Hines Farm Blog

Joel Salatin: Preaching to the Choir

2012-02-11T01:27:00.000-06:00

Video Direct Link: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/6471/Joel-Salatin--Preaching-to-the-Choir

Video - Informative - Thought Provoking - Entertaining !!!
Comments - Discussion ? Monte

Related Link: http://www.permies.com/t/12703/farm-income/Joel-Salatin-Preaching-Choir#115069

Joel Salatin: Preaching to the Choir : Director: Russian River TV | Producer: Russian River TV Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Story Teller's Country: United States
Tags: United States, Americas, Environment, Farming

Synopsis: In “The Omnivore's Dilemma”, Michael Pollan introduced us to Joel Salatin, a farmer who's been practicing a complex form of rotational grazing in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. In the past few years Joel has become a folk hero in certain circles of farmers seeking to challenge the conventional agribusiness model. We read as much as we could about Joel's Polyface Farm, and got to wondering how his methods would translate to Sonoma County's different climate. We have to admit, we sort of stalked Joel's schedule for a while, spying a little item that read “private farm consultation, Sonoma, March 17”. After some detective work, we discovered that Joel would be coming to Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma, and got invited to a reception and talk at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Marin. Please join us for this enlightening lecture.

Seeds of Change

2012-02-10T23:24:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by druwin on Feb 6, 2007

SEEDS OF CHANGE
This is a seed movie for documentary film Dance With Destiny.http://www.dancewithdestinydocumentary.com

Bruce Weaver an independent filmmaker journeys into the dream world to paint a picture of our future. "Seeds Of Change" is a message and a warning from those who have a vision of tomorrow. While seemingly bleek with honesty and truth of what we face it is time to face the reality of the situation. We are facing more than just a Global Warming crisis we are facing a crisis in consciousness. We are truly on the brink and the fruit of our seed is something that is needed more than ever from each and every one of us. We must rise to this occasion now. Our guest speakers include Dr. John Todd, Dr. Brian Natrrass and Dr. Peter Russell who help explain the situation we are in and some solutions to our problems. This tapestry of a visual graffatti art from the dreamworld intertwined with our speakers and a situmlating meditative audio track by reknowned shaman musician Byron Metcalf take us on a complelling journey that looks at our situation from many perspeictives including visionaries such as Chief Arvol Looking Horse and Jesse Wolf Hardin.

What kind of world are we creating?
We as a civilization and a race of human beings are teetering on the edge of the prespice. We must examine our lack of tolerance for others as well as what we are no longer willing to tolerate from those who do not wish to create a truly awakened world that all can live in harmony and peace. Are we so asleep that we do not see the writing on the wall. Just as human beings of differing race, color, and religious belief deserve each other's respect, which at times requires "tolerance," or the act of voluntarily choosing to regard others as ourselves, so-to the earth then, deserves the respect of human beings toward her. At the core of the disharmony we now see on the planet, evidenced by toxic waste being dumped in our water sources, a cocktail of chemical poisons in every breath of air we breath, chemical pesticides sprayed on our food sources, and global warming threatening the balance of the natural world; our home, is the fundamental error in thinking we human beings are separate from earth: Independent, and not interdependent. Its abundantly clear if one is paying attention at all, human beings have "missed the mark." In our hubris we have forgotten the earth is our home, and even our mother, as most tribal cultures consider earth to be, and as such, we must repay our mothers with gratitude, respect, and honor for her gift of life

Tolerance as it is defined, tacitly implies the act of voluntarily choosing to accommodating, or "make room for," the behavior, and/or actions of another which may be different, or in seeming opposition to our own. With this understanding of tolerance, we must also begin to ask ourselves what these images of our planet suffering, at war, and in ill health, reflect to us about ourselves? At what point will we no longer "tolerate" our actions that believe the truth of our interdependence with earth, one another, and all other organisms within our environment. How long will earth bear the burden of our actions, and how long will we go on acting as if we bear no burden?

We must be the change we want to see in the world.

Seeds of Change - Why Organic?

2012-02-10T21:33:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by dewgypsy on Apr 2, 2009

In order to be truly organic, you have to start with organic seed. Why? This video explains the ways in which organic seed is better for human health, better for the environment, better adapted to organic food production systems, and just plain the right thing to do. Beautifully shot and informative, this short film also provides insight into the values and practices of Seeds of Change, an organic seed company celebrating their 20th anniversary this year: twenty years of supplying high quality, 100% certified organic seeds and promoting sustainable agriculture practices and biodiversity.

http://www.seedsofchange.com
http://www.seedsofchange.com/SOC_Final_book_LR_2012.pdf

Useful Links: Our collective knowledge about organic agriculture and sustainable living is always expanding. It would be impossible for us to keep up on all the latest developments, much less publish them all on our website, so we're developing this list of links to what we think are some of the most useful and important sites on the World Wide Web. Feel free to nominate your favorite gardening and sustainability related sites for us to link to. Our links are listed under the following categories. Farming and Gardening; Environment, Community and Health; Ecology-minded Companies and Publishers.
Farming and Gardening Resources

ATTRA
Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas is the national, sustainable farming information center operated by the private, nonprofit National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT).

Center for Rural Affairs
The Center for Rural Affairs is a private non-profit working to strengthen small businesses, family farm and ranches, and rural communities.

CAFF
Community Alliance for Family Farmers is building a movement of rural and urban people to foster family scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies, and promotes social justice.

Chef's Collaborative
The Chef's Collaborative is a network of chefs, restaurants, and other culinary professionals who promote sustainable cuisine by teaching children, supporting local farms, educating each other and inspiring their customers to choose clean, healthy foods.

Community Supported Agriculture USDA AFSIC
A national listing of Community Supported Agriculture operations with information and links. Presented by the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center.

Cornell Composting
Maintained by the Cornell Waste Management Institute, this site provides access to a variety of composting educational materials and programs developed at Cornell University.

CUESA
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. Located on the San Francisco embarcadero, CUESA is dedicated to promoting sustainable food systems through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its education programs.

Farm-to-School Farm Visit Manual
This manual, published by the California Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF), is designed to let farmers know what to expect when hosting a farm visit, and to prepare teachers and classes so that they may get the most out of their farm visit. To download a pdf of the manual visit their website.

Farmers Markets, USDA AMS
A national listing of farmers markets and information for growers about selling at farmers markets.

Horizon Herbs
Offers an extensive collection of organically certified seeds, including indigenous herb seeds from the Native American, Ayurvedic and Chinese traditions. Their stock includes significant medicinal and aromatic herbs from the deserts, forests, mountains, plains and shores of North America, Central and South America, Russia, China, Tibet, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Japan, Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Africa, Australia, the Canary Islands, New Zealand and beyond. Annuals, herbaceous perennials and woody perennials, including common medicinals, cover crops, nitrogen fixers, shelterbelt and wildlife favorites, dye plants, medicinal trees, fruits, tubers, vines, roots, corms, bulbs, and water plants as well as sacred herbs are included. They also offer books and information regarding the germination, growth and environmental requirements of medicinal herbs.

International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM)
IFOAM is an international non-profit that supports organic agriculture through organizing conferences and publishing information about organic agricultural issues. IFOAM’s mission is to lead, unite and support the organic movement in its full diversity. Their goal is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially, and economically sound systems that are based on the principles of organic agriculture.

NOP
The National Organic Program homepage provides a list of the National Organic Standards, information about the National Organic Standards Board, and a list of USDA accredited Organic Certifying Agencies.

New Farm
New Farm is a program of the Rodale Institute. Their web page has recent organic price indexes, articles and interviews pertinent to organic farmers, reports of recent organic news and research, and much more. Their mission is to inform, encourage, equip and inspire farmers with the support they need to take the important transition steps toward regenerative agriculture. NewFarm.org is committed to working for the achievement of an important goal of The Rodale Institute: to assist and witness the emergence of 100,000 organic farmers in the United States and 1 million organic farmers worldwide, by the year 2013.

Oregon Tilth
Oregon Tilth is a non-profit research and education organization certifying organic farmers, processors, retailers and handlers throughout Oregon, the United States, and internationally. Oregon Tilth's mission is to support organic and sustainable food production practices. Oregon Tilth certifies the Seeds of Change Research Farm, Seed Cleaning Facilities, and Seed Packing and Storage locations for their compliance with USDA organic standards.

OFRF
Organic Farming Research Foundation's mission is to sponsor research related to organic farming practices, to disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems, and to educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues. Founded in 1990, OFRF is a non-profit organization and has awarded more than $1,000,000 in support of organic farming research.

OMRI
The Organic Materials Review Institute is a non-profit organization created to benefit the organic community and the general public. Its primary mission is to publish and disseminate generic and specific (brand name) lists of materials allowed and prohibited for use in the production, processing, and handling of organic food and fiber. OMRI also conducts scientific research and education on the use of materials by the organic industry.

Organic Seed Alliance
Organic Seed Alliance is a new non-profit which grew out of the education and research component of Abundant Life Seed Foundation. Their mission is to act as a nonprofit public charity, which supports the ethical development and stewardship of the genetic resources of agricultural seed. They accomplish their goals through collaborative education and research programs with organic farmers and other seed professionals.

Public Seed Initiative
The Public Seed Initiative (PSI) is a joint cooperative effort between Cornell University Departments of Plant Breeding and Horticulture, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Inc, the USDA—Agricultural Research Service’s Plant Genetic Resources Unit in Geneva, NY, and the Farmer’s Cooperative Genome Project—Oregon Tilth. The PSI is engaged in supporting public domain plant breeding, organic seed production, and participatory models of organic, on-farm plant breeding.

University of California Small Farm Center
Information on small farm issues and statistics as well as selected crop guides to minor and specialty crops.

Wwoof
Need help on the farm or looking to volunteer on one? Willing Workers on Organic Farms can help.

Environment, Community and Health Resources

America's Children and the Environment
A new resource for researchers, policymakers and concerned citizens on children's environmental health is now online. The website presents data and discussion on environmental contaminants and children's health, based on EPA's report "America's Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens and Illnesses" (2003). The America's Children and the Environment website presents trends for levels of environmental contaminants in air, water, food and soil; concentrations of contaminants measured in the bodies of women and children; and childhood illnesses that may be influenced by environmental contaminants. The website features a background summary for each issue, graphs, data explanations and data sources with on-line links where available.

Context Institute
Since its founding in 1979 by Robert and Diane Gilman, Context Institute has explored how human society can become sustainable (i.e. able to meet the needs of the present without diminishing the prospects for the future), and has served as a catalyst for voluntary change toward a more humane and sustainable culture.

Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN)
An international non-governmental organisation which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge.

Global Warming Articles
Global Warming Articles provides facts about the causes, effects and answers to global warming; the environment; energy conservation and more. There are over 500 articles in the Global Warming Articles' database from nearly as many diverse authors, providing information about Global Warming and Climate Change.

The GreenGuide
Since 1994, The Green Guide has been the premiere consumer source for practical everyday actions benefiting environmental and personal health. As an environmental lifestyle newsletter and website, The Green Guide provides an intersection between mainstream consumer service (women's, health, parenting, and shelter) and environmental advocacy publications.

HopeDance
Becoming a member of HopeDance is an opportunity to contribute to the spirit and energy of our community, to join with like-minded individuals who have the same passion, concern and urgency about our fragile world.

Hope's Edge, The Next Diet for a Small Planet
Hope's Edge is a journey to five continents uncovering an invisible revolution of courageous movements helping us see solutions to environmental crises and social inequality.

IUCN, The World Conservation Union
Their mission is "to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable."

The National Resources Defense Council
The nation's most effective environmental action organization. They use law, science, and the support of more than 1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.

The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy works in partnership to achieve tangible, lasting conservation at a level that will make a global difference. Drawing on lessons learned over half a century of successful conservation work, they continue to refine our approach and accomplish even more with only limited resources.

Pesticide Action Network
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is a network of over 600 participating non-governmental organizations, institutions and individuals in over 60 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound alternatives. Its projects and campaigns are coordinated by five autonomous Regional Centers.

OrganicGardening.com Events Calendar
Organic Gardening has set up an events calendar where you can choose your state and find out what's going on right next door.

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Inc. is dedicated to educating the public on the importance of a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.

New Mexico Farmer's Markets: Market Locations
They invite you to visit New Mexico's Farmers' Markets, offering you the freshest fruits and vegetables available anywhere. Meet the people who grow your food - face to face - and enjoy the vibrant flavors, aromas and colors of the New Mexico harvest.

Slow Food USA
Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food USA is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; to the creation of a collaborative, ecologically-oriented, and virtuous globalization; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

CSAs: Alternative Farming sytems Info Center
Find a CSA near you, What is a CSA, Resources for farmers, understanding sustainable agriculture.

Vitamins and Nutrition Center
At the non-profit Vitamins and Nutrition Center you can find hundreds of articles with information about vitamins and nutrition, including research, articles on vitamins and common vitamin profiles.

Smart Communities Network at the DOE

Ecology-minded Companies and Publishers

Chelsea Green Publishing
Founded in 1984, Chelsea Green Publishing is regarded as a preeminent publisher of books on sustainable living, with well over 400 titles in print.

Natural Home Magazine
Natural Home offers today's health-conscious, environmentally concerned homeowners the information they need to practice earth-inspired living. Since their first issue in May 1999, Natural Home has brought together the best in home design, earth-friendly décor and natural living. Our bimonthly magazine and dynamic website feature sustainable, healthy homes, decorating tips, and the latest green products and services.

New Leaf Paper
Has lead the paper industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers to give customers the best environmentally sound paper for an economical and responsible choice.

Redjellyfish
Your Source for Natural Living. Since February of 1999, Redjellyfish has been serving people who are interested in natural living. You can get your Internet access and long distance telephone service through them and they will automatically make a monthly donation that will purchase and protect vital rainforest.We also have beautiful free e-cards and puzzles, as well as news and other information to help you live a healthy, natural lifestyle.

They also offer a free e-mail service called Planet-Save.com and donate 25% of Planet-Save's profits to the Nature Conservancy each month to help them save the last great places on earth.

They believe that businesses are changing the world, and in addition to leading by example they strive to bring together other companies that are working for positive change. Their Green shopping mall is filled with links to merchants who have healthy, environmentally friendly products, none of which have been tested on animals, and are all available to you in one easy to use format.

The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins
To Source: Jenkins Publishing, PO Box 607, Grove City, PA 16127.
To Order: Call 1-800-639-4099 or go to www.jenkinspublishing.com
To review: Go to www.weblife.org/humanure/index.html

Sustainable Cuisine
When choosing produce varieties for our seedlist, little is more important than flavor. Over the years we have worked with many chefs who focus on sustainable, local and organic cuisine to help identify those varieties with the highest culinary quality. Here is a list of some of their restaurants, all of which we highly recommend. Tell them Seeds of Change sent you!

Blackbird (Chicago, Illinois)
Over the last ten years Executive Chef Paul Kahan has built Blackbird into one of Chicago's hottest restaurants by focusing on clean, fresh flavors and highly seasonal cuisine. Local ingredients are sourced from Kahan's backyard garden, and from the sustainably managed farms that he is committed to supporting.

Cafe Pasqual's (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
In the heart of downtown Santa Fe, Pasqual's has become an institution for locals and tourists alike. Expect extraordinary but casual dining with a fresh, local flavor.

Chez Panisse (Berkeley, California)
Owner and cookbook author Alice Waters has championed small, local organic farms and ranches since she opened this restaurant with a group of friends in 1971. The set menu format offers an ever-changing fixed-price meal that reflects Waters' passion for offering only high-quality, seasonal ingredients.

Dragonfly Cafe (Taos, New Mexico)
Known for its premium-quality food, the Dragonfly serves breakfast and lunch delicacies based on fresh, local, and organic ingredients. Chef Karen Todd pays frequent visits to our Research Farm, helping us choose the most attractive and flavorful varieties to add to our seed list.

Flea Street Cafe (Menlo Park, California)
For over thirty years, owner, chef, and cookbook author Jesse Cool has supported local, sustainable, organic food in her restaurants. At the Flea Street Cafe, diners will find a bevy of local ingredients lovingly prepared and, on most nights, a taste of something from the chef's extensive organic gardens.

Frontera Grill (Chicago, Illinois)
Owner Rick Bayless has earned fame through his many cookbooks and as host of the television series "Mexico - One Plate at a Time." He's also earned respect as a tireless supporter of local foods, which you'll find on the menu of Frontera Grill, as well as his other restaurants Topolobampo and Frontera Fresco.

Greens Restaurant (San Francisco, California)
Almost three decades ago, Greens opened as a pioneer in the restaurant world and helped to establish high profile vegetarian dining in the United States. Today Chef Annie Sommerville continues to craft local and organic food into remarkable vegetarian cuisine.

Joseph's Table (Taos, New Mexico)
Owner and Executive Chef Joseph Wrede is renowned for his ability to combine worldwide influences with local traditions. Selected as one of America's "Best New Chefs" by Food and Wine Magazine, Wrede delights diners with creative, often seasonal cuisine in the heart of downtown Taos.

Nora's Restaurant (Washington D.C.)
Certified in 1999 as America's first organic restaurant, Nora's features a menu of fresh, seasonal foods prepared with health and balance in mind. Owner and chef Nora Pouillion has promoted local farmers and producers for over 25 years, and is a frequent visitor to D.C.'s many farmers' markets.

America's Heartland: Oklahoma Sesame Seeds

2012-02-10T21:10:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by americasheartland on Dec 20, 2010

Sesame seeds are used for flavoring in pastries, side dishes and to top off the hamburger buns you find at your favorite fast food restaurant. With a growing worldwide demand for sesame, Oklahoma farmers are finding the climate and soil perfect for growing this unusual crop.

Kinder Farms Sesame Field From Combine

Biomass 2011 - YouTube

2012-02-10T19:50:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by Prince7641 on Feb 10, 2012
Thank you YouTube and every single one of you. With over 1.4 Million Vewings.

Thought provoking video on some alternative uses of what some consider "waste"! ... Monte

Related Links:
BioGreenTech.com
Wind Turbines or Power Stations have your say

Chillin' Out in the Kool Box: DIY Refrigeration

2012-02-10T18:55:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by ecojaunt on Feb 10, 2012
Peter Baldwin shows us his amazing passive kool box refrigeration system in Maine! Who says you need power to keep your food fresh!

The key to preventing moldy berries? Vinegar! - Food Lush

2012-02-10T18:37:00.000-06:00

by Katie
Berries, particularly super-fresh berries, are just wonderful, aren't they?

Image: Healthyfellow.com

But they're also kind of delicate. Raspberries in particular seem like they can mold before you even get them home from the market. There's nothing more tragic than paying $4 for a pint of local raspberries, only to look in the fridge the next day and find that fuzzy mold growing on their insides.

Well, with fresh berries just starting to hit farmers markets, you can tell that we Foodlush writers have berries, and how to keep them fresh, on the brain this week! First Jonna shared this excellent tip on how to salvage berries that are starting to lose their luster. Now I'm here to share a tip on how to prevent them from getting there in the first place:

Wash them with vinegar.

A friend of mine shared this tip with me a few weeks ago, and it really, really works. When you get your berries home, prepare a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider probably work best) and ten parts water. Dump the berries into the mixture and swirl around. Drain, rinse if you want (though the mixture is so diluted I find you can't taste the vinegar,) and pop in the fridge.

The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit, and voila! Raspberries will last a week or more, and I've had strawberries go almost two weeks without getting moldy and soft. So go forth and stock up on those pricey little gems, knowing they'll stay fresh as long as it takes you to eat them.

Joe Cross on the "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" USA Tour -- SEATTLE, WA

2012-02-10T12:15:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by FatSickandNearlyDead on Feb 10, 2012
Joe Cross on the "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" USA Tour -- SEATTLE, WA
Related Links:
Joe Cross on the "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" USA Tour -- SEATTLE, WA
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead Extended Trailer‬‏

www.biobamboo.org - The mission of BioBamboo is to promote the use of bamboo as a worldwide climate change agent.

2012-02-10T11:48:00.000-06:00

The BioBamboo System

Bamboo Biomass to Farmers, Retort to Pyrolysis to Biofuels, Biochar Bi-product, BioChar & Microbes improves soil fertility, Increased Yields Provide Food Security, Increased Crop Biomass

Related Links:
http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/02/biobambooorg-bamboo-pyrolysis-and-bio.html
Bamboo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biobamboo.org Bamboo, Pyrolysis and Bio-Char: Our Plan to Draw Carbon Down Exponentially

2012-02-10T11:35:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by samsmall808 on Feb 4, 2012

www.biobamboo.org Charlotte O'Brien, Director of Bio Bamboo, explains how to significantly draw down Carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it as a Bio-Char soil conditioner using Bamboo to fuel Pyrolysis. Adding the Bio-Char to depleted soil fosters the spread of Mycorrhizal fungus in the soil, which in turn creates Glomalin (which sequesters even more Carbon). The enriched soil then produces more biomass which can be processed into more biochar...the result is an exponential carbon draw down! The process also generates a bevy of marketable bi-products.

Related Links:
http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/02/biobambooorg-bamboo-pyrolysis-and-bio.html
Bamboo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Baldwin's Tips for New Farmers

2012-02-10T11:31:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by ecojaunt on Feb 10, 2012

Peter Baldwin presents his top things that homesteaders should consider before starting a new farm!

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures - The Great Dying - BBC

2012-02-10T09:52:00.000-06:00

Part 1

Part 2

Uploaded by eDocumentaryVIDEO on Feb 10, 2012

http://www.edocumentary.info

Steven Sieden podcast: Buckminster Fuller’s Vision of Hope - Examiner.com

2012-02-10T07:29:00.000-06:00

L. Steven Sieden

Steven Sieden author of A Fuller View, Buckminster Fuller’s Vision of Hope and Abundance for All and Buckminster Fuller’s Universe recorded a podcast and video with host Darryl Whalen on his Greenerviews podcast last Monday, February 6. During that interview Sieden talked at length about Bucky Fuller, the fact that Fuller's wisdom is returning to the cultural spotlight and the enormous amount we can all learn from Bucky’s vision and wisdom.

Whalen’s interview covered both Fuller and Sieden’s interest in Fuller and sharing what he has learned from examining Fuller’s life over the past three plus decades. Sieden said, “Bucky Fuller’s life is a template for all of us who want to live as contributing global citizens at this time of great transformation on the planet Fuller named Spaceship Earth. Because he lived as a global citizen doing his best to support all life on Earth for 56 years, Bucky provides a model of how we can each contribute. In addition to my writing, A Fuller View contains essays from 42 global visionaries who have been greatly influenced by Bucky and his work.”

The video and podcast is scheduled to be posted in the next few days and will provide viewers with clear insights into Fuller, his vision and the solutions he provides for us all.

As Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money and Co-founderThe Pachamama Alliance said of A Fuller View: “Buckminster Fuller was one of the greatest teachers I have ever known. This new book, "A Fuller View" brings his incredible teachings into full view at a time when we need to hear his clear and wise voice as never before. I am grateful that Steven Sieden has put together this brilliant piece of work that everyone alive should read. It will blow your mind in the best possible way and set you on a path of truth, transformation and integrity. Buy it, read it, tell everyone! Bucky is back!”

