Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday at Madison Square Garden Benefiting Clearwater (May 3, 2009)

PBS' Great Performance has a wonderful website with videos giving the flavor of the Fabulous event held in New York's Madison Square Garden in honor of Peter Seeger's 90th birthday and his contributions to social justice, the environment and folk music.

The 2-disc DVD recording of the concert is available for purchase here.

Photographing World Leaders in 1 minute sitting at the UN: Platon (for The New Yorker)

You can listen to or download a 10-minute interview of The New Yorker's staff photographer Platon, as he talks about spending 5 days without a break taking 60-second portrait photos of world leaders just before or after their addresses to the UN General Assembly.

Anna Daevere Smith's Let Me Down Easy in New York City is pretty timely, now that the US Congress is trying to address health care.

Lauretta Jones (Artist, Nature Lover)

The website of my friend Lauretta Jones, is, not surprising, one of the most attractive ones I've seen, and gives you a good flavor of her work teaching, exhibiting, and preserving plants and natural spaces.

Young People Need Progress on Climate Protection - Photos

Photos of Young People whose safety is at risk if human-accelerated Climate Change is not slowed.

MIT's Bicycle Wheel Announced in Copenhagen

Copenhagen Wheel for bicycles, designed at MIT's SENSEable City Lab, was premiered in Copenhagen Denmark on December 15th. I think you'll like the video at the bottom of MIT's Press Release.

The Analytic Mode by David Brooks (NY Times, 2009 Dec 03)

David Brooks' column about President Obama, titled The Analytic Mode, is a sober assessment of why decision-making in the White House is pretty far removed from the visionary rhetoric of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

YouTube: The Web is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch

The Web is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch is a 4-minute and 31 second statement about the cultural transformation which has just started as a result of Web 2.0 .

Bob Herbert: In Search of Education Leaders (NY Times, 2009 Dec 5)

In Search of Education Leaders, Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times, is well worth a read.

Daily Video Program: MOSAIC from LinkTV

MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East provides, 5 days per week, 30 minutes of translated television news from Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arab nations, and the Arabic Services of the BBC and of Russia. This is an absolutely wonderful service.

Also from the same producers, is the less regular but very high-quality program Earth Focus.

Film: A Sea Change (dir by Barbara Ettinger, Niijii Films, 2009, 86 min)

Films about Environmental degregadation can be boring, technical or depressing... but sometimes they are uplifting and inspiring, and this is such a film.

A Sea Change follows the journey of retired history teacher Sven Huseby on his quest to discover what is happening to the world’s oceans.

After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s November 2006 article The Darkening Sea in The New Yorker magazine, Sven becomes obsessed with the rising acidity of the oceans and what this “sea change” bodes for mankind. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington, and Norway as he uncovers a worldwide crisis that most people are unaware of. Speaking with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, artists and policy experts, Sven discovers that global warming is only half the story of the environmental catastrophe that awaits us. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing seawater chemistry. The increasing acidity of the water makes it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web – such as the pteropods in the films – to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish one billion people depend upon for their source of protein.

A Sea Change is also a touching portrait of Sven’s relationship with his grandchild Elias. As Sven keeps a correspondence with the little boy, he mulls over the world that he is leaving for future generations. A disturbing and essential companion piece to films such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, A Sea Change brings home the indisputable fact that our lifestyle is changing the earth, despite our rhetoric or wishful thinking.

A Sea Change is the first documentary about ocean acidification, directed by Barbara Ettinger and co-produced by Sven Huseby of Niijii Films. While emphasizing new scientific information, the film is also a beautiful paen to the ocean world and an intimate story of a Norwegian-American family whose heritage is bound up with the sea.

More information can be found on the film's website.

“There are massive unrecognized changes of geologic scale taking place in the ocean. Ocean chemistry is being altered on a scale not seen for millions of years. And we don’t know what the consequences will be.”
- Dr. Edward L. Miles, Virginia & Prentice Bloedel Professor of Marine & Public
Affairs, University of Washington

“We put the equivalent of 118 billion VW Bugs’ worth of CO2 into the ocean for the last 200 years and 43% of that has happened just in the last 20 years and it’s growing exponentially. You as we start to project out to the future it really gets scary.” - Dr. Chris Sabine, oceanographer, Natl. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“A Sea Change could not be more timely. I believe acidification of our oceans is actually a greater threat to our survival than is temperature or sea level rise, the conventional ‘global warming’ threats. Acidification is confusing and difficult to even imagine for most people — we need your film.” - Rob Moir, PhD., Executive Director, Ocean River Institute

"A Sea Change offers a searching, emotionally powerful look at ocean acidification. This problem is sometimes called the "evil twin" of climate change, and many of us regard it as an existential threat to the future of fishing. The story is full of heart, scientifically accurate, and lyrical. It also offers good reason for hope, which is indispensable in the face of such a huge challenge." - Brad Warren, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership

Film: Earth Days: The Seeds of a Revolution (Robert Stone, 2008, Zeitgeist Films, 102 min)

Director Robert Stone interviews 9 of the key thought leaders behind the emergence of the late 20th century United States branch of the modern Environmental Movement, showing how a sequence of events initially, primarily using new laws passed in the 1970s, reversed the upward trend in industrial pollution. But now the movement has plateaued and is not keeping pace with global population growth and consumption growth, once again causing grave concern that industrial civilization could lead to dangerous undermining of the ecosystem during the next 30 years. Some of these thinkers now advocate advanced design for comfortable lower-impact living, others advocate transformation of lifestyles away from materialism and towards bio-regionalism.

A thoughtful film.

Film: The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (dir by Judih Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, ITVS, 2009)

I just saw a magnificent documentary. It's about how a pro-military decision-analyst at the RAND Corporation had a series of experiences (first as a child, then at the Pentagon, in Vietnam, and at meetings of activist groups) that made him decide that the U.S. Congress and the American Public had no true idea of the real policy of war-making the United States had pursued in Vietnam for decades, and that he would chage that. His photocopying of a Pentagon study eventually set in motion events that brought down a U.S. President (the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon), led to a critical U.S. Supreme Court decision on Freedom of the Press, and contributed to ending a major debacle and military quagmire. If you want to see a film about a true patriot, who risked life-in-prison and gave up his career to serve the higher values this country should be about, see this documentary by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith.

The Most Dangerous Man in America Website

The New Sputnik (Thomas Friedman, 9/26/2009, New York Times)

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman entitled his piece about Green Energy Research, Manufacturing and Deployment in China "The New Sputnik".

He indicates that in China, where the percentage of engineers among political leaders and among business leaders is far higher than it is in the United States, the realization that Green Energy needs are unavoidable was reached rather quickly. Meanwhile, the U.S. political elites, aware of all the Coal plants China has commissioned, still thinks China is committed to low-tech and polluting energy sources.

As usual, U.S. political elites are deceiving themselves. I agree with Friedman and the people he quotes, such as Lester Brown, that China's leap to Green won't be realized immediately, but when it comes, it will be sudden. Should the U.S. compete? Will we have the resources to compete if we continuing pouring large amounts of funds into maintaining a huge military force around the world? Questions that I wish more of my political leaders were carefully pondering....

Andrew Sullivan Blog Entry: The Rotten Core

Andrew Sullivan, on his blog "The Daily Dish" makes a point about The Rotten Core of political innovation leadership stagnation quite apparent in Washington DC thanks to the successful "protect the status quo" activitie of corporate lobbysts and a shallow media. I suggest you read his blog entry.

Robin Chase argues for open peer-to-peer mesh networking built into vehicles! (TED.com talk March 2007)

TED.com, the web site of the Technology, Entertainment and Design set of conferences and their regular participant communities, has taken significant steps in the last 2 years to put more of their talks on the web in audio or video form or both... and allow people to comment on these talks.

One of the most curious talks was given in March 2007, by Robin Chase, one of the founders of Zipcar.com, who believes that charging people in real-time for the vehicle and road usage they initiate, can lower the transportation contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change.

In the second part of her talk, she indicates that rather than put special communication network systems in place to do only this function, such as having video cameras snap photos of license plates, or having special tags such as the EZPass that is used in many US NorthEastern and MidAtlantic States, what should actually be done is to create, as infrastructure, the mandate that all mobile devices and machines support peer-to-peer wireless communication, known as mesh networking.

I think this is a provocative idea. See her 14-minute talk yourself at Robin Chase on Zipcar and her next big idea.

Film: Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (Eran Riklis, 2008, 1 hr 46 min, distributed by IFC Films)

This fictionalized film, shot in Hebrew and Arabic, starts with the newly appointed Israeli Defense Minister (played by Doron Tavory) and his wife (played by Rona Lipaz-Michael) moving to a part of Israel abutting (within meters) the Palestinian-agricultural lands at the extreme West of the "West Bank" ... and ends with the transformation of the Minister and his wife and a number of Palestinian's... especially neighboring Lemon Tree grower Mrs. Salma Zidane (played by Hiam Abbass), and Ziad Daud (played by Ali Suliman).

I have had the fortune to see this film twice and it is beautifully acted and full of quiet symbolism and the touching sense of people who want to be true to themselves but find themselves caught in conventional systems that spiral away from win-win solutions and spiral towards conflicts... "as I simply try to protect my home and family".

Highly Recommended

It's a landfill - and an ecopark (Christian Science Monitor covers Singapore)

In the May 31, 2009 issue of the Christian Science Monitor, correspondent Vijaysree Venkataram visits Pulau Semakau and reports It's a landfill -- and an ecopark.

