Ted Ritzer: Endangered Species

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]

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 05:33:45 GMT

Millions face glacier catastrophe. Science: As the result of global warming, Himalayan glacier lakes are filling up with more and more melted ice. [Guardian Unlimited]

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 02:00:40 GMT

Water Blogs Update.

In winding my way through email from the past few weeks, I find that several people sent URLs to help Linda in her quest to find blogs devoted to the topic of water and the environment. Amazingly, out of the eight emails I received, there was only one duplicate URL. Major score to the blogosphere, and muchos gracias to everyone that responded!

For the Google cache record, here are the links folks sent in:
http://www.wilsdomain.com/blogs/environmental-blogs.html
http://earth-info-net.blogspot.com/
http://www.badlani.com/blog/weblog.php
http://www.oceanjournal.org/
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/waterlib.html
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101170/categories/coloradowater/
http://northwestwatch.org/
http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/
http://www.eco-portal.com/blog/
http://www.waterconserve.info (particularly http://www.waterconserve.info/blog/)
http://www.polizeros.com/categories/thePoliticsOfWater/
http://www.rtumble.com/
http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/

[The Shifted Librarian]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:57:17 GMT

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

The Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values & Beliefs

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:02:36 GMT

The Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values & Beliefs:

Every Albertan has a vested interest in both the quality and quantity of life in Alberta. Given the Alberta reality, that both the quality and quantity of life in Alberta is directly dependent on natural resources, it is imperative that Albertans play a role in the stewardship of said natural resources, now and in the future. Further to this, it is incumbent on Albertans to promote the practice of natural resource stewardship at both the individual and societal levels. To this end the Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values and Beliefs establishes a stewardship framework that will be encouraged in Alberta, for the benefit of all citizens of Alberta. To this end Albertans share the following fundamental values and beliefs with regard to the stewardship of Alberta's natural resources, for the benefit of their family and future generations of Albertans.

Be it resolved that Albertans:

1. Respect the natural environment and its diversity of life, of which man is an integral part.

2. Have the right to expect a clean natural environment; this includes ensuring Alberta's natural areas remain unspoiled, and that the quality of Alberta's air, lakes and rivers is protected.

3. Believe it is in the public interest to secure Alberta's natural resource bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

4. Believe Alberta's economy is directly linked to Alberta's natural resources, past, present and future, and that it is essential that these natural resources are treated with the utmost respect and care.

5. Believe that it is in the public's best interest to protect and restore the integrity of Alberta's ecological system, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

6. Believe that it is in the public's best interests to promote the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.

7. That every Albertan has the duty to participate in the conservation and improvement of Alberta's natural environment, and to play a role in ensuring its health in perpetuity.

8. Believe that all sectors of Alberta society (Public, Private and Not-For-Profit) have a similar duty in ensuring the quality of Alberta's natural environment, which includes clean air and water, maintaining an environment that is unsurpassed in the world.

9. Believe that education must contribute to the role that future generations of Albertans play in ensuring Alberta's natural legacy survives and prospers in perpetuity.

10. Believe that research and innovation must contribute to the protection and development of Alberta's natural environment.

Sat, 27 Dec 2003 02:54:46 GMT

Nature Netwowrk-webcams of animals from around the world

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:11:39 GMT

Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 05:38:05 GMT

Wildlife Brings £4.8 Billion to the UK Economy - Study [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

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 02:18:11 GMT

Bush Administration Abandons Wolf Recovery in Northeast [News and Views]

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 03:01:01 GMT

Down As She Goes MP3

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

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 14:55:13 GMT

SERIS. SERIS is an inventory of national state of the environment reports. The database contains brief publications details for recent (1997 onwards) reports for countries included in the EEA's third assessment report. SERIS contains links to the reports and to [Recently approved feeds from Syndic8.com]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 05:34:58 GMT

Partnership Agreement Signed with USDA Forest Service [NatureServe Homepage: A Network Connecting Science with Conservation]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:49:02 GMT

SSC Sustainable Use Specialist Group. A new collaborative project is working to develop tools for the management of wild living resources from a quantitative review of the factors that determine sustainability [IUCN Species Survival Commission]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:35:33 GMT

Beyond Backpacking. Super ultra lightweight camping [Cool Tools]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:35:05 GMT

Building the Six-Hour Canoe. Cheap way onto water [Cool Tools]

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 14:39:29 GMT

New species of wren found in Colombia [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 02:24:25 GMT

World's Largest Coral Reef Restoration Project Completed in Antigua [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 02:18:55 GMT

First Ever Lawsuit Filed By Non Profit Environmental Education Foundation [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Sat, 06 Dec 2003 04:39:44 GMT

Robert Macfarlane on a nature writing renaissance. Books: Nature writing in Britain has been in decline for 70 years. But Guardian First Book Award-winner Robert Macfarlane detects signs of a renaissance [Guardian Unlimited]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:25:41 GMT

Save the Earth with Every Phone Call [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 04:20:51 GMT

Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) [IUCN Species Survival Commission]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:29:47 GMT

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

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:15:23 GMT

ECOLEX: WORLDíS LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW DATABASE LAUNCHED ON THE WEB [IUCN - The World Conservation Union]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:10:50 GMT

Canada's boreal forest would be spared under conservation accord [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Sun, 30 Nov 2003 06:50:33 GMT

Shotguns & Pickup Trucks Coyote Hunt

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:20:45 GMT

Wild animal slaughter surges for fashion's sake [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:18:35 GMT

Laugh so you don't cry department: Bush's "Most Wanted" [Greenpeace International Homepage]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:10:16 GMT

Banff biologists work to protect rare snails [CBC Edmonton]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 05:05:53 GMT

Bird Sound Recording Workshop [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 04:45:36 GMT

Mountains may be dammed to supply future water needs [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 03:11:37 GMT

Ecologists warn of Bow River troubles [CBC Calgary]

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 05:12:17 GMT

Kashmir's rare red deer is on brink of extinction [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 05:05:36 GMT

The World Conservation Union Releases the 2003 Red List of Threatened Species [African Wildlife Foundation: News and Headlines]

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 04:56:17 GMT

The Ultimate On-the-Fly Network. Here's how a flock of reclusive seabirds became pioneers of pervasive computing. A case study from the sensor net frontier. By Martha Baer from Wired magazine. [Wired News]

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 04:50:32 GMT

Mexico accused of passing death sentence on ecosystem in its American backyard [The EnviroLink Network]

Tue, 25 Nov 2003 06:00:06 GMT

NatureServerExplorer-an online encyclopedia of life

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:54:07 GMT

Rejuvenating Our Innate Love of Nature Motivates Social and Environmental Activism [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Fri, 21 Nov 2003 00:53:43 GMT

Nature Body Warns of Wildlife Extinction Threat [Planet Ark]

Fri, 21 Nov 2003 00:52:13 GMT

Kashmir's rare red deer on brink of extinction [Planet Ark]

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:01:03 GMT

Satellite Swan Tracking Project: