An important perspective hits the blogosphere

Pentagon (Photo credit: gregwest98)A guy who has done seriously high-level work in military procurement world reaches some conclusions that might surprise you, given his background in the Red States and in the Mil-Ind Complex (MIC). Let's show some traffic love to a new and different voice in the blogosphere.

Hit that link, and check it out: http://timetothinkaboutit.com/

A unique story about a unique Oregonian

GeerCrest Farm

Presents...

Vesper Comes to Portland!

Sunday, July 29th at 7pm. Clinton Street Theater
Come join us for the Portland Premiere of Michael Turner's Epic Film on the Life of our Fourth Generation Farm Owner- and learn about the spark that created GeerCrest.
We are so excited to share Vesper's life with our community in Portland. The film is 90 minutes and suitable for all family members. $5 entry goes towards film showing and production costs. Read about the film and see a trailer here.

Vesper Comes to Bend!

Tuesday, July 31st at 6pm. Old St. Francis School
(McMenamin's History Pub)
Join us on the other side of the mountain as we travel to Bend to spread the word about Vesper. Call the farm if you are here in the valley and want to carpool to the show! For those of you in the area, we can't wait to join you for a special Vesper evening!

Vesper at the Coast!

Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 7pm.
Cannon Beach History Center
In the fall, we bring Vesper to all our friends at the coast, and all who want to catch the film again - you will want to see this movie more than once, trust us. Join us at this amazing history museum complete with the original Cannon Beach Cannon- sure to be an amazing evening of Oregon History.

Vesper at home- hers and yours!

Saturday, July 28th at 7pm. St. Edwards Church, Silverton
St. Edwards was Vesper's Church and the community wants to share her legacy with all who wish to enjoy the film in Vesper's hometown. Come down for the evening to see the film and share an evening with our farmers.

Any time you wish.... dvd of film available for purchase at the farm and at every screening, $10 each

Be There! Loucks Auditorium, Tuesday July 17, 6:30 pm

Photovoltaic system (Photo credit: Wikipedia)With the compressive economic contraction accelerating and financial prospects very uncertain from here out, NOW is the time to jump if you have good solar potential (unobstructed southern exposure is best) on your property.

Solar is a very smart investment here on the 45th parallel, and the competing options for your investment funds are looking pretty scary these days indeed. Sure, solar isn't a get-rich-quick scheme -- after all, it may take 7-10 years to get your money back. But that's an extremely safe, sure 10% - 7% return on investment that also does good for your community and planet at the same time. There are few if any such great investment options available to average folks these days.

If you haven't explored solar for your property yet, make time to go hear Rob talk tomorrow at Loucks Auditorium, next to the Salem Public Library on Liberty St.

Solarize Salem and Solarize Mid-Valley

Time to capture free energy from the sun during the third year of Solarize Salem. And this year it will be even more pocketbook-friendly because we’re bringing you the lowest install price in the country, again. You can join the sixty homeowners that have installed more than 186 kW of solar pv over the past two years, now for the low price of $4.15 per watt installed. Unable to buy? Learn about the 20-year SunRun lease program that requires a one-time payment that you can take as a tax credit.

Our first workshop occurs 6:30, Tuesday, July 17 at Loucks Auditorium, where we’ll hear about the benefits renewable energy and solar water heating from Energy Trust’s Rob DelMar. You’ll also have a chance to meet our contractors form Benton Electric and Sunlight Solar, who will be offering their services in our expanded service area that includes Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Benton and Linn counties.

"Seeding Studies" -- more evidence that Big Pharma is a criminal enterprise

Imagine an industry with the morals of a sub-prime mortgage broker, the self-righteousness of Ted Haggard, the quiet good taste and class of Lady Gaga, and the restraint of Rush Limbaugh.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the American pharmaceutical industry.

Matt Damon rocks

Matt Damon:

I was raised by a teacher. My mother is a professor of early childhood education. And from the time I went to kindergarten through my senior year in high school, I went to public schools. I wouldn't trade that education and experience for anything.

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself -- my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity -- all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I've just mentioned -- none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success -- none of these qualities that make me who I am . . . can be tested.
My teachers were empowered to teach me. Their time wasn't taken up with a bunch of test prep -- this silly drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn't promote real learning.  No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

I shudder to think that these tests are being used today to control where funding goes. I don't know where I would be today if my teachers' job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test. If their very survival as teachers was based on whether I actually fell in love with the process of learning but rather if I could fill in the right bubble on a test. If they had to spend most of their time desperately drilling us and less time encouraging creativity and original ideas; less time knowing who we were, seeing our strengths and helping us realize our talents.

I honestly don't know where I'd be today if that was the type of education I had. I sure as hell wouldn't be here. I do know that.

This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can't imagine how demoralized you must feel. As I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I'm not alone. There are millions of people just like me.

So the next time you're feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called "overpaid;" the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that's been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything. ... Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

Imagine helping people struggling with addiction instead of destroying them

The only thing accomplished by criminalizing drug addiction is ensuring that people like this won't seek help.

Memorial

h/t Sam Smith

FACT: Republicans are the Borrow and Spend Party

That people think of Republicans as "conservative" or "fiscally responsible" is stark evidence of the abject failure of newspapers and the electronic media to do their jobs.

Schools vs. Education

I'm very interested in alternatives to traditional schooling such as this.   The one bright spot on the horizon as our economy continues to contract is that we will, sooner or later, be forced to admit that we cannot maintain anything at all like our current schools system.

Why am I so eager to see the end of schools?  It's not because I'm eager to dis-employ teachers, but because the factory school model is such an abysmal failure.


My most profound meta-memory -- as someone who was always at the top of any class taught on the standard regurgitation-of-instructor-presented-content model, which was all my schooling (K-12, plus 4 years undergraduate, 3 year MS degree, 3 year law degree) -- was that this form of school is a criminal waste of time in that it mainly exists to teach a secret curriculum of conformity and obedience in the guise of educating young people about "subjects," which are nothing but arbitrary categories imposed on knowledge for the convenience of pedagogues.


I once struggled to explain this problem to someone on a beautiful spring day in Oregon, which meant that there were at least three different weather systems visible in various parts of the sky, producing a lovely variety of different clouds in view.  So I talked about how schools "teach" about clouds.

I said that what I remember of my "education" is that I would have been "taught" the proper scientific names of those clouds, and shown a picture of each one, and at some point been tested on my ability to match those cloud names to photos.  And I would have been terrific at it.  And completely ignorant.


That is, at no point would we have gone outside to look at clouds.  At no point would there have been any discussion of what sorts of clouds one might expect to see during different times of the year, how they form, how they move, or whether they're the same all over, or whether different places have different kinds of clouds.  We would never have made observations of clouds, or built histograms of clouds, or been encouraged to come up with better names that we could remember.  We would never have been invited to think up some questions about clouds or, heaven forbid, develop ways to investigate our questions. For sure we would never have been asked to wonder how clouds affected us.  Or whether they were a daytime thing, or if they were present at night (and how could we find out?)

Nope.  The only thing that would matter, the hallmark of learning, was being able to match the damn latin names with the standard textbook photos.  In nearly every subject, year after pointless year, my "education" consisted of being taught an empty vocabulary completely devoid of actual content.  Because my brain happens to be really good at thinking symbolically and in catching and manipulating words, I'm an educational superstar, always with a great GPA.  And knowing just about nothing useful from all that time wasted "getting an education."  Meanwhile, people much smarter than I, people whose minds insisted on having tangible content to match with the words, were labeled as "slow" or even "learning disabled" because they hadn't figured out that understanding didn't matter, school is just a word game.


This is why the move towards even greater standardized testing is so profoundly evil.   Ramping up the emphasis on standardization and competition (rankings/grading) in schools is only aggravating the worst of what makes our schools so dismal now. ADDENDUM: as so often happens, the cartoonist says in a few frames what I bury in a cloud of words: http://xkcd.com/803/. Most of my teachers oscillated between the lower two responses. And that was well before standardized tests ruled the earth.

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