Francis's News Feeds

Helen Wright's photos: Matt reading, just about to go home again

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:28 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Field, cows

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:26 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Stile

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:23 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Walking, dappled evening sunlight

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:20 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Field, pleasing cloud/sunlight effects

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:15 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Dry stone wall

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:13 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Matt and Zoë looking into the entrance of a disused mine

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:10 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Something from Tolkien or something

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:07 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Entrance to disused mine

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:04 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Matt, Reuben and Zoë gaze into the abyss

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:37:01 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Evocative warning sign

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:58 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: "An impressive chasm", although it doesn't really come across in this picture

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:56 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Reuben reads the Health & Safety advice; Susan plays a supporting role

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:53 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Matt and Zoë walking across a field

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:51 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Crossing a stile

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:47 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Zoë taking a photo of me taking a photo of her

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:44 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Matt poses on demand

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:41 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Susan poses on demand

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:38 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Susan

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:35 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Helen Wright's photos: Walking

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:36:32 +0000

Helen Wright posted a photo:

Climate Progress: McCain ‘nukes the fridge’: Now he believes that doing nothing can lower oil prices

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:02:35 +0000

How far we have come from the principled maverick of the 2000 campaign:

Republican John McCain on Wednesday credited the recent $10-a-barrel drop in the price of oil to President Bush’s lifting of a presidential ban on offshore drilling.

That’s right, the man who wants to be the next President of the United States believes that doing absolutely nothing — which is what Bush did when he reversed his father’s ban, since the congressional ban is still in place — dropped oil prices $10.

You know you have ~~jumped the shark~~ nuked the fridge (see below) as a candidate when even the White House ~~paid shill~~ press secretary won’t go that far:

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Climate Progress: Energy efficiency is THE core climate solution, Part 1: The biggest low-carbon resource by far

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:17:13 +0000

Energy efficiency is the most important climate solution for several reasons:

It is by far the biggest resource.
It is by far the cheapest, far cheaper than the current cost of unsustainable energy, so cheap that it helps pay for the other solutions.
It is by far the fastest to deploy.
It is “renewable” — the efficiency potential never runs out.

This post focuses on #1 — the tremendous size of the resource.

Of the 14 or so wedges we need to deploy globally by 2050, I have argued that about two are electricity efficiency, one is recycled energy (cogeneration), and one is vehicle fuel efficiency (cars globally averaging 60 mpg) — see “450 ppm (or less) Part 2: The Solution.” The International Energy Agency also thinks about four wedges are efficiency, see “IEA report, Part 2: the 450-ppm solution.” And so does Price Waterhouse Coopers, see here.

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Futurismic: New ESA/Russian manned spacecraft pictures!

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:14:45 +0000

Check out the Soyuz capsule replacement and conceptual artwork here.

One of the most unusual features about the capsule appear to be the thrusters and landing gear on its underside. Mr Zak said it would use these engines to soften its landing on Earth after the fiery re-entry through our atmosphere.

It’s interesting how the national space agencies seem to see the future in rockets, rather than space planes, for space exploration.

What with the Space Shuttle being retired in 2010, and with a possible alternative European plan for a manned version of the ATV called Jules Verne, as well as the American Ares V rockets planned for use in Project Constellation, it seems it’s no longer de rigueur to build spaceplanes unless you’re a private space tourism company.

[story from BBC News]

New ESA/Russian manned spacecraft pictures!

Intelligent Giving: The real Smith Institute scandal

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:25:16 +0000

<! -- CONTENT --> The big news in charity-town this week has been the Charity Commission’s investigation of the Smith Institute, a charity think-tank with close links to the Labour Party. The Commission found that the Smith Institute “did not adequately manage ... risks to [its] independence,” and ran the risk of appearing party-political – a major sin in the Commission’s eyes.

It’s clear to everyone – apart from the Smith Institute’s trustees, it seems – that the think-tank was too supportive of the Labour cause. That’s why this story has received so much coverage. But the really interesting conclusions from the Commission’s investigation aren’t directly related to the Institute’s politics. The truly astonishing stuff concerns the lackadaisical way in which the Institute was run.

The behaviour of the Institute’s trustees – its legal governors – beggars belief. After a telling-off in 2002, the Commission asked the Institute to get its act together to avoid future accusations of bias. Like the helpful regulator it is, the Commission gave specific instruction to the Institute on how it could improve its game. The trustees said that they accepted these instructions.

But then, over the following five years, the trustees behaved almost as if the instructions didn’t exist. For example:

The Commission asked the Institute to appoint extra trustees without Labour Party links. So they appointed Paul Myners and John Milligan. But Myners was a major donor to Gordon Brown’s leadership campaign, and Milligan is the director of a company which also gave financial support to Brown’s campaign. Whoops.
The Commission asked the Institute to convene an advisory committee to help it maintain an un-biased course of work. But the committee only met once a year, its members didn’t really know what it was for, and the trustees didn’t properly discuss its conclusions.
The Commission asked the Institute to consider its use of Number 11 Downing Street, where it regularly held events. The trustees claimed that they considered this issue seriously – but the Commission couldn’t find any record of such a discussion in the charity’s minute-book. In response – and this is a corker of a reply – the trustees claimed that the minutes were “not determinative of the actual content of trustees’ meetings.”

I could go on. But seriously: what were the Institute’s trustees up to? How did they reach the conclusion that their chosen course was a sensible one? I am – at last – rendered speechless.

Global Voices (Cambodia): Cambodia: Traveling Along The Coastline

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:23:17 +0000

Caroline Finlay shares pictures from her three-day motorbike trip along the Cambodian coastline.

Your Coleridge Conservative Councillor: Officers recommend Tesco Approval

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:51:40 +0000

The officers report about the latest Tesco Planning Application (which is for refrigeration plant and equipment that they would like to install in order to open a Mill Road Tesco without their earlier planned extension) is now available here.

As predicted, despite huge numbers of objections from around the City, the recommendation is for approval of the application, subject to conditions to protect local residents from noise nuisance from the plant. The officer has clearly indicated that the application needs to be judged on its merits, not on the merits of opening a Tesco per se, saying:

"In my opinion the application does not raise issues of highway safety, a view shared by the Local Highway Authority, which has chosen not to comment. As rehearsed previously, I do not
share the premise of many of the objectors, that highway safety is an issue in the consideration of the proposals for the condenser and the air conditioning plant, because approval of the plant will make certain the re-opening of the store and the traffic/congestion/safety issues rehearsed through the objections will arise out of that re-opening of a retail use by this applicant."

"While sympathetic to the concerns about the vitality and viability of the area and the perceived implications of the proposal for the well being of the local community and its diversity, I do not
agree with the standpoint that all those issues can be addressed on the back of a proposal for a relatively limited quantity of plant and equipment."

The application will be decided at the East Area Committee, agenda here, to be held:

Date: Thursday 31 July 2008
Time: 7.15pm for 7.30pm start
Place: St Philips Church, 185 Mill Road, Cambridge

In line with my personal policy, I will choose not to take part in deciding planning applications at this meeting despite being a member of the East Area Committee.

What are my views on this? I am not against Tesco's opening on Mill Road in principle, and there are pro's and con's to local residents of the introduction of some aggressive new competition.

That said, there are some very valid concerns about Tesco's plans, notably the impact from deliveries and customers to the local traffic situation. It was quite right for the extension plans to be refused for this reason.

If this application is approved next week (and I am struggling to see how Councillors can realistically object unless there really is something demonstrably dodgy about the noise reports), I think it is time for the objectors to recognise that Tesco has permission to open a store if they wish to do so, and move on to ensuring that all relevant traffic regulations are complied with and not altered for Tesco's convenience at the expense of local residents and other road users. For these aims, the campaigners would have my full support.

Cosmic Variance: Spontaneous Social Symmetry Breaking

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:33:29 +0000

Physicists love spontaneous symmetry breaking. It’s a great way to reconcile the messiness of reality with our belief in simple and beautiful underlying mechanisms. We posit that the true fundamental dynamics of the world has some symmetry — X can be exchanged with Y, and all relevant processes are unchanged — but the actual state of the world does not respect that symmetry, which leaves it hidden (or “nonlinearly realized,” if you want to sound all sciencey). Deep down, a (left-handed) electron is completely interchangeable with an electron neutrino; but in the world as we find it, this symmetry is broken, and we end up with an electron that is charged and massive, a neutrino that is neutral and nearly massless. The Higgs boson that the Large Hadron Collider is looking for would be the telltale sign of the mechanism behind this symmetry breaking.

For reasons which escape me, this concept has not been borrowed (as far as I can tell) by social scientists and pundits more generally.^* Which is too bad, as it explains a great deal. For example, appealing to the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking would have been really helpful to Whoopi Goldberg on The View recently, as she patiently tried to explain to a distraught Elisabeth Hasselbeck why it’s just not the same when black people use the word “nigger” as when white people do. (From Sociological Images, via The Edge of the American West.)

Which is not to say that it’s always okay, or that there is no thoughtful critique of the re-appropriation of derogatory language by targeted groups, etc. Just that “If it’s wrong when white people say it, it should be wrong when black people say it too! It’s just not fair!” is far too simple-minded to carry any water.

Let’s imagine that, in our view of a happy future utopia, all races find themselves in situations of perfect equality of opportunity and dignity. Everyone enters society with equal status, and people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (The “symmetric vacuum.”) In such a world, arguments like “If you can do it, why shouldn’t I be able to?” would carry some weight. But even if we want that to be the world — even if we believe that the grand unified theory of social ethics involves a symmetry of rights and obligations under the interchange of various racial categories — it’s not the world in which we live. In the real world, different races don’t go through life with the same masses and charges (if you will). There really is such a thing as discrimination, legacies of poverty and exclusion, and so on. We can argue about the best way to deal with those features of reality, but pretending that they don’t exist isn’t a very useful strategy.

As Whoopi explains, many blacks have chosen to re-appropriate the n-word as part of a conscious strategy of fighting back against a power dynamic that uses language to keep them at the bottom. Again, one can argue about the effectiveness of that strategy, and the circumstances under which it is appropriate, and whether Jesse Jackson should really have used that term in referring to Barack Obama. But it doesn’t follow that “if it’s fair for you, it should be fair for me.” Here is a guy who sadly doesn’t get it; a white high-school teacher who is genuinely puzzled about why he got in trouble for calling one of his black students “nigga.”

I was contemplating writing this post for a long time, with the relevant symmetry being men/women and the social milieu being the scientific community. Too many physicists reason along the following lines: “Men and women should be treated equally. Therefore, any time we privilege one over the other, as in making a special effort to encourage women in science, we are making a mistake.” That would be a reasonable argument, if the symmetry weren’t dramatically broken by the state in which we find ourselves. Which happily is not a stable vacuum! (Note that the underlying assumption is not that different genders or races are necessarily equivalent when it comes to innate abilities; that is largely beside the point, and obsession about those questions gets to be a little creepy. But they should certainly have equal opportunities — and right now, they don’t.) Treating one group differently than the other isn’t what we ultimately want to be doing — it’s not part of the happy utopia — but it might be the best response to the current state of unequal treatment overall.

