cliate scoreboard

Do Green Products Make Us Better People?

Running head: Green Products and Ethical Behavior

Do Green Products Make Us Better People?

Abstract
Consumer choices not only reflect price and quality preferences but also social and moral
values as witnessed in the remarkable growth of the global market for organic and
environmentally friendly products. Building on recent research on behavioral priming and moral
regulation, we find that mere exposure to green products and the purchase of them lead to
markedly different behavioral consequences. In line with the halo associated with green
consumerism, people act more altruistically after mere exposure to green than conventional
products. However, people act less altruistically and are more likely to cheat and steal after
purchasing green products as opposed to conventional products. Together, the studies show that
consumption is more tightly connected to our social and ethical behaviors in directions and
domains other than previously thought.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/nov/06/green-consumerism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/22/brain-food
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/newthinking/greenproducts.pdf

Our power comes from acting as citizens - demanding political change - not acting as consumers.

The Imortality Project is failing

The People Paradox:
Self-Esteem Striving, Immortality Ideologies, and Human Response to Climate Change

ABSTRACT

In 1973, Ernest Becker, a cultural anthropologist cross-trained in philosophy, sociology, and psychiatry, invoked consciousness of self and the inevitability of death as the primary sources of human anxiety and repression. He proposed that the psychological basis of cooperation, competition, and emotional and mental health is a tendency to hold tightly to anxiety-buffering cultural world views or "immortality projects" that serve as the basis for self-esteem and meaning. Although he focused mainly on social and political outcomes like war, torture, and genocide, he was increasingly aware that materialism, denial of nature, and immortality-striving efforts to control, rather than sanctify, the natural world were problems whose severity was increasing. In this paper I review Becker's ideas and suggest ways in which they illuminate human response to global climate change. Because immortality projects range from belief in technology and materialism to reverence for nature or belief in a celestial god, they act both as barriers to and facilitators of sustainable practices. I propose that Becker’s cross-disciplinary "science of man," and the predictions it generates for proximate-level determinants of social behavior, add significantly to our understanding of and potential for managing the people paradox, i.e., that the very things that bring us symbolic immortality often conflict with our prospects for survival. Analysis of immortality projects as one of the proximate barriers to addressing climate change is both cautionary and hopeful, providing insights that should be included in the cross-disciplinary quest to uncover new pathways toward rational, social change.

Dirt the movie.com

Vaquaponics - Bioponic horticulture

Does this work
Text to follow

THE SIMPLER WAY:

AN OUTLINE OF THE GLOBAL SITUATION, THE SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY, AND THE TRANSITION TO IT.

Ted Trainer, Faculty of Arts, University of N.S.W.

29.4.09

Our industrial-affluent-consumer society is extremely unjust and ecologically unsustainable. The argument below is that these problems cannot be solved in a society that is driven by obsession with high rates of production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth. Most people do not realise the magnitude of the overshoot, the extent to which this society is unsustainable. Because this is so great there must be vast and radical system changes if the big global problem are to be solved. A sustainable and just world order cannot be achieved until we move to very different lifestyles, values and systems, especially to a new economic system.

The alternative we must work for is The Simpler Way, based on frugal "living standards", co-operation, high levels of local economic self-sufficiency, and zero economic growth. The final section below argues that the top priority for people concerned about the fate of the planet should be starting to build these new lifestyles and systems within existing towns and suburbs.

• Material living standards must be much less affluent. In a sustainable society per capita rates of resources use must be a small fraction of those in Australia today.

• There must be mostly small scale highly self-sufficient local economies.

• There must be mostly cooperative and participatory local systems whereby small communities control their own affairs, independent of the international and global economies.

• A very different economic system must be developed, one that is under social control, geared to meeting needs as distinct from maximising profits, not driven by market forces, and without any growth.

None of this is possible without radical change in values, away from competition, self-interest and greed, and to cooperation, participation, giving and non-material satisfactions.

http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/TSWmain.html

A TLUD - Top Lit Up Draft - Spinner

I’ve been following a couple of different groups and discussions to learn about biochar for about 6 months. Id like to share what I’ve been learning and ask a couple of questions.

My purpose is to use biochar as a component in biological soil synthesis and buffer for use in a vaquaculture growing system.

