[gg3]

Welcome aboard dude, and I agree with Gideon, "not good with my hands" is Koala Poo. Don't let anyone talk you out of doing everything you can to develop your abilities. If you're interested in swordsmanship that's another good place to start, and a potentially useful defense skill that can be taught to others.

Re. how could someone develop an economic system that rewards short-term thinking:

It's all about money. What we have is a system in which a key element (money) is an an abstract quantity. And, the cost or value of that abstract quantity can increase exponentially over time (compound interest, return on equity, etc.). And last but not least, the increase in the value of that abstract quantity can proceed in a vacuum, regardless of all other circumstances in the physical world.

For example, the value of a farm loan to a banker can be plotted on a graph: this is a pure abstraction. But the actual output of the farm, with which to pay off the loan, is not an abstraction, it is a concrete empirical situation governed by a range of factors. Some of those factors are under control of the farmer, but some of the most important ones such as rainfall and temperature, are not.

If the value of the abstract was tied to the value of the concrete, then in a year when the farm lost productivity due to weather, the payment of the loan would be lessened accordingly. In fact this is what happens with profit on equity, i.e. an investor who owns a share in the farm will see a decreased profit (dividends or other types of return on equity) in bad years, increased profits in good years.

However, if the abstraction is not tied to the physical reality, then it will require its own terms to be fulfilled regardless: if the farmer can't pay back the loan in a bad year, the farm gets foreclosed and sold off to a developer to build sprawl on the land.

The fact that money is an abstraction allows it to be completely "liquid," i.e. to move in and out of investments as quickly as an investor's decision can be relayed to the market (the speed of electrons over a telephone or internet connection). Thus if an investor can earn more on investment B than on investment A, s/he will call up the broker and sell shares in B and buy shares in A. Meanwhile, B suffers the loss of working capital and may as a result go out of business.

As long as there is "somewhere else" that money can go to earn a higher profit, there will be an incentive for it to go there, thus there will be pressure upon the real-world factors of production such as labor, machinery, land, and natural resources. In some cases productivity can be improved through increasing the information content of an asset, i.e. improved technology, a more educated workforce, a better understanding of land and resources. However the other route to increase profit is to simply use up and burn through one's assets quickly. The latter route is purely short-term, but since the market systems allow for short-term participation ("speculation" i.e. buying and selling rapidly), this kind of short-term thinking is highly rewarded.

Once you understand these points, everything else falls into place. Except your blackberries of course, but for them you may need more goats:-)

[Felicia]

Taking over my sister's membership...

...she is in Iraq.

Nice to join the discussion!

[Aaron]

Welcome!

[pcervieri]

i can't figure out how to contact anyone on this site. can you put me in touch with garden girl? peter@scribemedia.org

thanks,
peter

[skyemoor]

See the button at the bottom of this message that says "PM"? Go to one of GardenGirl's messages, and click on that PM button. Then write your message to her and hit SUBMIT.

[Madpaddy]

Sorry,

Can't help you. My wife has banned me from looking at or talking about Garden Girl.

Here is my wife now......

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') am quite able to type/talk for myself and have hogged the keyboard for all of the 60 seconds I will be allowed so here goes - I will type fast ....
"Garden Girl" appears to be the pretty girl among the typical class of engineers or computer geeks. Its seems to be almost too obvious that she is a "plant" and couldn't give a hoot about plants or fish or whatever she is going on about in the clips of the show I have seen. All that jumps out (literally) are boobs in the water pond and fitness exercise in the slinky suit. Ah for Gods sake lads ..... aren't ye better than that!

[americandream]

Is this obsession symptomatic of Peak Garden Girl?

[zoidberg]

I have to admit I only clicked the link because of the cleavage. And I did like boob shots. And I did watch the video a couple times because of it.

Nonetheless I do like her industrious efforts to build and show how to make sustainable and small scale permaculture. If she uses her, um, natural assets to help sell her show then more power to her. As long as she has the good info with it.

