Overflow

Now this is a cool church. Sunday services in a coffee house. Bible study with a mug of Peet’s. Sounds like a religious experience to me.

If you’re an environmental scanner like me, you’re always looking for a good content aggregator. Backwash.com is interesting. It’s kind of an “About.com” meets “Blogger.com” thing — web logging organized by personality type. It features “channels” of collaborative weblogging organized by similar interests. Could be useful to a future geek like myself who does lots of scanning and channel hopping.

It’s never been so easy to have a short attention span. The Internet is enabling a golden age of adult ADD and I’m rolling with it. Woohoo!

Now, I’m not saying that the Pilot G2 Gel pen is not still my favorite, but I acquired a Uni-ball Vision “free-ink” pen and it’s pretty fine. I think I gotta go try a Vison Elite.

Yeah, baby. I loves me some high-tech pens. Maybe Santa will bring me a box.

Salon has a gratifyingly clear-eyed response by an Australian woman to anti-American sentiments since 9/11 — America the scapegoat

This isn’t syrupy glurge like that famous and oft-forwarded Canadian essay. This takes a square-shouldered stance toward American weaknesses and strengths in its rebuttal of knee-jerk anti-American epithets. Bravo.

“I see a different America. I see a grieving, vulnerable America shocked out of its self-absorption, an America that is indeed questioning, debating, and attempting to understand the root causes of its predicament, seeking to educate itself about Islam and Muslim cultures, seeking to defend itself against further attacks. I see an America that has welcomed more people from more countries around the globe than any other country in the history of mankind. I see an America whose embrace of democracy and vision of freedom, however less than perfectly realized, beats in every American heart. I see an America that deserves compassion in response to its misfortunes, and acknowledgement of its virtues and better strivings, however often they may fail or produce unforeseen consequences. And I see a world that would be less without it. “

I wish people would forward *this* kind of stuff into my in box.

I might have to stay home and watch Good Morning America on Monday. Seems that Diane Sawyer let it slip that ‘It’ may finally be revealed. I’ve been holding out a lot of hope for Dean Kamen’s secretive project. If it is what they say — a scooter powered by a stirling engine — I’ll want one if it’s affordable.

But the good news will be the Stirling engine. An commercially viable and efficient Stirling engine would be the true pearl in the oyster. A scooter would not have revolutionary effects, but a reliable, efficient, clean source of energy would truly rearrange our society, especially if it enabled distributed electricity generation away from the grid.

A lot of my hopes, my positive scenarios for the future, the ones that don’t involve societal and environmental collapse, predicate on the invention of some sort of clean, cheap energy. Fusion is looking better, thanks to the new MAST project and its recent successes, but a commercially viable Stirling engine would be really cool.

I’m hoping Kamen the wunderkind will pull this out of his hat. I may end up being disappointed, but it’s fun to dream.

A high-tech scooter would be kinda cool too.

Are you pro-choice? I am. Mathematically, that is. (via SciTech Daily)

An anthropological analysis of coolhunting — Chronicles of Love and Resentment. I’ll have to look inot this Generative Anthropology stuff. All Human Desire is Memetic? Interesting. Seems like there might be something in the intersection of this, systems dynamics, and futures studies which could be useful…

Hey, I never said I’d always be cherent, did I?

We’ve been discussing the differences between “Coolhunting” and “serious” futures studies on this futures discussion list I’m on. So in my subsequent investigations I came across this pretty good poem: The Coolhunter, by Mark Lewman.

(warning: the language and imagery is rated “R”)

The latest trend — Trendspotting.

Everyone wants to know “what’s next,” apparently. Why aren’t they asking us futurists? Cause just cause you know how to do futures don’t necessarily make you hip.

“Serious” Futurists discuss weighty issues like global energy or intellectual rights policy. “Serious” Futurists don’t care whether Brittney is the new Madonna.

Is there a way for us “Serious” Futurists to tap into this pop futures trend without compromising our intellectual credentials? Seems like a wave is swelling here. Now where *did* I put that boogie board…

Every software development outfit has that one guy who’s a bit too into Japanese Anime. Ours, a guy named Walter, was nice enough to turn me onto Cowboy Bebop: The Music.

I’ll probably never see an episode, but I’m gonna rip and burn me some Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.

I did it. I finally got an Amazon wish list. I needed one for Secret Santa.

It’s long, but not because I’m greedy. This way if I tell someone about my wish list before, say, a birthday or something, ther’ll be so many things there that I’ll still be surprised. I think I much prefer heart-felt gifts thought up by the giver and I usually say something to that effect when i’m asked what I want (or I say I don’t know, which I don’t at the time). Now I can, as a last resort or as an aid to the gift-impaired say, “Well, I have a wish list out on Amazon.com. That might give you some ideas.”

I also hate it when I do have a few extra bucks to treat myself with and I can’t remember what it was that I want, only that I know there’s a whoile list of stuff I’ve been wanting but can’t think of any right then. So I’ve at least got this list.

Okay, enough rationalization. I am aware that a personal, all-occasion gift registry is pretty self-absorbed. But hey, all the other kids have one.

Art should be a bit dangerous. This stuff really is.

Surrogate pamie candidate number two: The Mighty Kymm

I’m going thru pamie withdrawals. Where are you pamie?

Well, here’s pamie replacement candidate number one — Mighty Girl. She’s funny.

I’m a Secret Santa. This sounds like fun. I just hope a deadbeat doesn’t draw my name…

In my opinion, this kind of thing is what the web is best at — connecting people in new and innovative ways.

I couldn’t resist once I heard about it. Sign up; I might draw your name. Iassure you I’m not a deadbeat.