Sustainable Abundance

[Quiet]

A place we can discuss ideas on sustainable abundance
I didnt really know which section to place this thread as it relates to most of the subforums.

Here is an article i enjoyed- from- http://www.uniquevisions.net/?p=87


Imagining a World of Sustainable Abundance

Today is January 29, 2055. It’s a crisp sunny afternoon in Asheville North Carolina where we’re gathered at the home of Miguel Jose Rodriguez. Miguel turns 100 years old today.

He’s sitting right over there. I know you can’t believe this spry looking gentlemen wearing a crisply ironed guayabera and sipping a locally produced beer could possibly be a day over 80. That’s one of the advantages of living in 2055.

From all the noise you can tell Miguel is not alone today. Far from it. Five generations of his family have come together to celebrate this most important day.

Most of them didn’t have to travel very far. You see in this future, where work is distributed and often virtual, young adults don’t scatter in search of the good life. Families stay closer together.

So today, some of the younger partygoers walked the few blocks back to the family home. Others rode their electric bikes. Most of the older folks took the incredibly efficient mass transit. No one came by car. In fact, only a couple of the older uncles in the family even bother to own personal automobiles anymore. Why put up with the hassle when the local mass transit system is so good? Besides there are plenty of share car services available if you need one.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Miguel’s daughter Allison, she’s in the kitchen right now helping to fix the dinner, she came from Atlanta. Her 200 mile trip took about 45 minutes on the new electric bullet train.

There are lots of things that Miguel enjoys about this world he’s living in. But, like most people his age, sometimes he just can’t resist talking about the Good old days. In fact, that’s what he’s doing right now to a group of quietly attentive great grandkids. They’ve heard these stories hundreds of times before, but Pap-Pap is entertaining and besides their mothers have all told them to be respectful or else. Some things aren’t so different in the future.

“You should have seen the house your Mamaw and I lived in, back in the day. Nearly 5000 square feet. It was so big that we could lost in it. In fact, I remember the time we lost little Allison. We looked everywhere for a almost half a day. Finally, Mamaw found her buried under an avalanche of clothes in her closet. That girl never could keep her room clean.”

Little Inez, Pappa’s 13 -year old great granddaughter always perks up when he gets to this part of the story. Like her great aunt Allison she loves clothes, but she can’t imagine anyone having enough clothe t cause an avalanche. What a waste of space and time that would be.

Inez designs almost all of her own clothes. She uses the family 3-d fabricator to print out the final product. Whenever she gets tired of an outfit she just chucks it in the recycler and it becomes the raw material for her next design.

The best part is when she post her designs online for others to rate. She’s even had a couple of her outfits copied by other girls. Inez doesn’t dream of an avalanche of clothes, but an avalanche of thumbs up appearing next to her designs would be pretty cool.

Inez has been to the place where Pappas house use to be, even though the houses are long gone—cleared away because it was too expensive to bring them up to modern environmental standards. In their place is one of the most beautiful parks in this city filled with green spaces.

She even knows what happened to some of Pappa’s house. It was recycled to use in building the affordable city owned apartments where her friend Bobby lives. He might be more than just a friend but she’s not sure about that yet. She is sure that she is jealous of his way cool apartment complex.

It generates more than 100% of its energy onsite, has the latest rainwater recycling system and the most beautiful windmills in the entire city.

Inez’s daydream is interrupted by Poppa’s booming voice. For an old man he can still command attention.

“One thing I don’t understand is why you kids don’t go to school. Why when I was your age I had to get up at daybreak every morning for nine months out of the year and trudge off to school . We took our education seriously.

Inez tries not to laugh out loud. Some of Pappa’s ideas are so old fashioned. Why would anyone only learn nine months out of the year? Inez is always learning, and she loves it. Right now she’s learning Mandarin from her friend, Kim, that lives in Shanghai. She’s learning botany while working with her mom in the community garden. She can’t imagine how Pappa could have learned anything sitting in a classroom all day.

“And another thing,” Pappa is on a roll now. But here comes Inez’s mother, Susan, just in time to rescue the captive audience.

“C’mon kids we need help setting the table for dinner.”

Inez grabs the hand of her 5 year old cousin Lilly and escapes with the rest of the cousins.

Pappa looks a little disappointed that he’s losing his audience, but he smiles. He knows they’ll be back soon enough.

I don’t know about you, but I would really love to live in that future and I believe that we can. We have the ability to create a world of Sustainable Abundance where it is possible for all of us to live fulfilling lives, to be part of stronger communities, and to enjoy higher levels of well-being without destroying our planet.

