The Pokey Finger of God

Farewell, My Subaru is Doug Fine’s autobiographical account of his attempt to move “off the grid” to 40+ acres in New Mexico. [Book. Descriptive article.] His adventure began from a desire to “use a lot less oil”, utilize more renewable energy, and to eat more locally.
And not die. He felt pretty certain that significant error [...]

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I’ve been reading another Michael Pollan interview. He’s the guy with the radical, seven-word nutritional theory:
Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.
Naturally, anything this simple must be accompanied by a book which explains what food is, how to attain a leafy-plant based diet, and how to learn self-control at the plate. Pollan also make an [...]

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It is an imperative of Life that we each must search for more of what we have, only better. It’s no accident that hominids, like most herding species, were originally nomadic. They were always searching over the next hill, beyond the next valley, for the greener pastures and fatter sheep. The advent of semi-agricultural habits [...]

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Just to note, that as it is practiced in America, philanthropy is not a gift economy.
In America –
1. Funding is only provided in context of achieving some goal
2. Funding is distributed based on needs assessments
3. Funding must be spent within a time frame long enough to diminish the value of the funding over that time [...]

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Principles of Gift Economy
1. Gifts are given without anticipation of reward
2. Gifts are given without assessment of need
3. Gifts must not be kept / Gifts must be perishable
4. Gifts must not be sold
5. Those who do not give gifts are shunned from the community
6. The gift not yet repaid debases the receiver
7. The gift circle [...]

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When I was very young and I was learning about government for the first time, my initial judgment was that our government was carefully contrived to make it as difficult as possible for one person or group to hold power for very long, while simultaneously preventing anything from ever getting done. I recall also making [...]

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