A wind-powered rotating skyscraper.

Dubai skyscraper will produce 100% of its power.

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Shloky notes that John Robb’s new book, Brave New War, has gotten just one major media review yet is #214 on Amazon best sellers now.

Blog reviews, and there’s been many of them (including here), are what’s helping the book sell.

Given that the book is selling - #214 on Amazon - this is indicative of how bottom-up this evolution is. Snazzy.

I just checked Amazon, and the book is now #29. This is new media and blogs at their best, flying under and around the mainstream, getting important new ideas out there.

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Bruce Sterling on the recent Austin TX Clean Energy Venture Summit in Viridian Notes #492.

[It] was an intensely dull event. There was scarcely a “visionary” to be seen. On the contrary: suited, duely-diligent lawyers and bankers were throwing millions of dollars at engineers. That’s the work of the world, folks. This is our third swing at this particular baseball: 1970s: eco-consciousness raising; 1990s, global political accords; 2010s, cybergreen ecotech. They gotta win, they must not fail, because otherwise, by the 2030s it’s gonna be Khaki Green all the way: a future of All Katrina, all the time, for everybody.

I conveyed these bracing sentiments to the attendees. I then went to my Austin home to find a tree in my yard freshly blasted by a massive lightning storm. As a Viridian guru, I’m pretty much getting what I begged for here. But, just like verybody else under our planet’s overheated skies, I’m gonna pay a price.

That billions are now being spent on clean and renewable energy and reversing global warming is, as Sterling points out, an amazing thing indeed. Greenies led the charge, now it’ll be up to investment banks and corporations, both large and small, to make the changes. While a more socialist and equitable system would be nice, it ain’t going to happen in the short time frame we have, that’s just the reality. Our federal government is dead in the water on the issue, making a few noises, but basically doing nothing - when not overtly blocking change, that is.

So, it’ll be venture capital, investment banks, and private enterprise in the US who can, and are, moving full speed ahead to make a cleaner, greener world.

Sterling concludes with

It took a while but they’re moving as fast as they can throw the cash… And besides, it’s something of a privilege to have lived long enough to see this!

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500 troops, trained with US money crossed the border from Egypt with permission from Israel, to fight with Fatah against Hamas.

Ludicrously, the US and Israel “have been trying to avoid the perception of taking sides in a conflict that this week in Gaza has resembled a nascent civil war.” I’m guessing one excellent way to do that would to not openly and militarily back one side against another.

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And appears to be turning into an appendage of the Democratic Party. Lots of Democratic politicians, maybe a token Ralph Nader-type or two. But no Chomsky or anything even slightly radical. Not a chance. Nothing to see over there on the Left, folks, just turn to the center and support the Democratic Party.

Not only was this sadly to be expected, it’ll probably be dull and boring too. I mean, how many times to you want to hear Senator Gasbag (D-somestate) wheeze about wanting to stop the war while voting for toothless bills that do nothing of the sort?

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The New York Times has the files of the NYPD surveillance of groups planning protests at the 2004 Republican convention. It appears they were “monitoring” virtually every group. WitnessVideo has a searchable version.

The Bloomberg administration allowed this probably illegal spying on antiwar groups to happen, and also made every attempt to block protests in Central Park, even though it’s a public venue

Now this multi-billionaire says he may spend a billion of his own money in an independent run for president. Whose class interests do you think he represents? Not ours, I’m guessing, even as his plans for the greening of NYC appear good ones indeed.

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This is definitely interesting. Former President Bill Clinton’s foundation has arranged one billion in loans to major cities to retrofit their buildings and make them more energy-efficient, thus saving money. If the companies doing the work don’t reach the goals, they pay the difference themselves or keep working until they get it right.

Big players here. Major investment banks. In a continuing trend, the real action is on the city and state level because the federal government is comatose.

“Unfortunately, it has fallen to the mayors to do it because at the federal level in this country and other countries, they seem to be tied up,” [Mayor] Bloomberg [of NYC] said.

The federal government in the US is tied up. Other governments, like Germany, Japan, and Australia are fully aware of the threat of global warming and are implementing plans and changes. It’s the US government that is the among the most backwards and resistant to change - and that includes both parties.

Tip: Green Lisa

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I’ve been trying to config my dual-boot Ubuntu Feisty Fawn desktop to accept my wireless modem, with no luck.

Here’s the specs for the LinkSys Wireless-G

01:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

I’ve tried what’s here and here, but no luck so far. Right now it’s running with a 75 ft cat6 cable, so I’m online. Wireless would be nice though.

Also, and this is minor, sometimes when I restart it goes into 640×480 mode and Preferences/Screen Resolution only shows that, no way to change. If I shutdown, then 1280×1024 comes back. Weird, eh?

[tags]feisty fawn[/tags]

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