Happy (almost) Mothers Day!  (If you haven’t got your plans in place to celebrate Mom, you’d better get moving.  And sharing this video with your mom will be a great way to start.) Search for the Obvious, a microsite run … Continue reading →

As you've probably heard, America's space shuttle program is winding down. The Endeavor's last flight will happen soon (in May, it seems, but it keeps getting delayed). Then, in June, the Atlantis will make the final shuttle flight ever when it takes four astronauts on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station.

So how will we get into space? Eventually, the government wants private companies like SpaceX and Boeing to take over. But in the meantime, we'll carpool with the Russians! As Corsair Online reports, "NASA will use the modified $753 million International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation from 2014 to 2016." Like terrestrial carpooling, hitching a ride into space will save us cash. The average shuttle launch costs $1.5 billion. Riding with the Russians will be a comparatively cheap $63 million per trip.

With myriad financial pressures at home, and a host of private companies racing to establish a commercial spaceflight industry, space carpooling will allow NASA to focus on science and exploration while someone else watches the road.

Created By WellHome Energy Audits and Insulation Take a looksy at this cute little chart, if only to see how little progress there's been in fuel efficiency over the last 100 years. As you can see, we figured out how to produce cars that get 40 or so mpg some 60 years ago. And only in the last few years have we really started improving on that....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Carl Pope, the chairman of the Sierra Club, has a column over at Common Dreams taking aim at the myriad climate skeptic politicians who fail to see the link between extreme weather events like the Texas wildfires and more severe storms and global warming.Pope points out that these climate-related disasters are already hugely costly, and will only get more expensive -- yet leaders continue to deny global warming exists, then ask for federal assistance when the extreme weather events it makes more likely to occur rock their states. It's a good example of Read the full story on TreeHugger

Foundation Center requests feedback on its new strategic plan: The heart of the plan comes in the form of six strategic priorities: ♦ Connect nonprofits to the resources they need to thrive ♦ Empower donors with knowledge tools they need...

It's no secret that our country is in something of an energy pinch. Unfortunately, because of the political movement towards austerity and budget cuts, we're now going to have less data to help us understand that problem and address it. The Energy Information Agency is being forced to cut a whole bunch of its data, analysis, and forecasting programs.

As oil analyst Gregor McDonald put it, "there goes the data."

What does this mean exactly? Well, it's helpful to know how much oil we're producing and where the rest of our oil is coming from. I could have never told you, for example, that this idea of expanding offshore drilling to lower gas prices was a total canard without the EIA's forecasts.

The Oil Drum has a candid piece of commentary that sums up the sad state of affairs nicely.

So, here we are in a mess. Generally when you’re in a mess it is a good idea to understand what the mess looks like, so that you can work out how to get out of it. But now that information is not going to be locally available. Yes there will still be the information from the IEA, though it is not really comparable, and OPEC itself provides Monthly Oil Market Reports, but that is a little less independent than most, and does not cover the internal production within this country that is a valuable tool to indicate how fast we are approaching the next crisis [...]

At some point in the future, perhaps even that soon, politicians and administrators are going to complain “but nobody told us!!” and rush to blame the industry yet again. But the truth is, there was a group that was keeping the records, and who could tell those with the responsibility to fix it when there was a problem. And the Administration just closed it down. We will regret that lack of information and the warning messages that it would have brought.

The EIA wasn't perfect. As many have noted, there was a systematic bias in its oil price forecasting. Year after year, it predicted more oil would be produced than actually was, and that prices would be lower than they actually were.

But the data is still crucial. Our energy outlook is bad, but it's better to see the bad so you can address it.

Image (cc) from Flickr user jeferonix

Launched on Monday April 4, GOOD and Ford will be devoting six weeks to amazing organizations like this one that are redefining the way we live, work, and play outside.

Come back everyday for a new story about the people, celebrities, and programs behind each organization and learn how you can help take part.

And be sure to check in on Monday, May 16, when the the contest opens for voting! Vote for your favorite group up to once a day until Friday, May 20. The winner of the $50,000 grand prize will be announced on Tuesday May 24.

 

 

Yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, we asked our friends: Should Obama release Bin Laden's death photo? Why?

Andrew shared his views on why he thinks images from war should be released yesterday. Read on to see what our community thinks and, if you feel inspired, share your thoughts in the comments section below.

