Sunday, November 19, 2006

Update/Mike; Earthaven; Power/Europe; CIA/ Bin Laden Unit/Guantanemo;

Deepest thanks to those who've offered help and advice for Mike and FTW; it's all been noted. I think I responded to each offer individually. Let me know if you were inadvertently omitted.

Also, we're acutely aware that you're anxious for an update. Please hang on a little longer; one will be forthcoming soon.

Earthaven

Power Failures Hit Europe

New York Times Videos on CIA Closing of Bin Laden Unit, Guantanemo, etc

25 comments:

Rice Farmer said...

I think we're all looking forward to hearing news to the effect that FTW will somehow survive, in one form or another. Anything but "FTW is kaput" will make my day.

Rice Farmer said...

Earthhaven has solar panels, light bulbs, and propane. Which is fine because it shows that they're still connected to society (they can't make those things themselves). We have to form communities, and society is the larger community that ties them all together. It all goes to show that we can't ride this out alone. We all have to learn some things to raise our rates of self-sufficiency, but we also need specialization. Unless one is prepared to live a really primitive form of existence (which I have nothing against), it's impossible to just move out into the mountains and live in total isolation.

Joy said...

Does anyone know if the Caracas, Venezuela gold coin I sent to Mike c/o FTW in Ashland ever reached him?

Jenna Orkin said...

joy, thanks, i'll try to find out. please send me your email. mine is jennakilt@aol.com

No Shelter said...

I feel a little selfish and weird asking this here. But there is no other place to ask FTW readers. With FTW at minimal capacity, where else can I find important news about the world, peak oil and everything else? I don't know what sources to go to or to trust. FTW has been the most amazing organization I have ever come across and am at a huge loss without it.

I still support you Mike and will try my best to continue to keep supporting FTW as it is in minimal capacity.

Jenna Orkin said...

no shelter

for peak oil news, see energy bulletin, the oil drum, aspo and lifeaftertheoilcrash.net. for relocalization, see postcarbon.org and permatopia.com. not sure what to refer you to for geopolitical events but bear in mind we need to focus on preparing for peak oil in real, concrete ways.
thanks for the support. we sympathize with your state of mind.

Rice Farmer said...

No Shelter -- there are also links on the FTW site.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/links.shtml

RanD said...

By all means, we would do well to keep FTW's alive. However, the unique and indispensable contribution that MCR and entourage have been making to the human prospect should best be viewed at this juncture as having also entered an inevitable stage of requisite self examination, rethinking and reorganization.

"Crashes"--properly considered--universally/ultimately symptomize critical need of change in modus operandi. FTW has also, during the course of doing its good works, been ignoring reasonable speed limits, vehicle work-load capacities and fundamental road design. As Satish Gumar puts it, "slow down, take a nap."

All the crap our human condition is presently caught up in germinated its seeds right along with everything else at 'The Beginning', and only when we get on track to understanding the process our entire human condition is an integral component of will we be able to get beyond where we're at for the moment. And those who might view the above statements as being too oblique, too cosmic, too wierd or too whatever-else to be useful will one day finally experience terminal collision with reality. Guaranteed.

Psychological preparedness is paramount; and that only can come about through being sufficiently informed on what is taking place beyond the implications of such impending realities as peak oil, no fish in the oceans, general global-wide human starvation etc.

Mike and FTW are in the ditch right now exclusively because of trying to operate beyond a prerequisite consciousness paradigm; which merely exemplifies the common behavioral pathology that generally drives all self-destructive human behavior.

So we do ourselves well as both individuals and a species to slow down until we can begin recognizing the role we furnish within the Universal Context which defines and IS the Source of our existence in the first place.

Genuine intelligence communicates
readily, enthusiastically, openly and productively wherever it exists; and those of us who fail to benfit from the self-evincing fact that Self-preserving intelligence is fundamental to the very Source of human consciousness will do well to slow down and take a nap until they wake up.

There's very little future left for merely partly conscious human beings running around trying to manage the world.

Cheers to us all!

mrs p said...

