The Grass Energy Collaborative [GEC] working paper was first shared in Dec. 2005 in Montpelier. Then it was shared at a meeting at Shelburne Farms in early January 2006 — just two years ago. Unexpectedly, President Bush mentioned “switchgrass” in this 2006 State of the Union speech. This really set up […]

An important key for a more successful future is a more realistic and more honest economics. Not the fantasy economics we have today that assumes that economics is both mechanistic and divorced from the laws of the natural world.
Why we have not developed a new economics that includes the laws of physics, and […]

On Dec. 21, Bill Moyers interviewed Benjamin R. Barber, author of more than 17 books and frequent essayist.
On Moyers web site, they posted this quote from Barber’s new book, CONSUMED: HOW MARKETS CORRUPT CHILDREN, INFANTILIZE ADULTS, AND SWALLOW CITIZENS WHOLE”
Capitalism has put democracy in trouble, because capitalism has tried to persuade us that being a […]

Posted by Jock Gill
Oregon science teacher a mega-hit on YouTube
09:34 AM PST on Monday, December 17, 2007
Associated Press
INDEPENDENCE, Ore. — Often, the kind of videos that blow up on YouTube involve scantily clad girls, or stupid pet tricks. But a nine-minute, 33-second video on the perils of global warming made by Central High School science […]

Author: Jock Gill
As we consider our choices for a better tomorrow, at least a livable tomorrow, it is clear that one requirement is that we take a fresh look at how we use our resources. Are we making the best possible use of them such that they can best serve the greatest number of […]

The P2P Power Economy
Author: Jock Gill
For too many decades the idea of the citizen as a one dimensional consumer has been growing. See Adam Curtis’ BBC series “The Century of the Self“. Today, it is the dominant view. The citizen consumes products, services, and “ideas” promoted by the few and sent […]

Author: Jock Gill
As we consider our options for our Energy Future, what sorts of criteria might we use to evaluate the various paths under consideration?
Do we want an Energy future that meets these six simple tests:
1] Design goal: a system that is at least 85% efficient end to end;
2] A robust and resilient network with […]

Thanks to Peter Coyote:
A must read on our current economics
“It is through the newspapers and TV channels that the
socially destructive notions of a small group of
extremists have come to look like common sense.”
The Guardian UK
By George Monbiot
Tuesday 28 August 2007
A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the
economic debate, and […]

Introduction
Economic development in LDCs [Least Developed Countries] is very hard and, historically, prone to failure.  It rarely fits neatly into corporate time frames, earnings requirements or agendas.  Nor does it fit neatly into either political time tables or within shifting political agendas in “donor nations”. To date, nobody has figured out how to do it […]

The magic of the market, and its genius, is simply that it is heuristic. At its best, it seeks multiple goals, such as improving community, the environment as well as personal well being. This was also the genius of Benjamin Franklin’s Junto.
The question, then, is about the goals the heuristic process seeks. […]