Burnin’

Anna G. Arutunyan, an editor at the Moscow News, writing about the Russian blogosphere for The Nation, reports that 700,000 LiveJournal users post in Cyrillic, making them second only to English speakers.

The LiveJournal community in Russia is known as Zhivoi Zhurnal, or ZheZhe for short. Arutunyan says Russian bloggers are becoming a lively alternative to mainstream media, and they’re using the site as an online organizing tool for offline protests.

LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick first visited Moscow last October when his company, Six Apart, announced a partnership with the Russian media company SUP-Fabrik, which would service the enormous Cyrillic sector. What struck him was the social magnitude of ZheZhe and the serious content of its journal entries. In America, “LiveJournal is lots of people writing to ten people [each, and] reading each other,” he told me. In ZheZhe this is magnified into thousands of readers. What for Americans is an electronic diary accessible to a few chosen acquaintances became, for Russians, a platform for forging thousands of interconnected virtual “friends.” And Fitzpatrick believes it has potential as a tool for activism. “I really appreciate what it is as a political platform.”

What ZheZhe seems to illustrate is that a crucial aspect of civil society is not just the freedom to report on what you see but the ability to get people inspired enough to react. Russians are already notorious for their centuries-old communal spirit–or sobornost. ZheZhe might be one of the technologies that will finally get them to act on it.

For additional user-generated content from Russian, check out RuTube.

World Changing takes a close look at news that a consortia backed by Airtricity has committed to the construction of a 345-kilovolt transmission loop in the Texas Panhandle. The $1.5 billion Panhandle Loop will bring 4,200 megawatts of wind energy to more than one million homes in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

One of the great limitations of the development of renewable energy in America is the transmission infrastructure. Think of the arrangement as a national highway system for electrons, except there’s no national organization. It’s just a patchwork system of private roads built over the years to suit particular needs.

In a perfect world, we’d already have transmission lines intersecting the windiest and sunniest regions across the country and across globe. Unfortunately, most transmission lines weren’t designed with renewable energy in mind, they were built to deliver power from fossil fuel plants.

Texas leads the nation in wind energy production. Nearly one third of the new turbines erected last year went up in Texas. The state also hosts the single largest operating farm in the world, the 735 MW Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center.

The Panhandle Loop will carry more than a third of the total existing wind-genrated capacity in the United States. Eddie O’Connor, Airtricity’s CEO compares the project to constructing a power station greater than the entire generation for Ireland and building it by 2010. In other words, it’s Texas-sized in its ambitions.

My local wine retailer handed me a $20 bottle of Smith & Hook Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon on Friday, while pointing out that one might not expect a Cab of this quality to come from Monterey.

Here’s how the Hahn family describes their product:

The Smith & Hook Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is crafted from the finest of the Hahn Family’s estate vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands Appellation, a wine region proving to become one of the crown jewels of California viticulture.

The Smith Vineyard and the Hook Vineyard are east facing slopes with the vines between 400 and 1200 feet in elevation in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation. These grapes are truly mountain grown. The final blend of our Grand Reserve Cabernet is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc for mid-palate, 5% Petite Verdot for bright berries and spice, and 2% Malbec for color and to tie everything together.

Aromas of blackberries, currant, leather, and tobacco. A warm rush of cherries and plum start at the fore-palate before fading to chocolate and toffee with a hint of mint towards the back. The tannins are firm, smooth, and polished, leaving a silky and supple texture in the mouth, supported by a subtle seam of acidity. Our Enologist, Greg Freeman, describes the wine as “a warm cedar chest at Grandma’s house.”

That’s an interesting way to descibe wine, but I know what he means.

Ted Turner went into the heart of darkness last week to deliver a message of hope, or a stern lecture, depending upon one’s allegiances and point-of-view.

Speaking before the Houston World Affairs Council (in an appearance funded by BP and Marathon Oil Corp.), Turner said, “What we need is a moratorium on all new coal plants, on all new carbon-producing energy power technologies, and work on replacing them with renewable alternatives.”

Turner also called for urgent action to address global climate change, which he referred to as the “single greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced.”

“The biggest danger is we won’t do enough soon enough,” he said.

“The days of fossil fuels as a fuel are over,” he told a packed ballroom over lunch at the Hotel Intercontinental. “It’s just a matter of how soon everybody recognizes it.”

If people aren’t motivated by helping the Earth, they should be drawn by the financial opportunities in clean energy, Turner said.

“The greatest fortunes in the history of the world will be made in this new energy business,” said Turner, who estimates his net worth at more than $1 billion. According to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, Turner owns one-third of Dome-Tech Solar, the largest solar installer in the eastern United States, and together they are creating DT Solar, a renewable energy company.

In related news, billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson last week pledged $25 million dollars to the first person or group who can come up with a technology to remove one billion tons of green house gases from the atmosphere per year for ten years.

