The Gulf Oil Spill

This is my take on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: We are all to blame. Yes, BP is the devil incarnate -- all oil companies are. And BP needs to be held fully accountable for its actions. But none of the oil companies would exist without a consumer base. Let me repeat that statement: British Petroleum would not exist without a consumer base. Therefore, all oil-consumers are to blame for this disaster. That means all of us. Everyone. Everything each of us purchases on a day-to-day basis is to some degree reliant on oil, whether it's gasoline at the pump, a bed that has been transported to the store, vegetables that were grown with fertilizers, or anything made of rubber or plastic. There are degrees of guilt, to be sure. But to focus on BP as the sole cause of this problem is to reduce this situation to an oversimplified farce. This is what the Age of Machines comes down to: In the end, WE, the consumers and peoples of the world, must realize that WE are responsible for the degradation of the planet. WE could put all evil corporations out of business today, if WE stopped playing the consumer game. The oil companies are proxies for our own greed and ignorance.

Let me add that industrial disasters of this magnitude are logically bound to happen, and statistically probable, with the amount of oil drilling going on in the world today. We all know this. Unfortunately, we pretend that they are unexpected and unlikely occurrences, because we get away with industrial murder day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without suffering the true consequences. Time to wake up.

The Hopi prophesies contain a vision in which the oceans turn black and some kind of death - a virus? - emerges from them. I can't help but wonder if this disaster portends their vision.

Eek.

Back to the garden!

Local Motors - The Rally Fighter

One bad-ass desert racer BOV. Completely custom designed. Powered by a 3 liter diesel. Price tag: About $50,000. Check it out at: http://www.local-motors.com/rallyFighter.php

Three Ways to Fight A Cold

Am told that you can fight a cold by:

1. drinking lemon water,
2. eating raw garlic and/or onions, and/or
3. eating raw ginger

Wonder if it's true?

Aloe Vera

Got a sunburn on Sunday, out at Bolinas. Came home, cut two pieces off the Aloe plant a few doors down, sliced one piece open and rubbed the gel liquid into my arms, face and neck. Instant, cooling refreshment. By the next morning the burn had turned into a tan. Repeated the process with piece number two, for the hell of it. Today is Tuesday, no sign of any sunburn.

Works every time.

Am told that the slime from any green plant has a similar healing effect.

True Story

For years I would dream about a little, tiny, baby bird. The bird was sick and it was so small that it just wasn't going to make it. It would fall over and lay there on the ground and I'd try to keep it alive but I didn't know how to. I hated that dream. And when I awoke from it, I always knew that the bird symbolized some part of me. It was a helpless feeling, one that weighed heavily on me.

About two years ago I was walking up a hill near my house when I heard a car's brakes screech, followed by a thump, up around the corner. A moment later I rounded the corner to find a bird laying in the street. It looked dead. I walked up to it and peered down. It blinked back. I wondered if it had broken its back when it was struck. Was it paralyzed? I spoke gently to it, and after a minute one of its wings flapped feebly. So it wasn't paralyzed, but merely stunned.

Another car drove up, slowed, and gently cruised around us as I waved it by.

Minutes went by. Then, the bird suddenly flapped one wing very hard and skidded across the pavement. I followed. Now it was in the middle of the street. Another car drove up, stopped, then slowly cruised around us. I continued to talk to the bird, trying to soothe it. More minutes went by. Then, the bird flapped both its wings frenetically, and it slid farther long the pavement, into the gutter opposite where it had been hit. It was regaining its bearings.

Yet another car drove up, and I waved it around.

A woman walked up and asked me what I was doing. I explained. Together we watched the bird, and after some back and forth, she decided she'd pick it up and bring it home. But when she reached down to pick the bird up, it stood up and flew away, landing on a wall a few feet away.

"That was very kind of you, to watch over that bird," she said.

I wanted to say to her, "Believe me, I had no choice. That bird was ME. I HAD to save it!" But instead, I said nothing.

As I walked home, I kept thinking about what had just happened. I'd saved the bird. I'd saved the bird! It had all happened so perfectly. I'd arrived at the scene of the accident just at the right moment, and then protected the bird from getting run over. And then the bird had regained its senses and flown away - free, and whole, at last!

I have not dreamed about the baby bird since.

