Only Rich Kids Should Go to College (via TIME)
"Suggesting that only the rich (or those who get full-ride scholarships and grants) go to college is about as politically incorrect as you can get... Yet more than a third of young graduates themselves do not agree that their education has paid off, and evidence keeps mounting that student loans are the equivalent of wearing lead sneakers in an economic foot race. At the very least, anyone taking out these loans should understand the full nature of their costs
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Only rich kids should go to college. Discuss.
May 22 -- Free film on an important awakening
http://brighidscircle.wordpress.com
May 22nd, "Rebecca's Wild Farm: A Farm for the Future." Come join us for finger food potluck and discussion.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
What the Chamber of the 1%'s policies produce
Since 1980, the country has taken a sharp and persistent turn for the worse, adopting measure after measure promoted by the wealthiest as "good for jobs" but actually just good for them, and terrible for everyone else.
Here in Salem, the Chamber of the 1% has thrown its weight and money around to great effect, winning excessive and unjustified power and influence over government policies. This year, the Chamber and its alter egos in the Sprawl Lobby (real estate and house building) recognized the threat that a rebellion against foolish spending on sprawl posed to them -- so they recruited four interchangeable candidates, and have pumped obscene amounts of money into their campaigns, which bid fair to succeed in keeping Salem in a terrible mess: declining services for ordinary folks but fat contracts and nice tax gifts for the well-connected.
There's just a few days left to change this sad story, making sure that people know that we can do better, lots better. It's very difficult to do against the power of organized money, but we can do it if we try.
Voters in wards 2, 4, 6, have very good alternatives who could easily pull off the win against Chamber's minions.
Those candidates who deserve all of the support you can offer are
Tom Andersen (2), Scott Bassett (4), and Xue Lor (6).
All three are running against content-free platitude peddlers whose only apparent goal is to ensure that the Chamber doesn't face any serious scrutiny in Council chambers. And Lor is running against a guy with a very checkered past and dubious present, who is trying to conceal it.
(The other non-Chamber clone in Ward 2, Bradd Swank, seems to be a fine person, but the winner take all nature of the November race means that it's important to see an opponent best the Chamber clone candidate in the primary if possible, so that the Chamber House Organ, the unStatesmanlike-Journal can't crown the Chamber clone as the presumptive winner. Doing this is most likely with Andersen. In Ward 8, the lightly experienced Proudfoot offers a decent alternative to filling that seat with another sprawl-booster, but it's hard to see that race turning out well.)
For Mayor, the best option seems to be to leave it blank.
Below is a good short summary of what listening to folks like the Chamber too much has wrought. It's by Nick Kristof of the NY Times, native of Yamhill, Oregon.
Yet today the American dream has derailed, partly because of growing inequality. Or maybe the American dream has just swapped citizenship, for now it is more likely to be found in Canada or Europe — and a central issue in this year's political campaigns should be how to repatriate it.
A report last month in The Times by David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy noted that the American middle class is no longer the richest in the world, with Canada apparently pulling ahead in median after-tax income. Other countries in Europe are poised to overtake us as well.
In fact, the discrepancy is arguably even greater. Canadians receive essentially free health care, while Americans pay for part of their health care costs with after-tax dollars. Meanwhile, the American worker toils, on average, 4.6 percent more hours than a Canadian worker, 21 percent more hours than a French worker and an astonishing 28 percent more hours than a German worker, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Canadians and Europeans also live longer, on average, than Americans do. Their children are less likely to die than ours. American women are twice as likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth as Canadian women. And, while our universities are still the best in the world, children in other industrialized countries, on average, get a better education than ours. Most sobering of all: A recent O.E.C.D. report found that for people aged 16 to 24, Americans ranked last among rich countries in numeracy and technological proficiency. . . .
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Very cool! Wed., May 14: Citizen Science: Let's Do It!
Date Correction: Lecture on Wed., May 14th: Citizen Science: Let's Do It!
May Lecture: Citizen Science: Let's Do It!
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Straub Environmental Lecture Series presents:
Andrew Moldenke of Oregon State
"Citizen Science: Let's Do It!"
**Date Correction**
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
at Louck's Auditorium in the Salem Public Library
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Few people recognize the potential of Citizen Science or the incredible effect it has had on the development of science. However, a growing number of scientists are starting to view it as a useful labor force and a way to generate 'groupies' interested in their particular questions. And, for an ever-increasing number of volunteers, it is a way to glimpse the world through a scientist's eyes, travel to some far off place and slave in the mud.
The potential also does exist for scientific volunteerism back at home. US society now is characterized by a well-educated, largely retired, middle class that is looking for ways to become societally relevant and 'green'. Most volunteer ecological projects (i.e., weed pulling) do not address any sort of scientific question and often all the hard effort is wrong-headed. My colleagues and I have proposed scientifically-based volunteer projects designed both to quantify and answer relevant management questions and to teach volunteers about science while doing hands-on research in their own neighborhoods.
Citizen science is a great and proven idea and we need to get back to it as a society. Now would be the perfect moment! Why wait any longer??
One of our most popular programs, the Straub Environmental Lecture Series provides an opportunity to hear and connect with some of the nation's most respected experts in the field of science and ecology. The Lecture Series brings leading thinkers to Salem to share their knowledge about current environmental issues. Recommended donation: $5/person
Copyright © 2014 Straub Environmental Center, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you attended one of our programs and gave us your email address.
