Did you get a gift you didn’t want? Freecycle that item. Freecycle is an exchange where you can post online the things you are giving away, and someone who needs the item takes it from you. From a person who has done it for about 4 years, freecycling is the easiest, and often quickest, way to get rid of unwanted things. One man’s gift is another man’s treasure. And unlike regifting, that item won’t come back to haunt you later. Save that Xmas stuff-and do what I did this year, and purchase a few extra cards and bulbs from the Salvation Army, et all. You will be surprised at what you find with a little searching around-perhaps enough for next year maybe? Leftovers taste good with a little bit of seasoning and creative re-working. Turkey Soup, Ham and Beans, the last of the fruitcake are great ways of stretching a budget and extending the holiday a little. Some places recycle used Christmas trees for mulch. Christmas lights blown out? This is a perfect time to get those energy efficient LED strands. The price is coming down tremendously, and the energy savings is phenomenal. I have one strand already, and I plan to replace my incandescents the minute they burn out. I’ve found the colors wonderful, and the fact that they won’t catch fire easily also . . . → Read More: Green Things You Can Do With Post-Christmas]]> How to cut down on holiday waste now that the holiday is over? A few tips:

1. Did you get a gift you didn’t want? Freecycle that item. Freecycle is an exchange where you can post online the things you are giving away, and someone who needs the item takes it from you. From a person who has done it for about 4 years, freecycling is the easiest, and often quickest, way to get rid of unwanted things. One man’s gift is another man’s treasure. And unlike regifting, that item won’t come back to haunt you later.
2. Save that Xmas stuff-and do what I did this year, and purchase a few extra cards and bulbs from the Salvation Army, et all. You will be surprised at what you find with a little searching around-perhaps enough for next year maybe?
3. Leftovers taste good with a little bit of seasoning and creative re-working. Turkey Soup, Ham and Beans, the last of the fruitcake are great ways of stretching a budget and extending the holiday a little.
4. Some places recycle used Christmas trees for mulch.
5. Christmas lights blown out? This is a perfect time to get those energy efficient LED strands. The price is coming down tremendously, and the energy savings is phenomenal. I have one strand already, and I plan to replace my incandescents the minute they burn out. I’ve found the colors wonderful, and the fact that they won’t catch fire easily also a plus.

So look around. You just need to comment for now, but soon you’ll need to be a registered member of disqus to comment. Disqus makes it easy to comment on any blog without a lot of logins needed, and is less balky than the wordpress interface. So you don’t need to register here to comment. The registration is really going to be for co-authors . . . → Read More: I Have A Blog Complex…]]> While this site has existed in one form than another for about 10 years, the decision to create this blog complex is about two. I got the idea from Nancy’s Starlight News in a way. I participate there a lot, and there are wonderful writers and wonderful commenters there. I started thinking also about Daily Kos and how it was able to create a real portal. I wanted something where I could get up in the morning and join in or contribute and enjoy the contributions of others. So instead of looking around anymore, I’ve created my own portal!

So look around. You just need to comment for now, but soon you’ll need to be a registered member of disqus to comment. Disqus makes it easy to comment on any blog without a lot of logins needed, and is less balky than the wordpress interface. So you don’t need to register here to comment. The registration is really going to be for co-authors eventually.

1. www.aquariusmoon.info/townsquare/
2. www.aquariusmoon.info/drugpeace
3. www.aquariusmoon.info/whitehouse
4. www.aquariusmoon.info/publicdomain/
5. www.aquariusmoon.info/regreening
6. www.aquariusmoon.info/first

The immense two fountains at the new World Trade Center created out of the footprints of the old towers, filled with endlessly flowing water, is the Element of Water. Two 208′ by 208′ waterfalls will endlessly run down into a center square at the bottom in (at night) an illuminated stream. It uses a massive amount of water-56,000 gallons a minute per waterfall, making it the largest fountains in the United States, if not one of the largest in the world. It may be the biggest headstone in the world, with 2.749 names on the bronze plaques surrounding the two fountains. The names are grouped by “affinity”-coworkers who were close to each other working in the same company that was grouped by being in the same building, seat mates on the plane close to relatives and friends who were on the same flight. Doing that means you have to ask the question over and over, “who were these people” and “what relationship did they have to each other”. As long as people ask,then the dead will never be forgotten.

Some may criticize the falls because it leaves a void instead of more towers, but I like the simple elegance of the design-unpretentious, egalitarian, poignant. It’s made for a cloudy day in winter when the skies are gray and overhung, the wind blowing across the now barren plaza.

I also think this is the best thing for the original footprints. Those who suggested rebuilding on the old footprints forget that many people would have felt like they were building on the bones of the dead and there would have been a much greater reluctance to actually occupy those buildings. Life can go on more smoothly in a relocated Freedom Tower where . . . → Read More: The Fountains at Ground Zero (The Element of Water)]]> The project is called “Reflecting Absence”. Water, with its endless capacity to soothe and muffle street sounds, will create a tranquil counterpoint to the street sounds.

