The Story of The Star-Spangled Banner

Just about every American knows the words to the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner, but do you know the story behind it?  I spent six months in Baltimore in 1976, so I was well acquainted with it, but this is still an inspirational video.

How a Carpenter Says I Love You

There are many ways to express your love: words, touches, gifts.  A gift you make yourself that is exactly what the person needs is an extra special way, and when it is made by the hands of a master carpenter, it becomes a work of art:

A Maze of Twisty Little Passages....

If you played D&D in your youth, you probably had to rely on your imagination quite a bit.  Someone's imagination was quite stimulated to create the most amazing D&D map ever created.  I think I would go back to playing if I could play on that!

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Selling the Movies...

Selling stuff can be serious business... except sometimes when it is on the silver screen.  Sometimes salespeople need some inspiration.  Here are some lists of movies that can give it to them:


Cult Movies Sales People and Marketers Should Watch



16 Movies for Sales People


"The Goods" is one of my favorites.

I Owe You One...

Many people see the problems with an economy where money is created as debt.  Some think we should go back to a system where money is backed by precious metals.  A few like Daniel Suelo think we should get rid of money altogether and go to a gift economy.  Either transition would be difficult, however.  Jeff W. had an interesting suggestion on Of Two Minds that would act as a bridge: informal credit.  Put simply, it's when you say "I owe you one" and mean it.  More broadly, it's being in a community where favors are reciprocated.  While the mindset is quite different from the gift economy, all that is really required to switch over is to drop the mental accounting.

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Common People

It's Indepedendence Day, and I want to celebrate Common People.

Hat Tip to Sixbears in the Woods to introducing me to the song... although the version he used was by William Shatner.

Little Free Libraries

Love to read?  Imagine having a box in your front yard where new books show up like magic.  It's not just a dream, it's the Little Free Library movement. 

Have a Nice Day, Earthlings....

Smiley Face in Deep Space Captured by Hubble Telescope

Why internet activists are ineffective

To sum up the article on Raptitude.com, "Why most internet activists don’t change any minds", it is because the authors have a tone of arrogance and come across as blaming the reader for his or her ignorance.  If someone truly hasn't been exposed to an issue, they are less likely to be defensive if you approach it as a teaching opportunity.

Going Upslope in LA

Wow, this couple has a self-reliant lifestyle in Los Angeles on 1/12 of an acre in a 900 square foot home:

The Man With The (Peak-Oil Business) Plan

James M. Dakin has quite a blog, posting basically daily Monday through Friday.  Pedaling to Work was a particularly notable entry.  He has some great ideas for running a bicycle-based business to prepare for collapse.

Going Bananas

A local southwestern Pennsylvania town celebrates the 109th birthday of the banana split.

The Answer To Climate Change

The Coalition of the Willing believe they have the answer to climate change, and they have made a video about it.  Science Pope reviews it.

The New Red Green

Oh, dear, what could the madder be?  Chemists have figured out a way to use plant pigments to make lithium-ion batteries: Ancient Red Dye Powers New “Green” Battery

How Solar Is Killing Fossil Fuels

Yes, you read that right:

The Price of Solar Power by Luis de Sousa on TheOilDrum.com

The critical paragraph in the entire article:

A perfect concurrency market with a marginal cost of zero is something totally outside the standard study and practice in economics. It is the reason why spot electricity prices collapse during sunny summer days or why during autumn storms there can even be negative prices. These are all symptoms of a market whose price will get closer and closer to zero the larger the number of renewable energy systems connected.

Of course, this is not profitable for electrical generation of any kind.

Biofuel for $1.50 a gallon

This is what I'm talking about!

Cool Planet Energy Systems First Company to Develop Carbon Negative Fuel at Projected Cost of Less Than $1.50 Per Gallon

It is produced from woody plant materials, so it doesn't compete with food.  Biochar is a byproduct of the process, which can be used as a soil amendment.  That's what makes it carbon negative.

It has been tested on an unmodified car with a blend of 5% of the new fuel and 95% regular gasoline with no measurable differences.

And, by the way, no government subsidies are needed....

The Importance of Scenarios

"Scott G" wrote an excellent guest post on TheSurvivalistBlog.net on "Mental Preparedness".  I highly recommend that everyone read it.

I would like to quote one paragraph from the article on the importance of scenarios, as I have had a commentater on this blog who seemed to think one scenario was sufficient:

"In the police academy, I was taught to prepare myself ahead of time by playing the “What If” game. Any good cop plays this game every chance he gets. He thinks up a possible scenario that could go wrong then comes up with some specific solutions. He comes up with as many scenarios as he can imagine along with the proper reaction, then goes over them time and time and time again."

This is why I will highlight as many different possible future scenarios as I can think of.

Why Shale Oil Works in the Short Run

Matt Badiali wrote a useful article, "Don't Believe This Shale Oil Argument... It'll Cost You", on The Growth Stock Wire.  Much of it is hyper-optimistic about the prospects of shale oil, but towards the middle there is a very useful analysis:

The Eagle Ford is one of the largest shale oil fields in the country. According to one company operating there, it costs $5.5 million to drill an oil well in the Eagle Ford.  

 

The wells have an estimated ultimate recovery of about 438,000 barrels of oil. Let's assume the company will get $85 per barrel (slightly below today's price) and that it costs $15 per barrel to move it. That means the company earns $70 per barrel in profit.

 

In short, the well pays for itself after 78,571 barrels... in about six months of production. After that, it becomes like an annuity. It's a risk-free profit. At $85 per barrel, it works out to a return of 4.6-to-1 on the money.

 Now, the numbers he doesn't crunch is that 78,000 is 18% of 438,000, so if production is linear the well would run dry in 33 months.  So yeah, shale oil is quite profitable, for now, but that doesn't say a lot for it's long term prospects.

The Ascent Of Humanity

I'm so glad to see I'm not alone...

The Ascent Of Humanity by Charles Eisenstein (this is essentially the full text online).

I just discovered this book, due to the fact that he is the keynote speaker at the 2013 PASA Conference. After I finish reading it, I will be posting a review on the Long Ascent.

Playing Upslope

I just came across the story of what looks to be a great new toy, Slotto.  It is a set of interlocking pieces, like Legos or Lincoln logs.  What makes Slotto different is that while Legos are more like bricks, Slotto is more like plywood -- in fact it is made from medium-density fiberboard -- so it takes fewer pieces to build larger structures.

Right now Bed, Bath, & Beyond sells it under the name "TreeHaus Wooden Slotted Blocks".