And now, Obama: The Diplomat

Obama Puts His Own Mark on Foreign Policy Issues - NY Times

If there is an Obama doctrine emerging, it is one much more realpolitik than his predecessor’s, focused on relations with traditional great powers and relegating issues like human rights and democracy to second-tier concerns. He has generated much more good will around the world after years of tension with Mr. Bush, and yet he does not seem to have strong personal friendships with many world leaders.

“It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower. And when conflicts break out, one way or another, we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.
- Barack Obama

Addendum 4/15: Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on the Middle East

This shift is driving the White House's urgency to help broker a Middle East peace deal. It increases the likelihood that Mr. Obama, frustrated by the inability of the Israelis and Palestinians to come to terms, will offer his own parameters for an eventual Palestinian state.

Mr. Obama's words reverberated through diplomatic circles in large part because they echoed those of General David H. Petraeus, the military commander overseeing America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the surge in Afghanistan, withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq due to begin this year, Special Forces operations (and drone strikes) in Pakistan - as well as new diplomatic pressure, movement towards international economic sanctions against Iran, and now this new potential strategy at brokering an Israeli-Palestinian deal, Mr. Obama is quickly reshaping American Foreign Policy in the Middle East. Call me a cynic (or a realist), but in each case it seems as though he is delicately scaling a mountain of kindling, and one match (or misstep) could ignite an inferno of flames.

Brooklyn Take Me In

The Avett Brothers have the heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones.

- SF Chronicle

Comprised of two brothers from North Carolina, Seth & Scott, who play the banjo and guitar, and a friend who plays the stand-up bass, these guys have something good going on.

Heaven is Whenever

Got real excited when I saw this pop a few weeks ago on their site, and Jack said they killed it in concert. Looks as though the summer 2k10 anthem is spoken for...

'Heaven is Whenever' - buy it on Itunes, May 4

The Hold Steady recently put the finishing touches on ‘Heaven Is Whenever,’ their new album set for release May 4th. Singer Craig Finn says 'Heaven is Whenever' is about “embracing suffering and finding reward in our everyday lives.” Piano and keys take a backseat to guitar on the new record, which also gets production help from guitarist Tad Kubler.

Recorded in several smaller sessions spread out over a long period of time, the songs on ‘Heaven Is Whenever’ received the benefit of being tested on the band’s recent tours. As Finn says this allowed them to “see what was working and what wasn’t. I believe this record benefits from us working at a more deliberate pace.”

What did he do?

London based indie-rock group One eskimO performing Kandi off of their most recent album.

I wanted to create a sound of my own:
magical, ambient, filmic, acoustic, beautiful and meaningful.
I wanted to write about how I felt about
life, love,
losses and failures,
highs and lows, even heartbreaks.

But also about how amazing human life is,

and how mind-blowing our very existence is.

- Kristian Leontiou, Vocals/Composer

Henri Cartier-Bresson

A Photographer Whose Beat Was the World

Rarely has the phrase “man of the world” been more aptly applied than to the protean photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, the subject of a handsome and large — though surely not anywhere near large enough — retrospective opening at the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday.

For much of his long career as a photojournalist, which began in the 1930s and officially ended three decades before his death in 2004, Cartier-Bresson was compulsively on the move. By plane, train, bus, car, bicycle, rickshaw, horse and on foot, he covered the better part of five continents in a tangled, crisscrossing itinerary of arcs and dashes.

In addition to being exhaustively mobile, he was widely connected. Good-looking, urbane, the rebellious child of French haute bourgeois privilege, he networked effortlessly, and had ready access to, and friendships with, the political and culture beau monde of his time.

Slide Show: Cartier-Bresson’s Modern Century (Lens Blog)

NY in a fortnight

We laugh until we think we’ll die
Barefoot on a summer night
Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

2 Train - you, my friend, have been Rick Roll'd

The University of Oregon's On the Rocks gives an unexpected performance of Never Gonna Give You Up on the 2 Train in NYC.

Wrong way going down the one way road...

