Ted Ritzer: Birding

ZON Dollars Where the Virtual & Real World Collides for Good in the World

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:36:47 GMT

ZON DOLLARS CONCEPT-JAN 1, 2007

Dear Google Org, Amazon and Linden Labs People:

I submit this idea for your consideration:

It has been posted to the Internet via Google docs, its URL is:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcjvvpr5_2frhqm6

ZON Dollars Where the Virtual & Real World Collides for Good in the World:

The idea for ZON dollars has its roots in three things I read as the final moments of 2006 played out:

1. Allision H Fine's wonderful new book: "Momentum-igniting social change in the connected age.", which can be purchased at Amazon. 2. Amazon's new project that uses 37signals Ruby on Rails to build a new application called Unspun , which is based on an application Amazon has called the mechanical Turk. 3.An article called: "What is Second Life?" Of course, the reference to a virtual currency comes directly from Second Life's "The Linden dollar".

I guess the challenge delivered by Allision Fine in her book: "Momentum" is how do we harness technology and the economy to do good?

ZON dollars is my attempt at doing just that through the creation of a virtual currency that at its core involves both voluteerism and doing good throughout the world.

ZON dollars can only be earned by:

1. individuals or corporations donating to recognized charities(those that can issues tax receipts) for conversion into ZON dollars, for the sole purpose of motivating people to do good. through the use of those ZON dollars. 2. doing virtual work through participating companies like Amazon's Mechanical Turk Service, a portion, determined by the worker goes to charities in the form of ZON dollars, while the remainder goes to the virtual worker, to be used as they see fit. 3. corporations who are so confident of the worth of their product that they openly invite comparision by consumers, donate ZON dollars to encourge concensus rankings of their product using Amazon's new Unspun service. People are encouraged to vote on the best products i in those categories, and the ZON dollars are distributed to the charity that the sponsoring corporation names when they open the community concensus on their product category.

ZON dollars can be converted to:

1. real currency for use to purchase goods at Amazon.com or via Google's new ecommerce system. 2. they can be converted to Linden dollars for use in Second Life.

So I guess those are my inititial thoughts related to the ZON dollar concept, I will now publish this, and also email the concept to the above named entities that could actually implement the concept, a. Google.org, Amazon's Unspun & Second Life.

As Allision Fine's book title says, I wonder if this concept will:

'ignite social change in the connected age"

Sincerely

Gregers Ritzer-January 1, 2007

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 00:12:32 GMT

EcoModo - The Best of Treehugger.

This week at Treehugger: A Weapon of Mosquito Destruction: The Mosquito Magnet. A Hand-Powered Night Vision Monocular that allows you to see in the dark without batteries. Hewlett Packard decides that having toxic flame retardant on the outside of its laptop casings might not be such a good idea. Also, from the Crazy But Cool Department, a man builds a private island out of empty soda cans (can this be called a Do-It-Yourself island?), and finally, we have a look at how Google and PowerEscape fight runaway energy consumption.

The person who invented this cross between a barbecue and a motorboat really hates mosquitoes! Lucky for us, he or she also had a dislike for insecticide and these glowing traps that vaporize insect dust in the air we breathe. The way this "biting insect trap" works is by emitting a fake "breath" of CO2 with a scent that is attractive to the little vampires (mosquitoes locate their victims primarily with exhaled carbon dioxide). The device then sucks in the bugs in a radius of up to 1.25 acres (around 5,000 square meters) and dehydrates them (and then turns them into MREs?).

This device is a night vision scope, and quite fortuitously, it doesn't require any batteries. Instead, it's has a lever-activated power supply, so you can generate your own power ad hoc, and thereby see in the night, without fear of energy failure (that is, unless a sudden lassitude engulfs you).

Hewlett Packard has announced that it will remove a bromated flame retardant (BFR) from the outer case parts of all new products released after December of 2006. BFRs have been associated with endocrine disruption and impairment of mental skills, and have been found in women’s breast milk. Bromated flame retardants in electronics can also make e-waste more hazardous. For something that is supposed to make the product safer, it sure seems dangerous.

We couldn't make this stuff up: this man, Reishee Sowa of Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, apparently grew tired of trying to live self-sufficiently on dry land, and did what any of us would have done. He built his own island out of used pop bottles. 250,000 of them, plus some construction leftovers and bags of leaves, make up "his island," though he's quick to point out that it's technically not an island by traditional standards. "You see not even the president is allowed his own island in Mexico," he says, "but technically I don’t have an island, I have an eco space-creating ship."

Google vice president of operations Urs Hoelzle told us in a TG Daily article a little about Google's energy efficiency problems and how it tries to solve them, and this post is about PowerEscape Insight, a way to optimize software so that the hardware it runs on requires less power. It can of course be applied to computers, but also certainly to all kinds of electronic that might run software that makes chips run hotter than they should.

Treehugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

[Gizmodo]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:54:27 GMT

Republicans' wild Western land grab. A historic makeover of mining laws could sell out tens of millions of public acres for drilling, casinos and condos. [Salon salon]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:57:17 GMT

BBC: Blog picked as word of the year. Slow news day. [Scripting News]

What is your animal personality?

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 18:10:59 GMT

What is your animal personality?

Stolen from Pesons Nos Maux, who got it from Quizilla:

What Is Your Animal Personality ?
What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 17:54:48 GMT

Merry Christmas from the Accordian Guy worth repeating:

Stole this file from the above site, cause I think it really does capture some of both the frustration and the joy of Xmas.

All the best from WIFLblog and enjoy the Accordian Guy's Christmas story, and don't forget to visit his site:

the Accordian Guy Christmas story now follows:

Merry Christmas, and I mean it in the nice sense of the phrase

by Joey deVilla on December 24, 2003 12:13PM (EST)

This is from last year (with a little polishing up), but it's worth repeating.

While I do believe that some traditions should be put to rest, I also believe that a lot of tradition-bashers are poor-impulse-control cases. Having abandones any actual tradition or culture of their own, they fill the void with a couple of < href="http://www.utne.com/">Utne Reader platitudes, a mild revulsion for anything even vaguely Judeo-Christian, even if it aligns with their beliefs, a pro-pot slant and a half-formed belief in eye-for-eye karmic payback.

Standing for almost nothing, they tend to fall for just about anything.

Chris Baldwin's summed it up pretty handily -- and perhaps unintentionally -- in a Bruno comic from last year:

To borrow the line about Klansmen and Martin Luther King Day: C'mon, Bruno, how hardcore a secularist must you be to not want a day off?

Of course, those of us who celebrate Christmas would argue the exact opposite: here we took a beautiful Christian holdiay and destroyed it through corportization and "We're white, we're straight, we're sorry!" guilt.

(There's a Randroid who would take another tack and say "here we took a beautiful commerical holiday and destroyed it in usual religious fashion." Haven't we developed some kind of Ayn Rand repellent yet?)

In the end, I believe that intent counts.

I'm certain there is no malice, no implicit "convert or die" message and no forcing of one's beliefs on others when someone wishes someone else a Happy Chanukah, Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Tet or even Festivus, the actions of certain vicious zealots notwithstanding. Balanced minds do not see any implied Hitler overtones at Oktoberfest nor Hirohito/Tojo insinuations at the sushi house, and neither do they see the Crusades in Christmas.

When people say "Merry Christmas", most of them are really saying "Happy Holidays, and I'm celebrating them Christmas-style. You do your thing, and I'll do mine. Come by for drinks."

That what I'm really saying, anyways.

No matter what you believe, enjoy the break from the hustle and bustle of 21st century life. Be nice to each other. Hug someone you love.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 06:18:12 GMT

Online Bird Guide [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 06:10:31 GMT

Latest Wild Bird Mags [Surfbirds.com - World Birding News - Wild Birds and Birding]

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 21:26:59 GMT

10,000 Birds

one of the few birding blogs in existence!

Check it out at:

http://www.10000birds.com/links.htm

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 07:26:18 GMT

US State and Canadian Province Birds [Birding Birdwatching and Wild Birds at About]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:36:32 GMT

Little known birding locations - last week on Bimini, by Craig Faanes [Surfbirds.com - World Birding News - Wild Birds and Birding]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:29:47 GMT

$1,000 reward for bald eagle killer [CBC Edmonton]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 05:05:53 GMT

Bird Sound Recording Workshop [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 05:04:49 GMT

Blueprint to halt Asiaís extinction crisis [News]

Tue, 25 Nov 2003 06:00:06 GMT

NatureServerExplorer-an online encyclopedia of life

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:01:03 GMT

Satellite Swan Tracking Project:

Long Point Tundra Swan Monitoring Project

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 14:34:07 GMT

Wild Turkey [Utah Birds]

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 14:32:43 GMT

Free Bird Clipart Index - Swans [Birding Birdwatching and Wild Birds at About]

Sun, 16 Nov 2003 07:28:55 GMT

Virtual Bird Field Guide of Birds - by Common Name [Birding Birdwatching and Wild Birds at About]

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 20:30:32 GMT

Sibley's Birding Basics. How to see birds... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:53:37 GMT

Jon Udell gave a talk about blogging to execs of "dynamic mid-size companies." [Scripting News]

Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:48:27 GMT

Bird photography competition results [News]

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 03:51:30 GMT

Follow Andrei, Anatoli, Kostya and HUC as they migrate south [Surfbirds.com - World Birding News - Wild Birds and Birding]

WIFLblog nominated to BlogsCanada Top Blogs list

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 01:43:25 GMT

WIFLBlog nominated to BlogsCanada's Top Blog list

so the little banner with the maple leaf represents that latest honor, and the following email was what notified me of this honor, thanks BlogsCanada!

