Blog posts

Blogging while travelling isn’t proving nearly as frequent an event as I’d expected. Too much to see and do, and too few hotels/hostels with good internet access. For regular updates it’s probably better to keep an eye on my flickr stream than this blog, but I’ll try to keep this place up to date. We’re currently in New Zealand, staying with the wonderful Riddells in Cambridge, a couple of hours south of Auckland. I’ll write more on New Zealand when we’ve been here longer, but first step back to California with a couple of highlights. ...

Imagine if our leaders were chosen on World Bank lines | Guardian daily comment A good overview of the lunacy that is the governance of the World Bank (tags: corruption governance worldbank) BBC NEWS | Middle East | IAEA chief in Iran attack warning Statements like “the US favours a diplomatic track” seem sadly naive (tags: iaea iran usa)

Iran and the Taliban–Less Than Meets the Eye? A very sensible appraisal of the curious reports that Iran is supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan (tags: afghanistan harpers iran taliban) cityofsound: Postopolis!: Robert Neuwirth Yet another fascinating-sounding Postopolis talk. This one on slum cities and their potential. Useful comments from Dan Hill too. (tags: cities postopolis slums urbanity)

As of 1pm Eastern time yesterday, we’re homeless. Having agreed the sale of our house in March and completed the process three weeks ago, yesterday we packed up, cleaned up, and drove away in a bright yellow van (not the one pictured). This is of course a chosen homelessness, and we have plenty of places to stay and support structures to rest on. This weekend we’re in Chicago with Kari’s family. Tomorrow we fly to California, and from there to New Zealand, Australia, and on into Asia. ...

The movers are downstairs, gradually emptying our house, and we can finally begin to emerge from the task-oriented tunnel vision that has been a necessary part of the past fortnight. As more and more people asked me whether I was excited about the trip that will fill our next two months, I’ve generally had to answer that I was trying not to think about it other than logistically. There was too much to do to allow such distractions. ...

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | US rejects German G8 climate goal “A top US climate official said the G8 should not dictate members’ policies, but President Bush said he still had a “strong desire” for a post-Kyoto plan.” – the double-speak is remarkable. The G8 is not an entity that can dictate to (tags: climatechange g8summit globalwarming kyoto)

Juan Cole: Libby Sentences to 30 Months “The same is true for Cheney himself and for Karl Rove, Bush’s political adviser. They are all traitors who betrayed an undercover US operative who was attempting to work against the ayatollahs in Tehran.” (tags: cheney juancole politics rove scooterlibby treason) Rice v. Cheney (Harper’s Magazine) It’s seemed for quite some time now that Dick Cheney was undermining Condoleeza Rice’s statements in the middle east, and here’s more evidence. Not that I support much of what Rice has to say, but I’d probably take it over Cheney’s PfNAC imperialism. ...

I’ve been resisting the temptating to chronicle every example of the combined inanity of the Bush administration and certain US media outlets, but in the midst of the busy-ness of this week a cheap shot just couldn’t be resisted. This headline appeared over the weekend in USA Today. I was really hoping for a follow-up the next day along the lines of “other leaders ask if invitation was lost in mail.” ...

cityofsound: Postopolis!: Matt Clark, Arup “Rethinking sustainability beyond LEED certification should involve calculating the total energy cost of the building. Every piece of steel used in construction comes out of a blast furnace, which uses a vast amount of energy. In stating that the gre (tags: greenbuilding leed postopolis sustainability) New Sufjan Stevens - “In The Words Of The Governor” (Stereogum Premiere) New Sufjan, by Sufjan (not yet another cover). And I doubt it’s what many of us were expecting. ...

One of the numerous side projects that’s been keeping me from blogging (alongside working full time and preparing for a round-the-world trip and an international move) made a quiet launch yesterday. You can find it over at shop.georgiamusicstore.com. The site is a component of a wider online presence for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, providing e-commerce facilities for their gift shop. It went through numerous iterations as they refined how they wanted to manage stock, and now takes stock updates uploaded from CSV files for easy integration with their other back-office systems. Payments are handled through the excellent Active Merchant which makes the payment side of e-commerce development a breeze. Search come from ferret, and a little reassurance is provided by the wonderful exception_notification. ...