New Vrindaban Bloggers

Posted Dec 22nd 2009 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro

Can any fuel form make a serious run at oil use in the U.S. in the decade ahead? Natural gas might — largely as a result of natural gas’ abundant domestic supply, if new drilling techniques are deemed environmentally safe.

Briefly, the new techniques — including one called ‘hydraulic fracturing’ — enables natural gas suppliers to profitably access more gas than before. As a result, the Potential Gas Committee says the United States now has a more than a 100-year supply of natural gas.

However, issues regarding possible well water and ground water contamination at sites that used the new drilling techniques are currently under investigation by several U.S. environmental regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The New York Times reported. If proven to be unsafe, that would, most likely, decrease the U.S.’s natural gas reserves from current estimates.

But assuming most of the high tech-accessed new natural gas is safe and added to the nation’s supply, could natural gas play a larger role in the nation’s energy picture? At first review, it appears it can.

Up Ahead: Big Natural Gas?

Utilities who operator electric power generation plants are already turning to natural gas as a cleaner fuel than coal. Coal, remarkably cheap but also enormously damaging to the environment, has an uncertain future. If natural gas’ price remains low — and bountiful supplies would help achieve that goal — natural gas can continue to make major gains in electric power generation and in industrial use — substantially reducing the air-polluting particulates that coal-fired plants spew in to the atmosphere daily.

Likewise with home/commercial heating: assuming natural gas remains cheap, the energy form will likely see increased use in the decade ahead for heating. Natural gas already is the dominant form of home heat in the Midwest; in the Northeast, oil heat has been pervasive, but has seen its market share fall since the first oil shock in 1973-74.

However, use as a fuel for vehicle transportation may present the biggest hurdle for natural gas. The ease of use and wide availability of gasoline give it a decided edge over natural gas in the U.S. Further, although fleets of buses and vans have converted to natural gas, an entirely new infrastructure of natural gas filling stations would have to be built to enable universal use of natural gas for civilian vehicles. Still, natural gas does have one trump card in this struggle: price. If oil, which closed Tuesday up 21 cents to $73.93 per barrel, again trends toward the $100 level and beyond, natural gas’ price advantage over oil will widen: at some point — perhaps at $5 per gallon or $6 per gallon for gasoline, a major auto manufacturer will begin large-scale production of a natural gas vehicle, and those Americans concerned about fuel prices will be drawn to it.

Energy Analysis: The view from here argues that the energy form is not as important as the fact the American drivers need a domestic-based auto fuel competitor to gasoline. I don’t count the problematic ethanol from corn. And so far, no other alternative fuels (biodiesel, 100% electric cars etc.) present affordable, universal options. But natural gas, if the new supplies can be accessed without contaminating wells and ground water, could offer a serious challenge to gasoline in the next decade.

The following was from a discussion on the declining use of the sari. See the original article here.

Dandavat pranams. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.

Indians are undoubtedly and, imho, most unfortunately imbibing an ever increasing number of modern/western secular life style choices, including non-devotional dress, because they are now thinking sense gratification is the goal of life. Yet, as you and others mentioned, the mode of dress, for instance, still varies greatly depending on where you are in India.

For instance, Phalini devi and I just returned from a two month tour around India and in Udupi, the birthplace of our Madhavacarya Maharaja, and in the outlying areas, you will see some men, albeit a small percentage, wearing lungis, as mentioned by Gaura Keshavaji.

Yet, almost ALL the women there will wear saris only. Not only do the ladies wear saris daily, their hair is braided and decorated with fresh flowers. We regularly took local buses to visit devotees in areas outside of Udupi and it was hard to find any women, young or old, without fresh flowers in her hair. The exception was when you go through nearby Manipal, a university town 10 kilometers from Udupi. There, most of the college age young ladies worn jeans, untied hair and occasionally a salwar kameez. Young men wearing a dhoti/lungi are hard to find, even in a very nice, small city like Udupi.

We found a somewhat similar situation in the villages of Assam in Northeast India. Almost all the ladies worn saris and quite a few of the village men wore either a gamsha or a lungi folded at the knees and tucked in or tied at the waist. The men are mostly farmers who plow their paddy fields, which are flooded with water from the monsoon rains, with beautiful oxen. No farmer there plows his field wearing pants, as his legs will sink halfway to his knees in a muddy paddy field.

