THE GARDEN BUILDING ON 57TH WEST STREET & HUDSON
“U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks at the Women in Public Service Project and Colloquium with Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith, President of Smith College Carol T. Christ, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. on December 15, 2011.”
“Smart grids are the future of energy distribution and represent a significant front in the effort to lower global emissions.
Using advanced metering technology, they create a two-way communication between the grid and appliances and are able to smoothly bring more renewable energy into the system . The net result is a more efficient flow and consumption of electricity — reducing costs for consumers and providers, lowering waste, and making power distribution more scalable to meet growing demand.
In 2010, China is the worldwide leader, having designated $7.32 billion for smart grid investment, based on data from Zpryme Research & Consulting, an Austin, Texas research and consulting firm that draws on stated federal spending figures.
The U.S. was second at $7.09 billion; Japan was a distant third at $849 million and South Korea was fourth at $824 million. The first European nation was Spain, which finished fifth at $807 million.
The below graphic shows the full top ten, with countries’ sized relative to smart grid investment amount.”
“2,000 homes are currently hooked up to a pilot project on the island of Jeju, South Korea, testing a new type of electricity supply system, called a smart grid.
Lim Kee-Chu, whose home is hooked up to the system, has had $20,000 worth of solar power technology installed.
The South Korean plan calls for at least three city grids to go ‘smart’ by 2013, and for 10 per cent of energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.”
“Water is one of the most common things on earth, but the supply of it on this planet is finite, and as the world’s population expands, the demands of industry and commerce increase and pollution fouls more and more of our natural resources, potable water is no longer as easy to find as it once was, and many believe that it will become a valuable strategic commodity with the passing of time. Filmmaker Sam Bozzo examines the growing battle over control of the global water supply in the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars. The film examines how major corporations and financial institutions are buying up territories where large water supplies can be found, the fight to protect the Great Lakes, allegations that one of the world’s most powerful political families is attempting to corner the market on water in Paraguay, and what ordinary citizens can do to keep the water supply free and shared fairly by all. Based on the book by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, Blue Gold: World Water Wars was an official selection at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival.”
In remembrance of the 14 women in the Montreal Massacre (December 6):
Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student.
Helène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department.
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
“84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com)”
An interesting look between introverts and extroverts:
“What is introversion? In its modern sense, the concept goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say “Hell is other people at breakfast.” Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.
Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially “on,” we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: “I’m okay, you’re okay—in small doses.”
Chinese Elderly Choir singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”
Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.
“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said. “Bodies don’t have handles on them.”
After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of “active resistance” from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.
“What I’m looking at is fairly standard police procedure,” Kelly said.
Emphasis mine. So we can add “pulling your arm back from police” and “curling into a ball” to the list of violent activities that totally justify being attacked and beaten by the very police who are sworn to protect the citizens of this country from real, actual violence.
And how Orwellian is it to claim that they had to attack these students — children, really, the same age as my own children — with pepper spray at Davis so they wouldn’t hurt them.
Are you fucking kidding me right now? How can anyone defend this brutality?
According to the guy who wrote the manual, “Fairly standard police procedure” in the United States in 2011 is to attack peaceful, non-violent students who are exercising their constitutionally fucking protected right to freedom of speech and assembly to petition the government for a redress of grievances by spraying chemical weapons into their faces when they present no fucking threat at all because “they don’t have handles.”
These thugs who hide behind a badge should be fired immediately, lose their pensions, and stand trial for assault against their own fucking people.
Our president and our Congress have said that the United States supports the rights of citizens to peaceably assemble and protest in every fucking country in the world… except our own. Shame on them all.
(Source: cbsnews.com)
“This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters at UC Berkeley, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, and UC Davis. Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force. Protesters have been hospitalized because of injuries inflicted during these incidents. The violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive.
We are outraged by the excessive and unnecessary force used against peaceful protests.
We are outraged that the administrations of UC campuses are using police brutality to suppress dissent, free speech and peaceful assembly.
We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests. We hold them responsible for the violence and believe it can only result in an escalation of outrage that holds the potential for even more violence.
”
This is video of Lieutenant John Pike of the UC Davis Police pepper spraying a group of peaceful protesters at Occupy UC Davis yesterday, without regard and in as inhumane a way as possible.
The rest of his officers, do absolutely nothing to stop him.
“Donna Riley, Associate Professor of Engineering
Traditionally, engineers have been trained to be “value neutral,” focusing on solving the problem at hand without always considering the social and moral consequences of their work. Donna Riley argues that, with a shift in priorities to emphasize helping people over earning profits, engineers can strive to achieve not only efficient solutions but a more just society as well.”
