A friend made me aware of the Seasteding Institute, an organization that aspires to use modified oil-rig platforms as labs for experimenting with new governmental forms. My alarms went off when he said that some of the backers of the Institute are libertarians; concerns that were amplified by reading: Mr Thiel and his colleagues say their ocean state would have no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons. It sounded way too similar to the arguments that those rights many of us fought so hard for are just in the way of making money. Still, … Continue reading »
Aug 202011
Aug 152010
I attended a great permaculture bootcamp today. One of the instructors made a comment that got me thinking: There is a difference between eco-friendly and sustainable. So, on my walk home, I jotted down some examples of each. Then I remembered that the goal of permaculture is regeneration: A system that repairs itself and produces yields for a very long time (think rainforests…). Regeneration does not take resources from the system that it does not replace and, in contrast to sustainability, it adds or repairs resources. It is the goal of permaculture in the hopes of aiming for it, we … Continue reading »
Jul 242009
This must be the year of change… The US President rode into office on a platform promising change (although he seems to be forgetting that). So, in keeping with this change theme, I’ve decided to change my life, or at least my career. To that end, I am going back to school – a rather scary thing to do amongst the California budget crisis since the class schedule, for example, is being revised. Hopefully, the classes I want to take are still being offered when they’re done slashing… What am I going to study, you ask? I have been accepted … Continue reading »
May 252009
Watching “Enron: The Smartest Guy in The Room” now – in the midst of the financial crisis – is eerie. The Too Big To Fail banks are all over that one as well. Citibank, JP Morgan, Chase, Credit Swisse, the who’s who of banking loaned money to Enron without questioning, gleefully swallowing the crap they were told as long as they were making money themselves. It almost looks like Enron was just practice. The bigger house of cards was still to be built; only this time it brought down the world economy when the house of cards collapsed. But why … Continue reading »
The Pew Forum presents an interesting chart showing what people think about global warming: If it occurs and if so, what causes it. All this is broken out by religious affiliation. Overall, 71% of the US population agree that the average temperatures are rising but only 47% of the population (or two-thirds of people who agree with a warming trend) think that this is mostly due to human activity. So, one-third of those observing the warming trend think it’s caused by natural patterns. Apparently, they know better what’s going on than the experts… But fully 21% don’t even notice that … Continue reading »
Apr 132009
Last week, an ice bridge broke off in Antarctica. And at work, we started a new recycling program. Each day, I notice the recycables in the trash and the trash in the recycling bin. How hard can it possibly be to get this right? Sure, some things are confusing but what is more obviously recycable than newspaper?!? It is frustrating! The Antarctic is falling apart but people are too lazy to recycle.
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