The ladies focus more or less entirely on all manner of domestic arts and services, centered around raising the children and grandchildren and assisting their husbands as needed, much like Mother Yasoda, who never commuted daily to nearby Mathura to a job.

Kindly see enclosed photos of village life in “Awesome Assam.” :-)  We plan to return to Assam soon to observe and spend time learning the time tested art of simple living from the villagers there. And depending on how that goes, we are considering the possibility of establishing a daivi-varnasrama village project there. The idea we have is to gather together a relatively small core of ISKCON devotees, mostly grihasthas, who are committed to living very simply in a non-electric, traditional village setting (mud/bamboo homes with thatched roofs).

Instead of following the modern day concept of working to make money to then purchase one’s necessities of life from stores, we will focus entirely on personally producing, from the land and our cows, all our basic necessities, namely food, shelter, cloth, herbs for medicine, etc. Srila Prabhupada referred to it as “living in the lap of material nature, depending on Krsna.”

Along with these routine daily activities centered around cow protection and farming, we envision cultivating loving relationships with the local villagers, based on advocating the principles of pure devotional service to Lord Krsna and steeped in constant Harinam sankirtan. Our plans include holding many Vaisnava festivals throughout the year at our central village ashram and traveling regularly in ox cart processions from village to village, distributing books and prasadam, and having always ecstatic kirtans wherever we go. Rather than importing many Vaisnavas from far away places, we think it more reasonable to preach to and encourage the local villagers to take up devotional service on a regular basis. Hopefully, what we establish will be able to be duplicated in many other locations throughout the world.

Being endowed with free will and realizing that our quality of life hinges, to a large degree, on the choices we make, Phalini devi and I have decided to relocate to India and try to please Srila Prabhupada by establishing Vrndavan villages. Your blessings, of course, would be most welcome. Haribol.

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

Haripada dasa

After Day 16 I started adding back more types of foods first fruits and veggies and then slowly a little grain. Day 20 I went to the temple for the first time since starting fasting and it was Yoga Day USA and a feast. I had avoided going before because the food is usually pretty good and too rich for how I was eating.

Once back to a regular diet the first thing that is obvious is mental processes get a little duller and the process of digestion’s impact on the system is more noticeable. It drags you down, but I was able to have enough energy so Vidya and I got a bunch of wood into the house which was good because the weather was nice then and has turned very wintery with snow since then.  The lowest average temperatures of the year are historically Jan.18-20 so we have turned the corner on winter and the tide is turning to warmer weather but it doesn’t feel that way today — the first in a string of 3 or 4 days where the temperature won’t go above freezing.

Added to my post fast diet was fresh turnip greens and Chinese cabbage that I picked fresh from the garden. Last December I was picking Chinese cabbage and had it under some floating row cover. I had harvested all the ones that had headed out but the ones left still have lots of edible leaves on them. When the first really cold weather arrived there was snow the first day and it stayed until it thawed, so the Chinese cabbage was green and fresh right out of the garden in the middle of winter.

There was some bad spots on the outer leaves where they touched the ground but otherwise good condition. The turnip greens were a little worse for wear but the center leaves in the rosette were still good and so about a 1/3 of those greens were good and having for lunch today. Plus all the turnips themselves I picked about a gallon of.

Nandulal came by one day and helped bring some more firewood in.  He is home from Iraq and spending the winter helping his mother. The main reason I needed help was to unload the van. It still had the blackboards in it from when I was at the auction. I was strong enough to help but not able to lift those sheets alone.

We offered to pay him but he declined and said it is the duty of the youth to help the older members of the community. That isn’t something you hear every day.

About a week after stopping the fast I had blood work labs done again, my normal monthly. Everything was back to my normal, which includes the BUN is back to being high and the liver enzymes are climbing. The hemocrit, hemoglobin and platelets all slipped back a bit too, still in the good range but down a little from when fasting.

My blood pressure was mostly good during the fast even though I wasn’t taking the blood pressure medicine but that has climbed back up once I started eating again so I have added that med back into my protocol.

My glucose was way too high when I started the fast, the medicine wasn’t really controlling it. It drifted down over the 14 days to almost normal and I wasn’t taking any medications for it but now it is climbing back up again so I have added one of the medicines back in and will observe to see if the other will still be needed.