We ask a question to our Twitter and Facebook faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD or a fan, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Here's a sampling of responses from our Twitter followers:

And here is what our Facebook buddies had to say:

Want us to ask a question to the GOOD community? Tweet or Facebook your question to us.

Though practically everyone in America knows that you can't smoke in subways and office buildings anymore, for whatever reason, that hasn't cut down on the prevalence of those bright red "No Smoking" signs in places public and private across the United States. But while those signs mean well, they might actually promote what they attempt to curb.

A new study from Brian Earp at Oxford University says that no smoking signs have an "ironic effect" on smokers in that they force them to think about cigarettes and, thus, make them want to light up: "In a series of experiments, the researchers showed that participants who had earlier been shown no smoking signs were more drawn to smoking-related images such as ashtrays and cigarettes."

"When I say 'don't think of a pink elephant,' I've just put the thought of a pink elephant in your head," says Earp. "No smoking signs in particular are everywhere. If you're a smoker walking down a street you're likely to pass five or six of these signs in windows or on doors. If you have a chronically positive attitude to smoking this could boost your craving."

Earp hasn't done a followup study yet, but he theorizes that this ironic effect might apply to a lot of public campaigns designed to discourage actions: Don't do drugs, don't drink and drive, etc.

Sounds like you've got yet another reason to be positive. If you want people to smoke in your place of business less, don't remind them that their habit isn't welcome.

Remember when high school computer science classes were all about entering code into a desktop and hoping you did it correctly so that something (anything) would happen? Thanks to the Finch, a $99 robot born out of four years of research by Carnegie Mellon's CREATE lab, intro computer science classes might be in for a big change.

The robot is fully designed with the student in mind. It's undeniably cute—almost like an anamatronic Zhu Zhu pet—which is no surprise since student votes determined what the Finch would look like. Its technical abilities have also been road tested by both high school and college classrooms. Students love it because it's portable—the creators actually recommend that students be allowed to take it home to "play" with—and in a truly student-friendly move, it can interact with uploaded music and smartphones.

You can check out all the cool specs in the above video, but what makes the Finch really great is how easy it is to use. Even novice students can quickly learn how to make it say "'Hello, World,' or do a little dance, or make its beak glow blue in response to cold temperature or some other stimulus." And, in a move teachers will love, the Finch website offers some pretty comprehensive activities and assignments, making this robot a truly plug-and-play option for the classroom. 

It's been a rough week for those of us who still harbor childhood dreams of a career in outer space. NASA is about to launch its second-to-last shuttle mission and isn't even accepting applications from aspiring astronauts. Plus the hunt for extraterrestrial life is on hold due to budget cuts. But if you still think space is the final frontier, let this flowchart be your guidance counselor:

 

Photo credit: tsuda via Flickr/Creative Commons Yesterday I watched the U.S. House of Representatives shill for Big Oil again by passing a bill allowing more drilling in our waters with less oversight and accountability. At the same time, House leadership blocked a vote to end billions of dollars in government tax breaks for the industry. Meanwhile, the oil industry just posted billions in profits in their first quarter reports, with Exxon reporting $10.7 billion in profit, Shell raking in $6.9 billion, Ch...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo: Crystian Cruz, Flickr, CC The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center has release its list of the most pedestrian-friendly cities in the US, with 11 getting rankings from Platinum to Bronze and 8 more getting 'honorable mentions'. Only one city received the highest honor. Find out which one below......Read the full story on TreeHugger

I spent part of Wednesday at MIT’s Communications Futures Program, where the topic at hand was internet openness. Political scientist Shirley Hung opened the afternoon session with a discussion of “a different vision of openness”, looking at the Chinese internet. Hung suggests that the authorities who control the Chinese Internet believe their internet is open, [...]

I spent the past two days in Cambridge, primarily around MIT, and almost exclusively talking about the “Arab Spring” and what we’ve learned about social media and protest in authoritarian states. Early Wednesday morning, the MIT Museum hosted a “soapbox” session, which put Dr. Marlyn Tadros and me in dialog with Egyptian protesters and bloggers, [...]

