text:
INDEX - PLANNINGwww.islandbreath.org ID#0704-16
SOURCE: DAVID WARD email@example.com
POSTED: 6 DECEMBER 2007 - 3:00pm HST
Communities, Refuges, and Refuge-Communities
image above: The City of Refuge in Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island
by Zachary Nowak on 4 December 2006 in www.energybulletin.net
A few weeks ago I wrote an article called Preparing For A Crash: Nuts and Bolts. In addition to a lengthier-than-normal comment from the editors of Energy Bulletin (one that seemed more like a disclaimer for having published it than a comment), the piece provoked a thoughtful-if-scathing critique from the creator of the website Transition Culture, Rob Hopkins. His blog in turn attracted a number of comments from readers and based on that and a few emails exchanged with some of the readers and with Rob himself, I decided to write another essay to make my position a little clearer.
The theme of my original essay was essentially preparation for the worst-case Peak Oil scenario. I think I can say quite safely that this is a topic that most peakniks prefer to avoid. It's much easier psychologically, I suppose, to muse about proven reserves and drilling rig counts than to look at the second part of the following equation: "Given x, then …", i.e. to talk about what may happen as a result of Peak Oil.
Most Peak Oil sites (exceptions being dieoff.org and lifeaftertheoilcrash.com) tend to studiously avoid discussion of the worst-case scenario, preferring to look ahead to some sort of Jeffersonian agrarian republic where small, organic-based farming communities live in harmony in a lower-energy world. While I deeply hope that this is what happens (otherwise my biodiesel still will be worthless), sound crisis planning often involves imagining the most severe possibility. I fear that the discussion of a post-Peak future is being lead by what we all want, not by what could be, or by what some think is actually more probable.
Those of us who don't necessarily believe that all will turn out so peachy are dismissively referred to as "doomers" or "survivalists," both words that have considerably negative connotations. Survivalist is a word that conjures up an image of a hick hiding out in rural Wyoming, someone who hates and fears the government and sits on a huge stack of cans of baked beans and weenies, along with his assault rifle and a pile of ammunition. I've actually taken the time to read some "survivalist literature" (in the hopes of finding some good ideas for preparations), but was rather disappointed, as the advice revolved around guns and canned goods.
This type of survivalist has never heard of permaculture or powerdown and seems to hope to hold out for a new [still fossil fuel-based?] Protestant Republic of America. Peak Oil does not seem to be on the radar screen, and I think I can safely disassociate myself from this kind of survivalist. Survivalist in the strictest sense, however, perhaps does apply to me, in that I would like to survive any possible Peak Oil crisis. The Energy Bulletin editor who commented on my essay noted that survival and sustainability are, in the long run, the same thing.
Fear has threatened to create a new dichotomy of doomers/survivalists vs. powerdowners, much like that of depletionists vs. cornucopians. Remember how frustrating your last conversation with a cornucopian was? "There's plenty of oil and in any event, humans are creative in a crisis, we'll figure something out, it'll be fine." People who accept Peak Oil as a theory but then reject, a priori, the possibility of the worst-case scenario transpiring risk being more like the cornucopian Flat Earthers, as well as excluding from rational debate a valid possibility of Peak Oil.
Either you're a respectable peaknik who reads your ASPO bulletins and tends your square-foot permaculture kitchen garden, or you're a nutty survivalist, alone with beans and your gun. I think it is more useful for the Peak Oil "movement" to see the more extreme viewpoint as a point on the spectrum, not as a polar opposite. This essay will explore the thinking behind the more extreme position and why, even if it doesn't happen, preparations with a more severe crisis in mind may be more helpful than preparing for a return to the biodiesel-powered Jeffersonian republic that never was.
Metaphors & Examples of Past Crises
Throughout Peak Oil literature (and frequently in the comments on Rob's blog), writers invoke certain metaphors and examples of past crises or collapses. These invocations are used to paint a picture of the post-Peak world and range from cautionary tales to moving elegies to human ingenuity and resourcefulness. Paraphrasing the philosopher Wittgenstein, one could say that metaphors are not the vehicles of thought, they are the driver. It may seem like an odd place to begin, but I think this discussion needs to start with a review of the commonest Peak Oil allegories and where they lead our thinking and planning for a future crisis.
To start off with metaphors, let's look closely for a moment at the Bell Curve, familiar to us all from many examples, not the least of which that hand-checkered one by M.King Hubbert. The bell curve is the perfect representation of exponential growth and the economic concept of diminishing marginal returns, the "law" that states that in certain complex systems, a point will be reached where exponentially larger inputs will not result in exponentially larger outputs. The Bell Curve Metaphor for Peak Oil (both for the supply of oil and the general "state" of society) is attractive because it is so often found in nature. Yet beware the siren call of its seductive curves. From reading cornucopian economists we know how easy it is to be taken in by the simplicity of that line that wraps so gracefully and mathematically around the X and Y axes.
"Doomers" like me often feel even more gloomy after having seen a bell curve because the decline on the far side of that curve just seems so damn inevitable. Another metaphor that I as an amateur vintner am enamored of is the action of yeast. Yeast introduced into a sugar-rich liquid eat the sugar and begin raising lots of little yeast rug rats, while literally farting carbon dioxide and pissing ethyl alcohol. The population of yeast rises rapidly with the readily available energy source, yet so does environmental pollution (the toxic waste-product of yeast family values, C2H6O, ethyl alcohol).
The increase in alcohol and decrease in available food (i.e. energy) quickly impinge on the yeast population, leading to a population crash (and a nice, dry wine). It's a cautionary tale about declining energy stocks and upwards-spiraling pollution and subsequent die-off, but the metaphor excludes any possibility of thought or planning to avoid the collapse. Homo sapiens sapiens, for better or for worse, are a lot more clever than Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This metaphor is also a radical oversimplification – there are few actors and relatively few variables (mostly small organic compounds), whereas Peak Oil involves a huge number of variables and extremely complex feedback loops between them.
Yet another metaphor is that of a lifeboat (though this borders on historical example because the Titanic is often invoked). Peak Oil leads to a "sinking ship" and responses to this can be both positive (people who didn't believe the boat unsinkable and got in lifeboats survived) or negative (doomers are portrayed as those who launched the lifeboats half-full, a metaphor for diverting valuable resources away from crisis prevention to crisis preparation).
I like the Lifeboat Metaphor though because it underlines the danger of planning for the less-than-worst case scenario, and the hubris of unbounded faith in human technological ingenuity. It is a bit "overbearing," though, because of the strong emotional response we have to the Titanic tragedy, and even dangerous as a metaphor because even in the Titanic example, eventually help does arrive from the "outside world," while Peak Oil would be a global crisis by definition.
One last metaphor, one near and dear to my heart: The Car-With-No-Brakes Metaphor. If I'm in a car that's barreling down a hill and the driver tells me that the brakes don't work, I'm going to start looking for a grassy patch on the side of the road to jump out onto. I often use this metaphor when someone challenges the morality of planning a "refuge" as opposed to trying to convince my neighbors / my neighborhood / the whole world that Peak Oil is a big problem. Time is of the essence in this metaphor, and it brings into stark relief how some discussions ("Let's jump!") have priority over others ("Should we veer right or left at the next intersection?"). One weakness, however, is the inevitability of the crash.
Moving from metaphor to example, let's discuss some past crises that are often cited in Peak Oil discussions. Civilizational collapses of various stripes are often used to understand what we may be facing, and most are reviewed in Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Civilizations to a degree of detail beyond the scope of this essay. The crises he reviews, though, are, by definition, crashes, complete or near-complete collapses, not successful responses to collapse (i.e. return to a lower level of societal complexity). His examples, which run the gamut from the Romans and Chinese dynasties to the Maya and the Anasazi, are fascinating precisely because there are indeed some common themes, and they illustrate how the difference between a collapse and a crisis may just be their duration.
The obvious weakness of comparing their crises to the one which may be upon us is that they were relatively "local" in context, in addition to the fact that they occurred in a pre-industrial world. Another favorite pair of examples that are trundled out in peaknik debates, usually in the context of human nature and what role it plays in a crisis, is New Orleans and New York City, in the context of the recent hurricane and blackout crises.
New Orleans is used to illustrate the dark side of each of us, as well as a warning about the lack of, or at least insufficient level of, emergency planning, despite expert warning about the possible consequences. New York City, on the other hand, is an example about how people can be calm in a stressful event and even work together, often in small groups, to survive by pooling information and resources.
These two events obviously differ in their severity, which may also help us understand the difference in the responses of those involved. Both, however, suffer from a crucial weakness when used as models for how humans may respond to any Peak Oil-induced crisis: both crises were "resolved" by massive external inputs, and those involved knew those inputs (i.e. emergency aid) would be forthcoming, sooner or later. Are they, then, useful models for a global crisis in which there will be no "external inputs," barring extra-terrestrial intervention (I'll go on record to say I doubt this so I'm not a branded a UFO-survivalist).
Finally, we come to North Korea and Cuba, which are the whipping boy and poster child, respectively, for the sustainability crowd. North Korea didn't shift its agricultural model towards a more sustainable, organic model, and thus is starving; Cuba, on the other hand, did, and made enormous progress towards self-sufficiency and reduction of fossil fuel inputs, as the excellent survey, Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance, shows. The authors of the studies reviewed are careful to say, however, that Cuba is still dependent on outside inputs, be it hard currency from sugar sales or the fossil fuels it still receives from ideologically-similar neighbors.
What was my point in this review? Essentially, it's that we tend to select our metaphors and examples to match our conceptions of what the future will be like, not imagine the future based on metaphors and examples. This is dangerous insofar as the examples above differ considerably on three essential indices.
Three Axes
Nope, this isn't a section about three woodsmen and the tools with which they earn their living, it's about a model where there are x, y, and z axes. These are speed, severity, and duration. Assuming one believes that the Peak Oil event would provoke some sort of crisis on some level, preparations made for such a crisis are perforce based on at least an intuitive conception of where it would fall on these three variables. Better said, your preparations for a Peak Oil crisis depend upon your ideas about the speed with which that crisis will manifest itself, the severity of the effects, and the duration of the negative effects. This section will look at each of these variables in turn.
Speed is an important factor; it can be broken down into two distinct variables, onset speed and speed of progression. Onset speed is the time between when all is calm and when the winds are piling up water so high it goes over the levees. Measuring the onset speed is all about when you measure and from what standpoint. The onset speed of World War I was rapid if we say that is was the period between July 28th (the day of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo) and August 4th (the day the crisis became a shooting war).
For historians looking backward later, though, the war "began" perhaps with the unification of the German Empire in 1871, but most people in Europe at the time experienced this as a gentle breeze, not warning winds whistling through the rigging. Some theorists see the coming crisis as part of long-term economic waves (cf. Immanuel Wallerstein) in capitalism's five hundred year history, or even longer-period waves (cf. an article about Elliot waves by Daan Joubert et al.).