We’re already making some important strides in that direction. The green movement is certainly here to stay. But there is one piece that we have not paid enough attention to. If we really want to create a positive sustainable future we need to create a New Story to go along with it.

I’m not suggesting a new green pr campaign of eco-propaganda or any of the conventional external ways we think about story. I’m talking about story that lives at such a deep level that we rarely acknowledge its existence. It’s a story that we often call, for lack of a better name, our culture. It informs our fears and our dreams, tells us what we value, and most importantly shows us how to put those values into practice.

The problem right now is that we are telling the wrong stories about sustainability. We focus on impending doom and disaster. We believe that we can scare humanity into going green.

Our sustainable future does not have to be so bleak. It can be a world filled with abundance, where sustainability is a core value. This is not some vision of a far-fetched green utopia. It is grounded in what is possible.

This new story will keep the best of the past, recognize the realities of today, and provide us a blueprint for building a better tomorrow. In this world sustainability will be accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few who can afford to pay a green premium.

For the past century we have defined abundance in terms of consumption. We have been persuaded that prosperity was directly linked to having more things. We now know that this mindset has caused very real damage to our planet.

What we are learning is that it hasn’t been doing much for us either. A whole slew of recent studies suggest that the link between material wealth and well-being is much more tenuous than we believed. In fact, many of those studies find that after a certain level the relationship is actually negative. The more stuff we have the less happy we are. It turns out that if everyone in the world had as much stuff as the average American we would have 6 billion very unhappy people living on one very unhealthy planet.

Sustainable Abundance does not reject materialism. It recognizes the real value and true cost of objects. Let’s be honest, to live in this world we will have to give up our Hummers and McMansions. In their place we will design objects that have both beauty and utility, are built to last and easily repurposed when their usefulness has ended.

Some would argue that we cannot afford a world of Sustainable Abundance. They see consumption as the only path to economic growth. That view is locked in an old story where economics is a zero-sum game. If I win you must lose.

An abundance economy is based on monetizing those things that are not limited – knowledge, creativity, innovation, and altruism. It is up to us to decide the relative value of things vs. ideas vs. social participation. There has been much talk about a new triple line balance sheet for business. Why not the same for individuals and families and communities? Why shouldn’t happiness have a value? As we redefine success to include being a part of the community, finding time to laugh, love and live fully, we will find new ways to extend the good life to many more people. Isn’t that the real purpose of any economy?

This World of Sustainable Abundance is within our reach. Many people are already working to help create it. These individuals are already living our new story. Most of them can’t articulate it, many don’t even realize it, but they are the heroes of this positive future.

It is time for the rest of us to step up and join them in creating this story. We must share with others our vision for a world of Sustainable Abundance. We must begin to show that we really do value equity, individual fulfillment, and protecting our planet. By our words and actions we can inspire humanity to embrace this new story.

Speaking of Story, let’s check back in on Pappa’ birthday celebration.

Looks like the kids did a great job of setting that table. Wow that is some spread. The table is covered with homegrown and locally sourced foods, handmade breads and homemade pies.

The family band, a group of cousins, aunt and uncles who share a love for playing music, are warming up. In just a few minutes they’ll be playing Happy Birthday.

Pappa’s sitting at the head of the table, eyes slightly closed, tapping his foot along to the music. He has a big smile on his face and I know what he’s thinking. He’s proud of his family. They’ve created a world that really is much better than the good old days. He’s just glad he’s here to share it with them.

I hope we all get to share in that world too.

 

[Quiet]

Waste not Want not

Up to half of world’s food goes to waste

from http://sustainability.thomsonreuter...alf-of-worlds-food-goes-to-waste-report-says/


By Nina Chestney | 10 January 2013

(Reuters) — Up to half of all the food produced worldwide ends up going to waste due to poor harvesting, storage and transport methods as well as irresponsible retailer and consumer behaviour, a report said on Thursday.

The world produces about four billion metric tonnes of food a year but 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes is not eaten, the study by the London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers said.

“This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands,” said.

In developed countries, like Britain, efficient farming methods, transport and storage mean that most of the wastage occurs through retail and customer behaviour.

Retailers produce 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year because they reject crops of edible fruit and vegetables because they do not meet exacting size and appearance criteria, the report by the engineering society said.

“Thirty percent of what is harvested from the field never actually reaches the marketplace (primarily the supermarket) due to trimming, quality selection and failure to conform to purely cosmetic criteria,” it said.