Happy weekend, spring, rebirth of life, crossing of the desert, holi, sangha, etc folks.

wrong way going down the one way road
gonna turn it all around gonna back it on up

http://jbtserver.com/blog/

Ahmet Ertug

Turkish Photographer, Architect, Historian, and Publisher, Ahmet Ertug, began taking photos in the early 1970s, while studying at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. His photographs frequently focus on art and architecture, or subjects of anthropological and historical significance. In short, they're beautiful.

"[His] photography has a deep meditative energy and it withdraws the observer into the intellectual content of his subjects, ranging from the vast interior of monumental buildings to the silent gazes of ancient sculptures."

Check out his galleries:

http://www.ahmetertug.com/index.html

Blythe Solar Plant Signifies Bright Energy Future for CA

By Sam Houghteling, Apollo News Service

On Dec. 21, 2009, the largest thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the United States began its commercial operations in little-known Blythe, Calif. The new facility – located roughly 200 miles southeast of Los Angeles in Riverside County – was developed by Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar, Inc. and purchased by NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. The Blythe facility will help California meet its goal of generating 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. NRG has a 20-year power purchase agreement with the local electric utility, Southern California Edison (SCE), which guarantees that SCE will purchase all of the energy produced by this independently operated facility. According to Marc Ulrich, SCE Vice President of Renewables and Alternative Power, “Solar is the great untapped resource in California.” Southern California Edison estimates that the 21-megawatt (MW) plant will power nearly 17,000 homes.

While California continues to struggle with rising unemployment, the construction of the Blythe facility was a boon for local workers, employing 296 union members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 440 over the course of three months. This included 109 journeyman electricians, 129 registered apprentices, and 58 electrician trainees. According to Roger Roper, president of IBEW Local 440, the average base pay for union electricians is $35.50 per hour plus $14.00 per hour in benefits, with an additional $10.00 per hour in subsistence pay due to the remote location. Older and more experienced workers make considerably more. Project developers collaborated with the Workforce Development Board to hire local residents seeking work, which resulted in the hiring of 23 local electrical workers, including 16 from the city of Blythe itself. Furthermore, collaboration with “Helmets to Hardhats,” an organization that helps transition military veterans into the civilian workforce, put more than two-dozen electricians with military backgrounds into apprenticeships during the construction of the Blythe facility.

Currently, the only PV solar plant in the United States larger than Blythe is the Desoto Next Generation Solar Center in Arcadia, Florida, with production capabilities of 25 MW. However, the Blythe Solar Plant uses thin-film PV panels made of cadmium telluride, which have significantly lower manufacturing costs than traditional silicon PV panels. Though thin-film PV panels require a larger surface area to generate a comparable amount of electricity, they are more flexible, lighter, durable, and have a slower degradation rate than silicon-based solar panels.

While large-scale solar projects like the Blythe Solar Plant create some U.S. manufacturing jobs, more than 90 percent of worldwide PV solar panel production occurs outside the United States, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. America can reverse this disturbing trend and create high-quality manufacturing jobs here at home by increasing investment in the domestic manufacture of renewable energy systems and components through legislation such as U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technologies (IMPACT) Act, which would provide domestic manufacturers with the capital they need to retool to meet increased clean energy demand.

In a press statement about the Blythe project, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: “It is no surprise that America’s largest thin-film solar project was built right here in California, where my Administration has successfully created a climate where green businesses can thrive. It is forward-thinking businesses such as First Solar that will help California reach its nation-leading greenhouse gas reduction and Renewable Portfolio Standard goals, as well as create the new green jobs that will help spur our economic recovery.”

The rapid job creation that occurred at the Blythe facility bodes well for future solar projects. In August 2009, First Solar and Southern California Edison announced plans for two more large-scale PV plants in Desert Center and San Bernardino County. Together, these two plants will have production capabilities of 550 MW. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and 2013, respectively, with a projected completion date of 2015. According to First Solar and NRG, these plants will power 170,000 California homes, produce 1.2 billion kilowatt hours of clean energy annually, and will create thousands of local jobs.

With more renewable energy projects on the way, the commencement of operations in Blythe represents an important transformation occurring in the California energy sector, and a symbol of the bright and renewable future ahead.

http://apolloalliance.org/rebuild-america/energy-efficiency-rebuild-america/signature-stories-energy-efficiency/blythe-solar-plant-signifies-bright-energy-future-for-ca/