barely 3 hours' notice

Blogger--

Hey, I know that this is going out with barely three hours notice, but we act and react as best we can. As that great ad campaign stresses: "Life comes at you fast."

I got this notice this afternoon from Gloria at 1:15. If you can take advantage of it, you should be well rewarded for your time. I saw an two earlier iterations of these, and they're awesome. I'd market them now for more than we paid for our house back in 1983, and they might hold value better as well.

Check 'em out.

Anyway, here's Gloria's note:

Sorry for the late notice but I just heard that Dennis Althar will be "sounding off" with his awesome Copernicus speakers at 5:30 p.m. today.

http://www.atssounds.com/page1.aspx

If you have the time to take a short detour for a great experience, stop off at 5432 Broadway, call 429-3000 to enter through the rolling gates, and be ready to hear some great sounds.

Recently, when asked if the speakers are good as Bose, Mr. Althar in turn queried, "Is a Rolls Royce as good as a Chevy?"

These speakers were recently showcased as part of an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art.

http://www.atssounds.com/Blog/news/2008/03/21/dd54e1b8-f0eb-4a68-920f-f6a610a0422c.aspx

If you can spare the time, you will be rewarded.

--Gloria Ferris

P.S. This is Tim again. I might add that this address is easily accessible from downtown, either off Broadway or off I-77, off I-490 at East 55th, or off East 55th itself. Also, we hear that this section of Broadway is nearly as well built out as Playhouse Square when it comes to those "pipes" for fiber optics or cable or whatever.

the future of the Tango

This is the email I asked Rick Woodbury of Commuter Cars to be able to share with you. His comments are in boldface. He makes a lot of sense. BusinessWeek thinks so, too.

I'm thrilled--I saw your car on TV in Atlanta 2 or 3 years ago and thought it was THE solution--and, it was fast and kicked up a lot of dust and leaves.

My first word was "Buick" over 60 years ago. Cars are important.

Thanks for noticing.

In case you have time for it, here is my view of the future of the Tango:
I've heard that to innovate, you don't give people what they ask for, but rather watch what they do. I've been watching what they do for over 50 years and I find it interesting that people driving cars by themselves with 4 empty seats around them jam up all the freeways, streets, and parking spaces in cities throughout the world at an incredible waste of time and resources.

It's as if people in a crowded subway all wore back packs that were 4 times bigger than they are.

According to the Texas Transportation Institute, at Texas A&M University, there are 67-billion dollars wasted every year due to congestion in the US. There are 5.7-billion gallons of gasoline wasted. This would fill tank trucks lined up end-to-end, from NY City to Las Vegas and back. That's just the gasoline wasted due to congestion!

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics there are 118-million workers in the US. Of them, 92-million drive by themselves to work every day with 4 empty seats. That's roughly 90% of all of the cars and roughly 80% of all workers that are driving solo in a car 4 times larger than needed.

Unfortunately, small cars don't solve the problem. A Mini-Cooper takes relatively the same space on the freeway as the largest SUVs because they both use a full lane and both must have similar braking distance from the car in front.
Motorcycles could solve the problem as they can fit two-to-a-lane but are unsafe, offer no protection from the weather, and give little room to carry things. Because of that only 0.6% of workers use motorcycles and bicycles combined. Public transit is only 4.9% because it only works well in extremely dense cities or corridors.

A freeway lane is 12-feet wide by federal standard. A truck is 9' 4" from mirror to mirror. That leaves 16" of clearance on either side. In order to double a freeway lane's capacity, a car would have to be a maximum of 40" wide in order to have the same clearance in a 6' lane. The Tango is only 39" wide, so it easily fits in a half-lane. The University of California Transportation Dept. and Booze-Allen-Hamilton did a study on a narrow car of nearly the same dimensions as the Tango and found it would increase lane capacity from 2,000 cars per hour to 4,400 cars per hour.

For a car to be 40" wide, it would require one of two methods for stability. If it tilted like a motorcycle it would have to have either manual or electronically controlled tilting. Both could be problematic. If the system failed in a turn it could be fatal. To control the weight of a protective cage manually is not reasonable as you can imagine a bicycle with hundreds of lbs overhead and to the sides.

