Dollar vs Euro

George Soros is creating a stir. Despite all the money printing in the US, with the current crisis in Greece and the dooming bankruptcy of countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal, suddenly the bottom is dropping out of the Euro. Soros is predicting a Dollar Euro parity. Who would have forecast that. Sure, the European problems are large, but the money printing in the US seems far larger to justify a parity. The only thing that seems clear and certain, both currencies are and will be strongly devalued.

Buy, buy an American Pie

Quite funny this video: Buy buy American Pie is a charming satire at the current way of life.

Eat The Weeds

The site Eat the Weeds does not have the most appealing visual presentation, but is has a wealth of outstanding high-quality information on foraging and edible plants. Highly recommended if you like greens. It gives ideas of what you might plant in a wild garden. Also, if you know everything on this site you will never go hungry as a survivalist. More than 111 videos on the topic of foraging are available on Green Deane's YouTube channel: Eat the Weeds. A treasure chest!

Fukuoka in Greece

Masanobu Fukuoka is a legend in the area of permaculture. Amongst other things he re-introduced the seed ball planting method. This visianary Japanese was ahead of his time.

This quote is just marvelous and so to the point: "If modern agriculture continues to follow the path it's on now, it's finished. The food-growing situation may seem to be in good shape today, but that's just an illusion based on the current availability of petroleum fuels. All the wheat, corn, and other crops that are produced on big farms may be alive and growing, but they're not products of real nature or real agriculture. They're manufactured rather than grown. The Earth isn't producing those things... petroleum is!" (source: Masanobu Fukuoka, Mother Earth News interview, 1982)

The Permascience channel on YouTube just published these videos: Fukuoka in Greece (1/3), Fukuoka in Greece (2/3), Fukuoka in Greece (3/3).

For a how-to on making seed balls view The Seed Ball Story.

Global Warming

Talking about global warming is in style. We have climate conferences, politicians release new laws (e.g. making CO2 legally a poison), and researchers have funding to study these issues. That is good. A healthy and fair discussion is always beneficial.

Before one makes up one's mind it is also good to hear both sides of the argument. Here is a very eloquent presentation arguing that man-made actions are not the core cause for catastrophic climate change. Warren Meyer who runs the www.climate-skeptic.com blog has put together this 90-minute video presentation entitled "Catastrophe Denied: The Science of the Skeptics Position". It has been updated in 2010. He presents his case well. Viewing this presentation is highly recommended for anyone wanting to form an opinion on climate change. A more casual discussion is here.

Many people will find it easy to agree with him on some or even many points. There are many factors regarding climate change that we are unaware of, and we should be humble enough to admit that our research and understanding are just scratching the surface and are based on many - possibly arguable - assumptions. That does not mean we should not pro-actively work and act for better environmental protection. I very much agree with the author that the approach currently pushed by US politicians is terrible: a CO2 trading system will favor special interest groups and not lead to true environmental benefits. Such a system will be twisted to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Direct carbon taxation or equivalent pollution cleanup fees are more productive, easier to implement and more fair. I furthermore agree that money can be spent on lower-hanging fruit in the environmental protection area with more environmental bang for a buck than betting whole economies on a single CO2 card game.

Wolfberry or Goji Berry

Today I got an email pointing out the benefits of wolfberries or goji berries. They are high in vitamin C and very high in antioxidants. There are disputed claims of health benefits such as vision-related improvements, anti-cancer properties and stronger immune system. These berries also provide a long list of micronutrients and phytochemicals (a full list is given here). One has to take the claimed benefits used in marketing with a salt of grain, but nonetheless this plant seems to be promising and worth while a closer look. Next time I am in a health food store I will try to buy some of them, if possible grown locally rather than in China, to try them. Apparently they can be eaten straight, or with yogurt, or with the breakfast muesli.

The plant seems to have many different names in many languages: wolfsberry, goji berry in English, Gemeiner Bocksdorn, Teufelszwirn, Hexenzwirn in German, and Bayas de Goji, cambronera or licio in Spanish. The scientific botanic name is Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense.