Twenty years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee posted a short summary about the new World Wide Web project on the public alt.hypertext newsgroup. A copy of the first Web page mentioned in his post is hosted by the W3C.

The Web is arguably the most significant computing technology that has been developed in the forty years, although was enabled by other key developments, including the Internet and the “personal” computer. The impact of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s simple idea and the principles behind it continues to grow as we discover new ways to apply it.

You can read more about the history of the Web in several Wikipedia articles, on the World Wide Web Consortium Web history page, and at CERN.

Thanks to Politico!

Goin’ down, down, down, down: US credit rating down-graded.  For the first time.  EVER.

“The Rent is Too Damn High“… or is it?

Comcast takes steps to close the digital divide?

Pleading guilty to…Facebook spam.

And what would be a better way to start off your weekend than a video of a mariachi band and a dancing whale?

Image thanks to the Stir

Matt Damon is known for standing up to the bad guys in the movies, but last weekend, he took a different stand.

A stand for what? Teacher tenure!

In this viral video on Reason.TV the actor makes his case.

The video mostly might be best remembered for some verbal fisticuffs with a bullying camera operator. (Strong Language Advisory!; watch the video if you want to see more.).

While Damon’s colorful language was preceded by an impassioned defense of teachers (his teacher mom looking on proudly), this speech was only one of many last weekend.

Damon was in Washington D.C. speaking at the Save Our Schools March, and just a few hours earlier he had given another speech, one in which he explained that

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned…none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested.

Others speakers at the event included historians, teachers, activists, and comedians (what’s a D.C. rally nowadays without a Jon Stewart appearance – even if it is via video?).

The speakers spoke about their many different experiences in education, but they all had common themes:

• opposition to the country’s dependence on standardized test results.
• the scape-goating of teachers.
• A strong commitment to make the American education system effective and equitable.

We couldn’t agree more.

The National Park Service estimated that there were 8,000 attendants. The rally was organized not by either of the prominent teachers’ unions but by a grassroots coalition of teachers, parents, and activists.

It was preceded by a two day conference and a film festival featuring the new documentary “The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting For Superman.”

This march is only the most recent event in a long and heated debate about education reform. Michelle Rhee! Teacher tenure! Evaluations! Unions! Testing! Charter schools! School vouchers! What’s next?

And what do you think of Matt Damon’s speech and the Save Our Schools March? What should we be doing to save our schools?

Europe sees cuts in green jobs despite the solar funding boom.

American department stores come under fire as female workers’ rights are violated abroad.

Why some are upset with the debt deal. Do you back Congress or Obama?

Heroines of Norway save 40 teens.

Will these shoes provide trees in the future?

Genesis 20 (NIV 2011)

1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
4 Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”
8 Early the next morning Abimelek summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelek called Abraham in and said, “What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.” 10 And Abimelek asked Abraham, “What was your reason for doing this?”
11 Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14 Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelek said, “My land is before you; live wherever you like.”
16 To Sarah he said, “I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, 18 for the LORD had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

Genesis 21
1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Reflection:
As Abraham gives Sarah over for his benefit again, it is shown that this is not who he is called to be. Abraham was to love, bless, and give himself for Sarah and other people instead of using them for his own preservation.  We also see God’s fulfillment of His promise of an heir to Abraham and to Sarah. The child, Isaac, represents living in the calling, the promise, and the blessing to others, which God had spoken of over and over to Abraham when He called him. God brought them “laughter” and all who hear will join Sarah and share in the joy of what God can and does for His people.  We see a glimpse of the blessing to others already being fulfilled.

Response:
How many times in our experiences of living the called life can we recall when after much waiting and persistence that we are able to reap and receive the fruit born to us? Each of us has a testimony of getting to that point where the moments of doubt, insecurity and hopelessness have been redeemed and blown away by what God has done for us through Jesus Christ our Savior. How wonderful that by the power of our God through Christ that it IS true – we are blessed to be a blessing. In prayer, let’s come to the Lord again and rejoice, proclaiming our love for Him, and asking Him that we would live more and more as who we are – blessed to be a blessing!

Thanks to myessentia.com and darwinstable.com

Arthritis. Inflammation. Pain. Fun topics of discussion…

Are you young and think this doesn’t apply too you?.

Reality check. Gout is on the rise. Here’s a little history of the disease.

It’s commonly associated with the heavy and wealthy who ate (red meat), drank (alcohol), and were merry to their hearts content.

Why the sudden comeback? Does obesity and lack of exercise ring a bell? Growing in the U.S., this trend is being seen across the globe.

Animal products, sugars, and a lack of complex carbohydrates appear to be the problem. Obesity not only harms one’s waistline, but usually comes with the price tag of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or endocrine issues.

Who would have thought of gout?!

So how are youth going to attempt to remedy this, on top of all the other tensions that have us worried about our futures? Here are some tips. We also recommend eating cherries.

Cherries appear to lower levels of uric acid, which build up to cause the painful inflammation around joints that is gout (mostly around the big toe/foot area). Here’s what some doctors are saying about cherries.

For those of you avid runners who are on your way to longevity, maybe you ought to consider the natural remedy for muscle aches.

