Lantern Books Blog

The Artist's Value to Society

kate@lanternbooks.com (Kate Lawrence) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:52:49 EST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

A friend who will graduate this spring with a fine arts degree plans to devote his energy to his creative passion, supporting himself as a waiter to make his artist's life possible. His parents have struggled over the years to be able to afford his education, and they ask: we spent thousands of dollars on his degree, and now he's going to work as a waiter?

I'd look at it from a different viewpoint. Those who put their artistic endeavors first in their lives, even though it may require entry level service jobs and financial austerity, do something valuable for themselves and society. This value exists independently of the beauty of the visual or performance art they bring forth, although that is significant in itself. The lifestyle of the "starving artist"—including not only visual and performance artists, but writers, composers, anyone whose life is dedicated to the creation of beauty and/or inspiration—benefits society in at least three ways:

Such an artist will never have regrets later in life that they didn't pursue their passion. On the other hand, those who turn their back on art in order to make money and fit in with mainstream society may later wish they had developed their artistic gifts, may suffer from midlife angst, and will have lost a significant number of years of creative potential.

Artists barely making ends meet will of necessity live a simple life: no buying of mansions, large fuel-inefficient vehicles, or frequent cross-country travel. No collecting of expensive toys. He or she can model environmental responsibility without even thinking about it.

Passionate people who sacrifice to create beauty and authenticity shine a light on mainstream society and its ethically questionable actions. Does an average worker's paycheck or investment income derive from companies that are polluting the earth or promoting violence? Do our creature comforts come at the expense of cruelly disadvantaged workers in distant countries? Shouldn't there be more to life than working long hours at a boring or stressful job just because it pays well?

Artists provide more for the rest of society than just entertainment. They model a radical, more authentic way to live in the world.

Related Titles

The Lifelong Activist
How to Change the World without Losing Your Way
Hillary Rettig

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Lantern Tweets!

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:46:33 EST

We're twittering

You'll notice in the top-right hand corner of the home page, just below the listing of the recent blogs, that Lantern is now on Twitter. We hope you'll become a follower, so you'll be able to know when we've published our latest blog or book. You can also get our blogs and postings on an RSS feed and follow us and become a fan on Facebook. We often produce videos for our authors and other clients. So, check us out on YouTube.

Of course, we know it shouldn't be one-way traffic. If you make movies, we can share subscriptions; if you have a comment for one of our blogs, make it in the comments section of the post. If you want to tell us what's going on in your life, friend us on Facebook. Just visit the various sites, and, as they say in our neighborhood, let's tawk.

Related Titles

Move the Message
Your Guide to Making a Difference and Changing the World
Josephine Bellaccomo

Inside the Batcave

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:32:52 EST

The Batcave (Photo: Nathan Kensinger)

As you walk on third street toward or from Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, across the Gowanus Canal (see previous blog), you pass a huge, abandoned red-brick building, a memento of the Canal's now faded industrial past. I've always thought it a beautiful, if delapidated, structure, with wonderful arched windows. I had fantasies of buying the property and turning it into a green building, with small businesses and creative ventures, and providing a park for the community's kids. The artists who were squatting in the building would provide their labor for rent.

Of course, as this blog points out, the building's provenance is complicated and the land on which it stands and the surrounds are deeply polluted. But there's still a romance to the shell that's hard to shake. One day, perhaps, someone with very deep pockets will rise to the occasion and redeem this magnificent structure.

Related Titles

Growing America
The Story of a Grassroots Activist, A Call for Renewed Civic Action
David A. Kidd

Lantern: Even More Super

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:14:19 EST

Little Venice: The Future of Gowanus?

Yes, just when you thought that Lantern couldn't get any more super than it already is, the Environmental Protection Agency has just designated part of our neighborhood a superfund site. We have our offices about half a mile away from the Gowanus Canal, one of the most polluted waterways in New York City.

Actually, this is good news, since the designation will mean that the polluters will have to pay for the mess they caused in over one hundred years of pouring gunk into the Gowanus. It's also curtailed some of the rampant over-development of our area, an issue of much controversy.

Perhaps by the time it's all done, the Gowanus will be clean and will change its name to Little Venice. This is probably going to take at least ten years. So, until then, the advice will have to remain contradictory: hold your nose and don't hold your breath.