But Whoopi’s little teaching moment was too good to pass up. If the discussion of race and gender in the rest of the MSM rose to that level of sophistication, we’d all be better off.

———-

^*I’ve been searching for an excuse to mention Kieran Healy’s Standard Model of Sociophysics. I’m not sure if this is it, but I’ll take it.

Forum for the Future: Hailing the future

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:29:14 +0000

Hydrogen taxis get the green light for 2012

London’s aim of organising the “first ‘sustainable’ Games” has been given a further boost after plans were unveiled for a fleet of zero-emission hydrogen taxis, to be on the streets in time for the start of the 2012 Olympics

It's Getting Hot in Here: tomowens

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:07:15 +0000

So take Virginia, the old Commonwealth, the birthplace of some of the most esteemed leaders of American history: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and television’s the Waltons. Where are Virginia’s leaders now? On today’s political front, you have politicians such as potential VP candidate Governor Tim Kaine, a strong outspoken proponent of a new waste coal plant in Wise County Virginia and a dismal goal of 7% green house gas reductions by 2025. This is not even in the ball park of where scientists says we need to be. If that wasn’t enough, you have Rick Boucher in Virginia’s fightin’ 9th and one of Congress’s biggest champions of so called Clean Coal and the myth buster Carbon Capture and Sequestration technology. Granted there are some potential Clean Energy champions in the mix, but they need the loud uncompromising voice of the people in their ear demanding a clean and just energy future.

There’s an old story about Franklin D. Roosevelt that captures how the movement needs to think in terms of responsive leadership. A group of activists met with FDR in the Oval Office to urge his support for some liberal reform. After listening to their arguments, Roosevelt responded, “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now go out and put pressure on me”

His point: Even a president can’t always act with ideal freedom. He too faces constraints–powerful leaders in Congress, bureaucratic resistance and inertia, opposition from state and local government leaders, potential roadblocks in the courts, and so on. Sometimes a president needs “pressure” in the form of a visible, well-organized, vocal, and articulate public movement to provide him with both political cover and supportive energy that permits him to do what he really wants to do anyways.

Student leaders from across Virginia are calling for exactly that, a PowerShift this October 10th - 12th at Virginia Tech. Noticing that the politicians of the Old Dominion aren’t quite where they need to be, the youth of today are excited, driven, and frankly a little pissed at the prospects being put on the table for their future. You saw it when they blockaded themselves to Dominion’s headquarters in calls of desperation and solidarity from a generation that will bear the load of a coal filled economy. Now they’ll show it with the largest mobilization of young people (apart from the Civil War) in Virginia’s history.

The plan:

1) Bring 1000 students from across the Commonwealth to Virginia Tech to be and hold the largest state summit on clean energy and youth activism. We need to be a LOT louder and where better to start then the cradle of coal country.

2) Get trained and inspired to take this movement on as our own for the taking.

3) Influence the major media: The Society of Environmental Journalists will be holding their annual conference three days after Virginia PowerShift. We will make sure they know what was accomplished!

Check out www.vapowershift.org and get more plugged in. There is a need for speakers, trainers, sponsors and great minds who can help make this thing a reality.

Global Voices (India): India: Co-eds and Convents

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:49:00 +0000

Bohemian Rhapsody on the the value of getting educated at a co-ed over a convent school.

Global Voices (India): India: On the Death Penalty

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:45:16 +0000

Law and Other Things on the Indian Supreme Court redefining the death penalty and life sentence.

Futurismic: The Life-Cycle of a Trope - Science Fiction’s Tragedy of the Commons?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:10 +0000

Blasphemous Geometries returns, like a surly postal worker on a rainy day.

This time Jonathan McCalmont takes a look at tropes - the riffs, clichés and plot enablers that form the backbone of much genre literature. Are tropes subject to abuse and overexploitation in the same way as any other limited resource? (more…)

The Life-Cycle of a Trope - Science Fiction’s Tragedy of the Commons?

Tags: commons • culture • ideas • Jonathan McCalmont • literature • resource • science fiction • tropes

It's Getting Hot in Here: meegee

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:23:55 +0000

Citizens opposed to National Coal Corporation mining the Sundquist Wildlife Management Area

Yet another action from Mountain Justice in Defense of the Appalachian Mountains! Please Support Fellow Activists.

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Tenn., July 20 - Residents of coal-impacted communities throughout Tennessee and Appalachia took a stand today for the mountains of East Tennessee by marching on Zeb Mountain, a surface mining site owned by Knoxville-based National Coal Corporation. In the tradition of American Civil Disobedience, the march, organized by United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice, and Three Rivers Earth First!, included a diversity of coal-impacted citizens ranging from hunters fighting for the state’s wildlife to religious leaders promoting environmental stewardship

The march began with a prayer led by Christians for the Mountains and included political theater, life-sized puppets, rousing speeches, and proud renditions of the Tennessee state anthem, “Good Ol’ Rocky Top.” As the march reached the border of National Coal’s property, four activists decided to risk their freedom by walking across the line to make it clear that the destruction of mountains for short term profit is not acceptable. The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office calmly and orderly arrested the activists and removed them from the property.