To ensure that no more teens feel they need to end their life because of who they are, Google Chrome has compiled a video highlighting the It Gets Better Project created by Dan Savage. The organization began after a handful of … Continue reading →

Noah Hornik, an eight grader from Palo Alto, CA who is well on his way to being an entrepreneur, was deeply touched by the suicide of Tyler Clementi last September and organized a benefit concert to raise money for teen … Continue reading →

Pop goddess Beyonce has released a version of “God Bless The USA” ,originally sung by country artist Lee Greenwood in 1984, to raise money for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The track made its debut on CNN talk show Piers … Continue reading →

Check out this video featuring ChildFund International kids from Sri Lanka to India, Zambia to Ecuador, saying “I love you, Mom” in their native languages. It’s a sweet way to spend a minute before Mother’s Day, and you may learn … Continue reading →

Okay, maybe you think the Bay Area is as green as green can be. But it's still got problems. That old futon? It's been rotting on the corner for two months. Every time it rains? Rivers of precious rainwater are running straight out into the bay. Transit infrastructure is antiquated, plenty of the city's energy is wasted, and a large percentage of the population has crazy high levels of cancer and respiratory problems. 

So we're bringing GOOD Design, our program where designers all over the country solve urban problems, back to San Francisco, and this time, we're partnering with a dozen student teams from the Academy of Art University's School of Graphic Design. Whether it's a new vision for urban land use, an agricultural epiphany for the region, or an old-fashioned neighborhood vs. neighborhood energy smackdown, students have tackled seemingly intractable problems that confront the 21st century Bay Area, and confronted them with gusto. Join us to hear their presentations, congratulate the students on their hard work in service of their city, and see more than a few surprising ideas for the future of San Francisco.

GOOD Design SF + AAU
Thursday, May 12
6:30 p.m. Doors open
7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Presentations moderated by GOOD's Alissa Walker
8:30 to 9:00 p.m. Wine reception

The HUB SoMa
925 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Purchase tickets here.

GOOD Design pairs designers with city problems proposed by urban leaders, and showcases the solutions at lively public forums. Events have been held in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, at CEOs for Cities’ national conference, and in partnership with Art Center College of Design and Ringling College of Art and Design. To bring GOOD Design to your school or city, drop us a line at alissa[at]goodinc[dot]com

Perhaps recognizing that talking about Osama bin Laden's death with school age kids can be tricky for teachers, the White House hosted a unique 30-minute webinar on Thursday specifically for middle and high school students. More than 2,000 teens listened to Ben Rhodes, deputy assistant to the President and deputy national security advisor for strategic communications and speechwriting, explain the nuts and bolts of 9/11, the 10-year search for bin Laden, and the raid that ended with his death. Rhodes then spent 15 minutes taking questions.

Here are some of the questions:

Q. Why not capture bin Laden and put him on trial, like was done with Saddam Hussein?
A. He did not surrender, and the U.S. servicemen were met with "resistance".

Q. Why was he buried at sea?
A. "Best and simplest thing to do," given the 24-hour burial requirements of his religion, Islam, Rhodes said.

Q. What DNA do we have to compare his with, to make sure we really got him?
A. The DNA from multiple family members, Rhodes said, plus the CIA confirmed bin Laden's identity through photographs taken at the scene, and his wives also positively identified him.

Q. Why aren't you showing pictures of his body?
A. "The photos were somewhat unpleasant, and we did not want to offend people," Rhodes said.

The students also smartly asked what the White House is doing to prevent retaliation, the impact on what's happening in Libya, and whether the threat of terrorism in general is still the concern its been over the past few decade. Rhodes' answers are pretty cut and dried, and with such limited time, the webinar didn't get into deeper, more controversial issues surrounding Bin Laden's death. Undoubtedly, there are some students who want to know more, which (hopefully) might get them reading up on current events.

It's also great to see how media savvy the Obama Administration continues to be. Even a few years ago connecting with students like this would've been impossible. Just imagine, in the future, when major historic events happen, webinars like this might be easily available to every school. In the meantime, kudos to the White House for recognizing student interest.

With so many schools closing their doors due to budget cuts and declining enrollment, we asked GOOD readers to imagine a way to repurpose an abandoned school building so that the space once again serves the needs of its community. We're thrilled to announce that our winner is the "Farm to Table Urban Food Center" designed by "illustrator, designer, thinker, writer, and story-teller" Caroline Hadilaksono.