Of the food which does reach supermarket shelves, 30-50 percent of what is bought in developed countries is thrown away by customers, often due to poor understanding of “best before” and “use by” dates.

A “use by” date is when there is a health risk associated with using food after that date. A “best before” date is more about quality — when it expires it does not necessarily mean food is harmful but it may lose some flavour and texture.

However, many consumers do not know the difference between the labels and bin food after “best before” dates.

Promotional offers and bulk discounts also encourage shoppers to buy large quantities in excess of their needs.



RISING POPULATION

In Britain, about 10.2 billion pounds’ ($16.3 billion) worth of food is thrown away from homes every year, with one billion pounds’ worth being perfectly edible, the report found.

By contrast, in less developed countries, such as in sub-Saharan Africa or South East Asia, wastage mostly happens due to inefficient harvesting and poor handling and storage.

In South-East Asian countries, for example, losses of rice range from 37 to 80 percent of their entire production, totalling about 180 million tonnes per year, the report said.

The United Nations predicts global population will peak at around 9.5 billion people by 2075, meaning there will be an additional 2.5 billion people to feed.

The rising population, together with improved nutrition and shifting diets will put pressure for increases in global food supply over the coming decades.

Rising food and commodity prices will drive the need to reduce waste, making the practice of discarding edible fruit and vegetables on cosmetic grounds less economically viable.

However, governments should not wait for food pricing to trigger action on this wasteful practice, but produce policies that change consumer behaviour and dissuade retailers from operating in this way, the study said.

Rapidly developing countries like China and Brazil have developed infrastructure to transport crops, gain access to export markets and improve storage facilities but they need to avoid the mistakes made by developed nations and make sure they are efficient and well-maintained.

Poorer countries require significant investment to improve their infrastructure, the report said. For example, Ethiopia is considering developing a national network of grain storage facilities which is expected to cost at least $1 billion.

“This scale of investment will be required for multiple commodities and in numerous countries, and co-ordinated efforts are going to be essential,” the report said. ($1 = 0.6247 British pounds) (Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Pravin Char)

 

[Apone]

I don't remember ever seeing 'use by' dates on food... only 'best before'.

I think that fully synthetic food is probably on the horizon... if organic food becomes scarce enough. I remember reading a book about MacDonald's (I can't remember the title-- but it was really popular about 5 or 6 years ago) where they talked about the synthetic flavoring in french fries (the writer visited a lab where they created artificial flavors). The scientists could basically make anything taste like anything they wanted. I don't think it would be entirely objectionable to come up with some sort of benign 'substance' and then flavor it artificially and put in the best possible combination of nutrients and vitamins.

All of this is completely possible and in fact it would probably be an all around better alternative to natural farming because you could actually customize your nourishment based on your bodily needs while also enjoying a delicious, satisfying meal. The fact that it isn't 'natural' would probably put people off, but there's no legitimate reason not to go ahead and do this. You could even modify it so that the unused portions broke down naturally or could even be recycled.

It would be a bitch to market, though.

 

[Quiet]

The awesome Joost Bakker and his awesome Greenhouse restaurants...i find this so inspiring, truly this man is a pioneer and this is just a taste of the wonderful sustainable world we can create

He has designed both 'pop up' temporary restaurants and permanent. The idea is to be completely sustainable and minimise/zero waste and ecological footprint. The mill their own flour at the restaurant! Even the piss is recyled- its collected and used as fertiliser for a mustard seed crop that will be used to generate power!

This information is about his permanent restaurant in Perth
http://www.greenhouseperth.com/food/greenhouse/the-features-facts-and-figures/

The features, facts and figures…

- Rooftop garden provides produce for the kitchen and bar and uses energy efficient LED grow-lights to stimulate the growth of plants due to the largely shaded site

- Drip irrigation waters garden. Water used on rooftop garden filters through soil and sand and collects in the bottom of Schutz bins to be re-used.

- Water from kitchen and bar is recycled in this system too

- Worm farms holding thousands of worms process organic waste from the bar and kitchen and provide rich vermicast for use on the garden

- Products and material used in the operation of the premises are sourced locally when possible and consideration is given to their sustainability, practicality and life-cycle

- Straw bales insulate the building to keep a stable temperature

- The bar top i made from recycled plywood from the floor of the Greenhouse by Joost. Cushions in seating made from natural latex with leather (rescued from the scrap heap) covering. Ice buckets made from old gas cylinders, fencing wire light-shades, reclaimed plastic palettes set in 70% recycled concrete, etc

