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by Jan Lundberg
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I've been fasting since Friday night, January 15, I've had only water. A growing number of people are doing the same, sending the money they would have spent on food to Haiti relief organizations. We think this action can do more for those in great need than just provide the dollars we free up: solidarity and a sense of sacrifice are called for at this time, after the ravages of the strong earthquake and the many years of injustices perpetrated against the poor of Haiti.
I want to describe the fasting experience, for those who do not know. It is not a matter of feeling hungry. |
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by Keith Farnish and Dmitry Orlov
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[The first two parts of this series drew a surprising amount of vitriol from people who vehemently deny the merits of the case for adapting to rapid climate change and rising sea levels — greater even than the piece ridiculing the Teabaggers. The torrent of comment spam got so bad that I had to shut down comment submission altogether. It was probably fed to some extent by the various interests which were fighting to make the Copenhagen Conference a fiasco. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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For the Fast for Haiti to Raise $ for Aid, here is the
List of known participants beginning January 16, 2010:
As of 1 PM, Jan. 17, Pacific Coast time - U.S.
Jan Lundberg, Portland, Oregon. (? days)
Skip Londos, Waco Texas (3 days)
Fran Gibson, California (? days)
Peter Crabb, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania (3 days)
Brian Willson, Portland, Oregon (3 days)
Blaine Bookey, Esq., Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Joseph, Oregon (? days)
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by Jan Lundberg
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Please join me in undertaking a time-out from comfortable eating -- or over-consuming? -- by donating food money you would have spent for one, two, or more days. The unfortunate Haitians need your help. Together we can do this and make a difference.
You would be aiding your health simultaneously. Fasting on just water is a most healing, meditative experience. Hunger is not such a problem, for when the elimination of toxins gets underway the desire for food wanes. |
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by Chellis Glendinning
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On December 2, the world premiere of Palestinian/American Talal Jabari’s documentary on the dangers of wireless technologies, Full Signal, took New Mexico’s Santa Fe Film Festival by storm.
The cinematic turbulence occurred just four weeks after a straggle of the “usual suspects” attended a public works committee meeting in Santa Fe’s city hall to stop councilors from endorsing a rewrite of the telecommunications-franchise ordinance. A new ordinance is being pushed to limit the city’s choices about if and where to allow new telecom installations. |
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by Peter Goodchild
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When fossil fuels begin to vanish, the first sign of the times will not be made of cardboard and propped up in front of an empty gas pump. The sign will be the flickering bulb in the ceiling, because electricity is always the weakest link in the synergistic triad that includes fossil fuels and metals.
When the lights go out, so does everything else. The house or apartment will be largely non-functioning. Not only will there be darkness throughout the dwelling between sunset and sunrise, but all the sockets in the wall will be useless. The "four major appliances," stove, refrigerator, washer, and drier, will be nothing more than large white objects taking up space, so there will be no means of cooking food or preserving it, and no means of doing laundry. |
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by Albert Bates
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"If it's something that's going to improve safety, then I don't have any problem with it, I have nothing to hide."
- Ashley Houston, 32, as she waited for a plane in Phoenix (Reuters).
If you were against transhumanism before, perhaps you should give it another look. Our bodies are the product of a billion years of nature’s evolutionary processes, but the War on Terror is about to irrevocably corrupt our gene pool, causing untold immune system and other genetic damage to future generations, and possibly rendering the DNA coding that we are based on unacceptably toxic. |
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by Carolyn Baker
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Ten years ago this moment, America was awaiting the inauguration of a new President. We knew that the new Bush administration would bring at least four years of darkness, but we had no idea how dark, nor that a second hijacked election would follow the first, nor the extent to which the influence of Bush II would extend into the future. Certainly, we had no inkling of 9/11 and that terror — both politically and psychologically would overshadow every day of the
coming decade. Nor could we have anticipated the trauma of the Bush years and its lingering legacy for generations to come. |
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by Peter Goodchild
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As humanity plunges ever more deeply into the age of declining resources, what will be the future of law and order? The particular problem of which I am thinking might be called, more specifically, “future violence,” since other acts that are now deemed criminal may seem trivial in later days. Unfortunately all discussion of violence becomes an emotional issue, and a rational answer may be elusive. After all, for most human beings the most terrifying actions on the planet Earth are probably those involving physical assault by other humans. It is therefore hard to get a calm or rational response from people with whom one discusses the matter. |
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by Peter Goodchild
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Editor's note: In response to the Fortune magazine/CNN.com report on Detroit's urban farming trend, the author has provided some basics on crops and human needs. The original posting regarding "Can farming save Detroit?" is at the end of the author's remarks. - JL
The amount of land needed for farming with manual labor would depend on several factors: the type of soil, the climate, and the kinds of crops to be grown. The highest-yielding varieties are not necessarily the most disease-resistant, or the most suitable for the climate or the soil, or the easiest to store. |
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by V.I. Postnikov
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I have always been wary about technologies, despite the fact that I graduated as an electrical engineer, and defended two dissertations. The Chernobyl disaster put an end to my infatuation with science, and revived my interest in poetry, philosophy and nature. Since the late ‘80s, I was gradually converted into the Luddite type of a scientist and stepped onto a shaky path of techno-criticism.
I remember my enthusiasm when, in the mid-‘90s, I found in the America House Library a book openly criticizing the technological society. I knew then I was not alone. |
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by Albert Bates
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"Cokenhagen" blog's last day
Leaving Copenhagen before sunrise, we passed into the airport terminal revolving doors, each panel emblazoned with the "Hopenhagen" logo, but beneath it was revealed Hopenhagen's corporate sponsor, Coca Cola, taking credit for the advertising campaign. Hope has died but Coke survived.
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