Readers commentaries week of June 20, 2008
Electric vehicles, long-wave cycles pointing to World War III, bikeways to L.A., Chinese goods and competition, and more.


Readers Essays

The Power of Eight and Three (Reinventing our Native Cuisine)
(Noah Cicero, June 23, 2008)

There is a revolution taking place. A revolution without guns, without ideology, without rules and regulations. Without spies, gulags, power-hungry rich people verses power-hungry poor people. This is a revolution involving the elderly, middle-aged, young, and even child soldiers. This revolution has upper class office workers, professors, factory workers, restaurant workers, rednecks, and poor people in the ghetto. This is the Permaculture Revolution.


The Principles of Trading Also Apply to Life
(Harun I., June 19, 2008)

Trading principles are easy to understand but difficult to implement because our mind, the great trickster, betrays us. But those who are successful are usually successful in all parts of their lives because they have embraced these principles as a way of life and by doing so avoid a multitude of troubles. So what are some of these principles and how can they help us? I have outlined my thoughts below. While nothing is perfect, they have worked for me in all aspects of my life.


The State of Real Estate (don't buy that house just yet)
(Jonathan Surridge, June 19, 2008) (PDF format)


We Will All be Better Off with Falling House Prices
(Paul Tolnai, June 18, 2008)

The Mainstream Media, Reuters, is reporting that "Housing Price Decreases Means a $4 Trillion Capital Loss." Ok, what is that about and is it even true? I don’t think so! Let’s define some terms: price and capital:


Triage in the Upcoming War for (Energy) Independence
(Paul Tolnai, June 9, 2008)

Then you come to the crux of the matter. You ask: "Guess what happens to housing . . . when global interest rates double or triple." Well, I’ll guess: plummet. A house can be bought from past savings, that is all cash, or from the promise of future savings, debt service. Since we have established that there are insufficient current savings to bring badly needed alternative energy sources into being, we are talking about not only raising the level of savings but also where to invest those savings.


Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): A Peak-Oil "Bridge Fuel"
(Matt Gaspar, June 15, 2008)

I work at Culver City City Hall in California. For the last several years we have bought many buses and refuse trucks running on CNG (compressed natural gas) that replaced the diesel or gasoline vehicles. Our goal is to be 100% running on CNG in the next few years. We have a slogan, "Go Green" and are trying to promote clean air and energy at reduced cost. With tax breaks, we pay about $1.50 an equivalent gallon for natural gas rather than $4.50 for regular gasoline. We have saved $100K's last few years. This is happening in many cities in the Los Angeles region. Clean Energy fuels is helping agencies like ourselves to convert to CNG fueling stations at the city transportation yard.




Readers Poetry

YREKA
(Verona U.)

The old man sat on the porch
bleak fallow land stretching to the horizon
Our eyes met
only for an instant
as I raced by
heading somewhere
far from his desolation
or was it satisfaction?




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