The WELL: Topics in the inkwell.vue Conference

inkwell.vue.326: flash gordon, Blood, Sweat, and 2nd Gear: More Medicine for Motorcyclists

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

We're please to welcome our next guest into the Inkwell: flash gordon.

Dr. flash gordon attended University of Miami (Florida) for both his undergraduate and medical school. His Emergency Medicine Residency was at Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit) and he was certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine in 1980. He has served as clinical faculty at University UCSF School of Medicine, was Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program at San Francisco General Hospital (Mission Emergency) and was Medical Director and Chief of the Medical Staff at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. He has been online since 1980, is married to a biophysicist / consultant / triathlete, and has practiced in Marin County since 1990.

He has been writing about medicine and motorcycling since the mid-eighties; first for Citybike, Northern California's Motorcycling Monthly Magazine; for various national motorcycling publications, and for the last several years his column Medical Motorcycling has been featured in Motorcycle Consumer News, a national monthly magazine.

Leading the discussion with flash is Michael Bettinger, a counselor, educator, writer and biker, originally from Brooklyn and living in San Francisco for the past thirty two years. He retired four years ago after a thirty three year career as a psychotherapist and family therapist, working primarily with gay men and gay male couples. He is the author of Its Your Hour: A Guide to Queer-Affirmative Psychotherapy. He has ridden motorcycles for the past forty one years and presently rides a 1992 Harley Davidson FXR. He is also the "disorganizer" of the annual Queer Biker Invasion of Death Valley.

Welcome, gentlemen! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.325: Ann Thorpe: The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

We're very pleased to welcome Ann Thorpe to Inkwell.

Ann Thorpe is the author of The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability (Island Press, 2007). At university, Thorpe studied product design, and later, energy and resources. She has worked on issues of sustainability and design in varied settings, such as a large, private company, a non-profit organization, local government, and UK art and design colleges. She also helped found the first regional chapter (Cascadia) of the US Green Building Council. Thorpe is a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. She is currently researching the topic of design activism.

Leading the conversation with Ann is our own J. Eric Townsend.

J. Eric "jet" Townsend is an unintentional comprehensivist. During his career he has developed software for massively parallel supercomputers, participated in the "garage virtual reality" community, made art for Burning Man, and held positions ranging from Online Communications Manager to sysadmin to security engineer at a variety of consumer electronics companies. He currently burns the candle at both ends, working at a consumer electronics company as a security engineer while studying Design at Carnegie Mellon University. jet's design interests include sustainability, local fabrication/recycling, and involving non-designers in the design process through the use of computation.

Welcome, Ann and Jet! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.324: Silja Talvi, "Women Behind Bars"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

I'm pleased to introduce our next guest, Silja Talvi.

Ms. Talvi is a full-time investigative journalist and essayist with credits in more than 75 publications, including The Nation, Salon and the Christian Science Monitor. In the fall of 2005, she became a Senior Editor at In These Times magazine. "Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System" (published by Seal Press, an imprint of Avalon/Perseus), is her first full-length non-fiction book.

She describes herself as "thoroughly curious about other human beings on a daily basis" and says she is an "often cranky, but always passionate and deeply engaged human being."

Leading the conversation is Jack King.

Mr. King is a criminal defense lawyer, writer and author in Washington, DC, and the director of public affairs and communications for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDLs 12,000-plus direct members in 28 countries and 94 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling over 40,000 members include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness within the criminal justice system. He is admitted to practice in Washington, DC, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The views here are Mr. King's and do not represent policies or positions of the NACDL except where noted. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.323: Daniel McGinn, "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

Our next guest author is Daniel McGinn. Daniel's recently released book, "House Lust: America's Obsession With our Homes" is a book that looks at the frenzy of the real estate market in the last decade. It explores how we went from thinking of homes as purely shelter to something much more.

