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		2006 June 30, Friday Via growabrain, here's a lot of info on one of my all time favorite movies, The Shining. I wouldn't want to be strapping into the Shuttle, with this going on behind the scenes... Don't worry though, our politicians understand the importance of manned landings on stars... WOOHOO! Great news for older pro-war chicken-hawks: the army has raised the recruitment age to 42! "What did YOU DO in the Global War on Terror, Daddy?" "I watched it on TV, and sent hate-mail to left wing websites, sweetie pie..." Archaeologists find ancient race of skeleton people! I know, it's a joke. 2006 June 29, Thursday Funny "environmental" story from The Onion. (found on lifeaftertheoilcrash.net). I almost feel sorry for this Nigerian 419 scammer! - oh wow - he cons the guy into carving a Creature Comforts scene (scroll down). Altogether now: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Interstate Highway System, Happy Birtdhay to Yooooooo......(cough, splutter, wheeeze!)... Must-buy: Gardening when it counts Amazing savings in electrical demand could be made by using compact fluorescent light bulbs...this is the kind of "low hanging fruit" that will be picked first in the race to conserve energy. 2006 June 27, Tuesday I met Jan Lundberg briefly at one of our Pasadena Post-Carbon events. It's an odd feeling to have seen or met so many of the people who have been warning a deaf and blind public about the imminent dangers that are rapidly heading our way (Heinberg, Deffeyes, Goodstein)... Here's a great report by Jan about a recent address given by Matt Simmons (another prominent Peak Oil Cassandra). Do read it - scary as it is. Fear is a great motivator. Ha! The Plus Side of Peak Oil... If The Great Mogambo can't persuade you to buy gold, nobody can...scary stuff. What is a person to do, besides wallowing in terror? Peruse the following sites for tools, books and supplies that will be of great use in a crisis. BTW, donations to idleworm are now funnelled directly into environmental/survival gizmos such as these: Emergency Essentials: A Mormon company that offers amazing goodies - anything you can imagine, for decent prices. I've bought stuff from them, and I can't recommend them highly enough. Lehmans: a Mennonite company that specialises in non-electric, traditional equipment. I've bought from them too - excellent. Check out their goodies. Realgoods: green, eco-savvy company - lots of useful gadgets. I can recommend them first hand also. Solar Cookers.org: a good source for solar cookers and gadgets - I've bought a panel oven and a box oven from them. The solar box oven reached 290 degrees F in 15 minutes! Life after the oil crash store - Matt Savinar has a great selection of books, both on theory and practical survival matters. I've bought several from him. Dammit Dermot, I don't have any money, you rich, handsome bastard! Relax! You can download a great pdf file from inthewake.org here, called "Tools For Gridcrash". Fantastic info, for free. A lot of the skills and techniques in that booklet are amazingly cheap and simple. Also, Where there is no doctor can be downloaded here for free. Marvellous. In short, use the system now while you can. So many life-saving things can be purchased very cheaply right now - so take advantage of what may be a brief window of opportunity. And if the monstrosity of modern society doesn't collapse, so what? It's no harm to be prepared for emergencies... 2006 June 25, Sunday Mike Ruppert offers a gloomy assessment of the economy and the world in this mp3 file. Brew some tea or coffee, sit back, mix in a shot of whiskey, and enjoy. Oh yeah - BUY GOLD - it's back around $580...and probably not for long. Is it Hitler or Ann Coulter? I guessed most correctly, only because Hitler's quotes are more coherent, and better written. Hm...I wish I could manage life without a fridge... Crash and burn! Why You're Fucked Pentagon memo: U R GAY! Al Franken is pro-war? Ouch. Tears of a Clown. This is a LONG and depressing account of American aggression towards Russia since the end of the cold war. I needed two glasses of wine to get through it. Interesting, if you have the stamina. 