We attended a fantastic symposium this morning in Savannah, courtesy of Savannah Country Day School. The speakers addressed one of the more pressing topics for our time—sustainability. Featured speaker, Robert Kennedy Jr., a hardcore environmentalist and brilliant speaker, also addressed another critical topic for our time—corporate control of government and media. Kennedy explained the history of the Fairness Doctrine, how it was dismantled by Ronald Reagan and the sorry state we’re in because of it.

Today, five huge corporations — Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Bertelsmann, and Viacom own 90% of the TV stations and radio stations in the U.S. This is a dangerous situation for the people of our nation. The founding fathers warned against it, and after WWII and the fall of fascism in Europe, the U.S. Congress legislated against it. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were “public trustees,” and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance.

Of course, there are no such safeguards in place today, which is why we have propaganda where news once was. Thankfully, people are waking up from this nightmare and beginning to demand a free and fair press. U.S. Congressman from New York, Maurice Hinchey has introduced a bill that will restore the Fairness Doctrine.

Here’s “Article I” from Hinchey’s bill:

Our airwaves are a precious and limited commodity that belong to the general public. As such, they are regulated by the government. From 1949 to 1987, a keystone of this regulation was the Fairness Doctrine, an assurance that the American audience would be guaranteed sufficiently robust debate on controversial and pressing issues. Despite numerous instances of support from the U.S. Supreme Court, President Reagan’s FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and a subsequent bill passed by Congress to place the doctrine into federal law was then vetoed by Reagan.

MORA would amend the 1934 Communications Act to restore the Fairness Doctrine and explicitly require broadcast licensees to provide a reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance.

Raw Story reports that concerns about monopolies and fears of a possible “fascist” takeover of the US media prompted the bill. Hinchey said, “This is a critical moment in history that may determine the future of our country…maybe forever.”

Hinchey blames the media for reporting false information that it is fed by the administration. “What lies will they tell in the future to jeopardize this democratic republic or even end this democratic republic? That is the objective of many of those involved.”

I came across the work of writer Hollis Gillespie yesterday, after reading her column in Paste Magazine. After looking through her site, I am struck once more by how many balls a writer must keep in the air to succeed (in economic terms).

Gillespie has two books for sale; she teaches writing seminars for $150 a pop; she’s a commentator on NPR; writes a weekly piece for Creative Loafing; she’s working on the Hollywood adaptation of her first book; she’s the Georgia editor for Fodor’s Gold Guide to The Carolina’s and Georgias; she writes for Salon.com; is a tri-lingual international flight attendant and a mom.

The fact is you can’t just write a book and hope the royalties come rollin’ in. A book’s economic function is to get you more and hopefully better work teaching, consulting, writing, editing, speaking, etc.

“I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators, to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. Don’t hide anymore; none of us. That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we’re not willing to do it, we’re not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don’t debate this . . . we are not worthy of our country.” -Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) during a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Hagel tells it like it is. I like that about him. But before I get too thrilled with his truth saying, another truth begs to be observed. This time, it’s from Huffington Post writer Matt Browner Hamlin.

Chuck Hagel’s voting record is clear. He votes with Bush and he votes the way conservatives want him to vote. Hagel votes against abortion rights, against civil rights, and against environmental protections. Hagel’s beliefs are squarely in line with the Republican Party platform. Period.

Please, the next time you hear Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, or even a Republican blogger claim that Hagel is a moderate, a maverick, or any other adjective that paints him as an anti-Republican figure, remember that it simply is not true. He remains a purebred Republican despite his correct positioning on Iraq.

Hamlin makes a good point. But I’m not as willing, nor as quick, to downgrade the man. Despite his voting record, Iraq is the central issue of the day and he’s right on Iraq. Just as importantly, he’s also right about another critical issue of our day–that’s it’s our duty as Americans to think critically, then stand up and be heard. He’s totally consistent on this issue. In fact, I’ve posted twice before about his opposing stance to the President and his administration.

“Owning a firearm brings me some sort of balance. When I am angry at the world I find relief in dropping a clip into the air.” -Drew (photographed below)

Photographer Kyle Cassidy got the idea to document Armed America. Here’s part of his artist’s statement:

The idea was to photograph a hundred gun owners, in their homes, and do a gallery show. I figured this would take about two years. But very soon after I started, it became evident that my ambitions were too low. My mailbox flooded with letters from people I didn’t know wanting to participate — I realized that I could probably photograph a hundred people in two months, but it wasn’t a number of people that was important, it was their stories — a cowboy in Texas, a survivalist in Montana, a deer hunter in Pennsylvania, a sheriff in Georgia, a soldier in Idaho…. What I really needed, I realized, was to get moving, to drive across the country and find America somewhere between here and there.

Cassidy’s book of these photos comes out in October.