Daniel McGinn is a national correspondent at Newsweek, where he's worked since 1993. He's previously served as a reporter in New York, bureau chief in Detroit, and since 1999 he's been based in Boston. He writes about management, the economy and a variety of other topics. His freelance writing has appeared in WIRED, Inc., the Boston Globe Magazine, and other publications. He lives in the suburbs west of Boston with his wife and three children in a 35-year-old renovated Cape Cod-style home. HOUSE LUST is his first book.

Philippe Habib leads our conversation. Philippe is the host of the <home.> and <cars.> conferences on The WELL. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area and has built his own house once and is currently in the process of building a vacation cabin. Philippe likes to make things that are typically purchased. In addition to houses, that list includes bread, beer, and sausage. For a living, Philippe writes software. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.322: W. James Au, 'The Making of Second Life'

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

Our next guest, Wagner James Au, is the author of the recently released "The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World," a book that explores the remarkable virtual culture and real-world economy that's developed through this wildly popular online entity.

James has written about high-tech culture for more than ten years. He's been, at various times, a freelance reporter, a metaverse consultant, a game developer, a screenwriter, and since 2003, a white-suited avatar named "Hamlet Au," the first embedded journalist in a virtual world, a role he still plays on his blog, New World Notes (http://nwn.blogs.com).

His work in Second Life has been cited or profiled in The New York Times, the BBC, CNN International, NPR, Wired, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and many other publications and television programs. He also covers the game industry and online worlds for GigaOM.com. Originally from Kailua, Hawaii, he now lives in San Francisco, California.

Jennifer Powell leads the conversation with James. Jennifer has been an inhabitant of the Internet for 15 years. She has a lifelong interest in community, both on the 'net and off, and has worked in hosting and management of online communities for many companies, including Netscape, ABC's Go.com, and AOL. Jennifer has also spent many happy hours - some might say too many happy hours - in multiplayer games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft, and in virtual worlds like Second Life.

Welcome, James and Jennifer! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.321: Pamela McCorduck, "The Edge of Chaos"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

I'm honored to introduce our next guest, Pamela McCorduck, who -- with her latest work, "The Edge of Chaos" -- has turned her attention back to novel- writing after many years in the field of nonfiction.

Pamela (http://www.pamelamccorduck.com) has published nine books, including best sellers "Machines Who Think," "The Fifth Generation," and "The Futures of Women." Her books have been translated into most of the major European and Asian languages. She has written for magazines ranging from Redbook and Cosmopolitan to Daedalus, and was a contributing editor to Wired. She has appeared on many television shows, including PBS's News Hour and the CBS Evening News. CNN based a two-part series on the book she co-authored with Nancy Ramsey, "The Futures of Women."

Longtime WELL member David Kline leads the conversation with Pamela. David is an energy economist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, leading programs with developing countries on sustainable energy and development. He has facilitated clean energy projects around the globe, Egypt to Botswana and Mexico to China.

He calls himself a dilettante who's dabbled, for example, in chaos theory, bird identification, quantum mechanics, and the science and policy response to climate change; one year, he went on a tear and read all the novels of Jane Austen.

Welcome to Inkwell.vue, Pamela and David! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.320: James Oseland, "Cradle of Flavor"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

I'm delighted to welcome James Oseland to Inkwell to discuss his book "Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia."

James Oseland is the editor-in-chief of Saveur and the author of Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia,Singapore and Malaysia, published by W.W. Norton. The book was honored with International Association of Culinary Professionals and James Beard awards, and was selected as one of 2006*s ten best books about Asia by Time Asia. He lectures frequently at New York*s Asia Society and the Institute for Culinary Education. A California native, he now lives in Brooklyn and travels to Southeast Asia as often as possible.

Leading the discussion with James is our own Eric Gower:

Eric Gower lived in Japan for 15 years, working for the Prime Minister's office as an editor and writer on political economy before getting horribly bored and turning his attention to cooking all day long, for the pure pleasure of it. He now lives in San Francisco, teaches cooking, and writes cookbooks. His latest, The Breakaway Cook, was published by Morrow/HarperCollins in 2007. His website and blog can be found at www.breakawaycook.com. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.319: Arden Moore, "Planet Cat"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

We're delighted to welcome Arden Moore to the Inkwell to discuss "Planet Cat".