Documentary: LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. (Merigold Moving Pictures 2008; dir by Eric Daniel Metzgar)

LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. is a magnificent documentary of 2 years in the life of Jason Crigler, a humble person in his early 30s, but also one of New York's most sought-after guitarists, who suffered what the medical profession thought would be a devastating brain hemorrhage but who instead gradually recovered a great deal of his function, in large part because of the extraordinary attention and support his wife, parents, sister, and in-laws gave him, at the same time as his daughter was being born.

The story is compelling, the filmmaking brilliant, the family members articulate and honest... This is love and determination in action. I very highly recommend this extraordinary film.

NPR Interview: Stained Glass Artist Lets The Light Through At Last

Scott Simon's interview (for NPR's Weekend Edition) with Rowan LeCompte, Stained Glass Artist Lets The Light Through At Last (April 11, 2009; 9 minutes) is a gem. Mr. LeCompte has designed stained glass windows at the Washington DC Cathedral since 1941. Highly recommended. NPR's website also links to photos of Mr. LeCompte and the Cathedral.

IBM is supplying technology to enable A Smarter Planet, led by IBM Research

I work at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center, and we have started to deploy some of our technologies for what we call Smarter Planet solutions. Some background on IBM and IBM Research, and some early results from IBM's Smarter Planet initiatives, all in layman's terms, are in these short videos:

Attorney Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) harrassed as Iranian Government Brings Bahais to Trial

Britain's News 4 Channel interviewed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Human Rights Attorney Shirin Ebadi.

Film: Seasons in the Valley (Adam Matalon, 2008, Chatsby Films)

I love films about relationships between men. I love films about how men think about their work. The lyrical Seasons in the Valley is both: a feature-length documentary that chronicles the journeys of highly-skilled Jamaican migrant workers (with full support of the US and Jamaican government), the plight of the New York Apple Farmers who have been employing them for decades, and the bonds that have formed between these men as the fiercely competitive, global economy for fruit squeezes the Hudson Valley apple growing businesses. This is a human film, with a background of economics, but is not directly a political film.

Film: USA vs. Al-Arian (Line Halvorsen, 2007, Dalchows verden Films)

The US Government has held former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian under arrest since February 2003. Dr. Al-Arian, who was born in Kuwait to parents who were refugees from Palestine, and has spent all his adult life in the United States, has been an outspoken political advocate for Palestinians, and a severe critic of Israel, but the US Government thinks he may have been doing something much more sinister. This is in part because of his association with a former US academic who returned to Palestine and founded the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, an organization the US Government classifies as a Terrorist organization. The US would like to convict him and continue to imprison him; his family's hope right now is that he would be deported and perhaps start a new life with his mother who lives in Egypt.

Norwegian filmmaker Line Halvorsen was able to spend much of 2003-2006 with Dr. Al-Arian's wife and children and his attorneys, as well as with the US Prosecutor, and also interviewed Dr. Al-Arian in prison, and she has made an amazing, and disturbing film. If you can see this film, which has won a number of film festival awards, I think you will find it amazing. Otherwise see the 12-page Overview prepared for the press.

Information about the film, where it will be shown, where it can be obtained on DVD, is at USAvsAlArian.com.

Nicholas Kristof in NYTimes: Putting Torture Behind Us

Putting Torture Behind Us, a column in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof, is well worth reading. I support both suggestions about harvesting insights through a post-Guantanimo commission and repurposing the facility for health research.

Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama

Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, video and text from NYTimes.com .

Eloquent as always, but with enough specifics about how government, business, and personal behavior ought to be changed.

How happy I am with this dramatic improvement in the quality of our national political leadership!

There was also a touching and classy musical performance during the Inauguration ceremony (you can listen here, or watch here) as well as eloquent invocation, benediction, and poem.

An editorial in the New York Times gives a good summary of why this inaugural address was one that spoke to Americans as thoughtful and needed citizens, and not simply as consumers of political rhetorhic.

HBO.com and HBO - 7pm ET, 11:30pm ET January 18, 2009 Inauguration Celebration Concert

See also: New York Times: At Lincoln Memorial, Uplifting Music and a Talk of Challenges

President-elect Barack Obama's remarks, as prepared for delivery to "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial"

Broadway Show: In The Heights

In the Heights won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, and I highly recommend it. With dancing, a variety of music, a strong ensemble cast, and story line blending elements of Fiddler on the Roof (Old Country-New Country, Adults-Young People), Rent, and West Side Story, it is a most enjoyable and touching show. The action takes place in Washington Heights in the late 1990s, as Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic Immigrants deal with a hot July and struggles of keeping their small businesses solvent. The music and lyrics were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays Usnavi, a Bodego owner, in the show.