Battery-electric is the answer--and for many reasons. The lead-acid batteries provide just enough weight in the Tango to achieve the same rollover threshold as a Porsche 911. As you have seen in the video, they also provide plenty of power. This is because, using the same kind of motors that pull 100-car freight trains in one gear from 0 to 90 mph, fit nicely in the space between the rear wheels leaving the rest of the bottom of the car for batteries. The two Tango motors actually produce more than twice the torque of a Dodge Viper V-10 engine.

So, in order to get the Tango to the mainstream as quickly as possible, it will require overcoming the obvious objections--primarily rollover and safety. As I mentioned, we've achieved the static rollover threshold of a Porsche 911. Seeing videos of the Tango racing around corners and parked perpendicularly on a 30% grade with people trying but failing to push it over should eventually sink in and convince people that its looks are deceiving. Even I, who know the rollover chrematistics well, was trembling when I parked it on upper Stanyan St. in San Francisco. It's a 30% grade with a stairway for a sidewalk. After rocking it with my terrified stepsister inside, I was finally relieved of my fears. It just looked like it would fall over. I wish I could display the photo on my cell phone here.

For the Tango to get a foothold so that the doubling of lane capacity can be achieved, it must have immediate advantages over a standard car. In California, Europe, and the Orient, lane-splitting is allowed for motorcycles, some of which are 5" wider than the Tango. The Tango is actually 5" narrower than a Honda Gold Wing from mirror to mirror. I've noted situations where traffic jams were so bad coming off of the San Francisco Bay bridge that the motorcycles were traveling in 20 seconds the distance that it took cars to travel 20 minutes--a 60 to 1 advantage. The Tango could have done the same.

So in philanthropy, one can give the golden egg, or give the goose that lays the golden egg. I believe that funding commuter cars is like the latter. It is Commuter Cars' goal to put 150-million Tangos on the roads of the world within 30 years or hopefully as little as 15. I believe that when the average commuter sees the benefit, enjoys the freedom and excitement of driving a Tango, that they will naturally gravitate toward a tipping point just as the Model-T and the PC did, and people will wonder how we ever got along without them.

150-million Tangos, possibly $3-trillion in sales, may sound like a lot, but it's only about half of the SINGLE-occupant commuters in the world. In the US alone, roughly 1/3 of the world automotive market, it would have the following effect. There would be a savings of $39-billion in retail cost of gasoline to consumers which would be replaced by $5.2-billion dollars of electricity at retail based on $.10 a kWh. It would also probably save most of the $17-billion in wasted gasoline due to traffic congestion. The electricity used may not all be clean, however, it could be, and naturally will be, as clean sources like solar and wind become more commonplace and economically feasible.

Best wishes,

Rck

Tango in winter

A few years ago, I was in Atlanta killing time and saw a fascinating video of a tiny car tearing along, kicking up dust and leaves, racing motorcycles, and parking perpendicular to the curb. The Tango by Commuter Cars Corporation is that car. George Clooney is a fan, as well.

Rick Woodbury, the Commuter Car Guy, became one of my LinkedIn links, and has begun sharing some information with me. When I wondered how The Tango might do in our more inclement seasons here in the Midwest, here's his reply (the boldface text):

On Apr 8, 2008, at 4:19 PM, Tim Ferris wrote:
Good stuff--would it be appropriate to share it with others by sticking it up on a blog or two, like http://realneo.org and http://save-our-land.blogspot.com

Sure. Go for it. Thanks

I like the fact that the car is way safer than a bike and has all its weight down low. I think it can adapt to bad-weather conditions here and further north.

Our first prototype handled Quebec's ice and snow pretty much like any other car with rear wheel drive. The Tango weighs 3,050 lbs and being very small for its weight can therefore push proportionately more snow. It's virtually unaffected by crosswinds even on a snow-covered road because of its tiny profile to the wind in relation to it's weight and center of mass.

For lead acid batteries range per charge will depend on keeping the batteries warm. If they are allowed to cool off to 14 deg F, they will only deliver 80% of what they would at 77 deg F. The following table is taken from Hawkers data sheet available at:http://www.enersysreservepower.com/documents/US_GPL_SG_001_0303.pdf

Deg F. Deg. C % of capacity 77 deg F. (25 deg. C)
77 25 100%
50 10 95%
32 0 90%
14 -10 80%
-4 -20 70%
-22 -30 45%
-40 -40 30%

The battery box is insulated which will keep the thermal mass of the batteries warm for a considerable time. There will be battery heating too so that if plugged in to a charger the batteries will stay warm.

