2011 Permaculture Convergences (draft)

2011 USA Permaculture Convergences
(draft list in formation)
If you hear of another, please send word to SmithMillCreek
* at * gmail, or better yet, leave it in the comments section.

I have cut and pasted the 2010 list in here as a placeholder.
Obsolete 2010 entries should be in orange color.
Thanks!
*******************

NORTHEAST
http://northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com/Summer+Gathering
Fri- Sun, July 2-4, 2010
Unity, Maine USA $60- $120 ish
• Suggest a Convergence session here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGFPSUlxdnV5MjRLT19GZEJIMEJMSGc6MA
twitter.com/NEConvergence

SOUTHEAST 2011
http://www.southeasternpermaculture.org
17th Annual Gathering is August 5th-7th, 2011 in Celo, NC
Registration opens April 22nd, 2011.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SoutheasternPermaculture

COLORADO
http://coloradopermaculture.blogspot.com/2010/02/colorado-permaculture-convergence.html
The Colorado Permaculture Convergence is scheduled for Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at the 63rd Street Farm near Boulder, Colorado. Contact the High Altitude Permaculture Institute if you are interested in helping organize this event.

NORTHWEST
http://www.washingtonstatepermaculture.org
2010's Washington State Permaculture Conference, tentatively scheduled to be held at The Evergreen State College in mid-September, 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA BAY AREA
None planned I can find; last one Summer 2008
http://www.livingmandala.com/Living_Mandala/Bay_Area_Permaculture_Convergence.html

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
None found for 2010
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org
1st Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence
August 29-31, 2008

MIDWEST
The First Midwest Permaculture Convergence in Bloomington IN
September 23-25, 2010
Weblink to come....

UPSTATE NEW YORK PERMACULTURE GATHERING
First was March 2010
Next TBD
http://upstateNYpermaculture.Net

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Everybody's flying and no one leaves the ground

I just finished Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Days of Paranoia, by Francis Wheen, about the seventies.

It's not so noteworthy, but it was a good reminder of the malaise of the seventies. Perhaps more than any decade of this century, this was a decade of disempowerment & frustration. McGovern didn't win; and Nixon did instead and then lost; there were 150 hijackings from 1970-'72; numerous gas lines and in Britain, brownouts. Stocks lost their value, so did wages, so did savings. Elites were hemmed in by new rules of democracy, but unions started losing ground around 1974. The punks celebrated despair, and in Germany there was a Tunix movement (Tu Nichts-- "do nothing").

New York City almost went bankrupt, and did face severe increase in either crime of the perception of it; serial killers abounded, each with a nickname (Zodiac, Son of Sam, freeway Killer); city councillors killed city councillors. In the confusion of role models, cults abounded: Moonies, Scientologists, Rajneesh, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. So did shallow encounter groups.
Drugs grew in use, and moved from an earlier psychedelic focus on a higher truth, to an escape from reality and a contest to see who could get higher on heroin, cocaine, pot.

And as the book's title reminds us: crazy mysticism & conspiracy theories false AND true, abounded: Cointelpro, the assassination of JFK, flying saucers, Chariots of the Gods

I begin to better understand the appeal of Ronald Reagan in promising to end many of these things; and actually pulling it off, in the short term & middle term. Until 18 months ago.

The title of the book & my blog entriy is from a song by John Lennon-- Nobody Told Me.

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Transition Movements springing up like wildflowers!

I just learned about two of these-- Transition Decade & MAHB's outreach push-- in the last ten hours.

I'm going to post an incomplete draft 0.6 and then revise it later today. Disclosure at end.
-- Jim

Transition Decade
The Transition Decade creates a campaign platform and a shared timeline
for action for the next ten years. (Australia, 10 group coalition, launched 2/14/2010, acknowledges debt to Lester Brown's 1990 suggestion of a "Transition Decade" in 1990.)
http://www.t10.net.au/node/13 Official homepage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transition_Decade

Transition (Town) Movement
Started in Fall 2005 in Kinsale, Ireland by Louise Rooney and Rob Hopkins, this movement attempts to build community-based efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our oil dependence and build community. 284 official initiatives as of April 8th, 2010. Third annual conference coming up in June 2010 in Britain. Now based in Totnes, UK.
http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/why-transition-culture <-- early history
http://www.transitiontowns.org <-- movement home page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns

Great Transition Initiative
Started in 1995, The Great Transition Initiative is a growing
international network of scholars and activists that
analyzes alternative scenarios and charts a path to a hopeful future. Based in Cambridge, MA out of Harvard University. Has many monographs and thinkpieces.
http://www.gtinitiative.org Official home page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Transition

Four Years. Go
Dedicated to the notion that the planet is at a tipping point, this campaign stresses that the next four years will determine the course of the next thousand years. This effort comes out of the Pachamama Alliance. It was born out of a speech by Lynne Twiss. Strongest on outreach, light on theory, the four years in question run from February 14, 2010 (Valentine's Day) to 2/14/14.
http://www.fouryearsgo.org
http://twitter.com/fouryearsgo
http://www.youtube.com/fouryearsgo
http://www.facebook.com/fouryearsgo

Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB)
Pronounced “mob”, this initiative was catalyzed by Paul Ehrlich, a MacArthur award winning senior biologist most famous for writing the bestseller The Population Bomb in 1968. While it has been around for a fw months, it went public more loudly on April 6th, 2010 with the publication of an article in an online science magazine.

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000330
http://mahbsustainability.wordpress.com/about

Defusing the Nuclear Threat (Stanford University)

Professor Martin Hellman, who helped build the anti-nuclear group Beyond War, is trying to start a Stanford University effort that will go global. I don't know if he's talked to Paul Ehrlich (I imagine they must know each other, bring professor emeriti on the same campus).

http://nuclearrisk.org

***********************************************
(Disclosure: I'm on-board with a number of these: I helped start Transition Town Asheville in December 2006 w/ two others; am recently part of the Great Transition Institute network; am recently part of the Four Years. Go connectors group, helped found the US Citizen's Network for the 1992 Earth Summit, and got started with all this by reading the Population Bomb in 1970 after the first Earth Day.)

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Organic Grower's School 1994-2012

Signs of hope escape our eyes easily; we like to see the doom.
Here's some good news: Attendance at the OGS doubles every five years.
Can we shrink our carbon footprint as quickly as this grows (15%)?
Easily, no. Impossible? Probably not.
(tabled updated every year or so since 2008)

Year # Attendance % growth 1994 1st 100 1995 2nd 213 213% 1996 3rd 141 66% 1997 4th 160 113% 1998 5th 230 144% 1999 6th 430 187% 2000 7th 392 91% 2001 8th 500 128% 2002 9th 533 107% 2003 10th 609 114% 2004 11th 683 112% 2005 12th 800 117% 2006 13th 900 113% 2007 14th 1000 111% 2008 15th 1200 120% 2009 16th 1300 108% 2010 17th 1500 115% 2011 18th 1679 112% 2012 19th 1906 114% Average annual growth= 14.8

Average doubling time = 4.9 years

Figures courtesy of

Meredith Leigh McKissick

Director, Organic Growers School

Crooked Creek Farms; Sweet Earth Flower Farm

www.sweetearthflowers.com

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2010 USA Permaculture Convergences

2010 USA Permaculture Convergences
If you hear of another, please send word to SmithMillCreek
* at * gmail
Thanks!
*******************

NORTHEAST
http://northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com/Summer+Gathering
Fri- Sun, July 2-4, 2010
Unity, Maine USA $60- $120 ish
• Suggest a Convergence session here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGFPSUlxdnV5MjRLT19GZEJIMEJMSGc6MA
twitter.com/NEConvergence

SOUTHEAST
http://www.southeasternpermaculture.org
The gathering is Fri- Sun, August 6-8, 2010 at the Arthur Morgan School in Celo, NC
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SoutheasternPermaculture

COLORADO
http://coloradopermaculture.blogspot.com/2010/02/colorado-permaculture-convergence.html
The Colorado Permaculture Convergence is scheduled for Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at the 63rd Street Farm near Boulder, Colorado. Contact the High Altitude Permaculture Institute if you are interested in helping organize this event.

