Amy and Miles are on vacation (I’m joining them in a few days), and I’ve been getting regular emails from Miles (he dictates them to Amy). His imagination blows my mind. Here’s a sample:

You know what? Last night when me and Jon were playing soccer, and we were playing a different kind of soccer. When someone, I mean, just someone puts on a disguise, so the person, I mean the other person, thinks you’re like a tree or something, so they try to kick the ball, but then the person jumps out of their disguise, and then, the person kicks the ball. I love you 100 times. HA! YEA! I hope you turn into a duck, so you can swim to Minnesota, and then turn back into a person, so you can be my dad again. Anyway, I hope you think of cuckoo songs and play funny games like smooshing a ball into your ear and then pulling it out the other side. And I hope you climb to the top of the state temple and eat the moon up, so me and my master Patrick can punch a hole in a boat, so the captain will sink, and they will blast out the other side of the state temple. That’s all.

I love you, and I hug you, and I smoosh you, and I beat you up in a really perfect way that might look like I’m cleaning you up with a soapy sponge. I love you. Goodbye, see you next time.

Several years ago, when Birdhouse Hosting was young, I was researching the market to find a reliable datacenter that was entirely powered by renewable energy sources. I did find a few, but none working at the scale I was looking for (some didn’t have 24×7 monitoring and support; others did, but didn’t provide cPanel licenses). I ended up going with ServInt, and have been extremely happy with their reliability and support.

Today got some exciting news: ServInt has just announced that their whole VPS operation has gone not just carbon-neutral, but climate positive:

ServInt’s commitment to climate-positive hosting applies to its entire line of Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting services. Each of ServInt’s VPS services is backed by a commitment to offset the total carbon-footprint of the VPS by at least 110 percent. ServInt accomplishes its carbon-offsetting goals through large-scale reforestation campaigns operated by American Forests (www.americanforests.org).

To ensure a truly climate-positive approach, ServInt calculates its reforestation commitment not only on the energy consumption of the host servers, but on its entire VPS infrastructure. That includes compensating for all core routing and switching equipment, for cooling and redundant power operations, and for an extensive back-LAN that provides customers with free backups and centralized update repositories.

A gay friend writes:

In November, when we vote for the president, there will be a ballot initiative in California in which we will be able to vote on whether or not to amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. I think it’s ironic that on the same ballot I will be able to vote for the first black president of the United States, which represents an expansion of civil rights, as well as a ban on same-sex marriage, which represents a contraction of civil rights. Nonetheless, it is heartening to know that for at least 20 weeks I will be an equal resident in California.

I don’t quite agree that having a black presidential candidate represents “an expansion of civil rights” (that right has been present for decades, though the social fabric to make it a practical reality has not been), but I see what he’s saying, and it does underline the “two steps forward, one step back” pattern of social progress.

By the way, if anyone reading this can posit a rational (i.e. non-religious) argument against gay marriage, please post it here — I’d love to hear it.

After a waffle breakfast with friends, spent Father’s Day with Miles and Amy at Redwood Regional Park, hiking down to the valley floor to get up close and personal with giant old growth redwoods. Not quite Muir Woods scale, but utterly spectacular. Found a small handful of geocaches along the way, including one locked deep inside a cow femur, which just added to the “dinosaurs have walked this path” atmosphere of the day. At one point near the valley floor, just a few dreamy rays of light were left penetrating to the forest floor. Miles started to get scared, convinced there were ghosts in the trees. Ascending 1,000 feet or so out of there was a much-needed workout, rewarded with eventually walking up and out of the canopy into broad daylight.

Later quenched our appetites at a local sushi bar — a landmark moment for us to be able to go to a restaurant without a kids menu. Stuffed myself on crab and avocado, then chili-infused dark chocolate (didn’t get the chocolate-covered ants I had wanted, but lightly salted Aztec Chili chocolate tiles are complex and dreamy). A glorious day. I love my family.

Three weeks ago, Amy came home to find a rear window of our house smashed, our house ransacked. Missing were my GPSr, a couple of digital cameras, a video camera, and two of Amy’s film cameras, including an old two-lens Mamiya and the Nikon FE2 she did her master’s thesis work on. Left behind, strangely, were a couple of Nerdz wrappers and an English class assignment to read two Shakespeare books this summer. We were sure the heist was done by some local high school kids. El Cerrito police dusted for fingerprints, took a report, and that was that. We never expected to get anything back, and started the insurance process.

A few days later, I realized my checkbook had also been stolen. Immediately checked my online banking and found that, sure enough, a check had been cashed, my signature forged. Since Wells Fargo showed a clear scan of the thief’s name and writing, I forwarded it to the police and called the bank to find out where and when it was cashed. The cop was then able to obtain surveillance footage of the actual “guy” from the ATM where it happened. Wow - a break! But then, two weeks of nothing.

Yesterday, got a call from the PD informing us that they had obtained a warrant, searched the perp’s house, and retrieved Amy’s two film cameras. Interesting that analog gear was the only stuff “he” couldn’t fence. And there was an extra twist - the perp was apparently a very large black transsexual in the midst of hormone treatments, now in custody. Life is so weird.

