David Roberts rips into The Reapers yet again, with relish, as they attempt a follow-up:
Let me make a suggestion: If an essay prompts a range of misinterpretations, the title gets more attention than the substance, and virtually no one apprehends the central thesis, maybe the problem isn’t that the critics are blinkered fools but that the essay wasn’t very clearly written.
Ouch. But true.
ONE/Northwest ally and neighbor Brian Gershon of RagingWeb just got back from Plone Conference 2005 in Vienna, Austria and has written up great summary of the highlights.
Former Groundspring employee Jeff Reifman offesr some insight on the Groundspring/Network for Good merger:
While the merger with Network for Good seems to address the stability risk for Groundspring customers, Drummond of Tides emailed me today that “We are barely squeaking by, as you know, and the merger doesn’t change that.” This was in regards to the fact that Groundspring did not pay a severance to the employees that it downsized, including me. For me, I have ongoing concerns about the fungible ethical rules at Tides and Groundspring – and can only hope the NFG management will clean some of this up. With three Tides board members coming over, it’s not really likely though.
You can run, but you can’t hide, you corrupt sleazebag. Can’t wait for the justice system to roll up the rest of your cronies. How far does the conspiracy lead?
I’m off to beautiful Cortes Island, BC for Web of Change. Looking forward to seeing Jason, Philip, Jodie and all the other smart, fun folks who are dreaming big schemes about how to save the world.
See you Monday.
Currently, the Plone website has a rather anemic listing of Plone-powered sites. Although there’s a note there stating that the PR team is “working on enhancements to let people post their own sites,” and I’m hopeful that major improvements are on the way, I also notice that this topic came up on the Plone Website list in February, and little seems to have changed since then.
I thought I’d try to channel my short-term frustration into something positive: a draft specification for “PloneSiteListing” and content type, and some thoughts on revamping the Plone Sites page.
Plone Conference 2005 kicked off today in Vienna, Austria. I wish that wasn’t so far away. But I’m looking forward to a full report from Brian when he gets back.
In the meantime, I’ll content myself with ONE/Northwest’s latest string of Plone website launches:
Oregon League of Conservation Voters and the OLCV Education Fund — check out those rounded corners!
You’d almost think we were “ONE/Oregon.” 
My good friend Jesse Putnam has been doing some research into opporunities to do hands-on volunteer work with post-Katrina recovery along the Gulf Coast. Here’s what he found.
In brief, due to the degree of the damage and human need, many agencies are being more open with / for prospective volunteers than they would normally be. The smaller agencies seem to move volunteers into the system faster, though Red Cross is really moving folks in quickly both for national deployment and local office assistance.
Red Cross
The Seattle Red Cross is actually having open training sessions and then deploying volunteers pronto to the affected areas, which I have never heard of them doing before. If you wish to donate a couple weeks (10 days is the minimum) you can find lots of info about the trainings on their website. The King County website is : http://www.seattleredcross.org/ The national is: http://www.redcross.org/. I believe all volunteers get trainied and deployed out of their local chapter.
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.former.crisiscorps.katrina
For returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) only. From their email alert: “Crisis Corps is working with several organizations to determine what skill sets will be requested and to develop protocols for placing RPCVs with an appropriate agency. If you did not include your resume in your initial response please do so as updated resumes will be required from all candidates under consideration. Even if you have sent a resume to Crisis Corps in the recent past, please send another. Due to the large volume of applicants, we will not be able to pull resumes from our file. Applications will be sorted by skill set and availability.”
The Crisis Corps Team: crisiscorps@peacecorps.gov
“Thank you for your willingness to volunteer. Your name and contact information will be entered into our database and shared with Lutheran Disaster Response coordinators organizing our efforts of recovery in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Please visit our web site to access the most current information. Lutheran Disaster Response is known for being there long after a disaster has left the media spotlight * thank you for helping make this ministry possible.
http://www.thefellowship.info/home.icm
CBF is building a data base of volunteers to serve with Katrina relief. Email them for a Volunteer Information Form. They will review your application and be in contact regarding the possibility for service in the disaster areas.
All volunteers, individuals and teams, should contact Timothy Wood at 1-800-782-2451, to begin making plans for entering Louisiana and Mississippi once sites are designated. Spanish speakers are also needed.
USA Freedom Corps
http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov
“As recovery and relief efforts begin to assist victims, volunteers are being urged not to report directly to the affected areas unless directed by a volunteer agency. Please be patient and allow the professional first-responders and aid workers to do their job. Visit the USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network in the coming weeks, months and years to find opportunities to engage in ongoing relief efforts and prepare for future disasters. President Bush is also calling on Americans to contact their local Red Cross chapters for volunteer opportunities in their own community. For more information, please visit www.usafreedomcorps.gov.”