Hadilaksono tells us that since learning about how the food industry really works she's been feeling that, beyond reading labels and shopping for organic, natural products, there's not much "an average person like me can do to make a real, lasting, and pragmatic impact on the food crisis we're facing." As a solution, her urban food center idea creates "an all-in-one ecosystem for food, where members of a community would be able to grow, prepare, distribute, and consume food, all in one place."

The practical and innovative design is modeled on of the floor plan of her neighborhood school, Wilton Place Elementary School in Los Angeles. It includes an outdoor urban farm; forward-thinking indoor hydroponic farms and vertical gardens; a for-profit cafe, farmer's market, and produce store; and a nonprofit kitchen for feeding the homeless community. And, since the public does indeed need education about food, existing classroom space is used to hold cooking, nutrition, and agriculture classes. The design is so comprehensive and inspiring, after looking at it, you'll be asking yourself, how can we really make this happen in an abandoned school?

For her efforts, Hadilaksono will receive a GOOD T-shirt and a gift subscription. Thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations again to our winner!

Image Credit: Emma Alter I headed off to the farmers' market hoping for some asparagus, but not yet, perhaps next week. But what I did find where some wild leeks, otherwise known as ramps. This was exciting because for me, this is the real sign of spring. There have been recent articles about over-harvesting of this wonderful earthy plant. I was talking about it with Seth from Forbes Wild Foods, who is my leek supplier. We were talking about the increase in popularity of wild leeks over th...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: Andres Rueda/Creative Commons Love the idea, not sure it will succeed: Lawsuits have been filed in several states by climate activists, attempting to declare the atmosphere a public trust and force the US to meaningfully act on climate change. Previously such an approach has been used to clean up polluted waterways, but success here will likely depend on a judge will to break new ground....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Much of the focus on US government budget cuts and the environment have been on the EPA and NOAA. Now the Energy Information Agency has announced how much less they'll be able to do after having their funding cut 14% compared to last year. None of it bodes well for having accurate information on US energy reserves and the state of US energy usage more broadly. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

A new seven-member study group has been tasked by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to investigate the environmental impact of fracking. As the New York Times reports, the panel has 90 days to come up with recommendations to improve the safety of fracking, and within six months come up with advice for state and federal regulators on health ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo by NOAA via Flickr CC In the last few years, there has been an unexplained spike in the number of whales washing ashore. While the National Marine Fisheries Service has declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, it's more than just oil spills that are causing increased strandings worldwide. And experts are worried. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Pike Research Blog has an interesting post that poses the question of whether or not tech-savvy people also have a thing for cleantech. Pike Research conducted a survey looking into the question, and found interesting info about what draws consumers in to clean technologies. The conclusion: "Early adopters of technology represent a goldmine of opportunity for consumer-focused cleantech companies." Read their post for why. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Men in northern India lift the cover to a water source that now pipes clean water to their village. Photo: Rachel Cernansky I'm going to go out on a limb and assume most people will agree that Earth Day is a real let-down—for lots of reasons, including the hollow "Celebrate Earth Day every day" email blasts, Tweets, bumper stickers, etc. But as much as I hate the expression, we do have to recognize and reduce our impact on the earth more often than one day a year, and that's important to emphasize now that Earth Day is over and the talk has faded. What's the point of doing anything, besides going to the dentis...Read the full story on TreeHugger

This week on Inhabitat, we were really excited to take a private tour inside a building that was New York's first LEED Gold skyscraper ever - Hearst Tower! Even though it may seem like the city is rife with green projects today, back in 2006, NY didn't even have one LEED Gold skyscraper - that is, until Hearst Tower changed all of that. Today, the eye-catching blue lattice tower is one of...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo credit: Señor Codo via Fotopedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Who needs that dumb ol' EPA anyways? All it ever did was enforce the Clean Air Act, drastically reduce air and water pollution, save tens of thousands of lives annually, prevent an untold number of cases of respiratory illnesses, and generally make the United States a more pleasant, healthier, and cleaner place to live. So naturally, some senators have decided that we don't need it anymore, and are pushing ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo credit: US Navy Hey-o! Look who decided to wake up and make a little noise on the energy front. After getting pushed around by the pro-drilling crowd for the last couple years, Obama at least made the effort today to note that drilling for oil won't solve our energy woes. After all, domestic production peaked in the 70s, and the proven reserves we have yet to tap aren...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Fellows Friday is a weekly series on the TED Blog that profiles one TED Fellow each week. We have asked the Fellows to answer our question below to share their knowledge and advice with other social entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers who are coming up with big ideas that can change the world.