Related Titles

Growing America
The Story of a Grassroots Activist, A Call for Renewed Civic Action
David A. Kidd

Green Monasticism
A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity
Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, William Skudlarek, O.S.B.

Burning Rage of a Dying Planet
Speaking for The Earth Liberation Front
Craig Rosebraugh

Poultry and Egg Farming in India

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:57:02 EST

Our friends at Brighter Green have produced a very interesting video (below) on the challenges posed by India's embrace of factory farming in its poultry and egg production. You can also read the draft summary (PDF) on which the video is based.

Related Titles

More Than a Meal
The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality
Karen Davis

The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale
A Case for Comparing Atrocities
Karen Davis

Bird Flu
A Virus of Our Own Hatching
Michael Greger, MD

The Little Master

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:20:03 EST

The Little Master

After literally thousands of such cricket matches, stretching back thirty-five years, the great Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, a.k.a. "The Little Master," has become the first player to score 200 runs in a one-day international match.

The feat is phenomenal in that each side has only 300 balls in which to score its runs, which means that a batsman only has, on average, 150 balls with which to score a double century, an asking rate that was beyond the reach of every international-class batsman until now. That one also has to last the entire length of the innings, an extraordinary feat of physical and mental strength, is a testament to Tendulkar's level of fitness and incredible fortitude.

What makes the achievement even more noteworthy is that Tendulkar, at the age of 36, has played almost 450 of these games over twenty years. They're staged with such frequency, especially in India—the home of world cricket now—that they have, at times, almost emptied themselves of meaning. Yet, somehow Tendulkar manages to retain the appetite for the game that others much younger and with more to prove have lost.

The icing on the cake is that, by all accounts, the kudos couldn't go to a nicer individual: hard-working, a team player, and someone who has accepted the extraordinary fame and attention given to him by cricket-mad Indians with grace and humility. Sometimes, it seems, the good guys do get the praise they deserve.

Conscious Activism

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:00:00 EST

Julia Butterfly Hill: Psyche by name...

It is one thing to want to act; it is another thing to take action; and it is an another thing still to act consciously to bring about lasting change.

Sometimes the most effective activism takes place during ordinary encounters with family, friends, and even strangers—each interaction a chance to educate by example, embodying our ethical beliefs as best we can. In Living Among Meat Eaters, Carol Adams helps us become more aware of the message we're sending, with self-tests, strategies, meditations on vegetarianism, and tips for dining out and entertaining at home when meat eaters are on the invite list.

In Consciousness in Action: The Power of Beauty, Love, and Courage in a Violent Time, Andrew Beath has gathered the wisdom of several leading spiritual activists (John Mack, Julia Butterfly Hill, and others) to show how right mind and right livelihood can bring about enormous change. The activists talk about aligning their spiritual values with their wish to bring about social and political change.

Will Tuttle in The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony offers a powerful and polemical call for us to recognize that our choices not only impact the lives of others but also make us healthy or sick. We can no longer separate our lives off from the lives of the beings who live with us on this planet, and, conversely, working for the good of others is working for the good of ourselves.

In Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, A Guide for Activists and Their Allies, pattrice jones shows how important it is for activists to prepare themselves for their activism and to protect themselves from the trauma of living in a violent world where many of us turn away from suffering and pain and refuse to confront it. This is a vital work for all activists.

For Hillary Rettig (author of The Lifelong Activist), Josephine Bellaccomo (author of Move the Message, and Melanie Joy (author of Strategic Action for Animals, conscious activism means effective activism. Rettig provides abundant solutions for activists to avoid burnout and maintain a positive outlook on one's tasks. Bellaccomo's book is all about communication and presentation: how to write, speak, coordinate, organize, present, and in all ways move your message in the most effective and expeditious manner. Finally, Joy argues that animal activists in particular need to be less concerned with running from one demonstration to another and think more strategically—not only with the outside world, but in their own organizations and life.