Arden has this to say about herself:

"Hey feline fans! I'm Arden Moore, author of 17 pet books, including the latest, "Planet Cat." It's been called "the ultimate bathroom reading book for cat lovers." Nice. I'm also the editor of Catnip, managing editor of Fido Friendly magazines and host a show on Pet Life Radio.com called "Oh Behave!" I share my home with two dogs and two cats and enjoy people, too. So, let's get catty!"

Joining Arden is Angie Coiro. Angie is an award-winning radio journalist and interviewer whose subjects have included Mike Wallace, Richard Clarke, and Martin Short. Salman Rushdie provided two of Angie's career high-points: first, her radio interview with him won the national Public Radio News Directors accolade as the best on local public radio that year. Second - and perhaps more notably -- he briefly pogo-danced in her studio following the broadcast. Over the next few weeks, she's interviewing Marianne Pearl and Ishmael Beah live on stage, as well as co-curating a selection of pre-code films, at Montalvo Arts in Saratoga.

Welcome, both of you! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.318: Richard Wiseman, "Quirkology"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

For our next conversation, we're very pleased to welcome Professor Richard Wiseman to Inkwell to discuss his book "Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things".

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician and currently holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He frequently appears on the media, and has written over 60 academic articles and several books, including The Luck Factor.

Leading the discussion with Professor Wiseman is our own Linda Castellani.

Linda Castellani has been a member of the WELL since 1991. She is one of the past hosts of inkwell.vue, and one of the former co-hosts of the crafts and mirrorshades conferences. Currently, she co-hosts with <augur> the miscellaneous conference, a casual, cozy little place on the WELL where topics are about anything and everything.

She has been a media buyer, public relations director, technical writer, jewelry designer, glass artist, and is currently a fabric design student.

She is not a little quirky herself, greatly appreciates the quirks of people in general, and is delighted to be having this conversation with Richard Wiseman.

Thanks for joining us, Richard and Linda! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.317: Bruce Sterling: State of the World, 2008

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:00 PDT

We ring in the new year with our ninth annual visit from Bruce Sterling, in which we review recent events, gaze into the future, and generally discuss the state of the world.

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his eight science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne. His nonfiction works include THE HACKER CRACKDOWN: LAW AND DISORDER ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER (1992) and TOMORROW NOW: ENVISIONING THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS (2003). He is a contributing editor of WIRED magazine and a columnist for MAKE magazine.

During 2005, he was the "Visionary in Residence" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and is currently the guest curator for the SHARE Digital Culture Festival in Torino, Italy.

He has appeared in ABC's Nightline, BBC's The Late Show, CBC's Morningside, on MTV and TechTV, and in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Nature, I.D., Metropolis, Technology Review, Der Spiegel, La Repubblica, and many other venues.

Our interlocutor with Bruce is Jon Lebkowsky, an authority on social media and online community and, like Bruce, a longtime member of the Well.

Jon writes about culture, technology, media, sustainability and other topics for various publications, and has been blogging regularly since 2000. In 1991 he cofounded the pioneering online company FringeWare, Inc., the first company to attempt e-commerce. The company published the influential magazine FringeWare Review, which had an international distribution. He worked with bOING bOING (as associate editor for the original paper zine), HotWired, The Whole Earth Catalog, Electric Minds, and many other web and cyberculture projects and endeavors during the World Wide Web's first decade. In the late 90s, he was actively involved in the creation of various e-commerce and community initiatives for Whole Foods Market (and gained quite a few pounds, for obvious reasons).

So, guys, how *are* things? What's going to hell in a hand basket? About what can we be optimistic? How is this New Year's different from all other turnings of the calendar? [Read entire topic]