Eric Blevins, one of those arrested, and a multi-generational Appalachian, said “I crossed an artificial line today because Appalachia is my homeland, and its life is being destroyed far faster than it can regenerate. I wanted to open people’s minds to how insane it is that we allow corporations to own land without loving it and keeping life sustainable.”

Now that 1345 acres of Zeb Mountain, half the original permit, have been reduced to rubble, National Coal is moving on to assault other mountaintops in Tennessee. One of these areas is the 65,000 acre Sundquist Wildlife Management Area, which cost Tennessee taxpayers $40 million dollars to purchase. Sundquist Wildlife Management Area is a public access game preserve with rivers flowing directly into the water supply of Nashville, Tennessee.

“The land belongs to the state and the people of Tennessee, and corporations should not be allowed to destroy it. The federal mining regulators should start listening to state agencies and representatives,” said Matt Landon, a United Mountain Defense volunteer.

Coal mining involving mountaintop removal or cross ridge mining has many negative effects across Appalachia, and using this method in the Sundquist Wildlife Management Area would threaten the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. The Big South Fork has begun to recover from previous mining operations in the early 1900s. There are five federally endangered species of mussels in the Big South Fork and two listed endangered fish. This is about the survival of the New River and the Big South Fork. Mountaintop removal is inherently destructive to the sources of our water, and the fish and wildlife that depend on it.

Of the groups organizing the march, United Mountain Defense is a Tennessee-based non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the state’s land, air, water and people, while Mountain Justice is a pan-Appalachian movement dedicated to similar issues on a regional scale. Three Rivers Earth First! is dedicated to preserving all places.

“We believe Tennesseans need to stand up to the coal companies that are devastating our environment, killing our wildlife, and poisoning our air and water,” said United Mountain Defense co-founder Paloma Galindo. National Coal has committed over 50 violations of environmental regulations since 2004.

“NCC cannot be trusted to protect our public lands based on their prior record of violations,” said lawyer and Knoxville native Chris Irwin. National Coal is unfit to mine our public lands due to their pattern of violations in Tennessee.
The march comes as state legislators continue to debate the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill that would protect Tennessee ridgelines above 2,000 feet, require an environmental impact statement before issuing any surface coal mining permits and would prohibit surface mining operations within 100 feet of any water of the state.

Now is the time for citizens to speak up and take a stand to protect the mountains of Tennessee from the devastating effects of surface mining. With coal prices becoming less competitive than renewable energy and in-state tourism growing in popularity due to the rising cost of travel, the mountains of Tennessee are far more valuable to the state and its citizens if they are protected

United Mountain Defense (UMD) is a nonprofit volunteer based organization committed to protecting Tennessee’s mountains, water, air and people. UMD conducts activities in three principle areas: legal and policy advocacy; scientific monitoring and data collection; and public education, outreach and grassroots organizing. These activities are conducted within the state of Tennessee, primarily in Campbell, Claiborne, Scott, Fentress, Bledsoe, Knox and Blount counties.

Social Networking Watch: Sales With a Smile, Customer Service, And My Honeymoon

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15:40 +0000

I was on my honeymoon recently and I got an idea for an article (Yes — my lovely newlywed bride, Gretchen, thought I was crazy trying to draft an article while on our honeymoon — but she supports me in everything I do). We visited Bora Bora and stayed at a beautiful Luxury Collection resort from Starwood. The location was amazing and the weather was fantastic but what surprised me was the difference I discovered between customer service and what I refer to as “sales with a smile.” When I had the epiphany, I was immediately convinced that I had to share my insights with all of you since many of you practice customer service on a daily basis.

Many people practice “sales with a smile” but very few people practice true, effective customer service. “Sales with a smile” is best defined as the occasions when you smile and respond to inquiries with specific, detailed information. Customer service represents going beyond the response to a question and offering supplementary information that may be of interest to your client or customer and may represent an opportunity for cross-sell or up-sell for you.

In Bora Bora we interacted with many of the resort’s staff. Everyone would smile and say hello — but when we asked a question, we received only the most basic response. When I asked for a special dinner for two in our suite, we were told that they couldn’t do it because they were booked. They said it very politely and were very nice about it. It took some coaxing and more questions for us to realize that there were some options available to us — and we were able to have our special romantic dinner for two after all!

From time to time you will hear about salespeople who are “order takers.” An order taker is someone who pretty much drives the boat down the river and the fish jump out of the water into the boat. An order taker may practice “sales with a smile” and provide a customer with whatever service they are asking for, but they rarely are practical customer service reps. A strong customer service rep is someone who knows that rarely is the question being asked the entirety of the inquiry. True customer service would come with a response that provides what customers were really looking for.

In that Starwood example the “sales with a smile” response was, “No, I am sorry. We cannot accommodate your request.”

In the same Starwood example the “customer service” response would have been, “No. I am sorry that we cannot accommodate your request, but there are a couple of other opportunities that may be of interest to you. Let me tell you about those as well.”

Customer service includes up-sell and cross-sell. It includes problem-solving, not just the dissemination of information.

In our business of online marketing, truly effective salespeople, the ones who are valued by their clients and are compensated justly, do more than just take orders. They are problem-solvers and they are focused on true customer service.

In the current state of the economy you’ll come across all sorts of marketers who are faced with problems — and a strong customer service relationship would provide solutions. A strong customer service sale will always come back — and it will come back higher than before! Don’t get me wrong. We had an amazing honeymoon, and I’d recommend that anyone visit the location where we stayed, but from a revenue generation opportunity we both witnessed missed opportunities for up-sell and customer service that could have resulted in even more opportunities for the resort.

