New and Cool

New page! How to find your passion and achieve your dreams

Patchwork Nation divides the U.S. by county into 12 community types using demographic, political and socioeconomic data. Tracks 24 representative communities to see how economic trends play out at the local level. Analyzes national data by community type to give the big picture more context.

Here's an evolving argument map of the Copenhagen Climate talks (also video?)

"Without a doubt, with no hyperbole: Theo Jansen is an absolute genius. Listen to his talk about the new creatures he builds from 'plastic tubes and lemonade bottles'"...Link

Octopuses have been discovered tip-toeing with coconut-shell halves suctioned to their undersides, then reassembling the halves and disappearing inside for protection or deception, a new study says. Not only are they incredibly smart, the can control the color and even texture of their skins and "morph." Another example. This once can open a glass jar

Sourcemap is an open source project about where things come from. You can create your own maps, and add information. Other eco-maps

Secret of Success TEDtalk

Explore climate change in Google Earth tours and YouTube channel.

Rising Ocean Levels interactive maps

See Earth from space right now

Worldometers, the dashboard of Spaceship Earth

Demo of Gapminder.org Newer talk on poverty

Mannahatta Project. Eric Sanderson pictures New York -- before the City. 400 years after Hudson found New York harbor, Sanderson shares how he made a 3D map of Mannahatta's fascinating pre-city ecology of hills, rivers, wildlife -- accurate down to the block -- when Times Square was a wetland and you couldn't get delivery. TEDtalk video. Slideshow and site

In this image-filled talk, Yann Arthus-Bertrand displays his three most recent projects on humanity and our habitat -- stunning aerial photographs in his series "The Earth From Above," TEDtalk video. Download his amazing new movie Home.

Stewart Brand is a systems thinker par excellence. Brand, the center hub of the human network, has a new book, Whole Earth Discipline. video overview. He's putting the whole book online for free, with annotations and a reading list link. He makes some stands that are heretical to mainstream greens (pro-nuke and GMO). Those who heard Fred Turner's plenary talk last year will have some sense of how important Brand has been and continues to be. He lobbied to get NASA to release the first picture of Earth from space, predicting its iconic power to unite and inspire. Because of his work with Gov Brown, CA uses half the energy per capita as the rest of US (comparable to EU), and he's working on a 10K year clock. about clock)

Sylvia Earle on Google Earth 5 mapping the oceans. Interview here's a sample

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER 09.26.08 "Keeping California Cool" Commonwealth Club talk on CA taking the lead on global warming.video audio

Extensive coverage of the California drought and climate change including Where does my water come from?

"Empty Los Angeles" pictures remind me of best-selling book The World Without Us multimedia

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem -- the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels. TEDtalk video.

"My company built an office building out of shipping containers in Providence, RI. It's called the Box Office, it's energy efficient, it upcycles 32 shipping containers, and will create incubator office/studio space in a neighborhood that needs it." time-lapse video