#big here

October 14, 2020  · We are excited to announce the speakers for Long Now Member Ignite Talks 02020! Welcome our Members and speakers.  Catherine Chalmers: Collaborating with Insects;  Allison Cooper: Activism as Futurism: Imagining Better Worlds; Danese Cooper: Change Agents (and How to Become One);  Jason Crawford: Instant stone (just add water!)  Stewart Dickson: Plastic Mathematics in the Clock;  Michael Garfield: Deepfakes & The Archaic Revival;  Quentin Hardy: The Great Dead End;  Asmara Marek: The Future of Storytelling;  Louis Metzger: Our future drugs will come from the oceans; Can we save them in time?;;Marc Pomerleau: Leways: The Story of a Chinatown Pool Hall;  Patricia Ravasio: Lost Visions of the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th Century;  Madeline Sunley: Art and Time: Axial Precession, archaeoastronomy, and marking a desert nuclear waste site for the next ten millennia;  Scott Thrift: A Longer Now

For our 100th post on Tumblr, here's one of the great texts about Long Now: the essay by Brian Eno that gave name to the Clock and our organization. "The Big Here and the Long Now" was written in 01995 before the Foundation was formally founded. Long Now existed only as an idea in conversation between Danny Hillis, Stewart Brand, Eno, Kevin Kelly, and others back then. Now we have thousands of members, the Clock-building is under way, and tomorrow we open our new public space. 

"Now" is never just a moment. The Long Now is the recognition that the precise moment you're in grows out of the past and is a seed for the future. The longer your sense of Now, the more past and future it includes. It's ironic that, at a time when humankind is at a peak of its technical powers, able to create huge global changes that will echo down the centuries, most of our social systems seem geared to increasingly short nows. Huge industries feel pressure to plan for the bottom line and the next shareholders meeting. Politicians feel forced to perform for the next election or opinion poll. The media attract bigger audiences by spurring instant and heated reactions to human interest stories while overlooking longer-term issues - the real human interest.

# 10 Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available.

I'm generously defining neighborhood as my whole watershed, and constraining myself to plants I have in fact collected and eaten from the wild.

1 - Ostrich fern Matteuccia struthiopteris, aka fiddleheads. Collected in early spring before the fronds are fully unfurled, sauteed in butter and eaten with gusto.  This is one of my favorite parts of spring (both the collecting and nom-nom-nom-ing) 

2 - Sugar Maple Acer saccharum, the tree tapped for Maple Syrup.  Normally the sap begins to run in late winter/early spring.  Having my own sugar bush is on my mighty life list (reminder to self to post that soon) 

3 - Common Cattail Typha latifolia All parts of this plant can be eaten, though I'm a fan of the new shoots. 

4 - Glasswort Salicornia spp. Available spring through late summer in salt marshes, though after the succulent pods turn red in the fall they are quite bitter.  Green is best for the pickle-y salty goodness.

5 - Dulse Palmaria palmata Best June to September when the tide is out.  This is seaweed can be found in the mid to lower tidal zones. 

I'm realizing an enterprising reader could determine where I live from these answers, but I doubt I have many enterprising readers who would be interested in such a thing.

#5 How many feet above sea level are you?

About 75 feet (or 23m)

#13 How many people live in your watershed?

I live in a watershed of about 244,753 hectares which is home to more than 280,00 people.  I live in the same watershed (but downstream) as the major source of drinking water for my city.

#23 If you live near the ocean, what time is high tide today?

11:18am/11:33pm