http://riotsystems.com Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:40:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Does anyone remember "Made in America - Regaining the Productive Edge," published in 1995 by Michael L. Dertouzos, Richard K. Lester, Robert M. Solow? My favorite part of the conclusion: Understanding the root causes and agreeing in principal with a broad set of imperatives is a still a far cry from ... http://riotsystems.com/fixing-things/made-in-america-or-how-soon-they-forget/ I'm on an anti-liturgical spree! The statement of belief for the Church of Stop Shopping: [caption id="attachment_472" width="240" caption="Reverend Billy in Times Square"][/caption]Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. Our neighborhoods, "commons" places ... http://riotsystems.com/fixing-things/church-of-stop-shopping/ Give if you can. Feeding America says one in eight Americans are struggling with hunger—and it's only going to get worse. I've given up exchanging Christmas gifts in favor of giving what I can to local food banks. All of you struggling with what to get me, just follow the link! http://riotsystems.com/fixing-things/feeding-america/ Hey Mark, In answer to your question on Zeitgeist, the movie...I have recently been touched by the noodly appendage (and the FSM, ha). I am now a Pastafarian. Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I believe. http://riotsystems.com/clients/why-i-believe/ OK, technically it's not a widget (it takes you to the website) but it's fun & an easy way to learn the basics of Spanish. http://riotsystems.com/learning-things/learn-spanish-widget/ I have links squirreled away all over my computer of slideshows and galleries. I'm trying to centralize them here. As I have time I'll add descriptions so you'll know what's what: http://www.smugmug.com/help/search-online-photo-album http://slideshowpro.net/news/archive/2007/10/oliver-peoples.php http://www.couloir.org/js_slideshow/#2 http://slayeroffice.com/code/slide_show/ http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/art_gallery.html#nogo http://www.layersmagazine.com/flash-slideshow-image-gallery.html http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/fadeinslideshow.htm http://www.javascriptkit.com/dhtmltutors/dhtmlrotate4.shtml http://www.e2interactive.com/e2_photo_gallery/demo.php BrandSpankingNew's crossfader script. It's great, you put some text and images—even links— in some divs and voilà—it all fades ... http://riotsystems.com/programming-snippets/javascript-flash-ajax-slideshows-and-gallery-transitions/ Never mind that, as Mark Ames notes in this The Nation article, that Summers was a protégé of his dissertation advisor Martin Feldstein, the supply-side economist, and served on Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors, but Some fifteen years after Summers's stint in the Reaganomics war room, he reappears as ... http://riotsystems.com/dismal_page/omg-a-supply-sider-treasury-secretary/ I love this idea—an election holiday for voting. I believe our voting system is badly broken. With as much lip service as the US gives to other countries on democracy, our voting system and levels of participation don't compare well. Election day should be a holiday, a celebration—not a burden. ... http://riotsystems.com/fixing-things/why-tuesday/ Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet professor of sustainable development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. I heard Jeffrey Sachs discussing this book in a radio interview. He speaks compellingly on how we can achieve the four key goals of our ... http://riotsystems.com/dismal_page/reading-now-common-wealth-by-jeffrey-d-sachs/ This book is a page-turner. I brought it to the beach and all four adults waited patiently for a turn to read it—not your usual beach book. I liked it because I juxtapose odd topics and don't always know where to take them. This book gave me a new ... http://riotsystems.com/dismal_page/freakonomics/