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Phones I have carries in the last year: Motorola SLVR (1+ years), Apple iPhone 2G (6 months), Blackberry Storm (4 months, prior to dropping), Blackberry 8830 World Edition (used phone, connector broke inside of phone, 1 month), Blackberry Storm (non-broken option, 1 week), Blackberry Tour 9630 (2 days). This is not counting the other 2 phones I carried before the Storm while owning the iPhone as well.

Technology and I are not friends it seems. And, I need to go recycle all of these instead of throwing them in my kitchen drawer.

Crossing my fingers I can keep from breaking the Tour, as this is by far the best phone I have ever used since the iPhone. Much more versatile for work usage, and still able to customize and add applications like crazy. I think I am in love.

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Unemployment 2007-2009 by county

"But years later, when we saw the lights going out, one after another, in the great factories that had stood like mountains for generations, when we saw the gates closing and the conveyer belts turning still, when we saw the roads growing empty and the streams of cars draining off, when it began to look as if some silent power were stopping the generators of the world and the world was crumbling quietly....

"The plane was above the peaks of the skyscrapers when suddenly, with the abruptness of a shudder, as if the ground had parted to engulf it, the city had disappeared from the face of the earth. It took them a moment to realize that the panic had reached the power stations - and the lights of New York had gone out."

- Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

..via Nag on the Lake

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Only the beginning, read the entirety.

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Forwarding Dallas is modeled after one of the most diverse systems in nature, the hillside. The site is a series of valleys and hilltops. The valleys contain trees and more luxurious plants which transition into more resistant plants as the altitude increases. Atop the hills, solar thermal, photovoltaic and wind energy is harvested.

Design components include:

• Heavy utilization of native vegetation
• Open ‘green’ spaces including wooded paths and interior courtyards as well as green roof prairies and orchards
• 100% prefabricated construction system, integrating building materials from local sources
• Housing options from studio apartments to three bedroom flats fit to accommodate approximately 854 residents
• Combination of photovoltaic (solar) and wind power which will providing 100% of the energy needed for each resident
• A Southwest façade set up for solar gain in a venetian-blind-like system which adjusts according to the season
• A Northeast façade made from prefabricated, thick, high thermal mass straw bales provides added insulation
• Rooftop water catchment system designed to recycle water collected from rooftops and store underground for later use
• Public green houses, including a sensorial greenhouse, swimming pool green house and meeting point green house
• Water permeable paved areas to prevent pooling and flooding

So back in June, I found about the Re:vision Dallas program. Now they have decided the winner, with the groundbreaking set to being in 2011. The winning project is amazing for the capabilities it allows for residents, as well as setting the bar internationally for creating a sustainable city ground. Sure, it is only one block now, but they are already talking about setting up the entire section around City Hall to be created the same, allowing revitalization in a much needed area of downtown Dallas.

I truly can only hope that I can afford to become one of the estimated 854 residents when this is open to rent. For everything it can offer, I would accept the long commute time and the high rent cost if it meant I could be part of a community that is actually something of which I can be proud to live in.

..via Mother Nature Network

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For Snow:


For everyone else:

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l'ascenseur - squint from phantomcolor on Vimeo.

squint : interpreted visually as a succession of fluids one drinks at a lazy saturday morning breakfast

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Flare, by Stijn Ossevoort. The dress lights up via wind movement.


Galaxy dress by CuteCircuit

Personally, I like the first better, but wouldn't turn down the chance to wear either.

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