Wanna know why more high school and college kids aren't politically active?

Because they get expelled for singing and protesting peacefully.

How's that for ridiculous? And the level of their punishment is dependent on their GPA. Score one for punitive fascist behaviour. Teachable civic moments, well, who'd want those....

Nicolaus is a damn smart kid.

As usual, Nicolaus of Electric Boogaloo fame has some damn brilliant insights to share, regardless of his age. Enjoy. :)

The Peak Oil crisis

I'm starting to see more "mainstream" news about the global oil supply and demand issues, for example, this article that just came out. With oil over $97/barrel at the beginning of winter, when prices are traditionally starting to come down, that doesn't bode well, nor does the dropping value of the dollar.

A very interesting and scary graph of world oil production:


It's a recent graph from the Energy Watch Group's Peak Oil report - it's the very best report on Peak Oil I've seen - thorough, intensely analytical and very, very honest. You can get the Executive Summary here and the full report here. Both are PDFs.

With so much of this stuff, it's hard to know how much is hype and fear-mongering stuff, but I think at this point it's not debatable that things are going to have to change in the next 20 years or so, and that conservation and reusable energy sources are going to have to come into play, and soon. Aside from that, oil runs not just our vehicles, but petroleum is the basis for so much of what we do - plastics.

Additionally, with the Euro now buying $1.47, it's going to be debatable about whether we can even save enough money to make this move happen. Pay for the move in $$ on credit cards and then pay it off once we're earning Euros? Is that cheating? Is it even realistic to think that could work? Oy.

Keith Olberman kicks fucking ass.

Damn. Watch the video. We need way more people like this in the media.

I think I found our funiture store...

All used furniture, all the time :) Wa-hoo, yay for spending less money and buying less newly-made stuff! Sah-weet! Bookmarked for next year...

Edited to add: bookmarking this page as well, because I want the big barrel chair in aubergine colored fake suede, if we have a suitable reading corner in our apartment. If I'm buying one piece of new furniture, I want it to be something I love. :)

Live like a cat day... and other random thoughts.

Man, I totally want a day like this..., hehe.

Today's thoughts on the move? I'm really looking forward to having less stuff, to finding and using pre-owned things that I really enjoy (furniture, mostly, I'm hoping, and decorations). I've seen some neat stuff on etsy made from recycled parts, and I'm loving that. Baked my first batch of chocolate chip cookies sold via etsy tonight, which is cool.

Oh, and definitely looking forward to good potato-leek soup :D

Some really beautiful images of this planet

StumbledUpon this page with some really amazing and beautiful images. Totally worth looking at the high-res on the Fjords and the Volcano :)

Edited to add more beautiful travel and architecture images... man, I can't wait to live in Europe again!

Neat geek travel toys

Lots of stuff here you don't need, until you read about it... Vagabondish post

Yeah, this is me, contributing to the blogosphere... /sigh

Cool inspiring story...

Here's an interesting story that exemplifies something I love about traveling - the people you meet, the stories you hear and the ways in which your own perspective is changed...

You big, fat pile of bacteria

Go ahead, roll in it. Revel in it. You're made of it. What, you prefer a meek, sterile world?

Maybe the fact that I'm not a great housekeeper is part of why Anja's so healthy, LOL.

No, but seriously. Interesting stuff, and I totally agree that so much of the western world is so much more comfortable in a super-sanitary, predictable environment. The MRSA thing is one example - MRSA is *everywhere*. Literally, it's on you right this very moment. And your immune system keeps you from getting sick. Sanitizing schools is silly, as soon as you let the kids back in, MRSA'll be all over the place again. Lots of people get MRSA and don't die from it. But OMGZ SOUND THE ALARMS because we live in such a culture of must-fear-everything, it's absurd. The night I saw the ad for the nighttime news about why we should fear escalators, I think that was the last and final straw for news-watching in our house.