NiMH and Li-Ion batteries have much better properties when cold. We'll publish their specifications when they're available.

Thanks again for your continued interest.

Best wishes,

Rick

Rick Woodbury Phone: (509) 624-0762
President, Commuter Cars Corp. Fax: (509) 624-1466715
E. Sprague Ave., Suite 70 Cell: (509) 979-1815
Spokane, WA 99202

http://www.commutercars.com

Claddagh Irish Pub Locations --minus Westlake

Claddagh Irish Pub - Claddagh Irish Pub Locations -- I was scheduled to attend a workshop at the Crocker Park Claddagh tomorrow.

Westlake
139 Crocker Park Boulevard
Westlake, OH 44145
(440) 250-8680

This afternoon, our sponsors left a message that the workshop would not occur as scheduled, since the Westlake Claddagh location was no longer doing business. Has anybody else heard anything else about Crocker Park's numbers or tenants? The link says the main office of this Claddagh Development Group is in Solon; I don't know if that's the only group that operates Claddagh Irish Pubs.

ramping up the dialogue: Adam Wasserman

Meet the Bloggers » Blog Archive » Twitter Updates for 2008-03-25--George is using Twitter now to "live blog" the MeetTheBloggers interviews. It's good to have this immediate input and posting of content, to be followed a bit later by the posts of people in attendance, like the Equanimous Philosopher, to be followed still later by the permanently posted podcast itself.

And, just as our methods for ramping up the dialogue continue to gain traction and speed, our new participants in the dialogue continue to show more promise and receptivity. The Adam Wasserman interview should be enlightening to many and give hope to all who value candor and truth in the public space. Adam has a refreshing perspective, and I expect George will have the podcast up soon; it was a good sit that needs sharing as quickly as possible.

I shrugged and said what the heck

Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism - New York Times -- I confess that I haven't read any Ayn Rand straight through. I tried years ago, and it didn't speak to me, so whichever work it was never got finished. Reading this reprise by the NYT, I think her writing might be a propos to the times we're in now, so I'll be picking up a copy of Atlas Shrugged soon. One of our very good friends down in Worthington tells us it was a seminal influence on his life and his career, and we think he's done a good job of balancing spirituality and money.

tax credits, restoration, and economics

i will shout youngstown: from one theater to another theater -- Here's something unique and refreshing: Our Youngstown friend Janco shows how the numbers might work on a proposed downtown theatre restoration by the partnership of Paul Warshauer of Grand Venues in Illinois and Lou Frangos of USA Parking in Cleveland. Janco's reporting works well because he uses pictures of the legal pad on which the rough estimates appear:

Let's focus on a few of the numbers:The idea, as proposed at the meeting was to utilize the basement, the main floor for theater, and the upper floors for two small modern theaters (editor's note: hopefully with a bar serving alcohol in the back). The first photo of these easel has for all of these components the square footage, renovation cost per square foot, and total cost. So for the individual floors, this would come out to:

9,750 sq. ft. $573,250 - Basement
9,300 sq. ft. $2,785,000 - Street Level Theater
1,950 sq. ft. $585,000 - Mezzanine
4,250 sq. ft. $1,225,000 - Upper Cinemas A&B

Thus the total estimate for the project is a total of 26,950 sq ft of renovated space, at an average of $216 a sq ft, for a total of $5,829,500. So this brings up a question . . . really the 5,829,500 dollar question: Who might pony up the cash for this project?

Well, as presented, here are some numbers:

20% - Federal Historic Tax Credits = $ 1,165,900
15% - Ohio Historic Tax Credits = $ 874,425
10% - The LLC of the owners = $ 582,950
5% - "Direct Grants" = $ 291,475
50% - Dontations from public, YSU, naming rights,corporate sponsors, etc. = $ 2,914,750

You can look at the picture for further information. I'm making no judgement on this one, just reporting the news.

"socially responsible" a hot issue; bandwagon gains momentum

The Global Roundtable on Climate Change -- One of our vendors, noted for being "socially responsible", has just directed us to this link. I also noticed this morning that John Kerry is trying to climb onto the same bandwagon Al Gore has had himself harnessed to for a few years now, and the whole situtation is getting interesting in how the bandwagon is picking up momentum.

On February 20, 2007, Calvert joined with nearly 100 organizations, including some of the world's largest auto, energy and insurance companies, in endorsing the Global Roundtable on Climate Change's groundbreaking joint statement: The Path to Climate Sustainability.