NORTHWEST
http://www.washingtonstatepermaculture.org
2010's Washington State Permaculture Conference, tentatively scheduled to be held at The Evergreen State College in mid-September, 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA BAY AREA
None planned I can find; last one Summer 2008
http://www.livingmandala.com/Living_Mandala/Bay_Area_Permaculture_Convergence.html

*************************************
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
None found for 2010
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org
1st Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence
August 29-31, 2008

MIDWEST
The First Midwest Permaculture Convergence in Bloomington IN
September 23-25, 2010
Weblink to come....

UPSTATE NEW YORK PERMACULTURE GATHERING
First was March 2010
Next TBD
http://upstateNYpermaculture.Net

Click Here to Read More..

Some Haiti Resources

I just got this via email. I myself would do well to compile some other responses I got from others.
-- Jim
*******************************
I am cut and pasting all the answers b/c quite frankly there were so many that I hesitate to choose.

I will narrow down some favorites later when I come back from work.
Alice Backer, Esq.
http://www.kiskeacity.com
http://twitter.com/kiskeacity
*********************************

Books:
1. Red and Black in Haiti (Matthew Smith)
2. The Uses of Haiti
3. Haiti and the United States
4. Haiti: State Against Nation

Novels:
1. Love, Anger, Madness
2. Brother I am Dying
3. Masters of the Dew

Films:
1. The Agronomist
3. Heading South
4. Man by the Shore
5. Ghosts of Cite Soleil
6. Moloch Tropical
7. Egalite for All
8. Royal Bonbon

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After Copenhagen: Community Climate Discussion

After Copenhagen: Community Climate Discussion
Talking Together about How We Feel, and what we might do, alone & together
(NOT at West Asheville Library Community Room & relocated next door to)
Waking Life Espresso
976 Haywood Road, West Asheville, NC 28806
Saturday, Jan. 2nd, 2010 10 AM to noon
Free and open to people who think that human-caused climate change is real
and worth stopping. don't drive-- if you can walk comfortably, come on over)

If you are on Facebook, you can "rsvp" (optional, but nice) at
http://j.mp/AvlAfterCop15

Questions? Email smithmillcreek at the domain of gmail dot com

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More BAD action on climate later

My blog action day post on climate change will probably be a few days late--
I'm preparing a talk on the phases of movements for the student climate conference, Powershift '09, this Saturday in Chapel Hill, NC.

the workshop will be a repeat of the one I did in November 2008.

-- End--
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Tolstoy on Causation

The human mind cannot grasp the causes of phenomena in the aggregate. But the need to find these causes is inherent in man’s soul. And the human intellect, without investigating the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, snatches at the first, the most intelligible approximation to a cause, and says: “This is the cause!"

-Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace

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Important August Essays on the Eco-Crisis

All the essays agree on one thing: big changes are ahead of us, and soon.
All of the essays below are by some of the top eco-thinkers alive.

Paul Kingsnorth and Paul Monbiot debate the future in the (UK) Guardian

Northwest US-based Tom Atlee on the Great Turning

NY Times eco-columnist Andy Revkin on a new stage in humanity

Sharon Astyk (upstate NY) and Rob Hopkins (Devonshire, UK) debate Permaculture and Transition Towns.

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Buses from Downtown Asheville to SEE Expo and back

ROUTE 6 AIRPORT/HENDERSONVILLE TO Southern Energy & Environment Expo

( I am posting this on my private blog to enhance skimmability. You can also find it somewhere on their website. Maybe. If you're lucky.)

Asheville Transit Route 6-Airport/Hendersonville Road will stop at the 9th annual Southern Energy & Environment Expo at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center on Friday, August 21 and Saturday August 22 (but not Sunday). From downtown Asheville, the route will make seven trips to the agricultural center as part of its regular schedule (which means rides cost $1, exact change- four quarters or a dollar bill).

Asheville Transit will provide service to the bus stop near gate 1 at the agricultural center. The first trip will arrive Friday and Saturday at 9:15 a.m. and the last trip will leave at 6:15 p.m.

Bus service is not available on Sunday.

Route 6 will stop at the expo about 10 minutes before arriving at the Asheville Regional Airport, as part of its current schedule Friday and Saturday. Route times include: 9:15 a.m.; 10:45a.m.; 12:15 p.m.; 1:45 p.m.; 3:15 p.m.; 4:45 p.m., and; 6:15 p.m.