2006 June 22, Thursday Hey - we're at the Summer Solstice! In the good old days we'd be partying in stone circles. Ah, nostalgia. Two kids who were raised on organic vegetables have their first encounter with McDonalds: I handed each of my hungry children a little red and yellow sack, warm with food. They hated it. "Too spicy," said Elijah. I urged him to eat it anyway; we wouldn’t be home for another four hours. "Look, Mama," Faith shot back. "Look at their sign." I looked over at the big yellow "M" to which she was pointing. "Even their name is made out of limp French fries," she asserted. "Why would you want to eat their food?" That’s when I realized that she didn’t see the world-famous logo as golden arches at all. No one had ever told her that’s what it was supposed to be. To her, the M in McDonald’s looked like two yellow, bent-over fries. Yuck. 2006 June 21, Wednesday American cities make you fat... The Permanent Energy Crisis This Memo from Baghdad to Condi Rice is scary stuff. The Great Depression and its effects on homesteaders. This a long article, but interesting if you have the time. The account of the the dust bowl is like something from a horror movie. Peak Brain: Mass Medication With Omega 3 Would Wipe Out Global Fish Stocks ...researchers at Oxford published a study of 117 children suffering from dyspraxia. Dyspraxia causes learning difficulties, disruptive behavior, and social problems. It affects about 5% of children. Some of the children were given supplements of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, others were given placebos...in three months the reading age of the experimental group rose by an average of 9.5 months...Other studies have shown major improvements in attention, behavior, and IQ. There is only one problem: there are not enough fish. In March an article in the British Medical Journal observed: "We are faced with a paradox. Health recommendations advise increased consumption of oily fish and fish oils within limits, on the grounds that intake is generally low. However ... we probably do not have a sustainable supply of long-chain Omega 3 fats." Our brain food is disappearing. 2006 June 20, Tuesday I caught the end of Al Gore's interview with Charlie Rose on PBS last night, and he mentioned Peak Oil twice. It was odd seeing such a mainstream personality mention the P word... Cartoon: What If They Stole an Election and No One Cared? You may have seen this, but what the heck: Stephen Colbert and Congressman The Most Powerful Force on Earth Stonehenge pocket watch... Heh heh...time to bring democracy to Iran... Iran possesses the world's second-largest reserves of petroleum - an estimated 132 billion barrels (11.1% of the world's known reservoirs); and also the second-largest reserves of natural gas - 971 trillion cubic feet (27.5 trillion cubic meters, or 15.3% of known reservoirs). The Iranians may possess less oil than the Saudis and less gas than the Russians, but no other country controls so much of both of these vital resources. Many states, including China, India, Japan and the European Union countries, already depend on Iran for significant shares of their petroleum supplies; and China and the others have been busy negotiating deals to develop, and then draw on, its mammoth natural-gas reserves. Iran will not only remain a major energy supplier, but also one of the few that has the capacity - with the right kind of investment - to boost its output substantially in the years ahead when many other sources of oil and gas will have gone into decline. 2006 June 19, Monday Funny photo - two of Bush's whitehouse goons pooping their pants in Iraq! Funny photo 2 - Blair and Bush discuss the World Cup... Now the bitter pill: World Grain Stocks Fall to 57 Days of Consumption. Scary statistics here. A good account of steps you can take to prepare for The Meltdown... Speed the day: Why the Dollar Bubble is about to Burst Here's why: Materialism, a deepening shadow Psychological studies show that it is actually companionship and family that make people happier. So we are immersed in both sides. In practice, money corrupts friendship and money problems are second only to infidelity as a cause of divorce. Observe...a simultaneous national growth of wealth and depression...there is “a titanic conflict between the oldest human institution, and the newest, the market”...We are richer than ever, and huge numbers are using prescription antidepressants. Severe depression is 10 times more prevalent that it was 50 years ago, and suicide is the third highest cause of death in young people. The Eden Project. If you're in England, and haven't been yet, you should get your skates on! Obvious: Gardeners can slow climate change Pavlov's sheep? In Pavlov's research, he discovered that if he gave the sheep a mild electric shock, it would bother them very little and their life would go on pretty much as if nothing had happened as long as the shocks were random. Warning the sheep in advance of a shock by ringing a