Photo courtesy of the LA Times

Arab Spring Update: Temperatures are rising.

This week a fresh bout of violent riots broke out in Egypt, spurred by the trial of the former Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak.

The once strong and vibrant leader was shown on TV in a hospital bed behind bars. The charged footage has spurred strong emotions on both sides.

Tahami Luteifi, a Mubarak supporter, said,

“He’s going to be found innocent.  There’s no option but that! He is the father of this country.”

Nabil Hassan had a more optimistic take on the proceedings, explaining,

“When (Mubarak) is in the cage, and we know he’s there, then we know we have started to put our feet on the path to justice. If he and his accomplices are in court, he becomes one of the people – no different from anyone else facing justice.”

Others citizens are disturbed by the ongoing violence. Those already struggling to make ends meet are finding that the ongoing unrest has economic consequences.

“I’ve got five kids to feed but work is down 30%… nobody has any money left. The revolution’s gone on too long.”

Below is a short excerpt of an interview with Oberlin College's David Orr, who braved a tornado warning in Ohio this spring to talk with AASHE about the innovative Oberlin Project. Read the whole interview in AASHE's newest publication: "2010 Campus Sustainability Review."

In the late 1990s, David Orr organized the design of the Adam J. Lewis Center at Oberlin College in northeastern Ohio, the first entirely solar-powered building on a U.S. college campus. Today, the author, speaker and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President at Oberlin College is pioneering the next frontier of campus sustainability with The Oberlin Project. This ambitious green development effort aims to revitalize a 13-acre city block in downtown Oberlin. By combining urban revitalization, green development, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, education and arts into a single project, the collaborative effort is at the forefront of a national trend to broaden the scope of the campus sustainability movement. AASHE’s Tim Gibbins caught up with David this spring in the midst of a tornado warning in Ohio to learn more about this innovative new project.

Q: Can you give us the background on The Oberlin Project?

A: The Oberlin Project has five goals. One is to transform the local economy in central downtown doing the entire block at USGBC [U.S. Green Building Council] Platinum levels for neighborhood development and use that as a driver for the local economy. This means building the block in a way that ties into local providers for wood materials, energy, food and so forth. The second goal is to move the city and the college to carbon neutrality and reinvent the local energy system in the city. That includes regulation, pricing, incentives for efficiency and deploying different kinds of technology. The third goal is to develop a 20,000-acre greenbelt around the city, primarily for agriculture but also for forestry. The fourth goal is to use the entire project as an educational venture including students from not just the college, but the public schools and vo-tech [vocational technical] schools and a two-year college as well. So we’ve put together a consortium of different kinds of educational institutions. The fifth goal is to devise ways to replicate this across the country in a variety of different ways.

Q: What are some of those ways?

A: For one, we are part of the Clinton Climate Initiative as one of 19 projects worldwide. Second is the development of an ecological design center that is a bridge between the Oberlin Project and other redevelopment efforts around the upper Midwest. Third, we are developing a national network that propagates the idea of “full-spectrum sustainability,” which means a lot of conversations that cross the boundaries of organizations, bureaucracies and disciplines by which we organized the industrial world.

We have created 10 teams throughout the city and five throughout the northeast Ohio region made up of public citizens, foundations, faculty members and government officials working on community organization, energy issues, economic development, development of green buildings, ecological design and so forth. Full-spectrum sustainability means that any particular issue that comes up is going to involve three or four of the different teams. Citizen engagement in the early stages has been pretty good. We are a very typical upper Midwest city with similar rates of ethnic makeup, income distribution and poverty that characterize this region. We have not had much difficulty in getting people to respond, which reflects the vitality of volunteerism and civic spirit that is often underestimated. One of the objectives of the plan is to develop a civic commons that develops participation and leadership throughout the whole community.

Q: What do you think is one of the major drivers of all the volunteers wanting to get involved?

A: I think there is more activism in the public than we have often assumed. People want to get involved, the problem, typically, is that there is just no good way to do it. In our project we began with five, six, seven different things happening, providing multiple opportunities for engagement. The educational teams, for example, are going to be working on curriculum asking what kids need to know at the onset of a climate-destabilized world. There are plans for a new green school built much like the Adam J. Lewis center. Other people are working on the local food system and how the cafeteria is provisioned throughout the school year. The point, however, is that there is a lot more desire to get engaged than has often been assumed.

Q: Part of The Oberlin Project that seems atypical to what we normally think of as a part of the sustainability movement is the inclusion of the arts, and this Green Arts District. What do you see as the primary role that the arts will play in the sustainability movement in the future?

A: The conversation about sustainability has mostly focused on sustainable agriculture or renewable energy or green building, and the list goes on. We’ve brought all of these together into a single pattern where the parts are designed to reinforce the prosperity and resilience of the whole thing. It’s just one big conversation but so far it’s been pretty wonky—full of technical and scientific jargon, a lot of curves going up or down. But such things only appeal to one side of the mind. What it misses is the part of the mind that is creative and artistic. The union between the performing arts, plastic arts, music, drama, literary arts and the sciences may be one of the most vital and powerful things that will come out of The Oberlin Project...

The "2010 Campus Sustainability Review" is the first of AASHE's e-book offerings. Download the publication here.