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Indian grid failure offers lesson to us all

By August 1, 2012
US electricity at night

A Washington Post story yesterday about the (so far) two-day electricity blackout that affected 600 million citizens was a study in trying to find an answer to the acute predicament facing Mother India. Numerous officials are cited in the article, mainly scratching their heads, baffled over the cause of grid collapse. Yet one paragraph stood out for its more definitive take on the problem. Indian industry leaders blamed the incident on a large and growing gap between electricity demand and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Hocus pocus as national strategy. Review: ‘Too Much Magic’

By July 13, 2012
magicwand

In the Waldorf method of education, founded by scientist and mystic Rudolf Steiner, each year the child experiences a different central focus in class. This central focus informs everything from storytelling to math to language acquisition to handwork skills like knitting, sewing, or wood working. For example, in the first grade the central focus is fairy tales and in second grade it is myths, legends, and saints. In theory, fairy tales and other legends inspire the young child, still filled … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Battening down the hatches

By July 11, 2012
Derecho

It's been almost two weeks since the debilitating derecho descended almost stealth-like on half of America, a heat-breathing storm of epic proportions. It came on the heels of several days of equally epic heat engulfing that same wide swath of American terrain. The difference was that the storm came and went whereas the heat lingered on interminably. In the wake of both events a predictable rise in concern about global warming resurfaced. And, typically, plenty of counter-arguments are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , , , , ,

World made by hand

By June 28, 2012
Letterpress Bike

My friend Cate Fitt, an artist and fellow blogger, shared a video that really blew my mind. It inspired this piece. Thanks Cate! Ink it, don't think it I love of old school printing presses. I love the quality and the raw nature of the medium. I also love that it's done by hand. As a writer and graphic designer, I've long harbored the fantasy that when the world hits the skids after peak oil really delivers its wallop, that I would shift to printing on a local scale. Maybe I'd run a local … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Re-skilling Tagged With: , , , , ,

Two words to win the presidency: food freedom

By June 13, 2012
pickling

This past weekend I attended the state meeting of VICFA, the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association. Hosted at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms, this casual potluck held under a shade tree included a gathering of, as Salatin put it, "fierce loose canons" all of whom hold passionate convictions about his or her God given right to choose what to eat, what to produce and how to buy and sell such foods. The mission of the organization is to, "promote and preserve unregulated … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Clothesline art, laundry activism, cash savings

By April 17, 2012
Vintage paperdolls.

Make a clothesline and post it in a storefront to encourage line drying.As tempting as it is to take a break from your life to join the activities at an  Occupy Wall Street encampment, this isn't necessarily possible for everyone. But that doesn't mean you don't get to enjoy the opportunity to make a statement, flout mainstream culture, and help influence others toward the good. In fact all you need to achieve all three is to hang your tidy whities on the line. That's right, later this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , , ,

Finger pointing on gas prices — the pink slime of politics

By April 12, 2012
Rove Slime

During this already hyper-bizarre presidential election cycle, Super PAC money is enjoying an unprecedented ability to reach a media-addicted public while being held to virtually no standards of truth. Sadly, donors do all this with a nod-nod wink-wink relationship to the candidates each Super PAC wishes to support. Nowhere is this getting more crazy than on the emerging "gas prices" narrative. Yet nowhere is there a greater opening for deconstruction of this phony narrative, and an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Yes, you can ferment your food: Review of “Wild Fermentation”

By March 14, 2012
A Reuben

If you're an old hand at all things DIY, congratulations. The following review may or may not be for you. But if you're like me, and devoted to a low-impact lifestyle but a newbie when it comes to all the skills to get you there, read on. Like bread making, about which I wrote a few weeks ago in the beginning of my Yes, You Can...series, fermentation can easily scare the living daylights out of you. Not only does it operate on the presumption that you're working with the bacterial world (a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Books, Food, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cold comfort. Review: The Winter Harvest Handbook

By February 27, 2012
Fall Garden With Cold Frame

Every gardener knows the thrill of gardening season coming upon them. Nigh about January, when those seed catalogs start rolling in, the imagination lets loose its longings, dreaming of the joy of watching the garden take shape, of favorite vegetables growing and the recipes they inspire, and of new plantings, experiments with life's mystery and bounty. The season, feeling too short in most places, becomes a condensed element of time in the year. It's the window where a relationship to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Yes, you can bake bread

By February 23, 2012
Fresh Bread

My husband and I are on one heck of a family resilience bender. When we first got married almost three years ago, we focused on insulating our place from attic to basement, shaving 20% off of our heating and cooling expenses. This really adds up. But in the past six months our efforts have turned more to homemaker re-skilling. We've added a rain barrel and composter. He's learned to brew beer. And after getting into canning, I've also begun the art of real, regular bread baking. Rising to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Products, Re-skilling Tagged With: , , ,