On the path to a Carbon Negative Future –

Marissa, a newly minted 2canologist at Shelburne Farms, has just lit about 4 pounds of softwood pellets in the TLUD [Top Lit Up Draft] stove she has just built. In about 75 minutes, this will turn into about 1 pound of biochar suitable for experimenting with.
For [...]

Farooq Hassan has a new article:
In a historical context, we have yet to conceptually realize the philosophical foundations of the 2008-2009 public affirmation of the country’s [Pakistan] judiciary. I do not recall a single modern historical precedent wherein the elected government of the day was almost swept from its incumbency by popular revolt that resulted [...]

In the Depression era, a question was posed: Are you for the Money or the People?
Today, we need to reflect on the lack of meaningful change and the seemingly unchangeable ancien regime of 20th century America.
The Boston Globe ran a front page story on how Corporations invested $100 million per month for ten months, [...]

On Tuesday, the Obama administration issued its Open Government Directive. It calls on Federal Agencies to publish data that had not been previously available and to use open formats that can be more easily downloaded, searched and analyzed.
It also called on Federal Agencies to create portals, in the form, http://www.agency.gov/open and http://www.whitehouse.gov/open [...]

Friends,
What do you think of adding Google’s Friend Connect to this site?
Also, for those readers who have Google Wave accounts, should we start a Greater Democracy Wave as well? How would that compliment the blog?
Lastly, what role, if any, does Google Voice have to play on Greater Democracy? Could all three find a [...]

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the [...]

By: DR FAROOQ HASSAN
Dr. Hassan has a new essay in The Nation:
Every morning at my Harvard’s library desk I go through press reports on Pakistan. I regret to say that no country in the World has as bad things written about it as Pakistan does. While some of these critiques, ridicules or even sarcasm could [...]

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 [...]

For the first time in his professional career, Constitutional Scholar Laurence Tribe – previously on various short-lists of potential Supreme Court nominees – proposed a Constitutional Amendment.
He felt it was necessary in order to assure that traditional 18th Century constitutional civil liberties would remain protected against modern technological threats.
On March 26, 1991, Professor Tribe (now [...]

Tags: civil liberties, due process, free press, freedom of speech, technological threats, unreasonable search, unreasonable seizuers