So too today: most Americans have been aware of a coming crisis since May of 2004, when the gasoline prices began to rise, while most people who read this article may have been aware since four or five years ago. Onset speed could then be defined as the speed with which the crisis becomes obvious to each individual observer, and so defines how much time they have before the crisis is upon them. From that point on we can speak of the speed of progression. How fast did the Titanic sink after it began to list, how long does the yeast last after the population maxes out, how quickly did the Anasazi abandon Chaco Canyon and the arroyos when their food crisis began?
This variable has a huge effect on one's preparation, and the Peak Oil literature runs the gamut. Richard Duncan, whose Olduvai Theory and subsequent updates envision a rapid sequence from the recognition of the coming crisis (slope event) to the slide event and the ensuing collapse. It's worthwhile, by the way, to note the bell curve in his theory.
Further towards the other end of the spectrum is James Howard Kunstler, whose book's title, The Long Emergency, brilliantly captures the idea of a long, grinding crisis, a slow decline of our "standard of living" as measured in GDP, average income, and available energy per capita. Speed of progression is critical because it tells us how long we will have to adjust and how quickly events will change. Decisions about speed of progression affect how long we think we have to make these arguments to our neighbors (or better, how long we have until we can convince all of them).
The second variable, severity, is intrinsically related to speed because even if the speed of progression is high, with a slow enough onset speed we can take measures to reduce the severity of the crisis (i.e. preparations), if not identify solutions to avoid it completely. In some cases, however, solutions are not possible – we can't "solve" a hurricane, just try to avoid its worst effects.
So too we may not be able to solve our ecological overshoot except by being part of a die-off, nature's solution to overshoot. Back to severity: the difference in severity of a rowboat sinking in Central Park's pond and the sinking of the Titanic in the North Atlantic are both obvious and important. We should make preparations based not on the likelihood of an event, but rather on the severity of the situation in the event it occurs.
This is precisely the concept behind insurance: most Americans do not believe their house will ever burn down, however the severity of that situation, were it to occur, necessitates an extreme response (i.e. paying thousands of dollars in premiums for which you get absolutely nothing except a promise of help if the unlikely event occurs). I would bet a good deal of money that a majority of Americans, even if they could, would not drop their homeowner's insurance. Are they doomers? No, they just know that given the severity, despite the unlikelihood of a fire, it ain't worth risking it. Do the commentators who said I was exaggerating the likelihood of a big crisis have such insurance – dollars-to-doughnuts says they do.
Preparations for a severe situation often exaggerate what would be needed for the not-so-severe situation, because we know we are by nature optimists. Put your levees five feet higher than you think the water could ever come and you're probably safe. In thinking about severity, though, we can't just think about the ultimate cause of hardship. In New Orleans the ultimate cause, Hurricane Katrina, started a domino effect whose outcomes reverberated through the area.
In a Peak Oil crisis, the ultimate cause of the situation would be the lower per-capita available energy, while proximate causes of hardship might include hyperinflation, transportation-network breakdown, or even government repression. Severity is a rather hard thing to make guesses about because complex systems are, well, complex, and may have feedback loops that we can't even begin to predict. Our third variable is duration, though I admit that being a "doomer" I was tempted to call it "permanence." I doubt that this concept needs much explanation though I suppose it could be defined as "time until the situation stabilizes or returns to normal."
Severe situations that are of relatively short duration are not as dangerous as those that are longer, or permanent. Often the length of crises determines whether there will be a "return to normal." A crisis in a highly-interlinked society often means time without outside assistance, whereas the crisis we could be facing might mean a permanent severe situation with no outside inputs arriving, ever. Duration could also be the time of stabilization, between "old normal" and "new normal."
For me the most obvious example would be the time of crisis between the demise of our current way of life and the coming of the Jeffersonian organic society, the new normal. Most people who share this vision of the future see a near-seamless transition riding on the crest of Permaculture teach-ins and community supported agriculture, but what if the duration is longer? What if a Peak event creates chaos which takes some years to transition from an urban society to sustainable communities. Look at your neighbors and imagine them hoeing weeds and making biodiesel before you answer this question (or imagine them hungry, and scared of the no-more-streetlights dark).
Dangerous Axioms
In geometry, where one arrives and what one can prove depend on one's axioms, that is to say the things one believes to be true without need of proof. Given the axiom x, we can infer the effects y and z of situation PO. Far too often we make arguments without stating the axioms that underlie our thinking, either because we believe them to be without need of proof, or (more often) because we aren't even aware of them. In reading Peak Oil essays, I've identified some of these ideas which I would call "dangerous axioms," dangerous in that we don't reflect on them before using them.
The first is "human nature," or the nature of human nature, or the nature of human nature in nature (sorry, I couldn't resist). Both explanations of human actions in past crises and guesses about responses to future crises are often based on what the author imagines human nature to be. Are we inherently evil and self-centered, willing to steal from our neighbors just to stay alive, or are we good, or at least smart enough to solve the Prisoner's Dilemma without many iterations, working together to our common benefit? I personally stand with Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, on this question: we have a nature capable of both selfishness and altruism, and what we manifest is based on what the environmental context encourages. In any event, assuming human nature is one way or the other determines how we imagine the future.
Another dangerous idea is the unquestioned belief in progress, together with her children "rational debate," "technological solutions," and "human ingenuity." Some sort of idea of the incremental but cumulative betterment of our standard of living if not also our standards of morality seems to be part of most of the world's major religions and philosophies. In Christianity it was first articulated by Saint Augustine but really took hold during the Enlightenment with August Comte's positivism.
Progress is an attractive idea, and on that seems to have a lot of evidence to support it, but it is, nonetheless, an idea. It's interesting to me that Americans believe in it so strongly, despite the fact that most of us who are 40 years old or younger accept the fact that we will never "have it so good" as our parents. We work longer hours and make less than they did thirty years ago and we have fewer social programs to help us, but we cling to the idea of progress, perhaps because the alternative frightens us.
A belief in technological solutions to all problems is another dangerous axiom. It seems to be no great coincidence that Comte's positivism and the Industrial Revolution were practically contemporaneous. Perhaps the latter was the parent of the former, not a mere relative? Americans, more than just plain progress, believe in technological progress. For every big problem, we seem to have invented a technological solution. Need to harvest more wheat? Call Mr. McCormick (or Monsanto).
Don't want to die of tuberculosis? Don't worry, Dr. Saulk's got the cure! Fat? Get liposuction! In our love for these techie solutions, we ignore the fact that they often create other problems. In addition, some of them are only partial solutions – tar sands provide energy but at an EROEI far lower than conventional crude. I would put the almost-messianic and totally misplaced faith in the so-called "hydrogen economy" firmly in this category.
A more refined version of that idea is the faith in human ingenuity to solve problems (social, moral, etc.) that we can't fix with technology. Note that I am not arguing that we as a species cannot solve some of our problems or some of those common to all of the biosphere's species (most of which we created), but rather against the idea that human ingenuity can and will solve all problems. I think it is safe to say that this belief is common if not prevalent in our otherwise-gloomy philosophy (i.e. of Peak Oil) – for example, Energy Bulletin has a "Solutions and Sustainability" category, as well as the new category "Imagine."
Human ingenuity will create amazing responses to Peak Oil and in fact, it already has (I would list permaculture, biofuel cooperatives, and CSAs as examples), but I personally believe that these are excellent responses, not solutions per se. They may make the coming storm easier to weather, but the ferocious winds and rains will come, in my opinion, just the same. Heck, who knows, we may develop new social forms for an easy transition to sustainability, but we should not take for granted (i.e. assume as axiomatic) that speedy development and replacement.
Another vestige of the Enlightenment that is an article of faith for even the most rational of us (in fact, especially the most rational of us) is a belief in rational debate to change people's minds. I suppose I am the first to admit sin as I sit here writing in the hopes of changing minds, but I do not believe that overwhelming evidence, carefully and logically presented, will always or eventually convince anyone, not to mention everyone or even a majority.
I've had far too many conversations (debates? arguments?) about Peak Oil and collapse, not to mention other topics for which I had better evidence and reasoning (e.g. how Led Zeppelin is clearly the greatest rock band in history). I don't think I am alone in this experience. It's not that I have lost all hope of ever presenting a good argument, but I'm not going to be pissing into the wind trying to convince everyone or even most people.
People often ignore incontrovertible evidence and airtight arguments because the result conflicts with their belief systems. To those who commented "We should try to use this time to convince people…", I say, give it a try and write in to tell us the results. I'm guessing most of the "we-shoulds" live on a street where the majority of people pray to the hydrogen God every night before they go to sleep, hoping it will save their butts. Try convincing your street before you give a lecture on how all of us should use our time and energy to change everybody's else's minds, because I can tell you from experience, it tends to be an energy-intensive, time-consuming, and frustrating-if-not-futile exercise.
All of the above – progress, the technological quick-fix, human ingenuity, and rational debate – also fall flat on their faces when confronted with a relatively simple equation: fossil fuels + land = lots of people. We have millions of "ghost acres" of land that are supplying solar energy stored eons ago in large inland seas-became-oil reserves, and the loss of this input (or rather its reduction) plus the ever-increasing loss of arable land, means that while there may be "lots of people" still in the future, there will be far fewer "lots of people." I can't help but think of the quote from one of the reader's of Rob's blog, who commented, "I find it interesting that a significant component of the peak oil crowd actually envisions an almost utopian powerdown scenario in which we all end up living like those cheery castaways on Gilligan's Island."
This leads me to a final dangerous axiom, which could be called "anthrocentricity." It's the idea that the problem to be solved is how to allow humans to exist at their current population levels, or something like it. From our anthro-centric point of view, a large population correction or die-off is a negative event. Seen from the point of the rest of the world's species, it might not be such a bad thing. We are able to exist in such huge numbers so far up on the food chain only because we appropriate so much of the incident solar energy.
We cut down trees and wildflowers and chase away foxes to make fields and gardens. Even permaculture is a decision, made by humans, about which flora and fauna can benefit from the sun's energy, usually because we want to use them for food. Whether or not it's our "right" to appropriate this energy, to the tune of six billion (or one billion, or a half billion) humans is another question, but it's a question we have to ask ourselves.
Any curbing of our numbers, whether minimal or extensive, would likely be heartily applauded by the rest of the earth's species (could they applaud), aside from the several hundred that we have made dependent on us. If there were an Energy Bulletin site for cod, under the "Solutions and Sustainability" section I can imagine an articles called "Massive Human Die-Off Seen As Likely" or "Imagine A World Without Fishing."
Preparation Decisions: Refuge vs. Community.
