From Scratch

Obama may have just recently proposed new emissions standards regulating carbon dioxide released by new power plants, but he's also just promised to increase domestic oil drilling, expressing his support for advancing the potentially detrimental Oklahoma oil pipeline, on his energy tour last week. So where exactly does Obama stand? On the one hand, the new emissions standards would limit the CO2 emissions of all new  power plants, yet he also wants to speed up construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. While speaking on an oil field in New Mexico on March 21, Obama acknowledged recent research findings concluding that increased domestic oil drilling has not lead to lower gas prices.   "A recent independent analysis showed that over the last 36 years, there has been no connection between the amount of oil that we drill in this country and the price of gasoline," Obama said. "There's no connection." ( USA Today )   Keystone XL oil pipeline to run from ...

Hi readers, This GOOD article was pretty eye-opening for me- as I never fully understood how the American-looking "vintage" clothes I would see all over Southeast Asia ended up there. And then there's Japan, a country whose obsession with American-style clothing I've read about quite often. Well, I guess the jig is up. We, Americans, are inadvertently donating our clothing to the vintage/thrift industry all over the world, or mostly Asia and developing countries in South America, Africa, and Asia. No-go for Europe? When we donate our last-season or fairly tattered clothing to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, slow-sellers are shipped overseas for second-secondary sales- tertiary sales. I have an idea—how about cutting out the middle-man (Goodwill, etc.) and donating/selling our clothes directly to these second-hand clothing industries overseas? However, is this an endeavor worth pursuing since the profits would most likely go directly into the pocket of an unethical...

Readers, have you heard about Seattle's planned public food forage plot ? This is really interesting and exciting stuff. Could this be the U.S.' solution to a better food marketplace? Or are we just reverting back to our hunter-gatherer instincts? Seattle's public food forage plot seems a bit more sophisticated than simply exploring the wild for edible plants. It's interesting to contemplate all the different forms of acquiring food in today's world. For most people, the most conventional and only source for food are supermarkets/farmer's markets. There is also the smaller group of dumpster divers, also known as Freegans. Other forms of acquiring food? Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSAs) could be considered one, in which a household pre-pays for a bundle of produce from a particular farm, received on a weekly basis. And what of the purpose of the food forage plot? According to the above-linked NPR article, it is to increase self-reliance and get together p...