The Asheville Transit Route 6 schedule can be found at www.ashevilletransit.com under “maps and schedules.” 

For more information, contact Asheville Transit at 253-5691, iride@ashevillenc.gov or by going to www.ashevilletransit.com.

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Help make video this Saturday noon

Mountaine and I are doing a video this Saturday noon. We need extras.
Can you join us?
Facebook signup: http://bit.ly/p9xeR
-- Jim
*************************************

Hiya friends.
I'm involved in the October 24th global day of activism/education on sustainability, organized by the great folks at www.350.org. It's about the need to reduce carbon in the atmosphere from the current 390 parts per million (dangerous and rising) to 350 (much safer). Check out the website - this is HUGE.

One of the events I'm working on is a simple bit of street theatre that can be replicated easily around the world. It's called the "350 move". There is strong interest from the 350.org people in our getting a short video made quickly, so they can publicize it to the groups in over 80 countries gearing up for the big event on October 24th.

This Saturday August 1st, promptly at noon, at the downtown Asheville Vance Monument, some of us will meet to do 2 things - review the plan for the street theatre and make some final tweaks, and then get it videotaped. I hope it takes only an hour - if more, not much. Can you be a part of this? We need warm enthusiastic creative bodies! We're gonna meet at the Vance Monument, and choose a place to go depending on the weather. If you're pretty sure you'll come, please send me an email at mountaine at gmail . Or just show up.

If you can, bring a cardboard sign that says "350" on it. Dress the way you'll want to look for the world audience - a variety of styles (some in business clothes) would be great.

And if you can serve as our videographer, let me know right away. We have the offer of a video camera to borrow, but best if we have someone with a camera who knows how to use it, and perhaps do a wee bit of editing after the fact if necessary.

Grateful for who you are,
Mountaine


End of post
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To Obama and Constitutzia!

IN 1825, Russian officers staged a coup against the Tsar's absolute monarchy, and in favor of a constitution. Feeling their power after their army had defeated Napolean 13 years before, and back from occupying Europe where they got to read, talk and study with avant-garde thinkers, they saw their chance in 1825.

**********
The old czar died, and the more popular, more liberal older son, Constantine, chose love over office, choosing to marry a non-royal Polish girl. He renounced the chance at a throne in favor of his younger brother Nicholas.

The liberal officers staged a revolt, getting their men to cry "Constantine and Constitution!". Unfortunately, many of the common soldiers thought that "Consitutzia" was Constantine's wife. The premature revolt failed.

This month, June 2009, hasn't seen so many people in the streets since 1989 (Romania, East Germany, China). As of Sunday morning, July 5th 2009, it's an open question as to whether the forces of free election and popular participation will win in Iran and Honduras, both countries in which the American taxpayer funded CIA has done much to help kill, torture and imprison earlier advocates of change in the fifties, sixties, seventies in both countries, and in the eighties in Honduras.

Unlike earlier US administrations, Obama is sending signals to those who would use teargas and clubs that they don't have a friend in the White House. It's about time.

Here's to Obama and Constitutzia!
And to the fact that we now know the difference between Michelle and Constitution.
Click Here to Read More..

Courage

Type your summary here
MOre later if I get time

Type rest of the post here
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Massacres Don't Work for Long

It seems rare enough that unarmed demonstrators are fired upon by police/national guard/soldiers. And it is frequent that there are agents provocateurs. It is also common for governments to bring in rural/poor/less educated militia members from distant provinces or different ethnic groups. The conscript Army in Egypt in Jan/Feb could not be reliably counted upon to fire upon demonstrators.



Clubbed, yes; fired upon, rare enough so that I could name a few prominent ones:

• Peterloo Massacre, Manchester, England 1819 Short Documentary, 2010
  
• Bloody Sunday, St. Petersburg, 1905 Hollywood, 1971
• Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh), India, April 13, 1919 from Gandhi, 1982
  
• Bloody Sunday, Dublin, Ireland 1920 from Michael Collins, 1996
  
• Ludlow Massacre, Ludlow, Colorado, 1914 from Howard Zinn: You can't be neutral on a moving train, 1996
  
• Everett Massacre, Everett, Washington, USA 1916
• Sharpeville, South Africa 1960 from 2010 newscast or this
  
• Orangeburg Massacre, Orangeburg, SC, USA 1968
  
• Tlatelolco massacre, Mexico City, Mexico; October 2, 1968 footage
• Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, USA May 4th, 1970 eyewitness account & these
  
• Jackson State Shootings, Jackson, Missisippi, USA 1970 Democracy Now clip from Howard Zinn's last interview
  
• Bloody Sunday, Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972 docudrama trailer, 2002
  
• Black Friday, Tehran, Iran, Sept. 8, 1978
  
• Greensboro Massacre, Greensboro, North Carolina 1979*
  
• Tianamen Square Massacre, Peking, China 1989
• Devil's Curve, Bagua, Peru, 2009
• Teheran, Iran, ~ June 2009
• Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Jan/Feb 2011
• Lulu Square, Bahrain, Feb. 18, 2011
• 
  

None of these are forgotten or swept under the rug. That I can name them years later proves that. As do the wikipedia articles & youtube films. You might have seen some of the fictional Hollywood portrayals above.
* The Greensboro demonstrators were shot by the Klan, but acquitted. The subsequent rift led to a Truth and Reconciliation process.

**Nothing more after this**

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Mandela and ‘The Elders’ Aim to Save the World

Mandela and ‘The Elders’ Aim to Save the World
http://abcnews.go.com/International/TenWays/Story?id=3389067
Written by Kate Snow
Saturday, 04 August 2007
JOHANNESBURG — The Elders, a new alliance made up of an elite group of senior statesmen dedicated to solving thorny global problems, unveiled itself today in Johannesburg. The rollout coincided with founding member Nelson Mandela’s 89th birthday.

After a grand entrance, Mandela, the former South African president, announced the rest of the Elders.

The members include Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop emeritus of Capetown; former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan; Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Bank in Bangladesh. The group plans to get involved in some of the world’s most pressing problems — climate change, pandemics like AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, violent conflicts.

It was an extraordinary gathering;

a who’s who of famous international leaders, with enough emotion to move some of them to tears.

Under a large white futuristic dome, British billionaire Richard Branson and rock star Peter Gabriel, who conceived the idea for the Elders, gathered enough star power to change the world, or at least that’s the hope.

“The structures we have to deal with these problems are often tied down by political, economic and geographic constraints,” Mandela said. The Elders, he argued, will face no such constraints.

Seven years ago, Branson and Gabriel approached Mandela about the Elders idea, and he agreed to help them recruit others. “This group of elders will bring hope and wisdom back into the world,” Branson said. “They’ll play a role in bringing us together.

“Using their collective experience, their moral courage and their ability to rise above the parochial concerns of nations ? they can help make our planet a more peaceful, healthy and equitable place to live, ” Branson said. ” Let us call them ‘global elders,’ not because of their age but because of individual and collective wisdom.”

Calling it “the most extraordinary day” of his life, Gabriel said, “The dream was there might still be a body of people in whom the world could place their trust.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who moderated the event and will serve as its leader, was moved to tears after Gabriel sang an impromptu accapella version of his hit song “Biko,” written about a famous South African political prisoner.

Branson and Gabriel have raised enough money — some $18 million — to fund this group for three years.

Also onboard are names less well known in the United States, including Indian microfinance leader Ela Bhatt; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; former Chinese ambassador to the United States Li Zhaoxing.

The group left an empty seat onstage — symbolically — for an elder who was invited, but could not attend because she is under house arrest in Burma, Nobel laureate and human rights advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mandela and Carter emphasized the group’s ability to talk to anyone without risk.

“We will be able to risk failure in worthy causes, and we will not need to claim credit for any successes that might be achieved,” said Carter.

Carter said the group does not want to step on or interfere with other positive work that nations or organizations are doing but wants to supplement that work.

Several members acknowledged that the actual activities and actions of the group remain to be determined. There are no titles, no ranking of the members. And it is not clear if they will travel as a group, deploy individual members to global hot spots, or simply sit in a room together to develop strategies or assist those who are suffering find help.

But they certainly have high hopes.

“I didn’t like the title “elders,” because I didn’t feel like an elder,” said Yunus to laughter, “but I like the idea.”