Sales with a smile will never leave you upset, but true customer service can drive growth and loyalty and the other metrics that sustain a long-term, successful business.

BLDGBLOD: Mysterious Chinese Tunnels

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15:00 +0000

[Image: The brick-arched entryway to a "mysterious Chinese tunnel" in the Pacific Northwest (via)].

72 years ago, a man named William Zimmerman sat down to tell a story about "mysterious Chinese tunnels" to the U.S. government. That interview was conducted as part of the Federal Writers' Project, and it can be read online in a series of typewritten documents hosted by the Library of Congress.
Zimmerman claims that "mysterious" tunnels honeycombed the ground beneath the city of Tacoma, Washington. These would soon become known as "Shanghai tunnels," because city dwellers were allegedly kidnapped via these underground routes – which always led west to the docks – only to be shipped off to Shanghai, an impossibly other world across the ocean. There, they'd be sold into slavery.

[Image: The cover page for one of many U.S. government documents called "Mysterious Chinese Tunnels"].

Subterranean space here clearly exists within an interesting overlap of projections: fantasies of race, exoticism, and simply subconscious fear of the underworld. White Europeans had expanded west all the way to the Pacific Ocean – only to find themselves standing in a swamp, on earthquake-prone ground, with a "mysterious" race of Chinese dock workers tunneling toward them through the earth, looking for victims... It's like a geography purpose-built for H.P. Lovecraft, or something straight out of the work of Jeff VanderMeer: down in the foundations of your city is a mysterious network of rooms, excavated by another race, through which unidentified strangers move at night, threatening to abduct you.
It's urban historical anthropology by way of Jean Cocteau – or Sigmund Freud.

[Image: Another "mysterious Chinese tunnel" in the Pacific Northwest (via)].

In any case, because "construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad required large numbers of railroad laborers," Zimmerman's tale begins, "many Chinese coolies" had to be smuggled into the "rapidly growing city of Tacoma." They "arrive[d] mysteriously," he says, "smuggled in on ships, and even Indian canoes, from British Columbia."
At that point:

Several opium joints were known to be operating in Tacoma. And there was no question in the minds of many people that the narcotic was smuggled in through tunnels from their dens to cleverly hidden exits near the waterfront. They were also convinced that the tunnels were dug by Chinese, either as a personal enterprise or at the behest of white men of the underworld, as no white workmen would burrow the devious mole-like passageways and keep their labors secret.Zimmerman adds that the Chinese "were forcibly expelled from Tacoma in 1885, but ever [sic] so often the story of the Chinese tunnels bobs up whenever workmen come across them in excavation work."
It's even rumored here in the BLDGBLOG offices that a mere 5% of the original tunnels have so far been discovered – until a graduate student in anthropology from the nearby University comes across a clue in an old government document, leading her to a small, bricked-over window near a drain in the downtown fish market... Directed by Gore Verbinski.

[Image: Entries to Tacoma's mysterious Chinese underworld? Photo by Stephen Cysewski (via)].

Meanwhile, that same year – 1936 – a 39-year old man named V.W. Jenkins sat down with a representative of the Federal Writers' Project, and he had this story to tell:

In the spring of 1935 when the City Light Department was placing electric power conduits under ground, workmen digging a trench in the alley between Pacific Avenue and 'A' Street at a point about 75 feet south of 7th Street, just back of the State Hotel, crosscut an old tunnel about ten feet below the surface of the ground. This tunnel was about three feet wide by five feet high, and tended in a southwesterly direction under the State Hotel, and in the opposite direction southeasterly toward Commencement Bay. I entered the tunnel and walked about 40 or 50 feet in each direction from the opening which we had encountered. There it went under the hotel the tunnel dipped sharply to pass under the concrete footings of the rear wall, proving that the tunnel was dug after the hotel had been built. In the other direction the tunnel had a sharp turn to the left, and after several feet, a gradual curve to the right, so that it was again tending in the same direction as at the opening. About 50 feet from the opening on the Bay side the tunnel began to dip and in another ten feet began to decline very sharply so that it would have been necessary to use a rope to descend safely on the met slippery floor. The brow of the bluff overlooking the waterfront is but a short distance from this point, explaining the need for the rapid downward slope, although it is probable that farther on there is a turn, either right or left, and that the tunnel was dug at an easier grade before emerging at a lower level.Jenkins then offers this bizarrely wonderful explanation for what else might have formed those tunnels:

Some persons contend that these openings found in the vicinity of Tacoma were caused by trees buried in the glacial age, and after decaying, left the openings in the glacial drift. If this is the true explanation for the tunnel I have described, then the tree that made it must have been a giant that grow such in the shape of a corkscrew.Of course, there are also "Shanghai tunnels" beneath Portland, Oregon. "All along the Portland waterfront," we read, "...'Shanghai Tunnels' ran beneath the city, allowing a hidden world to exist. These 'catacombs' connected to the many saloons, brothels, gambling parlors, and opium dens, which drew great numbers of men and became ideal places for the shanghaiers to find their victims. The catacombs, which 'snaked' their way beneath the streets of what we now call Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown, helped to create an infamous history that became 'cloaked' in myth, superstition, and fear."
That same site describes the actual process of Shanghai'ing:

It all sounds like some prehistoric narrative of the afterlife – a shaman's tale: you're blacked out and led through mysterious tunnels inside the earth's surface, only to wake up surrounded by the oceanic, on your way to another world.
This site offers quite a lot of history of the Tacoma tunnels, and ten minutes of Googling will reveal at least a dozen blog posts and assorted minor newspaper articles about the phenomenon; but there's something particularly intriguing about an official oral history, conducted by the U.S. government itself, in which tales of subterranean geography are revealed.
It's like a form of national psychoanalysis, where each session takes the form of geographic speculation.
More practically, such interviews are a fantastic premise for a short novel or film.

