Klaus Schwab’s Brave New World

This guy is serious. What could possibly go wrong?

Eyes on the road

 

How five elder women are creating an intentional community in an expensive housing market

By Saki Bailey,|June 4, 2019

Five elder women in one of the highest-cost urban areas in the United States are banding together to build the intentional retirement community of their dreams.

San Francisco Bay Area residents Mary McDonald, Barbara Reusch, Alisa Foster, Harriet Tubman Wright, and Ina Clausen  were all concerned about where they would be living in 10 or 20 years, who would be helping to care for them as they aged, and how they could achieve their desire to age in an intentional community — especially given soaring housing costs. Hibiscus Commons, which is slated to be the first elder cooperative created in partnership with the Bay Area Community Land Trust, was born out of their conversations.

“If you are a homeowner, you may have the luxury of aging in your own home, but this isn’t the case for a lot of lower-income elders who have never been homeowners,” said co-founder Mary McDonald. “Even for those lucky enough to stay in their own homes, it can be lonely and isolating to age on your own, and expensive to get in-home care.”

Aging with security and dignity can be difficult or even impossible for some seniors. The fastest-growing segment of the homeless population is people older than 55, and that cohort is likely to keep growing as the U.S. ages. The number of Americans aged 64 or older will nearly double by 2030 from 20 years earlier, to 70 million. In the expensive East Bay, the problem is acute. “Almost half of the Oakland homeless population became homeless after the age of 50,” said Harriet Wright.

Hibiscus Commons, a self-managed elder cooperative and intentional community, addresses all of these things: the isolation that comes with aging, the insecurity of housing and living on a fixed income in an area with one of the highest costs of living in the U.S., and accessing the care needed as one grows older.
Read more…

911-Need we look again?

This video by David Hooper is the best document I have seen about the events that resulted in the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on 9-11-2001.

Methodically raising the obvious questions, presenting numerous testimonies, and examining plausible explanations, this video will keep you riveted as much as the best mystery thrillers, and probably lead you, as it did me, to consider the unthinkable about what really happened on that fateful day.

ANATOMY OF A GREAT DECEPTION (New and Updated Sept 2014).

Protect your privacy online

The August 24 edition of 60 Minutes alerted me to the problem of data mining and the unintended consequences of my activity o the web. I strongly recommend that you watch this segment and take action to protect your privacy.

Some of the tools that are mentioned are:

The search engine, DuckDuckGo

Disconnect privacy products, and,

MaskMe, which allows you to create disposable email addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards. Here’s a review that appears in PC Magazine, By Neil J. Rubenking

Hardly a day goes by without news of another organization suffering a data breach involving thousands or even millions of stolen user data records. If your email information appears in the mix, your antispam utility will probably see a spike in pointless mail. Abine’s free MaskMe service lets you communicate with retailers, discussion groups, and other websites without ever giving them your actual email address, so they can’t lose it in a data breach (or sell it to spammers). As a bonus, it also serves as a simple password manager. More…

Hopefully, we can prevent the internet from becoming a worse wasteland than broadcast TV. –t.h.g.

Affordable Housing: Here’s a great article to help you find it.

An article in Shareable, describes, 11 Affordable Housing Alternatives for City Dwellers.

“After World War II, white, middle-class Americans flocked to the suburbs from the city. Today, that trend is reversing. As post-suburbanites move back into cities, escalating housing costs are forcing low and middle income folks and people of color out to the suburbs. This shift was described by Alan Ehrenhalt in his 2013 book, The Great Inversion. The result is that the diverse communities that make cities resilient creative centers are being displaced or forced to find new, affordable housing options.

“In June, Shareable partnered with the San Francisco Public Press to explore the housing crisis. Through a series of articles and an event dubbed Hack the Housing Crisis we looked at causes of and solutions to the housing crisis. While the event was focused on San Francisco – the most expensive housing market in the United States – cities around the world are facing similar problems or soon will be.

“Through the month of June, we published articles about public housing done right,  new rules for in-law suites in San Francisco, biourbanism, housing auctions in Detroit, a follow-up to Hack the Housing Crisis, and more. Our partners at San Francisco Public Press also ran a number of housing stories online and are issuing a special housing-themed print edition of their paper this month.

“Here, we’ve rounded up 11 affordable housing alternatives for city dwellers because if we want cities to thrive, we need to rethink how we house everybody, not just the rich.”

Read the rest of the story.

Farming with nature

From “fir tree desert” to model permaculture farm.

This is what we’re made of.

The world is facing a multi-dimensional mega-crisis. How will we respond?

Will we fight among ourselves in a Hobbsian war of all against all, or will we pull together, sharing what we have and cooperating to create a better world. This moving story about the boat evacuation of lower Manhattan on 9/11 gives me hope.

Is Comet Elenin the Blue Star Kachina?

I’ve had a longstanding interest in the ancient wisdom writings of various cultures and traditions, and been wondering about the source of the various prophecies that are inherent in many of these, especially those that have global significance.
The most likely explanation I can see is based on the observation that natural phenomena are cyclical. If that is a universal truth, then what will happen in the future is fundamentally a recurrence of what has happened in the past. So at least some of the prophetic writings may actually be tales about what people experienced in the distant past.

Over thousands of years and hundreds of retellings, the stories may have become seriously distorted, making them hard to understand, and differences in the particulars of our civilization from those of the past, makes it difficult for us to relate them to our present circumstances.

The ancients all seem to have had an intense interest in astronomical phenomena, suggesting that we too need to watch the skies and be aware of the approach of any astronomical bodies that could possibly disturb Earths peaceful and mainly benign environment.

Years ago I read Emanuel Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision, and more recently, some of Zecharia Sitchin’s works. These suggest some rather startling explanations of various mysteries reported in the Bible and elsewhere. Now as 2012 approaches, there’s a lot of speculation about the meaning of native American prophecies and attempts to relate them to speculations about comet Elenin, Planet X, Nibiru, Wormwood, etc. Could any of these be the object of the prophecies?  Could cataclysmic Earth events be immanent?

What bears watching is the comet called Elenin which is transiting our solar system right now. Elenin’s closest approach to the Sun will occur on or about September 11, 2011. That’s essentially NOW. As it continues its journey, it will come very close to Earth, closer than the planet Venus. That will occur within a matter of weeks.

Here is some pertinent information that you may want to study. Watch the videos too.–t.h.g.

http://2012planetx.info/

Comet Elenin – Will It Crumble or Explode?

September 5th, 2011 · No Comments

Your Own World Radio with Marshall Masters

Tuesday, September 6, 2011
5 PM PST / 8 PM EST
Chat Room + Call In
YowRadio.com

PANEL: John DiNardo, Richard Shaw and Ed Douglas

On the 3rd of August, the Minor Planet Center posted the latest observation data for Comet Elenin plus this one rather curious footnote. “The recent observations of C/2010 X1 (Elenin) are discordant, presumably due to the lack of any obvious condensation. It is probable that this comet is disintegrating.”

The operative word here is “probable” which is not to be confused with “has.” Nonetheless, previous announcements that Comet Elenin would disintegrate were spun by the media to appear as though it actually had. Consequently, this misleading spin was very effective in deflating public interest.

The serious conversation now taking place, is about whether Elenin will disintegrate. Recent elongation and dimming are physical signs of that possibility. Therefore the real question, which Leonid Elenin constantly addresses these days, is whether or not it will explode.

Lacking clear imagery of the nucleus, Leonid Elenin predicts that Comet Elenin will crumble and not explode – presumably, to quell public concerns. However, prophecy predicts that our worst nightmare could be realized with an explosive disintegration or violent outburst.

In this interview, the panel will address these issues in terms of the science available and the significant amount of prophecy now converging on this comet. Then compare all that with current Earth changes. GO

Comet Elenin Link Page

If Elenin Disintegrates, What Could Come Our Way?

September 1st, 2011 · No Comments

Since the first release of the video, Comet Elenin Forecast for 9/2011 to 1/2012 and the Hopi Blue Star Kachina by Marshall Masters on August 23, 2011, new developments are adding new dimension to this issue. Namely, a flurry of Internet posts and articles inferring Comet Elenin has disintegrated.

However, as of this publication date, no credible evidence has been presented to back these inferences that Comet Elenin has in fact, disintegrated. Rather, what is now being reported, is that Comet Elenin has dimmed and that some astronomers are predicting it will not survive perihelion. Elenin’s closest distance to the Sun which occurs on or about September 11, 2011.

Despite premature debunker spin, that reliable sources are not reporting any observation of an actual disintegration of Comet Elenin. Rather, they report dimming and that Elenin could disintegrate in the near future.

Nonetheless, trickily worded headlines spin the notion that Comet Elenin has in fact disintegrated. Ostensibly, to quash pubic concerns about this comet.

Whether these misleading headlines are based in expedient hubris or malevolence intention makes no difference. Either way, the confusion will stymie the interest of many, at a time when they should be reviewing their own preparation and planning efforts.  GO

More preparedness resoures

A message from Jim Farley in Montana alerted me to Matt Stein’s new book, When Disaster Strikes. Jim is General Manager of SOS General Store and an expert on preparedness and survival. Jim says, “Besides getting off the power grid, we are very gung-ho about getting off the food grid.” In addition, he has a lot so say about alternative building systems and low-cost shelter. One of the systems that he works with is “prefabricated structural polystyrene panels with a wire mesh called Tridipanels.”

I asked my good friend Bill Ford, who happens to be a professional architect from Arizona, what he thought of this building system. Here is what he had to say:

I looked up tridipanel. I have seen it before; basically styrofoam with wire trusses projecting out from each face of the foam core. When you gunite each face with a minimum 1 1/2” of concrete it gets very strong and keeps the hard shell on both sides for durability and a little thermal mass to the interior. Good system. Expensive around here, so never caught on. More common are structurally insulated panels (SIPS) and a myriad of insulated concrete forms (ICFs). There are many ICF systems available. I am not crazy about SIPS because I don’t like the wafer board skins on the SIPS and I have never been crazy about putting all the mass (concrete) on the inside of the ICF. Durosol would be a preference for an ICF, since instead of foam, they use a natural insulating fiber and concrete mix. I also like Rastra which is pricey, but is considered an ICF. Durosol is used more in Canada. For the money, cinder blocks are still appealing and last forever. I try and stay away from frame because termites love it, but it is cheap. Adobe and rammed earth is always a favorite, but even here, it is expensive. Steel is good, but for residential, you have to be careful about expansion and contraction, i.e., creaking and cracking stucco. A lot of people are looking at architectural grade cement board products for exposed exterior skin over steel. Can work pretty good for inexpensive pre-fabs.

As the mega-crisis deepens and uncertainty builds about the system we rely on, it seems prudent to spend some time learning about how to provide for our own food, shelter, and energy needs.