"Hi Ted,

In October, WIFLblog was nominated to BlogsCanada's Top Blogs list. The November
2003 top ten list has now been published and your site is included. Congrats!

The Top Blogs page is at http://www.blogscanada.ca/topblogs/.

Best Regards,

Jim Elve
www.blogscanada.ca"

As is appropriate you will also see Dave Pollard's How To Save The World, another Canadian Salon blog, has also been nomiated to BlogsCanada's top blog list. I must admit to stealing a number of Dave's great articles and reposting them on WIFLblog. Check Dave's blog out for yourself at:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/

Mon, 27 Oct 2003 03:43:37 GMT

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003 [Surfbirds.com - World Birding News - Wild Birds and Birding]

Fri, 24 Oct 2003 03:50:09 GMT

Newly found bird loses only known habitat [The EnviroLink Network]

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 00:07:52 GMT

Southeastern Arizona Birding Trail [Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory - Welcome!]

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 00:07:32 GMT

guided bird walks, tours, and educational workshops [Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory - Welcome!]

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 00:04:29 GMT

International Tours with Australian Tour Operators [Birdwatching Australia - A directory of Australian birding information.]

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 19:56:36 GMT

Hinterland Who's Who spoofs

These 60 second wildlife videos were broadcast in Canada for decades, they were so well known, they spawned their own spoofs.

Try them here, caution not suitable for young children:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp?mcid=4

I think my favorite is the Canadian Mountain Kangaroo!

On the other hand both the old and the new real CWS Hinterland Who's Who are completely suitable for children, try them out at:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp

Or if you would like some audio clips of wildlife, primarily birds try this link:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp?mcid=5

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 16:51:46 GMT

10,000 Birds Blog

Just found a great new birding blog that is well worth checking out, try it at:

http://www.10000birds.com/team.htm

Free Audio Editor- Audacity

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 04:01:13 GMT

Free Audio Editor- Audacity

There are Windows, Mac and Linux vervions

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 02:51:50 GMT

Yet another Kevin Kelly find for birders:

Source:

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_true_films.php

The Kestrelís Eye (Falkens [^]ga)

Nature photography doesnít come much purer. Filmed over several years from and in a church tower in Norway, this unadorned film of hawk life, from birth to death, is seen from the birdsí eye view, with no human narration. Extreme filmmaking, extreme birdness.

The Kestrelís Eye (Falkens [^]ga)
1999, 89 min
By Mikael Kristersson
$30 VHS
Amazon

Posted on January 10, 2003 at 11:30 AM

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 02:48:56 GMT

Another Kevin Kelly article for all you birders out there:

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_true_films.php

Winged Migration

Paul Saffo writes: This is easily the most astounding and moving documentary I have ever seen. Five teams of photographers spent three years shooting worldwide to create an otherworldy film that follows migrating birds from the tropics to the arctic and back. Using a variety of platforms from helicopters and balloons to ultralights and radio-controlled drones, they show the whole thing from the bird's perspective. It is one of those films that will utterly change how you think about our planet.

Winged Migration
Directed by Jacque Perrin
2003

Netflix rental

Posted on June 26, 2003 at 02:08 PM

NPR Expedition to Alberta Lesser Slave Lake in the Boreal Forest

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 01:42:07 GMT

NPR's Radio Expedition to Alberta's Lesser Slave Lake in the Boreal Forest

Elizabeth Arnold's National Public Radio and National Geographic combine forces and lead a songbird expedition to Alberta's Boreal Forest to Lesser Slave Lake and Calling Lake.

http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2003/oct/boreal/index.html

Kinda cool to see our truly beautiful boreal forest being recognized in North America as a key source of North America's songbirds!!!

Don't miss the White Throated Sparrow songs, a real distinctive call of the Boreal Forest!

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 23:45:58 GMT

Canadian Nature Federation and Canadian communities welcome back migratory birds with 31 community projects [CNF MEDIA ROOM]

Wed, 24 Sep 2003 21:38:06 GMT

Almost half of Africaís IBAs remain unprotected [News]

Fri, 19 Sep 2003 21:30:08 GMT

Southbound hawks set record up north [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:59:03 GMT

Peregrine decline puzzles experts [Surfbirds.com - World Birding News - Wild Birds and Birding]

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 18:50:41 GMT