The immense two fountains at the new World Trade Center created out of the footprints of the old towers, filled with endlessly flowing water, is the Element of Water. Two 208′ by 208′ waterfalls will endlessly run down into a center square at the bottom in (at night) an illuminated stream. It uses a massive amount of water-56,000 gallons a minute per waterfall, making it the largest fountains in the United States, if not one of the largest in the world. It may be the biggest headstone in the world, with 2.749 names on the bronze plaques surrounding the two fountains. The names are grouped by “affinity”-coworkers who were close to each other working in the same company that was grouped by being in the same building, seat mates on the plane close to relatives and friends who were on the same flight. Doing that means you have to ask the question over and over, “who were these people” and “what relationship did they have to each other”. As long as people ask,then the dead will never be forgotten.

Some may criticize the falls because it leaves a void instead of more towers, but I like the simple elegance of the design-unpretentious, egalitarian, poignant. It’s made for a cloudy day in winter when the skies are gray and overhung, the wind blowing across the now barren plaza.

I also think this is the best thing for the original footprints. Those who suggested rebuilding on the old footprints forget that many people would have felt like they were building on the bones of the dead and there would have been a much greater reluctance to actually occupy those buildings. Life can go on more smoothly in a relocated Freedom Tower where nobody died.

Given the unrest, I bet they won’t be able to keep a lid on other things. There isn’t enough money to buy off the political opposition, and oil doesn’t provide enough jobs to keep them busy. Gas is going up, up, up. And fast. And when true democratic rule comes to the oil patch, it will go up even faster. For the dirty secret is that oil is a cash crop, and wherever there is a cash crop, there is a plantation economy. Undiversified, hierachical, and rigid, with few jobs for locals, and most of the work being done by outsiders with few rights. We’ve been through this before with cotton and ended up fighting a big Civil War over that economy. Its a plantation economy in a world where survival means getting off the plantation and having a diverse Northern/Yankee style economy where people make money meeting the needs of the masses. The new democracies face a challenge both ecological and economical of having to create jobs fast-and that means a lot of the money will have to go to education, alternative energy, and food production. So the increasingly valuable resource of oil is going to be tapped for the long-neglected tasks of social investment, higher wages, and creating an entrepreneurial class.

As I was walking to the store, it occurred to me that America’s investment in a sea of concrete has left it in a dead end. Our sea was invested in when gas was .25 a gallon, and hardly anyone outside of Europe really drove much. Nobody ever thought we would need transit again, and the old buses and trollies and even horses were left to rot on the side of the road. But those same geniuses never thought that we would run out of gas either, even though every natural indication was that oil was a finite resource, and that sooner or later we would have to have other options. Now America faces a grimmer future of isolated housing and concrete ribbons to nowhere. Meanwhile those bullet trains look increasingly like a lifeline. Millions of Japanese and Chinese and Europeans will still be able to do commerce, to socialize, to get around the country in bad weather, to sip coffee in downtown bistros because they will be able to ship the coffee and have jobs where there can be . . . → Read More: Concrete Ribbons to Nowhere]]> <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks“>* Business * Oil The US embassy cables WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices</a>

Given the unrest, I bet they won’t be able to keep a lid on other things. There isn’t enough money to buy off the political opposition, and oil doesn’t provide enough jobs to keep them busy. Gas is going up, up, up. And fast. And when true democratic rule comes to the oil patch, it will go up even faster. For the dirty secret is that oil is a cash crop, and wherever there is a cash crop, there is a plantation economy. Undiversified, hierachical, and rigid, with few jobs for locals, and most of the work being done by outsiders with few rights. We’ve been through this before with cotton and ended up fighting a big Civil War over that economy. Its a plantation economy in a world where survival means getting off the plantation and having a diverse Northern/Yankee style economy where people make money meeting the needs of the masses. The new democracies face a challenge both ecological and economical of having to create jobs fast-and that means a lot of the money will have to go to education, alternative energy, and food production. So the increasingly valuable resource of oil is going to be tapped for the long-neglected tasks of social investment, higher wages, and creating an entrepreneurial class.

As I was walking to the store, it occurred to me that America’s investment in a sea of concrete has left it in a dead end. Our sea was invested in when gas was .25 a gallon, and hardly anyone outside of Europe really drove much. Nobody ever thought we would need transit again, and the old buses and trollies and even horses were left to rot on the side of the road. But those same geniuses never thought that we would run out of gas either, even though every natural indication was that oil was a finite resource, and that sooner or later we would have to have other options. Now America faces a grimmer future of isolated housing and concrete ribbons to nowhere. Meanwhile those bullet trains look increasingly like a lifeline. Millions of Japanese and Chinese and Europeans will still be able to do commerce, to socialize, to get around the country in bad weather, to sip coffee in downtown bistros because they will be able to ship the coffee and have jobs where there can be coffee breaks.

How Food Prices Feed Egyptian Revolt

“http://newamericamedia.org/2011/01/from-bread-to-freedom-egypt-will-have-its-people-revolution.php”

“The last time Egyptians took to the streets was spring 2008, to protest the rise in food prices, especially bread or aish, also the Arabic word for life. For Egyptians, the two are synonymous. A dozen died, becoming “bread martyrs.”

