Windows That Power

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The Future Is Here

April 6, 2011

I dreamed of this future some time ago.
Back in Pittsburgh 1971
At Dusquesne University
We had a visitor from Ma Bell to talk about "the future"
He said that everyone would have their own TV channel
That media would dominate and be dispersed
Who was he, where is he now?
Where are we now?

Dr. Keyes taught us philosophy.
He was a minister.
He said that he would take the furry Yeeeck from under the bed
and show it to us.
He did.
One day he had a bandaid on his wrist, what was that?

Carnegie Mellon was down the road from us.
We went to dances and loved the band that played
the Steely Dan Song "Never Going Back To My Old School."
Steely Dan is hard to play; we asked them to play it again
They did.
CMU changed the world in ways I didn't know
what else will come out of their computer laboratories?


I used to bike to work every day
I shared a car with my wife
I used to hang my laundry to dry in the country air
I used to hang my laundry in the basement in the winter time
She didn't
She left
I didn't
I left

I burn pellets
I burn less oil than ever
I have low energy bulbs
I think I am doing something
I'm not

I'm happy at other people's and things expense
My therapist said that I should be happy for the money I spent
in New Orleans when I was in "the hole."
" It gives them jobs."
Instead of listening to jazz music I wanted to tear out the inside of damaged buildings
My heart was damaged on the inside and I couldn't

I turned my back on the future
I fell in love and am hopelessly, joyfully, in bliss.......

What now?

Macy said the Great Turning is happening.
I have not watched TV since June 2009
The Great Turning has not showed it face in the pages of the NY Times

Math Lessons For Locavores

Here is a thought provoking piece from today's Times. Having been active in the locavore movement where I live, I have experience with the issues expressed in this piece. I like the message that the writer poses and that is " let's not ignore some of the larger problems" and does a good job of putting the energy used in agriculture into perspective. What are your thoughts?


"But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use.

The result has been all kinds of absurdities. For instance, it is sinful in New York City to buy a tomato grown in a California field because of the energy spent to truck it across the country; it is virtuous to buy one grown in a lavishly heated greenhouse in, say, the Hudson Valley."


Mike

The Future Always Comes

The Future Alway Comes

How many times did we stand in front of the
black polished marble heart
and think about
when Mack would arrive here?

And today he gets ready
for tomorrow

Tonight the moon shined ever so handsomely
framed by clouds that never existed before
until I adored them tonight

I also saw a face in the moon as I drove that
ribbon of empty highway from
Castleton to West Rutland

This earliest of projective tests still toys with us
despite our smartness
We see what we want

Isn't it a bit unsettling? The weather?
It still feels like the middle of July as I remember it
Though no lightning bugs, they visited and left in June


For those who listen and watch
there is a change all around us

I think it came to me in a dream at Kathy's
While the wind came suddenly
with a pounding rain
and whipping trees

I was confused at first

But then it became recognizable
to those who listen and watch
My dream was that it had started

You know that when you strip away all of the distractions
When you calm yourself
and empty your mind of the clutter
there is a knowing
that our journey is so far out of step
that it must end

however, we see what we want...........

The future always comes.

Push To Eat Local Is Hampered by Shortage

EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. — Erica Zimmerman and her husband spent months pasture-raising pigs on their farm here, but when the time came to take them to slaughter, an overbooked facility canceled their appointment.

With the herd in prime condition, and the couple lacking food and space to keep them, they frantically called slaughterhouses throughout the state. After several days they found an opening, but their experience highlights a growing problem for small farmers here and across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat.

It's Good To Be Back

It's been an interesting year.

I have been completely distracted by my personal life during the past year or so. My partner of 32 years was unfaithful and we split in January of 2009. The first 6 months of 2009 were quite dark. The last 3 months of 2009 have been among the best of my life since meeting a new woman. The darkness pushed me into some interesting directions such as photography (I've become the house photographer for the local theatre) running,and some unintended adventures. Life can be quite the lesson.

I have pretty much neglected this blog as I have stepped back from interests in such worldly affairs. One can only keep their head in the sand for so long. I can't say that I regret terminating the local newspaper, firing the cable company, discharging netflix, and saying goodbye to Vonage. I have not become a recluse, however, I have removed much of the media clutter I suppose. Yoga has been a good trade I would say.

I started this blog in 2004; some things have changed. Who would have thought the corporate America would jump on the "green" bandwagon. It's everywhere you turn, some things with substance and some is just plain greenwash. Global economic contraction has delayed the wolves from the door as far as competition for energy. Perhaps it will buy us more time to "get it."

As for the future, lets surf the cosmic waves of insanity together and uncover a future worth living.

Best Regards

Mike

The Big Melt

The gods must be furious.

It's the only explanation that makes sense to Jia Son, a Tibetan farmer surveying the catastrophe unfolding above his village in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. "We've upset the natural order," the devout, 52-year-old Buddhist says. "And now the gods are punishing us."

US headed for a massive decline in carbon emissions

For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

The U.S. has ended a century of rising carbon emissions and has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emissions. Peak carbon is now history. What had appeared to be hopelessly difficult is happening at amazing speed.

For a country where oil and coal use have been growing for more than a century, the fall since 2007 is startling. In 2008, oil use dropped 5 percent, coal 1 percent, and carbon emissions by 3 percent. Estimates for 2009, based on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data for the first nine months, show oil use down by another 5 percent. Coal is set to fall by 10 percent. Carbon emissions from burning all fossil fuels dropped 9 percent over the two years.

Read more

Seven Myths About Alternative Energy

As the world looks around anxiously for an alternative to oil, energy sources such as biofuels, solar, and nuclear seem like they could be the magic ticket. They're not.

Read more....