Related Titles

Strategic Action for Animals A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation Melanie Joy	Move the Message Your Guide to Making a Difference and Changing the World Josephine Bellaccomo	The Lifelong Activist How to Change the World without Losing Your Way Hillary Rettig
Consciousness in Action The Power of Beauty, Love, and Courage in a Violent Time Andrew Beath	The World Peace Diet Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony Will Tuttle	Aftershock Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies pattrice jones

From Amazon to the Espresso

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:53:25 EST

Here's an interesting article from a fellow small publisher, which shows (there's a graph, dammit!) that the more your books sell through Amazon, the less money you make as a publisher, until you reach a point whereby it costs you money to sell through the mega-retailer. So, if you really want to help Lantern out, buy through us.

Even more pointedly, here's an article on the future of publishing by the pioneering Jason Epstein. It pretty much maps out what I suggested may happen in my video blog below. I don't think it's alarmist or pie-in-the-sky at all. How quickly any of this will happen, I don't know. But some or even most of it is going to come to pass. How do I know? Because it's already happening.

The Animals and Society Institute

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:46:14 EST

We thought you might to know about the organization behind Human–Animal Studies, the umbrella of academic disciplines featured in the upcoming volume Teaching the Animal and in last year's Social Creatures.

Breeze Harper Talks about the Sistah Vegan Project (Parts 1 & 2 and Background)

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:23:11 EST

A. Breeze Harper talks about the work that went into Sistah Vegan.

Related Titles

Sistah Vegan
Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society
A. Breeze Harper, pattrice jones

Aftershock
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies
pattrice jones

Michael Pollan and the Inuit Diet

(Keith Akers) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:56:24 EST

Michael Pollan

While promoting the excellent DVD Food, Inc. on Oprah on January 24, Michael Pollan made the following statement: "The Inuit in Greenland you were referring to [have a] 75% fat diet — no type II diabetes, no heart disease."

The implication that the Inuit's high-meat diet is healthful is almost certainly wrong. The Inuit have a reduced life expectancy, and indigenous people on a similar diet in Alaska suffer from rampant osteoporosis. Moreover, the "Inuit" diet — huge amounts of animal products — seems to contradict Pollan's principle of "mostly plants." The most recent incarnation of the high-meat diet, the Atkins diet, is now universally discredited.

Is this just an isolated slip in an otherwise creditable presentation? Alas, I'm not sure. Pollan's deference to the Inuit diet is part of his unhappiness with scientific nutrition. Culture and tradition teach us "just as much, if not more" (emphasis added) about eating than nutrition science (In Defense of Food, p. 12). He's not quite ready to junk nutrition science, but culture and tradition have the upper hand here. Pollan is enamored of all things "traditional," and while he favors plants, Pollan is generally more accepting of animal food when it's "natural" (see p. 166-167), and the Inuit eat a lot of "natural" meat.

I'm surprised that so few people have observed this bias. Modern nutrition science is hardly perfect, but science is not just a set of results: it is a way of doing things. You don't just give up on science because it doesn't produce the results that you want, because corporations unduly influence so-called science, or because someone produces a stupid scientific study. I don't expect Pollan to agree with T. Colin Campbell's book The China Study, but I think he should at least take a look at it before trashing scientific nutrition. Which brings me to my final point: Pollan has been careless about The China Study, if in fact he's read it at all. Let me explain.

One of the three food rules in In Defense of Food is "not too much," meaning that Americans take in too many calories. But those of you who've read The China Study may recall a key finding: even the least active Chinese (the equivalent of office workers) eat about 30% more calories (mostly plant based) than the average American, yet they weigh less and are generally healthier. Uh, doesn't this have direct bearing on the "not too much" idea? Maybe "not animal foods" would be a better idea?

I don't see how anyone could read The China Study and miss this basic point. There are two off-hand references to The China Study in his book, so I presume that at least his fact-checker has the book.

Pollan's statement about the Inuit does not leave me with a good feeling. I know that he has a lot of legitimate complaints about the way science is being manipulated; Campbell made many of the same criticisms. But isn't preferring tradition to science uncomfortably close to the ideologies of the Middle Ages? I hope that Pollan can be persuaded to give more than a passing glance to The China Study and give science another chance.

-- Keith Akers

Related Titles

Carbophobia!
The Scary Truth About America's Low-Carb Craze
Michael Greger, MD

Twenty Years Ago Today . . .

