handmade posters!!!!

i feel closer to the earth this way.

Summit Poster!

whooooo

感性认识

我每天在学中文。我用nciku.com。他们有很多办法和例子。最子要就是练习读和说。 我在公司里跟一个阿姨经常讲中文对我有很大的帮助。我昨天在我妈妈家看杂志也学了几个词。

昨天我做了馄饨吃。我还终于把一个贷款完全还光了。我觉得很骄傲，可是我还有两万贷款。

我现在在我的男朋友家里等他从飞机场回来。他因该让我接他。

我最近注意到很多中国儿童故事很可怜很悲剧。

Flish Flash Radio

This is my everchanging #1 Pandora radio station.

band
Feist

Sad Children's Stories

There are a lot of sad Chinese children's stories. I just read one about the worm and the shrimp and how the worm used to have eyes, and the shrimp didn't until one day the shrimp borrowed the worms eyes and never returned them. And that's why worms live on the ground and eat dirt while shrimps are scared of everything because they are guilty. That is major personification or anthopomorphism?

Oscar Wilde wrote some sad ones, too, like The Happy Prince. I saw this first in a collection of children's stories in Chinese I had when I was little. I found out in college it was Oscar Wilde.

spread the word like peanut butter

another thing that i realized i probably have to make sure gets done for the summit is to contact profs who we think would help publicize the event to their classes.

Stephen Chu Sez

We don't need no IP.

A lot of good comments, too.

earth hour

it's saturday at 8:30pm. everybody's doing it. even coca-cola. weird.

some places in china are going to do it, too. weird.

somewhat inane article about lighting candles vs. turning on lights. even though it's a little anal-retentive, the heart of the human obsession with proving why technically your plan is not working is all about how to actually measure gains.

mountain color scheme

most recent painting i did. actually i finished it in january. i need to draw and paint more. maybe when i'm done with the conference...

pretty me in youth to remember

Color Scheming

I think I just made my blog color scheme similar to the colors inside this fancy bakery/sandwich shop near where I work. Oh well. It's not the same as the color scheme on their site, though. Anyway, that place isn't great, but I do get their procuitto sandwiches for lunch sometimes.

sounds good to me

i am jen

A Better Clinton?

Clinton acknowledges that the US shares blame for Mexico's drug wars.

I feel working for Obama is allowing her to say what she really thinks, but that's just a theory.

Pop French

Yelle

amaazing

also
múm - a band i am reminded of recently. plus, they have new stuff.

Graphics idea for Summit

I was thinking the other day. It is difficult to have an image for "sustainability" since it's a concept, but perhaps some imagery useful for us would be to have a pattern of woven colors where each color represents a sector - government, ngo, busineses, engineer, scientist. Also, a cyclical image would be useful, kind of like the water cycle, but for the things we use instead. hmmmmm

Gloat

Wow, I look great.

Compliments of Quinn Mahoney. At Radmike's house for a St. Patrick's Day Party. More photos from the party.

Berkeley Energy Symposium

Berkeley had an Energy Symposium on Feb 23, and it seems like it went really well. I have been trying to figure out how much they charged. The publicity and visuals for the website are also in lieu of what I envision for our posters. They're much better than what we have right now.

Also, in terms of random imagery that sets the tone, I was looking through the Breakthrough Generation Blog, and they usually put some kind of image with each blog post. So yeah, I'm not just crazy...this is a thing people do.

Not So Fast

EDN has a good article about the recent hubbub over battery technology. A research team at MIT found that they could increase the charge and discharge rates, but it seems there's still a long way to go before that becomes a reality in commercial cells.

Keeping up with the times?

I started Twittering yesterday. It is weird. What is with this new-fangled technology? Am I old, yet? JoeG even Twitters AND has a blog. wow. Am I ashamed or do I scoff? I don't even know anymore.

Energy Usage of Modern Manufacturing

I saw a good article in tech talk about prof Timothy Gutowski, who investigated the energy efficiency of modern manufacturing methods. He heads the Environmentally Benign Manufacturing Research Group.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/energy-manufacturing-0317.html
http://web.mit.edu/ebm/www/index.html

Food Revolution

This article, by Michael Pollan, is a plea to the Obama administration to reform, revolutionize the food system. I also just read this NYTimes article, which discusses that now is probably a good time to prepare for a food revolution.

I don't see a food revolution happening any time soon, the earliest maybe if Obama gets re-elected, then in his 2nd term. And for optimization and maturation of these new, revolutionary food policies, that would probably take another 10 years. The world's livestock alone contributes 18% of all greenhouse gases, and one pound of feedlot beef needs 5,000 gallons of water to produce. Anyway, the amount of environmental damage is pretty filthy. His article talks about some practical solutions to the problem. He points out that government policy is what created this mess, and so government policy is what can clean it up. Additionally, Obama has already started tapping into his power of example. He's hired his Chicago chef,Sam Kass, to work alongside the Bush chef, Cristeta Comerford. Sam Kass apparently is into healthy eating and local, organic food (Comerford also likes orgainc). And Michelle Obama has planted a vegetable garden at the White House. These are all very promising signs; good thing there is the food lobby to be in their faces promoting this stuff.

One of the ambitious ideas Pollan suggests is to have a 2nd barcode for grocery store items, which when scanned can tell you about where the product is from, how it was produced (like if they used pesticides or fertilizers, or compost from the community, etc), what sort of processing it has gone through, and if it's an animal product, then you can see how the animal was treated and exactly where or maybe even how it was slaughtered (so you can be aware of whether or not you're purchasing a product from a factory farm or a polyculture/sustainable farm). Sounds impossible almost, given the complicated food networks that we've built up. Pollan calls for regional food networks, or decentralizing the system. So that we don't have to depend on gasoline to truck produce from far away to where we are. Anyway, it's all in his article.

Interesting program perhaps

Ashridge Masters in Sustainability and Responsibility

Babies

too many Babies in 07

28 percent of white babies were born to unmarried mothers in 2007, compared with 51 percent of Hispanic babies and 72 percent of black babies.

maybe marraige is on the decline. soon, only gay people will want to get married.

Moral Code

Ted Talk by a behavioral economist Dan Ariely, who was a Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The most interesting part of this talk, I think, is where he shows how the finance industry is set up in a way that makes people more inclined to lie and cheat. The 800 billion dollar question then is how can we reform the system in a way that people feel disinclined to cheat?

Twisted Capitalism

Public outrage over AIG bonuses

Cut Fingers

Last night I dreamed that I kept getting this long paper cuts that would appear on my fingers. Then I got a pretty deep one on my middle finger, and it was scary. Then I realized that there was a shallower one on that finger on the other side so that my finger is cut almost all the way around. I started using scotch tape to tape the deep cut shut. For some reason I couldn't find a bandaid or didn't want to use one. I started driving to the hospital or something. It was a little bloody, but not too bad.

Maybe I had this dream because I am really busy with the conference and work and friends, and I'm worried about being able to keep it all together.

Grant for Activism

Just Means

I went on a Leadership Retreat with Mass Powershift, which is an climate action group that is currently working on getting legislators in the US to pass resolutions for 0 emissions electricity. They're applying for Grant money, where people vote on projects they support so everybody vote for them!

Copenhagen Summit

some commentary about it

podcasts of lectures from stanford

http://itunes.stanford.edu/

James Fallows

China deals with the Recession. Watch out.

I Found My New True Love

<3



A short overview of Steele's interview with GQ reveals a few heartwarming things about him...

Another short and interesting article on the interview

Our Moms

my mom is a fob

man, it's so amazing

also, i said some funny stuff that jenny hu kept

(23:59:38) mirthbottle: really, becoming mature is like rotting
(23:59:52) mirthbottle: well, I guess it's supposed to be ripening
(23:59:57) mirthbottle: nevermind

Local Go Green

Go Green Somerville consulting company.

Green Round Table

This seems like a cool company, maybe the type that I'd be interested in working at.

When is now?

Now or never. Article on the perception of time passage.

Chinese proverbs

some common ones on wikiquote

some gems

熊瞎子摘苞米，摘一个丢一个 (pinyin: xióng xiā zi zhāi bāo mǐ, zhāi yí gè diū yí gè)
Literally: Blind bear picks corn, picks one and drops one.
Meaning: You will lose what you already have if you keep seeking for more.
Note: (Story) A bear (a bear, in Chinese culture, frequently symbolizes someone with little common sense) was picking corn and sticking the corn in his armpit. As he puts the next corn cob into his armpit, opening his arm, he drops the one he already had.

肉(ròu)包(bāo)子(zi)打(dǎ)狗(gǒu) (meat+bun(2nd and 3rd)+hit+dog)
Literally: To hit a dog with a meat-bun.
Interpretation: Punishment with a reward never works.
Moral: Using the wrong method to approach a problem.

Buck Application

Driving high brightness LEDs

Call for Feedback

What would you personally like to get out of a sustainability conference?

Discovering New Dimensions for Growth:
Panel 1: How do we progress toward sustainability in a recession?

Panel 2: How do we measure the success of our sustainability practices?

Panel 3: What are the new opportunities for innovation and collaboration in sustainability?

Visual Thesaurus

yeah, i like visual anything.

Visual Thesaurus - YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Fancy Restaurants to Try

Lineage in Coolidge Corner

Harvest in Harvard Square

Grezzo

Justice

Sandra Day O'Connor on the Daily Show

She is quick-witted and funny. Wow, WHO KNEW. maybe she should have her own tv show.

Nanoparticles

So the lab I currently work in researches an endogenous, biological capsule that is included in nano research groups. So anyway, UCLA has a nano center, called California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI) and they have a periodic lunch seminar. Anyway, today we had the Nanoparticles group lunch seminar, and they had recently received a grant from CEIN, the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology to find new, improved methods for tox screening on new nanomaterials. CEIN supports research that includes new, improved and efficient methods of toxicity assays for nanomaterials, as well as research that looks into environmental and health effects of nanomaterials.

As a side note/fun fact, there are about 30,000 chemicals used in industry today, but only 5,000 have been thoroughly tested for toxicity. The classical method of tox screening is just very slow and expensive. So the nanomaterials approach wants to learn from the failures of chemical tox screening. The investigator today was involved in building high-throughput, inexpensive tox assays to find a good, reliable method of tox screening that also has good predictability (so you can, as accurately as possible, predict behavior of nanomaterials for future reference). The main concern for nanomaterials is the generation of free oxygen radicals, which can go on to cause really bad things for living things such as humans, as well as the environment.

Anyway, so ZnO or zinc oxide is really bad, causes a lot of free oxygen radicals that eventually causes cell apoptosis (cell death). That was the main one among a few others that he talked about. They also look into how to reduce toxicity, such as adding iron to ZnO. Adding up to 10% iron to ZnO makes reduces the toxicity to almost nothing.

So the model that they work with now is more like categorization. They break down different cellular pathways to toxicity, and categorize nanomaterials based on the types of cellular responses they elicit and which pathway they use to kill cells. That way you know how toxic the nanomaterial gets in living systems.

So yeah, it was interesting. They also announced a new grant opening, that came directly from Obama's stimulus package for nano or bio or something research. woohoo! Stimulus in action =P

Hillary Clinton

I started listening to NPR, and heard about Hillary Clinton's criticism of Israel's destruction of 88 homes in East Jerusalem. I was excited. This Daily Kos article expresses my feelings quite well: link

Now, to send her a thank you note... And hope there's enough like them to drown out the wealthy voices of the Neocons + the Israel lobby.

See what beautiful things we can bring out of people once we get a forceful leader of the Left???? I'm glad that our progressive Congresspeople can feel more comfortable being progressive now.

Let's talk about You and Me

Let's talk about bank bailouts...Hit it, NPR

Dwell

I always want to get this magazine when I see it in Whole Foods, but I should just read it online.

This is a cool house.

Analog Devices Prototyping Kits

They look cool. I wonder if they're expensive/hard to use.

http://www.solderbynumbers.com/

Demotivators

I was walking through Building 4 the other day, and I came across the amazing Demotivators. I think they change them every so often, but maybe I just have a bad memory. Anyway, here's my fav one.

Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots.

Hm, I guess it's not that good. Oh well. Here's the rest of them.
despair.com

Bathtub Effect

The Bathtub Effect is about how we are simply filling the bathtub faster than it's draining when it comes to greenhouse gases. Prof John Sterman at MIT, whom we wanted to be a moderator for a panel has been talking about this and how this imagery is not yet part of the common understanding of the issue but should be.

It's a pretty common sense concept that casts an important light on policy issues.

images+

http://flickr.com/photos/ahyc/214962361/

images

Obama Budget

MoveOn.org is actually impressed with Obama's budget plan. It's exciting, actually, because I had expected progressive groups to complain that Obama is compromising too much once he gets in office.

Unfortunately, most folks don't realize how far-reaching and progressive the plan is—that's where we all come in.

Here are 10 really incredible things about Obama's plan. Check them out and then send them on to your friends and family so that millions of people will have the information they need to fight to make this vision a reality.
10 things you should know about Obama's plan (but probably don't)

The plan:

1. Makes a $634 billion down payment on fixing health care that will go a long way toward paying for a more efficient, more affordable health care system that covers every single American.3

2. Reduces taxes for 95% of working Americans. And if your family makes less than $250,000, your taxes won't go up one dime.4

3. Invests more than $100 billion in clean energy technology, creating millions of green jobs that can never be outsourced.5

4. Brings our troops home from Iraq on a firm timetable, finally bringing the war to a close—and freeing up almost ten billion dollars a month for domestic priorities.6

5. Reverses growing income inequality. The plan lets the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire and focuses on strengthening the middle class.7

6. Closes multi-billion-dollar tax loopholes for big oil companies. 8

7. Increases grants to help families pay for college—the largest increase ever.9

8. Halves the deficit by 2013. President Obama inherited a legacy of huge deficits and an economy in shambles, but his plan brings the deficit under control as soon as the economy begins to recover.10

9. Dramatically increases funding for the SEC and the CFTC—the agencies that police Wall Street.11

10. Tells it straight. For years, budgets have used accounting tricks to hide the real costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts, and too many other programs. Obama's budget gets rid of the smokescreens and lays out what America's priorities are, what they cost, and how we're going to pay for them.12