Tonight I discovered this documentary about the Los Angeles fixed gear community.
I was out riding tonight just as the storm was brewing. I made it home relieved that I wasn't completely drenched. After sitting down to watch this unexpectedly awesome documentary I am now have a great desire to go back out for a late night ride.
Director David Rowe has a previous documentary about the Seattle bike scene called Fast Friday. The trailer can be seen on the official site.
Anna Mehler Paperny, writing for the Globe and Mail
Researchers have figured out how to build high-tech, winter-resistant vegetative incubators. The hard part is making northern greenhouses capable of supporting themselves financially. That means operating year-round, employing locals and selling enough produce to break even.
I'm currently reading 2312, a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, in which humans have created self-sustainable colonies all over the solar system, from Mercury to carved out asteroids. I realize the year 2312 is quite a ways away, however even now as I type this NASA is working on ways of producing food in controlled environments in preparation for future manned missions to Mars.
Ramit Plushnick-Masti, writing for the Associated Press:
One option Cooper and her staff in the Johnson Space Center in Houston are considering is having the astronauts care for a "Martian greenhouse." They would have a variety of fruits and vegetables — from carrots to bell peppers — in a hydroponic solution, meaning they would be planted in mineral-laced water instead of soil. The astronauts would care for their garden and then use those ingredients, combined with others, such as nuts and spices brought from Earth, to prepare their meals.1
If we can develop the technology and sustain the resources necessary for colonizing planetary bodies other than Terra Prime, than I have complete confidence that providing high quality reasonably priced produce for communities in the far north is well within the realm of possibility.
Anna Mehler Paperny, again from the Globe and Mail
One of the biggest hurdles is making this more than just a government handout that’s airlifted in and withers when federal funding runs out. Planners hope greenhouses will help communities to feed and employ themselves, creating a local food initiative far outside the natural terrain of the produce they grow. “I don’t see government subsidizing this in the long haul,” said agri-environment technical director Larry Lenton, who is spearheading the project. “This has to stand on its own.”
I get the need to have these greenhouses be sustainable without years of government subsidies. Yet, I find the emphasis on the fact that the government is not willing to devote much money to keeping the project alive suspicious given the fact that the same government has been subsidizing the asbestos export industry and are well known for their support of the oil industry. Compared to those massive and environmentally destructive industries, greenhouses seem like a much more worthy source of government money.
1Fun fact: menu options for astronauts headed to Mars will be strictly vegan because meat and dairy have proven to be too difficult to preserve on long voyages.
Chris Hannah, via Propagandhi.com
“Failed States”, will be unleashed on September 4th/ 2012 via Epitaph Records, leaving you plenty of time to enjoy it’s contents before Nibiru comes flying out of the Oort cloud and annihilates Earth in late December, vindicating paranormalists and pseudo-scientists worldwide for about 14 nano-seconds.
Epitaph records has a short write about about the new album with a track list and a jpeg of the absolutely gorgeous cover art (which I believe was painted by none other than Todd the Rod and laid out by Amphibian).
Keener that I am, I've already pre-ordered the LP (on blue vinyl!) and will now spend the next month and a half listening to the title track on continuous loop.
Tonight I missed a very special event at the Lo Pub. Organized by Michael P Falk of Les Jupes and Robin Mae, For the love of Winnipeg was concocted as an event and an online conversation about the city we all love to gripe about. As I mentioned I unfortunately could not make it to the event, so I was grateful to Tessa Vanderhart for capturing the night on her phone.
I won't get into the details of the statements, but basically Cam Janssen of the New Jersey Devils made an offensively homophobic comment on a talk radio show which spurred an emotional debate on Twitter.
Patrick Burke and the rest of You Can Play waited for the reactionaries to quiet down and released their official statement.
Excerpt from the concluding paragraph of You Can Play Project's official statement:
Athletes have been raised in a culture that encourages, if not celebrates, casual homophobia. Changing their habits is certainly necessary, but it is not easy. We simply must give athletes a chance to learn, to grow, and to be educated on these issues. We must never condone the private or public use of these hateful slurs. But we must also be constantly aware that for many athletes, they do not see the full extent of the hate these words carry. We remain convinced that we are on the right track.
Every year the local papers publish a story about the latest batch of nonhuman lives lost as a result of the sad farce that is the Calgary Stampede. The Stampede is a 100 year excuse for politicians to dress up in denim and pretend to be cowboys. Stephen Harper gets to shoot his guns mouth off while feasting on the murdered lives of lesser creatures and make the survivors prance around and take part in cruel competitions.