After a painfully long philosophical digression, I now return to a more concrete discussion of Peak Oil preparations. I've tried to show how the metaphors we use, the examples we cite, our guesses about a Peak Oil crisis' speed, severity, and duration, and the axioms we unconsciously bring to our debates will determine how we approach preparations. I personally tend to think in terms of the die-off metaphor from nature (yeast, reindeer), and cite examples from the past like Easter Island and the Anasazi.
I expect a medium-to-fast speed of a crisis, a very severe situation (at least initially), and a more or less permanent new reality, not a return to where we are now. I do not believe in eternal progress or the ability of humans to "solve," technologically or socially, a crisis of this magnitude to the extent that we can maintain our current population or something like it, and I emphatically doubt the likelihood of convincing friends and neighbors (or heads of state), in significant numbers, of the crisis before it's upon us.
Therefore, my personal preparations are based on some sort of (temporary?) retreat with ten to twenty other people in a rural location where life will be more like it was in the early 1900s. By definition this requires learning a lot of skills that have been largely forgotten, as well as the acquisition of the tools that are fundamental to these skills (from meat grinders and grub hoes to beehive smokers and pruning sheers). I imagine the possibility of a world in which the electrical grid won't be reliable, food supply will be spotty, and lots of people may be hungry.
I accept the possibility that I could be completely wrong, not because I'm humble but because it's happened quite a number of times, so I'm used to it. Please believe that I fervently hope that I'm wrong. It's possible that enormous new reserves of light, sweet crude will be discovered because of demand (Jake in the Gulf of Mexico?), that some of the just-around-the-corner energy sources will become viable and replace fossil fuels, or that long-secret products will be brought to the market.
It's also possible that the current crisis will bring about, in the course of the next few decades, a return to a moral rural lifestyle, but with models already in small-scale use: organic agriculture, permaculture, alternative building systems, and tightly inter- and intra-dependent communities.
But I'm not counting on it.
And to boot, even if I did think that possibility was more likely than a more severe crisis, I still wouldn't plan for it. Proper emergency planning means planning for the worst-case scenario, even if you don't think it is the likely scenario. I hate to sound like the proverbial broken record on this point, but I am not about to trade in my homeowner's insurance for fire extinguishers – are you? It's better to be over-prepared for a crisis than under-prepared, and that's something every Tenderfoot Boy Scout knows. An even better argument for this type of preparations is that they will be absolutely functional in the not-worse-case scenario.
In the neo-Jeffersonian Republic that we all (myself included, honest!) yearn for, my beehive smoker and knowledge of sauerkraut-making will be just as useful. Heck, they're even useful today, even if they're considered quaint hobbies rather than skills. The "survivalist" library will be just as helpful: my erstwhile critic Rob Hopkins told me that he had many of the books that I listed in my previous essay. Preparations for different situations are not, however, symmetrical.
In other words, skills you learn and tools you acquire for the worst-case scenario may be useful for the not-worst-case scenario, but the opposite is not always true. An intimate knowledge of how to organize a CSA or good Peak Oil talking points may or may not in a collapse situation. Ask yourself, "What if I'm completely wrong about the speed/severity/duration of a crisis?" As I said in my other essay, if I'm wrong I've got a cool, off-the-grid vacation house and some neat new hobbies. If the Jeffersonians are wrong, they might end up dead.
All decisions about preparations are about cost-benefit analyses and opportunity costs. The former is based on saying to yourself "Is what I get out of this investment of money/time/energy worth what I'm getting out," while the latter is saying "Given my limited resources, I'll do/buy this instead of this." I personally have limited time and money so I have to choose between Perry's Home Sausage Making and Campbell's The Coming Oil Crisis (I'd choose the latter). I'm convinced of the arguments that the latter makes, so the latter book has more utility.
Sheesh, I'm starting to sound like an economist. In any event, it's all about deciding how to spend your time and your money. Rob pointed out in his blog that spending time on learning survival skills takes time away from building communities and making people more aware of the Peak Oil crisis – and he's absolutely right. Yet given my personal set of axioms (severe crisis, difficult to convince people), a summer spent planting fruit trees and experimenting with lactic fermentation is much more valuable.
It's important to remember that the two are not mutually-exclusive: in between trips to local nurseries, I spent time with people in the area who seemed to be of like mind, just talking or helping with their sustainable projects. My emphasis, however, was on my own project, not "community building." So is it morally wrong to be more concerned about my own skin? Sorry, I hung up the Superman cloak a while ago and only take it out for the last day of October.
An excellent point made by a number of readers was that survival in a group is much more likely, so planning should be at this level, but that assumes a somewhat-tidy transition to our Brave New Organic World, a transition I don't believe in. We can always lash the lifeboats together after the ship sinks and pool our resources then. I am pretty confident, in any event, that in a time of crisis a neighbor who has very functional skills and some extra food will be able to make friends and influence people without resorting to Hubbert inflection points or abstract moral arguments.
Creating a sort of "refuge," something I freely acknowledge is not an option for everyone, is a functional option for some. Building the physical plant and learning skills like building with cob, permaculture design, and beekeeping are fun and useful. It's an investment, and something you can do to help yourself and maybe your community be more sustainable now, but without decision by committee. The community option is problematic for several reasons.
First, who is the community? Neighbors? Do you know them? The people in your neighborhood? Your suburb? What if your neighbors are like mine – too busy to listen, unconvinced even if they do, and have no money to dedicate to the cause anyway? You end up being the President, VP, and Secretary of your Sustainable Community Association.
But maybe you're lucky and your neighbors are more open-minded and less harried than mine. Any decisions about what to do are still by committee – what if your community believes that the coming crisis won't be as extreme as you do, or that it will be more extreme? What if they vote to spend dues money on fluorescent light bulbs instead of on a book about pruning, or on fluorescent light bulbs instead of on your favorite Peak Oil speaker? These are problems that arise even before a crisis comes calling in the form of the electricity going off and hungry kids looking in the window.
I applaud efforts like the powerdown projects for Willits and Kinsale (the latter edited by none other than Rob Hopkins), and think for a not-so-severe crisis, these towns will be flying high. But what if the crisis is more severe? Have the people in these communities worked out sharing plans with their neighbors in times of crisis? Will they respect these plans made in a time of plenty? Will people in Dunderrow, Belgooly, Ballinspittle, and Ballinclashet, as well as Fair Oaks, Crowley, Burbeck, and Shake City (the towns near to Kinsale and Willits, respectively) respect them? Perhaps our "community" should be a web of like-minded people in a larger geographic area, and not necessarily include everyone around us.
The kind of refuge I have in mind is not the easy option. Comments on Rob's blog helped me to realize that, but it was also fairly evident to me this summer as I worked twelve-hour days building and digging and reading. One of the most poignant criticisms of the refuge idea is that there are those who would do it but don't have the money. I am 29 years old but was able to start because my father sold his old house and bought a small cabin in the woods. I was able to dedicate three months this summer to it because I have no mortgage and make enough to take off that amount of time, a luxury few people have.
Another very accurate criticism was from the UK, where given the population density, there aren't that many areas where one could find isolated property, except in inhospitable areas that aren't the top of the list for raising crops or gardens. With the proper techniques, one can raise food anywhere, but areas that are heavily wooded or not near settlements tend to be so because of their unsuitability to agriculture. One again I forced to admit that this option is not open to everyone.
Another criticism was that a refuge-type place is just where desperate people would go. As one reader pointed out, people in rural areas know everyone's business and it would be hard to keep lots of stored food secret. I have no response to this other than to say that I hope that it doesn't get that bad that quickly, or that it gets really bad really quickly, so desperate marauders diminish in numbers. Yep, that's a horrible thing to say but I won't hide that I've pondered it. And, as I said earlier, I have been making connections with locals, particularly the like-minded ones. It's in my best interest for my neighbors to have survival skills too.
Another commentator noticed that I had avoided the "G word." I don't currently own any guns, and I'm not a hunter (though Zog—my best friend, pictured in Rob's blog—and I have good luck with clubs), and I'm scared as hell of a situation in which desperate people have guns. While I envy my European cousins and their lack of personal firepower, the reality is that Americans have guns, and that desperate people do desperate things to feed their children.
It's something I've tried to avoid thinking about but which I'll have to consider. As a commenter on Rob's blog said, it's best to avoid a firefight, but on the other hand it's preferable to take one's chances defending oneself, one's family, and one's community than to be trampled over by hungry marauders if it comes to that.
A criticism of my essay straight from Rob was that even with John Seymour's book open to the page about slaughtering a pig, he still wouldn't be able to do it properly. The first time maybe not, but I bet on the third try you wouldn't be bad. Lots of these skills are still around if you look for them – Uncle Mark cans tomatoes and the woman down the street knows how to prune. If you can't find a teacher, get a few good books and just try it. Don't worry about learning everything: obviously it's more functional for you to hone your gardening skills than your candle-making skills. There was a complaint about how long it would take to learn all these things – yep, you're right.
I've been learning about pruning for the last three years and still don't feel like an expert, and my cheese is still less than stellar despite a First World kitchen…but I'm ahead of the game. This summer during a break from planting Black Walnut seedlings, I read about a French nobleman who called in his head gardener in the morning and instructed him to go to the market to buy a rare species of tree and to plant it in the garden the next day. "But master, that species takes seventy years to mature!" "Quite right," responded the nobleman, "Plant it this afternoon."
Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men are often for naught. Reading about the Spanish flu of 1919, which killed more people than the First World War, I realized that a pandemic would render the refuge worthless. Global warming, which I accept as factual and irreversible, could make upstate New York a desert or a tundra.
War could make the U.S. radioactive or toxic. But these are possibilities that are beyond any preparations I can make. I made the analogy of insurance earlier, where we prepare not for the likelihood but for the severity; obviously this has limits. The situation I have outlined, I think, is both severe and quite possible; likewise, solid preparations for this outcome are also possible. Even if you can't become a somewhat hard-core doomer like me and Zog, you can still make some practical steps towards preparing for the future. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
I've had a field day poking fun at everything from permaculture to biodiesel, and even made several swipes at good ol' Energy Bulletin, but I want to make it explicit that I do not think any of these things foolish. To the contrary! I recently bought a $125 copy of Mollison's Permaculture: A Designer's Manua, I have a working biodiesel still, and I read Energy Bulletin religiously (read: twice daily), even the "Imagine…" section.
I have books like Gaviotas on my shelf, I brew my own beer, I have solar panels and a windmill, and I try to introduce things like companion planting to my neighbors, and I've started reading www.TransitionCulture.org more frequently. I don't own a gun, I don't want to live alone in the woods, and I don't live in fear. I made fun of the things above not because I don't respect them as excellent responses, but because I don't respect them as solutions, or as a way to completely avoid a possible period of chaos. Chaos is not pretty.
see also:
Island Breath: Post Peak Nuts & Bolts 11/26/07