Since some people who might be concerned with growing all their own food tend to be doomers and loners, its nice to have attractive personable people doing it to. Makes it more acceptable to more people.

[Pixie]

www.gardengirltv.com

[topcat]

Ms. Madpaddy said:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')ts seems to be almost too obvious that she is a "plant" and.......

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', 'S')orry,

Can't help you. My wife has banned me from looking at or talking about Garden Girl.

Here is my wife now......

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') am quite able to type/talk for myself and have hogged the keyboard for all of the 60 seconds I will be allowed so here goes - I will type fast ....
"Garden Girl" appears to be the pretty girl among the typical class of engineers or computer geeks. Its seems to be almost too obvious that she is a "plant" and couldn't give a hoot about plants or fish or whatever she is going on about in the clips of the show I have seen. All that jumps out (literally) are boobs in the water pond and fitness exercise in the slinky suit. Ah for Gods sake lads ..... aren't ye better than that!

[NEOPO]

[Paranoid_Android]

I've been lurking around these forums for almost a year now, and I figured it was time I joined the community.

For the amount of time I've spent going through the various forums I feel like I have a good grasp on peak oil. I've accepted PO as an inevitability.

I guess the main reason why I'm finally posting is that I feel utterly helpless. Helpless in the sense that anyone I try to talk to about PO in real life blows me off as crazy (even my parents have done this to an extent). I'm not being doomerish about it either! I just try to say that global oil production won't be able to keep up with global demands and there will be shortages, which could cause problems (but I don't go much further than that).

I also feel helpless in that I have no freaking idea as to where to start for preperation. I don't think my roommates would appreciate me stockpiling food and water; infact I'd probably get kicked out. I'm thinking about getting a gun for self defense, but when I think about doing that I feel like I'm over reacting (infact I feel like that when I think about preparing, but in the back of my mind I know it could all be for the best).

Like I said, I've been reading the forums for a while. I feel like I've learned some. But I still feel overwhelmed (as if PO, or any other economic catastrophy, is just around the corner ready to throw us back to the 1910s-1920s), and that it might be a little too late to prepare effectively.

That's me, and I'm sorry if you guys are tired of these silly posts, but if anyone can help I know I'll find them here.

[WisJim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gideon', '
') And don't try to convince your parents. Most people who were born in raised in the Golden Cornucopia of the 50-00 range do not want to accept any thought that the party may be ending.

[Timetrvlr]

Hi! I'm an old guy from the central interior of B.C. I belong to a number of message boards and post quite a lot on Renewable Energy and Environmental topics and join in on political discussions.

I'd like to have a signature line and an avatar that is stored on my computer but I don't seem to have much luck in doing it. I'll try again later.

I found this site by typing in my interest and "message board" in my Google tool bar. This was the second site listed. The first site was dead.

[ck27]

I decided to post on this site. I have read through the topics for a long time. I hope to become active on these forums.

Basically about me if anyone cares. I am 19 years old and live in minnesota. I have known about the end of cheap energy for the last 4 years. Right before the gas hikes.

[threadbear]

Welcome ck27. You figured this out 4 years ago? Wow, you were only 15. Not bad at all. It won't hit most people until they are actually driving their vehicles, Fred Flintstone style, legs a'scrambling.

How is Minnesota these days? Are the natives restless? How many think Paul Wellstone was whacked. (I do. I have family in Minnesota,btw)

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ck27', 'I') decided to post on this site. I have read through the topics for a long time. I hope to become active on these forums.

Basically about me if anyone cares. I am 19 years old and live in minnesota. I have known about the end of cheap energy for the last 4 years. Right before the gas hikes.

[RonMN]

Welcome! Always good to see another Minnesotan onboard.

[pedalling_faster]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'W')elcome ck27. You figured this out 4 years ago? Wow, you were only 15. Not bad at all. It won't hit most people until they are actually driving their vehicles, Fred Flintstone style, legs a'scrambling.

How is Minnesota these days? Are the natives restless? How many think Paul Wellstone was whacked. (I do. I have family in Minnesota,btw)