http://mark.laabs.net Social enterprise, travel, and a bit of politics Fri, 07 May 2010 03:06:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I just returned from a fantastic adventure in the Malaysian jungle with good friend and fellow Tarheel J.J. Raynor.  She wrote an account at http://longwayforatarheel.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/welcome-to-the-jungle/ that I will repost here for convenience of readers: "Taman Negara, the largest national rainforest reserve in Malaysia, was one of the few remaining adventures ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=284 Yesterday afternoon, I was tired.  Very tired.  It was the kind of bone-weariness that comes when you have a straight week of late nights for work but where the morning still come just as early.  Yeah, that's right, tired. As a result, I was a hair's width of backing out of ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=282 Through a status update by J J Raynor (who is doing fascinating work in Malaysia these days, by the way), I came across walkscore.com. It fills you with the same sort of fascination as zillow.com did when it first came out.  Essentially, it looks up all sorts of restaurants, gyms, transit ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=278 Over the years, I have grown to be quite an admirer of Apple.  From a company that seemed to be fighting on the edge of marginalization a decade ago, Apple has, in the relative blink of an eye, been a critical part of revolutionizing not one, not two, but three ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=273 I cannot believe it took a Hollywood film to lead me to discover it, but this poem that Mandela carried with him on Ellis Island stands up in my mind aside Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech as one of the most powerful messages of courage in the face ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=262 I am excited to see maps like this beginning to come out.  It makes things a little bit more tactile. However, this particular one gives me mixed feelings.  It is riddled with "could" and "might"; however, it does not effectively present evidence of likelihood.  As a result, I fear it comes ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=258 Like pretty much everyone I've spoken to (and seemingly Obama himself), I thought the recent Nobel Prize announcement was rather inappropriate.  In that light, I thought this alternate theory was pretty fun. [caption id="attachment_255" align="alignnone" width="540" caption="Slowpoke by Jen Sorensen"][/caption] http://mark.laabs.net/?p=253 Scary statistic: the proportion spent on housing is significantly higher in London. [caption id="attachment_250" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Visual Economics brings numbers from The US Bureau of Labor Statistics to Life"][/caption] http://mark.laabs.net/?p=249 Even if I weren't in the midst of Shanghai's high-rises, I'm pretty sure I would still find this photo absolutely stunning... [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="509" caption="Yosemite in Winter on an amazing morning, taken by a great photographer."][/caption] http://mark.laabs.net/?p=244 I have just returned to Jerusalem from Ramallah where I spent the afternoon having a 4th of July barbeque with an old friend from UNC, Brian Phelps.  Even amidst the great beaches and nightlife of Tel Aviv and the history and spirituality of Jerusalem, I think it is likely to ... http://mark.laabs.net/?p=239