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If you live in an apartment in Ridgeland, SC you can enjoy the Taste of Beaufort coming up on Friday, May 3rd & Saturday, May 4th.
This event lets you experience the essence of beautiful Beaufort! Free admission, you can purchase food and drink tickets for $1 each to use at restaurant, beer & wine, and soda booths.
On Friday, May 3rd there will be 4-90 minute Gullah-N-Geechie Mahn Tours where you can get your 'Taste' of the Gullah Culture! For a 'Taste' of the Arts enjoy the local artists exhibition located in the Contemplative Garden (behind the Pavilion Stage) in Waterfront Park. At noon the arts & craft market opens. The food and beverage booths are available from 6-10om and you can also enjoy entertainment by Carolina Soul Band.
On Saturday, May 4th is the 5K Bridge Run/Walk and the Children's Popcorn Run. Have fun in the run and stay for the "Taste!". On Saturday, the food and beverage booths are open from 11am – 5pm and the Children's Area is open all day as well. All day you can enjoy live entertainment on the pavilion stage.
Additionally, downtown Beaufort has over 80 independently owned shops & boutiques, 31 restaurants, several art galleries, and bus/walking/carriage tours. Please support small businesses in downtown Beaufort.
More informationdowntownbeaufort.com/taste-of-beaufort