bell, however, affected their behavior and it changed radically. The sheep were just smart enough to realize that if they heard the bell, the shock was coming. After repeating this exercise a few times, the poor sheep lost control of bodily functions and after a few more warning bells, they started dying of heart attacks. BTW, what's the terror alert today? Is it orange or red??? 2006 June 15, Thursday This sums up the crass, infantile nature of our glorious media - the simple-minded coverage of the South Central Farm in Los Angeles. Is it about the conversion of an urban farm into yet ANOTHER concrete warehouse? NAH - the important thing is that Daryl Hannah tied herself to a tree. I visited the farm a few months ago, and it's an amazing place. Surrounded by concrete, it is/was a labyrinth of small plots, each tended by a local resident. Who would have thought that the most radical thing you can do in modern society is to grow your own food? We can't have the peasants turning their backs on Kraft, ADM and Monsanto now, can we? Bear in mind how desperately we'll need farms like this in the future if and when Peak Oil hits... Cartoon: Senator Shithead. Nya-Ha! Burn for Freedom. 2006 June 14, Wednesday Remove food from mouth first: Clinton blames Republicans for severe storms "It is now generally recognized that while Al Gore and I were ridiculed, we were right about global warming," Clinton said at a fundraiser for the Florida Democratic Party. "It's a serious problem. It's going to lead to more hurricanes." Clinton's right. During his EIGHT YEAR presidency, he initiated a global crash program to halt CO2 emissions, switch to renewables, and to reduce the rate of economic growth to a more sustainable level. Temperatures fell during his two terms in office. HEY - WAIT A MINUTE...HE DID NO SUCH THING!!! He signed NAFTA, did more to advance globalisation than Bush ever did (globalisation being a leading cause of CO2 and global warming); here's a graph of temperature rise while he and Gore were office (notice a drop off in warming? I don't); allowed SUVs and HUMMERS to take over the roads; what else...oh yeah - he continued sanctions against Iraq which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi babies - enough to give GWB and all his fascist cohorts a spontaneous orgasm. Indeed, one could argue (in a sick way) that Bush saved Iraqi lives, as the end of sanctions has resulted in fewer Iraqi deaths than "liberal" Clinton's regime. Of course, both of these sociopaths deserve to roast in Hell, but that's a given. I hope the Democrats lose in November. We need epic Republican incompetence if we want to see the best possible future: one in which the global economic system is driven into the ground, along with America's status as a "superpower". Thank God those stupid GOP wankers own the voting machines. The thousands of dead Iraqi civilians killed by Bush's war could be forgiven for taking pleasure in this hypothetical Nightmare Scenario In the south of Iraq, in the Basra region, the British who occupy that sector have all but given up aggressive patrol. They are holed up in their encampments on the defensive. Some reports have it that it is now too dangerous for them to fly helicopters by day... The situation for American troops may be even more precarious...It appears that in many places our people may have simply hunkered down to stay out of trouble. The vast construction projects of a few years ago are all but closed down, too, as the American forces appear to be doing less and less of anything but holding on and holding out. The shortage of troops, which three years ago was a restraining factor, has become a potential disaster, with the ever-rising level of hostility to the American presence. To stay the course, to win, to realize our objectives, we need a half-million soldiers to pacify that country. If the force levels remain the same for another year and a half, this small, exhausted and overused American force may become so unglued that staying in Iraq will be come impossible. There may be no choice but retreat... Air evacuation would mean abandoning billions of dollars of equipment. There is no seaport troops could get to, so the only way out of Iraq would be that same desert highway to Kuwait where fifteen years ago the American Air Force destroyed Saddam Hussein's army. Dunkirk in the desert. Dump your non-stick frying pan ASAP! DuPont has to be one of the most evil companies on Earth. How can you produce a cooking product that you know causes cancer, and keep selling it? Let there be a hell, with a lake of fire, and let the pit be