- The Greenhouse has a licensed capacity of 120 people

- There is approximately 7 tonnes of steel in the Greenhouse’s frame and over 40,000 screws holding this frame in place. The frame supports approximately 7 tonnes of weight, including the rooftop garden, which includes herbs, vegetables, fruit trees and plants housed in discarded Schutz DSL Ecobulk liquid bins (to allow for re-use of excess garden water runoff) and a worm farm for recycling organic waste from the kitchen and bar

- The Greenhouse has around 420 straw bales in its walls and ceiling

- The exterior of the building is clad in corrugated iron covered by a vertical garden with about 4000 terracotta pots filled with ivy and strawberry plants

- Furniture (designed by Joost Bakker) includes tables made from the plywood floor of the Greenhouse by Joost (Federation Square, Melbourne 2008-09), chairs made from old road signs, bar stools/tables made from wafer board recycled from old wooden palettes, and light shades made from reclaimed fencing wire.

http://www.greenhouseperth.com/food/greenhouse/the-concept/

The Greenhouse is about designing and operating better places for people. Places that let us touch natural materials, understand where everyday things come from and taste fresh food straight from the garden.

Designers, engineers, builders, scientists, farmers, chefs and others are among those whose knowledge and advice have gone into every aspect of creating the Greenhouse, from the lighting, to the menu, to the fresh baked bread and the worm farm. The Greenhouse aims to harness the growing understanding of the human footprint to offer alternative solutions that tread a fine balance between functionality, sustainability and beauty.

All the features of the Greenhouse are carefully considered first for their practicality, recyclability, life cycle and embodied energy and then for their aesthetics and cost. By putting each decision through this rigorous process, it is hoped that the Greenhouse can provide information and examples to builders, designers, restaurateurs and the public, regarding their daily choices of materials, ingredients, and practices.

Nobody ever convinced anyone of anything by shouting it at them. We hope that we can quietly share some of what we have learned, and let the results speak for themselves.

Productive building…

The Greenhouse St Georges Terrace uses the Productive Building system developed by Joost Bakker. This system includes some of the concepts outlined below.

- Use recycled and/or recyclable materials

- Built to be easily dismantled and recycled

- No use of chemical or harmful treatments on surfaces and in materials

- Minimize ecological footprint through careful consideration of sourced materials, their lifecycle, and the buildings operation and maintenance

- Encourage a new perspective on building and the function of buildings as a productive place that can harvest food, water and energy, and can improve the local environment for people and animals rather than exploiting it

- Building can be made, transported and assembled quickly and efficiently minimizing the transport of materials, keeping costs low, allowing unskilled labour to assemble

- Building design is flexible and adaptable to variety of environments and applications and can use all locally sourced materials.

Productive building method

- Steel frame is made from roll formed 1 mm steel coil, processed through a Framecad roll-forming machine and screwed together on site with galvanized steel screws

- Steel frame firstly clad in plywood for structural integrity and to create a thermal barrier

- Wall and roof cavities filled with straw bales sourced from grain farmers near Dumbleyung in the West Australian wheat belt. The frame is designed to fit these straw bales tightly and lock them in place

- External cladding of corrugated iron covered with a vertical wall garden made from steel mesh and terracotta plant pots

- Internal fit out, installation of windows and doors and creation of rooftop garden

Materials


- Steel

- 100% Recyclable, steel takes only 25% of the energy to recycle into another product once itexists, than it took to initially extract/create it

- Fast and easy to assemble

- Accurate, lightweight and extremely strong

- Allows for minimal material use given its strength
- Straw Bales

- One of the world’s most problematic waste products

- Can be sourced most places in the world from many different types of grain, including wheat, barley, rice.

- Fire safe and long lasting if kept dry

- Very high insulation rating

- (Alternatively walls can be insulated with soil, recycled paper, plastic, etc. where straw is not available).

Straw_Bale

- Plywood

- Sourced from plantation trees that are generally young and fast growing.

- Can be recycled into chipboard, wafer board, etc.

- Provides great strength to frame when engineering a building where loading is a consideration (if rooftop garden is used).

- Provides thermal barrier between external surface, steel frame/straw, and internal space.

- Can be left untreated internally.


- Corrugated Iron

- Like steel is recyclable

- Nests low volume in transport and is therefore efficient to move

- Long lasting and tough, makes for ideal exterior cladding

- Galvanized Steel Screws

- Can be recycled along with steel frame

- Allows for easy dismantling of building on demolition

- Can be used by unskilled labour to assemble entire building

the most valuable tool on site

- Plaspanel- (Some Bar and Kitchen Surfaces)

- Manufactured from recycled plastic waste in high density polyethylene (HDPE) and can itself be recycled

- Waterproof so does not rot, swell, delaminate, deteriorate or absorb moisture.

