Society

A New Water Cycle

This summer, I read a fascinating book call "The Humanure Handbook; a guide to composting human manure"

For two decades now I have imagined waste water recycling systems for domestic use.

We are planning to build a green home in a semi-arrid desert space, with a solarium and (hopefully) attached green house(s). Water conservation is very important!

This book details how human sewage can be composted to provide safe, balanced, and fertile soil fit for gardening. This promotes a direct, synergistic relationship between you, your food, and your immediate environment!

To Rent or to Buy In an Inflated Housing Market

Realestate is confusing right now. Voices clamor "the bubble burst. Buy. Buy. Buy" Or, "we haven't seen the bottom yet. Rent. Rent. Rent."

In my case, I'm especially pessimistic, and here's why. We are a stupid, self-deceived, selfish people. We believe homes are assetts. We have become insane speculators on housing and property.

I believe that a home should not cost more than about 5 years of income. This isn't an unreasonable belief: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/home-shopping-where-to-rent-and-where-...

Creativity, Teamwork and the Social Parasites

I stumbled upon an interesting e-book titled "How To Be Creative" (Warning, it contains some foul language). It is inspiring on several levels. It's a 20 minute read, at a calm, pondering pace. If you have a creative streak in you, you should probably read it.

One quote that made me laugh out loud reads, "They may not have mentioned this in business school, but...people like watching dinosaurs die." (page 16)

The Great Divide Between Government and the Governed

While viewing a few more amazing RSA Animations with friends, I found this 10 minute segment of a lecture by Stein Ringen, a professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Oxford, assessing the New Labour government and the state of the British constitution.

About Empathy (and a cool video)

What an interesting presentation! The RSA Animate collection takes a short audio lecture clip and "animates" it with coordinated time-lapse video of a whiteboard sketch artist. What a wonderfully engaging experience! I've watched several of these and "The Empathic Civilisation" [sic] caught my interest—enough to spawn this post!

The Inevitable Outcome of Socialized Parenting...Er, "Education"

First off, I was home schooled, K through 12. It was a wonderful experience, but not the topic of this post. Being raised outside of the public school system, I often see it with "new eyes" and not a little suspicion. The idea that a central authority could trump my parents bothers me. It all comes down what I call unalienable responsibility. Much like unalienable rights, there are some responsibilities that cannot be subsumed by society, government, or other third parties.

Persuasion, Correction, and Righteous Influence; a How To

The following is an excerpt from a post to the MormonVeg email list that I helped moderate several years ago. After a major upheaval over post topics, conflicting opinions, and accusations of apostasy (in both directions), I wrote a studied response which really summed up my feelings about righteous influence and persuasion, while respecting an individual's agency.

Originally posted Mon Apr 22, 2002 12:22 am, I have added some links and edited a little here and there to apply the message generally.

Do You Belong In Your Zip Code?

The New York Times recently published a web service showing the movie rental habits, by zip code, of 12 major cities over the past year. The data comes from Netflicks movie rentals for 100 movies. I initially visited the site just to see how they presented the information (very well) and it really made me think. This is a great example of how data is only what you make of it. And, that no matter how unbiased you try to be, just collecting and presenting data induces inacuracy or bias.

Free Markets Are Not Usually Fair Markets

During our recent stay in Ethiopia, my wife and I visited "the Merkato"—supposedly the largest outdoor market in Africa. We also shopped in a variety of places during the week and we observed a spectrum of trading methods, prices, and products.

Frugal Families Are Happy Families

One of the best outcomes of this adoption was a unified monetary policy in my family. We saved every penny before spending it. This was extremely challenging, but more rewarding than I expected. I discovered quickly that most of my stress in life relates to money (particularly with someone else spending it). But with a plan in place, stress is reduced, fear is gone, and life is simplified and happier.