Transition Towns

 

Locally grown foods sold at a farmers market

So I just heard of this thing called Transition Towns, and I am in the process of joining one.  The overall idea is to adjust to life without oil and with climate changes in order to make life “Post Oil” livable and even enjoyable.  Read more here.

The first problems which come to mind are our oil dependencies in the areas of food and heating.  

I am writing from central Illinois, so food is all around us, but delivering it to the rest of the country/world will become impossible.  Industrial agriculture is also dependant on oil.  Without our tractors, combines, and other oil driven machines our capacity to produce will be diminished.

Living in the mid-west is an exercise in suffering the elements.  This year we had several cold snaps lasting for more than a week during which the temperature did not raise above zero degrees Fahrenheit.  No amount of insulation would have kept our house warm enough without gas heating.

Further Post Oil challenges include but are not limited to transportation, medical care, law and order, art, and education.

The climate change element is something I am not certain we can completely prepare for.  The idea of unpredictable weather patterns disrupting agriculture and displacing large urban populations is staggering.  Does that mean the interior of continents should prepare to host millions of refugees?  To do so while facing food and transportation shortages is going to be a challenge if we don’t have an oil free solution ready to implement when crisis strikes.

Zumbox Paperless Mail

Email has been around in my life since 1995, paper mail (snail-mail) has always been around.  I have always thought that paper mail would be with us forever.  I reasoned that records require a solid medium; an item which could be held in ones hand, signed with a pen, and observed with the naked eye.  I now believe I was wrong.

With added encryption and provisions for electronic signatures paper will become a quaint relic.  Not for ecological reasons, though they are good (step out side and hug a tree); but for speed and economy our society must adopt and trust electronic records.  This is already largely done inside individual organizations.  We use all the necessary technologies to keep records inside of businesses and financial institutions.

I recently received a Zumbox account in support of the end of paper mail.  It is basically a free email address for my postal address.  Companies, non-profit organizations, and individuals can send their billing, advertisements, and correspondences electronically rather than printing it on paper and delivering it by truck and man.  This will allow for less overhead, less carbon emissions, and less distribution time.

I know this service is in beta testing, and it might not take off, but the only way it (or something like it) will succeed is if people get behind it.  So I encourage all of you to help change the inefficiencies of our society by opting in to these sorts of ventures.

President Bush, Vice President Biden, for a moment.

Watching the inauguration today I was struck by many things: the peaceful coup that happens every couple of years in the United States, the cooperation between political enemies, and the great pomp in such troubled times. But the moment I was most humorously intrigued by after Joe Biden took his oath, and before Barack Obama took his. For a few sweet moments Joe Biden was Vice President to George W. Bush. I enjoyed the brief administration of Bush/Biden, I hope you did too.

Please complain about how it wasn’t really the case,

Illinois Mountain Lion

My uncle forwarded these pictures to me saying they were taken in East-Central Illinois

Well I hoped it was true.  It’s not.  But people will forward almost anything.  Some people will, the same people always will it seems.  I received an email saying Obama refused to say the pledge of allegiance or wear an American lapel pin.  The person who sent it and did the right thing by emailing all who received it, telling us it was false, and apologizing.

Sometime soon I think I will send around a fake forward just to see what people will believe.

This is for real.

I would have made an ad like this if I were trying to mock the fashion industry as rediculus and laughable.  But this is something I found as an ad on CNN.com.  This is why the happiest people in the world shop at yard sales and thrift stores: Ralph Lauren and the other name brands are devoid of style or taste.

Email Fraud

I don’t know if that is a real crime but I just got an email that smacks of the Nigerian 419 Scam.  I replied to it, I hope to hear from Dr. Terry Williams soon reguarding my prize.  Here is the text:

OXFAM INTERNATIONAL
Oxfam House, John Smith Drive,
Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY.,
United Kingdom.
Date: 21th July, 2008.

