The miraculous is all around/in us.

From:
American Veda
by Philip Goldberg
page 226
...Bhagavan Das took his new friend to meed his guru. the highlights of [Richard] Alpert's encounter with Neem Karoli Baba are now part of spiritual lore: the aging sadhu who owned nothing blew the mind of the spoiled Ivy Leaguer by knowing things about him he couldn't possibly have known; the scientist fed the guileless guru a huge dose of LSD and watched incredulously as nothing happened; the ice of scientific skepticism melted in the white heat of unconditional love...

future eats

From Pittsburgh Permaculture via Juliette Jones:

"...Garfield Community Farm will build a permanent BioShelter greenhouse structure to extend the growing season on the farm located in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh and to expand educational offerings at the nearby Fort Pitt Elementary School...

Heritage Seed Bank and Nursery

Blackberry Meadows Farm will establish community seed banks and nurseries for native heritage or heirloom edible plant species and stock public spaces and gardens with native edibles to raise greater public awareness..."

http://pittsburghfoundation.org/node/8732
http://sproutfund.org/spring/the-awards

Apocalypse means awakening

"...The collapse of industrial civilization is a collective and individual initiation...it must be approached and appreciated...we have been infantilized by consumerism...our work now is to become adults...develop that intimate inextricable connection with Nature..."apocalypse" comes from a Latin word meaning "unveiling"...It's not an ending but an unveiling...lead to a new beginning...human race...stands...at an evolutionary threshold..."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s01D_Bt8mto&feature=player_embedded

the conspiracy to halt progress

Some rich will attempt to preserve their relative privilege by any means necessary - lieing us into wars, killing leaders, stealing elections,...The word repent doesn't have the strength it used to have. There are no bad people in the world, only good people who do destructive things. We need to awaken to what we've done before we can change. And things will keep getting worse until we're willing to change.
http://brasschecktv.com/page/1010.html
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ITaqc_NL5aQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qyOaJkfeY4Y&feature=related

Seeing our own self-interest

My dad used to tell us stories of when he was a "guest of the Germans" in Stalag 17 prison camp during World War 2. He said the men were so hungry that if food fell to the ground they would joke "Right on the napkin!" as they snatched it up and ate it anyway. He told us the soup usually just had just a couple of old potatoes or turnips or whatever, and maybe some maggots - "Some guys couldn't eat it, and they died." When the men would plead for food from the guards, the guards would say "Nix arbeit nix essen, dumerasel!" ("No work no eat, jackass!") He said the American prisoners were treated better than the Russians there, and - though they were told they would be shot if they threw food over the fence to the Russians - they discreetly did so anyway. And he once saw Jews being marched who hardly looked alive as they had been so starved they were literally nothing but skin and bones.

Why am I talking about such an unpleasant subject? Because that is exactly where we are now. A comfortable well-fed future is not something we have coming to us. The right to food may be a human right, but it's not a given with most people in the world. And - difficult as it is to imagine - it's not assured those of us blessed to live in the most wealthy country in the world. With all the changes in the world we need to think about the basics of life, food being one of them. Think you're always going to have an income, and so will always be able to afford food? Think again. Barring a miracle, the weather's going to become more extreme. So either the bank won't always be open because of some weather event, or that automatic check won't forever be coming and on time, or (refrigeration systems being down) the food at the grocery store and/or in your fridge will be rotting, or (due to the increased difficulty growing and transporting food with all these extreme weather events) the price of food will be off the charts for you. This is the world we live in.

Without stable refrigeration, there will be the disease hazard of rotting food. Given the possibility that in an emergency we may not always be assured prompt garbage pickup, the best thing to do with that would be to bury or compost it - if you know how and are able to do it safely. Any time organic matter sits in water, that's no good. The oxygen dissolved in the water will be used up by whatever organisms are in it, then disease organisms that don't need oxygen will breed. Incorporating rotting food into the soil allows aerobic (oxygen-using) microbes to suppress disease microbes. The healthier the soil the more different kinds of healthy "bugs" (microbes) the soil has, and the healthier the people with the good sense to eat food grown locally and organically. And locally grown food may be the only food available at times.

