Brent pointed out this article in the New York Times about a carfree German suburb:
Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg [...]
Posted by Chris in Carfree, News, World on May 12th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
It might work if you’re a Montague or a Capulet, but for LGBT folks, marriage by any other name does not smell as sweet. Here’s the bottom line on why this issue is so important and pushes so many buttons:
Marriage = legitimacy.
That is, if LGBT folks can marry, it means that their relationships are [...]
Posted by Deb in Community & Activism, Government, Law, News, Politics, Sexuality on March 7th, 2009 | No Comments »
Bad news from California (like we didn’t already know) in the Wall Street Journal: Shrinking Water Supplies Imperil Farmers.
Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under.
The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked [...]
Posted by Deb in Agriculture, Bummer, Environment, News on February 11th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Seems like we’re getting back to the future in style.
The Climate Friendly Cities is a project of the Green Renewable Independent Power Producers (GRIPP), a local non-government organization. In the Ecopolis episode, GRIPP Chairperson Athena Ballesteros explained that she envisioned GRIPP to address the pollution and noise problems that come with the 250,000 or [...]
Posted by Deb in Business, Carfree, Environment, News, Shameless Promotion, That which is awesome on January 26th, 2009 | No Comments »
[Graph of my feed-reading habits over the last month, courtesy Google Reader.]
OK, maybe less “catching up” and more “declaring newsfeed bankruptcy.” I’ve been a wee bit busy for the past month or two (or three… shush!), and it’s not likely to let up for another month at least. Sorry about the relative radio silence. I [...]
Posted by Chris in Academia, Blog, News on December 27th, 2008 | 6 Comments »
The Solar System’s planetary roll call just got longer. From today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day:
One of the strangest objects in the outer Solar System was classified as a dwarf planet last week and given the name Haumea. This designation makes Haumea the fifth designated dwarf planet after Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and Makemake. Haumea’s smooth [...]
Posted by Chris in News, Science, Space on September 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
(via Wil) Just wanted to congratulate George Takei and Brad Altman on their wedding Sunday evening. Bagpiper processional for the win:
On a side note, George Takei is 71?!? Criminy! Yet another person I can see storming around when he’s 120, shouting, “I’m one hundred and twenty!”
Posted by Chris in Culture, Law, News, Science fiction, Sexuality, Television on September 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I haven’t had time to post any of the California marriage awesomeness lately, but I couldn’t pass this Union Tribune article up:
San Diego County issued a record 230 marriage licenses today and performed 144 wedding ceremonies on the first day gay and lesbian couples were allowed to marry in San Diego.
County officials did not break [...]
Posted by Chris in Law, News, Sexuality on June 18th, 2008 | No Comments »
[from Geekdad] In the spirit of the awesome maverick science-fair project[1], I give you Daniel Burd and his amazing plastic-eating microbes.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me,” he said. “One day, I got tired of [...]
Posted by Chris in Geekdad, News, Science on May 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
It might just be a temporary victory, but today the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage that was voted into law (as Proposition 22) back in 2000.
Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in an opinion.
The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, [...]
Posted by Chris in Law, News on May 15th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
