Emerson Arthur

This is from a cool app on Facebook that creates a circular map of all of your contacts…

kinda cool.

The U.S. military is the best in the world… for fighting intergalactic robots. Too bad it is not better equipped to handle the actual problems we face. Maybe we should stop firing translators and start rebuilding the trust and respect that we have so efficiently destroyed. Anyway, its a kick ass movie go check it out.

Continue reading ‘Youth Climate Movement Memes’

I haven’t had much time to read for the last few months so I was excited to get into some good books during my down time in Santa Cruz. I picked up Vonnegurt’s A Man Without a Country along with a couple thicker books. Though I purposely avoided buying anything that bore any relation to my work, Vonnegurt has a bunch to say about oil in the environment. I guess its not possible to escape work when you work on one of the most prescient issues of your time. Well I thought I’d share an expert of his thoughts on oil. Vonnegurt, as with every subject brings a perspective and style that is refreshing and effective…

I once had a high that not even crack cocaine could match. That was when I got my first driver’s license ~ look out, world, here comes Kurt Vonnegut!And my car back then, a Studebaker as I recall, was powered, as almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, by the most abused, addictive, and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels.

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there wont be any left. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t the TV news is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts on fossil fuels in a state of denial.  And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.

- Kurt Vonnegurt, RIP

Flew in to Oakland yesterday, and spent the day working in the Energy Action Coalition SF office. I’m a little bitter about the digs out here, our office in DC is stuffy and a little claustrophobic. DC has some of the most expensive office space in the country, rivaling Manhattan. It has something to do with the fact that you cant build a building higher than the capitol or something like that. Anyway, check out the SF office…

I drove down the 1 this afternoon to Santa Cruz and am sitting on my boat having a beer now. Three weeks of this and im not sure anyones going to get me on a plane back to DC.

When I was 20 one of my best friends Ryan Heumann, died on the cliffs of Big Sur. He had just become a father only months before and left behind an amazing amount of love and inspiration. When ever I have something scary to do like public speaking, direct action or an important meeting (these are all scary because I have social anxiety), I think about Ryan and his fearless positivity. Anyway, there isn’t much on the web about Ryan so I thought I would post virtual memorial. Maybe I’ll re-connect with some of his old friends through the site. If you knew ryan send me any stories or pictures that you would like me to post.

Back when the internet was a wild frontier of scrolling banners, obnoxious tiled background images and seizure inducing neon text it made sense to go it alone.  Who better than you to manage your backend, backup your data, update your software and keep your site secure?  Today is a new day.  The software that manages your content and contacts is highly complex and updating ad securing an independent installation is not a good use of your time or resources.

What is fully hosted?  I define it as http and https access only and access only to the CRM or CMS.  Meaning you have no ftp, ssh, cPanel, phpAdmin or other  access to your site.

Why go hosted?

• Load Balancing (speed, scalability, unlimited bandwidth)
• Data Security
• Software Maintenance and Updates
• Cheap as Hell (compared to devoting your time or resources to maintaining a independent hosting environment)

Most people who go independent usually justify it by saying they need the flexibility and access of an independent environment.  I could go on and on about why this is a myth, but instead I challenge you to present some use cases that you don’t think could be achieved in a fully hosted environment.  Post them in the comments and I will respond with a hosted solution.

Below are a few of the fully hosted environments in which my projects dwell…

Continue reading ‘Going Hosted’

Despite a plummeting cost of entry, most aspiring new media participants have much bigger dreams than budgets to make them a reality. Ambition and talent can make up for lack of funds, but is also helps to have a cheap aesthetic. One can achieve huge impact with very low production values. In fact often an overproduced aesthetic is a liability on the web. Check out this PSA produced by a young MTV animator for the Break the Addiction campaign. Its a good example of how cheap can have impact. The illustrations are just enough to hold your attention and the music and simple messaging get the point across and get you curious. It works for broadcast but also has online potential. No actors, no video, no voice over, no animation; just some illustrations and some music.

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It is self-evident that in a democratic political system the short-term interests of the present generation can pose a threat to the long-term interests of their posterity. Without a systematic or constitutional means of balancing these potentially conflicting interests, posterity is represented only as a tenuous secondary interest of a handful of citizens who must balance and blend their representation of future interests with their own present interests. Continue reading ‘Our Posterity’