subset: commoncrawl


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I was relishing my freedom like a child who was free of bondage of responsibilities,the place i live can even pacify the most turbulent mind.Serenity of my place making me tending to tranquility.One bright morning suddenly in my tranquil mind ,a turbulent scene arrived(of our freedom struggle).My mind till now was tranquil suddenly was disturbed.In the disturbed state ,my mind started to interrogate me.How was the days of freedom struggle??,How were the lives of Indians living under the terrifying shadow of Britishers??.I started to remember there sacrifice ,my mood otherwise
in jubilant state ,started to deteriorate towards sober.In that sober mood, i started feeling there pain ("people who were present before independence").Though i was born after Indian Independence,i got a feel by the books i read.I can only imagine there stertorous state.The freedom we engulf is gift of there struggle to come out of stertorous state.The sovereignty we enjoy now ,was just a day dream in those days.Imagine there state, suppression of freedom,complete draining of economy.If we can imagine a part of globe , absence of basic freedom,the cruelty that our fore fathers were facing.We Indians now live in far better world then our fore fathers has lived.I Compassionately, remembering there sacrifices signing off.


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It's a waste of paper
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(BLOOMINGTON) - Indiana Conservation Officers arrested a Heltonville man Thursday evening and another faces pending charges after both fled while riding ATVs in Monroe County.
According to Indiana Conservation Officer Jim Schreck, 45-year-old Mickel Ficus and 33-year-old Mitchell Prince both are facing charges of resisting law enforcement and Prince faces an additional charge of operating an ATV under the influence of an alcoholic beverage.
Schreck says, shortly after 7:30 p.m., the pair failed to yield to a conservation officer's emergency lights while traveling on Chapel Hill Road in Monroe County.
The two fled at a high rate of speed. Officers located Prince, who had pulled off farther down the road. Police says he was intoxicated. Ficus, who had hiding in the woods was found a short time later and jailed on a warrant for a parole violation.
Indiana Conservation Officers wish to remind ATV riders that all traffic regulations apply to ATVs when on the roadways.
Monroe County roads are closed to ATVs, however a complete listing of counties open to ATV traffic is available at www.in.gov/dnr/outdoor/4431.htm.
Have a question or comment about a news story? Send it to email@example.com
1340 AM WBIW, Bedford's Place To Talk. Serving Lawrence and surrounding counties since 1948!
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T Back Stool
The T Back Stool features a polished stainless steel frame and comfortably padded seat and back. Striking from all angles.
Dimensions: Bar Stool – 20″W x 23″D x 41″H. 28″ seat height, seat depth 17″, arm height 36.5″. Counter Stool – 20″W x 23″D x 36.5″H. 23″ seat height, seat depth 17″, arm height 32″.
Materials: Polished stainless steel, Dacron-wrapped foam.
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Hey Guys!!!
How are you? It's been a long time AGAIN hahaha how I miss blogging. I've been really busy with my plates lately. =( Anyway! I'm sharing my plate in my DESPRIN class. It's a self portrait using beads and strings. It was not that hard although you need a lot of patience to do this plate. seriously. I've been lacking sleep because of this. I know it looks easy to do but it is time consuming, especially if you have a lot of other plates in different subjects. No matter how time consuming this plate would take,I enjoyed making this plate. I hope you guys will try it out. =) It's a great practice to improve your patience. It helped me a lot in improving mine.
Black beads
Black string
Tracing paper
So here are some pictures of it.
I felt so happy and accomplished after everything. The hardship and Social life sacrifices I made! ( Being OA here) just kidding! Hope you guys enjoyed and have a nice week ahead of you. God Bless!


