This is an age, in America, when to see people teaming across an open space that is not a ball field, is to see protest — most likely on the news, in a far away place. New York, Oakland; Cairo, Tunis; Barcelona, Athens; Delhi. Or perhaps it is the bustling crowd under the sodium light of a parking lot, in the wee hours after Thanksgiving dinner has been packed into the refrigerator. Waiting for this year's must-have bargain.

Winter was once a midly depressing time for me, as it is for most: short, cool days, brown grass, bear branches. Obviously this is Texas not Minnesota, otherwise: shorter, super-cold days, car stuck in snow or sliding on ice (but the grass was still green - under the snow - and the branches would often have a delicate coating of the white stuff). Fractals and birds started changing me some years ago. This winter has only confirmed that.

Talks by 'Abdu'l-Bahá: The Spirit of Christ is a new arrangement of public and private talks, all previously published in Paris Talks and Promulgation of Universal Peace. Each talk mentions Christ; some are directly about Christ's teachings and disciples, while others are more generally about religion and the Prophets or "Manifestations" of God. Like a good mix tape (playlist), the arrangement here creates a beautiful and new experience: the reader gains a clearer and more coherent view of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's theology from these pages. This of course is an elucidation of Bahá'u'lláh's theology; as such, this new volume would make an excellent compliment to the study of the Kitáb-i-íqan.

The Sky Is Pink, from the director of Gasland, makes a potent argument that we need to resist ANY gas drilling, but particularly fracking with its permanently toxic benzene, toluene, etc. In middle school I recall writing a paper for science class, about sources of groundwater pollution in Texas. Improperly-capped oil and gas wells were a major source. I was able to find the scientific research there in my middle school and public libraries. This short film reminds us that a significant increase in the number of wells translates to a significant increase in the number of leaking wells that pollute our water supplies.

This past week's terrible storm out East provides a reminder of the importance of our ecological infrastructure; in particular, wetlands. The lessons that we did not heed from Hurricane Katrina will perhaps take hold with Hurricane Sandy impacting the nation's commercial heart: in addition to supporting relief efforts now, it is important for us to consider long-term mitigation against the impact of future large storms, which are likely to be more powerful and more frequent (dead link removed; SF 2025 removed; SF 2025) than in centuries past. Instead of, or in addition to, relying on massive levies, seawalls, and the like, we need to support public and private endeavors to restore vital natural systems.

We build a lot of console applications, and Windows services, that process inbound and outbound files in one way or another. Most depend on configuration data and some load (or unload) business data from a database, in addition to accessing the files. Testing these has always been a chore, to say the least: configurations change, data are deleted, and there's never enough time. After building a few rudimentary tools that have helped, necessity, and Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams, has convinced me that it is time to get serious about system/integration test automation, just as I did about unit test automation a few years ago. This is the first of a n-part series of posts on this process

On the one hand, fracking has been responsible for earthquakes and creates toxic water that must be locked away interminably. On the other hand, cheap natural gas is replacing coal and thus lowering the projected greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., thanks in no small part to fracking. Furthermore, it is one of the few growth industries in America, helping the economy recover from hard times. They say the earthquakes can be avoided by better techniques, but I have not heard anything positive about the water supply. In some ways, this feels worse than nuclear fission, which provides the POTENTIAL for nasty poisoning of the environment, whereas fracking by definition requires destruction of increasingly scarce (at least here in Texas) water.

Dallas Interfaith Power & Light will be hosting a screening and round-table discussion of the Nova Documentary Power Surge, on Monday, September 24, 7:00 PM. This film looks at the state of "green energy" in the United States and the potential impact of technology on softening the blow of global climate change. The event will be held at the Dallas Baha'i Center, 9400 Plano Rd, Dallas, TX (south of Walnut Hill, north of E Northwest Hwy).

In addition, participants of this new faith-based initiative will be presented with an opportunity to comment on the draft Mission and Principles.

Problem​

using Application Settings in a .Net project, you find that there are so many entries that some organization is needed.

Solution​

create custom, serializable data types for logical groups of settings.

In honor and memory of Mr. Ronald White, of St. Paul, MN, I set out this evening to find a documentary on the Ojibwe people and/or language. His story, as a part of that people, is not mine to tell (in so far as I know some miniscule part). So I will share this documentary. It does not sugar coat the past, but neither does it dwell on it. It dwells on the present and the future of the native language and culture of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other areas around the Great Lakes.

Two of many items that grabbed my attention and reflection: (1) opening comments noting how many people are concerned with the loss of habitat, but are not also concerned or knowledgeable about the loss of cultures. (2) "You don't have to say 'respect your elders' in Ojibwe - its built right in" — "elderly man" is "great being," and "elderly woman" is "she who holds together". Words for the sun and grandfather are the same, as are grandmother and the moon. You could ask "is the moon up?" and mean "is grandmother stirring?"

First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language on PBS.