Volunteering at NGOs around the world convinced Peter Haas there had to be a better way to help villages develop. He co-founded the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) to empower locals to start their own businesses that bring clean water, electricity and sanitation to their communities -- and keep them there.

Sokunthea: There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What is one piece of advice you would give to them based on your own experiences and successes?

Peter: The most important thing is to spend some time actually working with other organizations to understand the day-to-day grind behind running an organization, before you make the plunge. It’s very easy to have an idea and to pursue it for two or three weeks. But when you have to actually take the idea and turn it into a sustainable organization, that’s where I see a lot of people’s dreams fall short.

Getting experience in day-to-day management of an organization, and how to build it and run it, is the most vital thing for the success of any social entrepreneur.

Read the rest of Peter's Fellows Friday post here.

Check out the photo highlights from the first day of the World Economic Fourm on Africa, being held in Cape Town, South Africa, 4-6 May 2011.

Today, the Berkman Center is relaunching Media Cloud, a platform designed to let scholars, journalists and anyone interested in the world of media ask and answer quantitative questions about media attention. For more than a year, we’ve been collecting roughly 50,000 English-language stories a day from 17,000 media sources, including major mainstream media outlets, left [...]

Energy Secretary Chu names a panel to study the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, drawing fierce criticism from some Republican lawmakers.

According to the New York Times there has been heightened speculation about the military dog brought along on the strike that killed Osama Bin Laden. The dog, a true canine hero, has not yet been named and U.S. officials have … Continue reading →

Organization: Villgro Foundation

Location: IN

The Villgro Fellowship is a one year program that builds social leaders. The program has been established by Villgro in lines with its mission of empowering rural development by identifying and incubating innovative social enterprises. In the last 3 years, 14 Villgro Fellows have brought sustainable change in the lives of the rural poor.

Vision:  The Villgro Fellowship aims to cultivate a pipeline of future leaders, who have the social commitment, leadership and operational skills to bring about sustainable change in rural India, using principles of social entrepreneurship, while filling a critical talent gap within Villgro's incubatee companies.

Who can apply?

Passionate professionals who want to apply their skills to practical solutions to create social impact. They have worked (usually but not a mandatory condition) in one or more of the following functions - Strategic Planning, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Sales and marketing, design, IT and Operations.

Post Fellowship, Villgro Fellows have gone on to:

• Work for social enterprises
• Study entrepreneurship and policy in schools such as Wharton, MIT, John Hopkins
• Consult social enterprises

Application process and selection process:

Visit www.villgro.org for details.

Application deadline - May 20, 2011

Fellowship start date - Sept. 12, 2011

Fellowship expenses and travel:

Villgro will provide Rs 25,000/- per month to cover housing, meals and incidental costs. In addition travel costs from your current location to Chennai and back by the shortest route will be reimbursed. Travel costs for Villgro related meetings during the fellowship will also be reimbursed by Villgro.

Read more...

Organization: Partners Worldwide

Location: UG

General Description:

Partners Worldwide walks alongside Talanta Finance Ltd., a small micro finance service institution, in operation since 2006, with the aim of providing micro credit services to the poor community at a favorable interest rate. It serves clients in war affected, high-density urban and rural areas of the Gulu district located in Northern Uganda. Talanta Finance is based on Christian business values and is a Local Business Affiliate (LBA) of Partners Worldwide. Its other activities include providing training, mentoring and access to capital to Small and Medium businesses, as well as micro credit and agricultural loans. The leadership of Talanta Finance partner with a Global Business Affiliate (GBA) of Partners Worldwide. The GBA provides international mentoring in specializations, encouragement, accountability, networking and fundraising support to Talanta Finance.

The primary focus of this internship is to assist in the improvement and implementation of Microfinance service delivery to the business community.

Qualifications/Experience: The Partners Worldwide Uganda Intern will be required to uphold Christian principles and demonstrate exemplary servant leadership at all times as a God image bearer; be prepared to work on tight schedules and meet deadlines; and be flexible and a team player. In addition, demonstrate ability to relate well with Partners Worldwide leaders in the promotion of God’s Kingdom through business development programs. Essential qualities for this position include: Mature Christian faith with an understanding of Business as Ministry; Compassionate, respectful of other cultures and emotionally stable; Fluent in English and sensitive to adopting other types of English; Proactive and able to work with minimal supervision as well as interdependently; Leadership skills; Intern or job experience in organizational development and program management; Intern or job experience in accounting, marketing, and basic business management; Knowledge of and capability to work with; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe, Skype (or similar telecommunications program) and Loan performer software (www.loanperformer.com)

Education and/or Experience: Minimum of bachelor’s degree in Accounting/Finance major or Business Administration is preferred; Minimum of 6 to 12 months of cross-cultural experience

Learn more at http://www.partnersworldwide.org/get-involved/internships/

Read more...

One slide at a conference places peak oil in perspective. It's a three century run with a precipitous decline.

It reminds me of Jeff Rubin's book Why Your World is about to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. As a chief economist and observer of global markets, he paints a scenario of rising prices and argues for a much needed rethink about our energy usage.

"Life as we've known it is up for grabs in a world of expensive fossil fuels. Expensive oil means a severe curb on the free-spending lifestyle that cheap energy has afforded us for some time now. It means you can say a long and wistful goodbye to the inexpensive products manufactured on the other side of the world. You may not love them, but they have been stretching our dollars for a while now and holding down inflation at the same time. You'll miss them when it starts to become clear that your pay cheque just doesn't go as far as it used to." (He is forecasting $7 a gallon for gasoline in a few years.)

Rubin provides an alternative,

"Not only must we decouple our economy from oil but we must re-engineer our lives to adapt to a world of growing energy scarcity. And that means learning to live using less energy. While much could go terribly wrong in this transition, don't be surprised if we find more than a few silver linings in the process, like a solution to carbon emissions, for example. And don't be surprised if the new smaller world that emerges isn't a lot more livable and enjoyable than the one we are about to leave behind.

Either way, your world is about to get a lot smaller."

Via NPR and Treehugger

An Argentinian magazine has apologized for a column by a journalist who threatened to rape a feminist activist in Buenos Aires after an international campaign led companies Lacoste and Fiat to pull ad campaigns from the publication. The Argentinian magazine El Guardián has apologized for a column by a journalist [...]

Spring is in the air, and spring foods are in the kitchen. Around the country, asparagus stalks have erupted from the earth. Rhubarb desserts have reappeared on farm-to-table menus. And strawberries are helping cooks and eaters forget about winter.

What are you cooking this spring? In our latest project, we're asking the GOOD community to send us your best original recipes using spring ingredients. We'll publish the recipes and accompanying photos in a slideshow and ask community members to vote on their favorite. Whoever gets the most votes will win a free subscription to GOOD Magazine and a GOOD T-shirt.

Once we've picked the winner, we'll publish all the best submissions in a downloadable PDF. Eventually, these submissions will turn into a chapter of our four season crowdsourced cookbook due out later this year.

the THEME
It's spring. Which foods rejuvenate you?

the OBJECTIVE
We want to discover and compile our community's favorite spring recipes. Steal Grandma's secrets or come up with your own. Oh, and take a picture of (or graphically depict) your dish as well.

the REQUIREMENTS
Please submit here.

Submissions must include the following: 1) name of dish 2) a short recipe (try to keep it to 6 steps or fewer) and 3) an image of the dish. We’ll take submissions now through May 28. Then we'll publish a Picture Show with a selection of the best submissions. We'll ask you, the GOOD community, to vote on your favorite, and we'll announce the Reader's Choice during the last week of May.

Need some culinary inspiration? Check out past installations of GOOD's crowdsourced cookbook.

Image (cc) by Flickr user Spree2010

Dave Arnold, the performance sculptor-turned-mad-scientist behind the Cooking Issues blog, recently went to California and visited Harold McGee. The two drank some tea—serious tea—with Roy Fong. Arnold writes about what he learned:

In Chinese, gong fu means “skill derived from effort and practice” and cha means “tea.” Gong fu cha, therefore, is the practice of deeply focusing and practicing the art of brewing, drinking, and enjoying tea. Here in America, when we are talking about this same sense of focus, skill, and training aimed towards kicking someone’s butt, we usually call it Kung fu—which is the same Chinese word spelled differently.

