Buttons is a camera that takes someone else’s picture. When you click the shutter, it records the exact time you pressed the button and searches Flickr for other photos taken at that same time. Eventually (when a photo with the right time stamp is uploaded) Buttons displays your photo. Random, meaningful links: it’s the future of community.

If, as as some predict, the scarce resource of the future will be fresh water, there’s an awful lot of urban paving that could one day collect and purify rain water.

The United States has always wielded a big stick and a big carrot in the Western hemisphere, but lately Hugo Chavez has been defying the stick and offering bigger carrots. Whether this is anomalous or a sign of realignments in the Americas we’ll have to wait to see.

Michael Kinsley believes traditional newspapers should view the Internet as an opportunity, not a threat. The rise of the blog as a source of news (although generally not the source) should be seen as a sign that there’s room for personality and individuality in news. “…An intelligent person, paid to learn about some subject, will naturally develop views about it. [It is] more truthful to express those views than to suppress them in the name of objectivity.”

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is starting an investment fund for renewable energy with an expected $1 billion. It ain’t all altruism: renewable energy may not be the highest return investment at the moment, but it’s a safe bet there’s money to be made there.