The debate about the environmental safety, or lack there of, for the neonicotinoid insecticides begs us to ask what would be the characteristics of an environmentally safe or benign pesticide? Despite a growing and flourishing organic agriculture movement, industrial agriculture is not going away any time soon. Hence it is important to understand how to [...]
Category: Ideas
DateTrike Construction
Wherever we go on the DateTrike, our vehicle turns heads, gets smiles, and everyone wants one. I'm won't be making any more of these, but it is no harder than any other mildly complex project, so I'll present a few of the details here for those who are up to the challenge. If you happen to [...]
Resolving the Imidacloprid Paradox and the CCD Connection
There are quite a number of studies that show imidacloprid and other neonicotinoid insecticides don't do much damage to honeybees at levels expected in field conditions. Yet there is plenty of evidence that "country" bees do better than "farm" bees. The big migratory beekeepers are the one's suffering the most, often with losses over 100% a year, [...]
The Case of the Curious Caseins – A1/A2 Milk
It is always exciting to encounter a fresh topic that has escaped attention, yet with a little investigation, demands it. So it is with the story of A1 / A2 milk. I first became aware of the existence of this issue at a potluck dinner with health-conscious fellow diners. As it turns out, this is old news to [...]
The Carbon Cost of Coal Trains
The debate is heating up over the transport of coal from mines in Wyoming and Colorado to west coast ports, where the coal will be shipped to Asian markets. Combining the vast appetite for coal in Asia with the vast stores of underground carbon in the US will accelerate the already rapid rise in atmospheric [...]
Powering Down in an Age of Irrational Politics
The politics of pain that is the fashion these days offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance a power-down agenda that will become a necessity in the years ahead. The defining characteristics of the Great Recession, and the Great Depression of the 1930's, are very high unemployment rates while interest rates remain very low. High unemployment [...]
Catabolic Collapse?
It's not every day that someone is willing to stick their neck out and tell you exactly when all the malaise and despair of the modern era started, but that's pretty much what John Michael Greer did in a recent essay. The date he picked for America's pinnacle moment, 1974, coincides with the Arab oil embargo, oil price [...]
Dynamic Climate is Lesson of Ice Core Records
Made by God, immutable, perfect and constant, our world has always been the way it is now and will always be the same. Perhaps it is a human desire for order and predictability that is at the root of such traditional beliefs. But pesky facts get in the way. Fossils provide evidence for creatures that [...]
The Gift of Good Giving
Gifts lubricate the informal economy and build relationships in our local community. Sometimes it's a pick-up truck, maybe it's eggs or fresh milk, perhaps helping a friend hammer down a new roof, but for me now it's often my honey. As soon as you start giving food, things, and labor to your friends and neighbors you are [...]
Depressing Debt Dogma Distills Deflation Dilemma
As the less-than-adequate federal stimulus funds recede from view, we are left with a sinking realization that this recession is depressingly persistent. Gains on the employment front have reversed. A fifth of the population is either unemployed or under employed, so demand for goods and services is lacking. Without demand, companies aren't hiring. With the private sector in [...]
Squash Practice 