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:25:53 EST

Amandla!

Nelson Mandela was freed. I remember the report on the BBC vividly. Like the news from Eastern Europe just a few months previously, it seemed barely possible that it could happen. And that's the point, I suppose: that sometimes it seems impossible that something so entrenched and immoveable could change, right up to the moment that it finally becomes impossible for it not to change.

Eight years ago, I had the good fortune to be able to visit Robben Island, where Mandela and other political prisoners had been held for many years. I saw his prison cell, the quarry where he broke rocks, and the prison yard where he educated the young prisoners and planned for the future. Again, it was incredible that he should have retained such discipline and so even a temperament over so many years and after so much provocation and suffering.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

The Lifelong Activist
How to Change the World without Losing Your Way
Hillary Rettig

Aftershock
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies
pattrice jones

Wonderwoman

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:20:53 EST

Ginette Bedard: Lap of honor

You may have read about my efforts at running the New York City marathon (here, here, and here), and how humbling it was to be overtaken by people considerably older than yours truly. Well, I just found out that Ginette Bedard, aged 76, completed the 2009 New York City marathon in 4:09:57, which is just over 9:33 minutes a mile. Not surprisingly, she placed first in her age group for her sex.

All this would be remarkable enough, but there's more. Running nerds have developed a program that analyzes your age, sex, and performance against all other runners' age, sex, and performance, so you can gauge just how "good" you are against other runners in other age groups. If you are in the 50 to 60 percent range, you're pretty average. In the 60 to 70 percent range, you're locally competitive (this is where I am at the moment). If you're in the 70 to 80 percent range, you're regionally competitive; the 80 to 90 percent range makes you nationally competitive; and above 90 means that you're internationally competitive.

Ginette Bedard's age-graded performance placed her at 101 percent, which means that—given her time and age—she effectively broke a world record, and did so with time to spare. That's just a remarkable testament to senior fitness.

Related Titles

Senior Fitness
The Diet and Exercise Program for Maximum Health and Longevity
Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.

A Race for Life
A Diet and Exercise Program for Superfitness and Reversing the Aging Process
Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.

Sistah Vegan

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:51:18 EST

Join the conversation

I've now read Sistah Vegan four times, and each time the book grows on me. What I find particularly gratifying is that, unlike many anthologies, the twenty-five or so voices contained between the pages are not only very diverse in terms of the educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but they have markedly different—and sometimes completely antithetical—perspectives. In other words, the book is like a large and rambunctious conversation between friends who have no trouble calling each other out, but remain respectful and supporting. I also love the honesty of the contributions. Sometimes it's painful, and sometimes you want to say "too much information!" But it's always truthful and direct and passionately argued, and enlightening. pattrice jones' beautifully composed afterword is a pleasure to read, and she ties the themes of the book together wonderfully.

Of course, you don't have to judge this book by the color of its cover, but by the content of its pages. You certainly don't have to purchase it because you may be black or vegan or a woman. And you certainly don't have to do so it in Black History Month (February) or Women's History Month (March).

Related Titles

Sistah Vegan
Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society
A. Breeze Harper, pattrice jones

Aftershock
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies
pattrice jones

The Ecological Footprint of Information

(Keith Akers) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:32:49 EST

Cutting edge statue building on Easter Island

Declaring e-books to be the future of publishing may be a bit premature.

What are the energy requirements of a paper book? They probably aren't that much. Medieval monks and Gutenberg churned them out, at a much slower rate, long before the industrial revolution.

The energy requirements of an e-book are likely analogous to the energy requirements of computer equipment. Computers are extremely energy-intensive. The electricity to run the computer is fairly minor; about 81% of all the energy used by computers is expended in the process of manufacturing the computer. The typical household computer actually consumes 1.3 times more energy than a refrigerator.

For an e-book, much of the energy required is the upfront cost to get the reader; each additional book you read doesn't add that much to the energy. If you get an e-book reader just to read one book, it's clearly a waste of energy; though at some number of books it is likely more efficient to use the e-book reader. I don't have any precise calculations, but I suspect that to make an e-book reader worthwhile from an energy point of view, you'd have to do a lot of reading.

