Friday, April 11, 2008
Paper vs. Plastic -- You want the truth? Sightline Institute
The Importance of Plastic Bags — Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) Read and weep-- paper costs more energy wise than plastic.
And Sightline's braintrust makes the case with one picture-- the choice you make before getting to the check out stand is way more importante!
Basta.
Timothy
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Annie Dillard from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
There are many things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But- and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go on your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.
Annie Dillard
from "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."
Annie Dillard
from "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."
Monday, April 07, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Hello Dalai! Seeds of Compassion : 5-Day Gathering in Seattle
Seeds of Compassion : 5-Day Gathering in Seattle
I am going to miss him -- I am at Greenfest 2008 at our Seattle Convention Center.
So hello Dalai Lama!
We could all use a few seeds of compassion planted every day.
Best fishes,
Timothy
IHT-- Eeyore Boeing Says No-- basta!
“Over the longer term, solid oxide fuel cells could be applied to secondary power-generating systems, such as auxiliary power units for large commercial airplanes,” Boeing said, adding that it “does not envision that fuel cells will ever provide primary power for large passenger airplanes, but the company will continue to investigate their potential, as well as other sustainable alternatives.”
This is typical American corporate thinking today-- by one of the biggest government subsidized companies in the world-- Boeing.
The message is clear -- from automakers to airplane companies-- we can't we can't we can't. God help us all. We are gassing ourselves to death with carbon dioxide and all we hear from the richest most powerful capitalists is "Not now-- no we can't for a very long time. "
In one paragraph you have them admitting they can do it -- make sustainable, carbon pollution reducing flights. And then the same Public Affairs person takes it away --saying it can't (more like WON'T) be done.
Working class America invested in this company -- billions in tax dollars for decades now-- for military industry and commercial airlines. And not just in Boeing, but all the colleges and universities that feed it's high tech soul a talented smart innovative worker.
And what we get for our massive investments? We get good paying jobs for a while. But stay tuned: Boeing is doing to Seattle what Ford and GM and Chrysler did to Detroit in the 1950's-- the company that is exporting jobs around the world. Detroit was the job center of the universe after WW II. And now it is a pitiful shadow economy-- used up, hollowed out and left for dead.
Whether or not Boeing succeeds in exporting all Seattle's jobs around the world - Boeing sounds like Eeyore telling people that greener brighter day of flight can't happen soon. I say it can't happen soon enough.
What I think they are saying is that the corporate world has been hijacked by the investment elite -- they won't make the big investments needed to bring tested green technology to large scale reality because they are beholden to a quarterly profit margin that won't allow it. ( For more on collapsing faith in market capitalism --see Economist editorial via Daily Kos )
The charade must continue -- more public funds --not just for a war machine but for the green machine. And once we have paid for all the research and brought the technology up to assembly line production, some kind old Republican or Democrat will tell us how it is in the public good for market efficiency to once again take over and make an all American profit from our subsidy of risk.
Amen! Amen!
The problem with our economy is not just the pirate ship financial sector leveraging assets to the nth degree. The problem is a company like Boeing-- one that has the best and brightest of our country's people working in it saying "we can't".
The auto industry can't create more efficient engines-- can't reduce emissions, the coal industry can't do anything about the pollution it causes. The oil industry can't either.
It is this Eeyore mentality that calls into question the premise of capitalism to bring the best to the top-- to take risks and grow stronger because we are growing jobs, too.
America the beautiful ought to be leading the charge on green energy and transportation. We should be sharing our optimism about this beautiful world's future and our stewardship of it.
Si se puede!
basta.
Timothy
Sequoiadendron giganteum -- Giant Sequoias Rule!
Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl Everything you wanted to know about Giant Sequoias -- a grand tree. See also Good Nature's newest poster Sequoias: Giants of Sierra Nevada with beautiful art by John C. Pitcher on front, and excellent interpretive material about the ancient trees on the back.
Now go outside, explore and find some!
The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users - New York Times
The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users - New York Times Big business is watching every click you take online.
You remember the 1st and 2nd Amendment? Well what about the 4th, Comcast? What about guaranteeing protection against illegal search and seizure, Google? Our homes, our bodies, our interests in searching ought to be left to ourselves -- and not gathered by our ISP and sold to the highest bidder.
Read the opinion piece above, and write Congress and your favorite Presidential candidate.
Let them know how you feel. Personally I have stopped taking polls on phone years ago-- people running them ought to pay me for sharing my opinion. They are making money on what I say. Why shouldn't I? And if Comcast (biggest cabe ISP in the country) and other providers are selling info on where I surf and what I look at online -- (how boring!) they shouldn't! The default setting on search and seizure for corporations should be the same as it is for government -- Not without a warrant.
IF you want to sell your information soul online-- then you opt in to sell it. But the companies have it backwards right now-- they are taking your monthly payment for internet services AND collecting, selling your online surfing history -- profiting without your consent or permission or profit.
Basta.
Timothy
You remember the 1st and 2nd Amendment? Well what about the 4th, Comcast? What about guaranteeing protection against illegal search and seizure, Google? Our homes, our bodies, our interests in searching ought to be left to ourselves -- and not gathered by our ISP and sold to the highest bidder.
Read the opinion piece above, and write Congress and your favorite Presidential candidate.
Let them know how you feel. Personally I have stopped taking polls on phone years ago-- people running them ought to pay me for sharing my opinion. They are making money on what I say. Why shouldn't I? And if Comcast (biggest cabe ISP in the country) and other providers are selling info on where I surf and what I look at online -- (how boring!) they shouldn't! The default setting on search and seizure for corporations should be the same as it is for government -- Not without a warrant.
IF you want to sell your information soul online-- then you opt in to sell it. But the companies have it backwards right now-- they are taking your monthly payment for internet services AND collecting, selling your online surfing history -- profiting without your consent or permission or profit.
Basta.
Timothy
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
After Success, Problems for Microfinancing in Mexico - New York Times
After Success, Problems for Microfinancing in Mexico - New York Times Micro finance can change the world-- but I doubt it will if the work involves Return On Investment. Markets are by definition win lose-- someone makes money at someone else's expense. With micro credit -- all the "profit" made from people who are so poor regular banks don't serve them - it seems to me the lender should always be non profit or credit union -- so money earned from investing in start ups gets re invested for other people who need it-- not siphoned off for profit.
Basta.
Tim
Basta.
Tim
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