John is hot

my two projects at the moment (scholastic) are South America's dive to the left: Bolivian populism. particularly talking about how chile and the like, who are currently run by former communists, are using market based tactics (but not free market tactics) for reform while chavez and bolivia are the prime examples of politics and policy failing to align. pretty fun so far.

the other is geothermal energy production in iceland and the lessons from it. (rate of extraction>rate of replenishment) and im going to posit maybe we should consider that perhaps no alternative will be able to satisfy the 7% growth worldwide we seem to like (not to mention china and india and their much higher rates). The implication is only apocalyptic if we don't adapt. permaculture and strong sustainability for the win! the market can't make these decisions. look at banana's. the only reason we have them is because we force them to be grown via the banana republic agreements. sure we like them, but they aren't environmentally viable. neither is beef. beef of course is my big one. etc etc. but soon we'll have the LCA (life cycle assessment) which will tell us what to do. energy is going to be the new currency. yay commodities. now if we can do away with taht nasty market that makes us by new shit all the time....


http://www.myspace.com/spaceape01

check out his influences.


http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/markrothko/default.shtm

im looking forward to this just as much as scotland and the whole trip itself. seeing the seagram murals at tate modern crosses off 2 from my top 100 list.