- Comes in variety of vibrant colours

- Australian made

 

[Kanamori]

The cold fusion -- they call it LENR (Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction) -- is actually quite real.
One of the lead people from MIT trying to discredit Pons-Fleischmann lied about his results in the first place.
People kept researching it though and there are more than a few companies started working on commercializing it.
Mitsubishi, Toyota, University of Osaka have shown and replicated findings of nuclear transmutations happening.
The theory is that the weak nuclear force is actually involved, so it isn't radioactive, which has also been shown.
It would be 1/4 the cost of coal and use very little resources... some suggest that it may even be able to run on carbon, which
could help clean up the atmosphere.
There's actually tons of evidence if you search around for "lenr". Experimental evidence, 100s of experiments coming to similar conclusions, clearly shows that at the very least a non-chemical reaction can happen that creates tons of energy.
Anyway, NASA has done a few experiments too. The commercial interests wanting cheaper power will propel this tech forward.
I hope the oil companies choke on the oil they're after in the arctic... sooner rather than later.
Widom-Larsen theory seems to be the best explanation for what's going on in LENR.

pdf of another article: http://newenergytimes.com/v2/inthenews/2013/NASA-PHYSORG-The-nuclear-reactor-in-your-basement.pdf

http://guardianlv.com/2013/02/nasa-cold-fusionnuclear-reactor-as-a-household-electricity-source/

The ongoing global warming debate at NASA

Scientists from NASA’s Langley Research Center are offering a solution to the current global warming, green energy, or renewable energy debate, that has been going on in our country, and on the planet for quite some time.

Solar and wind power, have been getting all of the press recently, as these are the 2 most popular forms of green energy, along with hydroelectric power, which has been in use all over the planet, for almost 100 years.

At NASA’s Langley Research Center,Dr. Joseph Zawodny, senior scientist , and Dr. Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist, have both recently written papers around the idea that, Cold Fusion Nuclear Reactor, technology should be downsized and made available to homeowners everywhere, providing them with all the power needs, that anyone might need in their home, and could even power their electric car.

Dr. Bushell wrote his paper back in 2011, when this technology that is called Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR), was still only theory. The idea of Cold Fusion has been around since the 1980′s but there have been subsequent difficulties with its replication.

This type of nuclear reactor is considered weak force condensed matter nuclear physics. Back in the 1940′s when nuclear engineering was in its infancy, everyone seem to subscribe to the theory that more is better, so we literally jumped over weak force condensed matter nuclear physics, too strong for particle physics, in an effort to create the massive amounts of heat, that are generated in nuclear power plants from the fuel rods in the reactors.

Evidently the Cold Fusion, weak force condensed matter generator, is something more accessible for the regular person, and the technology is being prepared now, to make it safe for the general public.

As, Dr. Zawodny, explained in his article, the Cold Fusion process, was left for dead in the 1980′s, as scientists were unable to reproduce the experiments pragmatically, so the process has been since then.

“There are a lot of people who are trying to build something, without understanding anything,” Dr. Zawodny said. “It worked for the Edison light bulb, but it took him a long time and that was a simple system. This is very complex. And if they make something that just barely works, and accidentally one in 1000 works really, really well, it’s going to take down a house with their trial and error method.”

Dr. Bushnell, weighed in on the recent rush to develop the LENR technology, and the dangers associated with the technology.

According to an article, Dennis Bushnell, Langley’s chief scientist, wrote for NASA’s Future Innovation website, he said “Several labs have blown up, studying LENR, even windows have melted.” He further wrote: “This indicates that when the conditions are ‘right’ prodigious amounts of energy can be produced and released.” But it’s also an argument for this approach, that the Langley researchers favor: master the theory first.

“For NASA Langley,” according to Bushnell’s article, “the epiphany moment on LENR was the publication of the Widom-Larsen Weak Interaction LENR Theory,” which was published in 2006. According to Dr. Zawodny and Dr. Bushnell, this theory provides a better explanation than “cold fusion” for the results, which researchers have obtained over the last couple of decades. And it might explain much more than that. At a meeting of the American Nuclear Society in November 2012, the theory’s co-developer, Lewis Larsen, speculated that, LENR may occur naturally in lightning, not only on present day Earth, but also in the primordial cloud of gas and dust, that became our solar system. If true, LENR might solve a mystery uncovered by NASA’s Genesis mission, that the pattern of oxygen isotopes on the sun, differs greatly from that of Earth.

