Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Potted Stevia rebaudiana
Started about a dozen from seed, two germinated, and one made it. Put it in a pot on my patio about a week ago and it's starting to really grow.
I pulled off one of the leaves to taste... has a sweet, delicate flavor that is much less bitter than the Stevia in packets. I think they will taste great steeped in tea!
I pulled off one of the leaves to taste... has a sweet, delicate flavor that is much less bitter than the Stevia in packets. I think they will taste great steeped in tea!
First day bike commute
Ride was great, residential neighborhoods were quiet and slow. One road with trucks and everyone drove respectfully around me. Only took 10 minutes longer than commute by car (25% longer). After I get in better shape, should be able to ride about twice as fast in areas I don't need to stop. I'm betting I'll get it to the amount of time it takes to drive!
Forgot: bike lock, belt for pants and deodorant.
Lower back is a little tender, but I figure it'll also improve as I get in shape.
Forgot: bike lock, belt for pants and deodorant.
Lower back is a little tender, but I figure it'll also improve as I get in shape.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Meltdown
Jefferson County, Alabama narrowly avoids bond default
The banks, short on money as pretend money disappears, and the civilian governments, short on money as tax money (jobs and property value) disappears, are coming to a "holy shit" kind of moment. Unbelievable amounts of money is at stake. It's all very smiles and handshakes at the moment but my question is, who has the bigger guns? Will the banks bring in hired thugs, or, do they own the federal political machine (and hence, US troops)? Will state and local governments raise militias to fight off the bank mafioso?
The banks, short on money as pretend money disappears, and the civilian governments, short on money as tax money (jobs and property value) disappears, are coming to a "holy shit" kind of moment. Unbelievable amounts of money is at stake. It's all very smiles and handshakes at the moment but my question is, who has the bigger guns? Will the banks bring in hired thugs, or, do they own the federal political machine (and hence, US troops)? Will state and local governments raise militias to fight off the bank mafioso?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
How our food is critically dependent on fossil fuel
The article Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil, written in 2005, is a very thorough summary of my own ideas about how the American food supply is critically dependent on the cheap, uninterrupted flow of fossil fuels into this country.
Cut fossil fuel supplies and watch spot food shortages occur. Keep supplies up while prices go up and watch food prices increase beyond the reach of the poor. Do both? The system will seize and lots of people will starve.
I believe that renewable fuel sources like ethanol and biodiesel are important alternatives that can potentially provide additional resilience for our food supply. Unfortunately, significant acreage of arable land is being diverted to produce these biofuels. Since these biofuels, and especially ethanol from corn, provide only small energy gains while eliminating land used for food, our food supply is now even more vulnerable to disruption.
Cut fossil fuel supplies and watch spot food shortages occur. Keep supplies up while prices go up and watch food prices increase beyond the reach of the poor. Do both? The system will seize and lots of people will starve.
I believe that renewable fuel sources like ethanol and biodiesel are important alternatives that can potentially provide additional resilience for our food supply. Unfortunately, significant acreage of arable land is being diverted to produce these biofuels. Since these biofuels, and especially ethanol from corn, provide only small energy gains while eliminating land used for food, our food supply is now even more vulnerable to disruption.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thoughts regarding Effortlessly and Unintentionally Causing Pain to Others
Dave Pollard's Effortlessly and Unintentionally Causing Pain to Others really hits home on some of my own life lessons.
To begin with,I am not responsible for how others feel. This principle is about setting good ego boundaries -- it is not about being callous towards how they feel. It stems from the principle that "others are not responsible for how I feel" being carried to it's logical conclusion. Not having others responsible for how I feel is surprisingly very empowering. It gives me the freedom to stop and recognize my feelings, to choose how I want to feel and to react appropriately for the situation. This then leads to better recognition when others are attempting to manipulate my emotional state, and, when I'm unintentionally trying to manipulate their's. This principle means that I am no longer being swept along by external forces, but by my own guiding light. My responsibility is in being aware of, but not responsible for, how others feel.
Although this has been a long-guiding principle, it was particularly important when interacting with one person in my life. This person had such a distorted frame of reference that I could never foresee and avoid hurting them. Neither one of us was "wrong", but the hurt couldn't be avoided because the triggers didn't make sense from my frame of reference. This "not making sense" leads to the next principle.
Next, I should strive to deliberately not hurt someone. It might be a situation outside of my experiences. Being deliberate means that it is my responsibility to learn why and how it hurt the other person so that I can foresee and change my future behavior. Unfortunately, if the injured person doesn't communicate immediately (to correlate facial expressions and subtle verbal remarks) how the incident made them feel, then the learning process will never complete.
Finally, contributing factors also play a part in increasing the potential for and the severity of the pain others experience. These factors are indirectly caused by the structure and mobility of modern civilization. Namely, hierarchical structures and easily changed peer groups are systemically different from how humans evolved: respect-based meritocracy and small family groups.
Hierarchical power structures: boss-employee, teacher-student, parent-child, will often have "interaction decisions" (decisions that should be resolved by consensus) made unilaterally by the person higher in the hierarchy. The person lower in the hierarchy is walked all over, even if the resulting hurt was unintentional.
Mobile peer groups also add a subtle difficulty to human relationships: the loss of shared experiences. Situations that would normally be known to avoid, maybe talking about a loved one that has died - but not known, cannot be avoided without additional communication which most people are quite poor at engaging in, too.
In conclusion, I agree with Dave that our experiences with other people often have one or another person unintentionally getting hurt. I would add that by being aware of the systemic problems of hierarchy and mobility, and, living our lives with good ego boundaries and awareness of other's feelings, most potentially hurtful situations can be avoided and worked through.
To begin with,I am not responsible for how others feel. This principle is about setting good ego boundaries -- it is not about being callous towards how they feel. It stems from the principle that "others are not responsible for how I feel" being carried to it's logical conclusion. Not having others responsible for how I feel is surprisingly very empowering. It gives me the freedom to stop and recognize my feelings, to choose how I want to feel and to react appropriately for the situation. This then leads to better recognition when others are attempting to manipulate my emotional state, and, when I'm unintentionally trying to manipulate their's. This principle means that I am no longer being swept along by external forces, but by my own guiding light. My responsibility is in being aware of, but not responsible for, how others feel.
Although this has been a long-guiding principle, it was particularly important when interacting with one person in my life. This person had such a distorted frame of reference that I could never foresee and avoid hurting them. Neither one of us was "wrong", but the hurt couldn't be avoided because the triggers didn't make sense from my frame of reference. This "not making sense" leads to the next principle.
Next, I should strive to deliberately not hurt someone. It might be a situation outside of my experiences. Being deliberate means that it is my responsibility to learn why and how it hurt the other person so that I can foresee and change my future behavior. Unfortunately, if the injured person doesn't communicate immediately (to correlate facial expressions and subtle verbal remarks) how the incident made them feel, then the learning process will never complete.
Finally, contributing factors also play a part in increasing the potential for and the severity of the pain others experience. These factors are indirectly caused by the structure and mobility of modern civilization. Namely, hierarchical structures and easily changed peer groups are systemically different from how humans evolved: respect-based meritocracy and small family groups.
Hierarchical power structures: boss-employee, teacher-student, parent-child, will often have "interaction decisions" (decisions that should be resolved by consensus) made unilaterally by the person higher in the hierarchy. The person lower in the hierarchy is walked all over, even if the resulting hurt was unintentional.
Mobile peer groups also add a subtle difficulty to human relationships: the loss of shared experiences. Situations that would normally be known to avoid, maybe talking about a loved one that has died - but not known, cannot be avoided without additional communication which most people are quite poor at engaging in, too.
In conclusion, I agree with Dave that our experiences with other people often have one or another person unintentionally getting hurt. I would add that by being aware of the systemic problems of hierarchy and mobility, and, living our lives with good ego boundaries and awareness of other's feelings, most potentially hurtful situations can be avoided and worked through.
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