If only I could live and work without eating, I would be in great shape, but, alas, I need to eat to work and the garden season is just around the corner. I have ordered some seeds and trees and have several more orders I am working on and hope to have sent out by the end of the week, so stayed tuned for garden plans.

Later this year, a double-rigged crane will hoist a giant power turbine part way up One Penn Plaza, a black monolithic skyscraper next to Madison Square Garden. When the natural gas-powered generator on the 12th floor starts, it will not only produce some 6.2 megawatts of electricity — enough to power up to half the 57-floor building on a busy day — but it will also siphon off wasted heat and use it to help heat and cool the 37-year-old skyscraper.

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Gruzen Samton Architects

A rendering of the room that will house a cogeneration plant on top of Cooper Union’s landmark Foundation Building.

With tenants defaulting and lenders withholding credit, this might not seem the opportune time for landlords to be getting into energy recycling. But Vornado Realty Trust, which owns One Penn Plaza and 27 other office buildings in New York City, is among the small but growing number of commercial landlords in the area that are installing the energy-efficient power stations known as cogeneration plants, or cogens for short.

Unlike conventional power stations, which let excess heat dissipate into the air as exhaust, cogens reuse that cast-off energy for heating and cooling. Given the improved efficiency, combined with government incentives and rising electricity costs, some landlords are now finding it cost-effective to install cogens and generate their own power.

The Related Companies, a large residential developer, recently installed a cogen at Manhattan Plaza, a huge 1970s housing complex in Midtown. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is constructing one at its new academic building, a futuristic structure designed by Thom Mayne. And the Durst Organization has installed a cogen plant at One Bryant Park, a new office tower near Times Square.

The appeal is simple: cogens help landlords lower energy costs. “You start to see savings on monthly bills right away,” said Clark Wieman, Cooper Union’s planning director. He said that the new generator would cost eight cents a kilowatt-hour, roughly half the cost of buying electricity from Con Ed.

For landlords, the assurance of on-site power also provides added comfort. “Backup power is another amenity we offer to our tenants,” said David R. Greenbaum, president of Vornado’s New York office division.

Cogens are also considered greener, because they lighten the demand on Con Ed’s older, dirtier plants and generate as-needed energy on location. Indeed, only 40 percent of each watt that Con Ed generates reaches the customer, according to Thomas W. Smith, the chief executive at Endurant Energy, the consulting firm managing the One Penn Plaza installation, mainly because much of it is lost when the electricity is generated.

By contrast, the cogen at One Penn Plaza is expected to attain efficiency levels as high as 80 percent, according to Mr. Smith. That translates roughly into 2,800 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions that are offset each year. And the captured steam will replace a fifth of the centralized steam that now controls the temperature of the building.

“This is changing how buildings generate power, and helping the city alleviate a huge problem in getting power to buildings,” Mr. Smith said.

The technology behind cogenerators is straightforward. According to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a federal research center affiliated with the Department of Energy, power generators that recycle excess heat have been around since the early 20th century, mostly in giant factories. But in recent years, as high-tech Internet hubs and other power-hungry industries have strained the aging electricity grid, the demand for smaller, fuel-efficient cogens have grown.

Office buildings in Manhattan, which sit over gas lines, were a natural market. In fact, cogens were cited by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2007 as a key component of his ambitious blueprint to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

The Durst Organization, a prominent landlord in Midtown, leapt first. Its cogenerator at One Bryant Park, a glassy 54-story skyscraper rising at the corner of 42nd Street and the Avenue of the Americas, is scheduled to come online this summer. Durst expects the 4.6-megawatt cogen to power as much as 35 percent of the building during peak hours.

Last year, Related Companies removed nine parking spaces at Manhattan Plaza, a 1,689-unit complex on West 43rd Street, and installed two 350-kilowatt cogens, which it plans to turn on next month. Related, which pays for tenants’ utilities, expects to save $350,000 a year, and recoup its costs by 2012. “There should be no impact to the tenants,” said Nick Lanzillotto, an operations manager. “They won’t even know it’s happening.”

Related also installed cogens with microturbines, smaller versions of the conventional engine, at Tribeca Green, an apartment complex in Lower Manhattan.