VolunteerMatch
“Over the last week hundreds of thousands of volunteers have visited VolunteerMatch.org to find an opportunity to support the ongoing relief efforts. If your organization is directly involved in the Katrina recovery activities, VolunteerMatch is ready to help you reach, recruit and coordinate needed volunteers. To edit or add volunteer opportunities, log in to your account at: http://www.volunteermatch.org/post/login.jsp. We have also created a specific volunteer category, “Hurricane Relief,” intended to help funnel volunteers directly to Gulf Coast-related volunteer opportunities. Please use this category in addition to any others you are using for hurricane-related volunteer opportunities.
If you have one or more years of experience in volunteer service management or disaster relief and would like to be a part of a professional team that is organizing to provide relief, renewal and rejuvenation to current managers of volunteer services in areas affected by Katrina, please follow the link below: http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/opp_detail.jsp?oppid=229257
Plone 2.1 was officially released today. Congratulations to all the folks who worked so hard to make this release “not suck.” It definitely doesn’t.
The list of new and improved features is long, but some of the highlights include:
I’m really looking forward to building new sites with Plone 2.1.
If you’re trying to understand how blogs influence the mainstream media, here’s a case study that you can really wrap your brain around.
My friend David “Goldy” Goldstein, who writes probably the best liberal blog in Washington state, broke a big piece of the post-Katrina story — how FEMA Director Mike Brown’s previous employement record was… well, a bit spotty.
David recounts how his story leapt from a “small” blog to national blogs and thence to major media outlets in 48 hours.
Truth is, I didn�t really even know what I had. I rarely cross-post to Daily Kos, but since this was a national issue, and I was angry, I thought, what the hell. My original headline was a profane rant, and the first few comments insisted that this was too important a diary to be lost due to a non-descriptive headline. I followed their advice, changed the headline, went to bed� and awoke the next morning to find the story featured on Kos, and the traffic flooding in. Then the calls and emails from the MSM started coming, and I knew we were going to move headlines.
So if any of you out there believe that you cannot make a difference, let this be lesson to the contrary. A single email from a horse breeder to the proprietor of an oddly named local blog provided the angle the MSM needed to expose the Bush administration cronyism that doomed thousands of Katrina�s victims to a week of unimaginable � and unnecessary � suffering, and which may have condemned thousands of others to an untimely death.
The New Yorker is re-running “Atchafalaya” from John McPhee’s seminal 1987 book “The Control of Nature” on its website.
This is one of the best pieces of environmental journalism ever, and it’s essential reading if you want to understand the fragile landscape into which Katrina has wreaked such great destruction.
(Thanks, MetaFilter
According to Linda Seebach at Rocky Mountain News, Shell is claiming to have finally come up with a cost-effective process for recovering useful “product” from oil shale. According to Seebach,
…the process should be commercially feasible with world oil prices at $30 a barrel. The energy balance is favorable; under a conservative life-cycle analysis, it should yield 3.5 units of energy for every 1 unit used in production. The process recovers about 10 times as much oil as mining the rock and crushing and cooking it at the surface, and it’s a more desirable grade. Reclamation is easier because the only thing that comes to the surface is the oil you want.
And we’ve hardly gotten to the really ingenious part yet. While the rock is cooking, at about 650 or 750 degrees Fahrenheit, how do you keep the hydrocarbons from contaminating ground water? Why, you build an ice wall around the whole thing.
One-sided boosterism, to be sure. New technology always presents its best face first. It will be interesting to see if these claims pan out. Seebach is already sold.
Shell has been deliberately low-key about their R&D, wanting to avoid the hype, and the disappointment, that surrounded the last oil-shale boom. But O’Connor said the results have been sufficiently encouraging they are gradually getting more open. Starting next week, they will be holding public hearings in northwest Colorado.
Here’s an interesting network-centric approach to disaster relief that I think might really help fill the gaps in “convention” relief efforts: Modest Needs.
At Modest Needs, we want to support those families who are so generously sheltering the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. These persons – especially those already living paycheck to paycheck – will need our help if they are to remain self-sufficient in the wake of this catastrophic storm.
In response to Hurricane Katrina, Modest Needs has launched a special initiative designed to ease the financial burden placed on those persons who have opened their homes to friends, family members, and others displaced by Katrina.
Through this unique initiative, Modest Needs will offer several types of assistance directly to such persons, including (but not limited to):
– Assistance with the expenses incurred in temporarily lodging persons displaced by Katrina. This includes assistance to purchase such items as air mattresses, additional bedding, towels, toiletries, and the like; and
– Assistance with the expenses incurred in temporarily caring for persons displaced by Katrina. This includes assistance to afford additional groceries, replacement clothing, increased utility costs and basic medical care not covered by insurance.
Hat tip to 43 Folders.
I’m heading out for my second hunk of summer vacation. Expect light posting and slow approval of new comments through Tuesday 9/13. Have a great Labor Day.
As is so often the case, I find Paul Krugman giving voice to my unspoken thoughts:
At a fundamental level, I’d argue, our current leaders just aren’t serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don’t like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can’t-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.