Our mailing address is:
You gotta roll with it [feedly]
Salem has, so far as I know, only one true bread bakery of the sort described here, the wonderful Cascade Baking Company on State Street nearly to Riverfront Park.
So steeped in traditional practices and craft are they that they only accept money for their products, not plastic!
(The other place that seems like a bread shop downtown appears to use the "half-baked" industrial method also described at the link.)
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You gotta roll with it
http://read.feedly.com/html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.resilience.org%2Fstories%2F2014-05-12%2Fyou-gotta-roll-with-it&theme=white&size=medium
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You gotta roll with it
http://read.feedly.com/html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.resilience.org%2Fstories%2F2014-05-12%2Fyou-gotta-roll-with-it&theme=white&size=medium
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An inspiration for Salem: "It's official: Boulder creates energy utility"
We already have the water and sewer, next we should build on the Salem Electric coop to add public power for electricity service for all of Salem, so that Salem residents don't have to fight their utility's profit-seeking business model just to take advantage of solar.
This was the headline in the Daily Camera in Boulder last week: "It's official: Boudler creates energy utility."
That's because last Tuesday night, the city of Boulder officially created a local electric utility.
This is a big step--things are moving! But it is far from over, because City Council's procedural vote isn't an end-all, be-all, and Xcel certainly isn't going down without another fight (or series of fights).
Though we're still years away from the real thing, this step is worth celebrating. We're so grateful to have gotten this far already, because one year ago we had just begun to prepare for round two of our fight with Xcel--what would become our Campaign for Local Power. Now, the city has its own utility--just on paper, for now--but it is a big step. The ball is rolling! This is local power--this is Boulder taking the reins and working to create a model for how communities around the country can take control of their energy future. So thank you, to all of you who have helped make local power a reality so far! Here's to the next big step, and the next one, and the next one. Read more about the City Council's vote here. Onward, The New Era team
Sunday, May 11, 2014
The Cities Where Americans Bike and Walk to Work [feedly]
The Cities Where Americans Bike and Walk to Work
http://read.feedly.com/html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fbusiness%2Farchive%2F2014%2F05%2Famericas-emerging-love-affair-with-bikes%2F361939%2F&theme=white&size=medium
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A film for Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 1945 (7:45 p.m.)
This looks like a very powerful film, and will be shown in Salem on Memorial Day, not inappropriate given the struggles of many soldiers with PTSD.http://salemcinema.com/comingsoon.html#alivemindAlive Mind Cinema Series
Transformative Docs For A Changing World
Beginning in May, Salem Cinema, Kino Lorber & Gathr Films will present the ALIVE MIND CINEMA SERIES on the 4th Monday of every month! Each screening will be followed by a discussion led by local leaders in our community.
FREE THE MIND
U.S./Sweden/Netherlands/Australia/Finland/Denmark.
Directed by Phie Ambo. Not Rated. (80 mins.)
Monday, May 26th at 7:45PMIn 1992 Professor Richard Davidson, one of the world's leading neuroscientists, met the Dalai Lama, who encouraged him to apply the same rigorous methods he used to study depression and anxiety to the study of compassion and kindness, those qualities cultivated by Tibetan meditation practice. The results of Davidson's studies at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are portrayed in Free the Mind as they are applied to treating PTSD in returning Iraqi vets and children with ADHD. The film poses two fundamental questions: What really is consciousness, and how does it manifest in the brain and body? And is it possible to physically change the brain solely through mental practices?
Friday, May 9, 2014
The Statesman-Journal's "Eyes Wide Shut" endorsements
Pretty sad news about one of the clone candidates pushed by the Chamber of the 1%. Pretty typical story for many poorly educated young men trying to get their start into adulthood, and lord knows Salem is filled with economic casualties of policies beloved by the Chamber.
At least, until you get to the very recent lying and the very, very brazen attempt to hide his past instead of facing it squarely, you get the feeling that Dan Benjamin is not so much a bad guy as a dutiful Private Benjamin drafted into the Chamber's army of interchangeable types who will do what they're told, vote like they're told, and know that Job 1 is keeping the local big money types in charge but off the radar.
The problem for the Chamber, and then for the Statesman-Journal that does its bidding, is that their policies are so destructive that it's getting harder and harder for them to find people to act as candidates who can push their line with any credibility.
So, as with the Tea Party all over America, voters wake up after the election to discover that they've elected some pretty creepy people and that the so-called watchdogs of the press are really just lapdogs for the local real estate and tax breaks for sprawl lobby.
The result is that every candidate who got the Statesman-Journal endorsement now has a difficult problem: explaining why voters should not assume that their endorsement is no different from the one the SJ gave to Benjamin, where the SJ wrestled with its integrity and beat it decisively, issuing an endorsement where they could have simply passed.
In three of four races, the non-endorsed candidates -- Xue Lor (Benjamin's opponent), Scott Bassett and Tom Andersen -- are vastly superior to the Chamber clones running against them, the four who all share campaign financing and a campaign manager and treasurer, along with scripted interchangeable pablum positions on all issues, and a deep aversion to specifics on anything.
While it's likely that some or all of the clones will win, there's a chance that the digging by Salem Weekly - an actual shoestring watchdog in the press -- could stop the steamroller, if only enough people reflect on what it means that the Statesman is so in the tank for the Chamber clones that they would endorse someone with Benjamin's issues over a decent, competent opponent, which Lor is.
If voters all over Salem simply use the SJ endorsement as a "DO NOT SUPPORT" list, Salem would both surprise itself and be a lot better off next year.
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