Each additional e-book you get for your e-book reader doesn't require that much additional energy, a distinct advantage over paper books, where each additional paper book has a fixed additional energy cost. On the other hand, you don't have to purchase additional paper books to read them, either — consider your friendly local public library.

What about the materials cost involved? For a paper book, there are the trees, of course, then the ink, and then the equipment required to process paper and print the physical book. Trees are theoretically renewable. But trees are spared altogether by using the e-book reader.

Computers also require materials; among other things, supplies of cadmium, lead, and mercury. Not only are these highly toxic, but they are increasingly rare. Allowing a very modest 2% growth rate in production and known reserves, we have 20 years of cadmium left, 24 years of mercury, and 19 years of lead. (Taking out the 2% growth extends the life of these reserves 4 to 6 years.) In the past we've been able to expand our metal reserves by using cheap energy to blast our way through lower-quality ores. But now our energy supplies themselves are depleting.

I've still got an open mind on this subject. It may be that we could devise e-book readers that don't require all the heavy metals and energy-intensive manufacturing. But I don't think that anyone has really thought out the environmental implications of e-book readers. I suspect that e-book readers will become one of many energy-intensive complicated gadgets that aren't going to make the cut in the coming energy descent. E-book readers will become, at best, a tool for busy researchers and a toy for the rich. At worst, they will remind us of the giant stone statues on Easter Island — a relic to the failure of our civilization to think ahead.

-- Keith Akers

Related Titles

The Lost Religion of Jesus
Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity
Keith Akers

Kindling

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:11:12 EST

Thomas Keating: Cybermonk

We've just tallied up our 2009 sales for Lantern's books converted to Amazon's Kindle reader. We're pleased to report that our sales have increased each month, with December 09's sales being a thousand percent (yes, ten times) those of January 09.

Partly, this is down to the fact that last year Amazon converted many more of our books to the Kindle format, so customers had more choice. But it's also partly a sign of the shift that's taking place as more and more readers get their books electronically. Lantern is having (almost) all its books converted not only to Amazon's Kindle, but to Barnes & Noble's Nook, and the other e-readers. We're keeping an eye on the new iPad from Apple, to see what it's going to offer.

Interestingly, Lantern's top four Kindle e-sellers were all titles by, or featuring, Fr. Thomas Keating, our octogenarian Trappist monk: Divine Therapy and Addiction, Spirituality, Contemplation, and Transformation, Manifesting God, Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit. Given that the monks were instrumental in keeping the wisdom of the ancients alive during the Dark Ages, and devoted themselves to producing exquisite illuminated manuscripts, it's only fitting that it should be a monastic who carries Lantern into the electronic world.

Related Titles

The Transformation of Suffering Reflections on September 11 and the Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee Thomas Keating	Centering Prayer and the Healing of the Unconscious Fr. Murchadh O Madagain	The Common Heart An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue Netanel Miles-Yepez, Ken Wilber, Thomas Keating
The Divine Indwelling Centering Prayer and Its Development Thomas Keating	Divine Therapy and Addiction Centering Prayer and the Twelve Steps Thomas Keating	Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit Thomas Keating
Manifesting God Thomas Keating	Spirituality, Contemplation, and Transformation Writings on Centering Prayer Thomas Keating, and others	St. Th�r�se of Lisieux A Transformation in Christ Thomas Keating

A Friend of Silence

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:36:37 EST

Nan Merrill: Friend of Silence

Nan Merrill, who passed away peacefully last night after a long illness, was a true friend of silence. Quiet, unassuming, and thoughtful, she was generous with others and focused and present. I knew her when I was the promotion manager at Continuum, and we published her Psalms for Praying, a re-imagination of the psalms to emphasize their irenic, compassionate features. When one of her editors, Evander Lomke, moved to the Lantern offices, it felt that it would only be a matter of time before she would be published by us. And so it was.

Sadly, Walking with Wisdom was published only a few months before her passing. Nonetheless, it contains the essence of Nan: generosity, thoughtfulness, and a dedication to saying only the necessary and considered rather than the glib and specious. We're glad she lived to see its publication. Her organization Friends of Silence will, we believe, continue to send out its reflections on the contemplative life, and carry on Nan's wonderful work.

