A Cluttered Life: Middle-Class Abundance

Here is another interesting video documentary series from the University of California: A Cluttered Life: Middle-Class Abundance. Archaeologist look into the home of 32 families and ask the question "Why was this thing purchased?". Too much stuff in your home? Feel guilty of all the time spent looking, buying, maintaining and discarding stuff? The entire playlist is on YouTube. I heard a new term: hyper-consumerism. Possessions create stress and worries and these in turn elevate the cortisol levels in the blood stream, thereby lowering and impairing the immune system.  The US have 3% of the world's children, but consume 40% of the world's toys. (Episode 1, minute 4:17 to 6:17.) What are we showing and teaching our kids through our actions and interactions with stuff. Watch it and see how you compare to these 32 families. You'll also learn where most of the time is spend (the kitchen), the least time is spent (master-bedroom), what the most contended space is (bathroom), and what the most frequently remodeled space (master-bedroom) is.

9 Billion Mouths to Feed: The Future of Farming

The University of California in Davis has created a series of 4 short video documentaries highlighting scientific, technical and health aspects of feeding our growing world population. The webpage of the series is here  at "The Future of Farming". The entire series is on YouTube as a playlist. It is quite basic, but for starters it is giving a reasonable overview of the issues. While watching keep in mind the influence of Monsanto on the research topics and results of UC Davis. Especially episode 4 seems skewed towards agrobusiness. The solutions proposed in these videos are too much dependent on gene-engineering. In summary, good for starters, but lacking depth and too optimistic about gene-manipulation. Watch and form your own opinion.

Does gold set the price for oil?

The article "Does gold set the price for oil?" by Michael Jaeger in the Washington Times has compared the oil price and the gold price for the last 26 years, from January 2, 1986 to March 3, 2012 (6,457 matching intervals). Using basic statistics, a 2-sample t test was performed and the results are eye-opening. The comparison showed that .0602 ounces of gold times the price of gold produces the price of a barrel of oil, with an standard error of just .421%, between the calculated price and the actual price since 1986. For the last 26 years, the price of gold dictated the price of oil with 99.579 percent accuracy. That seems to be quite convincing. Read the full article for all the details. This TV news broadcast "Fiat Dollar Is The Real Reason For High Gas Prices" also talks about the same article by Michael Jaeger.

Reforestation

I don't know what exactly it is, but planting trees or just reading or thinking about reforestation makes me cheerful for a moment. Today I ran across a 1-hour documentary entitled "The man who stopped the desert". A trailer is available for free.

From this movie I followed two links to related material: "Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR): A good news story for a deforested and degraded" is a brief summary of permaculture ideas applied in Africa to help reforestation. The other reference is from China: "Lessons of the Loess Plateau" is a 52-min documentary highlighting the challenges and results from this regeneration project.

The Greed Game

In 2008 the BBC has created a 58-min documentary summarizing the past sub-prime crisis from a European perspective. It is online now at "Super Rich - The Greed Game". While it doesn't add new insights, it is an easy to understand summary. It also explains and discusses some of the unfair one-way-bets implications (asymmetric risks) showing how the poor get tapped to make the super-rich even super-richer. It concludes with the comment "we haven't learned from our mistakes".

Sugar

A long time ago I watched the 40-min "Chocolate, Cheese, Meat, and Sugar -- Physically Addictive Foods" by Dr. Neal Barnard. Even though years have passed by since I watched it, I still remember the part of the documentary where he explains how recently born babies are made addicted to sugar. He even gives an example of hypnotizing a baby with sugar that you can try out yourself on your new-born baby.

Along the lines of sugar and its immediate impact on our health I received links to the following series that is currently in production with the first two episodes available and at least five more coming: "The Skinny on Obesity" by Dr. Robert Lustig. He explains the differences between glucose and fructose and how fructose gets converted into fat by our body. Anyone with an interest in a healthy life style should have a look at these documentaries to form his own opinion and adjust his eating habits if necessary. The videos can be found here: Sugar: The Bitter Truth (90-min, very technical), Suger: Bitter Truth Short Version (10min), and the UCTV site for Skinny on Obesity. There is also a YouTube channel for these videos.

PS: New episodes were released. Have a look at this one. It gives 4 steps to healthier living: For the context and a deeper explanation of these 4 rules you will have to watch the other episodes.

