I’ve posted about my September 11, 2001: We called the company I co-founded Submedia. We filed the patent in 1998. Our first investment came in 1999, enabling us to pay ourselves salaries and hire people to develop prototypes and create partnerships with subway systems. Atlanta’s system signed first, followed by the PATH system connecting New York City and New Jersey. Coca-Cola signed in 2001 as our debut advertiser, beating Nike[…] Keep reading →

Insouciance, colonialism, and sustainability

On my birthday, I find it fun to calculate how much of history I’ve lived through. Depending on your age, you might have lived through similar percentages of history. [EDIT: I attached the spreadsheet to calculate the numbers below if you want to calculate for your life.] Some numbers, for example: I’ve lived about 2.6 percent of the time Christianity has existed, but only 0.3 percent of the time since[…] Keep reading →

Despite using zero watts over more than a year, I’ve been paying over $20 per month for an electric bill. Part of it was to a power company that uses more wind and solar that charged me a monthly fee of another $6 or so. The other part was $17 a month to Con Ed, the power company, simply for being connected to the grid, not even using power. I[…] Keep reading →

While reading ProPublica’s story How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S., I came across these paragraphs about Lauren Davila finding a newspaper ad from 1835 announcing someone having sold 600 slaves in one auction: A sale of 600 people would mark a grim new record—by far. Until Davila’s discovery, the largest known slave auction in the U.S. was one that was held over two[…] Keep reading →

On July 21st last year, both the solar panel and power station broke. I don’t know why or how, but cutting-edge technology is prone to fail. As the next day would complete two months, double my goal and twenty times my expectation, I decided I could declare victory, reconnect the circuit, and plug back in the next day. You can hear me say so in my July 22 podcast episode,[…] Keep reading →

I’m interrupting my usual talk of sustainability leadership, sidchas, doof, and my other usual subjects for a story that happened this afternoon. The scene: With family. People’s stuff and toiletries are scattered about the room. My sister moved some things on a table and knocked a tube of toothpaste on the floor. She heard the noise but couldn’t see what fell. I said, “the toothpaste fell.” She didn’t hear and[…] Keep reading →