Hello all. Yes it would be hopeful and bring much happiness to hear some good news about M. R. recovering! I sincerely hope he is on the mend & feeling better. I wish he could just come back, settle down somewhere & just live. I think he'd be better off with friends than not. There must be someone out there who can help him. I feel like all of us could should do something. There must be somebody who knows people that can help Mike. Sounds a little naive but maybe someone like Robert Redford (who owns heaps of land), would help. Come home Mike, (where ever that is), and rest. You've done enough work.

mrs p said...

Earthaven - great article. There are many "earthavens" happening. I heard about some in CO too. It's like a dress rehearsal for the coming storm. Many more in (America) will begin to "think about energy" when we start having blackouts on a regular basis. Someday all the toys will be "wind up" again.

Rice Farmer said...

'Locavores' Dine on Regional Chow

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,72148-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

Eating within your 100-mile radius is not as easy as you might think.

Pandabonium said...

U.S. immigration officers to be stationed at Narita airport

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/391205

How "convenient" - they've moved the US border across the Pacific Ocean.

Rice Farmer said...

Pandabonium -- Although this is a new development, I think the border was moved in 1945, when the US empire absorbed the Japanese empire. I'm not an Ishihara fan, but I do agree that Japan has got to learn to say "no" to the US.

biomolcell said...

Hello Mike Rupert and FTW-Team,

I've read about Mike's illness and I think that this is very alarming. The symptoms you described on the blog are that of a Vitamin D poisoning OR if skin lesions are observed: HTLV-I-Induced Adult T Cell Leukemia.
Please reply here, maybe i can help you with information. I am a biologist, btw...

Rice Farmer said...

"China’s African Adventure" (Oil)
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt624.html

"China woos India and Pakistan with nuclear know-how"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p01s02-woap.html

Rice Farmer said...

"As Fuel Prices Soar, A Country Unravels"

http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=finance&MsgID=569672

Rice Farmer said...

"The Biggest Political Power Shift was in Beijing"

http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/3692/8/

In Africa, China pulls the mat out from under America's feet.

gaelicgirl said...

No Shelter: Check out the Falls Church Press online. It has regular articles on Peak Oil and associated geopolitics by Tom Whipple. These are very good, timely articles that used to be published regularly by FTW.
Rice Farmer: thanks for posting regular links. I just read the article on power shortages in Guinea, which was very interesting, and something I would not have run across without your link.

Rice Farmer said...

"The Peak Oil Crisis: Picking the Peak"
http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=522&Itemid=33
Tom Whipple's latest.

"Peak Oil: Even If The Optimists Are Right, Time Is Getting Tight"
http://www.dobmagazine.nickles.com/columns/pulse.asp?article=magazine%2Fcolumns%2F061120%2FMAG_COL2006_NK0000.html
Warns of too much optimism in any case.

"Peak Oil Passnotes: Where Is the Money?"
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=26488
Interesting comment from a market perspective.

"Kunstler on the CERA report"
http://www.energybulletin.net/22633.html
See also The Oil Drum's analysis of the CERA report:
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/11/15/83857/186

The glowing terms in which oil cornucopians speak of "unconventional" sources make you doubt they have ever heard of the EROEI concept.

debtslave said...

I have a question. What do you make of Greg Palast's assertion that Peak Oil is an invention of the oil companies to keep the price of oil artificially high?
He claims that Venezuela has ample supplies of a heavy form of crude that could be brought to market for $50 a barrel. Is there anything to this?

Jenna Orkin said...

hi debtslave

heinberg politely demolished palast's argument recently. could someone provide that link plz? thanks...

laozilover said...

Jenna, I think you were looking for this:

http://energybulletin.net/17914.html

Jenna Orkin said...

il hamdul'illah, laozilover and many thanks

Rice Farmer said...

It's nice to have people like Heinberg on the team.

In my debates with people about peak oil, I continually run up against the gross misconception that peak oil means oil is going to "run out." Since about half the oil endowment is left in the ground, they see no problem. Fortunately, I've also found that most people begin to understand the magnitude of this looming crisis after a few minutes of explanation, which shows that people like us can help make a difference.

Pandabonium said...

Rice Farmer - We are on the same page, however, I think it is significant when the covert fact (American control of Japan) becomes overt (placement of immigration officers in Narita airport). It is the Empire tipping its hand.