While New York State offers a range of incentives through its Energy Research and Development Authority (Vornado, for example received a $2.5 million package for One Penn Plaza), the upfront cost can turn many landlords pale. Vornado’s plant at One Penn Plaza cost $18 million.

The steep price can make even well-endowed, green-minded places like Cooper Union hesitant. Instead of footing the bill for the cogen at its new academic building in the East Village, Cooper Union hired an outside company, Office Power, to build, own and operate the generator.

Cooper Union now wants a cogen in its landmark Foundation Building. “Earlier, the board did not want to spend on something that had not been proven,” Mr. Wieman said. “But we learned that the payback made sense.”

by Nishal Lama, mybangalore.com

participating cow with a complete makeover

How many would have really thought that there could be a fashion show with models being the cows. The Kombu Mela celebration that was held at ISKCON in the city on January 14 showed exactly that: cows replacing the model, where the designers where replaced by the make over artists who were none other than the students from various city colleges.

As an initiative by ISKCON to celebrate the yearly Kombu Mela, the authorities, this time, decided to organize this, one of its kind, event where cows were to replace the usual models for the fashion show. Dressed in the best attire (all thanks to the students’ efforts), the cows were sure to look different for the show. With balloons, ribbons, garlands and flowers, it was almost a no-stone-unturned thing for the students who were involved to give the make over. The students, however, had their share of fun participating in the event. Shweta, a student from Vogue Institute, said, “This is the first time ever that I have come so close to a cow, let alone dressing it up. I was pretty apprehensive when I got into this, but that was short lived. Once here, I lost all my apprehensions. I have enjoyed doing the makeover; it was so much fun.”

People from the temple singing a Bhajan during the program

It wasn’t just the make over artists, but the cows were seen equally apprehensive. Radhika, another participant said, “When I came here for the first time, the cow was really scared looking at everything that was going around. But it didn’t take a lot of time for us to get our things done. It was wonderful to see how the cow started reacting to all that we were doing. It’s, for sure, one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Echoing Radhika’s thoughts, Shweta K., a participant from Vogue Institute, said, “We have even given a name to the cow that we are doing the make over for; we have named Sahana, and she is beautiful. I have got an amazing experience being here.”

Meanwhile the Mirchi RJ’s also engaged the crowd with fun games and contests. Celebrity judges from Sandalwood, Chetan & newbie Regina, seemed to have had a fun time watching the cow beauties walking the ramp. While standing beside the winning cow for a picture, Regina cheekily said, “It feels as if we are standing beside a glam diva. I am glad that the organizers have come out with such fun concept.” Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Balyan, Cluster Head Karnataka & Kerala said, “Kombu Mela has become our signature event now. And, since Radio Mirchi has such a strong following with the youth of Bangalore, we decided to adopt and give the Sankranti celebrations a youthful and Mirchi twist. Hence, the fashion show.”

Some of the participating colleges for the Fashion Show were Vogue Fashion Institute, the fashion departments of Surana College and KLE College, Sheshadripuram College, Presidency College and so forth. The team, which was successful in bringing out a perfect themed look on the cow, was chosen the winner, and it was Vogue Institute with the theme Beauty and the Beast. The winner got price money of Rs. 10,000.

Having won the contest, Sandeep M., from the winning team said, “We were not here to win, but to participate in the event. So, it really doesn’t matter, but it has been a sheer fun to have taken part in the whole thing.” Guess, it just happens with the cows in India.

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From an email I received:

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.”  Daniel Webster

Which echoes Prabhupada when he says:

“Without protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained; and without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be fulfilled.”

Srimad Bhagavatam 8.24.5

Cow protection includes agriculture because the dung is used for fertilizer and the bull used for traction. Not slaughtering animals is a specific feature of true Vaisnava agriculture.

A follow up email I received:

I found the original  quoted extract in the last paragraph of a speech Daniel Webster delivered to the Massachusetts Legislature (Boston, 13 January 1840):

“Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. Man may be civilized, in some degree, without great progress in manufactures and with little commerce with his distant neighbors. But without the cultivation of the earth, he is, in all countries, a savage. Until he gives up the chase, and fixes himself in some place and seeks a living from the earth, he is a roaming barbarian. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.”