filled with the CEOs and their sundry yes-men. Salon's Supermarket sleuth (you'll need to watch an ad to see the article): So, how would you suggest shoppers navigate the supermarket? I have these facetious rules. Always shop the periphery. Don't go into the center aisles. If you do go into the center aisles, don't buy anything with more than five ingredients. If you can't pronounce the ingredients on the package label, don't buy it. Don't buy anything with a cartoon on it. If you don't want your kids eating junk food, don't have it in the home. One of the big "arguments" in favor of GM frankenfoods is that they repel pests. Guess what? THEY DON'T... Let's do our best to boycott these animal-killing SOBs iPods and slave labor. 2006 June 13, Tuesday Crikey - check out the poster in this American train. I call them fascists, he calls them Stalinists - whatever. The powers that be ARE jack-booted authoritarians, of that there's no doubt. Creepy. A scary round-up of climate change and peak oil from Jonathon Porritt. The top 100 items to disappear in a panic. Charlie Brown's skeleton. 2006 June 12, Monday Nice round-up: Has oil peaked?: Yes The one statement in this article that's up for the debate is whether or not Saudi Arabia has peaked. If it has, then we are totally f*cked. The world's "largest" natural gas field may not be as big as first thought. It's a pretty technical piece, if you're so inclined. Implications of Fossil Fuel Dependence for the Food System The food system can now be viewed as a system that converts non-renewable fossil fuel energy into food ... Currently about 10 to 15 calories of fossil fuel energy are used to create 1 calorie of food and although it only uses about 17% of the U.S. annual energy budget it is the single largest consumer of petroleum products when compared to any other industry. This means that it requires about 1,500 liters of oil equivalents to feed each American per year. There's some mind-boggling info about the environmental impact of jeans...and some tips on how to reduce your energy usage in cleaning them. A cheerful post from Clusterfuck Nation's James Howard Kunstler! How the terrorists are attacking us! Ah, the narcissism of the right wing mind... 2006 June 9, Friday Here's a couple of posts from some friends of mine - they've turned their 1/5th of an acre Pasaena home into a small farm. They produce almost 4 tons of food a year on 1/10th of an acre, using intensive (and organic) methods: In the garden. Small is beautiful. Most homes have lawns - a complete waste of space. They're a monoculture, and of little use to man or beast. How much more interesting would our towns and cities be if the lawns were ripped up and replaced with edible plants? Think beyond "Victory Gardens" --- you can create an amazing array of vegetables and herbs, all of which will taste better than anything you'll buy at the supermarket. If real shortages do occur, I'm certain many people will waste what little money and energy they have sitting in front of the TV, stuffing their faces with junk "food", when they could be on the way to making themselves just a little more self sufficient. I'm slowly ripping up the lawn in the front of my (landlord's) house. The soil beneath is nice and moist - already seeds are germinating like crazy, and the hedge of rosemary, lavender, oregano and sage seems to be liking it. I'll post photos as soon as I can bum a camera from someone. I read a statistic recently that I haven't been able to find. It claimed that Americans could dispense with all the oil imported from the Middle East if they switched to a vegetarian diet, such is the energy wastefulness of the meat industry. That's a hell of a lot more effective than buying a hybrid - although the chances of it happening through free choice are zero. If you're survival-minded, Emergency Essentials is a great company. Based in Utah, they have a great selection of toys for the pessimists/realists out there. It's worth taking your time and working through the site...you're sure to find something useful. 2006 June 8, Thursday WooHoo! Zarqawi is dead! Now that the insurgents have been defeated, peace will descend upon Iraq, the price of oil will fall, the troops will come home, and Iran will bring back the Shah. Praise Jesus, and his loyal servant on Earth, Preznit George W. Bush. The citizens of Oxford, Iowa photographed 20 years apart. (via boingboing.net). There are galleries here, here and here. Click on the before and after photos and the text for the stories - interesting. A sceptic annhialates the cult movie (and I do mean "cult" movie) What the Bleep do we know? Here's another hostile review from Salon. One year review of Peak Oil. 2006 June 7, Wednesday Brownshirt. P.O. @ 2020? Got Mercury? e=mc2 2006 June 6, Tuesday The smell of napalm: "The War is Lost... Six rules for eating wisely. Superb fan-created lego castle! 