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Notebooks Less than One Year Old
|Download the Notebooks Survey Results (XLS)
Newer computers should get more and more reliable. And for the most part, that's what's happening: The average number of repairs for notebooks less than a year old was down one percent from last year (in this case, lower is better) but up individually for Apple, Dell, and HP.
Gateway managed a respectable drop from 15 to 12 percent on newer systems needing repairs. In fact, Gateway improved its overall numbers for support, repairs, and the likelihood of recommendation, all notable in an otherwise down year. But almost all vendors (Apple is the exception) saw a substantial drop in their scores when it came to newer laptops. In the area of technical support for new systems, Toshiba fell by eight-tenths to a woeful 6.2; HP fell seven-tenths to 6.3.
We had enough responses from readers to give repair scores on new notebooks to only Dell and HP (we encountered the same issue last year). No surprise, both were down, Dell to a 6.8 and HP to a 5.9. Both vendors were at the high end when it came to percentage of new notebooks that required a tech support call (35 and 36 percent, respectively). Only Sony was worse, at 37 percent.
Readers went after HP in particular, assigning low scores for tech-support issues such as how fast they connected, providers' expertise, and the amount of time it took to rectify a problem. The company took a beating when readers were asked if they were inconvenienced when new notebooks needed support, with a 5.1 out of 10.next: Survey Results >


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Thursday, September 15, 2011
News: THE INVISIBLE MAN (1975) Coming to DVD
In this version of The Invisible Man, which was clearly intended to be the network's answer to The Six Million Dollar Man (and was even co-created by Harve Bennett), McCallum played Dr. Daniel Westin, a scientist who accidentally turns himself permanently invisible in an experiment. With the help of his wife (Melinda Fee), he creates a remarkably lifelike rubber mask and pair of gloves, and is soon recruited by the government to be a secret agent. Westin received his orders from Walter Carlson (Craig Stevens).
I enjoyed the show as a kid, of course, and saw a few episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel back in the 90s. I seem to remember that it had a slightly lighter tone than the bionic shows, and I liked that the hero was married and that his wife was his partner in his adventures.
At the moment, the set looks like it will only be available in Canada, at least initially. Amazon.ca is already taking pre-orders.
3 comments:
- MoncynnesSeptember 15, 2011 at 8:29 AM
There's even a reference to the bionic shows in the novelization of "The Invisible Man"'s pilot episode (yes, there was a novelization, and yes, I used to own it). The Invisible Man, Dr. Daniel Westin, receives plastic skin so he can function in normal society -- the doctor who gives him the skin mentions that it was used on Colonel Steve Austin a few years ago. That "Invisible Man" novelization was written by Mike Jahn, who also wrote the novelizations to several SMDM episodes, so it's pretty cool that he tried to link the two shows...ReplyDelete
And thus, via the novelization, The Invisible Man joins Steve Austin in the Crossover Universe.ReplyDelete
(sad that way)
I liked this when it was on first. I preferred it to 'Gemini Man' which came later. But what happened to Melinda Fee, who played Westin's wife? She was gorgeous as I recall!ReplyDelete


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Osuimono II: Clear Egg-Drop Soup with Wakame
Here's another of many possible variants on Osuimono, a simple clear broth that we use as the main alternative to miso soup. As always with Osuimono, this recipe is simple: a light, delicate broth with a couple of ingredients suspended in it, nothing more.
Whichever variant you choose, you'll find there's really not a lot to Osuimono. It takes a certain sensibility to appreciate a soup as austere as this one. But in Japan, this kind of thing is deeply appreciated.
Ingredients (for two)
- Water – 1.5 cups
- Dashi – 1 teaspoon
- Soy sauce – ½ a teaspoon
- Sake – 2 teaspoons
- Salt – just a pinch (less than ½ a teaspoon)
- One egg
- Dried Wakame seaweed – 1 teaspoon (this will seem like too little, but remember, wakame will expand many times over in the soup)
- Lightly beat an egg without fully homogenizing it
- Bring 1.5 cups of water to a boil
- When it boils, set stove to medium, add dashi, soy sauce, sake and wakame.
- Allow to simmer for a minute or two. Taste and add salt if needed.
- The tricky bit: drop the egg in a circular motion into the boiling pot. Using a fork or chopsticks, quickly swirl the egg around in the broth once – not twice, once.
- Immediately remove from heat – if you leave it on the heat for too long, the egg will overcook and the soup will lose that wonderful light feel that is the whole point of egg-drop soup.
Ladle onto small bowls, serve hot.
Today we had shiso-gohan, osuimono, daikon-no nimono (which my husband made following the recipe I wrote), and carrot salad.


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1 result for tag: Barak Obama
Just the Facts, Ma'am
I know I'm dating myself by using that title. It became known as the signature line of Sgt. Joe Friday, the hero in a cop show called" that was popular when I was a kid. Whenever Joe was questioning witnesses, and they would start wandering off into how ...
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text: Together with Mikhail Tal and Alexei Shirov he is one of the best known chess grandmasters in Latvia. Last October Janis Klovans suddenly passed away, at the age of 75, leaving behind a family and a lot of students who miss him very much. With the help Shirov a memorial tournament was organized, with the best players Latvia had seen in a long time. Pictorial report.


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View black Singles in Temple Bar Marina
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A singing voice improves through vocal exercises, which include singing scales, practicing breath control and matching pitches. These exercises are most effective when directed by a vocal coach.
The sound of a singing voice changes based on the singer's control of air from the lungs, diaphragm and chest, the vibration of air through the vocal cords, and the resonance of air through the nose and mouth. Pitch control improves by listening to a note and then practicing reproducing it. Vibrato of a note comes naturally with practice.
To sing well, a singer should maintain vocal cord health by eating healthy foods, staying hydrated and getting enough rest. It is important to avoid overusing the voice, screaming and smoking. Vocal coaches teach voice control, while singing voice specialists and speech pathologists can help with voice rehabilitation.


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"Ya Takes the Shot Wot God Gives Ya"
Ok, I took some videos. Please forgive the fogging that provides an unwanted vignette effect. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I rotated the camera to ensure it was on or off and noticed the moisture inside the waterproof housing. It was cold and foggy this am and some moisture got trapped inside the housing. As the elevation and temperature changed, the fogging got better or worse. Sigh.
North of Superior
Yes, I know this is not an original title. But, it conveys the idea of being on the north shore of Lake Superior. Two years ago, I did this route for the first time and wished I had a video camera on the bike. Now I do. I just don\t know how to use it professionally...