We live in the best and the worst of times. Everything seems to be coming to a head on Earth. There are many huge problems, and they are bumping into each other. And we have an almost infinite number of solutions waiting to be applied to those problems. Take enough faith in the future to go forward with the positive ideas you have, regardless of how dire the situation looks. Part of the reason things are such a mess is that millions are discouraged and so aren't much trying to do anything positive any more.

There are a vast number of wonderful things that can be done with microbes - from food production to alternative fuels to pollution treatment to mining to others. Most of these wonderful biotech possibilities are not being implemented because a profitable way of doing them wasn't found. But we have to do some things just because they're good. The world economy is, to me, thundering one thing - DO THE RIGHT THING! Forget about the money aspect of things. It's become profitable to do so many destructive things that our pursuit of money is literally threatening human life with extinction. We have to stop making, selling, and buying unnecessary things.

Think how many things we wouldn't need if we could get along. Need something at the store? No you don't, borrow it from a neighbor. See? Estimate how many hammers are being used right now in your neighborhood. Now estimate how many hammers are in your neighborhood. I'll betcha %99.99 of them aren't being used right now, so why were they bought? Because you don't think of most of your neighbors as family. But we're all in the same boat now. The wild weather is coming, the economy is throwing people off, and we're stuck with one another. As he aged my dad mellowed, and when I noticed he said things just to make people feel good, he said "Might as well". Well, that's like what I say now - We might as well love each other because the payback's better.

Let's get personal/local

Some local muckraking: I remember years ago Food Policy Commission meetings Mr. Shapiro of Giant Eagle complaining about the WalMart types eating up "little guys" like Giant Eagle...not seeing Giant Eagle's role in ridding neighborhoods of the mom and pop stores...Now Mr. Shapiro's sons turn out to be real anti-union...I'd say "bastards" but being a good hippie I believe everyone's good inside and I try to love and see the beauty of everybody. There used to be stores owned and run often by couples out of their homes on almost every other block. Now that's decentralization, that's local production, and that's resilience.

Let's live our high ideals for once.

Part of the Pittsburgh neighborhood Hazelwood's former mill site is being considered for a non-research non-live vaccine manufacturing facility for protection from biological attack. Similar to when troops participate in disaster rescue, I think this could be worthwhile, and so voted with the Hazelwood Initiative an initial welcome to their interest in bringing jobs and money to the community. Let's make this a true swords to plowshares moment by keeping their feet to the fire if they do decide to manufacture here. With what microbiology knowledge I have, I have nothing per se against vaccines. There are safety issues with any biotech operation, just as with low tech bio-operations such as urban farming. The military, of course, by definition, does not disclose what it does, so whether they really want to do what they claim they want to do is a whole nother ball o wax.
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"... On December 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued the National
Strategy for Countering Biological Threats. It was described as a ―vision for addressing
the challenges from proliferation of biological weapons or their use by terrorists. It
highlights the beneficial nature of advances in the life sciences and their importance in
combating infectious diseases of natural, accidental, and deliberate origin. It also outlines
how the risks associated with misuse and potential consequences of a biological attack
require tailored actions to prevent biological threats.‖
The Strategy placed emphasis on the following areas: (1) Improve global access to the
life sciences to combat infectious disease regardless of its cause. (2) Establish and
reinforce norms against the misuse of the life sciences. (3) Institute a suite of coordinated
activities that collectively will help influence, identify, inhibit, and/or interdict those who
seek to misuse the life sciences.
On December 30, 2009, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13527,
―Establishing Federal Capability for the Timely Provision of Medical Countermeasures
Following a Biological Attack.‖ ..."

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http://sunshine-project.org