I did an improv class a few years ago, and it was great. Increased my confidence and freed up my imagination and responses to other people.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

The Best Leaders Know a Complex World Demands an Improvised Response http://suhub.co/2wXlTEC

Don’t forget about the electric car, but do consider making a Kiva loan to a female entrepreneur, or looking for another way to fund women’s education.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

There are 100 ways to solve climate change, and many of them aren’t what you’d expect- especially the top 7.

The Vikings had extensive trading networks and were strongly connected to the Mediterranean world and beyond.

Originally shared by Laura Gibbs

This comes via Paul Hodson: very cool!

http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/12/the-helgo-treasure-a-viking-age-buddha/#Vikings

Via Julia Thompson, something just crazy enough to work.

Originally shared by Edward Morbius

An alternative to AntiFa

Read past the title. It is a way to defuse fascists, that’s worked in a place that knows from fascism.

I’m not fully convinced, but it may be another option.

For related history, see how Superman helped defeat the KKK.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/23157/how-superman-defeated-ku-klux-klan

https://thelongestway.com/2017/04/08/i-dont-like-the-antifa/

When you turn 50 in New Zealand (assuming you’re a citizen or resident), the government gives you a gift of a free screening for bowel cancer.

It’s all done by post.

The sample required is surprisingly small, and sealed in a tube which is sealed in a bag which is sealed in an envelope.

I still wouldn’t want to be the person who has to process them.

Besides being involved in a Batman movie that was actually good, Lego are taking pretty serious steps to be environmentally responsible.

Originally shared by Greg Batmarx

In March, the Lego Group unveiled the world’s tallest Lego wind turbine to celebrate having met its 100% renewable-energy target three years ahead of schedule.

The 30-ft-tall wind turbine built from 146,000 Lego bricks pays tribute to the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm near Liverpool, UK, one of Lego’s investments in wind energy totaling $940 million since 2012.

Companies often meet (or even beat) ambitious renewable energy targets by investing in clean electricity, such as wind power, to offset traditional electricity consumption.

Once Burbo Bank began producing electricity in May, the total output of clean energy from Lego’s investments was enough to offset the power used by the company’s factories, offices, and stores worldwide.

Many big brands have set renewable-energy targets to help reduce their carbon dioxide footprints, but a recently published study concludes offsetting carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy isn’t enough to save the planet.

We’ll also need to actually reduce carbon emissions.

In 2015, Lego set another target: replacing 20 types of conventional plastics used in making its bricks with sustainable materials by 2030 to help curb the company’s total carbon dioxide emissions.

The Denmark-based toy maker invested $155 million into a Sustainable Materials Center, where materials specialists are exploring alternatives to plastics made from fossil fuels.

Lego attributes just 10% of the carbon dioxide emitted during the lifecycle of Lego bricks to the company’s own factories, offices, and stores.

The other 90% comes from sources outside its direct control, such as product transport and distribution, and from the making of the tiny plastic chunks it sources from materials suppliers to build its bricks.

In fact, about 4% of the annual consumption of petroleum worldwide is used to make plastic, and another 4% is used to power plastics-manufacturing processes, according to a 2015 study by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental research group.

One solution is bioplastics, which are derived from plants, other biodegradable materials, or both. Bioplastics currently represent just about 1% of plastics produced, but their market is growing at more than 20% a year.

Maximilian Lackner an author on climate-change mitigation and university lecturer on materials science in Vienna, says the trend can be explained by increased consumer awareness of the environmental costs of conventional plastics.

In addition, he notes, recent product innovations have helped bioplastics begin to shed their image as smelly, poor-performing alternatives to conventional plastics. Companies that voluntarily comply with standards such as Europe’s EN13432, designed to measure factors like compostability, for example—gain credibility in the eyes of their consumers.

Conventional plastics have been historically cheaper, but the cost of bioplastics has come down enough to lure some big brands.

Coca-Cola, for example, has distributed 35 billion plant-based bottles in 40 countries, eliminating an estimated 315,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The beverage company’s ultimate goal is to find a 100% sustainable, responsibly sourced material for its bottles that is fully recyclable.

Lego wants the same from any sustainable alternative to the 20 conventional plastics now used in their products. Substitute materials also must be as durable as current plastics used, such as the incredibly tough, oil-based ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene), and as perfectly interlocking and backwards compatible as every Lego brick made since 1958.

Tim Brooks vice president of environmental responsibility for the Lego Group, oversees the work of the Sustainable Materials Center’s 70 experts whose challenging job includes meeting the company’s exacting standards for product safety, quality, and durability.

Every potential bioplastic is tested for strength, stiffness, dimensional stability, and impact strength, measured by whether an element could break or splinter during play.

I’m about to pass on the Lego bricks I played with as a child and the bricks my dad passed down to me to my son says Brooks. We know Lego bricks are often passed down through generations, making it so important that the sustainable materials chosen for our products be extremely durable.

Every Lego element demands something different from a sustainable material.

Bricks require tough materials like ABS; axles and gear wheels need strong materials with low friction; small connectors require strong material that is also stiff; and tires should be soft.

We want any bio-based material to be capable of being precisely molded, or to mold to just a few microns says Brooks, and we want it to be shiny.

Brooks pointed to a side-by-side comparison of two green Lego bricks: one a sample made of wheat sugar and the other a traditional plastic.

The test brick’s color was dull and flat compared with the shiny, bright-green traditional brick.

Despite the challenges, Brooks is confident the company will identify bio-based materials it can make work for their products, and knows it’s something Lego needs to do to be successful in the age of climate change.

Brooks says We know that making bricks has an impact on the planet, and we want it to be a positive one.

Lackner says Lego’s commitment is huge.

If more large companies would commit to sourcing sustainable plastics, it could significantly limit the extensive environmental damage that comes from burning fossil fuels to produce 300 million tons of plastics worldwide every year.

The big players can change the game says Lackner.

You don’t need to be an Einstein to see that capitalism has problems, but apparently it helps.

Via Sarah Rios.

Originally shared by ****

Sometimes (often?) it seems the solutions we seek are already here, just waiting for us to catch up to them.

Einstein is “convinced” that the only way to eliminate the “grave evils” of capitalism is “through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.” For Einstein, the “worst evil” of predatory capitalism is the “crippling of individuals” through an educational system that emphasizes an “exaggerated competitive attitude” and trains students “to worship acquisitive success.” But the problems extend far beyond the individual and into the very nature of the political order.

“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands… The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

The political economy Einstein describes is one often lambasted by right libertarians as an impure variety of crony capitalism, one not worthy of the name, but the physicist is skeptical of the claim, writing “there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society.” Private owners always secure their privileges through the manipulation of the political and educational systems and the mass media.

The predatory situation Einstein observes is one of extreme alienation among all classes; “All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naïve, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life.”

This last resonated pretty strongly. My time with the Golden Horde of Ta-Nehisi Coates taught me that in a slave society, everyone is in chains, in some form of bondage. Anything that prevents us from connecting, on whatever level, and relating to each other as equals is a form of bondage.

Via a private share.

I don’t know about you, but I would watch “Batman and Flancles: The Fun Tree” or “Swords and Batman: Summer Party ?”.

This is clever.

Originally shared by Larry Panozzo

I… I think it’s time you and I had… “The Talk.” The quantum computing talk.

Via Derrick Sanders.

Originally shared by Mark Welch

Unlike most popular books on climate change, [“Drawdown”] is not a polemic or a collection of anecdotes and exhortations. In fact, with the exception of a few thoughtful essays scattered throughout, it’s basically a reference book: a list of solutions, ranked by potential carbon impact, each with cost estimates and a short description. A set of scenarios show the cumulative potential.

It is fascinating, a powerful reminder of how narrow a set of solutions dominates the public’s attention. Alternatives range from farmland irrigation to heat pumps to ride-sharing.

The number one solution, in terms of potential impact? A combination of educating girls and family planning, which together could reduce 120 gigatons of CO2-equivalent by 2050 — more than on- and offshore wind power combined (99 GT).

Also sitting atop the list, with an impact that dwarfs any single energy source: refrigerant management. …

Both reduced food waste and plant-rich diets, on their own, beat solar farms and rooftop solar combined.