Bytesmiths’s Recent Comments

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  Dirty F*cking Hippy here

  What are these "gas prices" you people are complaining about? Is that something like the voluntary contributions I ask for the excess biodiesel I make from local waste vegetable oil? I have noticed people are giving me more money lately -- I just thought it was because they were supporting a local energy producer, but it seems these "gas prices" may have something to do with it.

  (Sorry, couldn't resist. Gloating is one of my weaknesses... :-)

  I guess I just don't understand what all the fuss is about.

  Yea, I would have preferred ESCAPE was different in some ways. But I'm glad Greg and Dara made it. Our portrayal in the film was not quite accurate, but much closer to the truth than David's review is. (By the way, Veggie Van Gogh is NOT an RV, and is highly insulted. :-)

  The American Left is notorious for eating its young. The reason the US has had increasingly fascist governments since 1980 is because people like David Roberts finds it easier to criticize the twig in ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA's eye than the log in the eye of the status quo.

  Must everything be targeted to the least common denominator? "Average Joes" don't change the world; Geoffrey Moore calls these people "mice" and "laggards".

  I'm proud to be criticized for not being an "average joe." Normal people don't chance things. Normal people don't change things. Normal people do as their told -- they live in Kuenstler's "concensus trance," having had, as Chomsky defines it, their "consent engineered."

  Forget the "average joe." A basic tenant of social marketing (which is what ESCAPE is) is that you don't waste time on the unconvertable. Instead, you do "preach to the choir," knowing some of them will intensify their involvement and become choir directors.

  I'm honoured if my portrayal in the film causes anyone to question their life. I'll bet if it does, it won't be someone whose greatest excitement is their team in the superbowl or winning $50 in the lottery or splurging by going to Olive Garden instead of McDonalds.

  :::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality. ::::

  On New peak oil documentary fluffs the faithful posted 1 year, 6 months ago 29 Responses

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  Did geobeck read the same thing that I wrote?

  "Jan Steinman: I don't know what EcoReality is, but you should probably take a couple of courses before spewing such, well, sewage about wastewater treatment."

  Well, isn't it pleasant to begin a lecture with a personal attack! That's sure to win people over to your side. I've taken plenty of courses, thank you.

  "If you released untreated domestic sewage into a waterway..."

  In typical ad-hom style, you're "already listening" to something I never said. Go read it again, please.

  "So if you want to throw the guilt somewhere, don't attack municipal wastewater treatment plants..."

  Boy, you sure read a different article than the one I wrote!

  I'm not at all "attacking municipal wastewater treatment plants." I'm attacking a way of life in which "waste" is "sent away" to be dealt with "elsewhere." If you choose to feel "guilty" about that -- well, if the shoe fits, wear it! :-)

  I can understand that having a degree in ecology might seem threatening to a waste engineer. Good! Because in the "couple [dozen] courses" I've taken, I learned that there is no waste in nature. We fail to follow that lead to our own peril.

  But no matter. When the natural gas and the phosphate mines run out, we'll have no choice, and will be forced to "close the loop" -- or starve.On Umbra on peeing in the shower posted 1 year, 6 months ago 18 Responses

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  Bundling Rocks!

  "... and bundle shopping, shipping, and driving with others when possible."

  YAY, UMBRA! That should have gone right after "reduce" in the lead!

  We defer and combine almost all of our in-person shopping.

  I used to do that with on-line shopping, as well, but I no longer trust them to "do the right thing."

  I maintained a list of books I wanted next to the computer. When it got up to an amount I was willing to spend at once, I placed an order with Amazon, basking in the glow of knowing all those books would make one unified trip through the system.

  Imagine my horror and revulsion when each of the dozen books arrived as individual shipments! So now I still maintain such a list, but I wait until I have at least several other reasons to go to Portland, Oregon, and then I satisfy my "book jones" with a trip to the wonderful, local, brick-n-mortar Powel's Bookstore.

  (BTW: Powell's is a big "drop shipper" for Amazon. So cut out the middleman when buying used or out-of-print books and go right to the Powell's website.)On Umbra on online shopping posted 2 years, 6 months ago 22 Responses

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  BT?

  To those who don't think GMO may have anything to do with CCD, what about bacillus thuringiensis genes?

  BT is a potent bacterial natural insect control, and Monsanto has spliced the appropriate genes into various monoculture crops so that corn and soybeans now produce the BT toxin. BT chimeras have spread into the wild, with one rather bizarre result that Monsanto sued a farmer for "passively" using their creation, merely because wind-blown pollen had caused his seed to have the BT toxin gene.

  How do honeybees react to BT toxins? And if they don't fare well, how can anyone possibly claim that GMO can have nothing to do with CCD?

  :::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality. ::::

  On So far, small-scale, local-minded beekeepers have dodged hive collapse. posted 2 years, 6 months ago 19 Responses

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  Pee on a Tree!

  The entire concept of modern human waste management is broken!

  First, raise plants that take nutrients out of the ground. Then, eat those plants, utilizing some, but not even most, of those nutrients. Then, flush the remaining nutrients down your toilet OR your shower -- end result is the same for 99.9% of people in industrial countries. Now mix up that nutritious soup with heavy metals, old paint, solvents, caustic soda -- anything else people put in their drains. Now send it to a sewage "treatment" plant, where it is "treated" so it will not sustain life any longer, because it is then dumped in a waterway, and the nutritious cocktail would cause tremendous algae growth otherwise. Now replace the nutrients that were taken out the earth by food plants, with fertilizers made from natural gas.

  What's wrong with this picture?

  We must close the cycle! So the real answer, as far as I'm concerned, is none of the above!

  If you're of a sex with external plumbing, "fertigate" directly on your nearest tree. If you are in a city or suburb, this may be frowned upon, but so are a number of essential earth-saving techniques.

  If you lack convenient plumbing or are a bit too modest, it's very simple to collect it in small jars -- 500ml should do for most of us -- and later distribute it to your favorite needy plant or garden.

  I won't get into what to do with #2 right now, but do read the Jenkins book to learn how simple it can be.

  So toilet, shower, hot water, cold water, whatever -- they're all similar in the final analysis, because they all depend on a system that is fundamentally flawed in concept.

  There's no doubt whatsoever that our current human "waste" (resource, actually) management is totally unsustainable. But western civilization is built around the current scheme, and it won't be easy to change. Peeing in a jar is a good first step!On Umbra on peeing in the shower posted 2 years, 7 months ago 18 Responses