So, after his visit, Arnold turned his attention to brewing kick-ass tea. He steeped three identical glasses with hot water and tea and photographed the process over two minutes. The middle glass was not stirred, the one of the left was stirred slowly, and the right glass was stirred quickly, all of which goes to show that stirring your tea, at any speed, accelerates brewing. A baby step towards gong fu cha.

Photo: Dave Arnold/Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University.

I gave up on Facebook the day it kicked me off for using a fake name. I can't remember now if it was 2006 or 2007, but I do remember a Facebook support staff member asking me via email to verify that I was actually named "Snuffles Caulfield." I couldn't, and after briefly considering some mock letterhead, I thought, Screw this stupid thing, and that was that. Five (or four) years later, I'm still saying, "Screw Facebook." The only difference is that I'm in the minority. According to a study released yesterday, 51 percent of Americans over the age of 12 now use Facebook, and the site is gaining strength around the world. That makes me a dying breed, a unicorn of the digital era. Still, I refuse to give in, and if you've held out this long, I suggest that you join my abstinence. (Full disclosure: I signed up for a new Facebook account whilst drunk at a party in 2009, but after logging out that night I forgot the password and haven't been back since.)

Facebook is one of the most ingenious time-sucks known to man. I'm fully willing to admit that I'm not above looking at the vacation pictures of every single crush I've ever had, and all while on deadline at work, but that's why I don't give myself the temptation. The Internet outside of Facebook is an endless black hole of procrastination opportunities; toss in the chance to wallow in schadenfreude while staring at dozens of pictures of your ex's lame new significant other, and it's a wonder anything gets done at all anymore.

And speaking of lame people, who in their right mind wants to open up their lives to everyone they meet or, worse yet, met decades ago? I was a totally different person back in high school—a worse person, I think—and the idea of having to field friend request from some of the guys with whom I associated back then terrifies me. And yes, I know that Facebook's enhanced privacy settings prevent most unwanted nosiness, but you still get to snoop around your friends' friends lists, and that opens up a whole world of agony if you're friends with even a few people from years past. Maybe this wouldn't be a problem if I weren't such a coward afraid of hurting someone's feelings, but I am. The very thought of ignoring a friend request makes me cringe.

Of course all those complaints are peanuts when you begin to think about the real privacy concerns associated with Facebook. To begin with, Facebook owns the data that you upload to the site. In fact, it outright tells you that it gets to use your pictures and videos "royalty-free" on its terms of service page. What's more, even if you delete your account but you've shared your intellectual property with someone else who hasn't deleted it, Facebook maintains rights over it.

This policy stands in stark contrast to several of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's more idealistic statements. Consider this one from a 2010 60 Minutes interview: "When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power."

Power to the people, however, seems to be the last thing on Zuckerberg's mind these days.

Facebook has come right out and said that it is "allowing too much, maybe, free speech" in autocratic nations, thereby making itself more attractive to the brutally authoritarian Chinese government. Facebook has also made it a goal to deceive users into sharing more information than they think they're sharing. This is the real  reason Facebook is worth more than $50 billion. It's so damn valuable because it harvests user information in order to court advertisers and developers, who exist only to sell you stuff. Probably the best explanation of Facebook, and the best explanation for why Zuckerberg is such a rich man, came from a Metafilter thread last year: "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."

That's Facebook in a nutshell. A place for friends, sure. But pull back the curtain and it's a place for getting people ages 13 and over to willingly offer up the most direct ways to sell them things. It's like being at a big party with all your friends but then realizing that the party is really a Pizza Hut focus group. And also, any pictures you take at the party are owned by the focus group forever. Sound fun to you?

Yeah, it sucks that I miss out on Facebook invitations to things from time to time. And I'm probably ignorant of about 5,000 funny jokes that have been made on various friends' walls over the years. Still, I can't help but think that there's a lot of value in not offering up my life as a good to be bought and sold by major corporations. When I hang out with my friends, I do so because I love them, and also because they let me momentarily escape advertising, greed, and duplicity. If I'm ever in the mood for more of that, I'll be sure to sign up for Facebook.

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