The statement, available in full online, advocates a broad-based approach to global climate change, including scientifically-informed targets for reduced greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions, a world-wide market for placement of a consistent international price on carbon emissions, energy conservation, use of non-fossil based fuels, and development of technologies for trapping and storing CO2.

The statement seeks a balance between climate conservation and economic growth, stating, "Confronting climate change depends, in many ways, on adopting new and sustainable energy strategies that can meet growing global energy needs while allowing for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations at safe levels." . . .

. . . Signatories of the joint statement beside Calvert include Air France, Alcoa, Allianz, American Electric Power, Bayer, China Renewable Energy Industry Association, Citigroup, DuPont, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, ENDESA, Eni, Eskom, FPL Group, General Electric, Iberdrola, ING, Interface, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Munich Re, NRG Energy, Patagonia, Ricoh, Rolls Royce, Stora Enso North America, Suntech Power, Swiss Re, Vattenfall, Volvo, World Council of Churches, World Petroleum Council, and many others.

If you'd like to endorse this statement as an individual, you can add your name to a list at NextGenerationEarth.org, a web site which gives people an opportunity to have their voices heard on issues of global well-being and environmental sustainability.

an explanation of tax cuts

Here's something I got from cousin Tom down in Zanesville--

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact, without questioning it. But what does that really mean? Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, the following might help.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day,ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men en; the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The first four men (the poorest) would still pay nothing. The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pays $5 instead of $7 (28% savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, PhD*
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

*Complete vitae available online. Contrary to Internet folklore, Dr. Kamerschen is NOT the author of "Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics." Additionally, he does NOT know who wrote it.

Hunter Morrison unchained

Meet the Bloggers » Midtown Brews: Hunter Morrison--I first became acquainted with Hunter back in the late 1970s; I was recently arrived back in town from Atlanta, a newly minted Realtor with a focus on older properties, hanging out with all the young visionaries promoting Ohio City, downtown living at The Park & The Chesterfield, the reintegration of Hough, Clevelanders for 1,000 Families (Garrett Brodhead), adaptive reuse, and all the other cool things that were happening in Boston and Baltimore. Then, Hunter fell silent for a while, but now he's back, and he's speaking the truth, embellished only by a happy turn of phrase every now and then. This podcast of our February 1st sit over at Webtego's conference room is something we all must listen to, and then listen to again. There's history, hubris, and a glimpse of the future of the region.

Mentioned are his directorship at the Center for Regional Studies, David Sweet, Youngstown State, George McKelvey, the Hough Development Corporation and Kucinich, the planning award garnered by Youngstown 2010, "co-convening," the condition of Youngstown prior (peeling paint, bad attitude, and no place to go but up), Urban Strategies out of Toronto, and the vision statement of Youngstown, which entails the extraordinarily liberating effect of accepting that they're a shrunken, small city. There's also the I Will Shout Youngstown blog, the European experiences from Newcastle and from Dresden, and the idea of dying and reviving cities aligned with the idea of dying and reviving gods in our culture, along the lines of Sir James George Frazier's Golden Bough. I think that somewhere around here comes mention of the old Cleveland networks and David Hoag, Alton Whitehouse, and Joseph Gorman, and a distinction made between the old hierarchical and the new networked structures. Then come Jay Williams, Tim Ryan, Alvin Toffler, and phrases like "a buzz going on," "anomaly of the comeback city," "take the dreams and boil them down to the deals," "you've got to celebrate your successes," "megapolitan areas," "the commutership," and what happens when "the 'me' gets replaced by the 'we.'" He also talks of Jim Rouse and Faneuil Hall, Hope 6, the exploitative history of milltowns and the steel industry, black boxes, identity, Volney Rogers and the first metroparks, intrinsic value, the concept that "retail follows rooftops," values, authenticity, being very siloed and very parochial, and Tim Ryan's basic question of "Who are we collectively?"

There's incredible value in this podcast. There's also passion, concern, and a bit of outrage. This is one of the more significant offerings of the MTB "portfolio"--make sure you listen to it soon.

how to be the safest city in the U.S.

Freakonomics Blog--Hey, I had no idea there was a Freakonomics blog out there, but there is, and there's great material in it! Steven and Stephen, co-authors, share the duties, and the result is reassuring. Anyway...