I have been making small TLUD stoves, observing modeling tweaking making another.
It’s been informative and fun. The char is as valuable as the worms.
I have been producing about 1.2kg biochar a week to play with.
Fresh char is inhibitory to worms, needs further evaluation.
Its hungry & harsh with a high Ph. Treatment with Activated Compost Tea softens and makes it more bio friendly. Plants like it.

The idea is to learn the principles and process of Pyrolysis to make a stove that is efficient, produce char heat and cook on. I have learnt a lot in the last 6 months. A major observation is why are we humans still in the Stone Age when it comes to combustion and use of biomass?

My most recent stove is from a small barbecue gas bottle. It has heated central and radial secondary air, being introduced at 3 different levels. The original flame was long and unstable, headache and vision screwing – high CO? An after burner was created to improve combustion compact the flame to make it more stable and usable.

My strategies was to -
Introduce air in stages to heat air being injected a little higher in the flame column increasing the temp at each stage. (Hotter gasses improve efficiency of reaction allowing a wider air fuel ratio?).
Keep the reacting process as compact as possible by getting the flame to spiral and travel in a horizontal plane. Improve mixing by manipulating the resulting vortex.
Use boundary layers to advantage - (a boundary layer will insulate reacting gases from the walls of the combustion chamber, it will also inhibit heat transfer on the air side.
Insulate the stove well.

The available fuel source is mixed tree wood chips from urban sorces.
It takes about 1.5k wood chips, yields about 400g char, burns for about an hour till the flame changes. At this point I have extinguished it and harvested the biochar.

I call it the Spinner.
It’s a wonderful teaching device, as a cooking device it’s a bit overpowered.
It burns clean and very stable,
No bleary vision or headaches.
Each tweak teaches me, failures are best.
Combustion and knowledge continually improves.
Imagination is the most precious resource.
This is alchemy, art & science.

I find CO a problem in that it is extremely toxic and if not burnt its energy potential is lost.
I Wish I had a better CO CO2 temp ...meters than my nerves system as it would give me better feedback on what happening.

From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove

From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove

A couple of links to this stove and other things will fill in some details.
Thanks, keep up the good work.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ausearthlove
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ausearthling/ReformingCharcoalWoodGasStove#
http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-soils/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-production/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

Reciprocity

We Are
we develop monoculture, we are monoculture.
we poison the earth we poison ourselves.
We breed cattle, we breed ourselves.
we lie to another we lie to ourselves.
we make war on another.
We love another.
what we do we do to ourselves.
reciprocity

Carbon alchemy - Stroking the Peacocks tail

Look at how he flies.
Where is she.
Hidden.

This is the sacred part, the insight of alchemy.
Plant and animal - light and dark.
We are as we eat mind of this earth.
Sacred root.

Carbon alchemy
We take in nutrients to generate energy, produce CO2.
We think wrong to see CO2 as a by product of respiration, a pollution.
As semi conscious beings we do the same externally with all our actions.
Yet we do not look at carbon in our lives, our own carbon cycle.
We are blind to how we cycle.
How we eat breath & shit carbon.
How we are. Carbon flux in being.

Where did this food come from?
How did earth water air sun do this?
How is life your life derived/realized in this.
Our Spiritual life together.

The carbon in your body, the carbon you eat,
the carbon you breathe, the carbon you shit.

When does it become you?
When does it become not you?
Meditate on this.
The same with all the elements.

Sit in front of a small tree and watch your breath, its breath.
Merge ,be one.
Experience Learn.

What would it be like to take responsibility for this carbon, Our carbon?
The carbon in carbohydrates, CO2, food, shit.
The carbon that moves through this personal life.
The carbon we fix = the carbon we liberate!
The whole cycle!
How can this be achieved?

An alchemical relationship between!
The heat of the sun growing the food we eat
The heat of the biomass cooking the food we eat
The food we eat & heat of our body.

When we crap in water we loose the smell of our own soul. We break our contact with the earth.
Cover shit with sweet earth compost & char, in a breathing enclosure. Separate from the earth yet worked upon by the earth.
When we piss in water our salts are diluted and lost.
Piss on char kept separate from the other.

Char derived from the Pyrolysis process is raw and hungry.
- The dust strips oils from the skin. Ph 8
- If slightly dampened it will generate heat?
- It needs to be further processed further processed to enhance its qualities.

- steeped in urine for a few days. Strained, diluted 1:10.
- Added to active compost tea brew. Bubbling air through water nutrients compost.
- Used in the compost.
- This softens its harsh character.

