Permaculture is a relative recent concept (1960’s) but it has developed nicely in concert with our increasing curiosity into the advantages of living with nature as opposed to being in conflict with it.
This post offers some links to other sites with more information. If permaculture is something you have heard about or are curious about interesting concepts, this is an excellent starting point.
James Pilant
via Only Ed
Here we are talking about Montaigne again! (I discussed another Montaigne blog post a week or so ago.) There is always an undercurrent of classicism in the United States. I have been a fan of Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books project since I was 14 and read his masterpiece, How to Read a Book. Years later when the book was put in the discards, I bought it for a few cents and it is still a part of my library.
I like and appreciate this kind of talk, this kind of reading. Once these deep waters are explored, a person’s thoughts are never quite the same. I remember Adler talked about this and he said that after you have read great books you never need to fear boredom when you are alone. I think that’s true.
This fellow writes intelligent essays. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.
James Pilant
I loved this article. It was not only informative but it took some fairly difficult science and made it seem simple.
Of course, I have the secondary motive of contributing to a better energy future. This is one of many kinds of technology that are inevitable in a world where fossil fuel is becoming more expensive and harder to get.
I have read a number of the posts from this site. Many of them are about water and water supplies. This is a site for any one interested in the field. I liked it.
James Pilant
via Water Team
At one point the author talkes about life changes. There have been some major ones in her life. And then she says at one point these words, “I left my career, changed cities, left my community. I wouldn’t advise this radical restructuring. Yet it was necessary for me. I’d been so malformed over the years of being determined by others that I needed space to create, to build my own structures.”
I very much disagree. If at all possible, do what she did, leave your career, change cities, and get a new community.
We all need to break the bonds of our lives and form our own personalities and grab desperately on to the possibilities of a life of meaning, a path with heart in it.
How many of you have gone back to your high school reunion and listen to the guests discuss how high school was the best part of their lives. I remember some vaguely pleasant hours but no whole days. I started having a real life when I became a full adult. I have made many bad decisions and quite a few good ones, but the best one was not to stay in the pattern laid out for me in the communities I grew up in.
I do a job I love, teaching, and I fight to change the world.
That’s not what they taught me. I was supposed to conform and I don’t.
Now, once you have disagreed with a writer (and in the first paragraph no less) you are compelled by custom to do a kind of rain dance of stomping on the rest of the article. Nothing could be further from my intent. I loved the blog entry and the writing in it.
I, old man that I am, thinks she should be more willing to take the example of her life and say, “You ought to do this too!” She didn’t just make the correct decision to leave her community – she made the courageous decision. I don’t think she gives herself enough credit.
This is a good article from a thoughtful writer. I went down the list of her last six entries and that intelligence and commitement is evident in all of her writing. It’s one of those blogs that might very well merit a place in your bookmarks or favorites. — Project CSR.
James Pilant
via Project CSR
How much to give? And who to give it to?
The eternal questions of those fortunate to have enough resources to give.
Here is a good discussion of a person trying to make the right charitable choices.
(In the United States, not getting your money diverted to private pockets when giving is very difficult. Scam artists masquerade under the sweetest and most persuasive names. They love names like veteran, children, etc. Be very careful who you give your money to and remember, the most important factor is what proportion of the charity’s contributions actually go to the charitable purpose. If you can’t find that out after a few minute web search, you are better off buying lottery tickets. In both cases your money is lost, but with the lottery, you know up front that your money is gone for no purpose.)
James Pilant
Special thanks to bee thousand.
via bee thousand
How much to give? And who to give it to?
The eternal questions of those fortunate to have enough resources to give.
Here is a good discussion of a person making those choices.
(In the United States, not getting your money diverted to private pockets when giving is very difficult. Scam artists masquerade under the sweetest and most persuasive names. They love names like veteran, children, etc. Be very careful who you give your money to and remember, the most important factor is what proportion of the charity’s contributions actually go to the charitable purpose. If you can’t find that out after a few minute web search, you are better off buying lottery tickets. In both cases your money is lost, but with the lottery, you know up front that your money is gone for no purpose.)
James Pilant
Special thanks to bee thousand.
via bee thousand
Fantastic. Exactly. Disasters are not harbingers of the Apocalypse, the are (usually) natural phenomenon. What do they demand of us – that we act in a spirit of brotherhood, with compassion.
It is incredible that people who are taken seriously in some quarters consider compassion as a negative, a damaging idea that handicaps the intelligent and entrepreneurial.
But compassion is not a negative, it is one of the basic pillars of a civilized society. Civilization is propelled by cooperation and due consideration for the status of others.
Let us do what we can.
I recommend you look at some of the other writing on this web site, Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
James Pilant
The Third Choice – I think that would be a great name for a book on the subject. The third choice of mankind being taking control of our own evolution: neo-evolution. We will take charge of our own evolution. It is inevitable. Probably, the United States, as it gradually becomes an intellectual and scientific backwater, will pass legislation forbidding that kind of science. In a nation where science is continually overrode by religious zealots challenging evolution or attacked by industry front groups as if scientists were some kind of rationalist cult, you can expect to wind up as thoroughly second rate in the sciences.
But it will be done. it will be a pity that new form of humanity will be Polish, Chinese, Ukranian, but not American. But we can watch and fear as they race past us.
James Pilant
I would like to have a try at answering the question posed by the author of this post.
It seems to me that a great many of the population are in your position – unable to have a full range of choices in where they buy things. There are many choices in where to buy goods and many of those businesses do things that are immoral or unethical. We would prefer to shop elsewhere.
When a firm is unethical or immoral, it often develops a competitive advantage that makes its products cheaper, in many cases much cheaper.
And I don’t think you have to think very hard before you can think of one of the worst offenders.
If you are in a poor economic situation, buy where you can. There is no point in damaging your health or your family.
Ethics requires action but all choices are never available to us.
So, when one avenue of action is denied us, we seek others. Here we have regulatory agencies, representative government and public advocacy. There is also investigative journalism but this is denied most of the public.
Your most likely remaining options are encouraging awareness by blogging, etc.
I don’t want to try to explain in any detail what you will want to decide yourself, which is what’s your best options?
There are many places where total ethics are impossible by one reason or another, you can still fight the good fight.
We do what we can.
James Pilant
via thenewgoodlife
This is disturbing. Some American power plants use batteries? Don’t earthquakes, tornadoes and floods damage those pretty easily? How long are the batteries good for?
A good number of American plants are as old as the Fukushima plants and based on a virtually identical design. If backup power is not a sure thing and the heat in the reactor goes to a certain point we have hydrogen which can and does cause explosions. If the heat is much worse we get a meltdown. Backup power is an important issue because even when you shut down the power in a reactor it takes some time for the temperature to fall.
James Pilant
via robertsingleton
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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