiration for the future, to prepare and to encourage innovation.
This forces me to focus on certain things that I have been putting off for too long, and forces me to live like we will probably all need to live sooner or later.
–Mary Mattingly
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The Vertical Farm Project, led by Dr. Dickson Despommier of Columbia University, aims to deal with the problem of feeding the growing world population. The idea is to build vertical indoor farming structures within urban centers.
The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.
This second rendering looks like an eco-friendly data center.
I am deeply interested in projects that make an effort to take waste out, the least power needed for the most beneficial outcome, that way things work more efficiently. This concept of simplicity in design can apply to many different things,
Gentoo Linux (optimized and customized flavor of linux),
fixed gear bicycles (less parts, less weight), or farming. We must learn to farm efficiently and locally because "by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers."
Self watering containers remind me conceptually of The Vertical Farm. The self watering container takes out the effort of that goes into the watering and maintaing of a garden, and work well for urban or apartment living because they are compact and self-contained.
We must have a solution for the future and the Vertical Farm Project has many good ideas. And as they point out, "we cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth."
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Today is a very special day, a day to celebrate
People. I almost missed this celebration, but SpaceCollective user
LED gave me a heads up. I launched a virtual balloon to show my participation. International Polar Day is a part of a bigger campaign lasting all of 2008, International Polar Year (IPY). IPY aims to focus many scientific efforts on polar regions to study the effects of climate change on Atmosphere, Ice, Land, Oceans, People, and Space.
Join us around September 24th in learning more about People and the Polar Regions. Using the sidebar on the left of these pages you can find many ways to get involved including having local and global discussions, tuning in to radio broadcast from Arctic Canada, and launching a virtual balloon.
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