In addition to Sieden’s writing, A Fuller View contains essays from 42 global visionaries including Gary Zukav, John Robbins, Marilyn Schlitz, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Werner Erhard, Hunter Lovins, Hazel Henderson, Roshi Joan Halifax, Ocean Robbins, Bill Kauth, Dr. Joel Levey, Kevin Todeschi, David Spangler, Justine Willis Toms, Bobbi DePorter, Ann Medlock, Robert White, Velcrow Ripper, Satyen Raja, David McConville and Stephan Schwartz.

Click here for more information about A Fuller View or to purchase an autographed copy. Click here to purchase a copy this is not autographed for only $13.57.

May Fuller’s solutions support our manifesting Bucky’s dream of “a world that works for everyone.”

Suggested by the author:
Bucky Fuller sings: A true genius can deliver a message in many forms including humor (video)
Buckminster Fuller shares making accurate future predictions in Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Gary Zukav speaks about 'Spiritual Partnership' in Seattle: An exclusive interview (video)
Dzogchen Ponlop, Rebel Buddha interview: Part 2, Religion is obsolete
'Call me Trimtab' - A most important concept for humans to make a difference: Skillful means (video)

Biochars Boost Soil Moisture

2012-02-10T01:43:00.000-06:00

Courtesy Stephen Ausmus/ USDA

Biochar made from switchgrass increased water-moisture levels by 3 to 6 percent, according to a study by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

February 7, 2012

In response to international food insecurity and global climate change, scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are studying the way biochar—the charred biomass created from wood, other plant material and manure—affects soil types across the U.S.

Soil scientist Jeff Novak at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water and Plant Research Center in Florence, S.C., is coordinating the multi-location effort. In one project, he led a laboratory study to see if different biochars could improve the Carolina coastal plain’s sandy soils and the Pacific Northwest’s silt-loam soils derived from volcanic ash.

Novak's team used peanut hulls, pecan shells, poultry litter, switchgrass and hardwood waste to produce nine different types of biochar. All the feedstocks were pyrolysed at two different temperatures to produce the biochars. Pyrolysis is a process of chemical decomposition that results from rapid heating of the raw feedstocks in the absence of oxygen. The biochars were then mixed into one type of sandy soil and two types of silt-loam soils at the rate of about 20 tons per acre.

After four months, the team found that biochars produced from switchgrass and hardwoods increased soil moisture storage in all three soils. They saw the greatest increase in soils amended with switchgrass biochar produced via high-temperature pyrolysis—almost 3 to 6 percent higher than a control soil sample.

Biochars produced at higher temperatures also increased soil pHlevels, and biochar made from poultry litter greatly increased available phosphorus and sodium in the soil. The scientists also calculated that the switchgrass-biochar amendments could extend the window of soil water availability by 1.0 to 3.6 days for a soybean crop in Florence, S.C., and could increase soil water availability by 0.4 to 2.5 days for crops grown in Pacific Northwest silt-loam soils.

Given their results, the team believes that agricultural producers could someday select feedstocks and pyrolysis processes to make "designer" biochars with characteristics that target specific deficiencies in soil types.

Results from this study were published in Annals of Environmental Science and in the Journal of Environmental Quality.

Seed Starting Simplified

2012-02-10T01:01:00.000-06:00

Published on Organic Gardening (http://www.organicgardening.com)
Seed Starting Simplified
Created 2012-02-01

If you’re like many gardeners, you have never tried growing your own plants from seed. Or, if you have tried, maybe your seedlings didn’t resemble those you see at the garden center each spring, and you’re wondering how you can do better.

Rest assured, starting your own seedlings is fun, easy, and well worthwhile. By growing your own transplants, you can choose from hundreds of unusual varieties—including those with tolerance to heat or cold, disease resistance, and unmatched flavor—that simply aren’t available at garden centers. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve grown your entire garden organically right from the very start.

For seed-starting success, follow this simple plan.

1. Choose a fine medium. For healthy seedlings, you’ve got to give them a loose, well-drained medium (seed-starting mix) composed of very fine particles. You can buy a seed-starting mix at your local garden center—or make your own. Don’t use potting soil—often, it’s too rich and doesn’t drain well enough for seedlings.

2. Assemble your containers. Many gardeners start their seeds in leftover plastic “six packs” from the garden center, empty milk cartons, or Styrofoam cups. If you don’t have containers on hand, you can buy plastic “cell packs,” individual plastic pots, or sphagnum peat pots. Or make your own pots from newspaper (see page 48). Whatever you use, be sure your containers drain well (usually through holes in the bottoms of the containers).

Set the pots inside a tray so that you can water your seedlings from the bottom (by adding water to the tray) rather than disturbing them by watering from the top. You can buy seed-starting trays at garden centers and many hardware stores.

3. Start your seeds! Moisten your seed-starting mix before you plant your seeds. If you water after you plant the seeds, they can easily float to the edges of the container—not where you want them to be. To moisten the mix, simply pour some into a bucket, add warm water, and stir. After about 8 hours (or when the mix has absorbed the water), fill your containers with the moistened mix.

Plant at least two, but no more than three, seeds per container. The seed packet usually tells you how deep to plant, but a good rule of thumb is three times as deep as the seeds’ smallest diameter. (Some flower seeds require light to sprout—if that’s the case, simply lay the seeds on the surface of the mix, then tamp them in gently with your finger.)

After you’ve planted your seeds, cover the tray loosely with plastic to create a humid environment. At 65° to 70°F, your seeds should sprout just fine without any supplementary heat. If the room temperature is cooler than that, you can keep the seeds warm by setting the tray on top of a heating mat made specifically for starting seeds.

Tomato, zucchini, and pumpkin seeds should push their sprouts through the surface of the mix in a few days. Peppers sprout in about a week. And some seeds, such as parsley, can take as long as 3 weeks to sprout, so be patient.

4. Keep the lights bright. Check your trays daily. As soon as you see sprouts, remove the plastic covers and immediately pop the trays beneath lights. You can invest in grow lights (which provide both “warm” and “cool” light), but many gardeners have good results with standard 4-foot-long fluorescent shop lights. Set your seedlings as close to the light as possible—2 or 3 inches away is about right. When seedlings don’t get enough light, they grow long, weak stems. As the seedlings grow, raise the lights to maintain the proper distance.

And don’t worry about turning off the lights at night. Contrary to popular belief, seedlings don’t require a period of darkness. Fluorescent lights are only one-tenth as bright as sunlight, so your seedlings will actually grow better if you leave them on continuously.

5. Feed and water. Your seedlings will need a steady supply of water, but the soil shouldn’t be constantly wet. The best method is to keep the containers inside a tray, water from the bottom, and allow the soil inside the containers to “wick up” the water.

If your growing medium contains only vermiculite and peat (as many seed-starting mixes do), you’ll also need to feed your seedlings. When the seedlings get their first “true” leaves (not the tiny ones that first appear, but the two that follow), mix up a fish emulsion solution one-quarter to one-half the recommended strength and add it to the seedlings’ water every other week. As the plants grow bigger, gradually increase the strength of the mixture.

6. Keep the air moving. Your seedlings need to be big and strong by the time you move them from their cushy indoor surroundings to the harsh realities of the outside world. You can help them grow sturdy, stocky stems with a small fan. As soon as you see those first true leaves, set the fan to blow lightly but steadily on the seedlings, all day long. The air circulation also will minimize their chance of fungal disease while they’re crowded together indoors.

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7. Give them space. Those well-watered, well-fed, and well-fanned seedlings will soon need more root space. Shortly after the second set of true leaves appears, take a deep breath and thin your seedlings to one per pot. Use small scissors to clip off the weaker plants at the soil line, leaving only the stockiest plant.

Next, carefully “pot up” the survivors into larger, 3-or 4-inch pots. Squeeze the sides of the smaller containers all around, turn them upside down, and the plants should come out easily—soil and all. Immediately set them into the larger containers and fill with a mixture of 3 parts potting soil and 1 part your own screened compost.

(If you started your seeds in peat pots or homemade newspaper pots, you can plant both the seedling and its pot in the larger container; the pot eventually will decompose.)

Plant tomatoes deep in the new container to encourage them to develop a larger root system to support these often top-heavy plants. With most other plants, the soil level in the new pot should be about the same as in the smaller container. After you’ve finished repotting, water the plants well and set them back under the lights.

8. Harden-off. About a week or two before you plan to transplant your seedlings to the garden, begin taking them outdoors to a protected place, such as inside a coldframe or near a wall, for increasing lengths of time on mild days. This will help them adjust to the conditions outside—a process known as hardening off. Start with just a couple of hours each day, work up to a full day, and then leave them out overnight.

When you finally transplant the seedlings to the garden, be careful not to disturb their roots. Gently pop them out of their containers, keeping as much soil attached to their roots as possible. Again, plant tomatoes deeply, but set other plants at about the same depth as they were in their pots (or just slightly deeper).

9. Seal it with a K.I.S.S. Most important, relax! Don’t worry if you forget to do something or don’t follow all the “rules.” Except for hardening off, all of these rules are flexible. Before long, you will learn what works best for you—and will have a few secrets of your own to share with fellow seed starters.

Source URL: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/seed-starting-simplified

Links:

http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/01/starting-seeds-indoors.html

[1] http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/14-tips-starting-your-own-seeds

[2] http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/blend-your-own-seed-starting-mix

[3] http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/parsley-0

[4] http://www.organicgardening.com/paperpots

[5] http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/transplanting

NEXII : NEXII BLOG : Buckminster Fuller Challenge Nexii S In The Running

2012-02-10T00:38:00.000-06:00

Nexii has taken on the Buckminster Fuller Challenge and is in the running for $100,000 for the submission of its design of a new capital market infrastructure to support impact investment capital flows globally.

Cape Town, South Africa-February 7, 2012- Nexii is proud to announce that it has taken on the Buckminster Fuller Challenge and its entry will be published in the Buckmister Fuller Challenge Idea Index (http://challenge.bfi.org/ideaindex) on Tuesday, February 14, 2012.

Named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine, the Challenge is an annual international prize program that awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

“Buckminster Fuller was a pioneer in global whole systems thinking with a bold and visionary commitment to finding out what he could contribute ‘to changing the world and benefiting all humanity’,” says Nexii’s founder Tamzin Ractliffe.

Ractliffe continues, “Fuller recognised that ‘you never change things by fighting the existing reality’ but rather focus energy on building ‘a new model that makes the existing model obsolete’. This understanding and commitment mirrors Nexii’s raison d’être. It has informed our approach every step of the way in our search to establish a new way of doing things that is regionally specific yet globally applicable, and that presents a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving some of the world's most complex problems.”

Nexii is an impact investment services advisory and consulting company that builds the bridges to connect impact investors to investment opportunities in meaningful world-changing initiatives.

Nexii has established the world’s first publically regulated social stock exchange board for high impact investments with the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, as well as regulated platforms for private investment in unlisted high impact securities. These platforms are supported by regulated electronic settlement and clearing systems with open access information beyond accredited investors only.

“We have been energized by Buckminster Fuller’s journey and are honored to have been selected as finalists in the challenge to create a new, collaborative model to provide meaningful and sustainable solutions to the challenges we are facing as a connected world today,” says Nexii’s Global Relationship Manager, Justine Raschio. She explains further, “Like Fuller, we hope that the Nexii model will revolutionise capital markets to make them work for all.”

“We look forward to an engaging review process, and should our project win, we plan to leverage the $100,000 to build on our initial achievements by continuing to integrate intermediaries operating globally, provide ongoing support to ensure the successful listing and launch of our regulated exchange board and platforms, and expand the connections between those seeking to find and fund solutions and those providing them,” says Raschio. “We encourage the global community to participate in our project by joining Buckminster Fuller Institute’s online community and submitting your comments on our page.”

“We are thrilled to be a part of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge review process and expect to be a serious contender for the award,” concludes Ractliffe. “Winning the Challenge would be a tremendous honor, but we are also very excited about the opportunity to become part of a network that is advancing and accelerating the practice of comprehensive, whole systems thinking and design to develop the kind of high impact global solutions we so desperately need.”

More detailed information is available on www.nexii.com.

Related Links: http://www.youtube.com/user/nexii

Can Money Buy Freedom?

2012-02-10T00:30:00.000-06:00

“The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.” — R. Buckminster Fuller .... Monte

Monday, 6th February 2012 (by J.D. Roth)
On Saturday, my friend Tyler hosted a blog meetup.

I first met Tyler several years ago. He was a GRS reader who dropped me a line to see if I’d meet him for dinner. I said “yes” — as I almost always do. Now, several years later, Tyler runs a successful blog of his own. It was fun to see his readers come out to support him.

Note: I’ve never hosted a meetup for GRS readers, but the more of these I attend for other blogs, the more fun I think it would be for us to have some gatherings of our own. What do you think? Whenever I visit a new city — Denver in September, for instance, and Atlanta in October — we could gather to share stories and ideas.

After giving us a chance to chat, Tyler asked us to break into small groups, to work together to define the word freedom. “What does freedom mean to you?” he asked.

What is Freedom? I was sitting with Tammy and Logan (they of the tiny house) and with our friend Michelle, who also lives in a tiny house. We brainstormed ideas. One obvious answer was that, in many ways, money equals freedom. When you have money, you have more options. Or, more precisely, when you have no debt, when you spend less than you earn, then you have more options.

But freedom is more than money, of course.

“To me, freedom means being able to what you want, when you want,” I said. We talked about that for a bit. We talked again about how money makes this more likely.

“But I think to be free,” said Michelle, “you have to somehow be aware of what your options are. You have to be conscious that you’re making choices that reflect your values, choices that allow you to do what you want, when you want.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

After more discussion, we realized that each person at our table already felt very, very free. None of us worries about money: I’ve experienced a windfall; Tammy and Logan and Michelle have intentionally minimized their expenses so that money is no longer a stressor. We each do work we’re passionate about. We have good friends, we have purpose. We’ve adopted lifestyles that give us freedom, or at least a sense of it.

“I think a lot of feeling free comes down to shifting priorities,” Tammy said. “It means choosing to relate to money, and other parts of life, in ways that others don’t.” Tammy wasn’t saying that she thinks we’re better than anyone else — far from it! — but that in order to obtain this feeling of freedom, we’ve each made choices that we like but others might not. Such as living in small spaces. (If I’m doing my math right, the four of us live in three separate spaces that combine to total 985 square feet. My apartment is the bulk of that.)

Conquering Fear Tyler took some more time to speak with his readers. He talked about his own ideas of freedom. “The core of freedom is conquering fear,” Tyler said. “It can be scary. We want to draw cartoons, or climb mountains, or do whatever makes us happy. But often, people are afraid of freedom because with freedom comes risk. When you choose freedom, you make choices for yourself. Nobody else makes them for you. And when you make choices for yourself, the responsibility — or the blame — for the outcome rests with you.”

At our table, we talked about the relationship between freedom and power.

“In some ways, freedom and power are interchangeable,” Logan said. “When you have freedom, you have power. Not like you have authority or control over other people, but you have power over your own life.”

“Here’s a thought,” I said. “If you’re lucky enough to be free, do you have an obligation to help others who aren’t free? To give them this power too? And there really is an obligation, then doesn’t that mean you’re not actually free?”

“It’s like a paradox!” Tammy said.

“The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

The Limits of Self-Determination But here’s the rub: Even if you’re free, even if you have power over your own life, bad things happen. You might get struck by a car. You might have a stroke. Your country might experience hyperinflation. You’re only free to the extent that you can control life. And beyond a certain point, life is out of your hands. (Though, again, the more money you have, the less impact these events have on you. Another argument for a fat emergency fund!)

What’s more, as free as you might be, you only have that freedom because your environment allows you to have it. If you lived elsewhere, or elsewhen, you might not be able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. You might not have the freedom you do now.

Because of this, and because I’m fortunate to be very free myself, I’m finally starting to think of other people. I feel called to help others move closer to this ideal, to give them find the power to do what they want, when they want.

Money and Freedom Money can’t buy happiness, it can’t buy love, and it can’t buy freedom either. But money doesmake obtaining these goals much, much easier. When you have money, you don’t have to worry about the basics. To re-visit Psychology 101, money helps you build the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

When you have money, you’re able to take care of your physiological needs, like finding food and water. You’re also able to better take care of your body and your belongings, able to afford a safe place to sleep. Because money makes it easier to have these things, it further grants you the freedom to focus on higher parts of the hierarchy, such as self-esteem, confidence, and achievement. If you worried each day about how you were going to feed yourself and your family, you wouldn’t have time to pursue these higher aims. You wouldn’t have the freedom to do so.

But here’s the thing: I don’t think money does buy freedom if the person with the money becomes obsessed with protecting it or with obtaining more. Money is a tool. It’s useful only insofar as it helps you achieve your goals.

An old friend contacted me by Facebook the other day. We’re going to get together for coffee soon. (Where “coffee” is a euphemism for “any other drink because J.D. doesn’t like coffee”.) During our conversation, my friend asked, “So what do you do now that you sold your web site? Do you not work? Do you just go to the gym and travel the world?”

Ha. I wish. I feel like I’m busier than I’ve ever been. But to tell the truth, I’m busy in a different way. In the past, I was busy, but I was busy doing things that other people wanted. Now, I do things thatI want. Most of the time, even my work feels like play.

I’m a happy man. I have a good life. I’m able to do what I want, when I want. This isn’t because I’vebought my freedom and my happiness, but there’s no question that having savings, eliminating debt, and living below my means has given me peace of mind, has allowed me to take risks that I might have otherwise avoided.

Wood Gasifier (#302) by Vulcan

2012-02-10T00:10:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by ZeroFossilFuel on Feb 8, 2012

Interview with Matt Ryder of Vulcan Gasifier to discuss details of his M1 and E1 SGU wood gasifiers, modern applications and pricing. For more information visit http://www.vulcangasifier.com/

Related Links: http://www.youtube.com/user/VulcanGasifier

Institutional gasifier stove that cooks food in a 60 liter pot - Aprovecho Gasifier Stove

2012-02-09T23:36:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by dennishartley50 on Feb 9, 2012

Dean Still, Executive Director of Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon, demonstrates a gasifier stove that cooks food in a 60 liter pot. For fuel, goat dung and small pinecones can be used as well as pellets.

Home built passive solar air heater

2012-02-09T23:25:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by PeterQBrownDesign on Feb 9, 2012

Bozeman, Montana Building and Remodeling Contractor Peter Brown describes a simple home built passive solar air heater that uses only the buoyancy of heated air for circulation.

$350 cost - Benefit exceeded in first year! Monte

The Beauty of Algebra

2012-02-09T22:31:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by khanacademy on Feb 9, 2012
Why the abstraction of mathematics is so fundamental?

Great teaching... Great generalization of an important basic math concept by Khan... Monte

To Everyone Feeling Screwed Over by the Economy Permaculture Research Institute

2012-02-09T22:07:00.000-06:00

Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Population, Society, Village Development — by Kyle Chamberlain February 10, 2012

Editor’s Note: If you enjoy the article below, and you missed Kyle’s past 3-part series, amongst others, be sure to check them out! (Part I, Part II, and Part III.)

To everyone feeling screwed over by the economy,

We are told that our problem is that there aren’t enough jobs. This message is everywhere. The media gauges our plight with regularly updated unemployment statistics. Politicians debate theatrically over who can create more work. People everywhere clamor for scarce positions at factories and corporations.

I’d like to point out the great irony of this situation — people hate their jobs. How many people do you know who love their job? The truth is, most of us who have ordinary jobs can barely tolerate them. All else being equal, we’d rather not do them.

Work ethic is something this society takes pride in. But, if we are honest, we will confess that we call ourselves ‘hard working’ primarily to rationalize the daily abuses, deprivations, and indignities of the workplace. Work ethic is the only ethic most of us satisfy at our jobs. I think we can agree that most of our jobs aren’t making the world a better place.

So here we are, bickering and begging to fill roles we hate.

We should remember, that ‘employed’ is just another word for ‘used’. Just as you might employ a hammer and nails, your employer employs, or uses, you. The term ‘used’ very aptly describes our relationship with our employers. Like prostitutes, we resign ourselves to fake relationships for an empty cash return. In a healthy relationship, our devotions are reciprocated in kind. But in a relationship of use and abuse, the best you can expect is a cash settlement.

It should not surprise us, then, that politicians and other powerful people will laud our enthusiasm for employment and champion that cause. To the elite, unemployment is a crises because it means that the population is insufficiently used. An unused population is unprofitable, and potentially unruly. So, when the wealthy come to our rescue, they do it with jobs. As the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation slogan goes, "We believe that all people deserve the chance to lead healthy productive lives." (emphasis mine)

Employment has become almost inseparable from other values like responsibility and human welfare. In our culture, promoting employment has become synonymous with supporting families, communities, and countries. At a time when we are so utterly reliant on employment and the economy for our survival, being anti-job is like being anti-life. Who but the laziest and most unrealistic sort of hippie would oppose jobs?

But let us not forget; people were not always so dependent on employment or the economy for survival. In fact, we’ve been hunter/gatherers for most of our existence. Money, the economy, and even farming are relatively recent contrivances. We made them up. And, until very recent history, jobs were merely part of a mixed strategy used by families to make a living. Hunting, gathering, gardening, crafting, gifting, cooperation, trade, and self-employment, are all perfectly viable ways to make a living. Our grandparents recognized that money wasn’t always the most effective way to meet a need. Living by paycheck alone was a thing for the urban wealthy.

At periods in history, it’s been possible for some people to use currency to maintain an affluence disproportionate to the real value of their work. We may be nearing the close of such a period. Unfortunately, alternatives to employment are growing scarce.

It’s not something taught in history class, but our reliance on employment stems ultimately from the destruction and monopolization of our environment. People once relied exclusively on free natural resources. The trend toward universal employment has followed in lock step with the destruction of those resources. When the things we need are no longer freely available in nature, we’re forced to labor at ever more complicated and dubious methods of resource extraction. The story of our culture’s relationship with American Indians and other indigenous cultures, illustrates the common pattern.

My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams. You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair? — Smohala, Wanapum spiritual leader, 1851

Time and time again, indigenous resistance to work, as we know it, only broke when traditional resources failed.

My people did not farm and had no use for crops until the salmon runs began to disappear from the streams and rivers. White activities causing pollution, and commercial fishing projects were the cause of this. Every year, the Colville found fewer salmon to take, not enough to live on, and so began to farm to stay alive. Finally, dams were built on the Columbia and the salmon were stopped altogether from coming above Grand Coulee. The salmon were gone, and high powered rifles are doing about the same to our game animals. By the time we saw the need to farm, the younger generations realized their ancestors had let the whites have the richest and most fertile bottomland. And it was too late to get it back. — Mourning Dove, Colville author, 1888-1936

The indigenous haven’t been the only people forced to deal with resource destruction and monopolization. Corporations and governments are actively marginalizing our access to clean water, healthy food, safe shelter, and social support. All of these things, once provided freely by our environment, are now increasingly expensive.