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Guinea Pigs - The Perfect Pet?
As far as I'm concerned, you can keep your exotic snakes and your fancy dog breeds. Why not open up a whole new world of possibilities with the amazing, environmentally-friendly guinea pig?
Guinea pigs, or cavies as they are sometimes known, are descended from the wild cui, originally kept by the Incas for food. The Spanish invaders called them Cochinillo Das Indas or Little Indian Pig.
The word 'Guinea' was probably added because the Spanish took them to Guiana before bringing them to Europe as pets.
Guinea pigs come in an amazing range of shapes and sizes from the basic 'English' short-coated variety which, when running, looks like a brick on wheels, to very hairy ones such as the 'Peruvian' which looks more like a Yorkshire terrier or a discarded wig.
Guinea pigs are very amusing and, at about the same size as a small rabbit, make perfect pets for children. They are big enough to sit on your lap and be cuddled but robust enough to be handled safely by younger children.
They are chunky and placid so there's little worry of being bitten by one (unless it mistakes your finger for a carrot) or losing it under the skirting board! Unlike smaller rodents like mice, pigs have a reasonable lifespan, living on average 5 years and occasionally as long as 14 years.
Guinea Pig Poll
How do you feel about Guinea Pigs?
Guinea Pigs Like Company
It is best to keep more than one as they live naturally in colonies and like company. If you choose to keep 2 males then you should put them together while young or they may fight.
Alternatively, you can introduce a baby boar, under 10 weeks old, to an adult. They are pretty cheap to run and in the summer they like to dine al fresco - literally on the lawn.
They will trim a square metre of grass in a few hours and love daisies and dandelions.
They are so environmentally friendly that they even eat each other's turds! They produce 2 kinds of dropping and the soft ones contain beneficial B vitamins and bacteria which can be extracted by passing food through their digestive tract a second time.
Incidentally, their turds (stools or poo, if you prefer!) are very clean to handle, like a fibrous pellet, so no problems if they let rip on your best Axminster carpet. The only hazard is allowing one to fall asleep on you. Once the bladder relaxes they produce a significant amount of urine!
Sleeping arrangements can be taken care of with a wooden hutch lined with newspaper and hay which they tend to eat (hutch, newspaper and hay!) It may be a good idea to give them a loose piece of wood to gnaw on (Guinea Pigs seldom stop eating).
They also adore carrot, apple, lettuce, cucumber and will also need some guinea pig mix, which you can buy from the pet store.
They will need their claws clipped occasionally. You can get the vet to do it but, it's OK to do it yourself, using a pair of nail clippers as long as you know what you're doing. Get someone to feed them a favourite snack while you clip.
As long as you keep them eating it's reasonably easy! Beware of cutting the claws too short. They will bleed (and it hurts them) if you cut into the 'quick'.
Don't Put Them Outside in the Snow!
Don't put them outside in the winter, if you live in a northern climate, for example, London or New York, or on damp days as their natural home, South America, is warm.
If you want to give them a run in the winter then we used a children's paddling pool (no water!) in the living room (the pool protects the carpet and stops them straying too far).
I read in an American pet book that it is possible to train pigs to do tricks (see RenaSherwood's HubPages article). This should be done with 'positive reinforcement', the book says, so no tiny whips!
If you leave them out in the garden, it's a good idea to build a wooden 'run' with netting over the top. This is to protect them from predators such as foxes (in the UK) or next door's cat. I've even seen a magpie's mouth watering at the sight of our plump cavies, Morris and Cadbury.
When they were loose in the garden our pigs actually chased the squirrels. Who knows what might happen if they caught one! Pigs move surprisingly quickly when loose and Cadbury could leap onto the sofa from a standing position. Amazing when you see how plump they are and what tiny legs they have.
- Why not Sign Up Now With HubPages? Start Writing TodayHubPages membership is totally FREE - Get writing, make friends (and if you want) Make Money!
- All about Abyssinian Guinea Pigs by RenaSherwood
If my brief introduction has whet your appetite for 'pigs' then dip into other HubPages on the subject - I particularly recommend RenaSherwood's fantastic range of articles.
- Peter Gurney's Guinea Pig Website
Peter Gurney - the Guinea Pig Man
Every hobby, pastime or pet has its nationally-known expert. What Sir David Attenborough is to wildlife Peter Gurney was to guinea pigs. Peter was the British guinea-pig guru. This lovable man dedicated his life to pigs and shared his London flat with around 80 of them, until his recent death in 2006.
He didn't breed them for profit or show them but operated a pig refuge and also boarded pigs. His most famous boarder was Olga Da Polga who belonged to Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear. Olga is a guinea pig heroine Michael writes about in some of his children's stories.
Peter often appeared on British TV so if you every watched 'The Big Breakfast' or daytime TV, then sooner or later you would encounter Peter with half a dozen or so of his pigs, demonstrating how to groom them and bath them and, if you were lucky, you may even see one undergoing hydrotherapy.
Peter and his pigs were regular and welcome visitors to Gt Ormond Street Hospital in London where they provided enjoyment and therapy for the young patients. He has also written various books on this fascinating rodent including the oddly named but informative Piggy Potions which is all about herbal remedies for cavies.
Cavy Affectionados
So if you need a pet which is cheap to feed, easy to look after, lovable and good with kids then forget the parrot, piranha and the pekinese. Become a cavy affectionado and purchase some guinea pigs!
Peter Gurney on his Favourite Subject - Guinea Pigs
guina pigs are sutible for kids
My girls are long haired indoor pigs they get lots of love and handling, Live with an Old english sheepdog, all snuggle up to each other in the evening on the settie. Lovely little girls.
I've had G. Pigs and they all had different personalities and different 'sound effects'.
Loved this hub because it covered everything you need to know about them. The picture of the three little pigs made me laugh.
GPs rock. Great pets, awesome superheros.
These little furry creatures are quite common in the science rooms here in Canada. They're used to teach the young students about animals, animal care and how to be responsible for another living organism. They are cute, friendly and fun to have around!
I'm just wondering, do you know about hw much Timothy Hay two piggies will eat in a month?
We kept prarie dogs for a while (Texas thing, I guess), and loved them. Great hub.
Wow Rik! That's a lot of animals in a flat. How was the smell?
Marisa mine did the same thing... I just let them run around a guinea pig proofed area in my room and then put them up. Never much handling.
This hub was interesting , as I've never heard of Peter Gurney.
I recall having a guinea pig as a child (an Absyssinian - he had a rabbit for company). However I didn't get to play with him much because if I took him out of his hutch/run, he squealed blue murder until I put him back. That left me with the impression that guinea pigs were cute, but anti-social.
The tip about making a run in the garden is good - we used to let Abi run free, and he met his Maker when one of my playmates stepped on him.
Yes they are cute and you have one me over.The hamsters ,rats and mice thing do not.
Until i saw this I really associated them in those categories


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V Day UH Hilo joins global effort to stop violence against women and girls
UH Hilo Home > News and Events > UH Hilo Press Releases
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Contact: Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, 974-7642
For Immediate Release
On Friday, February 26, 2010 at 7:30 pm, V-Day University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo presents a one-night only benefit performance of Eve Ensler's award winning play "The Vagina Monologues" at the University's Performing Arts Center.
Last year, over 4,200 communities hosted V-Day benefits around the world to raise funds and awareness toward ending violence against women. These highly successful events raised over $4 million through performances of "The Vagina Monologues" and other V-Day productions.
For the sixth year in a row, UH Hilo has joined this global movement as part of the V-Day 2010 College Campaign. V-Day is a catalyst for mobilizing women and men to heighten awareness about violence against women and girls. By creating this global community, V-Day strives to empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the violence that affects one in three women in the U.S and around the world.
Hailed by The New York Times as "funny" and "poignant" and by the Daily News as "intelligent" and "courageous," "The Vagina Monologues," which was first performed off-Broadway by Ensler, dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women's experiences. Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world—from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem to Oklahoma City.
The production helps support women both locally and globally. Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to a local non-profit organization on the Big Island that helps support women in need. Over the last few years, over $10,000 has been raised to help local agencies such as the Hale 'Ohana Spouse Abuse Shelter, Turning Point for Families, and the SARAH Foundation. An additional 10% will go to support women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this year's selectee for the "global spotlight." The remaining proceeds will go to the UH Hilo Women's Center to support its ongoing mission to offer educational programs to prevent violence against women and advocate for gender equity and equality.
"The Vagina Monologues" is primarily a student-produced and student-acted production. This year's production will be directed by Justine Thompson and produced by Hannah Lipman, with the support of the UH Hilo Women's Center. All of the actors, director, and producer are volunteers.
Tickets may be purchased by calling the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 974-7310 or online at http://artcenter.uhh.hawaii.edu. They may also be purchased at the UH Hilo Women's Center, Basically Books, CD Wizard, or from any of the actors. Ticket prices are $12 adults and $7 for students and seniors.
To learn more about V Day, call 974-7306 or email email@example.com.
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William Glen Casper
Born July 31, 1901 - Charleston, Wasatch, Utah
Died January 25, 1972 - Daniel, Wasatch, Utah
Son of Phillip Thomas Casper & Mary Elizabeth Carlen Casper
Joyce Viola Bell Casper
Born April 22, 1902 - Daniel, Wasatch, Utah
Died February 2, 1963 - Heber, Wasatch, Utah
Daughter of William Christopher Bell & Annie Lenora Smith Bell
Married November 5, 1924 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Contributed on 9/22/06 by wasatchcemetery
Email This Contributor
Record #: 14080
On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Utah, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 9/22/06 • Approved: 9/22/06 • Last Updated: 10/26/12 • R14080-G14078


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World-leading plastics processing machinery specialist Krauss Maffei Extrusion of Munich, Germany recently installed four direct extrusion lines for two leading European manufacturers to meet the increasing demand for Wood Plastic Composites (WPC) in the market.
German company Pinuform has installed three WPC twin screw extruders and a twin screw compounding extruder to carry out direct extrusion. The company recycles wood chips from their timber mill to produce WPC decking profiles.
Leading French manufacturer of WPC decking profiles, Oceplast has installed a direct extrusion line that consists of a KMD 75-32/WPC twin-screw extruder, a calibration table, haul-off/saw combination and a tilting table designed specifically for the customer's requirements. The extremely compact line has been designed for the processing of extra wide profiles and has a maximum output of 200kg/hr.
The Krauss Maffei solution was chosen as their twin screw extruders have a high wear resistance rate required for the very abrasive properties of WPC compounds. The screws have tungsten carbide armour plating while barrels are lined with a bi-metallic bushing.
Direct extrusion allows products to be made in a single-step process by direct metering of the two components – wood and PVC. A two-component gravimetric system transports wood flour and PVC dryblend into a dynamic mixer, which feeds the perfectly homogenised material mixture directly into the extruder.
Krauss Maffei's solution eliminates the need for the typical complex compounding process using a heating-cooling mixer, saving production space and energy as the wood flour is already pre-dried.
Krauss Maffei is represented in Oceania by HBM Packaging & Plastics Technologies .


