astraea.net/blog

Maybe this time action will be taken.

Maybe you too think that subsidising oil is the wrong way to reduce pollution and increase fuel efficiency.

Here’s a petition to sign.

At the G8 Obama and others intend to finally sign in to effect agreements to stop subsidising fossil fuel companies like Exxon, BP, Texaco, Chevron, …

For a meaning of life …

http://www.chucklorre.com

for example:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #210

I believe that in order to walk through grief, fear, loneliness, despair, confusion and anger without recourse to drugs, alcohol, over-eating, over-sexing, or the endless mind-numbing distractions provided by Western culture, one must become a spiritual warrior. I further believe that the pay-off for enduring suffering, for soberly embracing the inevitable bouts of emotional pain that life brings, is wisdom and serenity in the face of calamity. But make no mistake here, the path of the warrior is treacherous and cannot be walked alone. To survive, he must have brothers and sisters-in-arms to carry him when he buckles. When we lived and died in small tribes, this principle of mutually supporting one another through the trials of life was deeply woven into the fabric of the group mind. With the advent of towns and cities we were forced to live with the daily dilemma of being desperately alone and yet desperately needing one another. Which is why we are, by design, always seeking new tribes. With that in mind, I humbly offer a simple guideline to evaluate the efficacy of any tribe you might encounter on your path to becoming a spiritual warrior: if they ask for your money or access to your crotch, run away. If they ask for your money, smile unceasingly, never blink, and guarantee to make you a demi-god, running away will not suffice. Change your mailing address and briefly reconsider drugs, alcohol, food, sex and TV.

So JP Morgan hung its head because it did a “Leeson” and managed to lose $ 2 billion in trading in a couple of months.  They are supposed to be one of the good ones.  What is going on?  What are regulators doing?  What are you investors doing?  Let heads roll!

BBC: JPMorgan reveals shock $2bn trading loss on investments

All that lovely packaging that we demand from the supermarket and all the disposable toys and modern conveniences are winding up in our food chain.  It was measureable 40 years ago.  Now its clogging the guts of the food web.  I hope you can handle a bit of microplastic in your fish fingers.

BBC: Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste

Micro-plastic, from clothes, is entering the food chain

It is ironic that the evidence is emerging to support the observation that overpopulation is making the world dirty.  The Lancet study reports that a sixth of cancer is caused by contamination.  It reminds me of the whole BSE and Asian flu epidemics – too many beasts in too small a space eating processed food.  Humans are putting ourselves in the same pen – crammed together, eating junk.

Slow down, eat less, eat real food, be happy.

BBC: ‘One in six cancers worldwide are caused by infection’

I’ve only looked at the home page so far, but I like the logo.  And it sounds a bit like Asterix, one of my heroes …

Some say it is easy, quick and light (on hardware).  Another linux distribution worth a glance.

It looks a bit Gnome/Ubuntu ish which is not my prefered GUI.  I’ve tested Gnome a few times and its nice and easy, but I still prefer KDE and miss some of its erstwhile flexibilty which has been moderated to appeal to the gnome preference.  But I like the logo …

What do you mean open business?  I could tell you, or you could look here …

Open business is a concept of doing business in a transparent way, intimately integrating an ecosystem of collaborating participants.  It is a holonic approach.

Objectives are multifaceted and recognise the interdependence of organisations and participants.  They recognise natural law.  For example, cooperation is preferred to competition, externally as well as internally.

Structures allow visibility of participants and the flows of value (physical, technical and emotional) so that self management occurs naturally – “organisational homestasis”.

If we fail to change the way we manage ourselves now, the choice to do so will evaporate tomorrow.

Yes, it’s good (if you have a decent internet connection …). KhanAcademy.org

Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything for free. With over 3,100 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice, we’re on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

Rule 1: Life is fair.  Humans are not — get used to it!

Rule 2: People won’t care about your self-esteem. People will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. They are the nice ones and you might end up working for one.  Watch out for cocky jerks.

Many people are unhappy with the effectiveness of the political process, but just accept government by corrupt elected officials and inflexible, antiquated bureaucracy.  Others are trying to change the way we do things.  Like marches for civil  rights, they facilitate speech on the internet when strong arm tactics are trying to quite the voices of dissent.  We all praised the work of those that enabled the liberation of Egypt last year.

It is technically challenging work and while there is a risk of incaceration and even violence from potent incumbents these “radicals” depreciate their own safety to support liberty.  Have a look at this video to see how good it feels to do the right thing.

BBC: Anonymous ‘hactivist’ goes public on cyber protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17914501