Related Titles

Walking with Wisdom
Nan C. Merrill

Bicycles on the Sidewalk: Why Not?

(Keith Akers) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:20:34 EST

Bicycles on the Cherry Creek bike path in Denver

Confusing laws and confusing situations do not encourage more bicycle riders. In Denver it is technically illegal to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk. You are supposed to ride your bicycle on a bike path or on the streets. Laws in different municipalities are quite different —Portland has a completely different situation.

In general, staying off sidewalks is a very good idea. Pedestrians need to have some protection, and because of driveways, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is often much more dangerous than riding in the street. Some urge the idea of riding a bicycle on a sidewalk as quite logical, but there are actually some bicyclists who point out safety issues for cyclists in riding on sidewalks. I avoid sidewalks about 99% of the time.

But it seems to me that there are occasions when riding on the sidewalks is actually a good idea. Mostly this is on the really busy streets, like South Colorado Boulevard—six lanes of traffic and very busy all the time. While it's legal for bikes to be in the street there, and amazingly I do occasionally see this happening, basically you'd be crazy to ride on the street. Cars are going fast and they aren't looking for bicycles. There is one place in my commute to and from Jazzercise when I am faced with exactly this dilemma: I could either be on the sidewalk for about 50 feet, or be on South Colorado Boulevard for 50 feet. The sidewalk seems a lot safer. Given a choice between something that is safe, and something that is legal, doesn't it make sense to go with "safe?"

My concern is deeper than just figuring out what I, personally, should do on Colorado Boulevard. Sure, I know that the chances of getting a ticket for this is only slightly greater than that of getting hit by lightning. But we need to encourage clear and easy "rules of the road" if we have any hope of promoting bicycling.

There are actually important laws which bicyclists should obey but sometimes don't—not running red traffic lights comes to mind. If bicyclists break the law in this way, it just encourages a backlash of car drivers against bicyclists. How can we encourage people to ride bicycles, if there are no clear laws and easy-to-understand "rules of the road" enabling you to get safely from point A to point B?

Bicycling should be for everyone, not just a fairly narrow group of bicycle nuts and eco-saints. There is safety in numbers. The more bicyclists there are out there, the safer things will be for all bicyclists.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

The Lost Religion of Jesus
Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity
Keith Akers

A Year Later

martin@lanternbooks.com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:21:54 EST

Hard to believe that I was standing along with two million other people in the freezing cold a year ago, celebrating the inauguration of the forty-fourth president of these United States of America. The health care bill he promised to pass languishes, and may now die, and the Supreme Court has now decided to allow corporations to flood the airwaves with advertising. For those who missed the video the first time around, here it is again. If only it didn't stimulate such nostalgia. . . .

It's Noisy Out There

kate@lanternbooks.com (Kate Lawrence) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:16:54 EST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

I've been noticing the increase in noise level in our public space for some time--have you? I've mostly been grousing about it privately, but now we need to speak up, because it is leading to a greater incidence of hearing loss, particularly among children, teens, and young adults.

Whereas noise-induced hearing loss was formerly associated primarily with old age, hearing specialists have been seeing more young patients with the problem. Perhaps the most common cause is the use of iPods or other mp3 players at high volume settings: the top volume can be higher than is safe. Several companies now market players for kids that cannot be set above a safe volume level. Attendance at loud concerts can also be a contributing factor.

In addition we have the layering of sound in the average home. For example, the dishwasher is running in the kitchen, one family member turns the volume on the TV up to compensate, someone else is trying to listen to music on an iPod and turns that up, someone else is talking on a phone and has to talk louder, etc. Noise from lawnmowers or snowblowers and traffic outside add more.

The noise levels in restaurants are far higher than they used to be. Formerly, restaurants were built to be quiet, but now use flooring and wall surfaces that reflect rather than absorb sound. A room full of lively conversation is thought to attract more customers, yet at the same time assure them that their conversations won't be overheard. Also, in a noisy environment, customers spend less time eating, leaving the table sooner, so that the restaurant can accommodate more customers in a given amount of time.

To learn more about noise-induced hearing loss, its causes and prevention, particularly as related to the young people in your life, visit The National Institutes of Health website Noisy Planet.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence