Interesting on the future of religion in the US in the peak oil era

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-05-31/rumbling-distant-thunder

Contest! Prizes! Send in your clever reuse/upcycling ideas by April 2, 2012

So, for the last couple years, I've been bothered by the tremendous resource waste represented by the packaging on dental floss -- a few cents of waxed string delivered in a very highly engineered and complex package made from petrochemicals and (overwhelmingly) discarded after a short period of use.

Reading about the TerraCycle folks made me think again about this, and decide to ask folks if they could come up with a creative reuse or "upcycling" method for using these empty containers for a good purpose. SO if you're a creative type, or just have been around enough to know of a clever reuse or way to repurpose these containers, send me your idea.

If I get any ideas that seem really exciting and plausible, I'll work on getting them tested and implemented. I'll rate the ideas on the following criteria (in a totally subjective way):

• 1) Ease of implementation -- the less work needed to do the repurposing, the better.
  
  
• 2) Size of potential market -- if only a few people in the world would value the repurposed container in its new incarnation, then even if your idea is clever and easy to implement, it's not going to result in getting many of these things out of the landfill.
  
  
• 3) Lack of special tools needed -- this is related to ease of implementation, but not identical. A great idea for a big market would make it sensible for a business to buy or make special tools to accomplish the transformation of the object from waste into a new, valuable thing. But if the tooling would be costly or hard, then that counts against the idea.
  
  
• 4) Repurposed product durability -- the best idea is one that will keep these things out of the waste stream as long as possible, if not indefinitely, while accomplishing a useful goal. If your upcycled use will cause the product to fail quickly, then the idea might still be ok, but it's definitely better if your idea accounts for durability.

Send me your ideas by April 2, 2012 (preferably in a drawing or by arranging for us to meet and you can show it to me). As I say, it's going to be my subjective opinion solely as to the best idea received, but it might turn into a business opportunity for us down the road (or for Garten or some other worthy nonprofit). If I get any great ideas, I'll pick the best and arrange for you and a friend to have two tickets for a show at Salem Cinema, and run through all the ideas on this website on Earth Day. (In other words, if you send me your ideas, they will or may be shared with others -- don't send me anything you want to remain a secret.)

Good luck and creative thinking everyone!

Let's start a yard share program in Salem! (GROWSalem, anyone?)

A dear friend is hobbling about this winter, wondering what she's going to do -- or, more likely, not do --- with her great raised beds this coming year. She's got at least one surgery on tap that will lay her up for some time, and she's struggling a bit with mobility anyway, which the surgery aims to fix. She has terrific beds, with water and good sun, and all the tools. All she needs is a gardener (or would-be gardener willing to be tutored some) to do the legwork for her in return for a share of the proceeds.

We we talking about it, and I suggested she call the Marion-Polk Food Share or Local Harvest about helping her with finding someone who had the gardening itch but no good place to scratch it. But then, later, I realized that both those fine organizations have more than enough to do to put food on others' plates already, and that there was really no reason that LOVESalem couldn't be helping this idea get growing in Salem.

So what do you think? If I put together a GROWSalem website, do you think that can serve as a matchmaking service to connect people with gardens at-risk of going idle (or, even better, with lawns they want to turn into gardens) and people with the need or the urge to grow some food but inadequate locations or access to garden space?

Anyone interested in heading this up? (Eagle Scout project? Capstone high school project? College internship? Self-directed study and opportunity to show potential employers or admissions officers that you're REALLY a self-starter and problem solver. Retirement activity and social mission?)

If you have feedback or ideas for this, drop a comment below, especially if you want to pitch in!

Random thought for reviving Post Office revenues

Image by Jeremy Burgin via FlickrYou know how, whenever you order something, you get reminded that the Post Office won't let UPS and other private package services deliver items sent to PO Boxes?

Now that the revenue plunge at the Post Office is so bad that they're thinking of killing Saturday deliveries, maybe there's an opportunity there . . .

Why doesn't the Post Office simply accept all deliveries from UPS et al. slated for PO Boxes for a 10% surcharge on the shipping? It would end up being fed back to the PO Box customers, who would then find their PO Box address even more valuable (and create a revenue boost for the Post Office).

Wouldn't be huge -- but wouldn't every little bit help?

Post-Peak-Oil Elder Housing Piloted in Another Salem

America's future involves a lot more multi-generational housing and caring for each other, and a lot less of having families dispersed all over the continent flying back and forth for holidays. A lot of states are likely to follow Virginia's lead here, particularly states like Oregon where our population is poorer than average and older than average.

Va. launching portable housing for aging relatives

SALEM, VA. The Rev. Kenneth Dupin, who leads a small Methodist church here, has a vision: As America grows older, its aging adults could avoid a jarring move to the nursing home by living in small, specially equipped, temporary shelters close to relatives.

So he invented the MEDcottage, a portable high-tech dwelling that could be trucked to a family's back yard and used to shelter a loved one in need of special care.

Skeptics, however, have a different name for Dupin's product: the granny pod.

Protective of zoning laws, some local officials warn that Dupin's dwellings -- which have been authorized by Virginia's state government -- will spring up in subdivisions all over the state, creating not-in-my-back-yard tensions with neighbors and perhaps being misused.

Look at how people despise PODS, those ubiquitous big white storage boxes, critics say. Imagine, they add, if you had people living inside.

"Is it a good idea to throw people into a storage container and put them in your back yard?" said Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee). "This is the granny pod. What's next? The college dropout pod?"

Such temporary shelters might work in rural and sparsely developed parts of the state, McKay said, but the impact could be enormous in crowded urban and suburban areas.

"This basically sets up an opportunity to do something legally which, prior to this, had been illegal -- which is to set up a second residence on a single-family property. It turns our zoning ordinance upside down," McKay said.

The idea, Dupin said, came to him after years of leading humanitarian missions to developing countries, and it was encouraged by a growing sense of his own mortality. But he also said it just might make a lot of money, especially since the nation's elderly population is set to double in just 10 years as more and more baby boomers hit retirement age. Surveys by AARP and others also show that large majorities prefer to live in their own homes or with loved ones rather than in retirement communities. . . .

It was just such a story that got Dupin thinking about the MEDcottage. As senior minister at what was then Aldersgate Wesleyan Church in Falls Church, Dupin visited a shut-in named Katie. Her husband had served in the Eisenhower administration, and she liked to show off photographs of them dancing at a White House ball.

On one visit, Dupin found Katie in tears. Her adult children had arranged for her to go into a nursing home. Workmen were busy fixing up her home for sale. When he later visited her at the nursing home, she was miserable.

"When I got there, she was absolutely devastated, and she asked me if I could take her home. That stuck in my head -- the patheticness of it," Dupin said. And it stayed with him as he toured the world studying international business development or conducting humanitarian trips to Haiti and Guatemala.

So Dupin, who studied for the ministry at Southern Wesleyan University, hit on the idea of the remote-care pod.

The MEDcottage would be equipped with the latest technology to monitor vital signs, filter the air for contaminants and communicate with the outside world via high-tech video. Sensors could alert caregivers to an occupant's fall, and a computer could remind the occupant to take medications. Technology could also provide entertainment, offering a selection of music, reading material and movies.

The dwelling would take up about as much room as a large shed and, like an RV, could connect to a single-family house's electrical and water supplies. It could be leased for about $2,000 a month, a cost Dupin hopes will be borne by health insurers.

To build it, Dupin has assembled an unusual team: an eighth-grade Spanish teacher, two college professors, a health-care administrator, a medical school instructor, an architect, a physician and the president of a company that makes modular housing.

The new company, N2Care, has won $100,000 in public grants, although the Blacksburg-based venture is still searching for private investors and has no full-time employees. In any case, N2Care appears to be on its way.

Idea gets boost

Without even building a prototype or hiring lobbyists, Dupin and his team managed to persuade the Virginia General Assembly to pass legislation almost unanimously this year that supersedes local zoning laws in the state and allows families to install such a dwelling on their property with a doctor's order. The first of two prototypes is expected to be rolled out in June. Dupin said the first will be named "Katie," in honor of the woman he met long ago in Northern Virginia.

The enterprise has received backing from the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a collaborative effort between the university and 140 companies to develop commercial technologies. The university is helping with high-tech applications, such as computer technology to create a "virtual companion" -- named Sydney, after Dupin's granddaughter -- who would appear on a screen and remind the occupant to take medications.

"Personally, I believe it really potentially could have a huge impact on revolutionizing health care," said Janis P. Terpenny, a Virginia engineering professor who is working with Dupin.

The Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, whose mission is to create jobs using national tobacco settlement money, gave its blessing to the venture Feb. 16 with a $50,000 dollar-for-dollar grant. The money is to be matched by Charlotte County, where the manufacturing is to be done, with the expectation that the company will build enough models to create jobs in a place where unemployment reached 10.4 percent in February.

But the biggest boost came from the state government. Unable to pay for lobbyists, Dupin and others worked the state Capitol themselves, using templates found online to draft the bill's language. They promised no campaign contributions. Anyway, they said, they could not afford to contribute to political causes. The Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit group that tracks campaign giving and expenditures, affirmed the assertion that no donations were made.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), who sponsored HB 1307, clearing the way for the dwellings, said he thinks the legislation will prove to be one of the most significant measures enacted this year. "The only thing I regret is that I don't have money to invest in the company," Griffith said.

The law defines the MEDcottages as "temporary family healthcare structures" that can be placed only on the properties of single-family homes and occupied only by a relative who is physically or mentally impaired, as certified by a physician. The structures must be less than 300 square feet and conform to local regulations governing sheds or garages. They must be removed within 30 days after the occupant dies, moves or no longer needs to receive care in the dwelling.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), who signed the bill April 14, will travel to Salem for a ceremonial signing. The law takes effect July 1.

What the Democrats in Congress Ought to Do

Image via Wikipedia

The GOP get absurd amounts of support from small business owners, considering how often the GOP ideas are actually just pro-big-corporate and anti-small-business.

But the image of the parties is there and needs fixing. To help with that, here's an idea I just sent to Congressman Kurt Schrader, who is on the Small Business subcommittee.

If the Democrats grab hold of this, they will have a great issue to run on in November, and the GOP will be totally unable to oppose it without looking completely unprincipled (I know, I know, but they don't like to have it made so obvious . . . )

Idea 1

This is a proposal for a small business financing improvement that could be a signature initiative for Democrats and help lots of people here in the jobless "recovery."

1) Allow anyone starting a new small business to tap their 401(k)/IRA/457/403b retirement funds to fund the small business or to serve as security for an SBA loan.

2) Allow the funds to be withdrawn or pledged as security for a small business development loan without tax penalty and with state and federal tax deferred until the business has been established for three years.

3) After three years, either (a) the money is replaced in the fund(s) and no tax consequence occurs; or (b) 20% of the total withdrawn has to be declared as regular income for the next five years.

That's the main idea and I can't see any downside to Democrats here whatsoever -- it's a pro-small business idea, it would help workers left unemployed by job cuts, and it doesn't require any federal outlay.

Idea 2

Allow anyone who is unemployed to make mortgage payments from their retirement accounts without the 10% penalties -- that is, they have to declare the distributions as regular income in the year that it's used, but people shouldn't have to pay a tax penalty for using retirement assets to preserve their ownership of their #1 retirement asset, their home.

Recharge Salem (interest survey)

NiMH batteries have good power characteristics, hold a charge well even when not used for a long time, and can be recharged hundreds of times. Image via Wikipedia

Click Here for a very short survey that is designed to find out if there is interest in Salem for a rechargeable battery service --- that is, a service that would offer to keep you supplied with as many high-quality nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries as you like for less than the cost of disposables.

(NiMH batteries are the kind that hold their charge well and can be reused hundreds of times.)

Here at LOVESalem HQ we've been thinking about how to eliminate the flood of disposable batteries for some time. Only recently have rechargeable batteries become really good alternatives, but many people still think about nickel-cadmium rechargeables, which were not so good. So there's a bias against rechargeables that we have to overcome.

The idea is that, if we can offer people good-quality rechargeables for less than they spend now on throwaways, we can eliminate a big source of toxic waste that we generate.

So take the survey and help design the system!

That's the spirit!

Someone at Salem-News.com has tossed out some ideas for a bottoms-up approach to dealing with Salem's funding shortfalls. He's asking you to send your ideas to him, but you're welcome to put them in the comments here too.