Six Kickstarter Projects for Cities | This Big City
Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. It has funded a diverse array of endeavors ranging from indie films, music, stage shows and comics to journalism, video games and food-related projects. Urban enthusiasts and public spacemakers are also embracing Kickstarter to gather financial support for projects that enhance city life and raise awareness about urban issues.
Here are some Kickstarter projects from 2012 with an urban focus:
npr:
Rick Angood, Coudersport, Pa.
A new self-published book by Justin James Muir explores some of the gnarliest beards in America.
See more photos here.
*and also all of the proceeds go towards the cancer treatment of a friend without insurance. I want to meet this man and shake his hand.
dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel.
From June 9th to September 16th, Kassel in Germany will host one of the most important comtemporary art exhibition in the world, Documenta feature every five years the most important artists and thinkers. In the past they names such as Picasso, Kandiski and Beauys.
dOCUMENTA (13) is dedicated to artistic research and forms of imagination that explore commitment, matter, things, embodiment, and active living in connection with, yet not subordinated to, theory.
These are terrains where politics are inseparable from a sensual, energetic, and worldly alliance between current research in various scientific and artistic fields and other knowledges, both ancient and contemporary. dOCUMENTA (13) is driven by a holistic and non-logocentric vision that is skeptical of the persisting belief in economic growth.
This vision is shared with, and recognizes, the shapes and practices of knowing of all the animate and inanimate makers of the world, including people.
The exhibition in Kassel aims at engaging with a site and, at the same time, producing a polylogue with other places. (via)
If you want a full coverage visit Contemporary Art Daily.
For more information check out their Website, Twitter and Facebook.
The Banana Theory installation is two-part and revolves around the use of QR codes. The installation in the parade ground of Chelsea College utilises the existing grass square, which we will dig into to create a twelve meter squared QR code made entirely of grass and soil. The intention of this piece is to draw attention to our overall project and get people interested. The second part of the project involves the placement of smaller QR code stickers around the campus. When scanned with a smartphone, each code will take the user to information on the carbon footprint of that particular object on our website. May 16-27, 2012.
A secure seedbank located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole. The facility preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. The seeds are duplicate samples, or “spare” copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
Ahead of the herd - Wildlife photographer goes swimming with elephants
Using a floatation device hidden under his clothes, Chris Weston followed the herd into the tributary of the Zambezi River, capturing images that most wildlife photographers can only dream of. - Oliver Pickup (Wildlife photographer goes swimming with elephants to capture incredible images | Mail Online) via Grace Villamil /FvF NYC
![nevver:
Infographic: The Terrifying Threat of Alzheimer’s [more]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2dq56LKeB1qz6f9yo1_r1_500.jpg)
![I want to meet the staff writer who penned “A hunger for carnitas nearly led to carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint.”
curmudgeonlaine:
buzzfeed:
[The 30 Best Taco-Related Crimes Ever]
30. BEST. that’s how many taco-related crimes there are, it seems.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxlascBjbU1qz581wo1_1280.jpg)
I want to meet the staff writer who penned “A hunger for carnitas nearly led to carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint.”
30. BEST. that’s how many taco-related crimes there are, it seems.
Warren Buffet: “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich”
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
[…]
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
[…]
… I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.
But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.
My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.
This is wonderful.
Read the whole article if you have any knowledge of tax rates. The omissions from the text here are some of the best parts, imo.
(Source: sarahlee310)