[Image: Photo by Michael Cook. "Looking into the bottom of the William B. Rankine G.S. wheelpit from the Rankine tailrace"].

Briefly, though, I'm also reminded of BLDGBLOG's interview with Michael Cook, posted last summer. Cook is an urban explorer based in Toronto.
Toward the end of that interview, I asked Cook "if there's some huge, mythic system out there that you've heard about but haven't visited yet" – some long-rumored underworld that might only be speculation.
Cook replies:

(With huge thanks to Alexis Madrigal, who sent me a link to the Tacoma tunnels last summer).

Your Coleridge Conservative Councillor: Redundant Traffic Sign Posts

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:03 +0000

Just had the following from the City Council - any suggestions, please be in touch:

The City Council has a modest residual budget allocated for the removal of redundant traffic sign posts; (ie. those not carrying any sign at all).

This budget has been in existence for some time and it is essential that the remaining balance be used during the current financial year.

Ideally I would arrange for a City-wide survey to be undertaken to locate redundant posts but depleted staffing resources preclude this at present.

I am therefore seeking your assistance in identifying any redundant sign posts within your Ward so that I can arrange for their removal.

Please give as much information as possible as to the location of any posts which you can identify; eg. relating to a house number or the junction of two roads; so that the Council's contractor can readily identify the item in question.

Finally, I would reiterate that I am looking for posts which are totally redundant rather than those carrying signs which might be considered redundant; the County Council has only agreed to the removal of posts, not signs.

New - PledgeBank: give away one sustainable alternative grocery bag (cloth, canvas, or crochet...

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:51:18 +0000

'I will give away one sustainable alternative grocery bag (cloth, canvas, or crochet) to a stranger but only if 10 people in NorthEast Ohio will do the same.' -- melissa, Resident of NorthEast Ohio

The Sartorialist: Variation on a Theme (part 2), Milan

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:57:00 +0000

I love the idea of finding a personal silhouette and then focusing on design details to vary the look.

The Sartorialist: On the Street....French Casual, Milan

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:51:00 +0000

Global Voices (Cuba): Cuba, U.S.A.: Sharpton Calls for Prisoners' Release

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:14:37 +0000

“When it comes to Cuban political prisoners, any publicity is good publicity”: Uncommon Sense and Balablu Blog draw attention to Reverend Al Sharpton's “call for the release of Cuba's prisoners of conscience.”

Copenhagen Cycle Chic: A Hub of Cyclists

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:04:53 +0000

A school of fish, a memory of elephants, a murder of crows - why not a Hub of Chic Copenhagen Cyclists? There. We just coined the phrase.

Stripes, tights and heels. All hail the Copenhagen Cycle Summer.

Cycling is Copenhagen is a mixture of ease, grace, beauty and a casual, relaxed attitude.

More Long John shots. The kids had so much fun that I had to try it myself. Here's Jeppe doing the hard work with me in the cargo box. And another shot of the kids.

My friends at Momemtum Magazine in Vancouver sent me this link of a recent bicycle fashion show they put on. It's great to see. Just think... a year ago, when we started this blog, there were hardly any Cycle Chic sites or blogs out there. Now the net is swimming in them. Yes, we're responsible. Yes, we're pleased. :-) Seriously, it is really great to see people taking back the bike culture.

We've had a couple of write ups on cool French bicycle blogs this past week. Vocivelo and Weelz.

Climate Progress: My oral testimony on dealing with oil — short term and long

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:04:00 +0000

Today at 9:15 am is the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing, “Immediate Relief from High Oil Prices: Deploying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

Live webcast at globalwarming.house.gov.

My 5-minute Oral Statement (~750 words):

(more…)

The Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog: City Stickers

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:56:08 +0000

The City of Copenhagen is testing out some new street stickers to be stuck on the bike lanes. They have tried them out before, as posted here, and these stickers with the city's bike department logo will be used to further brand Copenhagen as a cycle city in the hearts and minds of Copenhageners.

Before you ask, no, they're not slippery. They wouldn't put them on bike lanes if they were slippery. This sticker is in the parking lot behind the Transport Dept's offices and it is being tested to see how long it lasts and how it holds up under bike wheels. The employees ride over it each day, skid on it, you name it.

All very cool. It's important for Copenhageners to 'be the brand'. Most don't even think about the fact that they live in a 'bicycle culture'. It'll be great to get more people aware of it and proud of it. It'll help encourage more cycling and it can all be done without doing things that wrongfully brand cycling as 'dangerous'.

The Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog: Bicycle Botanics

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:48:07 +0000

A bouquet of spokes. As seen at Baisikeli.

Not to worry. If you forget your bike, nature will reclaim it as her own.

Official Google Blog: Knol is open to everyone

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:32:25 +0000

A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.

The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone.

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

Knols include strong community tools which allow for many modes of interaction between readers and authors. People can submit comments, rate, or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from our AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements.

We are happy to announce an agreement with the New Yorker magazine which allows any author to add one cartoon per knol from the New Yorker's extensive cartoon repository. Cartoons are an effective (and fun) way to make your point, even on the most serious topics.

