Thursday, June 07, 2007

Cheney Lied About Bush Spy Program
Iran to Release Detained Finns
The Persian Gulf must offer some amazing fishing waters to attract fishermen from as far away as Finland. Maybe that's why that former FBI agent who disappeared went to Iran to make his documentary. / J.O.
Well Connected Drug Company Obtained Contracts for Anthrax Vaccine Despite Side Effects
Michael Kane's Comment on Above Story

23 comments:

Rice Farmer said...

Another survival tip:

My mother, who grew up on a Wisconsin farm without any modern conveniences, told me how they preserved carrots. Harvest all your remaining carrots when the frosts come, bury them in containers of sand, and store in a cool place. For two years now I have kept carrots in buckets full of sand, and can testify that it works beautifully. I have FRESH carrots all winter long!

Jenna Orkin said...

where did your mother get the sand?

Rice Farmer said...

I don't know where the sand came from (and now it's too late to ask). I got mine from a pile left by the roadside to be used in winter when the road is icy. Of course the same sand can be used over year after year. Anyone should be able to get sand cheaply from a builder who uses concrete.

gaelicgirl said...

Another way to preserve carrots, or most vegetables, fruits, and even some meats, is to lacto-ferment them. This process also makes the better known 'sauerkraut'. It not only preserves the foods, but enhances their nutritional quality. For more info on this and other traditional food preparation and preservation techniques, visit:

www.westonaprice.org

A peon said...

Lacto-ferment?Is that the same as pickling?A friend of mine does that with carrots,peppers,eggs,garlic...etc,and it makes them really spicy.Very good,and good for you.

gaelicgirl said...

A peon: yes, it is a form of pickling, that uses whey (from soured milk) as the basis. Whey gives the pickling process an abundance of lactobacilli (that's what people take in pills as a "probiotic"--but better to get the real thing in your food). Many modern pickling techniques use vinegar as a base, which does not provide the healthful lacto-bacteria. And yes, it does taste wonderful--spicey and tangy and delicious. It was a widely used food preservation method before refrigeration was available.

Rice Farmer said...

Isn't that basically how yogurt is made? I admit I did not know this could be used to preserve foods. Thanks for the tip.

Just drying things out is another way to preserve many foods.

gaelicgirl said...

Yes, yogurt and kefir are also lacto-fermented foods.

gaelicgirl said...

While we're on the topic of traditional food preservation techniques, here's an article that brings the topic even closer to the concerns of this website, and contains much "food for thought". It is not written from a specific peak oil point of view, but contains ideas that are germaine to the topic of the future of our environment, economic sanity, and society. Entitled "The Politics and Economics of Food", by Sally Fallon, a few of the statements herein may be controversial or unfamiliar to peak oilers, but there are many things (probably most)that will resonate strongly as well, I believe. For one, she includes Catherine Austin Fitts in her discussion. Anyway, it may be of interest:

http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/poleconfoods.html

BTW, the author is overly modest in her opening paragraph!

Unknown said...

Consider this: there are only a few rotten apples who try to dehumanize us. All we need to do is get streetwise, all of us. "They" have no need to harm us anymore if we simply stop cooperating with their games and ignore them and create our own society, elect honest leaders and switch off the television. There are 6 billion people who want the best for each other, and only several thousand murderers.

gaelicgirl said...

A fun article to read, and hopefully contaiing a kernal of truth:

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/steve_richards/article2621607.ece

Rice Farmer said...

That's interesting about people giving up cars and flying. As far as the newfound dislike of flying goes, my own interpretation is that it shows demand destruction (one of the true purposes of "airport security") is working.

Pandabonium said...

Excellent interview by George Kenney of the website Electric Politics, who talks with Chalmers Johnson about his latest book "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic". Kenney does a great job and even covers peak oil which not in the book (Johnson explains why).

http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2007/06/the_fallacy_of_full_spectrum_d.html

Rice Farmer said...

Here's something that is being taken very seriously in Japan.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aF6eXjkN_txI&refer=europe
http://www.forbes.com/business/2007/06/04/crab-eel-japan-face-markets-cx_jc_0604autofacescan01.html

Resource nationalism is also claiming food. Many processed foods are already more expensive because they contain corn. Though I'm paying more for gas, my food bill so far is unchanged because I grow a lot myself. So I encourage everyone to start your garden now if you haven't already. You'll be surprised to see how much you can grow on a small plot if you farm it intensively.

Rice Farmer said...

http://rinf.com/alt-news/contributions/mike-ruppert-peak-oil/

A peak oil debunking article which begins with this statement: "I have good reason to suspect the hand of John M. Deutch behind Mike Ruppert’s transition from pioneer of 9/11 Truth to purveyor of Peak Oil mythology."

Jenna Orkin said...

thanks, rice farmer, for that interesting article which reads like a confidentand therefore 'trustworthy' analysis but for its facts. among the more salient clinkers:

1. it was not matt simmons who turned mike on to peak oil in '03 but dale allen pfeiffer a few weeks after 9/11;

2. mike's explanation of 9/11 is intimately connected to peak oil; mr. crane needs to look at 'crossing the rubicon.'

3. the american people are far from clued in on the concept of peak oil; on the contrary, the powers that be have been working overtime to keep that knowledge from them.

Rice Farmer said...

Top scientist says biofuels are scam
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1909827.ece

Exactly what I (and lots of other people) have been saying all along!

Rice Farmer said...

Yes, the RINF article has, shall we say, a few problems with the facts. But then making up new "facts" is a standard tool in the debunker's box of tricks.

Rice Farmer said...

Thanks to Pandabonium for the tip on the Chalmers Johnson interview. The part about peak oil was quite interesting, and I'm glad the interviewer specifically brought it up.

China energy police
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/
Say what you want about the authoritarian Chinese, but energy fascism will spark the creation of energy police all over the world.

Rice Farmer said...

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that it has decided to increase its stockpile of rare metals for high-tech applications. (I would give a link, but I couldn't find any articles on this in English.)

Rice Farmer said...

PROMIS software gets a brief mention in this article on Robert Hanssen.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spying_on_spy_Raw_Story_interviews_0612.html

Anonymous said...

China seems to be revising its nuclear posture and preparing for the possibility of using nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive attack if necessary.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17742

Paul Davis said...

Hi all, is today's Independent (UK) frontpage a watershed moment for peak oil activists?

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2656034.ece

hopefully the penny is beginning to drop and heads will start coming out of the sand, albeit too late.

I wonder if something like an intelligent mainstream hack will realise how long this info has been known for (as Mike has told us in Rubicon) and connect that to all that's happened since 2000.