Nate Hagens: The End of Growth Nate Hagens: The End of Growth length: 50:49 credit: ontheearthproduction Energy Hub, WUD Society and Politics Committee, and Madison Peak Oil Group host energy/finance expert Nate Hagens for a presentation that weaves together economics, anthropology, psychology, finance, trade, energy and human behavior into a coherent story about our human social system. In a visual synthesis using pictures and paintings instead of charts and graphs, Nate uses biophysical first principles to explain how our human economy really works, and how we achieved enormous success over the past two hundred years. But the underlying drivers of our economic juggernaut; cheap energy and resources, and an unconstrained natural environment, and increasingly, credit and debt, are unlikely to be available to continue a growth trajectory. Nate contrasts our growing realities with the standard assumptions in economic theory that underpin our social systems.
SWIFT Code & BIC Code for all Banks in the World Nowtopia: A new politics of work Nowtopia is a book about a new politics of work. It profiles tinkerers, inventors, and improvisational spirits who bring an artistic approach to important tasks that are ignored or undervalued by market society. Rooted in practices that have been emerging over the past few decades, Nowtopia’s exploration of work locates an important thread of self-emancipatory class politics beyond the traditional arena of wage-labor. Outlaw bicycling, urban permaculture, biofuels, free software, even the Burning Man festival, are windows into a scarcely visible social transformation that challenges politics as we know it. As capitalism continues its inexorable push to corral every square inch of the globe into its logic of money and markets, new practices are emerging that are redefining politics. Nowtopia uncovers resistance and rebellion amidst fractions of a slowly recomposing working class in America. How topia...
Central Banks/Federal Reserve Blog: The power of effective activism The power of persuasion for making a difference is often underappreciated. If you can convince just one other person to care about a cause as much as you, then you’ve easily doubled your impact. But peoples’ efforts at influencing others often aren’t as efficient as they could be. Triple your impact in an hour Joe Espinosa Over the past 10 years, Joe Espinosa has likely convinced somewhere between 4,000 and 13,000 people to turn vegetarian. What voodoo magic does Joe use to have such an enormous impact? Going out and talking to people you don’t know about your cause might seem intimidating, and it might take some time to work out how best to do it. The hardest part is getting over the initial awkwardness of approaching strangers with a cause you care about. How to be an effective advocate Jon Camp leafleting with Vegan Outreach booklets at Slippery Rock, U in PA 1) Choose your target audience carefully 2) Appearances matter 3) Be friendly 4) Position yourself carefully 5) Hone your message
Propaganda 2.0 and the rise of 'narrative networks' DARPA, the Pentagon's advanced concepts think-tank, is looking to take propaganda to the next level and they're hoping to do so by controlling the very way their targets perceive and interpret the flow of incoming information. The Pentagon believes that by engaging in 'narrative control' they can alter an individual's grasp on reality and the way in which they evaluate current events. Simply put, DARPA is looking to shape minds with stories. Now, this isn't an entirely new concept. It's been said that history books are written by the victors. The United States has been engaging in narrative control for quite some time now. Now I'm not suggesting that this isn't a valid interpretation of events. But now DARPA wants to take this further and make it more scientific and systematic. This is pretty heavy stuff. Lim describes how the project will unfold: When it comes to security, little consideration is given to ethics. That said, the efficacy of narrative networks has yet to be determined.
dropping knowledge :: Table of Free Voices 8 Books For a Higher Existence Books are magical inventions. By carrying meaning, they gives us glimpses of experience and knowledge from a different world. Phonetic language, being cut-off from time and place, the Now, helps both to encapsulate the ego more, but also to offer guidance to make it poriferous, letting Eros free. Without books we would lose this guidance. And in these times of dire ecological and cultural crisis, we need new ways to respond to the ecosystem that we simultaneous are and are imbedded in. If you’re done reading this list and want to level up more – check out part two! Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche’s most prophetic book in which he offers his teachings through the words of Zarathustra, based on the Persian prophet Zoroaster, who, after spending ten years on a mountain in meditation only accompanied by his Eagle and Serpent, comes down to offer his wisdom to the world. Becoming Animal – David Abram The Story of B – Daniel Quinn
11 ways you are thoroughly (but interestingly) wrong The folks at Your Logical Fallacy Is have compiled a list of 24 common ways that you and I are often mistaken in the way we think. I have to say that looking through their site is perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had being told how wrong I am. And not just wrong in a certain instance, but consistently and fundamentally flawed in the very way I think. Fun, right? I thought so. Included at the site is a free, very high-res poster for those of you who may have a reason to hang these as a reminder on the wall. (via MetaFilter)