"Cybernetic Civilization"

I saw this article a while back ago and thought the concept was really intriguing.

Here's a sample bit, but please follow the link to read the whole thing. It's not very long but it will likely change the way you look at the world and the system(s) we have developed around us.

" Humanity appears to be in the grip of a global system – one that we originally created, but which is now shaping our lives independently of our wishes.
I’ve recently begun to suspect that humanity is at a point of endosymbiosis with our electronic communications and control technology, especially through the Internet. In a sense, we humans have incorporated ourselves as essential control elements of a planet-wide cybernetic super-organism. The precedent for something like this is the way that mitochondria migrated as bacteria into ancient prokaryotic cells to become essential components of the new eukaryotic cells that make up all modern organisms, including us."

Read the rest here.

Food Forest video

Here's a good video with Geoff Lawton, describing how to design food forests in different climates.

Check it out: Designing Food Forests Across Three Climate Zones with Geoff Lawton

Mike Rowe tries to give away free money...

...and apparently is having a time of it.

Via The Smallest Minority:

Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) has an organization he runs, MikeRoweWorks.com, that gives scholarships to students studying the trades. He posts on Facebook today:

Question: If I were to form "The American Idol Scholarship Fund" and announce $15,000 of professional training for anyone who wished to become a pop star, how long do you think it would take to give away a million dollars?

A day? An hour? A minute?

What if I offered the same money to anyone who wanted to learn how to maintain and repair diesel engines? How fast would the million dollars go then?

Currently, this question has no official answer. But I can tell you this - for the last month, mikeroweWORKS has been offering FULL-RIDE scholarships to one of the best trade schools in the country. And as of now - a big chunk of that million dollars is still up for grabs. Why? Because mikeroweWORKS scholarships do not reward fame or celebrity. They reward work ethic, and the willingness to learn a necessary skill. In other words, they are designed to train people for jobs that actually exist.

Last month, I shot a few commercials to announce my latest partnership with Universal Technical Institute https://www.uti.edu/mrw As you may know, UTI trains the technicians that keep America's trucks on the road. Not as sexy perhaps as the next American Idol, but a great place to find a few American Icons. Truth is, our Trade Schools play an important role in maintaining this thing we call "civilization," and given the preponderance of Help Wanted signs currently papering our transportation industry, I wanted to help draw some attention to another specific career that too many people simply overlook.

Anyway, this particular commercial didn't make it past Standards and Practices, for obvious reasons. But since I’m the only censor in these parts, I've made it available here, for the refined taste and sophisticated worldview of my 835,000 closest friends. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/naked-mike-unauthorized-video/ (Warning - Partial Nudity and Poor Judgment abound.)

Mike

I really like the work Mike Rowe is doing with this. For those of you who don't know me, I tried college and gave it up because it wasn't working for me. I picked a trade, applied my self and was making pretty good money in a couple years. With no student loan debt.

Now my case may not be typical, but who's is? The point is there are other paths to making a decent living besides college.

Here's a fairly recent Reason.tv interview with Rowe that sums up his thinking on these things. Well worth the watch.

F'ing F'ed up

From the Overheard section of the latest Woodpile Report:

"Fukushima - I watch NHK TVJapan with my wife. Over the past weeks they've had many specials about Japanese living great lives outside of Japan. In poorer parts of Asia and interestingly South America. Have never seen so many of these programs as NHK is very nationalistic. Seems they are prepping their citizenry for the eventual need to abandon Japan.
Infinite QE, comment 4726925 at zerohedge.com"

Organic lawn care for the lazy gardener

It is that time of year that lawns start to demand attention. So I thought I would throw Paul Wheaton some  linky love and pass this article along. Good stuff in there if you want to get away from chemical lawn amendments or are simply looking for a good excuse to be a lazy gardener.

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Save Charlie

Dark wallet

If you watched the whole video with Cody Wilson that I posted recently, you probably were intrigued by the bit where he talks about his new project, Dark Wallet.

Here is a pretty decent little overview from Wired. Enjoy!

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/dark-wallet