Desktop background image:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/24/article-0-01B8EF8900000578-909_468x314_popup.jpg

Duly BoingBoinged earlier here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/11/25/indian-epic-ramayana.html

and here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/how-a-comic-is-made.html

I'm looking forward to see Peter Ward's talk

Ianto Evans, the Cob House builder, has a great book on building rocket stoves:
http://www.rocketstoves.com

Atmocean CEO Phil Kithil proposes to use ocean wave-powered pipe-pumps to sequester CO2 and revive the dying fish:

http://cleantech.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/09/05/the-cleantech-show-018-large-scale-ocean-co2-bio-sequestration-interview-with-phil-kithil-ceo-atmocean/

James Lovelock has the same idea (in his 2007 letter to 'Nature'):

'Ocean pipes could help the Earth to cure itself'
Nature 449, 403 (27 September 2007)

SIR — We propose a way to stimulate the Earth's capacity to cure itself, as an emergency treatment for the pathology of global warming.
Measurements of the climate system show that the Earth is fast becoming a hotter planet than anything yet experienced by humans.
Processes that would normally regulate climate are being driven to amplify warming. Such feedbacks, as well as the inertia of the Earth
system — and that of our response — make it doubtful that any of the well intentioned technical or social schemes for carbon dieting will restore the status quo.
What is needed is a fundamental cure. The oceans, which cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface, are a promising place to seek a regulating influence. One approach would be to use free-floating or tethered vertical pipes to increase the mixing of nutrient-rich waters
below the thermocline with the relatively barren waters at the ocean surface. (We acknowledge advice from Armand Neukermans on engineering
aspects of the pipes.) Water pumped up pipes — say, 100 to 200 metres long, 10 metres in diameter and with a one-way flap valve at the lower end for pumping by wave movement — would fertilize algae in the surface waters and encourage them to bloom. This would pump down
carbon dioxide and produce dimethyl sulphide, the precursor of nuclei that form sunlight-reflecting clouds.
Such an approach may fail, perhaps on engineering or economic grounds.And the impact on ocean acidification will need to be taken into
account. But the stakes are so high that we put forward the general concept of
using the Earth system's own energy for amelioration. The removal of 500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the air by human endeavour is
beyond our current technological capability. If we can't 'heal the planet' directly, we may be able to help the planet heal itself.

James E. Lovelock*, Chris G. Rapley†
*Green College, University of Oxford,
Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HG, UK
†Science Museum, Exhibition Road,
South Kensington, London SW7 2DD , UK

See:
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1434&category=Environment

Get the XO rugged laptop when the next Give One Get One program rolls out- Works like a charm with Ubuntu + XFCE!

Just read the original NASA report here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1837156/NASA-Indoor-Plants
P.S. I have two Sansevieria trifasciata (snake plant, mother-in-law's tongue) in each room of my home. Very easy to take care of and they make you feel better!

Pollan 12 Food Rules:

1. Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid foods containing ingredients you can’t pronounce.
3. Don’t eat anything that wouldn’t eventually rot.
4. Avoid food products that carry health claims.
5. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
6. Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmer’s market or CSA.
7. Pay more, eat less.
8. Eat a wide diversity of species.
9. Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10. Cook and, if you can, grow some of your own food.
11. Eat meals and eat them only at tables.
12. Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

What about coverage of 'systemic' crises like corruption or traffic accident deaths?

Sir Fred Hoyle's book 'Evolution from Space' has a
chapter "Insects from Space?" suggesting that they are the real ETs:)

I also recommend 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts as a great introduction to this crazy city:
http://www.shantaram.com/
Full disclosure: I spent the first 19 years of my life there:)

Here are HR photos from the Apollo 17 'Blue Marble' Hasselblad magazine:
http://www.ehartwell.com/Apollo17/BlueMarbleCatalogNN.htm

But this one from the Apollo 8 mission is my favorite:
http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001489.html

A good interview with Shubin is here:
http://www.brainwaveweb.com/diavlogs/8008

Shubin made a decent appearance on the Colbert Show:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2008/01/your_inner_fish.html

See also the classic:

Ayahuasca Visions by Pabl Amaringo
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2052304/Ayahuasca-Visions-Amaringo

See this handbuilt version by Solange Desormeaux!:
http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2008/01/builders-of-pacific-coast.html

I already have my perfect fit -the OLPC XP laptop modded to have the full version of Abiword!
-I use it mainly to input text and read PDFs
-much better than the Alphasmart Dana/ Nokia N810
-I get a cool, rugged, solar chargeable laptop (no thanks Panasonic!) for cheap and did a good thing for some kid in Mongolia

Available here now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21599274@N06/sets/72157603666195108/

A PDF detailing Cotte's Mona Lisa restoration process is available here:
http://www.lumiere-technology.com/images/Download/ImagingPascalCotte.pdf

A great overview of Rhodiola by Zakir Ramazanov himself, among others, is available here;
http://www.scribd.com/doc/264037/Rhodiola-Rosea

Leonardo da Vinci seems to have been the first to think of the idea. See page 13 of Mark Roshiem's book ' Leonardo's Lost Robots':
http://www.scribd.com/doc/323708/Leonardos-Lost-Robots

Moses said it best!:
"Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart"
-Moses, Psalm 90

A great steampunk story is '72 Letters' by Ted Chiang:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/279919/72-Letters-by-Ted-Chiang