Everyone knows something. See what people are writing about, then tell the world what you know: knol.google.com

Posted by Cedric Dupont, Product Manager and Michael McNally, Software Engineer

Gastronomy Domine: Sweet potato and chickpea curry

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:07:00 +0000

I like to make a vegetable curry as an accompaniment when I make a meat one, but this curry is substantial and tasty enough to stand up as a meal on its own with rice. This curry is in a southern Indian style, with coconut milk making the curry rich and thick, and lime juice adding zing. It's great for vegetarians - it's loaded with flavour, and will have the meat-eaters fighting among themselves

Richard Allan: Here, Have My Email Login Details…

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:44:04 +0000

A worrisome trend has started with the rise of social networking sites for you to be asked for your email login details.

The ‘offer’ from many sites such as LinkedIn and FaceBook is that they will find your friends in their systems by searching your webmail account contact lists. In order for them to do this you are invited to submit your account login name and password.

As soon as you have handed these details over there is of course nothing to stop a site using the details to extract anything from your webmail account. You have been told that only contact details will be looked at but have no way of verifying this.

Now with the big name social networking sites you may have a reasonable degree of confidence that they would not abuse these details. But this mechanism is now becoming common with sites across the board, many of which have no established brand to protect.

Whether by accident or design, the potential for these email account details to fall into the hands of those who would abuse them increases the more they are shared around.

Now one response to this may be to assert that we should none of us anyway leave any sensitive data in our webmail accounts. But I think if most us do go through our webmail accounts we will find receipts, flight booking records etc. containing information such as banking details that we would not want anyone else to access.

There is a cascading of trust here down to a much weaker point than we might like.

Most of us do have confidence in a Hotmail or Gmail etc. to keep our data secure.

We may have a little less confidence in a major social networking site like FaceBook or LinkedIn but the degree of trust is still high because of the brand strength.

But we have no reason at all to trust unknown social networking brands that we are asked to sign up with, usually via an email invite triggered when a friend has joined the site and handed over their contact details.

So our response when the least trusted site asks us for login details for the most trusted site should be to say ‘no’ if we do not want to compromise our own data security.

John Redwood MP: MPs locked out for 11 weeks

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:21:48 +0000

The Parliamentary recess is a symbol and a symptom of the overmanned and under achieving public sector. Some of my Labour colleagues will tell you that MPs have to work very hard in the recess – they have to catch up with all the constituency business which the pressure of a Westminster session puts on hold. Don’t you believe them. Any efficient MP can manage the constituency visits, cases and correspondence whilst also appearing regularly in Parliament. August and the first half of September are not ideal times for visits in the constituency. In my case there is no District General hospital within my boundaries, the schools are on summer holiday, and many businesses over August will be short of staff as they take their well deserved summer breaks. It is easier to keep up to date than to allow a backlog to develop that needs clearing in the recess.

I do plan to take some time off in August, but I think it is quite wrong that I am shut out from my main place of work and prevented from carrying out my main duties from July 22nd until October 6th! That’s a massive 11 weeks. Why does the government want to keep Parliament out of action for so long?

Doubtless they see it as a chance to have some respite from questions, criticisms and debates which highlight mistakes and problems. As from yesterday MPs are prevented from tabling a subject for debate, from asking oral questions of Ministers in Question Times, from tabling questions for written answer, from tabling EDMs and signing them, from participating in a committee, from asking a Minister a question during a debate or making points in a debate. We will have eleven weeks with no Ministerial statements to Parliament explaining what they are doing or reporting on errors and difficulties, no time to examine the secondary legislation they will still be drafting and pushing through, and no time to raise matters of public concern.

For the government it is a chance to dominate the media by using their spin doctors each day to pump out a story or a stunt, uninterrupted by criticism or an alternative agenda from Parliament.

At the very least there should be a session at the start of September before the main political conferences. This need not be a legislative session, as we have quite enough new primary legislation and do not wish to encourage more. It could combine Question Times to Ministers, with Ministerial statements, and adjournment debates on topics that the government and the Opposition wish to raise. There need not be any votes, so MPs who wish to be away can stay on their fact finding travels or whatever else they are doing, whilst those of us who wish to hold the government to account have a Parliament in which to do it. Whilst we are about it, why not abolish the main conferences, which are outdated ideas, and ask each party to go over to a couple of long week-end conferences each year so people with jobs can attend without having to take a week’s holiday, and MPs could continue to do their job at Westminster.

Westminster is overstaffed and underemployed. It should meet more often to provide better value for money. It is entirely representative of Labour’s wasteful public sector.

Binary Law: Blogs as a publishing platform

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:20:33 +0000

Dave Winer, pioneer of blogging, RSS and other publishing standards, recently posted about the importance of blogs as a publishing platform: Publishing keeps getting cheaper. That’s been the constant push, the practical application of Moore’s Law in my neck of the woods. I’ve always been a publishing guy, and that’s always been how I viewed computers, [...]

Official Google Blog: Hitting 40 languages

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:09:30 +0000

One of our goals is to give everyone using Google the information they want, wherever they are, in whatever language they speak, and through whatever device they're using. A huge part of that goal is making our services available in as many languages as possible. And as I’m sure you can imagine, that isn't as easy as simply as translating a few lines of text.

Take Hebrew or Arabic, which are written from right to left. An Arabic speaker may search for [world cup football 2008] [كأس العالم 2008 لكرة القدم]. Part of the query will be written from right to left in Arabic, while the numbers will be written left to right. Sometimes the right-to-left difference can mean having to change the entire layout of a page, as with Gmail.

Or take Russian, where words change depending on their placement and role in a sentence. In Russian, for example [pizza in Moscow] is [пицца в Москве] but [pizza near Moscow] is [пицца рядом с Москвой].

Then there's the whole challenge of ensuring that results are locally relevant. While many Australians searching for [freedom] are looking for the Australian furniture chain, UK and US users are often looking for the definition of the word itself. Our search results, then, have to take into account these local differences.

Our efforts to make Google products available in as many languages as possible dates to 2001, when we started Google in Your Language, which lets volunteers translate and edit translations of Google products in their native languages.

As more and more users, advertisers, and partners interact with Google across the world, the need for local products has become even more obvious. In 2007, we undertook a company-wide initiative to increase the availability of our products in multiple languages. We picked the 40 languages read by over 98% of Internet users and got going, relying heavily on open source libraries such as ICU and other internationalization technologies to design products. Do you need web search in Chinese or AdWords online support in Spanish? Perhaps Google News in Hindi or Google Scholar in Korean? Not a problem.

Here's a taste of how far we've come.

Growth in local language versions.

30 in 30: Today we have more than 30 products in more than 30 languages, up from 5 products in 30 languages just a year ago.
In 2004, we had 150 local-language versions of various products (e.g. a product local to the UK, not just the English-speaking world); today we're at more than 1500.
From January to March of 2008, we launched 256 local-language versions of various products, compared to 55 in the same period of 2007.
We've upgraded to Unicode 5.1 to make sure that we can handle any characters people read or write in.

The web is only useful - or utile, 便利, pożyteczny, or nyttig, depending on what language you speak - to the degree it can be accessible in your language. That's why we're so excited about how far we've come - and why we know there's still a lot of work to be done.

Posted by Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America

Futurismic: Shira’s spontaneous free fiction blogathon for charity

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:13:01 +0000

A message arrived in the Futurismic inbox from Shira Lipkin, a regular contributor in our Friday roundups. Says Shira:

I’m doing a blogathon this Saturday, July 26 - posting to my LiveJournal every half hour for 24 hours to raise money for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. This is my sixth year blogathonning, and I write spontaneous short fiction every year. It usually tends to have an urban fantasy bent (as in fantasy in a city, not paranormal romance), but this year, I’m taking a distinctly SF angle on it. For 24 hours, I’ll be in character as a xenoarchaeologist, trying to make sense of precollapse Earth… with the help of over 50 artists who donated “artifacts” to this project, including a few SF/F authors themselves. All artifacts are being auctioned, with a story card.

It all goes down on Shira’s Livejournal , and the auctions are findable on eBay.

And there’s a lot more info on my LJ about why I do this, and why BARCC.

Sounds like a super project for a great cause; I hope some of Futurismic’s readership will lend their support! We hope it goes well, Shira.

Shira’s spontaneous free fiction blogathon for charity

Tags: blogathon • charity • science fiction • Shira Lipkin • writing

Daily interesting photos - Flickr: Interesting photos - 22 Jul 2008 - Flickr

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:49:27 +0000

Francis's News Feeds

Helen Wright's photos: Matt reading, just about to go home again

Helen Wright's photos: Field, cows

Helen Wright's photos: Stile

Helen Wright's photos: Walking, dappled evening sunlight

Helen Wright's photos: Field, pleasing cloud/sunlight effects

Helen Wright's photos: Dry stone wall

Helen Wright's photos: Matt and Zoë looking into the entrance of a disused mine

Helen Wright's photos: Something from Tolkien or something

Helen Wright's photos: Entrance to disused mine

Helen Wright's photos: Matt, Reuben and Zoë gaze into the abyss

Helen Wright's photos: Evocative warning sign

Helen Wright's photos: "An impressive chasm", although it doesn't really come across in this picture

Helen Wright's photos: Reuben reads the Health & Safety advice; Susan plays a supporting role

Helen Wright's photos: Matt and Zoë walking across a field

Helen Wright's photos: Crossing a stile

Helen Wright's photos: Zoë taking a photo of me taking a photo of her

Helen Wright's photos: Matt poses on demand

Helen Wright's photos: Susan poses on demand

Helen Wright's photos: Susan

Helen Wright's photos: Walking

Climate Progress: McCain ‘nukes the fridge’: Now he believes that doing nothing can lower oil prices

Climate Progress: Energy efficiency is THE core climate solution, Part 1: The biggest low-carbon resource by far

Futurismic: New ESA/Russian manned spacecraft pictures!

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New - PledgeBank: give away one sustainable alternative grocery bag (cloth, canvas, or crochet...

The Sartorialist: Variation on a Theme (part 2), Milan

The Sartorialist: On the Street....French Casual, Milan

Global Voices (Cuba): Cuba, U.S.A.: Sharpton Calls for Prisoners' Release

Copenhagen Cycle Chic: A Hub of Cyclists

Climate Progress: My oral testimony on dealing with oil — short term and long

The Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog: City Stickers

The Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog: Bicycle Botanics

Official Google Blog: Knol is open to everyone

Gastronomy Domine: Sweet potato and chickpea curry

Richard Allan: Here, Have My Email Login Details…

John Redwood MP: MPs locked out for 11 weeks

Binary Law: Blogs as a publishing platform

Official Google Blog: Hitting 40 languages

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Daily interesting photos - Flickr: Interesting photos - 22 Jul 2008 - Flickr