The speech is printed in its entirety in The Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. 1, 7th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1853), pp. 443-457 . (See enclosed attachment.) This lawyer and politician had a great interest in and knowledge of agriculture. He discoursed confidently on crop rotation and fallowing, the importance of manure, winter feeding of livestock, the best breeds of sheep and cows, etc.

Of course, his perspective was not that of a Vaishnava; he viewed as normal the raising of animals for slaughter, for example, but the bulk of what he said seems quite intelligent. His stamina and productivity were amazing; at one time he was employed for a dollar a day as the principal of an academy while working as a recorder of land deeds and also studying law in his spare time!

http://www.nordicenergysolutions.org/inspirational/renewable-energy-where-salt-water-meets-fresh-water

The Norwegian company Statkraft opens the world’s first facility for osmotic power generation. Statkraft says a full-scale commercial osmotic power plant could be ready by 2015.

Salt is good for you. When salt and fresh water mix, you can generate clean energy. (Photo: Statkraft)

Osmotic power could contribute around 1,600 TWh on a global basis annually. Only in Norway osmotic power has the potential to cover 10 percent of the total power consumption.

Natural process

Osmotic power is based on the natural process of osmosis. In an osmotic power plant, seawater and fresh water are separated by a membrane. The seawater draws the fresh water through the membrane, thereby increasing the pressure on the seawater side. The increased pressure is used to produce power.

Supply of fresh and salt water

The Statkraft prototype plant is built at the paper pulp manufacturer SodraCell Tofte’s plant at Hurum in Buskerud, Norway. The location will provide the osmotic plant with a good supply of fresh water and seawater, along with access to the established infrastructure.

Large investment

When Statkraft started the establishment of an osmotic power plant prototype, the company had invested more than NOK 100 million to develop a new, renewable energy technology. The research work was supported by The Research Council of Norway, the prototype is also being supported by the the public enterprise Enova SF. Enova SF is owned by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and its main mission is to contribute to environmentally sound and the rational use and production of energy.

The prototype is meant to provide Statkraft with a better understanding of the challenges involved in developing osmotic power technology. StatoilHydro says the prototype built at Tofte is a necessary platform for the further development of the technology.

1970s idea

The idea to generate power through osmosis originates from the 1970s. But back then the membranes were not sufficiently effective and the power prices were too low to enable anyone to profitably invest in such projects. Scientists at the research organisation SINTEF brought the idea to Statkraft in the 1990s.

Can be built out of sight

Around the world, rivers flow out into the sea in urban and industrial areas where it will be possible to construct osmotic power plants. A power plant the size of a football stadium could supply around 10,000 households with electricity. These power plants can be built underground, e.g. in the basement of an industrial building or under a park, minimising their visual impact. Statkraft points out that osmotic power plants give off no polluting discharges to the atmosphere or water, and that they do not affect the fauna or flora of rivers or the seafloor.

About Statkraft:

The Statkraft Group generates hydropower, wind power and district heating and constructs gas power plants in Norway and Germany. Statkraft is a major player on the European energy exchanges. In Norway the company supplies electricity and heat to around 600,000 customers through its shareholdings in other companies.

“Darkness, illumination and clouds sometimes appear and sometimes disappear, but even when they have disappeared, the potency is still there, always existing. In the sky sometimes we see clouds, sometimes rainfall and sometimes snow. Sometimes we see night, sometimes day, sometimes illumination and sometimes darkness. All these exist due to the sun, but the sun is unaffected by all these changes. Similarly, although the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the original cause of the total cosmic manifestation, He is unaffected by the material existence.”

SB 4.31.17

We have been getting a lot of snow and freezing weather. Our average temperature for today is 36 degrees (2 C) but the last time we saw a temperature above freezing was Dec. 31, the day of our New Year’s Eve party. I remember because we were overflow parking in the hay field and I was a little concerned about the ground thawing but it didn’t enough to be a problem. Since then it has been below normal temps. It should  tickle thawing tomorrow and then we will have ten days of upper 30s and low 40s (4-5 C) to make up for it.

The sun has taken a vacation and we had about ten days in a row where I only saw the sunshine for about 5 minutes. It was also accompanied by frequent snowfalls. According to Channel 9’s website, “This is the 13th straight day with snow! Over that stretch we have managed to pick up nearly a foot of snowfall.”

