A war journalist. (Creative Commons photo) Hey all. I wanted to explain the new appearance on this blog of posts you can't read. Sometimes, as a freelancer, your stories burn a hole in your pocket—specifically if you aren't writing more than a couple stories a month, and you're applying for writing jobs at the speed … Continue reading Password-protected posts? What?
Uncategorized
For all you greenies out there
Stumbled upon this xkcd comic tonight. Click the image to enlarge it to full size.
Merry Christmas!
Take extra time and expend extra effort to hug your family or friends this fine day. Loving other people is, supposedly, what today is about. I think the Jesus who does simply that (but not weakly, that) gets lost in the shuffle. Here's a poem by Russel Jaffe, who got a Poetry MFA from Columbia … Continue reading Merry Christmas!
The List
The band Hellogoodbye—the apparent winner of my months-long Pandora search for new favorite bands—poses to support Oxfam America. (Creative Commons-licensed photo from the Flickr page of Oxfam America) When I discovered Pandora my life changed forever. From that point on, I've come to realize, there's a backlog of wicked music which I want but don't … Continue reading The List
Now I know why I loved Sonic 3’s music
Because Michael Jackson lent creative direction. Several inside sources have confirmed that MJ in fact played a big part in composing the music for the game, even though most of his music was removed a couple months before the game's release. (Rumor has it Michael's scandalous ways infuriated Sega execs.) This isn't really new news, … Continue reading Now I know why I loved Sonic 3’s music
Comments from an outsider
Remember my post complaining about American education? Someone wrote me back about it, and gave me permission to post her response here. What a wonderful surprise! Yiuka Leung grew up on the outskirts of Hong Kong, and moved to the U.S. for college, so she's experienced education from both sides. Here's what she had to … Continue reading Comments from an outsider
Random stuff
Here's all the stuff from the past several weeks that hasn't warranted a stand-alone post. Does anyone else like the new Levi's commercials as much as I do? The one that uses Walt Whitman's poem "Pioneers! O Pioneers!"? Here's the video clip: I like it for several reasons: first, it uses poetry, and a good … Continue reading Random stuff
Educational theory
I sent a letter to TED.org really early this morning asking if they have any internships available. They'd be a perfect fit for me, and I for them, I'm convinced. After I sent the message, I started to think about education again, because I had linked to a couple of my favorite articles in the … Continue reading Educational theory
Cookoff: roommate
Here's the most interesting thing to happen to me in a long time: a winner of Bravo's Top Chef recommends I have potential roommates cook for me, so I can find someone who loves food as much as I do. What a rockin' idea! The Chef is Stephanie Izard (here's her blog), and via a … Continue reading Cookoff: roommate
Link of the day
Is the familiar old HTTP on the way out? Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the mode of communication that has propelled the "information age" to infect every sector of life in developed nations, has served us well. But leave it to Google to propose its replacement. No telling whether the company's idea will actually take hold; … Continue reading Link of the day
GreenTown story on Chicagotalks
Toronto's city-wide recycling and composting program is one of the best in the world, and the head of their program came to Chi-town to talk to our waste engineers at a sustainability conference. Here's my story, which is headlining today on chicagotalks.org.
Best of Twitter 2: Links to others’ non-green stuff
101cookbooks.com is genius. It seems like the healthiest, tastiest recipes end up on here... And the author goes fresh and local as a rule. 12:15 PM Feb 26th Sandwich: Emmentaler and white cheddar, cucumber, red onion, sprouts, sunflower seeds, homemade slaw and mayo on whole wheat. windscafe.com 10:06 PM Feb 28th Groups now help move … Continue reading Best of Twitter 2: Links to others’ non-green stuff
Recent work
Been awhile since I've posted; about the same time I stopped posting, school let out for the summer. Since then I must have been preoccupied by work at News Journal... but also with personal stuff. My reporting gig is only 20 hours a week. It's a good thing I don't have many expenses. I've been … Continue reading Recent work
Christians leading masses to Earth-love
Now, I certainly don't mean Earth-worship. Just Earth-love, good for you and good for me. That's what this blog is about. Hmm... I can't think of a way to frame this link, I just have to show it to you: Activist Fail. This is when you know you've gone too far. ...Then again, I dunno. … Continue reading Christians leading masses to Earth-love
The College Sustainability Report Card
As you have been reading the past few days, I've been making suggestions specific to our school. They've stemmed merely from my eco-research over the years intersecting with life at this school. But today I found a rather objective treatment of college eco-valuation. The College Sustainability Report Card rates the 300 schools in the U.S. and Canada … Continue reading The College Sustainability Report Card
Start of a series: CU/Green
I'm among the founders of a new environmental organization at my University, which will largely be developed over the summer. I had been thinking, we ought to have some thoughts about what institutional changes the University should strive for. So I started a list. It spans several blog posts and comes in the form of … Continue reading Start of a series: CU/Green
Happy Earth Day!
Today I went out to plant trees with some other eco-minded students, but our coordinator had heard weather authorities call for frost round these parts. So we picked up trash instead. I wish I had remembered to stuff my camera in my back pocket. Had I done that I would have had some pictures for … Continue reading Happy Earth Day!
Obligatory first post
Greetings. This site will chronicle my work (whether I'm getting paid for it or not), so in that sense it'll be a running resume. Shortly here you'll be able to find "blog posts," more traditional or investigative journalism, photojournalism, or other various writing and multimedia... all available in a functional, beautiful web environment. If you're … Continue reading Obligatory first post
Article likely administration mouthpiece
Sub-head with three lines. Design, sometimes content, works ..doubles as haiku By Brandon Smith Note: This is a tirade masquerading as a front-page news article of this publication, supposedly one of the best college newspapers in America. If it truly is among the best in the country, the author guesses the American media will... remain … Continue reading Article likely administration mouthpiece
Brandon Smith 