First off, I just wanted to say thanks to all of the people I’ve run into the past few weeks through Facebook, Twitter, and out and about round the area the past few weeks. I’ve reconnected with some old friends and classmates and met some interesting guys and gals out playing. Thanks for all those compliments everybody! I’ll do my best not to let you down.

This weekend, Hampton becomes the land of patchouli and psychedelics as Phish comes to the Hampton Coliseum, AKA The Mothership, for three days as part of their show since breaking up 4 1/2 years ago. I noticed a few hippies and dreadheads out at Marker 20 last night, and I’m sure there will be thousands of them in the area this weekend. The band and the fans couldn’t have gotten luckier with the weather, as Monday’s snow and ice has melted into lovely 70 degree weather. The city of Hampton has even turned the Pembroke Ave. baseball field into a temporary campground for the weekend. Also, judging by the Twitter traffic for #hampton and #phish, this is going to be an epic weekend on the Peninsula.

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 – This Mother Jones article talks about some of the challenges with industrial food production and how so-called organic farming is not the solution. The problem is that the organic movement is not scaling well, and may even be doing more harm. It looks like something new is going to be required. My bet: it involves eating a lot less meat and processed food and growing as much as you can in home gardens.

Time For a New ‘New Deal’ by Marshall Auerback of the University of Texas, “mainstream economics and policy have been unable to come to grips with our current socio-economic problems because of a lack of historical memory.” This is for the next time someone puts down what Obama is trying to do with the stimulus bill by arguing that FDR made the Depression worse.

Relatedly, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman was on the Cobert Report earlier this week, plugging his new book, Eating Consciously. Here’s the Hulu clip of the interview. Mark’s one of my favorite food authors next to Michael Pollan. Mark is a vegan until dinner; he believes that reducing our meat consumption is the best way to improve our health and the environment. He also cooks like a motherfucker.

H+ Magazine
The latest version of the quarterly transhumanist magazine is out. I would like to recommend this to anyone who is not familiar with the singularity or the concept of accelerating change. This is where the future is headed and I think it would be in your best interest to get acquainted with some of the concepts now. This issue addresses a slew of topics in short one or two page articles that you can skim over quickly: nanotechnology, renewable energy, post-scarcity society, and much more, including  an interview with Vernor Vinge, the man who first defined the singularity.

And a couple others that I twittered earlier this week and feel the need to repost here.

‘There will be blood’ Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson predicts prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession’ ends

If you are a fan of HBO’s The Wire, you’ll want to read this Washington Post article from the series creator, David Simon:  In Baltimore, No One Left to Press the Police

That’s it for now, hope you find the reading informational and entertaining. I’ll be spending this weekend working on my Honey-Do list, so hit me up on Twitter or Facebook if you want to chat. Have a great weekend!