Land and Bread. When one looks at so many revolutions, the beginning of the end for so many governments is when they can no longer provide either. Egypt is just the beginning of a long string of upheavals. Food prices are sharply rising due to many factors: speculation is only one-but the rising cost of oil is another. Our economy depends on a declining share of the resource, and with the laws of supply and demand, the less of a valuable substance there is, the higher the price.

I have often felt that the canary is cheeping for us too. Suburbanization has plowed millions of acres of farmland in the east under, taking the topsoil away and substituting it with a barren (relatively speaking) layer designed to support trees, lawns and ornamental plants, not food. We are now importing fruit we used to get locally. Bananas fro Columbia-we used to get at least some from Hawaii. Apples from Romania? Vegetables from who knows where? What happens when it gets too expensive to import these things? What happens when Romanians and Columbians have to spend their precious resources on local needs and no longer have quite the wherewithal to send us their apples and bananas and whatnot?

How does that relate to urban farming? Millions of people living in cities are totally dependent (this author included) on far-away produce and meet to feed us. But that system is highly dependent upon petroleum for both fertilizer and transportation.  Which makes us an unwitting partner in the regimes in the Middle East that repress their people and who get away with it because they don’t really think they need them to make money. (I’m thinking of you, Saudi Arabia-even though Egypt has some oil) I know that most of America’s oil these days comes from Canada, but our partners in produce oftentimes use Mideast Oil as well)

Gone are the independent farmers whose produce could feed millions for relative pennies. Gone are the family farms that people could at least live on and feed themselves.  To replace them are “food deserts” where grocery stores dare not roam for fear of crime, and where even if everything were completely peaceful, the profit margins are deemed too few to put what is needed in.

One benefit of urban farming is that the transportation cost and often the fertilizer cost are lessened.  When food is grown in the neighborhood or at least in the same county, fewer fuel resources are needed to transport the food to the eaters. In some cases we also save on wrapping-a lot of wrapping is needed not only to protect from bacteria, but also from damage due to shipping.

Urban farming helps lessen the dependence on the goodwill of the powers that be . . . → Read More: Land, Food, Freedom]]> http://baltimorechronicle.com/2011/020111Schechter.shtml

How Food Prices Feed Egyptian Revolt

“http://newamericamedia.org/2011/01/from-bread-to-freedom-egypt-will-have-its-people-revolution.php”

“The last time Egyptians took to the streets was spring 2008, to protest the rise in food prices, especially bread or aish, also the Arabic word for life. For Egyptians, the two are synonymous. A dozen died, becoming “bread martyrs.”

Land and Bread. When one looks at so many revolutions, the beginning of the end for so many governments is when they can no longer provide either. Egypt is just the beginning of a long string of upheavals. Food prices are sharply rising due to many factors: speculation is only one-but the rising cost of oil is another. Our economy depends on a declining share of the resource, and with the laws of supply and demand, the less of a valuable substance there is, the higher the price.

I have often felt that the canary is cheeping for us too. Suburbanization has plowed millions of acres of farmland in the east under, taking the topsoil away and substituting it with a barren (relatively speaking) layer designed to support trees, lawns and ornamental plants, not food. We are now importing fruit we used to get locally. Bananas fro Columbia-we used to get at least some from Hawaii. Apples from Romania? Vegetables from who knows where? What happens when it gets too expensive to import these things? What happens when Romanians and Columbians have to spend their precious resources on local needs and no longer have quite the wherewithal to send us their apples and bananas and whatnot?

How does that relate to urban farming? Millions of people living in cities are totally dependent (this author included) on far-away produce and meet to feed us. But that system is highly dependent upon petroleum for both fertilizer and transportation.  Which makes us an unwitting partner in the regimes in the Middle East that repress their people and who get away with it because they don’t really think they need them to make money. (I’m thinking of you, Saudi Arabia-even though Egypt has some oil) I know that most of America’s oil these days comes from Canada, but our partners in produce oftentimes use Mideast Oil as well)

Gone are the independent farmers whose produce could feed millions for relative pennies. Gone are the family farms that people could at least live on and feed themselves.  To replace them are “food deserts” where grocery stores dare not roam for fear of crime, and where even if everything were completely peaceful, the profit margins are deemed too few to put what is needed in.

One benefit of urban farming is that the transportation cost and often the fertilizer cost are lessened.  When food is grown in the neighborhood or at least in the same county, fewer fuel resources are needed to transport the food to the eaters. In some cases we also save on wrapping-a lot of wrapping is needed not only to protect from bacteria, but also from damage due to shipping.

Urban farming helps lessen the dependence on the goodwill of the powers that be for eating. One of the things I noticed was the lack of mention of gardens and the great fear of food stores running out in a few days during the Egyptian protests. Individual gardens and independent sources of food, and people can hold out long enough.

So Land and Bread as a foundation for Freedom-works for me.

It is no accident that America, home of a country where they had their own gardens and small farms, was able to finally win its independence. England could not starve out the United States into submission. France doubtless had its small gardens as well where revolutionaries could find something to eat without worrying about the King’s soldiers keeping people hungry