Author: Aldon Hynes
In 2001, Robert Putnam published a seminal book on the decline of civic engagement. Entitled Bowling Alone, it traced the decline in participation in a wide range of community organizations, from voting and church attendance to bowling leagues. The election of Barack Obama with massive citizen involvement and the hope [...]

Author: Aldon Hynes
Over the past couple of days, I’ve encountered incredible jubilation about the election of Barack Obama to be our next President. Yet in the background, I hear concerns expressed. Even in President-Elect Obama’s speech on Tuesday night, he spoke about the difficult task ahead. I’m on a mailing list [...]

Tell Them About the Dream
Please do it TODAY!
A terrific music video by Laura Vecchione (Veck-ee-oh-nee)
She writes:
Dear Friends,
This is a song and video that came together in a week, in three different cities, because of people’s belief in Sen. Obama and his message of renewal and the historic nature of this election. We got it [...]

Posted by: Jock Gill
To do what? To help us get where?
A very long time ago, on the internet scale, 1992 to be exact, I serendipitously became the first ever presidential campaign staffer assigned to the internet — which meant, in those days, email. This led to my becoming the first White House staffer [...]

Author: Jock Gill
Spore is an interesting game because, according to the NY Times feature on it in the science section no less, you can only win with a balance of competition and cooperation! A post cold war game. Ah. “Not a simple kill or be killed affair.” Requirement to make [...]

Madrid: 19 July
Dear & eminent colleagues:
I wish to bring you in picture about a truly historic meeting convened here on the invitation of the Saudi monarch. This conference had been convened for a most crucial dialogue between the three monotheistic faiths. Saudi King Abdullah appealed for “constructive dialogue” to end disputes between the world’s [...]

Towards a Distributed, Peer-to-Peer, Near Zero Net Energy Strategy
With today’s materials, tools, and crafts we can build houses in Vermont, and the rest of the North East, that do not need central heating systems. Should we encourage the building of such housing? There is no longer any excuse for building a [...]

Thanks to Tom Atlee, today I watched the Stroke of Insight video – a presentation at the 2008 TED conference. It is amazing. I hope you will watch it too. And then share it as you see fit
The “Stroke of Insight” video is deeply informative with respect to the limits [...]

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Corner swamp 671, originally uploaded by Jock Gill.

What do you see in the photograph above?

I suggest we primarily “act” on what we “see”. Errol Morris posits that what we “see” is largely informed by [...]

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KWB-micro-CHP, originally uploaded by Jock Gill.

Wood pellet powered Stirling engine micro-CHP is now a commercial product in Europe! This very strategic product is made by KWB of Austria, who currently refuse to sell into [...]