Now all of this science about the realities of Cold Fusion technology, and the assemblance of a small nuclear reactor in the garage, or perhaps even in the basement, is all just a little bit more than most layman can understand, and I will leave the detailed explanations to scientists who are properly trained in the workings of Cold Fusion.

As a matter of fact, I don’t think I want a small Cold Fusion nuclear reactor in my garage, or even in my basement, providing power to my house, that’s what research and development is for, getting all the bugs out of it.

So I think for now, a Cold Fusion nuclear reactor, is unlikely to be available to the public, for the foreseeable future, and solar panels and wind energy, married together with conservation and other sources of clean energy will still be the order of the day, for some time to come.

But moving forward, it would appear that, at some point on this planet, this technology will someday be the driving force behind our electrical needs. So make sure and leave a note for your great grandchildren, because they may one day have this item out in the garage right next to the water heater in the washer and dryer.

 

[Kanamori]

So, a cold fusion setup similar to Pons and Fleischmann's was independently confirmed to produce excess energy larger than through 'conventional' fuels, but currently not more than fission. Apparently, Rossi wasn't a fraud, and the e-cat (his cold fusion device) works. Supposedly, a US military branch bought a couple of e-cat reactors (probably Navy, which has had interest in cold fusion from the beginning).

A copy of the paper is here: http://matslew.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/report-e-cat-ht-may-20131.pdf.

Basically, we've entered a new era of cheap and totally clean energy in a previously overlooked area of physics which probably has many other implications and applications.

 

[Kanamori]

Also, a Forbes article on it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgib...device-maybe-the-world-will-change-after-all/

Personally, I thought that if any of it was a scam/hype it was Rossi's E-cat. Apparently I was wrong, though.

Let me know if I'm hijacking.

 

[Kanamori]

Quantum tunneling has been implicated in the chemical reactions in space that people have said should be impossible because of the lack of heat (kinetic energy, which there also isn't enough of to penetrate the coulomb barrier at low temperatures).

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/...oxy-radicals-space-chemical-compounds-063013/

Quantum tunneling has also been implicated in cold fusion. Not so impossible after all. This is what happens when one tries to discount empirical results because they don't fit with the theories that simply must be right. Derp. How much of global warming could have been avoided if we had decided to spend research money on trying to understand baffling, potentially incredibly useful, reactions instead of sweeping them under the rug until stubborn, underfunded, 'nutters' put it so plainly in front of our faces? (Peter Hagelstein was shut out and marginalized in MIT by the hot fusion derper department head)

Shills have been flooding the cold fusion news sections lately trying to downplay it however possible, since the 3rd party test of Rossi's e-cat. Do I smell the horrible stink of oil money again? Somebody wants to dump their oil assets before everyone else. The move away from oil, and a major green energy company (Siemens, who know about LENR) dumping most of their green investments, has actually been going on for a couple of years, since the empirical evidence for cold fusion has continued to grow. My nose also smells shills in the DoE reviews of cold fusion, split half-half, about funding cold fusion. Sergio Focardi dies, and all of a sudden Rossi says his US partner also has his trade secret, not to worry if something happens to him! A prominent scientist, considered to have the best arguments for cold fusion, was also brutally murdered -- randomly of course, by a burglar -- a day before he could testify before the DoE review board on cold fusion.

One of the fathers of Quantum Mechanics, Julian Schwinger, was also on board with the plausibility of cold fusion, and quit the APS when they refused to publish his papers about it, and insulted him (Has the knowledge that physics is an experimental science been totally lost?). Cold fusion papers are still categorically banned from the major science journals, but related stuff has been finding its way in lately, and the Navy has a patent pending on a cold fusion device (the usefulness being a lack of a need to refuel so often, effectively cutting the cost of our fleet in half and no longer relying on an enormous supply fleet). Sniff, sniff, sniff. Where's our favorite former vice president who likes to drink and shoot people in the face, and is recorded as having knowingly lied at least once about Iraq before we liberated their oil fields? (To this day, mobile chemical labs in Iraq is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard) Their greed is so incredibly short-sighted that one would think they would have learned by now. NASA and Boeing have continued to entertain LENR, and have recently given money for preliminary plans for space-planes powered by LENR. National Instruments CEO/co-founder is introducing the International Cold Fusion Conference (ICCF) at University of Missouri -- and has been supplying the researchers with measuring instruments -- which has been given millions to research LENR. If oil money hadn't delayed cold fusion, USA would be at the forefront, and yet here we are, again, heads happily buried in the sand half-way to China. They have to squeeze every last penny possible, wherever possible. The momentum is such that they cannot stop it, but want their piece of the pie -- which is rightfully theirs of course. If they can't buy you, they marginalize or whack you. Sick, morally bankrupt, and sure to get away with it, again!