2006 June 5, Monday Finally - a new episode of The Worst Wing - Stuporman! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's a turd with no brain... 2006 June 2, Friday Via lifeaftertheoilcrash.net, a brilliant animation called: A post oil man. Creepy, scary, funny, and creepy. Did I say it was creepy? You have to watch an ad to see it, but if you can't bear to do that, you can watch it ad-free here. The go-to place for doomer economics is The Rude Awakening: China, as we all know, is on the opposite side of the planet. Over there, people make the things that we buy and don't buy the things we make. American households are rich and buy a lot. Chinese households are poor and buy little. Americans save little; the Chinese save a lot. Only 42 percent of Chinese GDP is domestic consumption. Another 35 percent is devoted to exports. And nearly half of all the money spent in China, according to Stephen Roach, is for fixed investment. Both economies are preposterously imbalanced. Both will probably fall down and break apart. But when the pieces are picked up, the Chinese will find themselves with the ability to produce wealth—things that people are willing to buy. America will find itself with less money to buy them with and fewer people willing to provide credit. It is odd that any superpower would hand over its manufacturing base to a potential future superpower. Curious... 2006 June 1, Thursday Praise God for The Gift of Laughter: Farmer's huge arse pops up on Google Earth. Oy - here's another one! Link 1: Mothballs cause cancer Link 2: Lavender repels moths. Hint: Lavender doesn't cause cancer, and grows like a weed. This is a phenomenal account of the scale of Chinese consumption, now and in the future at current growth rates. Something wicked this way comes: If China's economy continues to grow by 8.0 percent annually, per capita income will equal that of current levels in the United States by the year 2030, when the nation will boast a population of 1.45 billion people, Brown said. China grew 9.9 percent last year and 10.3 percent in the first quarter of 2006 and looks set to expand at similar rates going forward. On the same model, Brown said China's annual grain consumption would equal two-thirds of current world grain output and annual paper consumption would be double current world production by 2030. "There go the world's forests," he said. On oil, Brown pointed to a similar scenario of simply not having enough to meet China's demands. "If oil consumption per person reaches the US level by 2031, China will use 99 million barrels a day. "The world is currently producing 84 million barrels a day and may never produce much more." Depressing: Yangtze on brink of catastrophe This is funny - Iranian-Backed Militia Groups Take Control of Much of Southern Iraq. Good job GWB & Rummy - you gave control of Iraq to Iran...woohoo! Predictions of possible outcomes of an American attack on Iran...(hint: not good). Haditha is Arabic for My Lai Two other stories will have to be covered in order for the American public to make sense of this story - in addition to the obvious one that Haditha is the tip of the iceberg. First, it is not true, as Murtha suggested, that lack of training has anything to do with this. On the contrary, U.S. military training makes such incidents inevitable. Soldiers march to chants like "Kill! Kill! Kill! Blood makes the grass grow." This is not mindless sadism, but rather a specifically developed regimen designed to overcome the natural human aversion to killing another human. Soldiers are made into killing machines; a culture that will do this on the one hand and on the other constantly tout "humanitarian intervention," where soldiers are supposed to safeguard the interests of a civilian population, is a culture in deep denial. Second, racism and the peculiar brew of racialized militant nationalism and religion in the wake of 9/11. British officers have remarked numerous times on how U.S. interaction with Iraqis is characterized by racism. Remarking on the propensity of U.S. troops to use massive return fire in civilian areas, something it’s hard to imagine them doing in, say, Europe, one British officer said, "They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen." This component has been ignored for too long. old posts - about us - contact