Wheelhouse

Where did they go? Well . . . it was either an error by my dog Lucia, who was helping me get rid of some blogs created by spammer, or me who was overseeing Lucia. In either case I found a few of the last few blog entries in a Google cache. Here they are for what it’s worth.

What Happened at the Media Reform Conference 2007?Free Press, there are many experiences and views. Go to the Free Press web site for, video clips of the plenaries, audio of all the workshops, blogs and links to media stories from the corporate press. Common Dreams has some links as well as a good pre-conference article on AlterNet.

Van Jones closed the conference, watch here, and at the end of his remarks he made a plea to work together after the conference; not to fall into an over-critical analysis of Free Press and the conference. I agree with not beating up on each other just as the Media Reform movement gains momentum and perhaps even some power - progressives sometimes tend towards internal self destruction.

Van Jones at the Media Reform Conference 2007

With that in mind, visit a thoughtful critique by Danny Schechter at MediaChannel.org.

Having attended all 3 conferences, my experience at this one was positive overall, but it’s hard to bring back the energy of the conference to the local community. My suggestion, not criticism, is to have satellite conferences like the Bioneers community has done for the past 5 years. There is still a main conference were the energy of over 3,000 people gather to share thoughts and strategies. But local satellite conferences, anchored in their local communities, can gather to watch the plenaries and then go to workshops and strategy sessions that are focused on the issues of their locations as well as having the big picture from the plenaries. This approach provides people an option to stay home and still be engaged. And a conference that gets any larger than the estimated 3,400 people that showed up in Memphis will be logistically challenging not only for the organizers, but the attendees as well.

This year is a critical year for media issues; things are moving fast, hold on and stay engaged.

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Opening Day - National Media Reform Conference
January 12th, 2007 by wheelhouse

Just a quick note that I made it to Memphis to the National Media Reform Conference and to let you know you can watch the main events live — go to the links for the streaming video.

Here is an image of the main hall early this morning before it has started.

I haven’t even had coffee yet, more later.

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What’s wrong with this title?
January 8th, 2007 by Moderator

“Mother Nature hurting businesses“, headlines from the Sunday, January 7, 2007 edition of the Traverse City Record Eagle. Doesn’t it seem like the wording is backwards? “Businesses hurting Mother Nature” might be a bit more realistic given the human caused global warming that is responsible for erratic weather patterns here and other areas around the planet.

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Are you using a “green” fuel?
December 18th, 2006 by wheelhouse

I was asked by a neighbor if I was using one of the “green fuels”, ethanol or biodiesel. I was rather blunt with him and said no, that current biofuels were bullshit. I wished I had this article to hand him.

The Big Three — The numbers behind ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and biodiesel in the U.S., BY MAYWA MONTENEGRO- December 2006

So if you were wondering about the current options for biofuels give Maywa Montenegro’s article a read. If you don’t have time to read it here is the last line:

. . . It won’t happen unless we as individuals are willing to cut back on how much energy we consume, bottom line.

For further reading . . . Green Fuel’s Dirty Secret, by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch.

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English News from Al Jazeera
December 12th, 2006 by wheelhouse

The English version of the international news from Al Jazeera isn’t carried by any U.S. cable companies, but you can subscribe to Al Jazeera International on the Internet. I gave this a try and was amazed at how well the video stream works. It is certainly news from a perspective you won’t see from U.S. media. If you’re interested in giving it a try, you can subscribe to a month at a time — go here.

Al Jazeera News

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The myths of more landfills

December 10th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Sunday, December 10, 2006, the headline of the Record Eagle read Grand Traverse County measure might mean more landfills. The article starts with a quote from Grand Traverse County Commissioner Margaret Underwood, “Recycling is a myth”. Perhaps the myth is representative democracy in Grand Traverse County — the concept that elected officials represent the interest of their citizens.

A candidate for public office could potentially set their personal views aside for the sake of representing the views of their constituents. I believe this is in holding with the spirit of public service and representative democracy. From Accurate Representation in Representative Democracy

That’s not the spirit with some of the Grand Traverse County Commissioners. This same county commission hired EPIC-MIRA, a Lansing based firm, to conduct a comprehensive survey of local residents and businesses about their trash and recycling needs. The report was released in 2005. The survey shows clear support for recycling by large majority of the county’s citizens. For example:

* 78% of the residents and business engage in recycling
* A tipping fee surcharge (fee on trash at the landfill) to fund recycling is favored by 71% of those surveyed.
* Increased curbside recycling at $5/month has strong support at 62% from responders.

Instead of acting on the wishes of the majority of the citizens, some of the commissioners met with representatives of the Waste Industry in a private meeting, closed to the public, and acted on the wishes of this special interest group.

The Waste Industry wants the new solid waste plan to support the option of multiple landfill sites in Grand Traverse County. The citizens want more recycling. Guess who the commissioners supported — the best interests of the Waste Industry.

The idea that there will be multiple landfills operating in Grand Traverse County is also a myth. Waste Management, the largest corporation in the waste industry with over 13 billion dollars in revenues in 2005, has one of the largest landfills in Michigan, just over Grand Traverse County’s border in Leelanau County. This site has more than 40 years of projected capacity for Grand Traverse County’s waste along with Leelanau County’s waste. The high cost and length of time needed for siting and constructing other landfills in the area are overwhelmingly prohibitive with Waste Management’s neighboring landfill.