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I'm made of a jumble of bright silk ribbons
And somewhere along the way
A ribbon was snagged
Perhaps it was caught by Jupiter
In the vortex of his violent eye
And so, as I move about life
I slowly unwind
I feel the pieces of me
As they fall, scatter and evade
I hesitate to give chase
I won't be led backwards
I suppose I'll have to create new silk threads
In which to house my weary soul
But first, tell me
Was that drink made for me?
Do you remember how I love Gatsby?
-LM Jones
A Jumble of RibbonsStandard
I'm made of a jumble of bright silk ribbons


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Tuesday, 17 November 2009 08:23 AM
WASHINGTON – Two senators unveiled legislation Monday to double US nuclear energy output in 20 years and foster clean energy options with "mini-Manhattan Projects" named for the original US atomic bomb push.
Democratic Senator Jim Webb and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, noting they cannot support a "cap-and-trade" climate change bill now churning through the Senate, said their plan could cost 20 billion dollars over 10 years.
The measure would include 100 billion dollars for carbon-free electricity loan guarantees, expected to chiefly benefit the US nuclear industry.
Special: Get Sarah Palin's New Book – Incredible FREE Offer -- Click Here Now.
It would also offer 750 million dollars per year for 10 years to fund carbon capture and storage technology -- sometimes known as "clean coal" -- biofuels made from non-food crops, advanced batteries for electric cars and trucks, solar power and to recycle used nuclear fuel.
The senators dubbed those initiatives "mini-Manhattan projects," a reference to the World War II-era US effort to develop the atomic bomb.
The bill also included 100 million dollars per year for 10 years to train and educate nuclear engineers, operators and related skilled workers at a time when US unemployment is soaring at 10.2 percent, a 26-year high.
Alexander, a fervent foe of White House-backed cap-and-trade legislation, noted that boosting nuclear energy enjoys the support of members of both major US parties as well as President Barack Obama's administration.
Webb, who said he could not vote for the cap-and-trade bill "in its current form," said increasing US nuclear capability was among "things we know we can do" to reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.
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|Ðîäèíó ëþáÿò íå çà òî, ÷òî îíà âåëèêà, à çà òî, ÷òî ñâîÿ. - Ñåíåêà
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 3, No. 113, Part I, 10 June 1999
________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 3, No. 113, Part I, 10 June 1999 A daily report of developments in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia prepared by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. This is Part I, a compilation of news concerning Russia, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Part II covers Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe and is distributed simultaneously as a second document. Back issues of RFE/RL NewsLine and the OMRI Daily Digest are online at RFE/RL's Web site: http://www.rferl.org/newsline xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Headlines, Part I * TALBOTT, CHERNOMYRDIN BEGIN TALKS ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPER IN KOSOVA * STEPASHIN, DUMA PREPARE FOR SHOWDOWN? * ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ELECTS NEW SPEAKER xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx RUSSIA TALBOTT, CHERNOMYRDIN BEGIN TALKS ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS IN KOSOVA... U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived in Moscow on 10 June to meet with Russia's special envoy to Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, and Defense Ministry officials to discuss Russia's role in a peace-keeping force for Kosova, Reuters reported. The talks follow the agreement the previous day reached by NATO and Yugoslav military officials on Serbia's withdrawal from Kosova (see Part II). Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Vyacheslav Sedov on 9 June said that "the peacekeeping force should be under the aegis of the UN. This is the firm Russian position." He added that "the strength, the structure and the line of command" are on the agenda at the Moscow talks. Defense Minister Igor Sergeev said the Russian military could send up to 10,000 troops to take part in the peacekeeping force. FS ...IVASHOV HOPES TO 'CORRECT' EARLIER AGREEMENT. Colonel- General Leonid Ivashov, who is a senior Defense Ministry official expected to head the Russian military delegation at the talks, told ITAR-TASS on 9 June that the Russian military is unhappy with the draft UN Security Council resolution. Ivashov said: "We are determined to look for...a compromise on the issue, to correct negative things that were done earlier" during negotiations on the G-8 agreement. An unnamed high-ranking Defense Ministry official told Interfax that the Russian delegation will propose that Russia be given one of four sectors that will be in northwest Kosova. The official added that the proposal envisages the deployment in the sector of forces from neutral countries and several former Soviet republics, but not of NATO units. The following day, Talbott stressed that "there will be specific arrangement for a division of labor within [Kosova] but nothing that would bear any resemblance to partitioning or dividing [Kosova] up into different national sectors." FS DID ALBRIGHT, IVANOV MAKE BREAKTHROUGH POSSIBLE? An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that the breakthrough to reaching a military agreement between NATO and Yugoslavia came in Cologne on 9 June. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reportedly gave last-minute "categorical assurances" to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that Russia will vote for the draft resolution (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 June 1999) as soon as NATO suspends its air campaign. The official added that once the U.S. received the Russian promise, NATO agreed to strike from the military agreement a sentence that would have given NATO the right to resume bombing after 24 hours if the UN Security Council does not pass the resolution. FS UN SECURITY COUNCIL SET TO ADOPT RESOLUTION. The Security Council on 9 June in New York put the finishing touches on the draft resolution authorizing an international force to move into Kosova. Western diplomats told AP that they expect China to abstain from the vote, rather than veto the resolution. Russian President Boris Yeltsin held telephone conversations with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to express his support for the resolution. Security Council President Babouccar- Blaise Jagne of Gambia said he will call for a meeting as soon as he receives a fax from Secretary General Kofi Annan detailing an order by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana advising that the NATO bombing of targets in Yugoslavia has stopped. FS DUMA WANTS CHERNOMYRDIN SACKED. The State Duma on 10 June called on Yeltsin to sack Chernomyrdin as his special envoy to Yugoslavia. The communist faction initiated the non- binding vote (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 June 1999), which was backed by 271 to 92 with one abstention. FS RUSSIAN CONTINGENT FOR KOSOVA TO PUT FURTHER STRAINS ON BUDGET. Prime Minister Stepashin declared on 10 June that the defense capabilities of the Russian army are "in a catastrophic state," noting that next year's budget must address this issue. Stepashin added that the "additional burden of preparing and deploying a Russian contingent in Kosova" would put additional strain on the country's financial resources. "Izvestiya" reported the previous day that President Yeltsin had tasked Stepashin with seeking to prevent any disruption in funds to the armed forces and finding additional monies for research and development. The head of the Defense Ministry's Directorate for the Military Budget and Financing, Georgii Oleinik, told the daily that budget monies in the first half of 1999 were devoted entirely for "tasks that could not be delayed" such as clearing soldiers' wage arrears, ensuring the timetable of work on the Topol-M missile system, and updating computers to cope with the millennium bug. JAC STEPASHIN, DUMA PREPARE FOR SHOWDOWN? Stepashin on 10 June said he is prepared to raise the issue of confidence in his cabinet if the Duma rejects the package of legislation prepared by the government in accordance with its agreement with the IMF. If Stepashin lost such a vote, President Yeltsin would have to name a new prime minister or dissolve the lower chamber. The previous day, the Duma postponed until 16 June consideration of a bill that would tax gasoline stations. Numerous Duma factions, including the Communist group, which is the largest, have said they will vote against the bill because they believe its passage will result in higher gasoline prices (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 June 1999). In his address to Duma members, Stepashin repeated his government's willingness to "introduce state regulation of the gasoline market." JAC FINANCE MINISTRY PREDICTING RUBLE WILL SINK FURTHER AGAINST DOLLAR. Prime Minister Stepashin on 10 June said his cabinet will consider the final version of the 2000 budget on 9 August. Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said that so far budget revenue is planned at 687.2 billion rubles ($28.3 billion) and expenditures at 763 billion rubles. The "primary" budget surplus is forecast at 2.8 percent. According to ITAR-TASS, the Finance Ministry expects the ruble to trade on average at 32 rubles to $1 next year, while annual inflation is predicted to hover between 18-22 percent. JAC NEW ELECTION BILL CLEARS UPPER CHAMBER. The Federation Council on 9 June passed a bill regulating elections to the State Duma. The vote was 133 in favor, 5 opposed, and one abstention, according to Interfax. The law is part of a package of legislation sponsored by the Central Election Commission, which is attempting to reduce possible voter fraud and other irregularities during upcoming parliamentary elections. The new law limits the number of absentee voters and bars elected officials from using public funds and property for campaigning, "The Moscow Times" reported on 10 June. "Segodnya" reported on 5 June that Konstantin Titov and Sergei Kirienko, leaders of the Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia) and Novaya Sila (New Force) movements, respectively, agreed to establish a citizen monitoring system that will allow voters in the Duma elections "to gain access to information on the elections and how they are organized." The two leaders encouraged other parties to join their effort. JAC MOSCOW MAYORAL RACE TO TAKE PLACE EARLY. A majority in Moscow's legislative assembly voiced its approval on 9 June for moving mayoral elections from June 2000 to December 1999, ITAR-TASS reported. A formal vote on the matter will likely take place on 11 June. "Segodnya" suggested on 9 June that former Prime Minister Kirienko will challenge Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov in that election, despite the certainty that he will lose, to gain political experience for future races. On 8 June, Luzhkov proposed that all retiring Russian presidents be given permanent membership in the Federation Council, Interfax reported. The suggestion is being widely interpreted by analysts as Luzhkov's attempt to mend a fraying relationship with the Kremlin (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 June 1999). As a senator, Yeltsin would be immune from criminal prosecution. JAC BEREZOVSKII MEDIA EMPIRE SET TO EXPAND. Influential business tycoon Boris Berezovskii will soon own a controlling share in Moscow's TV-6 television company, "Segodnya" reported on 9 June. TV-6 President Eduard Sagalaev, according to the daily, said he has decided to sell a "sizable portion" of his shares to Berezovskii and the companies that he controls. Sagalaev declined to name either the amount of the shares he will sell or the price. Currently, he and Berezovskii each possess a 37.5 percent stake in the company. According to ITAR-TASS, the issue will be decided at a shareholders' meeting on 10 June. JAC FEDERATION COUNCIL PUNTS SKURATOV ISSUE TO COURT. Members of the parliament's upper chamber voted on 9 June to appeal to the Constitutional Court to settle the issue of Prosecutor- General Yurii Skuratov's dismissal, Interfax reported. Senators voted 109 in favor and 6 against to ask the court to decide whether under the Russian Constitution, President Yeltsin has the right to suspend Skuratov from office, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation, without the approval of the Federation Council. Senators have twice rejected attempts to remove the controversial prosecutor. On 8 June, Skuratov attended a meeting of the council's anti- corruption commission and briefed its members on the activities of the companies Mabetex and Aeroflot. According to ITAR-TASS, the Constitutional Court is expected to take a decision on 22 June on a Moscow city court's initiative to institute criminal proceedings against Skuratov. JAC IVANOV SAYS RUSSIAN-U.S. RELATIONS HAVE WORSENED... Following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Albright on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Cologne, Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov told journalists that Russian-U.S. relations have worsened as a result of the Kosova crisis and "the atmosphere surrounding them remains negative," Interfax reported. "We will certainly take steps to repair the damage" to those ties, he commented, adding that Russia "has done a lot" to promote "partnership relations" with the U.S. JC ...REVEALS RUSSIA TO SIGN LAND MINE TREATY. Also in Cologne on 9 June, Ivanov said that Russia intends to sign the international treaty banning land mines, ITAR-TASS reported. The report did not indicate whether he specified when, however. Earlier, Russia declined to add its signature to the treaty, saying it needs the mines for defense purposes, according to AP. JC FOUR ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS REHABILITATED. The Prosecutor- General's Office announced on 9 June that four members of the royal family have been rehabilitated as victims of political persecution. Princes Nikolai Mikhailovich, Dmitrii Konstantinovich, Georgii Mikhailovich, and Grand Duke Pavel Aleksandrovich were executed in January 1919 as enemies of the state. An official at the Prosecutor-General's Office told ITAR-TASS that records show that the men had neither faced concrete charges nor had a proper criminal trial. JAC PRIMAKOV COMMENTS VAGUELY ON NEXT CAREER PHASE. Asked about his plans, former Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov told reporters at a Moscow airport on 9 June that "the future will show. I do not exclude anything." Primakov was leaving Moscow to attend a conference in Switzerland and undergo a medical check-up. JAC STEPASHIN, SHAIMIEV MEET. Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiev met with Russian Prime Minister Stepashin on 9 June to discuss the political situation in the federation, Interfax reported. Shaimiev briefed Stepashin on the activities of the Vsya Rossiya bloc, which he heads. He said that Stepashin shared his concern over the possibility that falling living standards will lead to instability in the runup to the December State Duma elections. Shaimiev said that after those elections, Russia "will have to reach a civilized level" by forming a government of the parliamentary majority that would "delegate equal responsibilities for bodies of the [Russian] government and abolish the grounds for possible conflict...between them." Addressing the Federation Council the same day, Shaimiev rejected the draft federal law on the principles of power-sharing treaties between the center and federation subjects, RFE/RL's Kazan bureau reported, citing TatarInform. Shaimiev said that draft is "aimed at limiting the rights of members of the Russian Federation." LF CHECHNYA TO CRACK DOWN OF THEFTS FROM OIL TRANSIT PIPELINE. Chechen National Guard commander General Magomed Khambiev told Interfax on 9 June that his men will immediately take over responsibility for guarding the Chechen sector of the Baku-Grozny-Novorossiisk pipeline to prevent further thefts of oil. Khambiev said that 120,000 tons of oil have been siphoned off since the pipeline went into operation in the fall of 1997. He added that Grozny will compensate for those losses with crude extracted in Chechnya. The Russian pipeline company Transneft has repeatedly halted operation of the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline in recent months, most recently on 8 June, citing "technical reasons." But Khambiev said Transneft will not resume pumping oil through the pipeline until it receives guarantees from Chechnya that there will be no further thefts. Chechnya receives $15.67 in transit fees per metric ton of oil transported through the pipeline. LF TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ELECTS NEW SPEAKER. As widely anticipated, the new parliament elected former Communist Party First Secretary Karen Demirchian as speaker at its first session on 10 June, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Demirchian and Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsian head the Miasnutytun alliance, which has some 65 seats in the 131- deputy parliament. Addressing deputies, President Robert Kocharian said there can be "no alternative" to political and economic reform. He added that he expects "close cooperation" between the legislature and the executive. Demirchian, for his part, said he will strive to "increase substantially" the role of the parliament in policy-making, and he called for "greater transparency' in the work of the government. LF DEFENDANT IN ARMENIAN TRIAL IMPLICATES FORMER INTERIOR MINISTER. Only one of the eight former Armenian police officials accused of belonging to a death squad allegedly set up by former Interior Minister Vano Siradeghian has pleaded guilty to that charge, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 9 June. Arshak Shukian confirmed his earlier testimony that he received orders from the alleged gang leader, Armen Ter-Sahakian, in 1992-1993 to assassinate several prominent officials and that he participated in one such murder. Ter-Sahakian and the remaining six accused have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Ter-Sahakian said his earlier confession was made under pressure from the Armenian authorities. LF AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT RETURNS TO BAKU. Heidar Aliev on 9 June flew home to Baku from the Turkish resort of Antalya, where he had spent three weeks recuperating from heart bypass surgery in the U.S. in late April. Before his return, presidential administration officials had announced that he will embark on a grueling schedule of public commitments, including the opening of a new airport complex in Baku on 13 June, a ceremony to mark the 1,300th anniversary of the Turkish epic "Kitebi Dede Korkut" on 14 June, and a summit of Turkic states on 15 June. But Novruz Mamedov, head of the foreign relations department within the presidential administration, told Reuters on 9 June that the Turkic summit has been postponed indefinitely because of Aliev's health. Other members of the presidential administration, however, said the postponement was requested by Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, who visited Aliev in Antalya before the latter's departure. LF ABKHAZ, GEORGIAN TALKS CONCLUDE... The confidence-building talks between Abkhaz and Georgian government delegations ended in Istanbul on 9 June with the signing of a declaration on the resumption of talks by three working groups created under UN auspices in late 1997, Caucasus Press reported. Those talks will address security measures in southern Abkhazia and the exchange of prisoners of war. The two sides agreed to convene another meeting on the repatriation to Abkhazia of displaced persons and measures to ensure their safety. LF ...AS LEADER OF DISPLACED PERSONS URGES NATO INTERVENTION. Addressing the NATO Assembly in Brussels on 9 June, Tamaz Nadareishvili, who is chairman of the so-called Abkhaz parliament in exile and unofficial leader of the Georgians who fled Abkhazia in 1992-1993, called for NATO to launch a peace enforcement operation in Abkhazia with a UN mandate under Article 7 of the UN Charter. He also urged the withdrawal from the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia of the CIS peacekeeping force currently deployed there and its replacement by an international force. Nadareishvili also said the Russian military base in Gudauta, which he characterized as a "source of destabilization," should be closed. Nadareishvili, who has formed his own political party to contend the Georgian parliamentary elections this fall, is seeking to persuade the international community that Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba should be indicted for genocide and ethnic cleansing. LF KAZAKH PRESIDENT SETS PRIORITIES... Addressing cabinet members and regional governors on 9 June, Nursultan Nazarbaev chastized those officials for infighting, which, he said, is undermining the confidence of foreign investors, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 June 1999). Nazarbaev criticized the government, and Prime Minister Nurlan Balghymbaev personally, for the lack of a coherent program for the next three to five years, and he outlined 10 tasks for ministers and regional leaders, Interfax reported. Also on 9 June, the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan joined the OTAN party in calling for the government's replacement. The trade unionists noted that real wages have fallen by 25-30 percent in recent months, while food prices have risen sharply. LF ...AS PREMIER, OTHERS ASSESS ECONOMIC DOWNTURN. Addressing a conference in Astana on 9 June, Balghymbaev said economic output in the first five months of 1999 was down 4.8 percent compared with the same period last year and foreign trade turnover declined by almost 25 percent, Interfax reported. Balghymbaev also criticized the takeover of many large plants by foreign management, which began under his predecessor, Akezhan Kazhegeldin. He accused unnamed foreign investors of failing to meet tax commitments and to pay wages punctually. National Bank Chairman Qadyrzhan Damitov said that Kazakhstan's money base shrank by 20 percent during the first quarter of the year, while gold and hard currency reserves fell by 18.6 percent to $1.6 billion, Interfax reported. And Yerzhan Utembaev, who is chairman of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms, summarized the overall economic situation as "a serious crisis." LF TURKMEN PRESIDENT SETS UP PIPELINE WORKING GROUPS. Saparmurat Niyazov on 9 June decreed the formation of two working groups to coordinate talks and the drafting of documents related to the planned construction of gas export pipelines, Interfax reported. One group will deal with the planned Trans-Caspian route via Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, while the second will continue talks with Japanese and European companies on the construction of a pipeline via Afghanistan to Pakistan. Interfax quoted a senior official from the country's Oil and Gas Ministry as saying that Niyazov's decision indicates that at present Ashgabat does not favor one specific pipeline route over others. LF UZBEK BOMBING SUSPECTS ADMIT TO CHECHEN CONNECTION. An unspecified number of the 22 men on trial for allegedly staging the 16 February bomb attacks in Tashkent, in which 16 people were killed, have admitted to undergoing training in camps in Chechnya run by Jordanian-born field commander Khattab, Interfax reported. Several other defendants said they underwent preparations for the attack in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Also on 9 June, Interfax reported that 34 men are on trial in the Uzbek city of Fergana on charges of calling for the overthrow of the present Uzbek leadership. The men hoped to establish an Islamic state, Interfax quotes local court officials as saying. LF xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc. 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