What is my personal carbon equation?
How much active biomass do I need to re-fix the carbon liberated by my life activities?

Allegri - Miserere - Part 1 - Tallis Scholars

keeping it clean - Organic best pratice

I Shall die young.
What the heck.
The chickens are teaching me.
Get rid of the plastic petrochemical derived soulless stuff, its of no use.

If I am Going to eat from it.
Then only clean organic materials be used in the system.

Compost Tea Knowledge - The way of the microbe.

Soil Food
Microbe Organics
Compost tea
Tea brewer

Carbon Alchemy

The external carbon that we oxidize to enable our own carbon cycle. What is the relationship?



It performs well as a stove.
burns about an hour
40% yield charcoal, biochar

Backyard Experiment - Carbon Biocycling

The backyard experiment.

From Composting proceses

The organic cycle?

I have had this machine for many years. It has a 9 horse power engine, chips wood up to 3 inches in diameter, Its brutal to use.
I wonder if the shredded garden waste can be sieved, the larger woodier used to gasify and power the machine, the finer stuff composted.

From Composting proceses

So many ways to compost,
This is a two year project.
An old computer fan circulating air through an agg drainage pipe at the base.
Avoid anaerobic zone, evaporate excess moisture.
A membrane to contain liquid and keep tree roots out.
screened inoculated char about 25-50%,
fill for a year, mature for a year.
Think it will be a good compost.

Making Charcoal - biochar for the compost

From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove

This is a retort pyrolyzing 10l wood chips,
Can this energy be usefully used,heat water, run a machine, cook food.
The char needs to be matured in some way.
The PAH in the fresh char inhibits worms, may be mildly toxic to soil and life?

From Vermicomposting

A worm farm, can recover liquids as well as solids.

From Vermiponics

A vermiponic system makes use of the worm liquor.


Processing growing mix

From Vermiponics

A rotary sieve used for mixing up soils.
A versatile work area.
A propagation enclosure.

This is also part of this carbon cycle.

From Vermiponics

Food is that light and the way.
without it we die, it connects us with the earth.

This is the carbon cycle that we need to understand its sacredness.

Smoke burner

From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove

A new stove, Its A smoke burner,
pyrolysis reduction oxidation.
This is art as well as science.
Design create, observation, tune - next.
A process of learning.
What am I trying to achieve?
Efficient controlled combustion, Charcoal, knowledge.
Heat for cooking and heating.
biochar for composting, creating stable soils.
Alchemy exploration
Carbon = life ?

Arithmetic, Population and Energy

Video parts 1 of 8

Arithmetic, Population and Energy -

a talk by Al Bartlett

http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.html

How to Butcher a Chicken

How to butcher a chicken

This internet tutorial tells (and shows) you how to skillfully butcher a chicken in ten easy steps. Your instructor is Herrick Kimball,

http://butcherachicken.blogspot.com/

The Eighth Day, For the children of the world

Earth repair foundation

What is it to live in this life

What is it to live in this life?
Compost, embedded complex systems
I used to ask about this, having grown up in a catholic system.
Science, religion, Christ, football, competition.
A murdered Jesus constantly on display.
One would be condemned to hell for not being mindlessly enslaved to the authority of the unknowable father.
A mind fucking double bind.
The core of slavery. It has harmed so many.
Not the way of the Christ at all.
I left school very confused and questioned this deeply.

The hard Question.
This led to two Questions.
What does life ask of us? What is it about this earth that all living things have in common?
The answer was within the Question, the question it is the key!
-- Life asks us to live in awareness.
-- All living things must take the life of another to live.
-- We are all food to this life process.
This became the basis for my living ethos.
If we are to continue evolving in this paradise we must honor life.
And honor our food.
Relies that our shit is sacred and own it.
Care for her and all her creatures.
Eat and be eaten in awareness.
Its all we need to do.

YES

http://www.yesmagazine.org/default.asp

Harvest the Suburbs

Wood Gass Stove

This is a small wood gas stove, it pyrolysis the fuel (wood chips) giving heat and leaving charcoal. it holds about 200g chips, boils 1lt water in 7 minutes and burns for about 20 minutes, leaving charcoal for the composting process.
I'm Learning about the carbon cycle and how much energy this culture wastes.
Charcoal added to humanur composting may fix a large amount of carbon into active earth nutrients, might be the secret of Tera preta.
more stoves to follow.
http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/types
http://www.bioenergylists.org/
http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=vid/ShowVideo&qid=2948

Rose

From Flowers

National Mysticism

Dear Sir
We seem to be in a state of national mysticism, on national pokie booze up binge with absolutely no idea of what is happening around us.
We know fire. why weren’t we prepared for this catastrophe?
How on earth did we get caught with our shoes of and our pants down?
The climate conditions preceding those fires were extreme. There were warnings, warnings from climate departments, NASA, government t agencies. Yet we were totally unprepared. Why?

I live in Mittagong and during the heat wave I noticed how dry the grasses where, the ground was hot very hot, everything on the ground was hot and super dry. Volatiles were evaporating out of the organic mater in the soil and collecting at the boundary layer, the air was hot dry and windy, though the tree canopies looked green and healthy. I have never seen it like this before!
I was thinking if a fire came through this town it would have been fierce. It did not happen here and I am relived for this and the rain, but it did happen elsewhere. The fires were so fierce that no amount of preparation apart from a fire bunker would have done much!

It’s a total copout blaming arsonist; this is a statement of denial. They light fires every year have done so and will continue to do so regardless of the punishments offered. We are not victims of arsonist but victims of something much deeper. Our inability to detect change and cope with it!
What on earth was the government both state and federal doing?
Were they putting out fire warnings, putting fire departments on red alert? Or were they talking the economy up, Offering the nation a consumer pokies booze up fix. A national junkie fix.

We were thinking about our Santa handouts for the economy and business as usual. We were licking the teats of the sacred golden cow, enmeshed in a state of consumer fantasy.

Being mystified and unable to accept or comprehend climate change and its implications.

Following our pretty megalomaniac climate denier leader for a hot fix, so we don’t have to look at our dirty greedy life, nationally we are just like the ice heads down the road shoving there wealth up there arm.

I believe this suggests that we are in full on environmental and climate denial mode. Getting of on consumer products like an addict instead of being in the moment accepting and addressing what is real.

What Mr Rudd is doing giving out a cheep addict consumer fix instead of addressing the real issues is criminal far more criminal than those arsonists. These fires will happen again. The Murray is dying. We are in a drought like we have never seen before. Desertification is setting in south. Adelaide is drying. The Great Barrier Reef is suffering and probably dying.

Mr. Rudd wants to waste our ability to address these issues now and in the future by wasting our wealth on a consumer fix.

These are serious issues that must be addressed now with all our available resources. 5% is lip service when he is supporting big coal, pie in the sky dreaming about carbon fix, corporate profits making on geo-sequestration that has no proof of principle.

The fire crises give us an opportunity to look at this process, to address these issues on a personal community state and national level

Leave the coal in the ground, use the forests instead for energy. Pyrolise the wood, collect the energy for use and burry the resulting charcoal underneath more forests. This is a carbon negative fuel cycle. An efficient way to sequester CO2 while providing a lot of jobs. Otherwise these great resources will be wasted in CO2 to the atmosphere and the nutrients eventually washed into the sea.

Malcolm Turnbull has suggested something like this and it is probably the only cost effective way to get two birds with the one stone.
In the mean time I’m going to join the crowd, get my fix and have a night on the free consumer pokies booze up thanks to Rudd


Cc Malcolm Turnbull, Bob brown, Penny Wong, Alby Schultz, Peter Garrett.

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

EUKARIMA SCHOOL Bowral

Eukarima School Bowral Closed due to work of spiritual architects who build sacred temples to their ego.

It’s a great Shame it was a beautiful school, a great environment for learning children.

It had the best monthly markets built up over many years by a committed few.

There were many committed to the growth of the school.

Eukarima had a shadow; it attracted the hunger of the spirit eaters.

The sacred politics of those that build temples to there ego was tearing apart the community that supported the school.
It became one big shit fight, after 20 years the supporting community had enough withdrawing their support. Parents withdrew their children and the school died a very sad death.

leaving the spirit eaters a carcass to fight over.

No more sacred glass corridors.
No more crossing of the road to avoid their sacred shit, those that have been shat upon.

No more worry about who to socialize with.

No more creepy healers breading social disease.
No more vilification of those that don't serve the spirit eaters ego crap.
No more parents taking their children out because of the destructive politics.

No more markets.

No more school.

The temple builders have all but left.
Some made great profit from conning of others to build their temples of greed.

A few remain and yet others still come to do there selfish sacred work.
When will they wake up to what they do?
The locals have.

After this lesson in spiritual selfish politics,

Call yourself authentic you better dame well be.

Spiritual architecture = design of glass coridoors


Tread softly!
All this earth is sacred ground.
It May be, could we look with seeing eyes.
This spot we stand on is a paradise;
Where dead have come to life and lost been found,
Where faith has triumphed, martyrdom been crowned,
Where fools have foiled the wisdom of the wise;
From this same spot the dust of saints may rise,
And the kings prisoners come to light unbound.
O earth earth earth. hear now thy makers words;
"Thy dead thou shall give up, nor hide thy slain"-
Some who went weeping forth shall come again
Rejoicing from the east or from the west
As doves fly to their windows, loves own bird
Contented and desirous to the nest.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Temple of The Sacred Ego - Spirit Eaters

Something that happened a wile back.

Eagle May 17, 2007

On Tuesday at work Two Wedge tailed Eagles flew over. One was downed by a couple of hawks. I don't know what happened to the other. I contacted wires and a lady turned up with a couple of blankets, (I think they need more resources). I then spent a while talking to and calming this huge scared injured bird walking with her through and around paddocks, Getting closer. Eventually I got close enough to capture her.

We took her/him, I'm going to call it her. We took her to the vet rolled in a blanket. The Bird had an old wound on the wing the elbow joint, this wound the hawks had attacked to bring her down. She had a lice lode, she looked exhausted . I left as they were going to ex ray her, thinking she was in good hands. Later on I heard that the vet had put her down.. justifying it with,,,,

..There was damage in the wing, it did look like the other,,,, What type of life would this animal have,,,,

I am hurt deeply by this, look at this picture! Her wings are up!

A couple of years ago I found a Rosella on the roadside flapping and in shock, I took It to the same vet,

Do you know what they said,,, Its got a damaged wing, wires normally put them down,,,, We would have to bind it, it would be difficult,,,, It may never fly again,,,,, What type of life would it have,,, You need a license to have a captive native bird ,,, ,,, ,,,etc....

I took the parrot home he lived on the curtain rail floor and chair backs and in spring when I opened up the house he flue away.......

So today &Tonight I sit hear and think of this vet the Eagle and wires and my giving my power away.....

Its no good crying over spillt milk. The Eagle is a symbol of power, I knew in my inner heart and promised her that we would look after her when I was trying to capture her, I knew what should be done....And when I caught her I gave her to another who seemed to have more authority than me......

IF I had honored my promise to and of my own power I would have taken her to a cage no more than 200m from where she fell and looked after her with the help of the farm manager for the winter.

I am sure she would have flown again.

A lessen on how easy it is to give up ones own inner heart felt authority and power to others that only wear a badge of authority and have no true training or commitment.

Temple of the Sacred Ego

Shaman what is this beating of the drum, the dance of the circle, the smudge of the smudge, this ancient fire light with sanitized vision quests. whats this sacred thing you talk about!

Shaman do you take time to learn & relearn the language of the animals?
Have you held an eagle, do you talk with the birds, do you know there language. Could this language be of chemistry love and time.. Do you truly understand that we are all brothers or do you own a cat!

Shaman have you spent time with the plants and learnt there way.
Do you know the dance of chemistry, the cycle of the elements.
Do you know how to produce your own food.. This be truly sacred self!

Shaman do you know death, Has a loved one died in your arms.
Have you breathed and pumped life into another and watched him in his eyes and seen him struggle as he dies, only to live again. Have you died yourself!

Shaman have you been in the eye of a storm, danced with lightning on a mountain top, swum in the desert. Have you lived alone for an extended time!

Shaman Do you tend the sick and frail when your spells can’t cure, or do you hide them behind glass walls in the temple of the soul!

Shaman truth need no words. Do you give honour to your words of love and friendship or leave that for others to do. Do you judge another according to their truth or judge to bind in serving the temple of your ego. Do you serve your shaman way or cheaply use this truth!

Shaman when truth is murdered in the temple of the ego of another.
Stop stomp and listen as the ego corridors shatter.

Shaman do you truly hold all this earth as mother sister brother daughter son.

Immanuel Kant
"An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?"

Plant Grow Unit

Found a double bunk, all the uses it can be put to?
A bath tub will fit.

Parrot

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints
in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more;
He who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.
Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can’t live long enough to make
them all yourself.
Friends, you and me…
You brought another friend…
And then there were 3…
We started our group…
Our circle of friends…
And like that circle…
There is no beginning or end…
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.

Unknown, not Eleanor Roosevelt
Quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt’s grandson David Roosevelt in the book Grandmère: A Personal History of Eleanor Roosevelt

Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman

What chemistry!
That the winds are really not infectious,
That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which is
so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its
tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited
themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that
melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once
catching disease.

Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless
successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous
crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from
them at last.

Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman

Slow food

This is good to share, to much for me and the birds.
There is a sharing system a que gaes back a few trees.
Jump the que and listen
Help, Bring a container.
Another yummie pie

Vermiponic biorecycling

Vermiponic bio recycling

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aquaponics hydroponics)

View on slideshare blogger has not updated this.

As time goes by this system is moving from an idea to a reality.
We all need to understand the carbon & nitrogen cycle. A system that we are embedded in. So far we don't do to well.
This may offer some solutions.

Vermiponics

Click to view collection

Walt Whitman introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Despise riches,
Give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labour to others,
Hate tyrants,
Argue not concerning God,
Have patience and indulgence toward the people,
Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
Go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with mothers of Families,
Read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul;

and your flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

Walt Whitman in the introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

Shiting in water

Shitting in water
Create a list of animals that shit in water
Create a list of animals that don't shit in water.
Strange how we (humans ) shit in water and then wont drink it
Not very intelligent are we.
Give this a moment thought will you !!!
My dog won’t shit in water; he doesn't need a nuclear plant to power a desalinater
Dogs must be more intelligent than humans

Cob Workshop

http://www.gudhara.org.au/
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ausearthling/CobWorkshop20081129#
http://www.davidjohnson.id.au/

Beannachtaí an tSéasúir,

May you be blessed with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and
superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep
within your heart.
May you be blessed with anger
at injustice, oppression, and
exploitation of people,
so that you may work
for justice, freedom and peace.
May you be blessed with tears to shed
for those who suffer from pain,
rejection, starvation and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them
and to turn their pain into joy.
May you be blessed with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make
a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others
claim cannot be done.
Amen.

Beannachtaí an tSéasúir,
(Blessings of the Season)

Husband The Earth

The question keeps coming up.
"How can we care for all the children of all the species for all time",
William Donaugh.
My question is, How can we care for this earth and all her creatures?
The answer is simple really.
Care for this earth and all her creatures.
The practice the way is difficult in this day.
I used to use a mantra - I am the earth, when I first started to query what she was about.
What I have noticed is that as I ask this question every day my perceptions are changing.
A lot of what I used to find satisfying important for human life is now just so vile and sickening.
I have become the earth and I feel sick at what we do.
Its strange and sacred, She is always talking silently in us.
If we would only listen we would know what to do.
She loves us so much.
please open your heart and know
its in thy thymus
'-'

carbon negative cooking.

- Click on image to see the collection
Almost. 25l burner, 8l chiminy, 2*4 reformer inside, loaded with wood.
Burns like a furnace.
Not much of a yield, no smoke great for cooking
rice and a stir fry
Burnt for about 60 minutes
I Want a charcoal stream for nutrient buffering in soil and compost
http://www.holon.se/folke/carbon/cooking.shtml
http://www.terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/makingcharcoal

Sacred Food

(Food is sacred,
It is what connects us to this earth.)
I lack artistic computer skills. would a creative person be interested in creating a image from this.

At Home, Vermiponic Permaculture microfarming

Spring is here and I'm behind.
Ive been busy with -
Permaculture class.
Walking A friend through the dark night of the soul, (It is a joy to help in the birth of an adult human,rare these days).
A new and proud owner of 6 lovely gals (one above).
Attempting to craft an aquaponic - vermiponic system.
Worms - chooks - plants - fish, all from food wastes from the local organic grocer.
Is this permaculture

This is a beginnings of an aquaponic - vermiponic system made from salvaged bits.
A chook tractor and worm farm at back of image.
I intend to use the nutrient solution and worms to feed it.
The bath tubs have worm castings as a growing medium.