I wonder how the knee-jerk, strawman loving, physicists will react psychologically to being so wrong? But they really just misunderstood the LENR arguments ("nobody really knew or could have reasonably guessed, and we were right to ignore it") and cannot be blamed. :d

The near future?

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing

 

[Kanamori]

... And Mark Gibbs was fired by Forbes.

If people who believe there's something to LENR would spread the word, so that it doesn't die w/o more serious discussion or investigation. I found out about it in comments sections of news media.
@muir

A link to Gibbs' post about it:
http://www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg84681.html

 

[ThisIsWhoIAm]

I think mankind's biggest problem is in the dividing of energy (that's where morality comes into play). We have plenty of ways of using energy of all sorts.

That being said, i believe it's very important to switch from oil into solar and such.

Edit: BTW [MENTION=3224]Kanamori[/MENTION], is that Rasputin in your avatar?

 

[Kanamori]

I think mankind's biggest problem is in the dividing of energy (that's where morality comes into play). We have plenty of ways of using energy of all sorts.

That being said, i believe it's very important to switch from oil into solar and such.

Edit: BTW @Kanamori, is that Rasputin in your avatar?

After cold fusion comes, I think a lot of the world's problems will get a lot better when people in the rest of the world are able to more easily make their lives better. It will also make nuclear fission obsolete, as far as energy production goes. There will be no excuses for people to be refining Plutonium and Uranium, and it could even help get rid of nuclear waste (which is one of the things the Navy has taken a patent for, although that doesn't mean it's a reality). It would make disarming to a more sane number of nukes safer and easier because of that also. Unfortunately, this seems like the only way to continue developing and for countries like India and China, and those after, it might be the only way to switch from coal quickly enough. The alternative, as I see it, is eventually having wars over emissions when it's too late.

I'm not sure if it's Rasputin or not, but he looks a letter better groomed than Rasputin, I'd like to think anyway.

 

[Stu]

I find this very exciting http://blogs.kqed.org/science/audio...ant-opens-california-looks-to-end-solar-wars/

 

[Quiet]

Lentil as Anything

This is so inspiring. Im so eating here next time im in Melbourne. These people are awesome! And i love the cheesy name- the cheesier, cornier, and funnier- the better

Lentil as Anything

http://lentilasanything.com/
Our Philosophy

Lentil as Anything is a unique not for profit community organisation. At our core are the pay as you feel restaurants where customers give what they feel the food is worth and have the opportunity to contribute towards a world where respect, generosity, trust, equality, freedom and kindness rule.

Our philosophy has been working successfully for over 13 years now, with three long-standing restaurants in Abottsford convent, St Kilda and Footscray, a growing involvement in education and ongoing community projects.

Our restaurants: how it works

Come to one of our restaurants for lunch or dinner or even breakfast at Abbotsford convent and in St Kilda (see ‘contact us’ for details on opening times)

Choose what you’d like to eat

Enjoy a delicious meal, have a chat, listen to some music in a warm community space

Reflect on your feeling and decide how much you want and can contribute to this unique experience, and put some money in one of our magic boxes in the restaurant (EFTPOS also available at all our restaurants).

Be part of a unique financial model that is centred on the values of trust, generosity and respect that gives people the opportunity to eat out and be social regardless of their financial situation. Why do we do this? Because Everyone has a right to feel valued and respected, money should help bring people together not divide us.

We would love to welcome you as part of our community. We extend our hospitality offering you vegetarian cuisine cooked with love and gratitude. Our unique financial model relies on your generosity in order to pay our rent, utilities, wages and stock.

Our Mission

Caring for people: Provide a wholesome and nutritious meal where money is not a concern.

Promoting Multiculturalism: Fostering an environment of inclusion and not exclusion.

Reforming Society: Acting on the structures of society to restore justice.

Extending/Spreading it’s ethos and values: Hiring volunteers, the long-term unemployed and the marginalised.

Encouraging: Young people to be active citizens and get involved in community based initiatives.

Our Values

Human Dignity: Respecting the sanctity of life and affirm the worth and capacity of all people.

Justice: Acting with integrity and fairness, without discrimination, and being an advocate for the disadvantaged by managing all resources responsibly.

Hope: Work for reconciliation, healing and transformation of all people.