The State of US

What gets me riled up is what we, the United States public, invested our wealth in during those heady years when we reigned supreme on the world stage. We built a suburban infrastructure that relied heavily -- even exclusively -- on cheap, stolen oil. We went to Hawaii, we bought expensive cars, we added marble counter tops to our kitchens, we went out to dinner, we bought clothes, we did vast quantities of recreational drugs, and in the process we lost any semblance of self-sufficiency and sustainability that we once had. We lost the family farm, we went into debt, we stopped saving money, we forgot how to put up food, we had lots of children because we were told we were supposed to, we forgot how to garden, how to be thrifty, how to hunt, how to make do with less or little, how to re-use and repair, how to change our own oil, how to knit, how to be happy, how to eat well, how to be healthy, how to get real exercise, how to accept hardship, how to be civil to one another, how to give, how to be kind and thankful. We shitted away a King's ransom. And for what? What do we have to show for it? A nation full of crumbling, world-class freeways and houses. 50 million garages that are stuffed full of forgotten excess. Tens of millions of suburban consumers who have no real value, no real skills, no real savings, no real worth, no real clue, who have jello for brains. We have degenerated to a level where we know how to honk at each other, how to consume, how to sue one another, how to blame others for our own problems, and how to take as much as we can from the state and from the natural environment.

What is my point, you ask? I will get to that in a few moments. But first let me say that my point is critical, it must be acted upon, it is based on many years of studying world history and current affairs and the future. My point is this: Humanity now faces a multitude of looming problems that are global and epic and unprecedented in scale. These imminent crises include rapid climate change and accompanying rising sea levels, the increasing scarcity of resources and fresh water across the globe, widespread environmental degradation and possible systemic collapse, overpopulation, global economic collapse, and pandemics. The way to address this alarming state of affairs is to START INVESTING IN SUSTAINABILITY NOW, while you have an income, while the world economy still functions, while the vast multitudes sleep, while there is still time. This is it, our last chance. Work on the homestead, improve your relationships, get the ranch up-and-running, learn how to grow food, how to get by on less, how to love and live again.

Buy a quality rifle and pistol, and ammunition. This is no time to moralize. Your rifle and pistol may serve you, your children, and their children in a world that is far less civilized and prosperous than ours, a world in which the thin veneer of civilization was, indeed, quickly wiped away.

Buy a solid, functional mountain bike. Buy 2 sets of extra tubes for it, as well as a basket or rack, and learn how to repair and maintain it.

Set aside a minimum of 3 months worth of food, for long-term storage.

Learn the fundamentals of First Aid.

Plant a garden, and learn how to grow food. Better yet, plant a food forest or an orchard.

Learn how to raise animals, how to gather their eggs and milk and fur and poop, even how to slaughter, butcher and cook these critters.

Learn how to grow and use medicinal herbs.

Secure trusted friendships that will survive the coming storms.

Learn how to eat well and stay healthy.

Learn a skill that can serve as a cottage industry -- bicycle repair, ammo reloading, brewing or distilling, gardening, a healing art, soldiering, plumbing, auto repair, etc.

Increase your skill set across the board by learning functional homemaking fundamentals such as general home repair, cheese making, canning, cooking from scratch, baking, knitting, sewing, hide tanning, defensive shooting, etc.

Save money. Pay off your debt. Buy a house or land. Hedge against both deflation and hyperinflation, by investing some of your money in precious metals and/or STRIPS and/or TIPS and/or commodities.

Try to secure a job that can withstand rising oil shortages and social unrest and continued state financial bankruptcy/insolvency.

Consider where you live, and its advantages and disadvantages. Move to a more secure location if you must.

Stay abreast of world affairs, and act accordingly.

To those of you who are already on the bandwagon -- thank goodness! To those of you who are still in the dark -- this is your clarion call, these words are the light bulb that just flickered and got your attention. YOU'VE BEEN ALERTED. NOW YOU MUST MAKE GOOD.


And what of me, what purpose do I serve? If I am here for anything, it is to sound the alarm. People like me MUST exist in this world, people who see and imagine what lies down the road, and shout the warning to those around them. And it is imperative that we alarmists NEVER, EVER come to believe that Industrial society will do anything but fail completely. I don't know why this is true, I only know that it is. So, follow our advice, and hope we are wrong. The best future is the one in which we are wrong. But we can never know what the future will actually bring, so why not improve your life anyway, just in case? Start now. It's win-win, no matter what the outcome.

Holy Moly: Aquaponics

My God this is cool. And ingenious. In a nutshell, fishes poop in water, the water is cycled thru a gravel bed that acts as a growing medium for plants, the plants suck up the nutrience from the water, and then the clean water goes back into the fish tank. Ideally, you eat the plants and the fish, and the whole system uses only 10% of the H20 that a regular garden uses. You can operate these systems under grow lights, meaning you could use them indoors, in bunkers, in caves, in boats...

Check it out: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/21/HO3Q1CGSL1.DTL&sfgabt=ttmabtc#ixzz0ixht3aGI

Where to buy pre-made aquaponic systems:

-- Kijiji Grows, Oakland: (877) 865-2055 www.kijijigrows.com

-- Inka Biospheric Systems, San Francisco: (650) 619-2241 www.inka.fm

-- Home Depot: www.homedepot.com