Nature/Science

This is fucking incredible.

Peer-to-peer describes a way of directly networking computers together without a central server. It's how many filesharing systems work.

So, appealing on behalf of another organization for cash is a little odd, since
a) plenty of Austin area organizations need money
b) WE certainly wouldn't turn any donations away ourselves
c) the cats I'm about to promote aren't activisty in any typical sense.

But fuck it, I really really like these folks, and whereas my $25 won't go a long way, maybe some of y'all will feel the impulse and throw down.

The P2P Foundation

This is a small foundation devoted to working out the possibilities of peer-to-peer technology and economic practices. Peer-to-peer is like bittorrent, it's communications technology that enables file transfers without central servers (that can be shut down by the po-pos). But it's so much more than that.

Earth's Clouds Alive with Bacteria

Long story short, bacteria in the atmosphere act as special particles for the formation of ice crystals that lead to clouds. Unlike other particles, the bacteria raise the temperature at which those ice crystals can form. Meaning they can make clouds when it's otherwise too warm, essentially.

I'm really impressed with this sort of thing. If you've ever read the work of the brilliant microbiologist Lynn Margulis, you've learned that the living world as we know it is pretty much conditioned by the kingdom Monera, which functions as a giant, hyper-evolving sort of superorganism because of its enormous rate of gene transfer.

Lecture Notes in Quantum Mechanics

In these dark and frustrating times, with corrupt international politics and nihilistic global business practices, a looming mass ecocide, and rulers desperate to launch another world war, I find it personally reassuring to reflect upon and learn about some of the more wonderful aspects of the human experience. There are the small things, the everyday, the existentially poignant, and they do make barbarisms from On High seem foolish and absurd. But I find a retreat into the intensity of the moment insufficient on its own. Though there is a deeper truth and power to the intensity of the immediate encounter and the lived opening up of the world, I need reassurance that groups of people, human systems, can create wonderful things, and can access a larger truth collectively.