GeorgesSorel's blog

Berkeley Public Library Tool Lending Library

I just wanted to post a link about this program offered by the Berkeley Public Library system. It's also offered by the libraries of Oakland and San Francisco. You can check out tools of all types (from hammers to cement mixers) with a valid library card and proof of residence. Amazing. I personally think this sort of program would be very popular in the Austin area as well.

Another great example of a tool library is the independent nonprofit Atlanta Tool Bank, which loans out tools to community groups for repairing homes and civic buildings, building theaters and play sets, etc. They live by donation, so check 'em out.

Kiva

Kiva is a remarkable application of the peer-to-peer possibilities of the internet. If you've paid attention to the Democratic presidential primaries this season or the last, you know that the big shift in campaign financing is the enormous about of money raised from small donors via the internet. That technique allowed Howard Dean to threaten the party establishment a little last time around, and it has allowed Barack Obama to wage an unprecedented campaign against a candidate considered a sure bet in the early days of the race.

Earth's Clouds Alive with Bacteria

Long story short, bacteria in the atmosphere act as special particles for the formation of ice crystals that lead to clouds. Unlike other particles, the bacteria raise the temperature at which those ice crystals can form. Meaning they can make clouds when it's otherwise too warm, essentially.

I'm really impressed with this sort of thing. If you've ever read the work of the brilliant microbiologist Lynn Margulis, you've learned that the living world as we know it is pretty much conditioned by the kingdom Monera, which functions as a giant, hyper-evolving sort of superorganism because of its enormous rate of gene transfer.

Just thought I'd write a rough list of current projects focused in America organized along anarchist lines, either deliberately or by, I don't know what you'd call it, convergent evolution? This isn't meant to be exclusionary, so add on or critique this list as much as you want.

*Wikipedia
*P2P filesharing in general
*Food Not Bombs
*Food Not Lawns
*Yellow Bike Project
*Critical Mass
*Permaculture
*IWW
*Urban/guerrilla gardening
*Micropower and/or cooperative radio stations
*Ithaca Health Fund
*ACT UP
*Copwatch
*Anti-Racist Action
*Earth First!
*Infoshops and collective bookstores
*Freeschools and skillshares
*Cooperatives

Getting Connected: Why sharing electrons, local produce and Radiohead makes for better communities.

Kevin Phillips has a great piece in the current Harpers about how the economy is much shakier than is painted by official stats. Essentially, they've been tweaking the meaning of the Consumer Price Index, unemployment, etc. for decades, and if we used the older standards our rates wold be far more worrisome. Our unemployment rates would be close to those in Europe, etc.

Here's a telling line:
'"All in all," Williams points out, "if you were to peel back changes that were made in the CPI going back to the Carter years, you'd see that the CPI would now be 3.5 percent to 4 percent higher"—meaning that, because of lost CPI increases, Social Security checks would be 70 percent greater than they currently are.'

I just heard this radio giveaway contest ad driving through a small town. I'd like to share it, because it's sort of revealing in a sad, goofy kind of way.

"It's the 50k Plastic GiveAway! Register at our station and you could win your choice of $50,000 worth of plastic surgery OR $50,000 worth for your credit card debts!"

Not making this up, and it was a serious ad, I shit thee not.

PS. It was an oldies station.

I was reading a very interesting book earlier that critiques some of the New Age interpretations of physics that have sprung up in popular press. This holds especially for subjects like quantum mechanics, whose theoretical implications have been used to justify an array of quasi-mystical beliefs. The author takes great pains to argue the purely materialistic foundation of quantum mechanics, and to explain that some of the most "provocative" theories to spring up from the field are exactly that- theories.

Using Twitter in a Political Organization

I've gotten the impression recently that activist types and lefties often fall behind the curve in adopting new communications and organizational tools for their work. I certainly do- I feel barely competent to use a phone or a chart effectively. But we shouldn't make a fortress of our weaknesses, and it's always good to experiment with new tools.

New communications tools offer cheap, instantaneous methods for coordinating actions or deliberating efficiently among a group. The internet offers us an opportunity very rare and precious- for once, a playing field that is not quite level, but at leasts tends towards leveling, towards the power of democratic crowd action in expressing and acting upon ideas and beliefs. Let's milk it for what it's worth.

So, some folks may have noticed that there's a whole bunch of crap going on with the SEIU right now. They've got a civil war brewing in California, and SEIU and the CNA/NNOC (nurse's union) are taking out adjacent attack ads on progressive blogs. Very confusing. Whose side is right?

Well, I'm not going to tell you because fuck if I know, but here's a good article from In These Times, a very fantabulous lefty magazine (that we in fact carry, so come on in and support your friendly neighborhood radical bookstore AND a badass lefty magazine with great writing and magnificent journalism).

Dissent in the Ranks