Check out Lynn White’s 1967 essay The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. In it, she blames the shift from Paganism to Christianity for our current state of affairs, but, interestingly, states that Christianity will also be our solution. She also draws an distinction between science and technology, which I had never really thought about before.

Tonight I went to a showing of Alone Across Australia, a film about Jon Muir (no, not that one) and Seraphine, his dog, who walked across the continent of Australia. Seraphine was killed by a dingo somewhere around day 110, but Jon made it in 128 days. 4 months later he walked to the North Pole.

It was sort of a Les Stroud meets Karl Bushby thing. I highly recommend it.

I went to the Darfur march today. It started off with a few speakers at Westlake – including a 6th grader and a few highschool students – and then we marched down to the Federal Building and had a “die-in”. When we reached the Federal Building, the police had the entrance tied off with caution tape. I guess one sit-in a week is all they want.

There were only a hundred or so people during the speeches, but that number seemed to grow after we started marching.

Pictures here.

Despite their claiming otherwise, it seems to me that the Government’s invocation of the States Secrets Privilege in the AT&T spy case is a clear message that the EFF is correct in asserting that AT&T illegally assisted the NSA to spy on us.

I spent most all of Sunday in the Arboretum…again.

Not much of note happened, save for the Portal to the Future that I found. It was in a remote part of the Woods, directly below a sharp cliff (larger than the one I fell off of). Of course, I had to go investigate, so I slid down a part of the cliff on my butt. (Hey, the pants I’m wearing are sold as “bomb-proof”. They practically dared me.)

Later on in the day, I was climbing a tree, trying to get up to a fallen log that I could use to walk across a gully. I was trying to get my right arm secured when I lost my footing, causing me to swing down and snap all of my weight onto my left arm. That didn’t feel too good, but I used the arm scrambling up and down later that day, and it feels fine today.

http://news.com.com/Congress+readies+new+digital+copyright+bill/2100-1028_3

For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law seen by CNET News.com would expand the DMCA's restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers. ... During a speech in November, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed the idea and said at the time that he would send Congress draft legislation. Such changes are necessary because new technology is "encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft," Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, "quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities." ... Smith's measure would expand those civil and criminal restrictions. Instead of merely targeting distribution, the new language says nobody may "make, import, export, obtain control of, or possess" such anticircumvention tools if they may be redistributed to someone else.

Own a Sharpie? Go to jail.

I had intended to spend Friday night in the Arboretum, but the weather didn’t agree with me. Instead, I spent most of the day Saturday up there. The shelter I had spent the night in was in need of some patching, which that kept me occupied for an hour or so. After that, I discovered two new shelters (of a sort).

he first was a well put together and elaborate A-frame. It was too small for anybody to fit in, but I imagine, with a tarp, one could make a large bivy-sack out of it. The second looked at first glance as if a bunch of wood had just been piled there, but upon closer inspection it’s obvious that it was placed with a purpose – some sticks were tied together, others duck taped. Had it been built properly, it would have been impressive. I wonder if it just collapsed on itself.