This is generally good advice. But ask yourself: what are their assumptions?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Three Pillar Skills
I have written a little bit previously about three pillar skills. So what are they?
Three pillar skills are skills that relate to critical thinking, self sufficiency, and self defense: what we call the three pillars of adulthood. These three broad categories define the core essence of what it means to be an adult: the ability to think and make decisions, the ability to provide for ones self, and the ability to defend ones self from harm. With these skills, we are at mercy of external forces that do not generally have our best interests in mind.
Growing up means more than being old enough to buy beer, drive, and have a job. Growing up means taking your life into your own hands. Being a child means leaving your life somebody else's.
A Video to Watch
Feeling ambitious today, I wandered around the internet at an ungodly hour and assembled a Squidoo lens here. While I was doing so, I found a very well designed little video on Peak Oil, one of the many reasons our generation needs to improve its three pillar skills. So I thought that I would post the video here for your edification. Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Are you lost?
Finding North
Are you lost? If you are in the northern hemisphere, The sun is to your south. If it is afternoon the sun is south west. If it is before noon the sun is south east. So if it is in the afternoon, Put the sun to your back and left. Now you are facing roughly north. If it is in the morning put the sun to your back and right. Again you are facing to the north. If it is night find the big dipper. Follow the two stars that make the big dipper's scoop up and you will see the north star. Once again you are facing to the north.
Walking in a Straight Line
One of the most common reasons that people get lost, stay lost, generally get scared, panicked and eventually wind up dead in the woods is because they cannot walk in a straight line. At least they can't without an asphalt road to guide them. People generally walk in a wide circle because they favor one side of their body, generally the dominant side. Without landmarks that people are familiar with using for positional orientation, people easily veer off their intended track in the bush.
Using two-point sight lines is a good basic way to avoid veering off course. To do this line up two landmarks, one in the middle distance and one in the far distance- in the direction you wish to travel. Now turn around 180 degrees and look straight back behind you. With moving your view find two landmarks that area already lined up and mark them as well. This is reverse two-point sight lining. Now reacquire your forward sight lines and walk to the first landmark. When you reach the first landmark, turn back and reacquire your reverse sight lines to make sure you have not veered to far off and to reorient yourself with the view back the way you came. Now repeat the process.
If a point is far enough away and on high enough ground, you may safely use a single point as a tracking method for traveling in a straight line. This is called High Ground Single Point walking. One reason that single point walking can be deceptive is that if the point is not high enough so as to be visible the entire journey you may have to give up sight of point for some period and may, in that time, go off course. Another reason single point walking can be deceptive is that you may have to shift to the left or right to go around obstacles, and without a second point you may reach your first point, but be aiming in a different direction when you get to that point than you originally intended.
Further Information
http://redcedarvolunteers.wetpaint.com/page/Navigation
Are you lost? If you are in the northern hemisphere, The sun is to your south. If it is afternoon the sun is south west. If it is before noon the sun is south east. So if it is in the afternoon, Put the sun to your back and left. Now you are facing roughly north. If it is in the morning put the sun to your back and right. Again you are facing to the north. If it is night find the big dipper. Follow the two stars that make the big dipper's scoop up and you will see the north star. Once again you are facing to the north.
Walking in a Straight Line
One of the most common reasons that people get lost, stay lost, generally get scared, panicked and eventually wind up dead in the woods is because they cannot walk in a straight line. At least they can't without an asphalt road to guide them. People generally walk in a wide circle because they favor one side of their body, generally the dominant side. Without landmarks that people are familiar with using for positional orientation, people easily veer off their intended track in the bush.
Using two-point sight lines is a good basic way to avoid veering off course. To do this line up two landmarks, one in the middle distance and one in the far distance- in the direction you wish to travel. Now turn around 180 degrees and look straight back behind you. With moving your view find two landmarks that area already lined up and mark them as well. This is reverse two-point sight lining. Now reacquire your forward sight lines and walk to the first landmark. When you reach the first landmark, turn back and reacquire your reverse sight lines to make sure you have not veered to far off and to reorient yourself with the view back the way you came. Now repeat the process.
If a point is far enough away and on high enough ground, you may safely use a single point as a tracking method for traveling in a straight line. This is called High Ground Single Point walking. One reason that single point walking can be deceptive is that if the point is not high enough so as to be visible the entire journey you may have to give up sight of point for some period and may, in that time, go off course. Another reason single point walking can be deceptive is that you may have to shift to the left or right to go around obstacles, and without a second point you may reach your first point, but be aiming in a different direction when you get to that point than you originally intended.
Further Information
http://redcedarvolunteers.wetpaint.com/page/Navigation
A Couple of Quotes To Make Us Think
"It is not enough to be busy... the question is is: what are we busy about?"
Henry David Thoreau
"Finding out whether you are the source of your wants, or they are something you wanted, is the key to knowing what you truly want."
Ernie J. Zelinski
"Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment."
Lao Tzu
Population Overshoot
Population Overshoot, the idea that we may have already passed the Earth's sustainable carrying capacity- and may be in the process of devouring the biological capital that allows life to continue, is a terrifying and increasingly unavoidable topic. But how one addresses this topic depend upon how one views humans and their society in relation to the rest of Planet Earth. Depending on how long energy remains abundant and cheap, and depending on how much people all over the world are consuming, we may be near or past overshoot right now. But, of course, since these and other relevant variables are subject to outside pressures (such as our actions), nothing is decided yet.
Add to this problem other problems equally as scary: such as peak oil, climate change, species extinction, and resource depletion, and you start grasp the magnitude of the situation. We have to be heroic in order to surmount the challenges that previous generations have left for us. Nothing less and amazing will do the job. Right now we are watching bureaucrats and politicians walk around being mediocre, spouting meaningless platitudes. We need to be better than that. If we want to be buried in soil that is still capable of supporting life, we need to step up to the plate and be radically better than the generations that came before.
And even if we do all this, it still may not be enough. That is the reality, and I'm not to lie to you or hide that behind mumbo jumbo and fuzzy thinking. The number of challenges piling up in front of civilization is getting pretty intimidating. We may be fine without doing anything, although this outcome is increasingly doubtful. We may be fine after some hard work, although this too is increasingly doubtful. We may be fine after a lot of monumental work, but it may also be that no amount of work will be enough to save our civilization.
Rome fell, Greece fell, Egypt fell, the Ottoman Empire fell, the British and Spanish Empires fell, so did Napoleon's France, so did the Mayans and the Aztecs. Some fell on the own. Some fell because of outside forces. We may not be able to our civilization, just as so many other peoples could not save their civilizations. But despite the odds, we certainly must try.
Add to this problem other problems equally as scary: such as peak oil, climate change, species extinction, and resource depletion, and you start grasp the magnitude of the situation. We have to be heroic in order to surmount the challenges that previous generations have left for us. Nothing less and amazing will do the job. Right now we are watching bureaucrats and politicians walk around being mediocre, spouting meaningless platitudes. We need to be better than that. If we want to be buried in soil that is still capable of supporting life, we need to step up to the plate and be radically better than the generations that came before.
And even if we do all this, it still may not be enough. That is the reality, and I'm not to lie to you or hide that behind mumbo jumbo and fuzzy thinking. The number of challenges piling up in front of civilization is getting pretty intimidating. We may be fine without doing anything, although this outcome is increasingly doubtful. We may be fine after some hard work, although this too is increasingly doubtful. We may be fine after a lot of monumental work, but it may also be that no amount of work will be enough to save our civilization.
Rome fell, Greece fell, Egypt fell, the Ottoman Empire fell, the British and Spanish Empires fell, so did Napoleon's France, so did the Mayans and the Aztecs. Some fell on the own. Some fell because of outside forces. We may not be able to our civilization, just as so many other peoples could not save their civilizations. But despite the odds, we certainly must try.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The new tribal revolution
I have been thinking about the new tribal revolution: a term coined by Daniel Quinn in his novel "My Ishmael".
Meant as a movement that would harness the creative spirit of the industrial revolution and use it to design a sustainable and satisfying way of life for humanity. I've been thinking the Genus Rex could be defined as part of the new tribal revolution.
Thoughts?
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