• Remove all sugar drinks including fruit juices from your house.
• Eat carbohydrates with fiber (look at the labeling and chose items with 3+g/100g).
• Wait 20 minutes before giving a second serving.
• Buy TV/laptop/console time with sport/activity, i.e. for each minutes spent sedentary in front of the TV/laptop spend one minute exercising (walking, biking, outdoor playing, ...).

Illegal Everything

How about our civil rights? Our freedoms? Every year we have more laws, more regulations and less liberties. Have a look at this 40-min documentary "Illegal Everything".

The Gold Rush is On

Disaster for some (the less privileged) always turns into a gold mine for others (a few privileged or connected). No matter what the disaster is, natural, economic or ecologic, there are always vulture companies turning it into a giant profit at the cost of the just affected. In many cases it is big governments that take advantage of the disaster to funnel public money to private corporations. Here is a good example from recent history. Less than a month after the quake in Haiti US Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent a cable to the his corporate and NGO contacts with the message "The gold rush is on". Two years later Haiti looks like the earth quake has been merely 2 months ago. Where did all the relief fund money go? Where did it not go? Find out here in this 10-min video report entitled "The Haitian Earthquake Gold Rush".

Global Restoration

This young man has voiced his vision for the Occupy Wall Street movement in his 10-min video "Global Restoration: Vision For Occupy & Earth". It has some Zeitgeist aspects to it and some "back to the land" ideas with the principal goal of global ecological restoration. He sees the industrial civilization as the root of all evil. I like his optimism and activism, but his vision is incomplete.

Can or should his vision be the direction of OWS? I think it can be part of OWS, it is certainly positive and worth while, but I think it is insufficient. If this is all of OWS than the men in power will remain and control and oppression will continue in one form or another. We need more than just passive rejection of the current system, moving out and away is not enough. An active stance against the controlling powers is essential.

Similarly with the back-to-the-land idea. I like it. It can bring create small tightly weaved societies, benefit us and the environment, increase our happiness as individuals, and some more. But we still need industry, under different control, but a society without industry seems unimaginable to me.

It can be a big piece in the puzzle of a solution to our problems, but as a all-encompassing vision I see it incomplete. A mathematician might say it is required but not sufficient.

MF Global

Here is a 23-min summary of the MF Global case: Capital Account of 12/08/11 from RT (first 23 minutes). What is your bank or broker doing?

Our Daily Poison

The autor Marie Monique Robin of the highly acclaimed full-length documental "The World according to Monsanto" has released a new work, again a full-length documental entitled "Notre Poison quotidien" ("Our Daily Poison"). The English trailer is available here. The full version is available in French (Notre Poison quotidien), in German (Unser täglich Gift - Wenn Essen krank macht) and with Spanish subtitles (Nuestro Veneno Cotidiano). Since "The World according to Monsanto" was such an excellent piece of work and investigation, I am very much looking forward to this new documentary released in January 2011. It will be another must-see documental!

1000 Uses for old Pallets

This is fantastic video of only 2 minutes. It gives so many ideas of how to use and reuse old pallets. Just outstanding!

Earthships

Earthships are a form of sustainable housing construction pioneered by Michael Reynolds, primarily using earth-filled used tires, old glass and water bottles as construction material. This 90-min documentary entitled Garbage Warrior outlines his personal story and shows some marvellous examples of earthships in New Mexico. It is amazing to see his vision in the houses he built more than 30 years ago.

Economics of Happiness

Helena Norberg-Hodge produced another documentary. This full-length documentary is entitled "The Economics of Happiness". Another maybe even more appropriate title for this film might have been "How to achieve sustainability through localization". The film talks a lot about globalization, what it has brought us and where it failed. It recommends localization to achieve sustainability and more personal happiness. In the USA happiness peaked in 1956, every years since then the percentage of Americans that considers themselves as happy declined. We are clearly not on the right track. Helena Norberg-Hodge also brings some of her experience from Ladakh and from her previous documentary Ancient Futures into this film. Anyone who wants to be happy should watch the film.

Back to Eden

The documentary film entitled "Back to Eden" about permaculture in Washington was just released and is available at the Back-to-Eden website. Over decades Paul Gautschi has used and evolved an approach focusing on mulching with newspaper and wood chips. He has great success with this. Visit his site or read this summarizing article.

Doomsday Preppers

Preparing for the uncertain future might become popular. There is already a small percentage of people doing it today to one degree or another. My personal guess would be that some 5% of the population have consciously done some thinking and performed some actions in order to prepare for a period without electricity, scarce water sources, food shortages, civil unrest, and so forth.

Today I stumbled across a National Geographic TV show that might make "prepping" into a fashionable, socially accepted and respected activity. This is an exaggeration, but it will remove some ill stigma from preppers. The TV series is an easy-viewing show called "Doomsday Preppers". Some episodes or snippets from Doomsday Preppers can be found here. They give some ideas and examples of what can be achieved such as a wood-powered car or an old swimming pool converted into a sustainable ecosystem with a thousand fish.

Urgent Warning

This 5-min video appropriately summarizes the state we are in and the direction we should be roughly heading for. Have a look at Ron Paul's urgent warning.

Stop Spending for a Year

Here is a family that decide not to buy anything (except food) for a year. What a project! A whole family unit working together to execute this plan. It made them happier, more free and social. Imagine it for yourself. More freedom through less buying. Have a look at this video.

Artificial Photo Synthesis

MIT professor Daniel G. Nocera has researched artificial photo synthesis and already 2 years ago presented his approach as a highly distributed and highly personalized solution to the world's energy problem. In short, he wants to replace power stations of all kinds with small inexpensive photo synthesis solutions installed in your home. Here are his talks given 2 years ago: Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy (22min) and Personalized Energy for 1 (x 6 Billion): A Solution to the Global Energy Challenge (78min). The idea itself is not new, already in 1912 (no type here) -- 100 years ago -- it was suggested as a solution to our energy needs.

I am not expert enough to qualify his research, but his speech and vision are impressive. It promises democratic and clean energy, auto-sufficiency, individual independence, risk avoidance, pollution avoidance and sustainability. With such promises it is certainly worth investment, but it frightens the establishment as it would be the end of the day of utility companies and remove our energy dependency.

D. Nocera now works with the Indian Tata conglomerate to bring the research into the commercial market. There is hope after all.

The End of Money

Franz Hoermann is a professor at the university of economics in Vienna, Austria. Recently he published a book entitled "Das Ende des Geldes". The book is in German and so is most of the available information about Hoermann. There is a good summary TV interview (16 min) he gave after the documentary presentation of "Zeitgeist - Moving Forward".

The title of his book is frequently translated as "The End of Money" or "The Death of Money". He presents some off-the-beaten path ideas of how to eliminate money and suggests a substitute solution that is more just and socially fair. His replacement for money is a new innovative social accounting system based on "units" rewarded for actions valued by society. Each individual receives a base "income" to which he adds more income received for the productive actions he performs. The received units are stored on a credit card like card and can be spent in any store, gifted, traded, etc.

Here is an English translation of an interview given to the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. This article covers several items mentioned in the TV interview. He briefly comments on his view of an unconditional basic income for everyone. Growth and full employment pressures are removed in his proposed system. People have more spare time and more freedom to decide on what they want to work on. This part is similar to concepts presented in the Zeitgeist documentary series.

The Thdrussell blog offers this article which talks about Hoermann's view of money and the currently used double entry accounting system. This article does not go into the suggested money replacement.

On the KeimForm blog is an article with 3 critical comments on the TV interview given after the Zeitgeist presentation.

Here is a 19-page paper of his entitled "Premises and Promises" in which he outlines how he wants to convert today's zero-sum economic "game" into a more cooperative system where everybody can win.

The Guardian points out that -- according to Hoermann -- money is rewarded with money. We don't reward accomplishment in our system, we reward property. The economists Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger proved that modern money – worldwide – is not backed by value. Rather, whenever money is created an equal debt is created with it. The systemic problem arises out of the fact that the debt is loaned at interest. The money for this interest is not created. The money for the interest doesn't exist at all. Hoermann's suggested solution eliminates interest completely and creates a solution that rewards actions rather than possessions (as is the case in today's monetary system).

There are several good ideas in his work. The unjust money creation process has been outlined many times before (e.g. The Money Masters). Money as debt and the impossibility to repay the interest is a well understood theme (e.g. Money as Debt). Money should not be rewarded with money. The rat race is equally absurd. We cannot and we should not achieve full employment. We do not need full employment in today's world. As a joke I saw a graffiti that says "We do not lack money, we just have too many thieves". It is so true, we have enough resources, we just spend them unwisely. The thieves are the bankers and politicians. Given our resources we could all live well without putting in so many hours of inefficient and unproductive work. A basic income as suggested brings many advantages, more so than disadvantages. It removes pressures, crime, oppression, not to mention stress and illnesses. No, his plan is not perfect. No system seems to be ever perfect. But we can cherry-pick. There certainly seems to be less evil and risk in his approach than in today's twisted money game controlled by a few bankers.