It’s not just our physical environment that is being destroyed. Our social and psychological environments are also under attack. Economic pressures, advertising, and propaganda have undermined the self-reliance of families and communities. Perhaps the ultimate victory of consumerism is that many people have lost their ability to find meaning outside of work. Many people will tell you they simply wouldn’t know how to spend their time without a job. Can they really see no higher value in their lives? Without respect for ourselves, and the support of others, there’s no climbing out of this abusive system.

The influence of the world’s powerful minority should not be underestimated. But those of us in privileged countries need to understand that this economic ‘crisis’ is largely due to the world, and perhaps mother nature herself, finally calling our bluff. The fact that our economic prosperity can falter so rapidly is proof that our wealth is not based on the real value of our work, but our success in a deceptive and exploitative game. We owe our declining wealth to mountains of debt and our lucky political position, and we’ve milked them for all they’re worth. We’ve been cheating people out of real value, for novelties and speculation, since the fur trade era. And now, bubbles are bursting.

Our way of life has also depended on finite fossil energy resources. This is not to mention threatened soils, waters, and forests. And the world is getting more crowded. It might be time to figure out what it actually looks like to live within our means.

But let’s be clear. We don’t need more jobs. We need access to the basics of survival. We don’t need more money. We need to heal our environment. We don’t need employers to keep us busy. We need time to make our communities into healthy habitats for people again.

The less we participate in this abusive economy, the better. 10% unemployment is deplorable. We need 90% unemployment. If we really resent this system, let’s earn less, buy less, and own less. Let’s invest our time, energy, and resources in things that can’t be taxed or parisitized by corporations. Let’s deal not in dollars, but in energy, nutrients, materials, local currencies, and relationships. Let’s not expand, let’s stabilize. Let’s enjoy art, culture, and leisure. Perhaps we can topple the pyramid by shrinking the bottom.

Our work is this: We’ve got to make clean water available wherever rain falls. We’ve got to make food grow so rampantly that you can’t give it away. We need to build affordable and debt free housing. We need to start creating opportunities where we live so we don’t have to drive. We need to wrest control of land and resources away from powerful minorities. We need integrative, sustainable methods for managing land. We need to ranch in a way that makes game more abundant. We need to farm in a way that makes forests grow. We need to use energy in a way that generates peace and stability. We need to strengthen our social bonds.

If you still have a job, get everything in order, and quit. Do it as soon as you can, because we’ve never had a more important work to do.

Monsanto corn: coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you | SumOfUs

2012-02-09T19:22:00.000-06:00

Sign the petition to Wal-Mart

Bald Eagle Camera at Alcoa Davenport, Iowa Works

2012-02-09T18:25:00.000-06:00

Camera Source Link

A pair of bald eagles joined the Alcoa Davenport community in Iowa in 2009. They built their 7-foot nest on our 400-acre facility in a tree near the Mississippi River. In the spring of 2010 they fledged a pair of eaglets and later that year we installed our first Eaglecam. We recently launched a new camera with improved video streaming. Employees and the community helped name the eagle pair Liberty and Justice. In April 2011, an online poll named the single eaglet they fledged this year “Freedom”.

In 2011, nearly 1.5 million visitors from across the globe have tuned in to witness an American icon, the bald eagle, developing live within this unique eco-system. In the fall and winter the eagles use the nest to eat and prepare the nest for the next season. Eagles nesting in Iowa typically lay eggs in late February or early March and the eggs hatch in late March or early April. The eaglets grow quickly and are ready to fly “fledge” in late May or early June. Alcoa is proud that our unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability is helping conserve our precious natural resources.

Meet the Alcoa Eagles

Nest built in an oak tree near the Mississippi River
Nest is about 80-85 feet above the ground
Female is named Liberty and male is named Justice
Nest built in 2009
First eaglets hatched in spring of 2010
This pair of eagles lives here year round

Bald Eagles Nest at Decorah, Iowa - Ustream.TV

2012-02-09T18:13:00.000-06:00

Decorah Eagle Camera Source Link

Related Link:
Alcoa Eagle Camera Source Link

2 winter chicken coop / shelters (critter care forum at permies)

2012-02-09T17:12:00.000-06:00

source: YouTube link
winter chicken coops (critter care forum at permies)
by paulwheaton12 on Feb 9, 2012
http://www.permies.com
First, Tereza Fox, of foxbelly farm in Hillsboro, Oregon tells us about a ground level chicken shelter. It's sorta an earth-berm thing. The idea is that the chickens can stay warmer and, thus, require less winter feed.
Next, Marina and Robert of Dell Artimus Farm talk about their year round chicken coop that is winterized with straw bales. They keep woodchips under the coop and they think the composting heat helps to warm the chickens. Free range pigs visit a lot during the video. Marina and Robert talk a little about how they haven't had predator problems this year.
Relevant threads at permies:
http://www.permies.com/t/1462/chicken-coop-insulation
http://www.permies.com/t/3978/earth-sheltered-chicken-coop
http://www.permies.com/t/10102/winter-chicken-coop
http://www.permies.com/t/1958/chicken-coops-runs-tractors-paddocks
permies.com - Great friendly P2P source of free information. Get questions answered and how to help...!!! Monte Hines

Other Related Links:

Rose's Hen House of Clean!

Amazing Nature Film! ==> BBC: Earthflight - North America (Ep.1) - YouTube

2012-02-08T12:53:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by eDocumentaryVIDEO on Feb 8, 2012
http://www.edocumentary.info

Episode 1
This episode takes flight across North America, as a flock of millions of snow geese discover what it is like to be on the hit list of America's national bird: the bald eagle.

In California, pelicans reveal devil rays that perform astonishing somersaults and find bizarre grunion fish that wriggle ashore to spawn.

In Alaska, bald eagles swoop among brown bears fishing for salmon. And on the Great Plains, cowbirds duck and dive under the feet of fighting bison.

Amazing Nature Film! ... Monte

Bill McKibben and Paul Hawken - "The old levers won’t work" - "climate change is happening so fast that it may knock the props out from under the whole thing before we can get to where we need to go.” - FORA.tv -

2012-02-08T12:06:00.000-06:00

Bill McKibben and Paul Hawken: Blessed 350 from Climate One on FORA.tv

Summary

On September 8, at Climate One, two of the most influential environmentalists of the past 30 years shared the same stage for just the second time in their long careers in public life. Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth, and Paul Hawken, entrepreneur and author of Blessed Unrest, came to

Climate One to talk about the ailing economy, the economy we must build to succeed it, and the forces that stand in the way. Climate One’s Greg Dalton opened by asking Hawken and McKibben how the United States ended up mired in recession. “We got into this predicament by artificially stimulating consumption for the past 40 years,” replied Hawken. The bursting of the credit bubble should tell us, he said, that consumerism, our longtime economic crutch, won’t get us out of this mess.

“The old levers won’t work. What we’ve grown has actually put us into this position,” he said.

McKibben agreed. Since the end of World War II, he said, “the basic animating force of that economy was the task of building bigger houses farther apart from each other. It’s a project that ended up being environmentally ruinous, and socially ruinous, too.”

And yet those ruins give us something to build upon. “The fact that we’re in a period of economic trauma probably is a good sign that we need to start thinking much more systemically about what we’re going to do differently,” said McKibben.

“The economy we’re moving towards looks less to growth than to durability and resilience and security. The trajectory will be more in the direction of local, instead of the ever-expanding outward globalism that’s relied on an endless supply of cheap fossil energy to make it possible.”

“My only real worry,” he said, “is that climate change is happening so fast that it may knock the props out from under the whole thing before we can get to where we need to go.”

The way forward is studded with challenges, Hawken said. First among them, the fear that individual actions won’t, by themselves, be enough. Hence his aphorism: “Incrementalism will kill us, and there’s no way to get there but increments.” Small acts are rational and helpful, he said, but in the doing you don’t step back and ask: What do we really need to change?

“What we need to change,” he answered, “is the system. And the system cannot change until there is a manifest crisis that is shared.”

The problem, McKibben explained, is that the fossil fuel industry is actively working to block systemic change. “Most people understand that climate change is an incredibly serious problem about which we need to do something. I’m not worried about average people being willing to step up,” he said.

“Our problem is far and away caused by the fact that the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry on Earth, has all of the financial means at their disposal to keep us from taking action.” “There’s nothing polite about the political fights we’re now in,” he went on. “If we cannot break the power of the fossil fuel industry to delay change and action, then we can’t do anything. It’s people versus very concentrated pockets of money.”

Footage of the recent Keystone XL pipeline White House protest, including the arrest of 1,200 protestors, must not obscure the real radicals in this fight, McKibben said. “The people who work at Chevron and Shell and Exxon are radicals. They are willing to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere in order to get money. That’s as radical an act as any person who ever lived has undertaken. Those of us who are trying to preserve the world in something like the form we once knew it are, in this sense, deeply conservative.”

Bioneers 3.0 Wonderful organization, inspiring, leading, doing, ... at Bioneers 2011 on Vimeo

2012-02-08T11:05:00.000-06:00

Bioneers 3.0 at Bioneers 2011 from Bioneers on Vimeo.

Wonderful organization, inspiring, leading, doing, ... Monte

Related Links:
http://www.bioneers.org/bioneers-3_0
http://www.bioneers.org/about
http://www.bioneers.org/
http://www.bioneers.org/programs
http://www.bioneers.org/radio
http://www.bioneers.org/radio/2011-radio-series
http://www.bioneers.org/blog

TED talk on Ecosystem Services | Resilience Science

2012-02-08T09:10:00.000-06:00

Complete Ted Talk Link: pavan_sukhdev_what_s_the_price_of_nature
Ted Talk: ted.com/talks/1303

Economist Pavan Sukhdev, who headed The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity TEEB project that synthesized work on economics on biodiversity and ecosystem services, gives a TED talk Put a value on nature!

Every day, we use materials from the earth without thinking, for free. But what if we had to pay for their true value: would it make us more careful about what we use and what we waste? Think of Pavan Sukhdev as nature's banker -- assessing the value of the Earth's assets. Eye-opening charts will make you think differently about the cost of air, water, trees ... Very interesting and informing talk on value of nature...! Monte

Earthship Huts - Low Hanging Fruit in the Fight Against Poverty Permaculture Research Institute

2012-02-08T03:29:00.000-06:00

Building a hut — Start to finish walk-through build

Garbage Warrior [Full Length Documentary]

Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Building, Conservation, Energy Systems, Irrigation, Potable Water, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Mark Feineigle February 8, 2012

Beavers and wasps can build their own homes… — Michael Reynolds

History

Modern Earthships are shelters built to sustain their occupants by providing energy, water, and waste management through the use of passive systems. They have been designed to meet the rigorous criteria that are found in the building codes of so many western governments. While these modern Earthships are quite pleasing structures, they owe their heritage to a series of evolutions Michael Reynolds developed over a 40+ year period in remote lands surrounding Taos, New Mexico in the United States of America. While experimenting with recycled materials for construction, a design known as “the hut” was born of earth-rammed tires, aluminum cans, cement, and some metal framing. It is an ultra light house in every sense, except physically.

The ‘hut’

Overview

The core value of the hut is that it can be deployed anywhere in the world with the waste materials of the location becoming much of the construction material. This reduces both the cost and the energy input of the structure, often resulting in carbon negative buildings, and over time the hut will provide your basic needs carbon neutrally. The construction can be accomplished by anyone fit enough to hammer dirt; there are no special skills and only basic hand tools are required. It is a great training structure because of the shallow learning curve, as well as being modular in design. After you have finished your first hut, you can build more next to it to create a chain of “U” rooms that are attached by a main hallway similar to the more modern Earthship designs.

Materials

The main way the hut aims to reduce its impact during construction is through using ‘waste’ materials. The recycled items include tires, cardboard, glass, plastic and aluminum containers, as well as clothing or rags. Many of the other items, such as rebar or doors, can be salvaged to reduce the impact of the project further.

Modern building techniques utilize a great deal of wood that is not available in much of the developing world, and is quickly becoming scarcer in the developed world. The lack of resources often coincides with large garbage dumps that can be gold mines of materials to the savvy eye. Beyond the aforementioned, the metal sides of washers and dryers can be re-purposed as large shingles, or wattle-style wall panels.

Tires

A major component to the construction of Earthships are recycled tires. These can be hammered full of local dirt, sand, and debris to form 136kg (300lb) “bricks”. These preform similar to a thick earthen wall, but have the added bonus of being wrapped in an extremely durable tire. The tires are wide enough so that no foundation is required; the ground can be leveled and the first row of tires pounded into place with no major preparation to the ground. This also mates the hut with the Earth. This provides another degree of insurance against earthquakes.

Bottles/Cans

By using aluminum cans, you can form custom walls and frames of all sorts. The cans create a lattice effect in the cement that is very strong while at the same time reducing the weight and required materials. Glass bottles can also be used to add a stained-glass effect to your wall. Cut 2 colored bottles in half and duct tape them together. When you lay this bottle/brick in place allow the edges to stick out a little bit so that they will be flush with your finished plaster wall. The bottles can also be used as filling space between the tires as you plaster your interior.

Can wall

Glass bottle wall

The Roof

Depending on the climate, a one or two layer roof can be installed. In hot climates the second roof acts as an umbrella, shading the inner roof. In colder climates the space between the roofs is insulated. More moderate climates, or hot climates with sufficient shade to keep the house out of the sun, may be able to function acceptably with only a single roof layer.

The roof frame is constructed of rebar and chicken wire mesh; it is attached to rebar that extends past the top of the tire wall. Once the frame is in place you will need to install your vent or solar chimney. Good circulation and venting of the air in an Earthship is important because the soil used can off-gas things like radon that you do not want lingering in your house. Earth tubes and a solar chimney can keep sufficient fresh air circulating. Flat timber roofs or thatch can be applied to the hut design with very minor modifications.

Cover the wire frame by dipping recycled clothing into a cement mixture and apply them to the frame as in paper-mache. This layer can then be built up with several scratch layers and eventually finished with a smooth layer. The roof will be surrounded by a gutter to direct rain water into the cistern.

Cistern

By utilizing the cement can-wall technique you can create cisterns of varying capacity. The construction is straightforward and similar to the hut design. You can build at the surface of the ground, or, ideally, you can partially bury the cistern. A rebar cement roof, tin, thatch, or any local roofing material will suffice. The cistern can also be placed below the hut in a modified design; this placement has the added benefit of functioning similar to the Earth-tube cooling in that the cool water in the cistern will cool the hot air before it enters the living space.

Simple rain gutters can be made with a chicken wire frame coated with cement soaked clothing, and then adding a few more layers. These gutters, on both the hut and the cistern, will offer enough water for a couple to survive on, and grow a kitchen garden, given about 100mm (4in) of annual rainfall.

Water Management

To allow for survival on such a small amount of rain requires multiplying the work your water does. The first use of your water will be drinking, bathing, or cooking. Next, the grey water from your sink and shower leads to a series of sealed garden beds, often indoors. This provides a nutrient rich drink to the plants while also cleaning up the water before eventually overflowing into tank that is used for flushing the toilet. Black water from a toilet then goes through an anaerobic septic system before being fed into another, outdoor, bed.

By adding a pressure tank and treatment filters, your rainwater will be indistinguishable, and likely purer, from standard utility water. In more advanced Earthships this water management system is called the Water Organization Module (WOM).

Heat

Most places of the world will require an adjustment to the interior temperature of the hut to make it livable. Both heating and cooling effects are passive and designed in. The fundamental basis of heating/cooling is that the Earth’s temperature is a fairly steady 14°C (58°F). By burying your house about a meter below the surface you will insulate the Earth’s wonderful thermal mass below you. The hut can then be heated with solar gain via the appropriate placement of glass given your latitude and situation. The Earth-filled tires, and the below ground wall, act as a great thermal mass to store energy all day, radiating it into the hut at night. The floor is another thermal mass that is heated similarly to what is taught in the Permaculture Designer’s Manual. The walls extend all the way to the ground, capturing the solar gain without allowing any to escape out the sides similarly to adding insulation around the skirt of your house.

Again following permaculture design directives, the hut should be positioned to catch the winter sun and shade out the summer sun. By orienting your roof-line to the sun angles you can allow in enough sun during the cold months of the year to charge all the thermal mass with heat. This heat radiates to warm the hut overnight, cued by the change in air and wall temperature difference. This often occurs around 3am, just when you might normally feel a little chilly.

Cooling

To add passive cooling to the house you can utilize what are sometimes called “Geo-coupled thermal tubes”, simple pipes or passages below ground where hot air is cooled before entering the shelter. Dig a trench 1m deep and 20-50m long depending on your climate; the hotter the temperature, the longer the tube. By taking advantage of the thermosyphon effect created by the solar chimney exhausting the air in the shelter to create a lower pressure space, we allow a passive airflow to occur through the underground passage, into the shelter, and out the solar chimney. As the hot and humid air moves through the Earth-tube it will cool to the ~14°C (58°F) as well as draw the humidity out. Cool dry air entering the shelter will be the result.

When constructing your Earth-tubes, it is a good idea to grade them slightly away from the hut. As the humidity is deposited in the tube a buildup of water can occur. If the passage is graded away from the house, the water will pool away from the hut. This water soaks back into the ground, watering whatever you decide to plant around your Earth-tube’s inlet.

Disaster Relief

The hut design shines in the developing world where construction materials are in limited supply and unskilled labor is in surplus. Almost all places in the world where this kind of house would be welcomed also have an overabundance of tires.

Earthship creator Reynolds has proven the viability of the hut as a disaster relief structure in Indonesia, Haiti, and Mexico following their respective earthquakes and tsunamis. This relief structure is not a transitional one though; by conserving energy and building it right the first time, you can free up time in the future to further develop your region.

Buckyball

The hut is an extremely resilient structure and can stand up to tremendous forces while at the same time being “attached” to the Earth, not floating on a footer, to give it stability in an earthquake. The dome roof of the hut is a strong shape, but could likely be strengthened by building abuckminsterfullerene (or buckyball) frame to cement over. The shape of the dome also allows for the easy deflection of wind and water, making it ideal for standing up to tropical storms.

Concerns

A concern often raised is the off-gassing of the tires. The study: "Use of Scrap Tires in Civil and Environmental Construction" May 10, 1995. Environmental Geo-technics Report No. 95-2, prepared by the Geo-technical Engineering Program Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin has determined that there are no adverse effects to building with tires in this manner. The cover page and more detailed information can be found here. http://earthship.org/offgassing

More videos
Building a hut — Start to finish walk-through build
Haiti — Overview of Earthship Haiti aid efforts
Honduras, Belgium, Lakota Country, Mexico — Demonstration projects from around the world
Garbage Warrior – A more detailed history of Earthships

Materials for one 12′ Hut
70 bags of cement
11 bags structolite
8 cubic yards concrete sand
6.5 cubic yards plaster sand
4 bags engineering fibers
2 bags calcium chloride
15 1/2” rebar, 20 foot length
5 3/8” rebar, 20 foot length
4 rolls bailing wire
2 rolls stucco netting
36 sheets metal lath
10 sheets greyboard
2 rolls 6mm plastic
1 stove pipe
1 storm collar
1 cap
1 window screen
1 damper/stove plug
2 rolls duct tape
6 tubes silicon caulk
1 tube liquid nails
2 sheets sand paper
1 bag chopped straw
6 gallon boiled linseed oil
6 gallon mineral spirits
5 gallon primer
5 gallon acryshield
Lumber for door buck/frame
Glass door
Assorted nails
Batting insulation
Tiles
Flagstone
Cardboard
Water
Straw
Styrofoam
Tires
Bottles/Cans

Total for the hut ~$2500USD.

Carbon Farming Interviews Jason Aramburu on Biochar | Carbon Farming Course

2012-02-07T17:19:00.000-06:00

Published on February 1st, 2012

Jason Aramburu, Trainer at the 2012 Carbon Farming Course

In this Carbon Farming Course exclusive interview, Jason Aramburu of Re:Char tells the story of terra preta and the promise of small scale ethical biochar production. In collaboration with WHDD Robin Hood Radio, this interview is the fifth in a series that highlights the trainers of the 2012 Carbon Farming Course and digs into the fundamental issues of agriculture and economics faced by all communities today.

Listen now! Jason Aramburu Interview

Biochar Northeast will be co-teaching the Biochar Colloquium workshop on February 3rd at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY as part of the 2012 Carbon Farming Course. Learn more and reserve your spot at www.CarbonFarmingCourse.com

Other workshops include:
Jan 17-19: Holistic Management: Dr. Ann Adams, Holistic Management International
Jan 20-22: Keyline Farming: Darren Doherty, Australia Felix Permaculture
Jan 24-26: Perennial Agriculture: Wes Jackson, the Land Institute & Dave Jacke, Edible Forest Gardens
Jan 27-29: Tree Crops & Agroforestry: Eric Toensmeier, Perennial Solutions
Jan 31 – Feb 1: Living Soils: Dr. Elaine Ingham, Soil Foodweb International
Feb 3: BioChar Colloquium: Re:Char, Biochar NE, Encendia Biochar, & more!
Feb 4: Financing Regenerative Agriculture Conference with Ethan Roland
Feb 5: Local Food Systems: Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms

Interviewer Laura O’Reilly is the Station Manager for WHDD, Robin Hood Radio, “the smallest NPR station in thenation”. She has interviewed Guatemalan Consul Oscar Padilla Lam and Yi-Wen Jiang, violinist for the Shanghai String Quartet, aside from many other equally interesting and accomplished individuals. Initially she was attracted to working with Robin Hood Radio because of their “locavore” approach to media.

WHDD Robin Hood Radio provides all your favorite NPR shows and local news programming to their community. They are a Media Sponsor for the 2012 Carbon Farming Course and can be streamed live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at robinhoodradio.com.

Bill Moyers Essay: Newt Gingrich and the Real Saul Alinsky | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

2012-02-07T17:14:00.000-06:00

Bill Moyers Essay: Newt's Obesession with Saul Alinsky from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
February 3, 2012

Bill Moyers explains what we need to know about community activist Saul Alinsky, and why New Gingrich might be so afraid of him.

Stop insider trading in Congress!

2012-02-07T08:35:00.000-06:00

Help==> http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stock_act/

It's outrageous that members of Congress are currently allowed to engage in insider trading.

Members of Congress regularly receive sensitive information about the state of the economy and get advance notice on the actions of corporations, but they don't have to adhere to the laws that prohibit buying or selling stock based on that information-- laws that everyone else in America must abide by.

Rep. Louise Slaughter has introduced legislation to ban insider trading by members of Congress, known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

But Republican leadership is blocking a vote on this bill. In order for this legislation to come to a vote, a discharge petition must be launched and signed by at least 218 representatives.

Tell your representative to allow a vote on the STOCK Act to make it illegal for members of Congress to engage in insider trading.

Rep. Louise Slaughter has long led the fight against Congressional insider trading, first introducing the STOCK Act in 2006. But thanks to recent news attention on Congressional insider trading, this bill has gained momentum and has 282 co-sponsors, including 97 Republicans.

Although there are many co-sponsors of this bill, not all of the STOCK Act's supporters are doing everything they can to get this legislation up for a vote by signing the discharge petition. We need at least 218 of the bill's 282 co-sponsors to sign the petition so there can be a vote on this bill.

The Senate already passed the STOCK Act--so now it is even more critical that the House acts quickly so that this important legislation becomes law.

With extreme right-wing Republican leadership like Reps. Eric Cantor and John Boehner at the helm of the House of Representatives, we need as many representatives as possible to sign the discharge petition to ensure that this legislation can be voted on.

Stopping insider trading by members of Congress isn't a partisan issue. There are already 97 Republicans who are co-sponsors of the legislation and the legislation passed with nearly unanimous support in the Senate. Every member of Congress should recognize that they should be held accountable to the same laws as their constituents and support this bill.

It's time to ban insider trading in the halls of Congress. And we need you to tell your representative to sign on to allow a vote on this bill.

Tell your representative to allow a vote on the STOCK Act to make it illegal for members of Congress to engage in insider trading.

The Effects of Magic Mushrooms on the Brain | SuperConsciousness Magazine

2012-02-07T05:43:00.000-06:00

Psychopharmacologists Robin Carhart-Harris and David Nutt of Imperial College London have recently published the results of their study, which used fMRI technology to record the effects of psilocybin on the brain.

Although a few studies in the past have tried to measure the effects of hallucinogenic drugs on the brain, Carhart-Harris and Nutt are the first to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to record brain activity while under the influence. Using psilocybin — an active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms — the researchers recruited 30 people who had previous experience with hallucinogens. After delivering the drug intravenously, the researchers performed two types of fMRI scans on each person’s brain: the first, to measure blood flow throughout the brain, and the second, to determine blood oxygenation — normally an indicator of neural activity.

The scans indicated that psilocybin reduced blood flow as well as neural activity in a number of brain regions, creating a disconnect, particularly in the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. Both of these sections are part of the interconnected brain regions that are active when people are daydreaming. It has been suggested that these regions are important to introspective thought and the sense of conscious awareness. Nutt believes these findings “could help explain the surreal experiences the drug causes … This network in the brain that pulls together a sense of self becomes less active.”

Currently, Nutt plans to join forces with Roland Griffiths, a psychopharmacologist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, in order to explore the therapeutic potential of hallucinogenic drugs. They are particularly interested in the possibility of using psilocybin to relieve near-death cancer patients, treat depression, and enhance memory recall during psychotherapy.

Peer-to-Peer Themes for the Self-organizing Society

2012-02-06T22:23:00.000-06:00

I am a big fan of a self-organizing P2P society / democracy. I found this article very thought provoking. I personally think we are seeing P2P having a bigger influence then in the past. Recent examples: P2P response to Stop Online Piracy Act was immediate and effective, as was P2P response to Susan G. Komen for the Cure policy changes... I see P2P as a powerful grassroots tool which can overcome group think, expertise, glitzy consumerism, small group of intertwined political, economic, and knowledge elites... What do you think? ... Monte

Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Education, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Nikos A. Salingaros February 7, 2012 - The University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract

This essay presents desirable social functioning as basically a matter of free individual decision. I discuss two basic polarities: Left versus Right, and P2P (Peer-to-Peer) versus Global-mass-society. Each polarity takes certain distinctions and concerns as key to understanding political life. A self-organizing P2P society is driven by individuality, publicly-shared patterns, and common culture based on shared loves; whereas Global-mass-society is based upon groupthink, expertise, and glitzy consumerism, and is run by a small group of intertwined political, economic, and knowledge elites. These two polarities Left/Right, and P2P/Global-mass-society are split in their basic attitudes towards the past, towards authority, and towards religion. I argue that the concerns that have divided Left from Right are less important now than formerly, and that the P2P/Global-mass-society polarity is a better way to understand many important issues today. I then propose that the concerns that have motivated both Left and Right suggest the possibility of enlisting both on the side of P2P. We can overcome the traditional Left/Right distinctions in the name of a new political humanism.

Introduction

I would like to respond to Michel Bauwens’ article published on 3 April 2010, which examines the nature of a broad alliance that could be expected to adopt a new P2P (Peer-to-Peer) worldview. Bauwens correctly questions whether the old Left/Right divide is still valid. It probably is, but it is certainly neither the only nor the predominant divisor of society into groups with opposing worldviews. I have been exploring contrasting viewpoints from the perspective of art, architecture, and urbanism for some time, and would like to suggest a view of contemporary problems. This approach may hopefully yield insights that could be exploited in moving towards a more humanly-adaptive P2P society.

What I have learned from Bauwens is that the political/economic spectrum consists of a myriad of contrasting approaches, and that any simplistic interpretation is not only wrong but also dangerous. While a transparently simple interpretation and model is logically attractive, especially to the scientifically-minded reader, such approaches have led to drastic errors in the past. Examples are numerous. Peer-to-peer orientations are being debated on both sides of the political spectrum, and any important advance has to emerge out of finding a commonality in a set of P2P priorities. A P2P infrastructure is a potentially emancipatory technology that allows the free aggregation of individuals, yet such cooperative and collective organization is distinct from the groupthink pathology. A central theme of this essay is to distinguish between individuality and groupthink orientations. The P2P approach emerges as an essentially networked form of individuality. In the best cases, the socially-embedded human being is empowered by the P2P framework to create free communities based upon diversity. Nevertheless, the danger of falling into the groupthink mentality is also present in P2P practices and society, and very much so. We have to focus on the warning signs so as to be able to avoid groupthink when it happens, or catch it as it is about to happen. Groupthink oriented effects have occurred in collective practices of decision-making, and mainstreaming trends now appear on the Web.

Bauwens summarizes the difference that I discuss here in other terms. In his words, both Left and Right are divided by a centralist/decentralist dynamic, whereas P2P re-introduces this dynamic of localization in human history. This decentralist approach and movement runs contrary to previous decades of gigantism and centralization. By abandoning the visible hand of centralized planning, we move towards mutual coordination on a global scale, involving individual and collective endeavors. While wary of the invisible hand of greedy market forces that treat the individual only as something to be exploited, localization alone would be regressive and unable to survive centralist onslaughts that are already firmly in place. Mutual coordination through commonality and universality, however, assumes a large enough mass that can effectively counterbalance groupthink.

Partitioning society between individual and groupthink populations: the role of the expert

Let me divide worldviews between personal validation, versus the blind following of groupthink. On the one side, the individual decides that he/she possesses enough biological capability to judge complex events and structures in the world; on the other side, an individual relegates the ability to judge to some expert. This second alternative is influenced by the method introduced by science, where people do not usually possess the scientific training that would enable them to make scientific judgments. Science requires specialization, and its applications in fields such as engineering, medicine, etc. also define domains of specialization. The ordinary citizen simply does not have the training to match experts in those fields. Even in economics, something as necessary as tax-return preparation divides individuals who can accomplish it on their own from those for whom the task is too complex, and requires paying a tax expert to do it for them.

The authority of the expert, however, is commandeered by those persons intent on building a power structure. With religion in its most oppressive forms, an individual is told what to think. In the field of art, architecture, and urbanism, with which I am involved, an expert class of enormous extent and power has grown and now dictates group opinion about what is right and wrong. Here we have a problem in that much of contemporary artistic endeavor is felt (i.e. perceived biologically, psychologically, and viscerally) to be noxious and damaging to our psyche. This direct impression contradicts what the experts are saying, as it contradicts what a vast economic infrastructure — consisting of contemporary art museums, heavy and expensive picture books, courses in our universities, publications by world-famous critics, international shows and competitions, prestigious awards and prizes — uniformly supports.

The other, equally negative face of this phenomenon involves condemnation of what the present artistic/architectural elite does not like (because it reminds us of the past). What naturally appeals to a person on the basis of evolved human physiology is very frequently dismissed as “kitsch” and is harshly condemned as a sign of moral degeneracy and backwardness. I’m sorry to say that much of the world’s traditional art, architecture, and urbanism falls into this category of forms condemned by an immensely powerful establishment. We therefore face a global phenomenon of cognitive dissonance: what we feel is right is supposed to be wrong according to authority, and what we feel is wrong is supposed to be right.

So who is justified, the expert supported by a trillion-dollar industry centered in the world’s Art Capitals, or the folks who buy gaudy souvenirs and paint their house interiors and exteriors with bright colors? Who can we safely believe? I claim that we should trust our own biological instincts above all else, not simply for any political reason that should automatically side with the common person out of egalitarianism, but as evidenced by our own evolution. Much of the research supporting my claims is very recent and is contained, but is not limited to, the new discipline of Biophilia. Science is coming to bear, not on the side of the expert established through hegemony, but on the side of the ordinary human being. The problem is that this clarification comes several decades too late, only after a monolithic power structure has built itself up. The power the establishment wields is enough to silence scientific results.

As is clear from medicine and technology, experts are absolutely necessary in our society, yet to be useful they must be guides and helpers. Experts have to be oriented towards the interests of the citizens and civil society to help make sure that society makes the right decisions. We need experts who are conversant with the pattern approach outlined below, to derive, document, and help society in implementing patterns. The problem is how to recognize an expert with society’s interest in mind, and to distinguish him/her from someone who offers either faulty advice or a deliberately biased point of view that promotes a special interest or ideology. This is an unanswered question, and has been so throughout our history.

Patterns check the validity of expert opinion

I suggest a method of checking the credentials of any expert who offers advice on architecture and urbanism. Since the built environment touches human life in an immediate and visceral sense, we can apply the Pattern method. A Pattern as derived by Christopher Alexander is a discovered solution that works, repeated throughout human society and in different ages and cultures, and found in totally distinct cultural contexts. For example, the Pattern “Light on two sides of every room” is found in the most pleasant rooms all over the world independently of any other factor. Alexander and his colleagues catalogued 253 such discovered patterns in 1977, and provided scientific explanations for about half of them. For the rest, they simply stated them based upon their phenomenological recurrence.

An architectural and urban pattern combines geometry with biological and social function: i.e. it combines human behavior, movement, health, subconscious physiological response, and life with a fairly general geometrical condition that encompasses an infinite number of specific situations. The patterns apply to create new configurations that share an essential basis but which can all be distinct in their details. In this way, a pattern is not a rigid template to copy every time, but rather an applicable template that generates new solutions every time. (The Appendix to this essay reprints a review of Alexander’s “A Pattern Language” that I wrote for Amazon.com).

While Alexander’s patterns are extremely useful in empowering groups of people to design and build their own living environment, the idea of pattern languages is more powerful still. It is possible to undertake a program of “pattern mining”, whereby a society works to discover socio-geometric patterns in architecture and urbanism, which it then documents for posterity. The patterns can be used whenever needed to partially guarantee a more human environment. We have already seen the patterns movement in software, where Alexander’s ideas have been applied to derive catalogues of software patterns; patterns of software development; patterns of information technology; etc. Just as in architecture and urbanism, software patterns are solutions that can be re-used indefinitely.

The value of what an expert is offering can be checked against evolved patterns documented by a society. If the expert’s proposals differ too radically from the patterns, then people should be extremely cautious in adopting guidelines that might totally change their societal structure. There is an inherent conservatism in the patterns, which can save a society from disastrous re-orientations that erase what was good in their past and present. Change for the good could come fairly quickly, but within a pattern language change has to be evolved, and it very rarely offers a complete break with the past. People are extremely eager to jettison old practices and embrace the promise of the new, with its utopian visions of solving all problems with one radical stroke. We know, however, that this never works as promised. In implementing a complete break with architectural and urban patterns, our society (since the 1920s) has not succeeded in generating living environments and a human-scale urban fabric. We are now seeing a return to past typologies such as pedestrian city centers, a move away from gigantism, restricting exclusively high-speed traffic, abandoning monofunctional zoning in cities, encouraging mixed-use urbanism, implementing urban densification on the human scale, etc. All of these are very hopeful signs of progress towards a new type of living city that re-uses older traditional solutions in a contemporary context. We should encourage the many trends and initiatives that go in a positive direction of enhancing quality of life. Within this urban movement there are also anti-urban solutions that the ordinary citizen confuses with genuine solutions. Again, the method used to distinguish between a good and a harmful solution is by determining how far it connects to known patterns.

One last word on anti-patterns. Just because a typology has been used for some time does not make it a pattern. Some errors are seductive. We see examples of anti-patterns that were wrong to begin with, and remain wrong in every subsequent application. Anti-patterns are more often studied in software: they have been catalogued for the benefit of software engineers who can thus identify and avoid adopting an anti-pattern (and thus compromise their project). In architecture and urbanism, certain typologies on widely different scales have persisted since the 1920s even though they generate malaise in human users. One of these is the isolated glass-and-steel skyscraper sitting in a parking lot, lawn, or hard plaza. Any society that drives itself to extinction or self-destruction is following some form of tradition that has tragically incorporated anti-patterns. This shift is marked by the transition into a groupthink society.

P2P and pattern thinking

P2P principles play a key role in two distinct stages of the pattern approach to society and architecture. First, a pattern is evolved through collective action by many individuals and over many generations. Building a useful and pleasant environment was the central aim of architecture for all generations previous to our own, thus typologies and innovations tended to evolve into the most life-enhancing solutions, limited only by the constraints of available technology and materials. A pattern is therefore the result of collective actions, with many people contributing to its development. Patterns were copied and adapted to different circumstances: the universally applicable ones were used unaltered, whereas patterns dependent upon specific situations were adapted to fit.

Second, using pattern languages to design and build our environment depends upon the P2P ethic. Design information is open to all, and patterns encourage collaborative design and building. Ever since Alexander’s book appeared in 1977, architectural patterns have spread informally, primarily through peer-to-peer networks outside formal architecture practice and academia. Readers who have gone through architecture school know that Pattern Language is not taught as a standard part of the curriculum. The reason is that the empowering aspect of pattern languages contradicts the central message of contemporary fashionable architecture: the architect as a lone genius who possesses secret (i.e. proprietary) knowledge about design, which can never be shared with ordinary people. Even the architect’s clients are supposed to be ignorant, and have to pay exorbitant sums of money for an “original” architectural creation they themselves can never understand.

In sharp contrast to this “genius” mentality fostering artificial scarcity, people working with patterns begin with the assumption that anyone can understand how to design and build rooms, houses, urban spaces, and cities. All they need is some technical information, a few rules of what not to do, and those rules are derived from past practice (and learning from past mistakes). Design patterns are meant to be shared freely. The larger the project, the more we need technical assistance, but this has to do with technology and implementation, not with the design itself. Alexander has always emphasized that societies used their collective intelligence to build during every period of human history in the past, and only stopped doing so in the mid-20C.

Therefore, even as pattern thinking should be correctly interpreted as a continuation with older traditional design methods, it does not continue the system now in place in the wealthy countries. There exists a sharp distinction between the old (20C industrialized and globalized top-down urbanism) and the new (P2P design by empowered individuals helping each other). Informal settlements comprising a large percentage of what is built today will experience a smooth transition as P2P and pattern methods can drastically improve their quality. Unsustainable fantasies of high technology imposed upon a country by a global financial elite have found their natural and physical limits, however. There can be no continuation because those represent such a radical negation of human biology and sensibility that they are impervious to adaptation.

Business implementations of the model I am describing all define a commons with market value added on top of the free resource. Assuming that a pattern language for design is available (people use Alexander’s patterns plus a repertoire of patterns that they have themselves developed), an individual or community can hire someone with experience in implementing the patterns to help save time and costly mistakes. The design information is mostly free, and the client pays for expert advice. The New Urbanist Smart Code, which grew out of patterns, is available free online. Many New Urbanists offer their services to calibrate (i.e. adjust the code to local circumstances) and to help in its implementation. That is how they make their money. Again, the design resource is free and the profit comes from the added market value. I should mention that the architectural establishment slanders New Urbanism by labeling it as only for the wealthy; however, my New Urbanist friends and I have already applied those ideas to help in building and upgrading informal settlements and social housing.

Distinction between individual/groupthink and Left/Right partitions

The individual/groupthink partition defines a distinct political divide from the old Left/Right partition. I will look for overlaps and contradictions. Justifying the feelings of common people against an elitist society that manipulates the media is a classic responsibility of the political Left. But this same idea is just another side of the insistence of the political Right that the individual should have the ability to decide for him/herself, and not be bullied into accepting a generic world imposed by the majority society which could represent the lowest common denominator. In this crucial point of individualism, the Left and Right partially intersect.

It is also important to point out how both Right and Left have historically encouraged the partition as I have just defined it. The Right is often enamored with expensive things and the latest fashions, and this consumerist urge is precisely what drives inhuman art, architecture, and urbanism. Experts arise within, and are promoted by the unstoppable engine of global consumerism, initially very much a phenomenon of the Right. There is a lot of money to be made from promoting useless and even noxious products, whether they be art objects, fashionable-looking buildings, or entire new cities designed by a “star” architect (who may in fact have absolutely no grasp of the principles of urbanism). The media are controlled by the market, which itself exists in a self-feeding cycle within the global consumerist engine. The Left is not blameless, however. For much of its history, it has fallen prey to an ideology that falsely couples liberation and progress to abstract images of a future modernity, even long after such images turn out to be inhuman and dysfunctional in application. Well-meaning progressives bought into the promise of mass-production, especially its more noxious (and unnecessary) aspect emphasizing the machine aesthetic. We are therefore still wedded to utopian architectural and urban typologies of the 1920s, promised at that time to be liberating for the oppressed working class, and since implemented by both democratic and totalitarian governments of both Left and Right. Every application has been a dismal failure, yet our universities continue to teach the “socially liberating” ideal of the Bauhaus aesthetic as it applies to lamps, windows, buildings, and entire cities.

The Left was initially complicit in the sins of modernity, with which it shared the same presuppositions. It blindly believed in abstract social progress and social engineering from above. Individuals on the Left, however, soon responded with strong critiques of this narrow image-based or ideology-based modernity as it led to a centralist dynamic that undid individual freedoms and made individual input redundant. As Bauwens cogently proposes, the healthy solution envisions the state as a mere vehicle for coexistence: a partner and servant of civil society, rather than the master of the strategy of social change. The problem is to influence the state itself to assume this role. Bauwens warns against the extreme anti-statist reaction of libertarians and instead encourages collaboration among the disparate threads that create a civil society.

Traditional architecture and urbanism tend to be condemned by some of the creators of the groupthink society, often in the harshest possible terms. Applying negative meme encapsulation, the globally-controlled media terrorize society with the warning that any traditional-looking major building such as a public building, theater, school, museum, or organization headquarters, and historical-looking urban fabric, are an immediate threat to liberty and even to technological progress. The majority of people buy that lie because of media conditioning. The Left has been unfortunately complicit in condemning traditional architecture and urbanism because of a tragic misinterpretation that conflates social forces with abstract images. At the same time, however, unsustainable suburban sprawl that drove the recent financial collapse is based upon building great numbers of isolated houses and shopping malls that look very traditional. Here, the most superficial images of tradition are abused to sell a defective and shoddily-built product to the gullible masses who deep down yearn for some more traditional connection to their world. Urbanism that isolates people, destroys agricultural land, and wastes resources has become a corollary of the junk food industry, driven as it is by images and advertizing. Therefore, despite what seems to be a traditional movement in mass-produced residences, this is really an image covering up an unsustainable and energy-wasting despoliation of the natural environment.

P2P principles reinforce the self-organizing society

P2P practices and ideas help to balance out the tension between the two parts in the individual/unthinking partition of society. Readers will immediately offer that improved education would prevent ordinary, intelligent people from following obviously restrictive and oppressive ideologies. People reason for themselves. And yet, we see the same phenomenon repeating throughout history, where pseudo-religious cults and extremist political movements drag entire nations along in a nihilistic frenzy. Many classic cases involved societies with a highly-educated citizenry. Clearly, education is not enough to combat the phenomenon of brainwashing, especially as today, a major sector of Western economy (e.g. advertising and political campaigns) is devoted to it.

P2P practices, on the other hand, have both the correct appeal and the right message to accomplish the job. Since its inception in the slightly subversive world of open software, P2P has caught on with those who wish to sidestep a monolithic power establishment. Education in the P2P arena offers the perception that its content lies outside, and is thus potentially far more valuable, than information pumped through the regular channels by an establishment interested primarily in controlling the minds of citizens. While this may be an extreme view, it nevertheless concords with the open-source movement that liberates the tools of Information and Communications Technologies so that the rest of the world outside the global elite can profit from them.

The basis for P2P philosophy requires individuals helping each other, and its idealization is achieved when this multiple connectivity finally creates a “collective intelligence”. I hold the view that this type of collective thinking process is very different from the psychology of crowds that occurs when masses of people are driven by an ideology and groupthink. As previously mentioned, the fierce individualism of conservative thought combines to generate a higher level of group intelligence that is participatory rather than simply blindly reinforcing a single message. This collective intelligence among peers hopefully possesses a vastly improved analytical skill, which permits it to analyze social manipulation such as that practiced by the mass media. P2P society keeps its components as individuals, whereas consumerist society converts them into one unthinking mass.

Patterns represent the workings of collective intelligence over several generations to evolve socio-geometrical solutions. Assuming that a pattern has been accurately documented (discovered and not invented), it stands for a far greater authority than current architectural fashion. A style that is the idea of a single architect, although it may be copied by others, is in fact popular because a powerful establishment usually supports it. When there is conflict between architectural patterns and an individual architect, paradoxically, the pattern is the one corresponding to free aggregate individual thought because it is validated in P2P terms. By contrast, the ideas of a famous architect lack collective validation, and are supported instead by groupthink abetted by the controlled global media.

Urbanism among the groupthink society

Beginning in the 1920s, the sleek, mechanical images of a new future defined a built environment made of glass curtain walls, steel frames, reinforced concrete, and the isolated freestanding high-rise building. Neither the Left nor the Right questioned these typologies, as massive construction put up apartment blocks and office towers from Magnitogorsk, to Detroit, to Teheran. These stubbornly neat geometrical visions contrasted with owner-built housing that is more tailored to human sensibilities, though most often constructed with very poor materials. Self-built settlements are uniformly condemned as not conforming to the accepted image of progress (in truth that of reformist 1920s Europe). Governments of every political orientation make it their determined objective to bulldoze informal cities and replace them with neat-looking but inhuman tower blocks. This is one of the most serious actions against P2P urbanism, since participatory building occurs only when it is supported by local help and connectivity, and never by implementation from above.

The philosophical Right offers a bulwark against this propaganda, because it continues to value older, traditional forms. Perhaps valid for a subset of the right reasons, conservatives maintain an appreciation of traditional things, and do not rush to dispose of everything old just because a political ideology declares that such a sacrifice is necessary for progress. Conservatives are more immune to this urge to jettison all that has evolved in our past; they maintain the belief that the past is connected to the living present and cannot simply be thrown away. Here, however, we run into the collusion of the economic Right with power (with identical results to the collusion of the Left with power): nothing is sacred if it poses an obstacle to making a vast profit. It is not necessary to convince those on the Right of the sacred value of preserving the great human achievements of the past, but less easy to underscore the value of folk art and architecture and irregular urbanism. Those are too closely tied to the poor, and so do not often gain adequate support from the Right. And yet, the salvation of the built environment requires for the Right to accept and embrace the needs of human beings from all classes. “High” and “folk” art and architecture meet, interact, and reinforce each other, driven by bottom-up forces playing out in the framework of patterns, while all of this is driven by the upswell of human sentiment. When art is rooted in humanity rather than intellect, it can better resist the development of sick and sadistic expressions that have become fashionable and highly marketable in recent decades.

World production of vernacular art, architecture, and urbanism tends to come from those on the Left, simply because they are less well off. But the problem here is that these same people aspire to values instilled in their minds by the globally-controlled media, and thus refuse to value what they themselves produce. They are easily manipulated in a global game of unsustainable consumerism that profits only the multinationals. The goal of consumerism is to undervalue what can be produced easily in a P2P society, and to create a dependence upon a proprietary product. Therefore, the world today has almost entirely been taken over by an elite that is converting it into the groupthink society, driving global consumerism and the economic engine that supplies it. Most people have no qualms about the massive indoctrination that is necessary to maintain the global consumerist society. At the same time, however, we are wasting the earth’s resources.

The P2P cityscape utilizes our latest technology

Lest a reader get the wrong impression that I am promoting a return to the 18th century city and the abandonment of all technological progress, let me clear things up. World cities before the 20th century were unhealthy places, and most remain so still. We delude ourselves by limiting our attention to small portions of wealthy cities in the Western World, yet a large portion of humanity lives under terrible sanitary conditions. Fortunately, we now possess the technological resources to make a tremendous advancement that would enhance the quality of life for a major part of the world’s urban population. For example, the Grameen Bank has lifted millions out of poverty by giving out a very large number of very small loans. Technological advances such as portable telephones and low-cost local power generation have solved problems that plagued humanity for millennia. The latest technological advances can be applied in a bottom-up fashion to benefit individuals. This small-scale approach helps much more than does technological gigantism, which normally ignores the individual.

What I am proposing is that we follow architectural and urban patterns, that we respect the geometry of the living city (i.e. traditional human-scaled urban geometry), and not try to replace living human fabric with utopian images of a shiny future. Instead, use a P2P approach to upgrade our cities, driven by crowdsourcing and freely-shared information on how human beings can live better. Useful expert advice does not come from the architecture critic who proposes replacing owner-built urban fabric by giant skyscrapers built out of imported glass and steel. We should instead accept advice on how to apply patterns and small-scale technology to fix what we have. “Official” information sources tend to be mouthpieces of very powerful political and economic interests, and those have the most to gain from the large-scale approach that ignores human scale.

The key aspect of P2P society is diffuse, non-expert public involvement. P2P can play a crucial role to open people’s eyes, heretofore constrained (either by custom or by circumstance) to follow expert advice that may be destructive. Now as never before so many people have access to essential information, including patterns, that they can use to change their world into something better for all. While Alexander’s patterns are not yet available free online, all it takes is one person familiar with the Pattern Language to bring one copy of the book into a community and to help plan their future. A few volunteers can educate people around the globe on the value of thinking about patterns, using the internet as the distribution medium. The same is true for bottom-up help when an honest NGO comes to install local power sources and infrastructure using available labor and materials.

Protecting the natural resources of the world: love and ownership of the commons

I would like to explore the foundations of a P2P approach connecting to and eventually protecting our world. First and foremost, the basic concept of the commons needs to be established by physicality, not ideology. In my experience with urban forms and spaces, people do not identify with a particular place unless they feel they own it in some way. For that to occur, they must take emotional ownership. I believe that this is possible only if there is a shared feeling of love for the physical object, and even then only when this feeling is quite intense. If we love something, we care to preserve it. We can love something that is not exclusively ours, and then it becomes a common good. Much of the time, we love something that we have participated personally in creating. Consider the urban square of a village built by its inhabitants, the small church or temple in a village also built by its inhabitants, the great cathedral that was nevertheless the common endeavor of the people in a city for over a century. In all these cases, the users “own” the structure because they helped to create it, and they love it for the same reason. They will protect it against damage and destruction because they connect to it emotionally, psychologically, and viscerally.

We don’t love the modern church designed by a “name” architect because it is not part of us; it is alien. Its geometry and surfaces contradict its claim of being sacred through an unmistakable visceral message that triggers a negative physiological response in our bodies. It has been sold to us by a corrupt media through indoctrination, in a political power game where a servile group is proud to execute the wishes of the dominant elite. In the same way, we don’t love the hard alien plaza designed by another “name” architect, nor the giant and absurd abstract sculpture that occupies and spoils what could have been a very nice urban space. None of these objects can ever become part of the commons, despite the enormous media expense trying to convince us of their worth in ideological terms based upon an ephemeral fashion. Shahed Khan poses the disturbing question of whether the society that collaborates to collectively build a Mosque or Cathedral is driven by ideology and groupthink. The people are definitely motivated by a shared belief, and the resulting structure is a common good to be enjoyed by members of the majority society. I believe that the end result is one of love: a worshipper loves his/her temple, and even more so if he/she has helped to build it. The glorious religious structures throughout our history give an incredibly intense biophilic feedback that nourishes the user. Someone from another religion experiences this positive biophilic effect (Christians visiting a 15 century Mosque or Hindu temple are moved emotionally; Muslims and Hindus visiting a Medieval Cathedral are similarly moved; everyone visiting the Parthenon, etc.). Groupthink, by contrast, is most often associated with hate, not love. It polarizes one group of people against another, it denigrates and condemns the other’s work by denying the love that went into producing it, and by denying the commonality all human beings have for the things they love even as those things may differ. Groupthink channels human forces towards destruction.

As Bauwens reminds us, the commons can also be virtual, such as an online community that shares a commonly-created commons of software or design depository. A prime candidate for such a commons would be an online Pattern Language. The incredible growth of social networks testifies to the human need to connect, and to the feeling of belonging to each other and to a “meeting place” that is easy to get to (and which enables the interpersonal meetings to take place). An online website/forum is an example of a successful and concrete collective infrastructure.

Another dimension of love and ownership develops over time, after several generations have experienced connection to a particular place or building. Our ancestors could have built it, so ownership and love of that place or building runs in our family. Traditional societies value the continuity of connection that establishes an indirect link with our ancestors, and the same link continues into the future to include our descendants. Conservatives place a high value on this continuity that links generations of people across time through the intermediary of particular shared places. Unfortunately, here the Left is less helpful because of its urge to undo past society so as to move forward towards real or imagined progress. When the past is seen as a barrier to emancipation and advancement, there is little to do to convince a society of the value of preserving at least some continuity.

The Left/Right divide dissolves in a dangerous manner when the groupthink society is brainwashed into a fanatical hatred of its own past. In a phenomenon that is now referred to as Ecophobia, both Left and Right have turned against their built heritage and unthinkingly embrace images of buildings that are totally inhuman. The simple necessity of demolition in historic city centers in order to erect these new structures has spawned a propaganda war against historical and traditional built form, with the aim of replacing them. All the techniques developed in the advertising industry are applied in a clever manner to promote alien images of new buildings, while at the same time the complementary techniques of negative meme encapsulation, developed in the military rather than in Madison Avenue, are applied to condemn historical and vernacular architecture and urbanism. An “outdated” geometry is marked for elimination, and the people are convinced by the media of the necessity of introducing as rapidly as possible the new “signs of progress” that are the products of the global architectural elite.

Religion, cults, and the Left/Right polarity

Religion shapes our worldview, and it can be for the better or worse. Pretending that this doesn’t occur only opens up society to be taken over by a substitute religion. In the past, traditional religions incorporated and supported groups of evolved patterns and thus provided positive reinforcement. Substitute religions impose their own ideology and images: for example, the sleek inhuman visions of machine modernity now almost universally worshipped by people around the world. The ubiquitous images of industrial progress have assumed the status of religious idols. Every other aspect of the establishment’s power base is criticized — with a groundswell movement arising from the bottom up and fed by P2P information exchange — except for architecture and urbanism. Religious validation of inhuman architecture and urban spaces as dogma precludes a spontaneous reaction against them in our western-based networked society. The developing world, where large sections of society are much more traditionally religious than in the wealthy western nations, reacts in the opposite manner. Here, the polarity between traditional/contemporary architecture and urbanism is interpreted in predominantly religious terms. The West still has not understood this phenomenon, dismissing it thus far simply as economic and political hostility. I believe that dramatic and sharply conflicting forces are acting out here: western industrial forms so eagerly accepted by the groupthink society are correctly interpreted by people rooted in a traditional religion as a threat to their traditional worldview. The people react against this western intrusion, sometimes violently. P2P society can recognize the forces behind this reaction, and offer more appropriate alternatives consistent with human-scale urbanism that respects traditional society.

The basis for P2P society is fundamentally sounder than what we have right now, yet we still require a rapprochement on the issue of religion (referring to both traditional beliefs and the cult of industrial images) as a prerequisite for adopting patterns and rejecting propaganda. The Left wants emancipation, which includes emancipation from cultural patterns that are seen as impositions on the sovereignty of the individual and the enjoyment of the eternal present. Authoritative cultural patterns are of course at odds with the Enlightenment rationality. The establishment has used individualism, materialism, democracy, and progress through science and technology to destroy every human link to transcendence. These worthy ideals of the Enlightenment were abused by both Left and Right to create a power base for the benefit of the few.

To give cultural patterns the weight they need to stand up to opposition and perform their function, patterns have to be seen as backed by some principle that transcends particular and ephemeral human goals, and is at least as authoritative as experts and advertising images. Traditional societies validated their evolved and derived patterns by making them sacred, so that religion served this useful function of protecting patterns essential to a healthy emotional life. We will have to provide a novel, science-based mechanism for linking patterns to some order higher than the everyday. The inception of a P2P society based upon free thought resides in liberating access to useful information such as Alexander’s patterns. Without some sort of commonly-accepted support, however, evolved patterns become prey to ideologies and images that degrade humanity. A society can fall under the spell of a substitute religion that uses brilliant slogans to recruit converts and to keep the faithful in line as unthinking consumers of material and ideological junk.

P2P self-organization is especially valuable as a form of resistance to the real root of political problems: egotism, hedonism, corruption, nihilism evolving into sadism in the arts and architecture, etc. Free individual decision instead of groupthink helps establish desirable social functioning and counters a tendency towards extreme centralization. Patterns that enable individuals to deal with their lives in satisfying ways without having some expert or merchandiser tell them what to do are not just external pieces of information they can get off the web. Cultural patterns define the reality of things for individuals and help them become the kind of person they are: socio-geometric patterns shape people’s world view and consequently their very place in the world.

Scales that transcend the nation state

Some questions go far beyond the topic of this essay, and will have to be developed elsewhere. P2P society transcends the nation state, freely crossing national boundaries, since its members share more with like-minded citizens of another country than with the power establishment of their own country. P2P does not have a national border. The original dream of the Left in uniting the working classes of the world here takes on a different meaning, but one that could be equally threatening to notions of national sovereignty. Conservatives need not be alarmed, however, because P2P empowers individuals towards a better quality of life inside their own country and within their own society harmoniously, and is not directed towards world revolution. The only revolution concerns itself with liberating access to useful information.

The basic idea of P2P and people helping themselves and each other encourages co-existence among different groups that would otherwise be competing for ideological reasons, and for resources made artificially scarce by central greed and mismanagement. A P2P worldview therefore helps the situation of minorities within a majority society. At the same time, if people choose to follow the conservative/progressive alliance that I’m proposing here, national identity becomes a positive factor. Getting away from the groupthink nationalism that drives countries to aggression against each other, recognizing national cultural achievements — the opposite of the homogenization promoted by the global media — is a sustaining source of national pride. Much of the fabric of national pride has been erased by globalization that replaces local achievements with nondescript and generic commercial products.

Shahed Khan and Agatino Rizzo raise the point that the individual/groupthink dichotomy fails to bring minority groups into the debate. It is true that a dominant group exercises hegemony over other groups in a society, and that dominance is exacerbated in a groupthink mentality. Nevertheless, I believe that a P2P approach, by trying to improve the quality of life through cooperation, offers much better prospects for a positive form of society that is inclusive and which can celebrate diversity. We see the successful comingling in multicultural societies all around the world whenever a society values all factors leading to improving the quality of life through biological feedback.

Conclusion: towards a new alliance

I hope to have helped make clear part of what is required for a P2P society. Doubtless, we are only at the beginning of thinking about this effort, making plans for the first implementations, and there is much more that will need to evolve and develop. But we can summarize the first steps to take towards this goal. My discussion has been ranging between urbanism and politics, and certainly does not include the other significant components that are crucial for a P2P restructuring of institutions into a self-organizing society.

The conclusion is obvious: a consumerist frenzy driven by a massively global economic-political establishment is eating up the earth’s resources. In order to function, it had tocreate a groupthink society, and it continues to do so through its absolute control of the global media. This much is immediately grasped by part of the Left, which eagerly embraces P2P ideas because it sees in them an alignment with its own anti-establishment ideals. Nevertheless, while these points are necessary they are not sufficient to develop a new P2P society.

The other component of P2P is the re-utilization of patterns of geometry, of socio-economic actions, of tradition, which have worked in the past. Most (though certainly not all) of these traditional patterns are intrinsically sustainable because they arose out of necessity, and apply on the human scale. Here we are in the traditional domain of the Right. The Right preserves the essential respect of traditions by making them sacred. The cultural baggage of conservatives includes not only an essential understanding of what is worth saving, but also the worldview that gives an individual the strength of character to oppose the massive brainwashing that is converting the world into a groupthink population. The Left might be surprised to realize that it needs essential tools from the Right in order to complete the basic requirements for a P2P society.

We can profitably argue the viewpoint that the world has been divided according to a new partitioning, which is non-political. The old Left/Right partitioning is not very useful in implementing a new P2P society. Any component of either side of the old political divide that supports P2P can and should be incorporated into a new worldview. As soon as the world realizes this, it will become easier to cross over the old political divide in order to implement new ideas towards a sustainable society.

Acknowledgments

Let me mention that my principal influences are Christopher Alexander, Michel Bauwens, and Roger Scruton. I am most grateful for constructive criticism on earlier drafts of this essay by Michel Bauwens, James Kalb, Shahed Khan, Ryan Lanham, Agatino Rizzo, Ray Sawhill, and Stefano Serafini. I have endeavored to utilize all of their comments.

Bibliography
Christopher Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King & S. Angel (1977) A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, New York.
Michel Bauwens (2010) “With whom can we work together: is it possible to ally progressives and conservatives around P2P themes and priorities?”, P2P Foundation, 3 April 2010 http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/with-whom-can-we-work-together-is-it-possible-to-ally-progressives-and-conservatives-around-p2p-themes-and-priorities/2010/04/03.
Andrés Duany, William Wright & Sandy Sorlien (2009) Smart Code, Version 9.2, Duany-Plater-Zyberk http://smartcodecentral.com/smartfilesv9_2.html.
Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen & Martin Mador, Editors (2008) Biophilic Design: the Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, John Wiley, New York, 2008. My contribution is Chapter 5 co-authored with Kenneth Masden: “Neuroscience, the Natural Environment, and Building Design”, pages 59-83.
Nikos A. Salingaros (2000) “The Structure of Pattern Languages”, Architectural Research Quarterly, 4, pages 149-161. Reprinted as Chapter 8 of Principles of Urban Structure, Techne Press, Amsterdam, Holland, 2005.
Nikos A. Salingaros (2006) “Architectural Memes in a Universe of Information”, Mondes Francophones (February 2006)http://mondesfrancophones.com/espaces/cyberespaces/architectural-memes-in-a-universe-of-information. Revised version is Chapter 12 of A Theory of Architecture, Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany, 2006.

Paul Stamets - human consciousness and ecological sustainability - The Spirit of Good - Fungal Fantastical - YouTube

2012-02-06T20:47:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by paulstamets on Jan 23, 2012

The fungal-fantastical. Emerging from their axial homes, fungi are beginning to be understood as nutrients to the human consciousness and ecological sustainability. Paul explores mycology and compels support for your own good nature and our fungal allies. This is the first in a collaboration of Louie Schwartzberg of Blacklight films (Movingart.tv) and Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti (fungi.com). More to come!
Great video...! Monte

Related Links:
BIONEERS 2011 CONFERENCE VIDEO ARCHIVE —SAN RAFAEL, CA
http://vimeopro.com/bioneers/2011conferencevideo/video/31616967
Paul Stamets has written six seminal mushroom-related books, including Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, The Mushroom Cultivator, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, and many articles and scholarly papers. Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms and The Mushroom Cultivator are used as textbooks around the world by the specialty and medicinal mushroom industries. Paul started a medicinal and gourmet mushroom business, Fungi Perfecti, LLC, in 1980. He has received numerous environmental awards, including from Bioneers and the National Geographic, as well as Adventure’s Magazine’s Green-O-vator and the Argosy Foundation’s E-chievement awards. In 2010, Paul received the President’s Award from the Society of Ecological Restoration. (fungi.com) Must see video...! Monte

RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS Current Research by IBG Members - Illinois Biochar Website

2012-02-06T18:28:00.000-06:00

Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, University of Illinois

Scientists at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center ( http://www.istc.illinois.edu) on the campus of the University of Illinois are conducting biochar studies which include: (1) production of biochar from a variety of waste biomass and testing its characteristics; (2) use of biochar as a soil amendment for sustainable agriculture; and (3) potential environmental implications associated with biochar use. For more information on ISTC's biochar research, or if you are interested in exploring biochar production at your facility or establishing collaboration on biochar research, please contact Dr. Wei Zheng (wzheng@istc.illinois.edu) or Dr. Kishore Rajagopalan (kishore@istc.illinois.edu ).

University of Illinois-Chicago

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago are beginning studies on the application of biochar in site remediation projects. For more information, contact Dr. Krishna Reddy.

Chip Energy, Inc.

Paul Wever (pwever@pwce.com) and Dr. Paul Anderson (psanders@ilstu.edu) of Chip Energy, Inc. continue their work on biochar production and pyrolysis furnaces.
Summaries & Reviews on Biochar
International Biochar Initiative Guidelines for Specifications of Biochars document-October 2011 The final draft document is now available on the IBI website and is awaiting final comments through November 15, 2011.

For further information, and to see earlier drafts of the guidelines, and follow the course of development of the guidelines, please go to http://www.biochar-international.org/characterizationstandard.
Technical, Economical and Climate Related Aspects of Biochar Production Technologies: A Literature Review Sebatian Meyer, Bruno Glaser, and Peter Quicker Environ. Sci. Technol. 30 Sept. 2011 (web) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201792c
Biochar: A Critical Review of Science and Policy Interim draft report June 10, 2011 Biofuelwatch
Biochar Effects on Soil Biota - A Review 2011 Johannes Lehmann, Matthias C. Rillig, Janice Thies, Caroline A. Masiello, William C. Hockaday, and David Crowley Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Article in Press, Corrected Proof. DOI: doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2011.04.022
Biochar, climate change and soil: A review to guide future research 2009 Saran Sohi, Elisa Lopez-Capel, Evelyn Krull and Roland Bol Corresponding author and editor: Evelyn Krull CSIRO Land and Water Science Report 05/09
U.S.-Focused Biochar Report - Assessment of Biochar's Benefits for the United States of America 2010 Edited by Jonah Levine Contributing Authors: Christoph Steiner, PhD, Hugh McLaughlin, PhD, PE, Andrew Harley, PhD, Gloria Flora, Ronal Larson, PhD, Adam Reed, JD Centennial Publishing, Colorado, USA
Biochar for environmental management: science and technology 2009 Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph Earthscan
Biochar Application to Soils - A Critical Scientific Review of Effects on Soil Properties, Processes, and Functions 2009 F. Verheijen, S. Jeffery, A.C. Bastos, M. van der Velde, and I. Diafas EUR 24099 EN, Office for the Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 149pp.
A Guide to Conducting Biochar Trials 2009 Julie Major International Biochar Initiative, 32 pp.
Guidelines on Practical Aspects of Biochar Application 2010 Julie Major International Biochar Initiative, 23 pp.
Potential Mechanisms for Achieving Agricultural benefits from Biochar Application to Temperate Soils: a review 2010 Christopher J. Atkinson, Jean D. Fitzgerald, and Neil A. Hipps Plant Soil (2010) 337:1- 18
The Role of Biochar in Modifying the Environmental Fate, Bioavailability, and Efficacy of Pesticides in Soils: a review. 2010 Rai S.Kookana Australian Journal of Soil Research
Garcia-Perez, M., T. Lewis, and C.E. Kruger. 2010. Methods for Producing Biochar and Advanced Biofuels in Washington State. Part 1: Literature Review of Pyrolysis Reactors. First project Report. Department of Biological Systems Engineering and the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and natural Resources, Washington State University, Pullman, WA. 137 pp. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/1107017.pdf
Biochar Research Needs and Priorities: International Biochar Initiative - Updated Draft March 2010
Most Recent Publications
Biochar Production for Carbon Sequestration, Report by Allyson Stoyle, Worchester Polytecnic Institute, March 15, 2011 https://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-031111-153641/unrestricted/BIOCHAR_CO2SEQ.pdf
Biochar Articles from Google Scholar for 2011
Using Biochar as a Soil Amendment for Sustainable Agriculture June 2011 Wei Zheng, B.K. Sharma, Kishore Rajagopalan USDA Final Project Report http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/25503
Other Research/Publications
Research article on biochar use (has 90 sec. podcast) - http://earthsky.org/food/johannes-lehmann-on-turning-waste-into-a-natural-resource
Research articles on agricultural field trials in Canada - http://www.blue-leaf.ca/main-en/files/BlueLeaf%20Biochar%20Field%20Trial%2008-09%20Report-1.pdf http://www.blue-leaf.ca/main-en/files/BlueLeafBiocharForageFieldTrial-Year3Report.pdf
Biochar RefShare database http://www.refworks.com/refshare2?site=023461151726400000/RWWEB103579840/123851287166064000
Biochar Libguide http://uiuc.libguides.com/biochar
Biofarms research http://biocharfarms.org/research/
Biochar articles in google scholar http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=biochar&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search
USDA - ARS links: http://pubsearch.arsnet.usda.gov/search?q=biochar&btnG=Go%21&filter=0 &as_sitesearch=ars.usda.gov&ie=&output=xmlno_dtd&client=ars_frontend &lr=&proxystylesheet=ars_frontend&oe=&btnG.x=23&btnG.y=11 http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=249148
International Biochar Initiative Bibliography http://www.biochar-international.org/biblio

IBG MEETING ARCHIVES - Illinois Biochar Website

2012-02-06T18:12:00.000-06:00

The Illinois Biochar Group met on June 9, 2011, at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbanan-Champaign. The 25 attendees heard talks on the latest biochar work by IBG members, discussed future plans to provide educational webinars for both IBG members and the general public about biochar issues, and explored collaborative efforts for future research and use of biochar and bio-oils.

Dr. B.K. Sharma of ISTC discussed the results of his work on feedstocks, bio-oils and biochar.
Dr. Wei Zheng (click to download Power Point presentation and video) also from ISTC presented results of ammonium and phosphate soprtion studies and his IL Dept of Agriculture project field trials showing improved crop yield with biochar mixed in the soil. The best results were with biochar made from corn cobs. Also results indicated that biochar could be used along with 50% less fertilizer to obtain similar corn yields as control with 100% fertilizer. (Click here to download the final report)
Dr. Krishna Reddy of the University of Illinois - Chicago's work on methane adsorption by biochar looked very promising. Further testing is being conducted.
Dr. Kurt Spokas of USDA-ARS in St. Paul, MN (click to download Power Point presentation) told about the recent review of all biochar field trial literature that he and his colleagues have completed (200 years of study) and will publish later this year. They looked at different feedstocks, how produced, how long stored, how stored - all of this affects the reactivity of biochar in the soil along with the type of soils, moisture, etc. This literature analysis showed mixed results for biochar improving crop yield; most of the studies were with wood as feedstocks since US Forest Service has been involved with biochar for long period of time. Biochar made from poultry litter can give an increase in crop yield probably due to nitrogen in the litter.
Dr. Spokas also mentioned the current work of USDA with various field trials all over the country and the USDA-ARS Biochar-Pyrolysis Initiative with 15 locations. He continues to advise caution on the use of biochar in agriculture since each char is different - even when use same feedstock and production method for various batches - and some can cause harm to soils rather than improve fertility. He would like to see more promotion of use of biochar for carbon sequestration.
Dr. Spokas also stated that the American Society of Agronomy is setting up a Biochar Community which will focus on biochar research. At the ASA conference on Oct. 16-19 in San Antonio, there will be 1 1/2 days of talks and posters presentations on biochar. For more information, visit https://www.acsmeetings.org/home
Dr. Paul Anderson of Chip Energy, Inc. (click to download Power Point presentation) discussed the progress by IBI on biochar standards and characterization. The Illinois Biochar Group talked about working on developing standards. Dr. Anderson also mentioned his upcoming project which will be bringing cook stoves to Uganda. We discussed the possibility of exploring carbon credits for the producers of biochar there.
Paul Wever from Chip Energy, Inc. provided demonstrations of one of the Chip Energy cook stoves and also a larger pyrolyzing unit (click here to view the pictures).

Using Biochar as a Soil Amendment for Sustainable Agriculture - IDEALS @ Illinois

2012-02-06T18:04:00.000-06:00

Bookmark or cite this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/25503

Files in this item
FileDescriptionFormat
Using Biochar a ... inal report from Zheng.pdf (3MB) Final project report PDF

Title: Using Biochar as a Soil Amendment for Sustainable Agriculture
Author(s): Zheng, Wei; Sharma, B.K.; Rajagopalan, Nandakishore
Subject(s): Biochar -- Illinois -- Research Sustainable agriculture -- Illinois -- Research
Abstract: Biochar is a charred carbon-enriched material intended to be used as a soil amendment to sequester carbon and enhance soil quality. Sustainable biochar is produced from waste biomass using modern thermochemcial technologies. Addition of sustainable biochar to soil has many environmental and agricultural benefits, including waste reduction, energy production, carbon sequestration, water resource protection, and soil improvement. Therefore, the use of sustainable biochar as a soil amendment is an innovative and highly promising practice for sustainable agriculture. In this project, three proposed tasks have been completed. First, we developed a lab-scale pyrolyzer to convert a variety of waste biomass to three valuable bio-products. The effects of pyrolysis temperature and the type of feedstock on the yields of three bio-products were performed. The properties of various biochars were characterized. Second, a series of batch experiments was conducted to determine the sorption capacities of biochar for ammonium and phosphate ions (NH4+ and PO43-). The sorption kinetics and removal mechanisms of the above two nutrients by biochar were comprehensively investigated. This study showed that two biochars produced from wood wastes could simultaneously sorb NH4+ and PO43-, suggesting that the addition of biochar into soil can retain nutrients in soil, prevent their runoff or leaching, and thereby retain them so they are available to plants. Third, a field trial was conducted in an Illinois agricultural field to demonstrate that using biochar as a soil amendment can improve soil quality and increase crop yields. A synergetic effect was observed when the use of biochar was combined with fertilizer. It indicates that using biochar as a soil amendment can reduce chemical fertilizer use while at the same time keeping high crop yields. This project, to the best of our knowledge, represents the first field demonstration on the use of biochar as a soil amendment in fertile soils typical of Illinois. The project also catalyzed the hosting of the first biochar research conference in the state and the formation of a network of researchers committed to further exploration of the potential benefits and pitfalls related to biochar. One peer-reviewed publication and two additional manuscripts under preparation represent our outreach efforts and disseminate the information to a broader audience as well.
Issue Date: 2010-12
Genre: Report (Grant or Annual)
Type: Text
Language: English
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/25503
Publication Status: unpublished
Peer Reviewed: not peer reviewed
Sponsor: Illinois Department of Agriculture. Sustainable Agriculture Grant Program; SA 09-37
Date Available in IDEALS: 2011-06-21

High Tech Compost: Biochar Production & Anaerobic Digestion - YouTube

2012-02-06T17:27:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by SVIISociety on Feb 5, 2012

Howard Sprouse leads an interactive dialog at SVII, outlining a vision for integrating biochar with the anaerobic digestion facility being proposed for Palo Alto, CA.

Howard is the presided of a myco-remediation company in Port Angeles, WA.
http://www.theremediators.com

Brought to you by http://www.svii.net

What Breast Cancer is, and is not! - YouTube

2012-02-06T16:56:00.000-06:00

Most powerful videos to come out of the whole thing—from a cancer survivor named Linda in Las Vegas. It's an amazingly blunt four minutes on what breast cancer is, and why it should not be political. It ends with the kind of fight, humor, and candidness that we all wish we could offer up when situations like this arise...

LINDA, TELLING IT LIKE IT IS... Go Girl!... Monte
Uploaded by LindainLasVegas on Feb 2, 2012

Shout out to Susan G. Komen Foundation, my description about what my Breast Cancer is, and is not. (pardon the poor audio quality of the built-in mic on my digital camera.)

Related link:
Dissatisfaction-Komen-Foundation-goes-beyond-planned-parenthood-break

The Heroes of Super Bowl Sunday | The Nation

2012-02-06T15:23:00.000-06:00

The Heroes of Super Bowl Sunday
Dave Zirin on February 6, 2012 - 3:49pm ET

I emerge from the echo-chamber of Super Bowl Sunday energized and armed with a new set of heroes and folk-tales to pass on to others. My hero on our great (near) secular national holiday wasn’t Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who one suspects would be going to Disney World whether he won or lost. It wasn’t the incredible looking Madonna, spotted backstage drinking her daughter's stemcells, or M.I.A. with her middle-finger-malfunction. It also wasn’t Clint Eastwood who made a commercial where I think he threatened to murder Detroit.

My new heroes are the people in the Occupy and Labor movements who gathered to protest on Super Bowl Sunday. It certainly didn’t make Sportscenter that night, but several hundred people gathered at the Indianapolis state house to stand up against the recent passage of the state's “right to work” legislation and make clear that the fight was far from done.

They included representatives from the Indiana Occupy movement, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, union iron workers, as well as trade unionists from UNITE, and the Communication Workers of America. They came from Indianapolis, Bloomington, Anderson, and beyond. Their ranks included radical cheerleaders from Indiana University who chanted, "Lies and tricks will not divide. Workers standing side by side….Union town through and through. You for me and me for you.”

My heroes include Randy, a member of the iron worker's union who came with a delegation all the way from Wisconsin to speak at the rally. Following his words, people chanted "From Tahrir Square to Wisconsin, We shall Fight we shall Win".

My heroes include people named Amy, Ben, Mike, Heath, Ed, April, Jacob, Jubin, Bill, and the tireless Tithi Bhattacharya who emailed me at day’s end, “Class solidarity does exist!”

All of these proud trade unionists and Occupy activists showed up even though the AFL-CIO explicitly instructed people not to protest on the day of the big game. They accepted the bullying line that the Super Bowl was not a day for politics. They accepted this even though a brutal anti-union ad played during the game for much of the country.

That's why it's so important that the people were a presence at this Woodstock for the 1%, leaving energized and excited about further forging connections between the Occupy and the Labor movements. After all, we don't have $3 million for a 30 second ad. We just have the ability to gather and be heard.

As for the game itself, I think I’ll always remember the stirring words of Gisele Bundchen. For those who don’t know (and if you don’t, then more power to you) Bundchen is our world’s first billionaire Super Model. She’s also the spouse of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. In the aftermath of the game, she was recorded saying, "You've to catch the ball when you're supposed to catch the ball. My husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times." One player said after hearing her words, "It's like knocking someone when they are down."

Gisele comfortably carries the billionaire's impatience with the great unwashed breathing her air, who in her mind, are the fools unable to catch her husband's throws. But with her statement, I think we can see why so many people are overdosing on schadenfreude following the Patriots 21-17 loss to the Giants. For years, the Patriots have played with a sense of entitlement. They won three Super Bowls in Tom Brady's first four seasons as a starter and since then, every year, they've played like it was their trophy that some other team was just borrowing. It's an arrogance that has festered and worsened into a scabby crust that surrounds Brady and his coach Bill Belichick with each year of failure. They have become the Randolph and Mortimer Duke of the NFL, screaming after every season ending loss for the stock exchange to "Turn those machines back on!" Then there is Patriots owner Bob Kraft, and his owner’s suite mate Rush Limbaugh, with Limbaugh caught on camera forlornly picking his nose.

Seeing the arrogant and the entitled get knocked down a peg is always welcome. But in the real world it doesn’t mean a damn just because one arrogant and entitled owner’s box cheers, while another weeps. It happens because people around the country are standing up and saying, "Enough is enough." In Indianapolis, it happened because people heroically dared to be heard on a day when everyone told them to just shut up and watch the game.

Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto

2012-02-06T15:03:00.000-06:00

SignOn.org Beta - Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto

CD3WD Archives the Information Necessary to Rebuild Society

2012-02-06T11:41:00.001-06:00

SURVIVALIST
BY DAVE DRAGER
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5765617/cd3wd-archives-the-information-necessary-to-rebuild-society

CD3WD Archives the Information Necessary to Rebuild Society

The world economy has collapsed. There is no internet or Wikipedia. How do you rebuild society?

CD3WD is a site built by programmer Alex Weir that's meant to help spur the improvement of the infrastructure of third world nations by giving them first-world technology and knowledge for free.

Everything from agriculture to technology is addressed in its roughly 4 DVDs worth of the archived information available online and for free in text and PDF format; it's also available to download in its entirety from this torrent.

Not only is this project a great information resource for third-world countries, but if you are of the survivalist mindset, this resource would be great to keep in your tool chest for possible use in the future if such a civilization-ending disaster ever did occur. Think of it as a repository of some of the most useful human knowledge and technology.

The project is also looking for volunteers to add content to areas which are missing substantive content. Photo from Wikipedia.

CD3WD/Home Page

CD3WD/Browse <--> CD3WD

Playing God | synthetic biology and new creature created by American scientists - the spider-goat - 59 minute movie

2012-02-06T06:31:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by nazeazeno1985 on Jan 19, 2012

DOWNLOAD THIS VIDEO IN HD:http://uploading.com/files/a31dfa53/BBC.Horizon.2012.Playing.God.PDTV.x264.AC...

Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists - the spider-goat. It is part goat, part spider, and its milk can be used to create artificial spider's web.

It is part of a new field of research, synthetic biology, with a radical aim: to break down nature into spare parts so that we can rebuild it however we please.

This technology is already being used to make bio-diesel to power cars. Other researchers are looking at how we might, one day, control human emotions by sending 'biological machines' into our brains.

low-cost tubular biogas technology , climate-smart initiatives being undertaken by rural communities - Responding to change - YouTube

2012-02-06T06:24:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by cdknetwork on Feb 6, 2012

The communal tubular bio-gas project is an example of low-cost, climate-smart initiatives being undertaken by rural communities in Kenya to adapt to climate change. a low-cost climate-smart agricultural innovation being adopted by rural communities in Kenya. Agriculture in developing countries must change significantly to meet the related challenges of food security and climate change. are ways people in rural communities are responding to to climate change. these initiatives have been managed by the community members

Related links:

Consolidation in the seed industry

2012-02-06T05:40:00.000-06:00

by JEREMY on FEBRUARY 6, 2012
http://agro.biodiver.se/2012/02/consolidation-in-the-seed-industry/

We’ve written before about consolidation in the seed industry making the same tired joke that I want to make again now, that a picture is worth 1000 words. It doesn’t hurt to stay up to date though, which is why I am grateful to Resources Research for finding, and colouring in, the diagram from theUSDA report on Research Investments and Market Structure in the Food Processing, Agricultural Input, and Biofuel Industries Worldwide.

The USDA report is not, as far as I can tell, anything to do with the US Department of Justice’s investigation of antitrust practices in the seed industry, announced a couple of years ago. So what has become of that? Anyone know?

Philanthropy is the enemy of justice | Robert Newman | Comment is free | The Guardian

2012-02-05T07:30:00.000-06:00

The world's poor are not begging for charity from the rich – they're asking for justice and fairness
Robert Newman guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/27/philanthropy-enemy-of-justice

Gates's voice is loud, but the model of development it proclaims is the wrong one because philanthropy is the enemy of justice'. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

It's strange that at this week's World Economic Forum the designated voice of the world's poor has been Bill Gates, who has pledged £478m to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, telling Davos that the world economic crisis was no excuse for cutting aid.

It reminds me of that dark hour when Al Gore, despite being a shareholder in Occidental Petroleum, was the voice of climate change action – because Gates does not speak with the voice of the world's poor, of course, but with the voice of its rich. It's a loud voice, but the model of development it proclaims is the wrong one because philanthropy is the enemy of justice.

Am I saying that philanthropy has never done good? No, it has achieved many wonderful things. Would I rather people didn't have polio vaccines than get them from a plutocrat? No, give them the vaccines. But beware the havoc that power without oversight and democratic control can wreak.

The biotech agriculture that Lord Sainsbury was unable to push through democratically he can now implement unilaterally, through his Gatsby Foundation. We are told that Gatsby's biotech project aims to provide food security for the global south. But if you listen to southern groups such as the Karnataka State Farmers of India, food security is precisely the reason they campaign against GM, because biotech crops are monocrops which are more vulnerable to disease and so need lashings of petrochemical pesticides, insecticides and fungicides – none of them cheap – and whose ruinous costs will rise with the price of oil, bankrupting small family farms first. Crop diseases mutate, meanwhile, and all the chemical inputs in the world can't stop disease wiping out whole harvests of genetically engineered single strands.

Both the Gatsby and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations are keen to get deeper into agriculture, especially in Africa. But top-down nostrums for the rural poor don't end well. The list of autocratic hubris in pseudo-scientific farming is long and spectacularly calamitous. It runs from Tsar Alexander I's model village colonies in 1820s Novgorod to 1920s Hollywood film producer Hickman Price, who, as Simon Schama brilliantly describes in The American Future, "bought 54 square miles of land to show the little people how it was really done, [and] used 25 combines all painted glittery silver". His fleet of tractors were kept working day and night, and the upshot of such sod-busting was the great plains dustbowl. But there's no stopping a plutocratic philanthropist in a hurry.

And then there is the vexed question of whether these billions are really the billionaires' to give away in the first place. When Microsoft was on its board, the American Electronics Association, the AeA, challenged European Union proposals for a ban on toxic components and for the use of a minimum 5% recycled plastic in the manufacture of electronic goods.

AeA took the EU to the World Trade Organisation on a charge of erecting artificial trade barriers. (And according to the American NGO Public Citizen, "made the astounding claim that there is no evidence that heavy metals, like lead, pose a threat to human health or the environment".)

Now, the EU is big enough and ugly enough to have fought and won the case. But many an African country lacks the war chest for such a fight, and so will end up paying for the healthcare of those exposed to leaky old PCs' cadmium, chromium or mercury, instead of embarking on, let's say, a nationwide anti-malaria strategy. Bill Gates himself may not indeed have known about what the AeA was doing on Microsoft's behalf, but the fact remains that if a philanthropist's money comes from externalising corporate costs to taxpayers, and that if Microsoft is listed for its own tax purposes as a partly Puerto Rican and Singaporean company, then the real philanthropists behind these glittering foundations might be a sight more ragged-trousered than Bill and Melinda.

Free marketeers will spring to the defence of billionaire philanthropists with a remark like: "Oh, so you'd rather they spent all their money selfishly on golf courses and mansions, would you?" To which I reply: "Oh, you mean that trickle-down doesn't work, after all?" But the point is that the poor are not begging us for charity, they are demanding justice. And when, on the occasion of his birthday, a sultan or emperor reprieved one thousand prisoners sentenced to death, no one ever called those pardons justice. Nor is it justice when a plutocrat decides to reprieve untold thousands from malaria. Human beings should not have to depend upon a rich man's whim for the right to life.

Academic publishers have become the enemies of science | Dr Mike Taylor | Science | guardian.co.uk

2012-02-05T07:13:00.000-06:00

The US Research Works Act would allow publishers to line their pockets by locking publicly funded research behind paywalls

Mike Taylor guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 January

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/16/academic-publishers-enemies-science

The free dissemination of lifesaving medical research around the world would be prevented under the Research Works Act. Photograph: LJSphotography/Alamy

This is the moment academic publishers gave up all pretence of being on the side of scientists. Their rhetoric has traditionally been of partnering with scientists, but the truth is that for some time now scientific publishers have been anti-science and anti-publication. The Research Works Act, introduced in the US Congress on 16 December, amounts to a declaration of war by the publishers.

The USA's main funding agency for health-related research is the National Institutes of Health, with a $30bn annual budget. The NIH has a public access policy that says taxpayer-funded research must be freely accessible online. This means that members of the public, having paid once to have the research done, don't have to pay for it again when they read it – a wholly reasonable policy, and one with enormous humanitarian implications because it means the results of medical research are made freely available around the world.

A similar policy is now being adopted in the UK. On page 76 of the policy document Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth the government states that it is "committed to ensuring that publicly funded research should be accessible free of charge". All of this is great for the progress of science, which has always been based on the free flow of ideas, the sharing of data, and standing on the shoulders of giants.

But what's good for science isn't necessarily good for science publishers, whose interests have drifted far out of alignment with ours. Under the old model, publishers become the owners of the papers they publish, holding the copyright and selling copies around the world – a useful service in pre-internet days. But now that it's a trivial undertaking to make a paper globally available, there is no reason why scientists need yield copyright to publishers.

The contribution that publishers make – coordinating editors, formatting, and posting on websites – is now a service that authors can pay for, rather than a bargaining chip that could be worth yielding copyright for. So authors making their work available as open access pay publishers a fee to do so, and the publisher does not own the resulting work.

Open-access publishers such as the Public Library of Science are able to make a modest profit on a publication fee of $1,350 (£880). But traditional publishers have become used to making much more than this, and so resist the inevitable conversion to open access. Early in the process, they did this by pouring scorn on PLoS, predicting that it would never take off. But now that PLoS ONE is the world's largest academic journal, that attack can hardly be maintained. Instead, publishers have turned to the approach that uncompetitive corporations have always used in America: lobbying for legislation to protect their unsustainable model.

If passed, the Research Works Act (RWA) would prohibit the NIH's public access policy and anything similar enacted by other federal agencies, locking publicly funded research behind paywalls. The result would be an ethical disaster: preventable deaths in developing countries, and an incalculable loss for science in the USA and worldwide. The only winners would be publishing corporations such as Elsevier (£724m profits on revenues of £2b in 2010 – an astounding 36% of revenue taken as profit).

Since Elsevier's obscene additional profits would be drained from America to the company's base in the Netherlands if this bill were enacted, what kind of American politician would support it? The RWA is co-sponsored by Darrell Issa (Republican, California) and Carolyn B. Maloney (Democrat, New York). In the 2012 election cycle, Elsevier and its senior executives made 31 donations to representatives: of these, two went to Issa and 12 to Maloney, including the largest individual contribution.

For all their talk of partnering with scientists, Elsevier's true agenda is nothing nobler than to line their pockets at the expense of scientists worldwide and everyone with a preventable or treatable disease.

It's hardly surprising that publishers would fight dirty to hang on to a business model where scientists do research that is largely publicly funded, and write manuscripts and prepare figures at no cost to the journal; other scientists perform peer-review for free; and other scientists handle the editorial tasks for free or for token stipends. The result of all this free and far-below-minimum-wage professional work is journal articles in which the publisher, which has done almost nothing, owns the copyright and is able to sell copies back to libraries at monopolistic costs, and to individuals at $30 or more per view.

What is surprising is how complicit scientists are in perpetuating this feudal system. The RWA is noisily supported by the Association of American Publishers, which has as members more than 50 scholarly societies – including, ironically, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which by its implicit support of the RWA is making itself an association for the retardation of science.

What can we do to prevent the RWA from passing? US citizens should write to their representatives explaining what a disaster it would create, and how unfair and unnecessary it is. And every working scientist should check their professional memberships to see whether their dues are being forwarded to an association that promotes sending science back into walled gardens. If so we should pressure our professional societies to withdraw from the Association of American Publishers, or at least to publicly state their opposition to the RWA .

The bottom line for scientists is that many publishers have now made themselves our enemies instead of the allies they once were. Elsevier's business does not make money by publishing our work, but by doing the exact opposite: restricting access to it. We must not be complicit in their newest attempt to cripple the progress of science.

Dr Mike Taylor is a research associate at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol

"Sustainable Strategy" - Big Ideas - Changing the World Today - What is Wisdom? - Colin Coyne

2012-02-05T00:08:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by TEDxTalks on Feb 4, 2012

Colin is nationally recognized for his work in sustainability, emphasizing corporate strategic opportunities and a for-profit model to enhance the enterprise and community. His "Sustainable Strategy" course at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago is at the forefront of new strategic thought in the 21st century business world -- a world in which margins are pressed due to the free flow of information, climate change is shaping global policy and trade, and the battle over scarce resources will be one of management's greatest challenges.

Colin also serves as an adjunct professor at Samford University where he teaches "The Economics of Sustainability" to masters and PhD students in the School of Biology and Environmental Sciences; is an adjunct professor teaching "Sustainable Enterprise" at the Lipscomb University Institute for Sustainable Practice in Nashville to graduate and executive students; and, is a faculty member at Auburn University's Economic & Community Development Institute.

======================

My greatest take away from this presentation was this equation presented on a slide.

