The World Without Us

I just ordered a book entitled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, an “enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow [which] explores what little will remain of ancient times while anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like.”

The book and its author have been getting a lot of press lately, and not just because envisioning the future of the planet sans humanity is a fascinating topic for a book. Weisman even appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart recently.

Even if you’re not inclined to buy the book, the book’s website has a lot of cool multimedia that you can mess around with, including two videos: the first is a video slideshow of New York City without humans over the course of 15,000 years (I am immediately thinking about I Am Legend); and the second is an animation entitled Your House Without You.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more about the book, Salon has a great review. I hope to write a review when I am finished with it as well.

• Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics and CEO of Sojourners, presents us with his back to school reading list. 08/30/2007
• Apparently it’s President Bush’s theology that is keeping him so optimistic about Iraq. Your personal feelings on our President aside, this is an insightful read that raises some interesting and important questions. “The attempt to transform God’s promise of freedom through Jesus Christ into a this-world promise of universal democracy is the worst kind of ‘immanentizing the eschaton’ utopian [baloney].” 08/29/2007
• The Robbie Seay Band has partnered with Relevant Magazine to give away their new album Give Yourself Away. All you have to do is click the link above and sign up for a newsletter and the album is yours to download - for free. The album hits stores on August 28, so download it now and up your street cred a few notches. 08/22/2007

I’m an addict

74%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I laughed out loud at the final question of the quiz: “Are you planning on blogging about your addiction to blogging when you finish this quiz?”

• Pork Barrel: Political metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents or campaign contributors. Green Pork: New term describing the appropriation of government money to projects headed by campaign contributors which combat global warming. 08/20/2007
• Leonardo DiCaprio’s new movie The 11th Hour (IMDb) is a powerful documentary which makes the case that our way of life is totally at odds with the sustainability of our planet. “It tells us the truth that nobody wants to hear: that human beings, especially greedy corporate executives and their politician cronies, are responsible for putting our planet in serious danger. If things don’t change soon, life on Earth may not survive.” 08/19/2007
• Maybe our lives are controlled from some guy’s couch. “In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.” (thx, Tom) 08/14/2007
• Need extra cash? Become a Google Business Referral Representative. “You’ll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You’ll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. After the visit, you submit the business’ info and photo(s) to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center, and we’ll pay you up to $10 for each listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.” 08/09/2007

Listeners also bought

What do I have in common with Shakira? More than you might think.

Many of you know that my debut album, Dying Stars, has been available for download at the iTunes music store for almost a year now (see left sidebar), and every now and then I check to see if there have been any new reviews written (two 5 star reviews so far!).

Another feature that iTunes has is the “Listeners also bought” section on the right-hand side of an individual artist page. I’ve used this feature several times to discover new artists who have a similar sound as those to whom I already listen. For a while, this feature wasn’t available on my artist page, presumably because there weren’t enough downloads of my music for iTunes to compare with users’ purchases.

Well, now there is a “Listeners also bought” section on my artist page, and the artists listed aren’t exactly similar to my style of music. Listeners who bought the music of Jake Bouma also bought: Fergie, Carrie Underwood, Death Cab for Cutie, Akon, and Shakira.

Go figure.

• Here’s a cool map called The United Countries of Baseball that shows the relative land area that fans for a given baseball team inhabit. 08/04/2007

Who are you?

I’ve maintained JakeBouma.com for over two years now, and I’d like to get a better understanding of the demographic of my readers. This blog started out very humbly, and because I am now getting about 1,000 visits per month on average, I’d just like to collect a little hard data.

If you read this blog (even sporadically), please comment on this post with answers to the following questions. Thanks!

· Name:
· Age:
· Profession (if student, write school name):
· Location:
· Why do you read JakeBouma.com?:
· What’s your favorite feature of JakeBouma.com?:
· What is your least favorite / if you could change something, what would you change?:

Don’t be shy… comment away!

• I’ve been telling myself that I would stop drinking soda for a while now, and this list of 8 ways soda fizzles your health is a great motivator. “The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.” 08/01/2007

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