Just heard a story (from our traveling teacher/storyteller friend from Tinian) about Chinese medicine, back to about 3000-4000BC; the village doctor got paid as long as you were well. It was a tiny stipend, from everybody in the village. When you got sick, your payment stopped until you were well again.
Does that strike you as an *incentive*?
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Finally starting to read John Kenneth Galbraith’s The New Industrial State (3d Ed., ‘78); it’s about the largest corporations and their needs, not the “market” at all. Also hearing fascinating interviews with his son lately.
Meanwhile, find your talents, develop them, help as many people as possible with them. Bucky Fuller found (in Critical Path) that his rewards came from unexpected quarters when he did that.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A Re- De- pression?
There is an awful lot of howling about our being in a global recession or maybe even a (*GASP*) depression for the past year, while the bankers, who control the flow of currency, have given themselves huge bonuses for their (heck-of-a-job-Brownie) performance.
It makes me recall the stories about the Great Depression of the 1930s, of course, and the fact that it was a Clinical Depression (though the term wasn't used at the time). People discouraged by a downturn and tightening of credit, and often complete failure of their banks, fell into a funk and quite a few chickened out and jumped out the window, or found other ways to shuffle off this mortal coil. That's happening now to (we hope) not quite as many.
It also reminds me of the story Alan Watts told about the carpenters showing up at the job one morning and being told they couldn't start work, since they had run out of inches!
If there is no currency, there can be no commerce, right? Wrong! There is barter, there is our parent's concept of the Victory Garden, many ways to repair, recycle, re-use and re-purpose what we already have.
FDR said "...the only thing we have to fear, is Fear Itself!" And we must pull together and get through this, perhaps better than we did before.
A number of nice big national and international projects that will benefit the entire planet (which has shrunk to about a half-hour of transit time from/to anywhere) would sure be nice. I know! How about going back to the Moon and on to Mars? The last time we went to the Moon, people screamed about the expenditure, but y'know what? Not a penny, not a nickel, was spent on the Moon. It was all spent here! Let's get serious about refining silicon into photovoltaic (solar) cells, and get off the oil needle. Wind generators are already cheaper than the filthy oil and coal alternative. The combination, spread out over our planet, with a robust power grid to deliver the power from sources to destinations, will do a lot.
There's a lot we can do to make our nest better, and our great-grandkids more secure and comfy, so let's get to it! Think globally, act locally, etc...
It makes me recall the stories about the Great Depression of the 1930s, of course, and the fact that it was a Clinical Depression (though the term wasn't used at the time). People discouraged by a downturn and tightening of credit, and often complete failure of their banks, fell into a funk and quite a few chickened out and jumped out the window, or found other ways to shuffle off this mortal coil. That's happening now to (we hope) not quite as many.
It also reminds me of the story Alan Watts told about the carpenters showing up at the job one morning and being told they couldn't start work, since they had run out of inches!
If there is no currency, there can be no commerce, right? Wrong! There is barter, there is our parent's concept of the Victory Garden, many ways to repair, recycle, re-use and re-purpose what we already have.
FDR said "...the only thing we have to fear, is Fear Itself!" And we must pull together and get through this, perhaps better than we did before.
A number of nice big national and international projects that will benefit the entire planet (which has shrunk to about a half-hour of transit time from/to anywhere) would sure be nice. I know! How about going back to the Moon and on to Mars? The last time we went to the Moon, people screamed about the expenditure, but y'know what? Not a penny, not a nickel, was spent on the Moon. It was all spent here! Let's get serious about refining silicon into photovoltaic (solar) cells, and get off the oil needle. Wind generators are already cheaper than the filthy oil and coal alternative. The combination, spread out over our planet, with a robust power grid to deliver the power from sources to destinations, will do a lot.
There's a lot we can do to make our nest better, and our great-grandkids more secure and comfy, so let's get to it! Think globally, act locally, etc...
Thursday, October 16, 2008
It Begins
Just created this blog, after looking at Donna's. Figure it can't be all that hard, right? How often will I be able to get over here and add stuff is the real question, so it doesn't get too stale. I'm hoping I can put some photos of projects here, that others could get use out of.
Ones I have in mind to start are:
Self-guyed antenna masts, made of chainlink-fence rail, plywood squares, Simpson Stongtie(R) brackets, and galvanized stranded wire; very light and transportable, so three linked ten-footers (thirty feet!) can be carried in one hand. Tune to C below C below middle-C and guy it when standing it up.
Dead-simple low-tech composting bin, made of 1x6" cedar fence boards, cut into 36" lengths and notched like the old Lincoln Logs toy at about 27"OC; no hardware, very easy to move and turn, last a long time. Make enough boards for two or more, about twenty per bin, five high. Notch just barely more than the ACTUAL thickness of the board; my latest are only 5/8", 3/4" makes it sloppy.
Ones I have in mind to start are:
Self-guyed antenna masts, made of chainlink-fence rail, plywood squares, Simpson Stongtie(R) brackets, and galvanized stranded wire; very light and transportable, so three linked ten-footers (thirty feet!) can be carried in one hand. Tune to C below C below middle-C and guy it when standing it up.
Dead-simple low-tech composting bin, made of 1x6" cedar fence boards, cut into 36" lengths and notched like the old Lincoln Logs toy at about 27"OC; no hardware, very easy to move and turn, last a long time. Make enough boards for two or more, about twenty per bin, five high. Notch just barely more than the ACTUAL thickness of the board; my latest are only 5/8", 3/4" makes it sloppy.
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