I have never seen such a clear understanding of Wisdom.
This explains why we have such great synergy when we are able to work in groups in a positive, honest, and objective way.
So simple! So awesome! So powerful! ...
It seems if everyone understood this, and practiced it, we could fix most problems of the world, in a better way... Monte Hines

Reference Link:
Presentation=90 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xW9f9HaGIpk#t=90s
Definitions:
synergy - Wikipedia - The term synergy was refined by R. Buckminster Fuller, who analyzed some of its implications more fully and coined the term Synergetics

Top 15 free movies sites

2012-02-04T19:26:00.000-06:00

1. Hulu - Hulu is the first place I go online when I want to find quality, free, full length movies. They've got a good selection of movies here, and they are all easy to find with good organization.
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5. FreeTube - Freetube is quite different from the rest of the sites profiled in this list. Instead of individual movies, Freetube offers streaming channels from which you can watch a free full length movie: it's just not certain what you're going to get! Channels offered are The Movie Channel, Free Classics, the Mystery Channel, and quite a few more. All movies are in reasonably good quality; my only beef is that there should be some kind of viewing schedule available.
6. 10 Star Movies - - 10StarMovies enables you to Watch Movies without any software download and by streaming video files online for free. Registration is optional. Large collection of Online Movies, Celebrity Profiles, documentaries, download movies and more... This website is not related to watch-movies.net in any way.
7. Documentary Log - Free documentaries online. Watch the best documentaries at documentary-log.com. Anthropology, Astronomy, Space, Biography, Biology, Cosmology, History, Lifestyle, Society, Mystery, Nature, Conspiracy
8. Movie square - Moviesquare.net is absolutly legal and contain only links to other sites on the Internet : ( rapidshare.com, megaupload.com, megashare(s), mega, dailymotion.com, myspace.com, ouou.com, stage6.com, tudou.com, veoh.com, youku.com, youtube.com and others.. ) We do not host or upload any video, films, media files ( avi, mov, flv, mpg, mpeg, divx, dvd rip, mp3, mp4, torrent, ipod,psp), moviesquare.net is not responsible for the accuracy, compliance, copyright, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the content of other linked sites.
9. TubePlus - Watch all the latest tv shows and blockbuster movies for free as well as a huge archive of past cinema and your favorite series only on tubeplus the world's biggest video streaming website.
10. Ran Gu - Ran gu is a truly fascinating repository of all sorts of really high quality free full length movies; daily updated blog about telugu movies, hindi movies, bollywood, tollywood, cricket, tv shows, india, previously known as 123onlinemovies, you can find anything from here.
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14. Bollywood moives - Watch online latest Bollywood movies on A2ZbollywoodMovies.com because this is the best site to watch online Bollywood Indian Hindi movies 100% FREE!!
15. Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive - The Internet Archive is a truly fascinating repository of all sorts of really high quality free full length movies; you can find anything from historical films to open source movies here.

Back to Eden Film - View Free Online!

2012-02-04T14:38:00.000-06:00

Source: http://backtoedenfilm.com/ - for free viewing

BACK TO EDEN shares the story of one man’s lifelong journey, walking with God and learning how to get back to the simple, productive methods of sustainable provision that were given to man in the garden of Eden. The organic growing system that has resulted from Paul Gautschi’s incredible experiences has garnered the interest of visitors from around the world. However, never until now have Paul’s methods been documented and shared like this!

As a part of our mission to freely give and freely receive, the makers of BACK TO EDEN have agreed to stream the full feature film online for free. For viewers who support this film and who want to help other people see it, please share backtoedenfilm.com, buy copies of the full feature film to give to others or host a screening in your community.

THE LAST DYMAXION: Buckminster Fuller's Dream Restored... by Noel Murphy — Kickstarter

2012-02-04T06:25:00.000-06:00

Noel Murphy is raising funds for THE LAST DYMAXION: Buckminster Fuller'sDream Restored ...

www.kickstarter.com/.../the-last-dymaxion-buckminster-fullers...

podcast 104 rocket mass heaters with ernie and erica | | permaculture podcast by paul wheatonpermaculture podcast by paul wheaton

2012-02-04T06:15:00.000-06:00

SourceLink: http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/782-podcast-104-rocket-mass-heaters-with-ernie-and-erica/

Length 2:51

download ernie and erica podcast

Buy Ernie and Erica’s detailed plans

Paul Wheaton talks with Ernie and Erica Wisner about rocket mass heaters. They talk about the boom-squish podcast Paul did with Caleb Larson on heating water with a rocket mass heater. They talk about heating coils, and the importance of a tall and vertical heat riser. Ernie talks about all of the testing he has done on his own time, and his frustration with people “innovating” stupidly and incorrectly calling what they make a “rocket mass heater.” It is important people read the abundant information available on the wood burning stoves forum before burning Ernie and Erica out on asking already asked questions, and get a good, safe foundation of things before building one yourself. Paul talks about legionella bacteria. They have building plans on the way for their double chamber cob oven, which will be good documentation for people trying to follow building code. Ernie and Erica will be doing workshops at Yestermorrow (Vermont, September), The Newforest Institute (Maine, September/October), and they encourage people in the northeast and Great Lakes region to contact them about doing other workshops or builds, (as well as in Montana and Nevada as they will be in Reno in both March and June). Paul mentions how 11 days of Sepp Holzer and the PDC beforehand are currently filled but have waiting lists. Ernie and Erica respond to listener questions. What’s the smallest rocket mass heater andlargest rocket mass heater that are safe? 6″-10″ (largest feasible). Ernie can make an 8″ system that will be able to heat a 5000 sq foot house. Ernie says, if you don’t want back-smoke: build it right. They talk about cleaning and easy maintenance. They talk aboutburning pine or damp wood. They talk about how safe rocket mass heaters are for pets and little kids. Rumford fire places are a smart use of radiant heat, that you can watch and enjoy. The idea of an RMH IS to have a prolonged chimney fire on purpose. They talk about converting using existing chimneys. They talk about rocket cookstoves. They talk about catalytic converters. Paul talks about his portable rocket mass heater. They talk about optimizing how rockety the heater gets, and the barrel. Ernie and Erica talk about possible experiments they would do if they had the budget. Erica talks about the need for rocket mass heaters in the world, and their passion for them. Paul talks about war and fossil fuels. Erica talks about passive solar being ideal, like Paul’s wofati. Erica shares inspector stories, and ways to pass code with your rocket mass heater. Paul talks about playing by the rules vs. not playing by the rules. Discussing the podcast.

What Is A Rumford Fireplace?

2012-02-04T05:00:00.000-06:00

Full Article: http://www.rumford.com/articleWhat.html
by Jim Buckley

Rumford fireplaces are tall and shallow to reflect more heat, and they have streamlined throats to eliminate turbulence and carry away the smoke with little loss of heated room air.

Rumford fireplaces were common from 1796, when Count Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850. Jefferson had them built at Monticello, and Thoreau listed them among the modern conveniences that everyone took for granted. There are still many original Rumford fireplaces - often buried behind newer renovations-throughout the country.

Count Rumford, for whom the fireplace is named, was born Benjamin Thompson in Woburn, Massachusetts in 1753 and, because he was a loyalist, he left (abruptly) with the British in 1776. He spent much of his life as an employee of the Bavarian government where he received his title, "Count of the Holy Roman Empire." Rumford is known primarily for the work he did on the nature of heat.

Back in England, Rumford applied his knowledge of heat to the improvement of fireplaces. He made them smaller and shallower with widely angled covings so they would radiate better. And he streamlined the throat, or in his words "rounded off the breast" so as to "remove those local hindrances which forcibly prevent the smoke from following its natural tendency to go up the chimney..."

Rumford wrote two papers detailing his improvements on fireplaces in 1796 and in1798.* He was well known and widely read in his lifetime and almost immediately in the 1790s his "Rumford fireplace" became state-of-the-art worldwide.

Today, with the extensive restoration of old and historic houses and the renewed popularity of early American and classical architecture in new construction, Rumford fireplaces are enjoying a comeback. Rumford fireplaces are generally appreciated for their tall classic elegance and their heating efficiency.
____________

*Most recently Rumford's two essays on fireplaces have been published in The Collected Works of Count Rumford; Vol. 2; Sanborn Brown, ed.; Harvard Univ. Press; 1969; available in most libraries or through Inter-Library Loan or On Line Version

Related links:
http://www.ernieanderica.info/firescience
Rumford fireplace - Wikipedia
Rumford fireplaces and how they are made - Benjamin Rumford - Google eBook
http://www.kingsmaterial.com/
http://www.rumford.com/contents.html
http://rumfordfireplaces.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-rumfords-work_2007.html

Large Image

'Money Buys Results in Congress' - YouTube

2012-02-03T19:59:00.000-06:00

2:57 Summary

How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It from The Long Now Foundation on FORA.tv

The Biochar Miracle Permaculture Research Institute

2012-02-03T19:34:00.000-06:00

Two great videos at The Biochar Miracle! ...Monte

Divine Injustice Permaculture Research Institute

2012-02-03T18:25:00.000-06:00

Alternatives to Political Systems, Society — by George Monbiot February 1, 2012
Drone warfare can be used to thwart democratic movements, anywhere.

by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom

The ancient Greeks, unlike the Jews or the Christians, invested their gods with human failings. Divine judgement, they believed, was neither flawless nor dispassionate; it was warped by lust, vengeance and self-interest. In the hands of Zeus, the thunderbolt was both an instrument of justice and a weapon of jealousy and revenge(1).

Those now dispensing judgement from on high are not gods, though they must feel like it. The people striking mortals down with drones are doubtless as capable as anyone else of self-deception, denial and cognitive illusions. More so perhaps, as the eminent fictions of the Bush years and the growing delusions of the current president suggest.

Barack Obama began last week’s State of the Union address by claiming that the troops who had fought the Iraq war had “made the United States safer and more respected around the world.”(2) Like Bush, like the gods, he has begun to create the world he wants to inhabit.

These power-damaged people have been granted the chance to fulfil one of humankind’s abiding fantasies: to vapourise their enemies, as if with a curse or a prayer, effortlessly and from a safe distance. That these powers are already being abused is suggested by the mendacity of those who are deploying them. The CIA, running the undeclared and unacknowledged drone war in Pakistan, insists that there have been no recent civilian casualties(3). So does Obama’s chief counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan(4). It is a blatant whitewash.

As a report last year by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism showed, of some 2,300 people killed by US drone strikes in Pakistan from 2004 until August 2011, between 392 and 781 appear to have been civilians; 175 were children(5). In the period about which the CIA and Brennan made their claims, at least 45 civilians have been killed. As soon as an agency claims “we never make mistakes”, you know that it has lost its moorings, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested in his story of that title. Feeling no obligation to apologise or explain, count bodies or answer for its crimes, it becomes a danger to humanity.

It may be true, as the US air force says, that because a drone can circle and study a target for hours before it strikes, its missiles are less likely to kill civilians than those launched from a piloted plane(6). (The USAF has yet to explain how it reconciles this with its boast that drones “greatly shorten decision time”(7)). But it must also be true that the easier and less risky a deployment is, the more likely it is to happen.

This danger is acknowledged in a remarkably candid assessment published by the UK’s ministry of defence, which also deploys drones, and has also used them to kill civilians(8). It maintains that the undeclared air war in Pakistan and Yemen “is totally a function of the existence of an unmanned capability – it is unlikely a similar scale of force would be used if this capability were not available.”(9) Citing Carl von Clausewitz, it warns that the brutality of war seldom escalates to its absolute form partly because of the risk faced by one’s own forces. Without risk, there’s less restraint. The unmanned craft allow governments can fight a coward’s war, a god’s war, harming only the unnamed.

The danger is likely to escalate as drone warfare becomes more automated and the lines of accountability less clear. Last week the US navy unveiled a drone that can land on an aircraft carrier without even a remote pilot. The Los Angeles Times warned that “it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.”(10) The British assessment suggests that within a few years drones assisted by artificial intelligence could make their own decisions about whom to kill and whom to spare(11). Sorry sir, computer says yes.

“Some would say one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist,” George HW Bush opined when he was vice-president. “I reject this notion. The philosophical differences are stark and fundamental.”(12) Perhaps they are; but no US administration has convincingly defined them or consistently recognised them. In Latin America, south east Asia, Africa and the Middle East successive presidents have thwarted freedom and assisted state terrorism. Drones grant governments new opportunities to snuff out opposition of any kind, terrorist or democrat. The US might already be making use of them.

In October last year, a 16 year-old called Tariq Aziz was travelling through North Waziristan in Pakistan with his 12 year-old cousin, Waheed Khan. Their car was hit by a missile from a US drone(13). As always, their deaths made them guilty: if we killed them, they must be terrorists. But they weren’t. Tariq was about to start work with the human rights group Reprieve, taking pictures of the aftermath of drone strikes. A mistake? Possibly. But it is also possible that he was murdered out of self-interest. If you have such powers, if you are not held to account by Congress, the media or the American people, why not use them?

The danger to democracy, not just in Pakistan but one day perhaps everywhere, should be evident. Yet, as fatalistic as the ancient Greeks, we drift into this with scarcely a murmur of debate, leaving the gods to decide.

References:
http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Salmoneus.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/asia/12drones.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/asia/12drones.html
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/10/most-complete-picture-yet-of-cia-drone-strikes/
Colonel David M. Sullivan, cited inhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/asia/12drones.html
United States Air Force, 2009. Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047.http://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/usaf/usaf-uas-flight-plan_2009-2047.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/05/afghanistan-raf-drone-civilian-deaths
Ministry of Defence, 30th March 2011. Joint Doctrine Note 2/11. The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Joint Doctrine Note 2/11 (JDN 2/11). http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F9335CB2-73FC-4761-A428-DB7DF4BEC02C/0/20110505JDN_211_UAS_v2U.pdf
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/26/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126
Ministry of Defence, as above.
http://bit.ly/z3WHRT
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_11_06_Tariq_CIA_drone_Waziristan/

========================

Something to ponder?… What if other countries had drones and use on us? … How would we feel? act? Power usually corrupts…! Technology can be used for good and bad and that sometimes is a matter of perspective… My bottom line thought is that this beats starting ground wars… sending in troops… but those carrying out actions are responsible for mistakes and should be legally accountable… My concern is where does this lead… When are we going to spend a more balanced amount of money on solutions to living with billions of humans and the rest of Nature’s species on Mother earth?

Comment by Monte — February 2, 2012 @ 2:06 pm

FORA.tv - The Next 50 Years: Will Tech Solve Humanity’s Problems?

2012-02-03T18:09:00.000-06:00

The Next 50 Years: Will Tech Solve Humanitys Problems? from Intel Corp. on FORA.tv

Can we have a decentralized "building blocks" type society / world culture? What will the effect of technology be?
Some smart technology guys predict yes, but discuss that there will be a struggle with "Centralized Controller's" versus " Do It Yourself's"
Predictions for technological improvements, kinda amazed me.
I'm for decentralized DIY "building blocks" type society that helps prevent wars and allows for local individual independence. Still there is a need for a transparent government with integrity, that benefits all, answering to the grassroots.

Monte

2011 Winning Solution | The Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2012-02-03T10:18:00.000-06:00

2011 Winning Solution- Blue Ventures from Buckminster Fuller Institute on Vimeo.

2011 Winning Solution

"Blue Ventures integrates the regeneration of the environment, on which people depend, with the stabilization of population and resources. With continued success this could carry through multiple generations as the ‘norm’ which is key to lasting sustainability and I see no reason to confine their overall strategy to marine environments.”

– Allan Savory, 2011 Challenge Juror

Blue Ventures works with local communities to conserve threatened marine environments. Our highly acclaimed integrated conservation programmes work with some of the world’s poorest coastal communities to develop conservation and alternative income initiatives to protect biodiversity and coastal livelihoods. The results of our work help us propose new ideas to benefit coastal communities everywhere.

Related:

Inhabitat Gets Electric Fever at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show - YouTube

2012-02-03T09:41:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by inhabitat on Jan 18, 2012

Inhabitat hit the scene at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan to get a sneak peak at the coolest electric cars and hybrid vehicles coming out in 2012. Watch the video for a sneak peak at the sexy Lexus LF-LC hybrid sports car, the brand new plug-in hybrid electric Ford Fusion Energi, Volkswagen's green take on the VW Beetle, the new Hybrid Jetta and the Smart For-Us electric pickup truck. Jill Fehrenbacher get's the lowdown on the coolest features and the inside info on which of these cars will make it to a showroom floor near you. Video by Brit Liggett.

Allan Savory - Buckminster Fuller Institute Announces 2010 BFI Challenge Winner | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

2012-02-03T09:11:00.000-06:00

Full Article: 2010-challenge-winner
Related Article: Biologist Allan Savory Wins Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Allan Savory - Wikipedia
This project demonstrates how to reverse desertification of the world’s savannas and grasslands, thereby contributing enormously to mitigating climate change, biomass burning, drought, flood, drying of rivers and underground waters, disappearing wildlife, massive poverty, social breakdown, violence and genocide.
ENTRY APPLICATION: PDF
WEBSITE: Africa Center for Holistic Management
FEATURE VIDEO: Lecture at Trinity College,Dublin (1hr)
BLOG ENTRY
The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) is an organization after Inhabitat’s own heart. It was formed by the visionary eco architect/designer’s family in 1983 to champion Buckminster Fuller’s amazing legacy and provide the design world — and the rest of humanity, for that matter — with the tools we need to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Buckminster Fuller was a “full systems thinker” — he was a renaissance man who foresaw the problems we are facing now decades before anyone else, and came up with innovative, thoughtful ways to solve humanity’s most pressing problems around energy, shelter and natural resources. Sadly, this amazing man is no longer with us, but The Buckminster Fuller Institute marches forward in his name with a handful of thought-provoking programs for designers. Their flagship initiative is the Buckminster Fuller Challenge design competition to provide solutions to complicated social/environmental problems. Inhabitat covered the BFI Challenge finalists back in April, and we are thrilled to announce the winner of the competition here in our latest video! Watch our video profile (above) to learn about BFI, Bucky’s legacy, and the inspiring winner of last year’s $100,000 prize.

Along with the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, BFI has a number of programs that champion Bucky’s comprehensive anticipatory design science model. They hold lectures, seminars, workshops and hands on training programs as a part of their Design Science Education initiative. The largest program is the Design Science lab, a 7-10 day immersion in the study of design science. They hold Prototype labs where artists, designers, engineers and thinkers come together to physically build structures that re-contextualize Bucky’s ideas.

They also have an immense library of artifacts and information from Bucky’s life and beyond. This is split into two parts – the Study Center is located in Brooklyn and is a wide reaching library of information from Buckminster Fuller’s own research. The Idea Index is a comprehensive list and researchable database of all of the entries to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge over the last few years — the Idea Index is available online. The Buckminster Fuller Institute is championing the legacy of one of Inhabitat’s favorite thinkers while pushing contemporary designers and engineers to follow in his footsteps by looking at the big picture.

+ The Buckminster Fuller Institute

+ Donate to The Buckminster Fuller Institute

+ Visit Members Project from American Express and TakePart

Related:

English → Hungarian Buckminster Fuller lyrics - Nerina Pallot lyrics translations

2012-02-02T10:17:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by AWayAway96 on Jan 3, 2012
Nerina Pallot - Buckminster Fuller - Buckminster Fuller EP
http://lyricstranslate.com
English

Buckminster Fuller
Last night I dreamt of him:
Buckminster Fuller
Force that drives the flower brings
Grace to caterpillars
Slowly creeping
Drunk with meaning
Things unseen are not unmade

And I am just a little thing
Made like all others
Humble as a bumble bee
My heart set on the moon
Full force feeling
Here is meaning
Things unseen are not unmade

How was it, how is it, how was this great world grown?
Things unseen are already there

Slowly creeping
Drunk with meaning
Things unseen are not unmade

Source Link: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/buckminster-fuller-buckminster-fuller.html?t=1328199032

"Who makes all my crap?" - Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory | This American Life

2012-02-02T02:44:00.000-06:00

Source Link: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.

==============

If you have time, I highly recommend this podcast:
http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/454.mp3

Podcast and related links gave me an answer that I was not that comfortable with...
We in the US went through our 100 years of Industrialization with the good and the bad...
Workers in China are going through their Industrialization period with good and the bad we should be aware of...
Opinion : US Multinational Companies should conduct business with Integrity
One person, Mike Daisey, might help that greatly!
Shows the power of "individual actions" ... they can make a difference ... and help change the world to be better...

Regards and respect to all,
Monte Hines

Related Links:
http://gizmodo.com/5678732/exclusive-look-where-the-workers-who-made-your-iphone-sleep-at-night
http://gizmodo.com/5679706/exclusive-look-living-at-foxconn
http://performingartsconvention.org/artists/id=572
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/23/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-facto.html

The Wonder and Beauty of Nature... Always something to learn...Coral Reef Surgeon Fish: Evolving to Compete Through Mimicry - YouTube

2012-02-01T21:20:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by ForaTv on Feb 1, 2012

The Wonder Beauty of Nature... Always something to learn... Monte

Complete video at:http://fora.tv/2012/01/24/Diversity_and_Evolution_of_Coral_Reef_Fishes

Luiz Rocha, Assistant Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, highlights the evolutionary advantage of the surgeon fish. The surgeon's genes allow them to mimic angelfish, entitling them to greater resources in the coral reef.

Image credit: Norbert Potensky via Wikimedia Commons ----- Dr. Luiz Rocha, Assistant Curator, Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences.

Join us to welcome new curator on the ichthyology team, Dr. Luiz Rocha. Dr. Rocha's research interests center on the evolution, biogeography, and ecology of coral reef fishes. His overarching goal is to understand what drives the extremely high biodiversity found in tropical reefs. He has embarked on numerous expeditions around the world, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Polynesia, Micronesia, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. His field work in Sao Tome was covered by National Geographic in 2008, and he appeared in a Science Channel documentary in 2009 discussing the effects of radiation at Bikini Atoll. - The California Academy of Sciences

Family Farmers Get Their Day In Court Against Monsanto

2012-02-01T16:34:00.001-06:00

Full Article: family-farmers-get-their-day-in-court-against-monsanto

By Leah Baines

On January 31st, family farmers will begin the first stage of a court case filed against agro-business powerhouse, Monsanto. The goal of the case, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) vs. Monsanto, is to protect the 300,000 organic and non-GMO American farmers from the genetic trespass of Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds, which contaminate organic crops and often leave farmers vulnerable to harmful patent infringement lawsuits.

On January 31st, American family farmers will fight for their right to grow organic crops with fear of genetic trespassing against Monsanto. (Image credit: Food Democracy Now!)

Monsanto currently controls the genetics of nearly 90 percent of 5 major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets. Many farmers who do not use Monsanto seeds have had to stop growing their own crops in order to avoid genetic contamination from those used in fields nearby. According to OSGATA, Monsanto has “created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.”

Food Democracy Now!, an organization working towards building a sustainable food system, says that Monsanto has filed 144 lawsuits against farmers, and settled out of court for undisclosed amounts of money for an additional 700 cases. These lawsuits leave farmers broke and unable to afford the legal costs associated with fighting Monsanto for something beyond their control in the first place.

Click here to learn how you can support these farmers. If you live New York City, you can attend OSGATA’s Citizen’s Assembly on the day of the trial to show farmers that you care about their right to grow crops without fear and the threat of injustice.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup Recipe - Allrecipes.com

2012-02-01T12:05:00.000-06:00

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Rate/Review | Read Reviews (3,024)

Sounds Goods... must be with over 3000 reviews... Monte

Plant Information Online

2012-02-01T07:11:00.000-06:00

Use Plant Information Online to discover sources in 1074 North American nurseries for 104779 plants, find 357757 citations to 161488 plants in science and garden literature, link to selected websites for images and regional information about 19131 plants, and access information on 2631 North American seed and nursery firms.

Plant Information Online is a free service of the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Link: Plant Information Online

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Cornell Chronicle: Diets Ag Footprint - Diet may be most efficient if it includes dairy and a little meat - Cornell research

2012-02-01T05:13:00.000-06:00

Full Story: Cornell Chronicle: Diets Ag footprint

Diet for small planet may be most efficient if it includes dairy and a little meat, Cornell researchers report
By Susan Lang

A low-fat vegetarian diet is very efficient in terms of how much land is needed to support it. But adding some dairy products and a limited amount of meat may actually increase this efficiency, Cornell researchers suggest.

