• Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) recently announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.
• The number of people in U.S. prisons has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society. More than 1.5 million people are now in U.S. state and federal prisons, up from 196,429 in 1970. Another 750,000 people are in local jails. The U.S. incarceration rate is the world’s highest, followed by Russia. In 2003 the average cost per inmate, per year is $25,327. That’s um… $37,990,500,000 a year. The prison population is projected to grow by another 192,000 in five years, at a cost of $27.5 billion to build and operate additional prisons. On top of this cost, In 2003, the President made a commitment to mentoring children of prisoners by calling for grants for faith-based and community organizations to provide mentors to children of prisoners. This three-year initiative will cost taxpayers $150 million. It’s for the kids though, right?
• On a lighter note… THIS is really funny if you think about it. Click here (PICT)
• This week, 16 U.S. intelligence agencies published a report that “in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” Turns out the White House was aware of this shocking assessment for a few months, but reportedly worked to delay its public release.
• In a troubling reversal, the nation’s teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, surprising government health officials and reviving the bitter debate about abstinence-only sex education. Some experts said they have been expecting a jump. They blamed it on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that doesn’t teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception. Some key sexually transmitted disease rates have also been rising, including syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
• In a December issue of The Journal of Theoretical Biology, a group of scientists announce they have solved the riddle of the appendix. The organ, they claim, is in reality a “safe house” for healthful bacteria — the stuff that makes our digestive system function. When our gut is ravaged by diseases like diarrhea and dysentery, the appendix quietly goes to work repopulating the gut with beneficial bacteria.“In essence,” says William Parker, a chemist who co-wrote the paper, “after our system crashes, the appendix reboots it.”
• This July, when Jorgi Wu was laid to rest in central California, she became the first American to be buried in an Ecopod — a 100 percent biodegradable coffin made of recycled paper. The seedpod-shaped coffin is designed to be planted in the ground, dissolve and replenish the earth with its nutrient-rich contents.
• When the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was asked to build a footbridge over the Gardon River he constructed it from locally available materials and based its geometry on the nearby Pont du Gard, a historic Roman aqueduct. But instead of stones or concrete, Ban used a mixture of cardboard tubes, recycled labels and creative engineering. It can withstand the load of at least 20 people and the 72-foot-long frame was made primarily from 281 cardboard tubes — each four and a half inches in diameter and about three-quarters of an inch thick.
• Nichole Marie Blackwell, 28, posted an ad on Craigslist inviting users to come to the Tacoma, Wash., home of her aunt Laurie Raye and “take what you want. Everything is free. Please help yourself to anything on the property.According to Jim Buckmaster, C.E.O. of Craigslist, the ad was up for less than two hours before users flagged it as false. But that was plenty of time for carloads of Craigslisters to arrive at Raye’s unlocked house, from which Blackwell’s mother had recently been evicted, and haul off pretty much everything, down to the front door and the baseboards and the kitchen sink.
• In October, according to a police report, Paul Zurschmit and Darrin Bolin sneaked onto the football field of Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio, and stole several metal bleachers, which they cut into pieces and hauled to a scrap yard 100 miles away in West Virginia, receiving $600 for the aluminum.

This is a summary of a post that I made on photo.net on Sep 13, 2003. The incident was actually followed up with an article in our local Ohio paper which I’ll post here. I thought it was interesting how the conversation on this topic is still continuing. Actually, I was reminded about this because I happened to “stumble upon” a conversation about me again on Stumbleupon.com. It’s just a little concerning to me that normal people can be wandering around in public places minding their own business and then get pulled in for questioning. It’s not a big deal and I understand the reasons for it but we need to walk a careful path as we go forward in the world so we don’t become too paranoid, too limiting on our freedoms and too dependent on our government to decide what’s right and wrong. As someone important once said… “It can only lead to the dark side”. Below is the beginning of the post and my story. For further reading on the subject scroll down below the post to read the countless comments and discussions that have sprung up over the years. You can also read more here.

I’m writing this to alert all of you to be very aware WHERE you are shooting while in the United States! Yesterday I was out doing some street shooting and apparently I wandered a little too close to our Federal Building downtown with my camera and I was immediately ran down by four officers, detained and questioned for over an hour.

I currently live in Akron Ohio. A city of about 200,000 people in the northeast United States. During my lunch hour I went out on a beautiful sunny day excited to do some photography. I wandered down main street shooting various subjects for about a half hour and without finding much I wandered a little further down than I normally go which brought by our federal building. I wandered up in front of the building in the courtyard where they have a sculpture. I took several photos of the sculpture (shooting away from the building) I wandered around looking at a memorial they have there and then continued on my way. I crossed the street via the crosswalk and continued down the other side of the street. I took a picture of a woman in a car, a really old TV set in a window and a view of the construction of our new library being built downtown. Soon after I arrived at this spot I heard someone yelling. Being downtown I ignored it. They kept yelling and eventually I looked back and I saw 3 uniformed officers and one plain clothes man running toward me. I was very surprised that they closed in on me and the man asked me to step back over by the officers and he immediately told me to give him my bag and to put my hands above my head. By this time I was surrounded by men with guns and standing on the sidewalk in public view feeling embarrassed and confused without a really good reason since I was clearly out just enjoying the day and minding my own business.

The officer at this point proceeded to quickly go through my bag and he arrogantly asked me “why I was talking pictures of the Federal building and the businesses across the street?” I immediately realized where I was and why they were on me. I was blown away that it did not even cross my mind where I was on the day after September 11th. The officer asked me for my I.D. and proceeded to ask me a few more questions and then told me that I needed to come with him into the federal building so they could check my identification. I was immediately surprised that this had gone on as long as it had because I had a good explanation for what I was doing, I had proper I.D., I don’t look like a suspicious person, I am clearly born and raised in the United States, I was being more than cooperative AND I was in a public place minding my own business!

So I was interested to see how far this was going to go so I went with him. Mostly because I was curious and because I am a quiet, non-confrontational person. I’m not sure I really had a choice though and soon I found myself in the bowels of the basement in a grungy hole in the wall office surrounded by mold and security guards. At this point he asked me a few more questions, he asked me if there was anything that I needed to tell him before he started a background check and then he left me with an armed guard for about 15 minutes.

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