This morning we traipsed down to the department so Amy could I.D. the two cameras and Miles could get his first jail cell tour (pix of him behind bars unfortunately didn’t work out). But I did get a good shot of the inside of a drunk tank (complete with floors you can hose down in the morning). And of Amy walking out of the department, jubilant with her much-loved film cameras.

Just amazed we got anything back at all. Huge props to the El Cerrito PD for following up so thoroughly, and for caring!

Stunning example of “a picture is worth a thousand.” From the United Nations Environment Programme, this amazing graphic (click for larger):

Update: Got a nice link-in on this from Wired Blogs writer Alexis Madrigal, who expands on the graphic with more information.

Amazing day with family yesterday. Up early to join a friend of the family for a two-hour tour of San Francisco Bay on his sailboat. Miles first time sailing, and I hadn’t been on a sailboat in years. Perfect blue sky, 15-knot winds, and a chance to re-learn the difference between a jib and a jibe, a tack and a hank. What a way to start a weekend. Thanks Louis B.! Flickr set, includes a little video of Amy at the helm.

After a quick BBQ lunch, off to the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art for matinee performance of Thundermouth, part of the 6th Annual Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival. Thundermouth was an idea Matthew had had when he was alive - to roll out a giant sheet of butcher paper and let members of the audience write improvised poems. The band, also improvising, would then have one or more singers singing the lyrics as fast as they could be written - sort of improv karaoke. Great to see this idea of Matthew’s finally made real, and a perfect concept for a kids’ matinee. Flickr set here. We still miss you Matthew!

Later, perfected my orange julius recipe.

Gearing up for another big week of webcasting, as we prepare to guide another group of visiting journalists through a week-long new media technology bootcamp. As always, we’ll have a bunch of great speakers during lunches and dinners, and those presentations are open to the public. Can’t make it to Berkeley? Check out the live webcasts. Especially Looking forward this week to Chad Dickerson of the Yahoo! Developer Network, and Richard Koci Hernandez, deputy director of photography for the San Jose Mercury News.

Salon has an interesting interview with author Elizabeth Royle about her new book Bottlemania, which dissects the bottled water industry from top to bottom. For Royle, it’s not as simple as “Bottled war evil, tap water good.” She recognizes that not all regions can get good drinking water from the tap (but most do), and she recognizes that most bottled water is not in fact “just filtered tap water,” as is commonly claimed (well, it is, but the filters used by Coke and Pepsi are more sophisticated than the home filters that consumers have access to). That said, Royle has seen the bottled water from the inside out, and sees a corporate manipulation of the culture on the road to making bottled water seem almost normal and OK. The idea that water from public fountains is “filthy” or not to be trusted, the idea that you risk ingesting pharmaceuticals or other toxins if you drink tap water, the idea that Fiji water (actually imported from Fiji!) can offset the huge carbon footprint of shipping water across the water by buying carbon credits… she sees through it all. Sounds like a good summer read.

I don’t know what it is about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that makes me feel so profoundly sad. Actually, I do. Just a century plus change since the industrial revolution, and the oceans, which have existed in perfect, bounteous balance for billions of years, have become a garbage dump - and not the kind we can build a baseball field on top of.

100 million tons of plastic now swirl in the vortex — so much plastic that samples show plastic particles outnumbering zooplankton by a ratio of six to one.

This plastic ends up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. In fact, one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die globally each year due to ingestion of or entanglement in plastics.

I like the way care2 is running this petition. Rather than yet another unanswerable call to law-makers, it’s a pledge to become conscious. To notice the plastic you’re consuming that might be avoidable… and to avoid where you can.

• Using reusable bottles for my water and other drinks. By using just one reusable bottle, I will keep 167 single-use plastic bottles from entering the environment.
• Using cloth bags for groceries and other purchases. For each reusable bag I use, I will save approximately 400 plastics from being used.
• Recycling the plastic bags and bottles I already have. For every thirteen plastic bags I don’t use, I will save enough petroleum to drive a car one mile.

Remember: In the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle hierarchy, Reduce comes first.

Update: Definitely check out this cnet piece on a pair of sailors traveling from CA to Hawaii in a junk made of junk. Also some staggering facts in that piece, which pegs the plastic/plankton ratio at 48/1.

Oops. The Straight Talk Express just got derailed:

For realsies? Is McCain really the best the ‘publicans could come up with?

Via sotrue

Imagine traipsing down the trail with 200 lbs. of extra weight… and not feeling it. Better: Imagine being paralyzed, and suddenly able to walk. Human exoskeletons are a reality.

Berkeley Bionics has spent the last several years developing and working to perfect their exoskeletons, which augment both a person’s lifting strength and endurance. With the HULC device, a person can carry up to 200 pounds without seriously impeding their mobility while using up to 15 percent less oxygen to bear the weight, increasing the length of time a person would be able to haul such a load.