 Some interesting finds from the last week to ponder:
Saving the Land: John Taylor Gatto, who had the courage to challenge the entire process we call 'formal education', now lives simply in nature. He has learned
that 'improving' the land is an oxymoron, and the foolish belief that
we must develop the land and shelter ourselves from nature. This essay
is a rallying call for us to get together and buy up undeveloped land
with the specific objective of doing nothing with it. For once the last
of wilderness is gone, he says, we will never know what we have lost. [Thanks to J.D. Hollis for the link]
Money to Make Your Own Living: Shannon Henry, writing in the Washington Post, reminds
fledgling and prospective American entrepreneurs of the availability of
federal government money through the Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs. The
multi-billion dollar annual allotment is awarded through ten federal
agencies like the National Science Foundation. What's best, big
corporatist oligopolies don't qualify for any of it, and neither do
businesses that offshore any part of their operations, you keep control
of your business and your intellectual property, and the advances (up
to $100,000 for the investigation phase and $750,000 for the pre-launch
phase) are outright grants, not loans. More info here and here. Like the undeveloped land that Gatto writes about, get it before Bush gives or takes it all away.
Flight from US Dollar Picks up Steam: Bloomberg reports
that the Chinese are selling US dollars and may sever their currency
(the yuan) from it, as the currency's free-fall continues. The global
community seems to have finally realized that the US trade deficit is
unsustainable, and that the Bush debts have effectively bankrupted the
country. The Euro has soared to $1.30 and the Canadian dollar has
soared to $0.84, both up more than 30% in the last few months. This is
despite the fact that Europe has stepped in to buy US dollars to try to
stem the dollar's fall, since the Euro's relative surge is making it
impossible for European companies to sell goods in America. And this is
just the beginning. Get your money out of US dollar denominated
investments while you can, and get ready for the next stage in the US
economic collapse -- an interest rate spike. Only one silver lining in
this storm cloud -- unpegging the yuan will make Chinese exports much
more expensive, and hence stem the huge tide of offshoring by big
American corporations, and the price advantage of shoddy Chinese
imported crap.
UK Raises Alarm Bells on Global Warming: The UK government has been told
by its most senior scientific advisors (unlike the Bush administration,
Blair actually listens to scientists) that just one consequence of
global warming -- the melting
of the arctic ice cap in this century -- will inundate the world's
coastal cities and "redraw the map of the world". Although Bush still
plans to do nothing to deal with the issue, and in fact is planning to
further relax or eliminate the environmental regulations that could at
least slow it down, the rest of the world has now moved past the Kyoto
Accord and realized that urgent, drastic, coordinated action is
required to prevent catastrophe by 2100. The isolation of the US, and
the recognition that the Bush administration, not terrorism, is the
greatest threat to our planet today, are increasing.
Photo of Jon Stewart is by the late Richard Avedon, part of an unfinished collection on campaign 2004.
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