New Yorkers are loving the (pear?) tree blossoms all over the city. It's been a mild winter, but we welcome these heralds of spring. http://instagr.am/p/IefYXuDHUi/

GOP delegate voting chairman in Missouri (a Santorum supporter) admits that he broke the rules at the delegate convention on purpose to squelch the votes of delegates supporting other candidates. He says he believe it was the right thing to do because the other candidates didn't get as much of the popular vote, so he didn't think the other candidate's delegates should have much of a voice for fear that they may get many delegates onto the state convention (which they are allowed to per GOP rules). Video on youtube captures his blatant disregard of the delegate's opposition (which he, as chairman, is suppose to respect), and instead adjourn the meeting. This is not right!

A complete tragedy and the only thing more tragic is that stories like this aren't new and there are variations on them that can be seen across the country everyday. Ramarley was 18, and shot and killed by NYPD. Unarmed, flushing a small amount of marijuana down the toilet. Police didn't have a search warrant. "The family of Ramarley Graham, the unarmed Bronx 18-year-old shot and killed by an NYPD officer in February, says they will hold rallies and marches every Thursday for 18 weeks to demand justice, CBS reports." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/family... How much more tension is needed before real change?

We're bummed out by the slow degradation of the sport into something refined and controlled as ballroom dancing. Coach Sean Payton and that other guy shouldn't be suspended for encouraging their team to hit opponents so hard they are knocked out of the game; they should be rewarded! We're Americans! We want raw destruction! (It's embarrassing enough we require helmets when those crazy rugby players run around with craniums fully exposed.) via NYTimes http://nyti.ms/GKmJq9

Where is history anymore. Is what matters most the things that are happening now? Shall the past not inform our current opinions any more? Education really seems to now really be indoctrination, or selective learning influenced by the local community. Can it be any other way, when we have the world of information at our finger tips now? Is knowledge democratized currently? If so, why haven't we expressed our collective power of democracy. Each one representing themselves, instead of voting their responsibility away.

Kudos to NPR! Last month they released updated journalistic guidelines that state "if the balance of evidence in a matter of controversy weighs heavily on one side, we acknowledge it in our reports." It does not serve the public good for the media simply to be enslaved as an amplifier for voices of manipulation. Any kindergartner is capable of repeating someone else's words. And it's time journalists stopped fearing the worst, most hypocritical offender and manipulator of media markets: Fox News Channel. One giant leap for journalist kind... one small step for American political awareness.

"U.S. soldier in Afghanistan goes on a shooting rampage." If anything is surprising about this, it's that it took so long to happen. We have a culture that glorifies violence, and praises aggression as the American way to solve problems. Our educational system is completely devoid of tolerance and diversity instruction, has failed to equip students with adequate job skills, and completely down-plays the greatest of American traits, a overriding respect for the content of one's character. And then we fill the frontlines of our military, literally the faces of our nation to those countries who are at greatest ideological odds with us, with the most extreme personifications of these problems. We weren't surprised 10 years ago, and we're not surprised today. It's time we re-learned what it means to be American.

Was disappointed to see that the ipad 3 is just a slight upgrade to the previous ipad 2. It looks exactly the same and it's not even lighter... *sigh* oh Steve would you approve?

Talk about cheap commodity hardware! $35 700MHz Arm processor with 256MB memory. We'd love to build a Hadoop cluster out of a ton of those bad boys! http://www.alliedelec.com/raspberrypi/?gclid=CNrEuPbx164CFUZN4Aod-WA3cA

Yesterday President Obama lambasted Republican presidential candidates for their vague, amorphous criticisms of weakness in his handling of Iran. While it's reckless, premature, and dangerous for these candidates to imply the need for war, they force the President into a sticky situation. While we support his desire for a diplomatic resolution, we do feel the President must take care to balance his political desire to point out the flaws in the Republicans' rehetoric, with the nation's strategic need to be extremely assertive with Iran. Specifically, he must craft his statements about Republicans not to signal to Iran that military force is completely out of the question. Otherwise, he can embolden Iran and ironically bring us closer to war. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/world/middlee...

We're not as excited about tomorrow's rumored iPad 3 announcement by Apple as we are about the AppleTV! 24/7 Siri! (If only they could make her sound like the computer from Star Trek The Next Generation!)

Kudos to the Russian people for not going down under Putin's rule without a fight. The only way Putin can hope to be re-elected (a whopping six years from now due to constitutional changes in 2008) without resorting to all out fraud, will be to incite fears of "the West". It's now in his interest to drive relations with the U.S. into the ground, which won't help our ability to militarily confront terror threats. While on the one hand that is scary, on the other hand it may hopefully force U.S. foreign policy to be more bilateral.

Part of the American Dream is what gave way to suburban sprawl. Building outward across land has allowed cities/towns to be developed with ridiculously winding roads and interconnecting highways that make dependency on traveling by vehicles necessary for convenience. Carbon emissions and wasted land space can be limited by educating the importance in a shift of American Dream ideals to building upward rather than out, living in smaller, shared space so that city-wide development facilitates traveling by means of public, mass, rapid transportation (e.g. subway system in NYC, bus system in Curitiba, Brazil). Ultimately, an end to suburban development and migration to existing major cities (without our vehicles) can significantly contribute in doing less harm to the environmentalists.

We should try to use "we" in our voxes and when creating blocs make sure the title used represents a group. So maybe "gossip girl fans" or "environmentalistsal activists". (Note: bloc names do not currently support spaces.)

We focus all our efforts on supply-side solutions (renewable energies, electric-powered vehicles, energy-efficient appliances), but have failed to acknowledge the root of our environmental problems...over consumption. Demand-side tactics are deemed anti-capitalistic, un-American. So rather than turning off the lights when we don't need them, we install fancy solar-panels on our roofs, and rather than catching a ride-share, we buy the hybrid Highlander.

The Meowmorphosis - http://www.amazon.com/Meowmorphosis-Quirk-Class... "His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and finds that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten."

We need to invest more in renewable energy - not new drilling in the Arctic Ocean! Obama admin has gives all but final go-ahead to Shell for new drilling in the Arctic Chukchi and Beaufort seas. These are the nurseries of the world where thousands of birds feed & nest and the waters nurture food-chain building blocks for whales, walruses, seals & polar bears. New drilling sites scheduled for this year. Shell claims to be prepared for spills but their cleanup equipment cannot work in that kind of weather. Once the ice sets in boats will be unable to sail & a spill in October could not be addressed until spring. More at LATimes.com, Kim Murphy, 3/4/12