The issue of more landfills is a distraction to the real issue of getting competitively priced trash and better recycling services; which could be achieved by contracting for services in a bidding process. More about this later.

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Climate Change and Great Lake Levels
December 4th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Fall water levels hit 80-year low, the headline of the Traverse City Record Eagle, December 4, 2006. The source of the story is from DULUTH, Minn. (AP). The article mostly addresses the problems the lower lake level will have on the Great Lakes Shipping Industry. According to the article, the reason for the lower level is . . . ” The drop in levels is due mainly to six months of regional drought, experts say. But the effects could last years, and continued dry conditions exacerbate problems further.”

The article never mentions the predicted effects of global warming. There are several reports about the impacts of Global Warming on the Great Lakes and almost all indicate lower lake levels. From THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON THE GREAT LAKES REGION — Critical Findings for the Great Lakes Region from the First National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change

“According to the scenarios used in the National Assessment, scientists expect average temperatures in the Upper Great Lakes region to warm by 2 to 4 C, while precipitation could increase by 25 % by the end of the 21st century. Despite this significant increase in precipitation, lake water levels are expected to fall by 1.5 to 8 feet by 2100 because of the higher temperatures, with serious implications for ecosystems and the economy.” read more here.

There are other reports that have reached similar conclusions. Apparently the mainstream corporate media must of overlooked this detail.

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Human civilization and asteroids
November 29th, 2006 by wheelhouse

I’ve often thought of human civilization as a slow moving asteroid hitting the Earth. Human expansion causing a disruption as great as the asteroid that hit our planet about 65 million years ago — massive extinctions and climate disruptions.

In a recent article in the New Yorker, 11-20-06, The Darkening Sea What carbon emissions are doing to the ocean, by Elizabeth Kolbert, current effects of humans’ burning fossil fuels is compared to the effects of the asteroid hitting the Earth 65 million years ago.

“. . . Ken Caldeira said that he thought a better analogy for the future would be the so-called K-T, or Cretaceous-Tertiary, boundary event, which occurred sixty-five million years ago, when an asteroid six miles wide hit the earth. In addition to dust storms, fires, and tidal waves, the impact is believed to have generated huge quantities of sulfuric acid.

“The K-T boundary event was more extreme but shorter-lived than what we could do in the coming centuries,” Caldeira said. “But by the time we’ve burned conventional fossil-fuel resources what we’ve done will be comparable in extremeness, except that it will last millennia instead of years.” . . .

Well, it seems we are doing more profound planetary damage than a six mile wide asteroid. Read the full article here

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Back at Neahtawanta
November 27th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Returned home to the Neahtawanta Inn yesterday. Traffic was light for the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as we traveled from Evanston, IL back home. Looking out at the calm bay in front of the Inn, I realize how fortunate I am to be living here.
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From Evanston - last stop before returning to the Inn
November 26th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Went to see Bobby, the movie out this last weekend about Bobby Kennedy. It got mixed reviews by the critics. The movie was engaging for me. What struck me the most was listening to the various speeches of Bobby Kennedy that flowed over images in the movie. They were the kind of speeches that I don’t hear from any politician today. I wished I did, maybe someone is saying these things and really believing them, I hope I can hear them soon.

Back to my life at the Neahtawanta Inn today.

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The Day After
November 24th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Thanksgiving dinner with friends and relatives took an unusual turn when a small alien (the small being with the space-time controller embedded on its forehead) channeled me to a room where I was playing a guitar. In this dimension I don’t play the guitar, so I’m not sure where I was taken, but I think I had fun.

Bob and the alien transporter

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Morning view from South Jordan, UT
November 22nd, 2006 by wheelhouse

I’m in the southern sprawl zone of the Salt Lake City MetroPlex in the Wasatch Area of Utah looking off the balcony of an apartment complex.
View from South Jordon
I’m amazed at the amount of economic expansion in every direction. For folks in Traverse City who think we are sprawling, well visiting here puts sprawl in a different context. There is a planning and visioning process for the Wasatch Area of Utah. It is called Envision Utah. This process has a national reputation as a great example of citizens working together to create a community vision. I wonder how different the area would look if they didn’t have Envision Utah. Because, as an outsider, this looks like “Sprawlville” plus. Everywhere you look there is more development of housing and shopping centers. You can shop till you drop — if you can get there in the traffic. I’m not being critical, I’m just overwhelmed by being in a metroplex zone in an over-developed country.

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Sally, Donny and Bree
November 21st, 2006 by wheelhouse

Our hosts in Utah are Donny and Bree, next to Sally in the photo.Sally, Donny and Bree

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Photo of Sally and Bob
November 21st, 2006 by wheelhouse

As I continue on the learning curve I’m adding this photo of Sally and me in the mountains east of Salt Lake City; I think it was called Alta.
Sally and Bob in Utah

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From Salt Lake City
November 20th, 2006 by wheelhouse

Where am I? A long way from the quiet and familiar world of Neahtawanta. I’m on vacation, kind of, but I’m using some of the time to learn about WordPress and blogging.

I saw an interesting video clip, it was on the Media Channel web site, check it out.
“…Danny and Rory discuss English Al-Jazeera and the impact the new international news channel will have. “