...I was reading Freakonomics last night and came across the section in which they relate that Switzerland is one of the safest places in the world, and on a per capita basis has more firearms than just about any other country. As a matter of fact, each adult male has an assault rifle for militia duty and is allowed to keep it at home. How do you suppose that would play around here?

Bear in mind also that the country of Switzerland acts as custodian to wealth that comes to it from all other nations. If we're the safest city in the United States, might we not also safeguard the money?

It might be good for economic development if we got our safety issues, our fiduciary issues, and our taxation issues all aligned to be extremely friendly to outside assets, and to keep those we have from fleeing to more favorable climes. Delaware, New Mexico, and Alaska do it--they've rolled out the welcome mat. Why can't we? Certainly we can't be in such dire straits that we have to tax everything still around us on our way to the bottom. Let's see if we can reverse the trend we started when we drove John D. Rockefeller out of town.

Gypsy Beans lives the life, walks the walk, talks the talk

Gypsy Beans & Bakery in the Gordon Square Arts District in the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood (Cleveland, Ohio)--I just clicked through the MTB ad network to this new website and was heartened to note, on their home page, that they're advocates of what Uncle Norm has tagged as "local production for local consumption."

Please note they also offer free wifi, but you have to ask them for access first. Only after that can you do what the suburban commuters do in Tremont: Go park in the lot, use the free wifi, and not buy anything from the merchant. We first ran into this freeloader, freerider phenomenon over at Scoops last year.

There's no mention of wifi on the Gypsy Beans site right now, but I'm sure that will be forthcoming.

if you get to talk about the money, you get to talk about everything

George has the podcast posted for the Jim Rokakis session last Wednesday, and Gloria, Jeff/Yellow Dog Sammy, and Wendell, and George, too, have already brought forth commentary to bear on the content and spirit of the talk we had. I think it's one of the better ones thus far, over the year and a half that MTB's been in play, but it can be argued that I'm biased, so you be the judge.

One of my favorite parts is where Jim recounts his running for county treasurer and getting comments from other politicians about why he'd ever want to have that job, where you only dealt with money. Jim's take is that, if you get to talk about the money, you get to talk about everything, and he does. Enjoy.

what goes around comes around: subprime stooge's karma's not instant, but quick enough

Tremors at the Door - New York Times--Two days ago, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis alerted us to this phenomenon as it had made itself manifest just across the Harvard-Denison Bridge, in the North Broadway and Fleet areas. The podcast should be posted shortly over at Meet.The.Bloggers. From a moral standpoint, this guy Dallas, the subprime mortgage lending company poster child, is, in my opinion, reprehensible. If this "hey, it paid more money, what would you do?" attitude passes for business ethics, we need to do a lot of re-tooling. Here's the poster child's whiny lament, now that HE no longer has credit:

...William D. Dallas, the founder and chief executive of Ownit, would argue that his company has become an early case of road kill.

In mid-November, JPMorgan Chase, which provided Ownit with money to make home loans, notified the company that it was in default and would lose access to a $500 million credit line by Dec. 13 because it was losing money. It had taken on too much debt and its net worth had fallen, according to bankruptcy documents and people briefed on the company’s finances

....For his part, Mr. Dallas acknowledges that standards were lowered, but he placed the blame at the feet of investors and Wall Street, saying they encouraged Ownit and other subprime lenders to make riskier loans to keep the pipeline of mortgage securities well supplied.

“The market is paying me to do a no-income-verification loan more than it is paying me to do the full documentation loans,” he said. “What would you do?”

we need to take care of our warriors

Cleveland officer investigated on claim he beat suspect--I really don't know what is at play here, but in general what we as a community need to remember is that, when we pay a policeman to go to war for us--the regular economy--against the drug economy, we need to support him as he uses his best judgment in an attempt to get our drug bait back. What does 5.5# of cocaine cost, and who pays for that if the drug dealer decides to play cute and keeps it hidden in his house? We paid the policeman to use bait to trap the dealer, and we also charged him with recovering the bait. Criminals need to understand that they give up certain rights and put themselves at unnecessary risk when they commit crimes and then fail to cooperate.

We must protect our warriors, first and foremost. We must protect our community. Those who work against the best interests of the community, who take from the community and make it sicker and weaker by distributing drugs and robbing people of their potential, deserve no sympathy from the court system. We need to write special rules of engagement when it comes to the war on drugs.

