Welcome
I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking time to read the latest seasonal newsletter.
Revisiting the Mission
The Resource For Life dot com website continues to pursue the same mission established at the launch in 1997. That mission is to support those serving in public interest work.
A central component of the mission is to offer a life map to inspire individual reflection, growth and wellbeing in the core areas of life as shown below.
Those who engage in the activism of public interest service will be most impactful and have the greatest longevity if they maintain balanced wellness across all areas of life.
Simplified Website Design
In the first 20 years of the website, the design and complexity evolved. This made the site enjoyable visually, more difficult to edit, and slower to load.
The fancier full-screen magazine layouts looked great on desktop and laptop computers, but on today’s mobile devices and smaller screens those efforts and design enhancements were lost.
In recent years, the theme has been simplified. The focus is on text, images, and some videos. Complicated page layouts have been replaced with simpler ones, and fewer words.
My long-term goal is to express the entirety of Resources For Life in a book form available to download for free in Word, PDF, and eBook format. I’ve recently become a fan of reading on eBook readers and find they are visually much easier to work with than websites.
Primary Websites
Since 1997, the Resources For Life dot com website has been a combination of personal news, tech consulting information, and public interest resources.
In recent years, that same information is being provided across several websites:
- PERSONAL — The personal news has moved to my About Greg Johnson dot com website.
- PUBLIC INTEREST — The Resources For Life dot com website is a simplified and modernized web-based presentation of public interest writings and materials. A dot org version of the site is available in HTML for those with slower Internet or wanting to save the essential materials offline. Over time, the content will be developed into in Word, PDF, and eBook format downloadable for free.
- TECH — Information about my tech consulting services can be found on the Iowa City Tech dot com website.
- WEB — Website design support and services are available through the Iowa City Web dot com website.
There are a few other topic-specific websites. This is explained on the home page of the website, but is offered here for those who weren’t aware.
10 Million Miles
In December 2019, Google announced it had created an interactive 360 degree street-view of over 10 million miles of roads available with Google Maps. That is about 20 trips to the moon and back.
I’ve used the option on my phone that allows me to take a single 360 degree photo. It requires taking many pictures and stitching them together. Google has accumulated many millions of those 360 degree views. Imaging how many there are in a single mile of rural or urban driving. Multiple that by 10 million.
Google Street View provides a look at about 98% of inhabited Earth. You’ve likely used Google Maps, but perhaps hadn’t considered the significance of this accomplishment. From conception to creation to delivery, the cost and logistics of this are almost not possible to put a price on. Yet, Google has put a price on the service: Zero.
I mention this as one example of many where people serving in the public interest have access to tools never before available.
Another mind boggling advancement in the world of tech includes the M1 Max CPU chip released in 2021 by Apple that contains 57 billion transistors and can perform 22 trillion operations per second.
Seeds of Democracy
Gardeners and botanists know the conditions required for certain plants to grow and flourish. Some plants are more resilient than others. Soil, light, water, and nutrients are the key factors to consider for ensuring success.
The proper conditions for democracy to flourish are complex. Efforts to plant the seeds of democracy around the world have had varied results and outcomes.
Democracy in the United States has struggled in recent years due to the erosion of the conditions required for democracy to flourish. So, we are seeing a renewal among those working in public interest to restore the foundations of democracy.
More on this topic can be found at:
Same Game. Different Field.
Imagine playing a game of soccer, but instead of playing on a normal soccer field, you were doing so in sand, or mud, or deep water, on an obstacle course, or on a very steep hill.
We’re increasingly finding ourselves living and working in a challenged world. We have the same daily life and work tasks, but those are made difficult by adverse conditions.
In the past, public interest activism was like being an auto mechanic providing a regularly scheduled check-up for a vehicle in good condition. Small adjustments needed to be made. Checks of fluid levels, tire air pressure, and other vehicle vitals showed only minor attention was needed.
Activists would give attention to the variety of things one expects for a civilized healthy society. [See UDHR Web | Kindle] Incremental improvements would be observed over time. Humanity had mostly cured several large social ailments. Just as large forest fires being mostly extinguished, may have only a few smoldering embers left.
In recent years, a strong wind has rekindled fires of racism, sexism, antisemitism, fascism, political extremism, religious extremism, militant extremism, and violence. Those working in the public interest are no longer watching over a few smoldering embers, but trying to stop multiple wildfires that are rapidly spreading. This is happening in the context of increased climate-related disasters and economic challenges.
The next generation of public interest activists need to be better equipped and more insightful than those who came before them.
With these challenges and adversities in mind, the Resources For Life dot com website has had to adapt for better serving the needs of those working in public interest. This fall, some reports on advertises have been added to the site. They are listed on the What’s New page.
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Thanks!
I want to thank the global team of volunteers, contributors, and workers “behind the scenes” who help make all this possible. I’m very grateful to the many people who continue to uphold and advance the mission of Resources for Life. Thanks again for your support. Please let me know if there is any way that Resources for Life can serve you better.
Regards,
Greg
Greg Johnson | Director | ResourcesForLife.com
Web: AboutGregJohnson.com
E-Mail: mail@resourcesforlife.com
Postal: PO Box 2717, Iowa City, IA 52244-2717 USA
Phone: (319) 621-4911
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