Yunus said the world is without direction and he hopes the Elders can provide some direction.

Speaking of the Elders, almost in the way one would describe a cartoon about superheroes, Mandela said, “The Elders can become a fiercely independent and positive force for good.”

Annan added that the group does not “intend to go and take on Darfur or Somalia and resolve it singlehandedly. We don’t have a magic wand,” he said. But he argued that the group could intervene and perhaps force parties to honor agreements.

“There are certain crimes that shame us all,” said Annan. “We all have a responsibility, and I hope the Elders will take the lead in asking the question: What can we do to move the situation forward?

“Sometimes by saying ‘this is enough we can’t take this anymore it must stop,’ we are making a difference,” Annan continued

Mandela and Branson both celebrated birthdays today. At 89, Mandela looked frail. He walked with a cane and Carter helped him to the podium. But once Mandela got there, he stood tall and easily delivered some 10 minutes of remarks.

“He, as you know, walks sedately,” Tutu joked.
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How to put the Copenhagen Countdown Clock on your website

Concerned about climate change?
One of the most important things we can do on this planet is to create a strong climate treaty at the UN Climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

And the most important element in drafting a strong treaty is creating an overwhelming public demand in all the countries of the world for this, in the face of reluctant governments and corporate lobbying and greenwashing.

And the key to creating that overwhelming public demand is getting people's mindshare focused on the climate negotiations.

And a good way to do that is to create a small public reminder of the negotiations.

If you have a website, here's something you can do in under two minutes (that's how long it too me):
How to put the Copenhagen Countdown Clock on your website

To put the clock on your website do the following:

A: From the homepage http://unfccc.int follow the link that say's "How to
use the countdown clock on your
website" [http://unfccc.int/home/items/4688.php]
Copy the html code from any of the boxes depending on which version of the
clock you want to use into their webpage.

B: Follow the instructions in A.

(Nothing more in the "more" section below.

Type rest of the post here
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Why crack down on the Liberty Dollar now?

I find this disturbing because, although I didn't like the Liberty Dollar (I think the income tax of 1912 was a good thing), there is a heavy quality of ex post facto here-- tolerating something for years and then coming down heavy just as the former chief economist of the IMF implicitly ponders whether US might go the way of Argentina and have a currency collapse.
**************************************

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906050331



June 5, 2009

Asheville man charged in alleged Liberty Dollar fraud scheme
By Clarke Morrison

Federal
authorities arrested an Asheville man in what they said was a scheme to
undermine the U.S. currency system and defraud consumers with so-called
Liberty Dollars.

William
Kevin Innes marketed the “barter” currency in Western North Carolina
and recruited merchants willing to accept it and give it as change for
products bought with real money, according to an indictment unsealed
this week.

Innes,
53, faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted. He was indicted along
with Bernard von NotHaus, president of the National Organization for
the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes, and two
other defendants from Indiana associated with the corporation.

Innes
made an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in
Asheville Wednesday and was ordered detained pending a detention
hearing set for Monday before a judge in Charlotte, according to the
U.S. Department of Justice.

Liberty Dollars are coins made of silver or gold and are touted as inflation-proof and a way to encourage buying local goods.

“When
groups seek to undermine the U.S. currency system, the government is
compelled to act,” said acting U.S. Attorney Edward Ryan of the Western
District of North Carolina.

“These
coins are not government-produced coinage, yet purchasers were led to
believe by those who made and sold them that they should be spent like
U.S. Federal Reserve Notes,” Ryan said. “Such claims are in violation
of federal law.”

Innes
and von NotHaus are charged with uttering and passing coins resembling
genuine U.S. coins and intended for use as money, mail fraud and
selling and possessing Liberty Dollar coins with intent to defraud.

Past statements

Despite warnings from the
federal government to the contrary, Innes told the Citizen-Times in
2006 that Liberty Dollars were legal.

“One
of the first things I did when I started this in Asheville was go to
the police and tell them what I was doing,” he said then.

Von
NotHaus created his organization in Evansville, Ind., in 1998, and
developed the Liberty Dollar. He touted the silver medallions as an
inflation-proof alternative to official currency.

The indictment alleges the corporation's purpose was to limit reliance on and compete with U.S. currency.

Innes
held the title of North Carolina regional currency officer and was one
of three members of the group's executive committee, the indictment
states.

A 2007 affidavit said more than 70 businesses in the Asheville area agreed to accept the Liberty Dollar.

“People
understand that there is only one legal currency in the United States,”
said Owen Harris, special agent in charge of the Charlotte office of
the FBI. “When groups try to replace the U.S. dollar with coins and
bills that don't hold the same value, it affects the economy.

“Consumers were using their hard-earned money to buy goods and services, then getting fake change in return.”

The
arrests are the latest development in an investigation under way since
at least 2004. Federal agents raided the company's headquarters in 2007
and seized documents and precious metals. A private mint in Coeur
d'Alene, Idaho, that produced the coins was raided the same day.

Von
NotHaus' organization said in 2006 that more than $20 million worth of
Liberty Dollar coins and notes were in circulation. Congress has
exclusive power to coin money in the U.S. and to regulate its value,
according to the Treasury Department.

--end --

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Climate Talk- Monday 7 PM, free, Diana Wortham Theatre

 The lineup for the free event on Monday, June 8 at 7 p.m. in the Diana Wortham Theatre includes presentations by:

1. Greg Wilson, Director of Asheville Operations - Scientific Research Corporation
2. Ben Teague, Sr. VP for Economic Development - Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development Coalition
3. John Bates, Chief, Remote Sensing Applications Division - NOAA's NCDC
4. Ron Birk, Director, Civil Space Mission Integration - Northrop Grumman Space Technology

The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A from the audience. A “meet the presenters” reception will be held immediately afterwards in the Colburn.

These talks are being presented by the Colburn Earth Science Museum and the Asheville Chapter of the American Meteorological Society.
********************
The Colburn Museum is having problems with their website today, so I'm posting this.

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Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival or neither?

In 2005, when my VW van was still running, I treated myself to Bonnaroo AND the Newport, RI Folk Festival. Here's my thoughts...
- What was great about Bonnaroo was- well, not much. The price seemed high ($270 minimum at this point), and while
• the lineup was stellar (Iron & Wine, Donna the Buffalo, Alison Krause, Herbie Hancock w/ a surprise appearance by John Mayer, John Prine & many bands who I'd kinda heard of but didn't quite know- Dave Matthews, Rilo Kiley. And many more), that turned out to be a weakness. Did you want to hear Prine OR Krause? With seven stages, one was forced to choose.
• They searched religiously to make sure folks didn't bring in outside liquids-- there was free bad-tasting water, or beverages in the hot sun for $4 or some such.
• The audience was rude and unappreciative. I didn't know there was such a thing as Drunken Southern Fratboys (and the women who mysteriously tolerate them) til I went there. Folks, having paid hundreds of dollars for the privilege of listening to Alison Kraus, sat around and talked with each other. They could have done this in their back yard for free!!
The admission DID cover parking, which WAS camping, toilets (but not showers), the ability to walkdown Shakedown Street (my first time, and an adventure) and the right to have cops tell you to walk in the mud and not on the grass.
I hated it.

In contrast, the Newport Folk Festival was well-behaved and there were only three stages-- two small, one big.
The price was cheaper, but didn't cover camping or parking ($12/day). There was a kids area, which I think there wasn't at Bonnaroo. The lineup was also stellar, but more focused on what I like (the kind of Americana that WNCW plays), and I had strong sense of the history that I was entering into-- many folks there were active singing AND speaking out in the early sixties, and there were at least THREE next generation acts-- Peter Seeger and his grandson Tao's band, Peter Yarrow and daughter Stephanie (I think), and Richard Thompson and son Teddie. I discovered a whole slew of artists, some of whom I only comprehended later as time went by.
(Oddly enough, on the way home from there, I discovered & stopped in at the Purple Fiddle in West Virginia, and heard this unknown group that the venue owner totally vouched for. Since then, the Avett Brothers are taking the world by storm.)
(I suppose I could hyperlink the heck out of this entry, but you can quickly get to respective  web pages quickly enough).

So.... Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, or neither? This year--  probably neither.

I'll probably just get my live music at the Grey Eagle.

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