Chicken Paprikash Cook-Off

Upcoming.org: Chicken Paprikash Cook-Off at Studio of 5 Rings (Saturday, January 20, 2007), AT 7:00 pm TONIGHT. Gloria and I are going and taking our friend Ed, who may make the best chicken paprikash in town. George Nemeth may challenge. Be there.

Where
Studio of 5 Rings
2400 Superior Ave.Clevelad, Ohio 44114

Description
It's the middle of winter - cozy up with paprikash and fine wines. We'll even have warm, spiced German Gluh Wein to help shake the chills off. Make your secret recipe and bring your finished dish. No entry fee, but be sure to RSVP since space is limited. 7:00pm - 10:00pm
http://www.studioof5rings.com

link to MLK's "The World House" essay

In the title above is a link to Martin Luther King's "The World House." Here's a little bit more, below, about one group that promotes our knowing about it:

In the fall of 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, members of the Rhode Island chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) went on retreat to study the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and reflect on their relevance to those recent acts of terrorism. We read "The World House," the last chapter of Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, a book now long out of print.

This chapter, based on Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture, seemed truly prophetic and prescient. We wondered whether the tragedies of September 11 and a whole lot of other human suffering might have been averted had activists, scholars, journalists, religious leaders, and elected officials taken King’s message seriously. Dr. King's World House vision seemed to offer a paradigm shift away from nation-state thinking and toward a global Beloved Community — what King would have regarded as the Kingdom of God on earth.

Many of us in Rhode Island have dedicated ourselves to disseminating King's prophetic World House message, aware that it is virtually unknown to the American people and cannot be acted upon until it is understood. Working through such organizations as the FOR, the RI Committee for Nonviolence Initiatives, and the Rhode Island Peace Mission, we have produced materials and promoted the World House vision and agenda with members of the Rhode Island Congressional delegation.

We have constructed a portable World House replica to use as an educational tool in schools, churches, and with community groups. Our exhibit was on display at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for the Revolutionary Women 2004 event that coincided with the Democratic National Convention.

We wish to thank Dr. Dorothy F. Cotton, one of Martin Luther King's close associates, for calling our attention to the World House vision. "If you want to know what Dr. King would be doing today," she told us, "read the last chapter of his last book." We are grateful for the direction and support Dorothy has provided as we undertake this work. We also want to credit Nondas Voll of the Fund for Community Progress for the terrific idea of building a moveable exhibit to explain Dr. King’s vision.

As Dorothy reminds us, we accomplish this work only in community.

Norm on Ohio's new Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits

Give former Governor Taft credit for signing Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit into Law REALNEO for all--Our friend Norm Roulet posted this account of the new historic tax credits available in Ohio. It's a critical distinction to note that a tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar offset of taxes and is therefore more valuable than a tax deduction, which is a lessening of the amount to be taxed. This incentive can drive a lot of the restoration we've been needing to do around here for 50 years. It rewards us for placing the emphasis on preserving our heritage buildings, which we have in greater abundance than just about anybody anyplace else. I'm looking forward to using this on projects in the City of Cleveland these next few years.

I wonder if they have banks gone wild?

The Story of Ireland’s Economic and Social Growth - New York Times: Seems a lot has changed since my grandfather hopped the ship at Londonderry about a century ago. There may be lessons to be gleaned from the Irish. Should we chalk a lot of it up to literacy and schooling?

"A rote list of statistics is more effective than pallid drama. Consider: The gross national product of Ireland grew 400 percent between 1986 and 2004, according to the documentary. The work force has doubled. Only Japan is now home to a higher proportion of scientists and engineers.

Church attendance in Ireland has halved in the same period. The average number of children per family has fallen from to two from five. Google, Intel, Wyeth, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Apple now have substantial Irish divisions. Finally, 20 percent of American foreign investment is now committed to Ireland. That’s amazing. "

free at last, the final cleansing

Today, I threw out my old AT&T Yellow Pages and AT&T White Pages, dated July 2006. We don't appear in them any more and haven't used AT&T since our last major altercation with them, stretching from the summer through the fall of 2005, during which time we transitioned to Vonage. We've cut our bill by 2/3rds, even including the cost of the Time-Warner cable service to carry the VoIP line--it used to be in the area of $350 monthly. We kept one of our old numbers, the back line, but lost our main business line in the switch--AT&T got nasty and/or grossly inefficient, and we couldn't transfer a number we'd had for business purposes since the mid-1980s.