Compassion: Engaging others in the spirit of inclusion and addressing their needs.

Community: Owning our common humanity as we engage with people, working and journeying together, for mutual capacity building.

 

[Kanamori]

This is so inspiring. Im so eating here next time im in Melbourne. These people are awesome! And i love the cheesy name- the cheesier, cornier, and funnier- the better

Lentil as Anything

http://lentilasanything.com/
Our Philosophy

Awesome. I think it is a misconception that is either knowingly or otherwise perpetuated that people will rip people off whenever they can, or that they want to do nothing for themselves or others. People want to feel valued and respected. It's mostly people at the top doing this, or those obsessed with money.

 

[Quiet]

A handy app in case you have to go to the scary supermarket place and dont want to spend hours/months researching. This one is for Australia, im assuming that other places have their own version.
http://www.ethical.org.au/get-involved/resources/shop-ethical-app/

Shop ethical app

Shop with a clear conscience!

Your dollar is your vote – make it count.

Get the low-down on the environmental and social record of companies behind common brand names. Shop at the supermarket with a clear conscience!

The most popular digital guide to ethical shopping in Australia, Shop Ethical! has been designed to provide consumers with the easiest way to make informed purchasing decisions.

Shop Ethical! is available for iPhone and Android.

The Shop Ethical! app features the most up to date data from the Shop Ethical! website.

Now with long-awaited clothing data allowing you to see how your favourite fashion labels are responding to issues such as Uzbek cotton, building safety in Bangladesh, water pollution, and paying a living wage. (See press release and promotional postcard).

Free data updates are released every 3 months or so, which can be downloaded over the air without requiring an app update.

With over 20,000 downloads of the app and 110,000 copies of the printed guide already in the hands of Australian consumers, the latest version is sure to be a hit.

The Shop Ethical! app provides consumers instant access to over 4,000 products with related company information and lets them make an informed and ethical decision whenever they shop.

By shopping ethically consumers can send a strong message for change and help support the practices that make our world a better place to live in.

The Shop Ethical! app uses the latest data from the Shop Ethical! website (ethical.org.au) and is also available as a book. Company ratings are based on information gathered from over 30 sources including the work of organisations such as Greenpeace, Choose Cruelty Free, WWF, Free2Work and Friends of the Earth.

 

[Quiet]

There is no specific legislation, policy, or technology that can create sustainable abundance unless the individual and cultural mindset is changed first. Sustainable abundance is a mindset, a way of thinking, percieving, and interacting with the world. It is an understanding that there is enough, there is enough for all of us, and that we are deeply interconnected.
It is possible to teach people/ourselves to think sustainably. It is simply learning to be more mindful.

Thinking sustainably involves questioning why we do certain activities and consume things, rather than just doing/consuming mindlessly- because that is what we are used to, thats what we learned from family, friends, institutions, culture, tradition etc.
It is building self awareness and recognising that our thoughts and actions impact everything around us. It is recognising and minimising harm, and much more importantly, recognising and appreciating our natural and shared abundance.
It is seeing the bigger picture- what/where/when/how/why something is produced, transported, stored, sold, consumed, disposed. It is having a complete thpught, seeing something from start to finish.

From a spiritual perspective, it is ego, the symbol of separation that prevents us from living in sustainable abundance. The ego believes that we are separate and 'others' are seen as either helpful or harmful to the ego's sense of self preservation. The ego's world is constantly divided and percieved as 'us versus them', 'me versus you'. The ego cannot comprehend Oneness, and Oneness is its enemy, as Oneness is the end of separation. This is why the ego sees constant lack, and is always defending and attacking. To preserve separation in a world of Oneness, the ego creates 'special' relationships with selected members of the One. It chooses certain members to ally itself with, those which can serve and nuture its sense of separation, specialness, uniqueness, and its particular cocktail of fear, guilt, blame and competition. The rest of the Oneness is seen as the contrast necessary to hold and keep its special relationships intact. The special relationships are maintained purely by denying Oneness and equality, and by denying all other relationships. This creates a world of fear and ugliness and suffering. Because people are so fearful for 'their own' brother, 'their own' child, they fail to see that all people are their brothers and all children are equally their own. This is the geratest tragedy of the ego, because the nature of the ego denies Love, wholeness and peace. This is how someone that supposedly 'loves' their child, and loves children, can go out a buy a toy for their child that has been produced at the expense and suffering of another child, another family, a toy which was manufactured by a company that readily expolits people and the environment for the benefit of a few 'special' people, ultimately at and for the expense of the rest of the world