Dear Funds Beneficiary

This is to notify you that you have been officially chosen by the Board of
Trustees of the Oxfam GB (NGO UK) as one of the final recipients of a Cash
Grant/Donation for Economic Growth and a Poverty  Alleviation Scheme through
your email.
Oxfam GB (U.K.), a Multi-Million Pounds NGO group, was established with the
objective of Human Growth, Poverty Alleviation,Educational and Community
Development around the world. In line with the 61st anniversary program,
Oxfam
in conjunction with the European Council is giving out Twenty-Five
Million,Five
Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling as specific Donations/Grants to 10 lucky
International recipients worldwide in different categories for their
Business
and Social Development.

These funds are freely given for your Business,Economic and Educational
Development, as well as the enhancement of the overall standard of living of
the less previledged people in your region.
It will interest you to know that your email was selected from your
country’s
chambers of commerce,due to an internet random selection and you have been
confirmed as one of the lucky recipients of this year’s donation programme.
You are also entitled to the sum of Two Million,Five Hundred and Fifty
Thousand  Pounds Sterling(2,550,000.00 GBP) as charity donations/aid
from the
Oxfam GB (UK) International donation scheme.

Further information on the processing and disbursement of your grant
entitlements, alongside the provision of your qualification documentations,
will be dislosed to you by the National Secretary of the foundation, Dr.
Terry
Williams.
Please contact him with your Qualification Number [OXG /101/231/BDB]
as soon as
possible.

Dr. Terry Williams
Tel: +44 704 578 1442.
Email: oxfamgb.intl47@googlemail.com
Oxfam-GB, United kingdom.

Signed:
Sir. William Boykin
Programme Manager.
?xfam-GB

I hope he gets back to me, I would like to know if he is in England or Africa.

Obama and Racists

This is sort of funny sort of deep.

Racists for Obama?

Included is this gem:

it’s perfectly possible to hold a negative view of at least one aspect of African-Americans and yet simultaneously prefer Obama, racial feelings are not as cut and dried — not as black and white — as people often say.”

Onion or Real

The Onion is a humor news paper and it does it’s job well.  I read it and am consistently impressed.  I write here and I try to string ideas together coherently, sometimes I do.  I write for Fact Checked, and sometimes I’m funny, never as funny as the Onion, I don’t think.

But sometimes I find an article in a serious newspaper (note I didn’t say real) that feels like it would be at home in the Onion, or I would be proud to have thought of it an put it on Fact Checked.  Politico delivered such a headline just today.

Joe not a licensed plumber

This will only make sense if you watched the last Presidential debate.

Out With the Old

This is across the street from the Cornerstone office.  Illinois State University is going to build a student recreation center on this site.  This building was once a dorm, now upperclassmen are forced to live off campus and only freshmen are required to live in the dorms, I think.

The University should have had housing built before they tore it down, but now we have a taxing number of people all hunting for apartments.  I should be thankful because the tight apartment market pushed us towards a house, but still.

Americans Must Always Act On Conscience.

You might not have heard about this at the time but I did, and it has been bouncing around in my head for a few months.  A pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for birth control because of his religious beliefs.  At first, I rolled my eyes and thought about how so many Christians push there convictions on others, but then I watched something the History Channel (sometimes called the Hitler Channel for its large focus on World War Two).

Under the Third Reich terrible things were required of the citizens by law.  In my heart I believe the people of Germany are no more evil than any other people group, but they did the worst things in all of history.  Why?  Well, they had a leader who had charisma and a hate filled goal.  They had hate of their own, anger, and the technology to carry out revenge.  Many countries have these things, why did Germany succumb to it all?

It was the State ethics and morals usurping the place of individual conviction and conscience.  The laws said one must carry out orders, and orders were carried out.  If the people of Germany decided that they would not participate in the brutality, than the brutality would not have happened.

The pharmacist sees birth control and wrong, the United States government sees it as a right of an individual to prevent a pregnancy if she chooses.  If we as a people stand up and refuse to allow the government to determine right and wrong for us, and always seek the highest ethics and morals, we can ensure that no massacre is on our heads.  We can ensure that no people are trampled beneath us.