Vermiponics

Above - link to Pictures of vermiponic experiment in my back yard
http://www.vermiponics.com/
http://ecocard12.angelfire.com/plants.html
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bCV7DABEz20&sdig=1

Tera Preta

Terra preta


The secret of el dorado

Bees CCD & GMO

Dear Friends,

I am rather confused and concerned by the disappearing Bees around the Globe and our responses. Bees are kind of special, a canary in a haystack, a keystone specie. There seems to be a connection between certain insecticides used in almost all horticulture situations, from urban gardens, golf courses to commercial agriculture and GMOs.

Bees don’t do to well in genetically modified crops that express insect toxins. e.g. bt cotton, canola.

The countries using GM crops linked with systemic insecticides are having staggering Bee losses. It is known as CCD colony collapse disorder.

Australia is spared this blight at present. We use these Insecticides but as yet don’t have widespread GM crops expressing insect toxins. This is Changing Quickly.

FSANZ is asking for public submissions on the release of these lethal corporate bio-engendered money spinners.

My dilemma is this. I don’t feel confident or understand the process involved in creating and submitting this information to FSANZ or other authorities. I do feel it is extremely important to do so.

I am asking for a call of solidarity, a call to arms or maybe a whimping plee for help.

Is there anyone interested in gathering collating and creating a submission?

Please contact me if interested in doing something about this.

Regards Phillip

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/newsroom/mediareleases/mediareleases2008/6august2008publicsub3969.cfm

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/standardsdevelopment/documentsforpublicco868.cfm

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/honeyBeeOrganicFarming.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/animalwelfare.environment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/12/conservation.wildlife1

http://www.esajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1890%2F03-5271

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/03/HOGIROCUE71.DTL

Permablitz, community sharing

Cob

Permablitz Southern Highlands

Let no one be discourage by the thought of how much there is to learn...
For the first steps are steps into a delightful unknown..
The first successes are victories all the happier for being scarcely expected
and with the growing knowledge comes the widening outlook and the comforting sense of an ever increasing gain of critical appreciation.
Each new step becomes a little surer and each new grasp a little firmer,
Till little by little comes the power of intelligent combination.
The nearest thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.

Gertrude Jekyls.

absurdism

Miguel De Unamuno, - "Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible."

Christian slavery

Shame June 27, 2007

http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/a-new-paternalism-for-aborigin...

http://www.westender.com.au/stories.php?s_id=595

We have dis-empowered these people completely, pushed them onto the rubbish dumps of our cultural refuse.

We have stolen there land, raped there children, sold them into Christian slavery, abused them, murdered them, diluted there spirit with ours (petrol)

We have projected our shadow of hatred on them. and still do

We have treated them worse than dogs and vermin, and still do.

We have taken advantage of them, using them for our political gains

We destroy all other cultures in serving our Christian greed.

Then blame them for there destruction!!

To continually treat others less than human creates less than human others

The only shame is in us who judge without recourse to truth

We call ourselves Christian and demand others accept cultural enslavment.

Lets give ourselves a pat on the back.

* Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.

* Unite humanity with a living new language.

* Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.

* Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

* Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

* Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

* Balance personal rights with social duties.

* Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.

* Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

"Those who commit evil acts do not see those acts as evil or even malicious.
They see themselves as justified" -- David Gerrold

Technorati Profile

Worm Tower

The original

Atrazine - from silent night to silent spring

From Silent Spring to Silent Night
A talk by Prof. Tyrone Hayes,
Department of Integrative Biology,
University of California Berkeley. Given at Humphrey Institute in
Minneapolis on March 23, 2007. Dr. Hayes is an authority on the
effects of the pesticide atrazine on frogs, and is not popular with
chemical companies for his views and proven research.

Vermiculture - Aquaponics.

A semi closed organic food system created in a minimal space intergrating vermiculture and aquaponics - using organic and Permaculture principles.

The goal is to cycle nutrients solid and liquid through a combined aquaponics and vermiculture system to grow food for the table. Recycle organic food and organic matter. Possibly produce Vermicompost and liquid fertilizer.

Musings
Worms produce nitrogen rich liquid and solid products suitable for growing plants, are a rich protein source.
Fish eat worms and also produce nitrogen.
Plants use nitrogen.
Hydroponic gravel beds act as filters removing particles and nutrients.
I Eat fish plants and worms (sometimes).
What type of fish?
Commercial home size aquaponic systems take about the space of a double garage and are claimed to feed a family of four.