Scary. Sad. Depressing. I wish Einstein had been a locksmith and Make and BoingBoing had let this story go untold. I don't think engineering atom bombs, or drawing up the plans, just to see if we can is cool or clever or particularly useful. I hope the knowledge of the ease with which these weapons can be manufactured does not offer any additional pretext to invade and destroy nations. Please don't let McCain win. Please don't let McCain win. Please don't let McCain win.

I guess one of these could be useful, especially where/when water is scarce.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet

I love how the little suburban tableau looks like it is sitting in an ashtray.... petri dish?

I just wonder how much U.S. taxpayers end up paying for this universal conscription in Israel. If all the money that went to putting up and training all the soldiers went to putting up and training community college students in the U.S., wouldn't we all be better off?

They look like really nice girls, though. I think the photographer did an amazing job. They don't seem sexualized... just very natural.

These are lovely photographs. My first thought was that they would make for an interesting and educational children's book. Then I saw the meth video. I had to stop watching it before they showed them disassembling machines. It was just too frightening. So sad this meth thing.

But... the lighting, clarity and arrangement of the machines is so nice.

This would be so nice to climb in and sit down. It looks so much more comfortable than your typical outdoor furniture. I really want to make a grass chair kind of thing.

Alan Weisman's The World Without Us gives us a detailed account of the process of natural succession in the absence of people. It is wonderful reading.

In all seriousness, I think the next first family should plant a tree (or ten or one hundred) around the White House. Let the lawn recede under the new canopy. Meanwhile, the new and improved administration will hopefully be hard at work allocating new seed funds for all types of community agriculture the whole country over. Sure they should set an example, but they should go way beyond the symbolism of doing whatever they do on their grounds and really help community organizations get started on their own projects. (My favorite ever was the Santa Cruz, CA Homeless Garden Project.) How about growing vegetables in the Prisons? There is a project that might actually do a little rehabilitation- for the land and the people. I hope to see many more garden type programs instituted and supported by our new fearless leader.

I'm doubting the new administration will go so far as to grow hemp at the White House, but what if they started a garden tended by some AmeriCorps and local teens in need of a wage? That would be a cool demo.

Wasn't hemp one of the main crops in those 1940's Victory Gardens?

Let's start a new movement called, "Kill Your Impermeable Surfaces."

After reading all these garden postings, I got inspired and worked a couple hours in the yard. I did some weeding where the previous owners had laid down that black tarpy stuff with all these little pebble rocks on top. It looks all xeriscapey, but up close you can see that tarpy stuff sticking up. The "weeds" that are poking through are what comprise the lawn I mentioned before. I think I might eventually remove the rocks and the tarp and just let nature grow. In the end I can't really sign on with the whole "kill your lawn" thing. It's just not natural.

The previous owners cut the lawn in half, planting a tree and shrubs that require very little water. I've increased the non-lawn space by adding a several drought-tolerant native plants. The "lawn" is just the green stuff that happens to grow where I haven't dug and planted something bigger. I use a reel mower and let the cut grass lay on top like a mulch. From a distance it looks like a pretty uniform carpet of green. But up close it is a diverse collection of native grasses and stray seedlings from neighboring green spaces. It is teeming with insect life. No water, no fertilizer, and just a couple stray dirt patches. I love my "lawn." I am thinking of hauling some of my nearly finished compost(eight months worth of kitchen scraps and yard trimmings) and making a raised vegetable bed in the fall. So what if I'm a misguided yuppie living out back to the land fantasies in the middle of the city. It's fun and the birds and bugs like it, too, so there.

I have a few really beautiful, interesting physical album covers from both Eno and Byrne. But it really is about the music, so I guess I will have to figure out how to download the darn thing. Boingboing is as high tech as I get.

Well, now, don't let the relatively low chance of bats in your bra discourage you from line drying your clothes. Butterflies and lizards are fairly abundant this type of year. You might get lucky.

Hanging your clothes to dry does let you get closer to nature, and it is sexy, but this is just taking it too far.

It also saves a ton of energy and CO2 output. I'm just hoping this article doesn't discourage folks from using all that free solar and wind power right outside their door.

Just started reading Philip K. Dick's Voices From the Street. It is being published for the first time although it was actually one of the first books he ever wrote.

Anyway, a fringe religious cult figures prominently in the story, complete with end-of-the-world scenarios and an urgency that the end times are upon us.

The prophet for the cult claims its new atomic weaponry that will do us in.... but I guess flu pandemic would work as well. The prophet figure stresses that some will survive... not all will perish... and that preparing oneself spiritually is the key. The tips on the website referenced here stresses the physical side of the preparations. Stock up on Evian vs. Get right with God.

Philip K. Dick seems to be saying that the cult and its claims of armageddon give some meaning to the life of the protaganist who is not satisfied in spite of having the wife, house, baby, car.

It is as thought the emptiness of (the American Dream?) is what drives these end of the world visions.

I hope to see some postings on this Voices from the Street. It is amazing.

I agree our language has become impoverished and that our ability to express ourselves with precision has atrophied, but that is why I turn to brilliant writers like Gibson. If he is just reflecting the culture's linguistic degradation and brand saturation then why doesn't it feel more natural? Maybe he is exaggerating these aspects of the culture so we see them more clearly. I have to admit, the references to RedBull and Ipods (and Ativan!) seem appropriate, but the Marlboro and PowerBook references feel forced. I accept the brand name when I have a relationship with the product, but if I don't, I want the generic object described instead (so maybe I can imagine my own special brand in its place!)

Thanks for helping me get my head around this.

Well, its the only interview I've read so far, so I don't know if Gibson's been taken to task on this, but what is UP with the constant referencing of brand names in Spook Country? Its like you are caught up reading this beautiful, intriguing book and then all of a sudden its like, "and now for these messages from our corporate sponsors!" I really don't care who got paid or didn't for all the brand name dropping in the book, but it really disrupts my reading experience. When I'm watching a movie or t.v. and someone grabs for a can or a bottle of some very specific consumer something I don't really care. But reading feels so much more intimate and private and when what seems to be totally blatant and tasteless advertising flashes by I feel imposed upon in a very unwelcome way. But still, I can't stop reading!