Illustration by Steve Rokitka/University Communications

Even though a moderate-fat plant-based diet with a little meat and dairy (red footprint) uses more land than the all-vegetarian diet (far left footprint), it feeds more people (is more efficient) because it uses more pasture land, which is widely available.

This deduction stems from the findings of their new study, which concludes that if everyone in New York state followed a low-fat vegetarian diet, the state could directly support almost 50 percent more people, or about 32 percent of its population, agriculturally. With today's high-meat, high-dairy diet, the state is able to support directly only 22 percent of its population, say the researchers.

The study, published in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, is the first to examine the land requirements of complete diets. The researchers compared 42 diets with the same number of calories and a core of grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy products (using only foods that can be produced in New York state), but with varying amounts of meat (from none to 13.4 ounces daily) and fat (from 20 to 45 percent of calories) to determine each diet's "agricultural land footprint."

They found a fivefold difference between the two extremes.

"A person following a low-fat vegetarian diet, for example, will need less than half (0.44) an acre per person per year to produce their food," said Christian Peters, M.S. '02, Ph.D. '07, a Cornell postdoctoral associate in crop and soil sciences and lead author of the research. "A high-fat diet with a lot of meat, on the other hand, needs 2.11 acres."

"Surprisingly, however, a vegetarian diet is not necessarily the most efficient in terms of land use," said Peters.

The reason is that fruits, vegetables and grains must be grown on high-quality cropland, he explained. Meat and dairy products from ruminant animals are supported by lower quality, but more widely available, land that can support pasture and hay. A large pool of such land is available in New York state because for sustainable use, most farmland requires a crop rotation with such perennial crops as pasture and hay.

Chris Peters honored for foodshed work

Peters

Chris Peters, the lead author of the study on New York's agricultural footprint, has been honored for related work on local "foodsheds," as well as his teaching and outreach, with the 2007 Gerald O. Mott Scholarship for Meritorious Graduate Students in Crop Science. The award will be presented Nov. 6 at the American Society of Agronomy, Crops Science Society of America and Soils Science Society of America's International annual meetings in New Orleans.

Thus, although vegetarian diets in New York state may require less land per person, they use more high-valued land. "It appears that while meat increases land-use requirements, diets including modest amounts of meat can feed more people than some higher fat vegetarian diets," said Peters.

"The key to conserving land and other resources with our diets is to limit the amount of meat we eat and for farmers to rely more on grazing and forages to feed their livestock," said Jennifer Wilkins, senior extension associate in nutritional sciences who specializes in the connection between local food systems and health and co-authored the study with Gary Fick, Cornell professor of crop and soil sciences. "Consumers need to be aware that foods differ not only in their nutrient content but in the amount of resources required to produce, process, package and transport them."

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American ate approximately 5.8 ounces of meat and eggs a day in 2005.

"In order to reach the efficiency in land use of moderate-fat, vegetarian diets, our study suggests that New Yorkers would need to limit their annual meat and egg intake to about 2 cooked ounces a day," Peters said.

The research was supported in part by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.

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Ep. 11 - Foodsheds, Festivals, and Collegetown Eats
Download MP3

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We're back after an extended break and we've been busy during our time off - check out the new look for our website! Not only did we change the layout, we also updated our logo and we're planning to add more changes in the weeks to come. We'd love to know what you think!

In this episode of the Eating Ithaca podcast, our guest is Cornell scientist Chris Peters, who has been researching the way land is used in New York State for food production. He talked with us about his findings and what they mean for the Ithaca region.

===========================

Other related links:

sustainable food - people per acre of food - Video

2012-02-01T03:55:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by paulwheaton12 on Jan 31, 2012

http://permies.com

htt ://farmerscrub.blogspot.com

http://veganicpermaculture.com

How many acres does it take to sustainably feed one person when there are no other inputs. No manure, no compost, no animal feed, no fertilizers ....

Helen Atthowe shares her experiences of growing enough food to cover 75% of her own food needs plus enough to sell at the farmers market. Based on years of experience, she attempts to estimate how many acres she would need to feed herself if she has to grow her own fertilizers. Helen's perspective is dominantly rural.

Norris Thomlinson and Tulsey Latoski have carefully measured the production of food from their urban lot. They have optimized the food production a lot, and have some ideas on how to optimize it more. The also compare their initial expectations to the results they experienced.

Relevant threads at permies:

music by Jimmy Pardo

===========================

Other related links:

Cornell Chronicle: Diets Ag Footprint - Diet may be most efficient if it includes dairy and a little meat - Cornell research
Ep. 11 - Foodsheds, Festivals, and Collegetown Eats Download MP3 In this episode of the Eating Ithaca podcast, our guest is Cornell scientist Chris Peters, who has been researching the way land is used in New York State for food production. He talked with us about his findings and what they mean for the Ithaca region.
Infographic: How Big a Backyard Would You Need to Live Off the Land? | One Block Off the Grid: The Smart New Way to Go Solar
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/
FOOD, LAND, POPULATION and the U.S. ECONOMY
sustainable food - people per acre of food - Video

Agriculture Versus Permaculture: Saving Humanity and the Earth | One Community

2012-01-31T21:11:00.000-06:00

Posted by Pioneer_Dave on Saturday, January 28, 2012
onecommunityranch.org - permaculture-saving-humanity-and-the-earth/

Toby Hemenway is a teacher, consultant and lecturer on permaculture and ecological design. Toby is also a professor at Portland State University, a Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a biologist consultant for the Biomimicry Guild. In this lecture Toby explains how Agriculture has not actually helped mankind but instead has hindered our progress as well as causing a negative impact on our Earth. Agriculture destroys our eco system by wiping away the lusciousness of our land and forests by depleting nutrients and destroying the topsoil by over growing huge amounts of food in designated areas. The land then requires massive amounts of fertilizer which now comes mainly from petroleum based products.

Hemenway shows that since the introduction of agriculture the human life span has decreased while degenerative diseases and even famines have increased. People are just less healthy than pre agriculture time. Since the introduction of agriculture eating cooked foods has increased causing babies to be weaned from their mothers sooner which allows them to become pregnant again sooner since they are no longer nursing. This explains the higher population in agriculture times that requires even more food to be grown to feed them all.

Toby says the Solution to the problems caused by agriculture is Permaculture, which is horticulture. Permaculture creates a horticultural society which is sustainable. This means small-scale gardens of mixed crops not farms, and hoes versus plows. While agriculture destroys land and cuts back forests, horticulture and permaculture encourages ecosystems to function. They require a lot less labor, encourage wildlife to thrive, and Toby has also noticed a more spiritual approach that honors the Earth with horticulture versus conventional agriculture that, from the Earth’s perspective, could be characterized as a much more “greedy” approach.

Toby’s Key Permaculture Advantages over Agriculture:

● Permaculture encourages ecosystems to function and supports the health of land and forests

● Permaculture decreases degenerative diseases and epidemics

● Human Lifespan decreases when going from Permaculture to Agriculture

● Agriculture requires much more labor than Permaculture

● ”Agriculture will destroy humanity while Permaculture will save it”

Toby believes that if we keep doing what we have been doing we dont have even a century left before we destroy ourselves. Horticulturists on the other hand have a long track record and can be sustainable. Permaculture works with nature not against it and even turns waste into beautiful gardens. Toby ends the talk by giving examples of many horticultural tribes that lived and prospered for thousands of years before being wiped out by agriculture.

Eating, Skinning, and Dressing Squirrels

2012-01-31T11:32:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by WOODLANDSTV on Dec 29, 2011
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/ Our 100th film! Before skinning and cooking it, Sean Collins describes the destructive nature of the grey squirrel and its effect on the native red squirrel. He also describes their effect on tree bark. In the next film he goes about skinning the squirrel

Uploaded by WOODLANDSTV on Dec 29, 2011
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/ Skinning a squirrel with tips on knives to use, hygiene, and preventing damage to the internal organs. Survival expert Sean Collins prepares a squirrel for cooking.

Uploaded by WOODLANDSTV on Jan 31, 2012
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/ How to gut a squirrel. Gutting a squirrel by Sean Collins. Firstly Sean pinches the skin on the belly of the squirrel to make an incision. He then cuts back towards the reproductive organs and removes the testicles . Sean also discusses how to examine the internal organs for signs of disease or ill health in the animal. After checking the liver and kidneys he removes the digestive tract, followed by the heart and lungs, and removal of the head. Finally he discusses hyqiene prior to cooking.

Nice English YouTube Videos... Never too late to learn something... destructive nature of the grey squirrel and its effect on the native red squirrel. Also discusses adverse effect on tree bark... Monte

John Reed on Big Banks' Power and Influence | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

2012-01-31T01:25:00.000-06:00

John Reed on Big Banks' Power and Influence from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

by Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers talks with former Citigroup Chairman John Reed to explore a momentous instance: how the mid-90’s merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group – and a friendly Presidential pen — brought down the Glass-Steagall Act, a crucial firewall between banks and investment firms which had protected consumers from financial calamity since the aftermath of the Great Depression. In effect, says Moyers, they put the watchdog to sleep.

There’s no clearer example of the collusion between government and corporate finance than the Citicorp-Travelers merger, which — thanks to the removal of Glass-Steagall — enabled the formation of the financial behemoth known as Citigroup. But even behemoths are vulnerable; when the meltdown hit, the bank cut more than 50,000 jobs, and the taxpayers shelled out more than $45 billion to save it.

Now, John Reed regrets his role in the affair, and says lifting the Glass Steagall protections was a mistake. Given the 2008 meltdown, he’s surprised Wall Street still has so much power over Washington lawmakers.

“I’m quite surprised the political establishment would listen to groups that have been so discredited,” Reed tells Moyers. “It wasn’t that there was one or two or institutions that, you know, got carried away and did stupid things. It was, we all did… And then the whole system came down.”

The Secret of El Dorado (The discovery of Biochar) - YouTube

2012-01-31T00:56:00.000-06:00

Uploaded by ClimateProgressWorld on Jan 30, 2012

The Secret of El Dorado - programme summary
In 1542, the Spanish Conquistador, Francisco de Orellana ventured along the Rio Negro, one of the Amazon Basin's great rivers. Hunting a hidden city of gold, his expedition found a network of farms, villages and even huge walled cities. At least that is what he told an eager audience on his return to Spain.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldorado.shtml

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported Biochar as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets. The negative emissions that can be produced by Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Annual net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide could be reduced by a maximum of 1.8 Pg CO2-C equivalent (CO2-Ce) per year (12% of current anthropogenic CO2-Ce emissions; 1 Pg=1 Gt), and total net emissions over the course of a century by 130 Pg CO2-Ce, without endangering food security, habitat or soil conservation. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Biochar Earth Network
http://biochar.be

Climate Progress Network
http://climateprogress.net

How Can Ordinary People Fight Citizens United? | Ask Bill | BillMoyers.com

2012-01-31T00:29:00.000-06:00

January 20, 2012
How Can Ordinary People Fight Citizens United?
Question From: lwkaiser

Ask Bill: How can ordinary people help to overturn or nullify the Citizen United Decision? from B illMoyers.com on Vimeo.

BILL MOYERS: Many of you have asked what you can do to fight back. Here are some thoughts. First, take yourself seriously as an agent of change. The Office of Citizen remains the most important in the country.

Second, remember, there’s strength in numbers. Find others like you in your neighborhood, apartment building, community – and act together. The old African proverb is still true, “If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together.”

They’re proving this, for example, in Missoula, Montana. Last November, by a majority of 75 percent people voted to call on the state legislature and congress to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution. It says it loud and clear, “Corporations are not human beings and do not have the same rights as citizens.” That same month, voters in Boulder, Colorado, approved a similar measure by a similar big margin. And two counties in Wisconsin have voted by whopping majorities to call for, quote, "An end to corporate personhood…" and "The legal status of money as speech."

Don’t worry if you’re called naíve. Don't worry about cynics who mock you or fatalists who declare that a constitutional amendment is impossible. That’s nonsense. We’ve amended the constitution 27 times in our history. Back in 1971, the amendment to lower the voting age to 18 was the quickest to be ratified in U.S history, four months following its passage by Congress. And after 13 years without a drink, in 1933, Americans okayed the amendment to repeal prohibition faster than a saloon’s swinging door.

So look around for organizations you can join or contact for information. There’s a national coalition already at work named Move to Amend it’s called and a group leading the fight called FreeSpeechforPeople.org. And see you here next time.

Related Links:

Move to Amend
Free Speech for People
Capitalism-GOOD-Crony-Capitalism-BAD
Full Show: Crony Capitalism - January 20, 2012 - Bill Moyers and former White House Ronald Reagan, budget director David Stockman on how politics and high finance have turned our economy into a members-only private club. Bill Moyers.com/episode/crony-capitalism/
Original audio source crony-capitalism (Moyers_and_Company_102_Podcast.mp3)

Field & Forest Mushrooms, Proud to be part of this rotting world!

2012-01-30T15:43:00.000-06:00

Go to Field & Forest Mushrooms

Welcome to Field & Forest Products
Interested in growing mushrooms? Field & Forest Products can help you get started. We offer superior spawn, tools, technical information, and good ole’ advice for almost every situation. Whether you are a market grower or hobbiest, our aim is that you enjoy growing mushrooms successfully. New to mushroom growing? Begin by exploring the links below. Also, workshops are offered for training, hands-on experience and taste testing.

What Mushroom Should I Grow?

Based on Species: Choose based on the type you like...more

Level of Difficulty: Select based on how easy it is to grow ...more

Substrate Type: Select based on material to grow on ...more

For updates on seminars and workshops in 2012, visit Field and Forest Products on Facebook or click here!

Shiitake Are you interested in growing mushrooms? We are the source for shiitake mushroom spawn for natural log and organic gardens since 1983.

Oyster Are you interested in growing mushrooms? We are the source for Oyster mushroom spawn for natural log and organic gardens since 1983.

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Hugelkultur Can Create Irrigation-Free Garden Beds

2012-01-30T09:10:00.000-06:00

BY DAVID GALLOWAY
JAN 29, 2012 7:00 AM

Llifehacker.com-hugelkultur-can-create-irrigation+free-garden-beds

Hugelkultur Can Create Irrigation-Free Garden Beds

If your yard is big enough that you might have a felled tree from time to time due to lightning or winter storms, you may wonder how you can put the wood to good use. Most people who don't regularly heat with wood just post an ad on Craigslist for free wood if someone picks it up. Instead consider using the wood to form the backbone of a type of gardening bed known as Hugelkultur, that is, burying wood in your garden bed to gain many benefits including eliminating irrigation.

Permaculture site Rich Soil promotes the many benefits of Hugelkultur:

Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets - so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water - and then refeeding that to your garden plants later. Plus, by holding SO much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system forgrowing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation.

You can use freshly cut wood as well as rotten wood, but keep in mind that newer wood will consume nitrogen as it composts, which could bother some plants. As the wood decomposes it will leach the nitrogen back into the soil, so you will actually see a gain in nitrogen over time, but in the first few years you may have to add supplemental nitrogen if you use freshly cut wood in you Hugelkultur bed.

If you're interested in learning more about Hugelkultur the source link below has multiple videos, lots of photos, and a much more detailed section on how the beds work.

raised garden beds: hugelkultur instead of irrigation | Rich Soil
Hines.blogspot.com - raised-garden-beds-hugelkultur

BUCKMINSTER FULLER - CBS Sunday Morning

2012-01-30T08:27:00.000-06:00

Bucky had a message to mankind... We all need to listen, learn, and do what he told us, so sincerely, before he died... His thoughts and teachings apply ideally today... Please view, discuss, comment, take action... Monte

Uploaded by MASTERWORKSVIDEO on Aug 6, 2009

A brief look at Buckminster Fuller and his legacy, now more relevant than ever. Includes and interview with his daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder and his grandson, Jaime Snyder.

Message that applies today

Uploaded by MASTERWORKSVIDEO on Aug 6, 2009

Excerpt from Robert Snyder's THE WORLD OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER - Clip # 1 (80-minute documentary). DVD available at www.mastersmasterworks.com

Message that applies today

Uploaded by MASTERWORKSVIDEO on Aug 6, 2009

Excerpt from Robert Snyder's 80-minute documentary, THE WORLD OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER DVD available at www.mastersmasterworks.com

Uploaded by MASTERWORKSVIDEO on Dec 5, 2011

From Robert Snyder's 80-minute documentary, "The World of Buckminster Fuller." (c) Masters & Masterwork Productions, Inc. www.mastersmasterworks.com

Uploaded by MASTERWORKSVIDEO on Dec 5, 2011

From Robert Snyder's film "Basic Bucky," Chapter 11."
(c) Masters & Masterwork Productions, Inc. www.mastersmasterworks.com

Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome - and one of the world’s worst cars

2012-01-30T07:54:00.000-06:00

Posted by Jim - January 30, 2012

Much has been written about the celebrated architect, engineer, designer, author, free-thinker and futurist, Buckminster Fuller. But what will probably interest .id insight readers most is the role he played in influencing modern urban design, and to a much lesser degree, automotive design!

Fuller was born in 1895 in Massachusetts, USA, and after being expelled from Harvard, twice, he went on to become one of the world’s leading thinkers in many fields including design, philosophy and engineering.

In 1945 he invented the Geodesic dome, by exploiting the concept of structural materials under tension. The design soon became known to the US Army, who employed Fuller’s company, using the geodesic dome principle, to construct thousands of temporary and permanent structures to house materials and troops. Geodesic domes can be seen in many military radar installations to this day.

Earlier, in the 1930’s, Fuller’s thinking had extended to developing a motor vehicle. He envisioned a car that would feature adequate accommodation, a tight turning circle for city use and outstanding fuel efficiency. The result, called the “Dymaxion” featured 11 seats, a V8 engine mounted in the rear, front wheel drive and single-wheel rear steering. On the plus side, it could turn in its own length and make parallel parking child’s play, and make over 30 miles per gallon.

However, with strange handling dynamics brought about by the unusual layout and wobbly rear steering, it was destined to be a real challenge for any driver at speed, despite Fuller’s claims it could do 120 mph.

Only three were produced and Chrysler, who were to be involved it he project, withdrew after a test driver was killed. No more were produced and the Dymaxion disappeared.

In 2009, TIME magazine rated it “one of the worst 50 cars of all time”, criticising its inherent lack of stability.

As an aside, renowned UK architect Lord Norman Foster, himself a Buckminster Fuller devotee, recently commissioned a fully functional, driveable remake of the Dymaxion. The London City Hall (often called the beehive) is one of Foster’s landmark works. Foster’s recreation of the Dymaxion is pictured below.

Large Photo Dymaxion Car

“Dymaxion” was a term Fuller coined to combine the words “dynamic, maximum and ion, or dynamic, maximum and tension” (the jury is out on which is correct, although tension seems most likely).

It was also used when Fuller designed and built prototypes of a low cost housing concept, the Dymaxion House. The house was made primarily of aluminium and was designed to be light, transportable and very energy-efficient.

A full size example of the Dymaxion house exists today in the Henry Ford Museum, Detroit. (Pictured above)

Fuller also used the term “Dymaxion” to refer to a type of sleep he developed, which he called “Dymaxion sleep”. It consisted of sleeping just 2 hours a day in a series of short naps. Fuller himself followed this regime for some years.

Fuller died in 1983, but his many inventions and ideas continue to inspire….

Related:

An Independent Source on R. Buckminster Fuller - synchronofile.com

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

An Independent Source on R. Buckminster Fuller - synchronofile.com

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (12 July 1895 – 1 July 1983) was a public speaker, author, mathematician and inventor. Fuller is best known as the popularizer of geodesic domes in architecture. He attempted to apply the most recent discoveries of science to the most basic of human needs such as shelter and transportation, without regard for precedent or profit or power, doing more with less. He called this process design science.

Fuller inspired both admiration and criticism during his life, and these have only grown since his passing. The publications of synchronofile.com are an independent resource on design science and Buckminster Fuller.

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Monsanto: To Serve Man | One Degree Organic Foods

2012-01-30T06:07:00.000-06:00

By Charlie Dodge | November 8, 2011

http://blog.onedegreeorganics.com/2011/11/monsanto-to-serve-man/

Back in the monochromatic golden age of television, Rod Serling used to describe a murky dimension “beyond that which is known to man.” Between puffs on Lucky Strikes, his voice rumbling deep within Zeniths and Quasars, he talked of a place that “lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.”

This was a place in which the normal rules did not apply, where actions, reactions, cause and effect ricocheted about in defiance of the laws of physics, or the precepts of common sense.

It was The Twilight Zone, but it might just as easily have been the shadowy realm of genetic experimentation in agriculture, where caution, prudence and morality all bend when massive corporations approach the speed of profit.

Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready plant” is a concept straight from a Serling teleplay: New plant life is loosed upon the world, with unintended consequences. Like most experiments that rely on GMO technology, the idea is to reconfigure the genetic profile of life, to improve it. In this case, Monsanto created new varieties of soybeans and other plants that would be resistant to the toxin in its mass-market herbicide, Roundup.

For the farmer, it’s a Faustian bargain. The farmer needs to buy both genetically modified seed and seed-adapted chemical to make it work. And choices are becoming more limited: Roundup Ready soybeans now represent three quarters of the soybean seed market. For the consumer, the cause of ultimate catastrophe seems clear, but the exact effect is not. For the lowly weed, the whole thing is a challenge to develop into a superweed that can resist Roundup and overwhelm a field.

The Twilight Zone was crowded with characters whose wishing led to unintended consequences. A gambler wished he would never lose, and spent eternity in a casino where there was no fun in constant winning. A shopkeeper wished to be a powerful world leader, and awoke to epic chaos, the ruins of the Third Reich crashing down upon him.

Monsanto’s purported wish for higher yields and fewer weeds may be leading us into the same kind of cosmic gamble. Earlier this year, a scientist at Purdue University reported finding what he believes could be a link between Roundup Ready plants, or Roundup itself, and the emergence of a dangerous “micro-fungal-like organism,” never before observed. This new pathogen may be linked to an outbreak of plant diseases and a higher incidence of reproductive failure among animals.

Meanwhile, American farmers have been noticing the reemergence of some plant diseases that were once thought to be under control, including Sudden Death Syndrome, seen throughout the Midwest during the past two growing seasons, along with Corynespora root rot of soybeans; citrus variegated chlorosis; Fusarium wilt of cotton; Verticillium wilt of potato; take-all root, crown, and stem blight of cereals; and Fusarium root and crown rot, Fusarium head blight, Pythium root rot and Goss’ wilt of corn.

Can any of this be traced to Roundup, or the Roundup “system”? Or should it be tracked even farther, to the avarice and arrogance that are uniquely man’s? Reaching for the summit of knowledge, Monsanto has plumbed our deepest fears, and loosed upon the world the greatest of unknowns.

This is one episode that won’t be ending with a commercial break, the reassuring drip of Maxwell House or the sleek trajectory of a Chevrolet. But, just as in the real Twilight Zone, the moral could be this: The confounding labyrinth of hope, wisdom and imagination may be our only exit.