Metaboston

A Family Confronts Its Slave-Trading History in Rhode Island

 What would you do if, like Katrina Browne, you found out your family, the DeWolfs, made their fortune as the U.S.'s most prominent  slave-traders?  It's quite a revelation, particularly if your family is not from Mississippi but from Rhode Island, the Deep North as she calls it.

Browne looked into her family's history and made a film about it.

Leonard Lopate discusses the movie with Browne in the show above.

One of her cousins Tom DeWolf has also written a book looking into his experiences with the revelation and investigation in Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

An interesting aspect of the whole story is the discussion of how invested the North was with slavery.

Thoreau's Journal Blogged

This Date, From Henry David Thoreau's Journal does exactly what it says it will bringing us a new post or as 19th century folk put it a new "journal entry" for each day. 

Today's, or February 2, 1860's, is a nice one:

The fox seems to get his living by industry and perseverance. He runs smelling for miles along the most favorable routes, especially the edge of rivers and ponds, until he smells the track of a mouse beneath the snow or the fresh track of a partridge, and then follows it till he comes upon his game. After exploring thus a great many quarters, after hours of fruitless search, he succeeds. There may be a dozen partridges resting in the snow within a square mile, and his work is simply to find them with the aid of his nose. Compared with the dog, he affects me as high-bred, unmixed. There is nothing of the mongrel in him. He belongs to a noble family which has seen its best days, - a younger son. Now and then he starts, and turns and doubles on his track, as if he heard or scented danger. (I watch him through my glass.) He does not mind us at the distance of only sixty rods. I have myself seen one place where a mouse came to the surface to-day in the snow. Probably he has smelt out many such galleries. Perhaps he seizes them through the snow.

Revisiting all the fascinating stuff from the past through technology is a great part of this time.

By the way, Thoreau has an interesting bouffant/faux-hawk in this picture along with the classic neckbeard.

Knitting Street Art in the South End

Knitters in the South End venture into public art. They've tagged the lampost outside their weekly hangout Flour Bakery with long knitted sleeve.

Snugly fitting the post and measuring about 3 feet long, the hand-knit sleeve features more than a dozen different colors of yarn woven into geometric shapes and complicated patterns, including a glow-in-the-dark skull and crossbones and a lime-green spider. At the bottom, swallows hold banners that read "South" and "End."

Although it evokes a sweater, the covering is actually a form of public art, according to members of the South End Knitters, a club that meets weekly at the bakery and constructed the project.

***

For the South End Knitters, the "signature" is celebrating the artsy South End. There were "no rules, just do," leading to the eclectic piece that the group attached to the lamppost with zip-ties on Halloween night (while forgoing a permit from the city).

Image of the installation: TamaraKnits from the South End Knitters Flickr set

Snowboards, Playboy, and Censorship

The Burton snowboard controversy continues to the point that the Burlington City Council considered asking Burton to withdraw its designs.  Burton's snowboard's became controversial when theThe Council backed away from censorship but have still annoyed the Burton founders.

We...make boards for 18-year-old guys...The fact that these boards don’t appeal to some people is not a surprise. The important thing is that the vast majority of young, core riders appreciates the graphics and does not take them so seriously or perceive them as a threat to society...While I do understand that some people’s feelings are heartfelt, the local reaction to these graphics has been hurtful and out of line."

Political correctness and free speech don't always work well together but they can generate a lot of publicity for Burton.

The debate has left some Vermonters grappling with an identity issue: In a liberal state that values free expression, how can so many residents be pushing for censorship?

You can see a slideshow of the boards.

Bartering Time: The Time Trade Circle

The Time Trade Circle is a Cambridge and Somerville group that barters time spent on tasks

The Time Trade Circle, serving the Cambridge/Somerville area, is a local bank – but we do not operate on paper money. We keep track of time. When you spend an hour of your time performing a service for somebody else, we credit you with one Time Dollar. You can cash in that Time Dollar on a service provided by another member of our bank. Whether you give a piano lesson, give legal advice, clean up trash in your community, or provide some much-needed company to an elderly citizen, one hour equals one Time Dollar.

One problem that might discourage participation could be the differing values of various tasks being bartered. An hour of legal advice might be more valuable than an hour of dog walking for example although time for time bartering prevents taxation.

The IRS has determined that 1) because an hour is always an hour, regardless of what is offered, 2) because they are backed only by a moral obligation and 3) because they are intended for a charitable purpose, Time Dollars are not taxable.

Despite the issue of differing value this seems like an idea that could become very popular in a recession when you might want to get something done but are concerned about laying out cash.  And it could be very useful for people who are unemployed or don't have as much work as they want.

Travel Writer Rick Steves in Cambridge: Dec. 4th

Travel icon Rick Steves will be speaking in Cambridge on December 4th discussing the subject that made him famous European travel as well as a recent visit to a more unusual locale, Iran.  The Steves approach of seeking less pricey alternatives to mass tourism should be getting renewed interest these days.  Although his image is of a genial average guy, Steves is also a social activist noted for his advocacy of drug policy reform.

Info:
Time:  Thursday, December 4th at 5:00pm
Place: First Parish in Cambridge, Mass. Ave at Church Street, Harvard Square
Accessibility: Wheelchair Access at #1 Church St.
Cost: Free, Ticketed Event, Reservations Recommended.   Reservations: 617-649-5700 x21 or events@gcb.com

Honk! Fest 2008 Archived

Video and images of the Honk! Festival with 25 bands marching through Cambridge and Somerville. 

More images at the Honk! Flickr pool.

Encuentro 5

Encuentro 5 is a "space for progressive movement building in the heart of Boston"

They hold events regularly in a building built by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union

On one floor of 33 Harrison Ave, e5 brings together organizations from diverse sectors, fostering an ongoing exchange of skills and experiences. With physical space for offices and a core technology infrastructure, e5 allows a pooling of resources so organizations can focus more on their programs. e5’s 2000+ square foot multi-media event room provides a much-needed venue for cultural and political programming to help attract and inspire new people to our movement.  For strategic emerging projects, e5 provides initial resources to help ensure early success.

HONK! Fest: October 10-12

HONK! Fest will take place on October 10-12 with two dozen street bands playing and parading in Somerville, Medford, and Cambridge with appearances by the Car Talk guys.

The Festival will commence on Friday afternoon October 10th at noon with workshops and a 4-6pm symposium, all at Tufts University's Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA, for and about musicians applying their music to effect social and political change. The public is invited to attend free of charge.(www.tufts.edu/musiccenter)

Promoting Nonviolent Resistance Across the World from East Boston

80-year-old expert on non-violent resistance Gene Sharp perseveres in his mission to analyze, document, and share information about resistance to dictatorships and authoritarian governments despite cuts in funding and a lack of institutional support.  The headquarters for his Albert Einstein Institution is near Logan Airport.

Working from a modest house in East Boston, Mr. Sharp is nearly unknown to the U.S. public. But he is despised by many authoritarian regimes and respected by opposition activists around the globe. Mr. Sharp has had broad influence on international events over the past two decades, helping to advance a global democratic awakening.

An aging academic, Mr. Sharp says he has no links with the government or any intelligence agency. He responded to Mr. Chavez's speech with an open letter suggesting that if the president is concerned about being overthrown, he should read "The Anti-Coup," a booklet Mr. Sharp co-authored.

Spread via the Internet, word-of-mouth and seminars, Mr. Sharp's writings on nonviolent resistance have been studied by opposition activists in Zimbabwe, Burma, Russia, Venezuela and Iran, among others. His 1993 guide to unseating despots, "From Dictatorship to Democracy," has been translated into at least 28 languages and was used by movements that toppled governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

His most influential book is From Dictatorship to Democracy which can be purchased for $6 in 23 languages or downloaded for free (pdf). 

Perspectives on Poverty from MIT's Poverty Action Lab

 

A really interesting Q&A with Esther Duflo, the co-director of MIT's Poverty Action Lab where she responds to some very thoughtful reader questions about the problems of developments.

A Map of Charitable Solicitors (aka "Chuggers") in Davis Square

Limeduck put together a map of chuggers in Davis Square last week.  Good idea and it calls for a constantly updated mobile application.  (Image:  Limeduck)

Davis Square Livejournal Group Raise Money for Somerville Homeless Coalition

The Davis Square Livejournal Group used a real-world meetup to raise $1,350 for the Somerville Homeless Coalition:

"They decided to have a community yard sale both as a way of getting to know others and as a way of raising money for a worthy local charity.

The planned a community yard sale and thought that the best local charity to support would be the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Thanks to the help of many people, both in and out of city hall, they obtained the permits to hold the event in Hodgkin’s Park and raised over $1,350 for the Homeless Coalition.

(Image:  Davis Square Livejournal)

Busking in Harvard Square: A History

A history of street performing in Harvard Square (and elsewhere in Cambridge)

Don't Photograph H.P. Lovecraft's Tomb!

While Providence's North Burial Ground has opened up to an art exhibit, as we wrote about recently, Providence's Swan Point Cemetery is not a friendly spot for visitors coming to see horror writer and Providence native H. P. Lovecraft's monument and perhaps photograph it.

“Matt sez, "One of my favorite writers, Caitlin R. Kiernan, was the subject of verbal abuse, profanity and homophobic remarks from some sort of security guard when she and her companion went to visit H.P. Lovecraft's grave. The guard attempted to make them delete all of the photographs they had taken, despite the absence of any policy forbidding it. Are cameras like catnip for abusive, power-mad rent-a-cops now?"

((Image: H.P. Lovecraft's grave:  Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike photo: StrangeInterlude, Flickr).

Neal Gershenfeld and the Fab Lab

Interesting profile of how MIT professor Neal Gershenfeld is trying to increase the ability of people around the world to build things for themselves.

"[A] 48-year-old physicist and MIT professor and the inventor of what he calls the Fab Lab. A Fab Lab (short for fabrication laboratory) is a package of tools designed to make essentially any object.

The kits can include a laser cutter, computer-controlled wood router and a miniature mill for drilling circuit boards, all for around $50,000, including open-source software, batteries and micro-controllers.

Those appliances and materials, Gershenfeld says, are all anyone needs to build whatever he or she can imagine: panels for roofing a house, a simple computer or a better mouse trap. "Basically, the goal is to create a Star Trek-style replicator in 20 years," Gershenfeld says matter-of-factly.

What is especially interesting is that Gershenfeld is also trying to make the process of creating Fab Labs self-sustaining.

Miro from Worcester's Participatory Culture Foundation

Lifehacker takes a look at Miro, "a free open-source desktop video application" from the Participatory Culture Foundation in Worcester.  Lifehacker calls it "TiVo for internet video."

"The free, cross-platform internet video player Miro can automatically download online video series via RSS feed or BitTorrent, play almost any format you throw at it, and keep track of what you've watched and what's new and queued up for you. More and more independent producers are putting out fabulous video content on the web, but keeping up with it by visiting your favorite video hosting web site or in your regular feed reader can be almost impossible—but setting up Miro is like getting TiVo for web video."

One complaint from a lot of commenters:  Miro is a resource hog.

"No Directions to Solzhenitsyn" in Cavendish, Vermont

After being forced to leave the USSR, Alexander Solzehnitsyn, author of the Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch and winner of the Nobel Prize, lived in Cavendish, Vermont for 17 years.  He moved back to Russia in 1994.

Now, residents of Cavendish, who protected the privacy of the reclusive writer, remember him.

Somerville ArtBeat: July 18-19

The theme of this year's ArtBeat festival in Davis Square is "Green" emphasizing sustainability and biking.

"Green can convey many things: the environment; greed and money; newness and growth; and the Green Line T coming to Somerville. We hope to explore questions like: What is our relationship with the natural environment? How can nature inspire creativity and artistic production? How can we protect and preserve our natural world? Other interpretations of the theme might evoke questions like: How can money shape, support or corrupt artistic production? How might the Green Line coming to Union Square shape urban development and design?"

Urban Gardening at Providence Artspace Firehouse 13

Sarah Zurier set up Green Zone, a "wartime" garden installation, at Firehouse 13 in Providence.

"America has a long tradition that links cultivating gardens on the homefront to wartime conservation. Posters and other propaganda from World Wars I and II show Uncle Sam urging Americans to grow their own food in Victory Gardens. On the other hand, in the aftermath of September 11 and throughout six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Uncle Sam says: "Go shopping." The message persists in 2008, via stimulus checks from the IRS, despite worldwide food shortages and record-high food prices.

Green Zone at Firehouse 13 is an organic vegetable, herb, and flower garden planted in the detritus of wartime consumption: old tires, shopping bags, shoes, and other repurposed containers. The plants are mostly leafy (herbs, kale, beet greens, lettuce) or develop their fruit underground (radishes). Most of the tires were pulled out of the Woonasquatucket River during the Earth Day cleanup in April 2008.

Green Zone grows all summer long. Firehouse 13 residents will share its produce. Stop by anytime this summer, and look out for Provflux V, August 7-11. Special thanks to Southside Community Land Trust for starting many of the plants from seed"

Will Marijuana Be Decriminalized This Fall in Massachusetts?

An initiative sponsored by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy will appear on the November ballot.

"A marijuana decriminalization initiative has qualified for November's ballot in Massachusetts. The initiative would make possession of up to an ounce, currently a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, a civil offense with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. Pot smokers could not be arrested or jailed, and they would not have criminal records, which trigger ancillary penalties that can be far more onerous than the official punishment. NORML reports that a recent poll found supporters of the initiative outnumber opponents by 2 to 1."

Amy Smith's Rules for Tech in the Developing World

MIT instructor Amy Smith puts together a list of rules for technology and engineering solutions in the developing world:

"1. Try living for a week on $2 a day. That's what my students and I do when I teach my class about international development. It helps them begin to understand the trade-offs that must be made when you have only very limited resources. More broadly, it was in the Peace Corps in Botswana that I learned to carry water on my head, and noticed how heavy the bucket was; and I learned to pound sorghum in to flour and felt the ache in my back. As a designer, I came to understand the importance of technologies that can transport water or grind grain"

4. Create “transparent” technologies, ones that are easily understood by the users, and promote local innovation.

7. Provide skills, not just finished technologies. The current revolution in design for developing countries is the notion of co-creation, of teaching the skills necessary to create the solution, rather than simply providing the solution. By involving the community throughout the design process, you can help equip people to innovate and contribute to the evolution of the product. Furthermore, they acquire the skills needed to create solutions to a much wider variety of problems. They are empowered."

There's also insights into her work in Peru and technologies she's worked on. (Image:  Edgerton Center, MIT)

Pill Hill in Brookline

High Street "Pill Hill" Hill is a quiet urban oasis:

"It’s no accident that the Pill Hill, named for the many doctors that settled here in the late 1800s, has remained unchanged for much of the century. For the last 50 years, an association of neighbors has had a hand in nearly every adjacent development, from the Muddy River to medical offices, to keep it from encroaching on their hill.

Today, the High Street Hill Association, named for the hill’s older and more formal label, is thought to be the oldest continuously operating association in Brookline, and has become a model for other neighborhoods." (Map:  High Street Hill Association)

Edward O. Wilson's Novel and Other News

79-year old Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who caused controversy in the '70s with the idea (now conventional wisdom) that genetics influenced human behavior) is at work on his first novel and causing new controversy with the idea of group-level selection that "natural selection operates at many levels, including at the level of a social group" rather than with genes alone.

Davis Square LiveJournal Homeless Benefit

 

From virtual to real community:

"The Davis Square LiveJournal Community will hold a community yard sale with proceeds to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition. The yard sale will be held in Hodgkins Park, located on Holland Street between Simpson Avenue and Paulina Street, on Sunday July 27 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a rain date of Sunday, Aug. 3."

Happy Independence Day!

Crank That Stallman Boy!

Richard Stallman and other MIT friends do the Soulja Boy. (via Digg)

Are Berkshares and Other Local Currencies Effective?

Local activists in the Berkshires created a local currency called BerkShares to encourage the local economy.  Tim Harford questions whether they do any economic good but thinks they may build community ties:

"The real benefits, if they exist, are not economic but social, and best explained not by an economist like me but by a sociologist such as Ed Collom of the University of Southern Maine.

Collom's work looks, at first glance, like bad news for the community-currency movement. He has found, for example, that most currency schemes in the United States last only a few years before collapsing. The ones that thrive are in places which already have strong, liberal, middle-class communities, such as Portland, Ore., or Ithaca, N.Y. In the Rust Belt areas that would seem to need them more, they have not taken root. The schemes take a lot of effort to set up: Brixton LETS, for instance, remains nascent.

But despite the obstacles, Ed Collom is convinced that local currencies can strengthen neighborhood ties and allow people to make friends: They are a focal point for the community-minded, even when they do not last."

Tyler Cowan thinks more of the idea arguing that "private currencies can serve as a form of price discrimination.  By accepting private currency from your local customers, and indeed only your local customers, you can charge them a lower net price and without being very public about it."

On the Temptation to Sneak into the Boston Marathon

The marathon's tough standards and limited numbers of entrants make it tempting to buy a number online but a group of online detectives/tattletales try to catch buyers and sellers:

"Entries on a message board at one running site, LetsRun.com, turned catching that eBay seller into a blood sport. Although Mr. Chalufour said that “at this time, we don’t know if the eBay seller was indeed the person who was reported on the Internet,” the participants on the message board seemed certain they had their man.

One wrote: “Anyways, if this isn’t an April Fools’ Joke (auction started on 3/30 though) this guy ain’t that smart.” The writer added that he found the runner in “about 20 seconds” because there are not many runners with times of 2:30 and the runner’s auction location was Columbus, Ohio. He named the suspect, and concluded, “Hey, it’s only at $20.22 right now. It’s a bargain.” (The offers soon soared to $500.)

“Good work, detective Colombo,” wrote the next person posting a message, adding that the B.A.A. would not be happy.

Others posted photos of the suspect from a running club newsletter and from his eBay profile. Others said they had notified the association."

Interesting how people can organize to find information but also how invested they get in investigated minor issues.

Bender Leaves One Laptop Per Child

Walter Bender, formerly president of software and content at the One Laptop Per Child project, has resigned following a restructuring plan that is raising concerns about the future of the project:

"Bender, the former executive director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, played a key role in the development and deployment of open-source software for the organization's low-cost XO laptop, aimed as a learning tool for children in developing countries.

"Walter Bender was the workhouse for OLPC. While [OLPC Founder Nicholas] Negroponte met with presidents, it was Bender's day-to-day management that built the organization," said Wayan Vota, who follows OLPC and originally reported the news on his Web site, OLPC News.

Bender promoted the use of open-source software for the XO laptop in the face of repeated efforts to load Windows XP, which has gained him a big following in the open-source community, Vota said. The loss of Bender and other key personnel over the past few months could be a sign that OLPC is focusing more on the technology than the educational aspects of its mission, Vota said." (Image:  OLPC)

Zittrain Discusses "The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It"

Jonathan Zittrain who helped found Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet &  Society and is now a professor at Oxford will return to Cambridge tonight to discuss his new book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It:

"With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending its cycle of innovation—and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control.

IPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners. These “tethered appliances” have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured at the demand of law enforcement to eavesdrop on the occupants at all times, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly touted—but their applications can be similarly monitored and eliminated from a central source. As tethered appliances and applications eclipse the PC, the very nature of the Internet—its “generativity,” or innovative character—is at risk."

There's a free reception as well.

Info:

Friday, April 18
6:00pm
Langdell North Classroom, Langdell Hall
Harvard Law School
Map: Map Cost: Free

No Naked Dancing in Harvard Square

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court says nakedness in Harvard Square is a violation of state law.

"The SJC ruled today that the state’s open and gross lewdness law is legit. The law was challenged by a Cambridge woman, Ria Ora, who was arrested for dancing naked in Harvard Square."

Ora's naked dance was a protest against Christmas commercialization. 

Given the number of buskers and leaflet passers in Harvard Square nakedness is probably one of the only ways to get any real attention.

Harvard's Political Surveillance Unit

The ACLU accuses Harvard of maintaining a political intelligence unit within their police department according to this interesting article by the Crimson:

"The nation’s preeminent civil liberties group is accusing the University of maintaining a political intelligence unit within the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), an allegation that comes after two protesters were arrested during a demonstration in the Square.

The protesters allege that undercover HUPD officers were photographing the demonstration, according to John Reinstein, the legal director of the Massachusetts division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“What we found really quite surprising and disturbing is that the Harvard police department has an undercover, plainclothes, political intelligence unit which so far as I know has never been acknowledged by them before,” Reinstein said.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano declined to comment, and a University spokesman did not comment as well.

The protesters, Patrick Keaney and Lisa Nieves, were arrested March 3 in front of the Holyoke Center according to the HUPD’s police log. The log said that “officers were monitoring a demonstration” prior to the arrest."

The arrest came when one of the demonstrators took her own picture of one of the "undercover" officers.

"Reinstein said that Nieves noticed a bystander in plainclothes taking photos of the protest and decided to go photograph him. When she did, the man informed her that he was an undercover police officer with HUPD and placed her under arrest for refusing to delete the photos."

Cambridge Common also notes some examples of apparent surveillance:

"I have heard stories from people who were involved in the 2001 Living Wage Campaign that corroborate such activity. During the time of the sit-in, campaigners had planned an action that was coordinated partially over email but not advertised publicly at all. When they showed up to the location of the action, HUPD was waiting for them. It seemed that the only way that HUPD could have known the action was taking place was if the authorities had been spying on the group, either electronically or by other means.

More shadiness of this kind took place during the Stand For Security Campaign last year. During the hunger strike and the daily actions that accompanied it, a plainclothes man with a nice camera was taking pictures of us almost every day. I went up to him one day to see what he was taking the pictures for and he told me that they were for the Harvard Gazette. I am sure the Harvard Gazette has photographers, but this guy was there almost every day and he was not taking pictures of things that you would really put into a magazine."

(via Cambridge Common)

Public Radio Exchange Wins McArthur Grant

Public Radio Exchange, a marketplace and forum for radio pieces intended to increase accessibility to work that might otherwise be unknown, won a $500,000 grant from the McArthur foundation.

"The foundation has previously supported PRX with two grants, viewing the small nonprofit as "an ingenious model of harnessing technology to bring more diverse, high-quality content into radio."

PRX, which was launched in 2002, allows aspiring producers, stations, and individuals to sample and critique a variety of programs at prx.org. The organization has made more than 20,000 programs from approximately 1,000 producers available on the site since its inception, says Shapiro. PRX also helped organize last year's Public Radio Talent Quest.

For PRX, the MacArthur award will bring growth and stability. The organization plans to put aside half of the expected award of $500,000 as a capital reserve. "We'll be investing in our future," says [executive director Jake] Shapiro, "which is very difficult for nonprofits to do.""

Congratulations to PRX and enjoy their achievement by signing up at their site and starting to  listen to the great variety of pieces they have.

Tibetan Supporters Shave Heads in Mourning in Harvard Square

As part of the continuing vigils in Harvard Square by activists marking the Tibetan protests over 40 protesters shaved their heads as a sign of mourning for Tibetans killed in the Chinese crackdown.

Steven Wright, Lenny Clarke and a Benefit for Bob Lazarus

Steven Wright (above), Lenny Clarke and other comedic  veterans of the former Inman Square club Ding Ho will gather in May in a benefit for fellow comedian Bob Lazarus who is suffering from leukemia.

Info:
Sunday, May 4 at 7:00 pm
Regent Theatre
7 Medford St. Arlington, MA
781-646-4849
www.regenttheatre.com
Cost:  $45-$50

What Star Simpson's Professor's Wish MIT Would Say About Her

Star Simpson's professors at MIT suggest a letter they wish MIT's president would write:

"The Institute should have acted faster to provide the media with a reasonable understanding of the kind of engineering and electronic art that are part of our research and teaching, some of which interfaces with the world of design and fashion. In that regard, we thank Professor Rosalind W. Picard ScD ’91 of the Media Lab for her efforts with the press and in court. As Professor Picard pointed out in an affidavit, Ms. Simpson’s sweatshirt falls in the category of “wearable electronics” that are “harmless, safe and commonplace in society.” I myself would add that similar clothing is available in many retail outlets, including some airport terminal shops. According to an interview in the Boston Globe, Professor Picard’s own wardrobe includes wearable electronics such as blouses with LEDs, circuit boards, wires and batteries, and she expects colleagues in her field to wear their electronic designs."

***

"Two years ago, in April 2006 after Campus Preview Weekend, Mr. Bryan G. Nance, Director of Minority Recruitment in the Admissions Office, described Star Simpson as “a perfect fit for MIT,” and he wrote: “Star, Welcome to the MIT family!”

Star Simpson is still part of the “MIT Family.”  As such, we stand by her."

Her trial on the bizarre charge of possessing a "hoax device" begins May 23.

Cambridge Delivery Tricycles: The New Amsterdam Project

A psychiatrist decided that using delivery tricycles could help wean America from its dependence on cars and trucks so he started a company, the New Amsterdam Project, to test it out:

"In a city choked with diesel-spewing delivery trucks, the fledgling New Amsterdam Project (NAP), a Cambridge-based cargo-hauling          company, is pedaling toward profits aboard an emissions-free fleet of urban "cargo trikes."              

China, India, and other developing nations have long utilized bicycle-based delivery for many goods – but are shifting toward engine-powered vehicles. Across North America, bicycle delivery services exist in several cities. Yet pedal-powered hauling for cargo has been largely a no-show in the United States.

      

That makes NAP stand out for its sole focus on human-powered cargo delivery, says Andrew Brown, the company's founder and CEO. A psychiatrist by training and lover of all things bicycle-related, Mr. Brown launched the company last fall and now finds himself dividing time between cycling to companies where he counsels workers – and making deliveries."

The idea could be compelling for companies concerned about their carbon footprint but Mr. Brown needs to consult a branding expert.  The New Amsterdam Project is a really obtuse name; it sounds like a wonky think-tank or nonprofit in New York and then there's that TV show about a detective who can't die.

Burt's Bees, Roxanne Quimby and the Fight Over Maine's North Woods

After Roxanne Quimby grew Burt's Bees into a giant business (and sold it to Clorox) she searched for a mission in life and found it in buying vast swathes of land in Maine for a future national park:

"Most of Roxanne's red rectangles are east of the park. She is stitching her own crazy quilt. These are plots of land she has bought. There are others she hopes to buy. Some are scattered and separate. By bargaining and swapping, she is trying to put together a whole. In concert with RESTORE, what she has in mind is a national park. "I feel like my reason for being put on this earth will have been fulfilled because this will live on after me. A park is a demonstration that there is something in America that I can love," she says, her counterculture philosophy re-emerging. "It's very democratic: A Mexican immigrant or a millionaire, for 10 bucks, they both get the same experience.""

In the process Quimby has stepped into the contentious feuding over whether the future of Maine is the declining forest industry or a growing tourist economy which depends on outsiders.

"By the summer of 2007, Roxanne Quimby had spent $39 million to purchase 80,000 acres of wilderness. Nearly 65,000 acres of it lies between Baxter State Park and the East Branch of the Penobscot River. To her mind, a park is the only reasonable destiny for this land: "If we leave this to chance, we will not have the opportunity to make decisions about what happens next."

In the process of making these purchases, Roxanne gobbled up hunting grounds, snowmobile trails, and some beloved primitive camps that families and hunters had passed down through generations. "I own it now," she proclaimed. "Buying the land also means I am buying the right to call the shots."

Lawrence Lessig to Speak in Cambridge: April 4

Lawrence Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons and author of books like Free Culture and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (both downloadable at those links) will be speaking at a free event  at Harvard on April 4th discussing his new project Change Congress.

"Change Congress is a movement to build support for basic reform in how our government functions. Using technological and internet tools, both candidates and citizens can pledge their support for basic changes to reduce the distorting influence of money in Washington. The Change Congress community will link candidates committed to a reform with volunteers and contributors who support it.

Change Congress organizes citizens to push candidates to make four simple commitments:

1. No money from lobbyists or PACs
2. Vote to end earmarks
3. Support publicly-financed campaigns
4. Support reform to increase Congressional transparency "

Important Info:
Friday, April 4, 2008
5:00 p.m.
Ames Courtroom, second floor of Austin Hall on the Harvard Law School Campus (map)
Free and Open to the Public