That was two days ago and none since then. Each given snow was not that much so it built up layers. It was also very dry snow, not the good wet kind for making snowballs, but light. The layers built up and I think then froze together, so they got stronger like lamination layers. As such they were some really interesting things to see.

Like on the garden shed door, which is on the leeward end of the shed, there is a 1″x6″ cross bar. Since it is milled lumber, it is really only 3/4″ (2 cm) wide. As the snow settled there it built out about 5″ (13cm) and curled under, like one of those pictures you see of a surfer”shooting the curl”. The curl didn’t touch back to the door, so all the structure is supported by the narrow edge of the board. A very complex and organic curved vision.

I tried to take a picture of it but with my level of expertise and the camera I have, I couldn’t get one that would do it justice. It all merged into a white oneness when I looked at it on my computer. Here is one I did mange to get where you can see some detail on the gutters on the inside bend of my ell shaped house. Not as complex but still interesting.

I have deer that practically live in my yard. Although they don’t sleep in the same place every night they do take shelter. See where they slept next to the shed.

You can see the bamboo in the background which is evergreen and makes a great windbreak plus there is a fir tree with a 60′ (18m) diameter between the shed and the bamboo.

It has been two days since it snowed so the deer tracks aren’t being covered up and, yes, those are ALL deer tracks you see in this picture.

The snow is making it tough for the deer so although they usually come out of the forest to feed at dusk and dawn, it is now common to see them out during the day.

When it snows at night and there is no wind, the snow settles on the trees and makes a very beautiful scene.

“In all directions of Dvaraka City, wherever one would turn his eyes he would find green parks and gardens, each of them filled with trees and plants laden with fruits and flowers. Because there were so many nice trees of fruits and flowers, all the sweetly chirping birds and buzzing bumblebees joined together to make sweet vibrations. The city of Dvaraka thus fully displayed all opulences. “

Krishna Book 90:  Summary Description of Lord Krsna’s Pastimes

Living Near Green Lowers Anxiety, Depression Rates, Study Finds

By Kristen Hallam

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — People living near gardens, parks and other green spaces have lower rates of anxiety, depression and poor physical health than those living in urban areas, Dutch researchers found.

The scientists reviewed the medical records of more than 345,000 people in the Netherlands and calculated the percentage of green space near the patients’ homes. For those with 10 percent of green space within a 1-kilometer radius of their homes, the prevalence of anxiety disorders was 26 out of 1,000 people, according to the study. In a residential area that was 90 percent green, the prevalence was 18 out of 1,000.

Better health may stem from access to fresher air and more opportunities to relax, socialize or exercise, though more research is needed to confirm those theories, said Jolanda Maas and colleagues at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Expanding green spaces may help prevent chronic illnesses that cost billions of dollars to treat each year, they said.

“The role of green space in the living environment for health should not be underestimated,” they wrote in the study published in the British Medical Journal’s Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. “Most of the diseases which were found to be related to the percentage of green space in the living environment are highly prevalent in society and in many countries, they are the subject of large-scale prevention programs.”

The study also found fewer cases of depression, heart disease, back pain and asthma among those living near green spaces. The link between green space and health was strongest for children and people with low incomes, who are less mobile and spend more time closer to home, the study found.

The research was funded by a grant from the Netherlands Organization forScientific Research.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aaVDXmgskQmg

I circulated the following around the New Vrindaban community and was, unfortunately, not surprised by this response from someone who makes sure to always keep himself in what he brands as a “leadership” position.

“1) to turn the whole NV complex over to the dream of BalaKrsna/
Prabhupada is not realistic”

Okay, Prabhupada’s ” dream” (though he himself termed it a vision) is not realistic, in the view of one of our “esteemed” leaders. You can see what we are up against.

by Bala Krsna das

A field trip

I would like to take you on a journey, and am asking you to please fasten your seat belts. We are going to time-travel a few years into the future, to a small village, to take a little tour.

As we arrive in the village we are struck by its serenity and cleanliness, and the vitality of its residents, including the children, the women, the elders, and the cows. Oxen pull carts, cows graze within the village, and other oxen pull farm implements in the nearby small fields. We discover that the village is inhabited almost entirely by devotees of Krsna. As we make inquiries we learn that this village was started by disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and that there are even a few of those pioneers still living in the village.

In the centre of the village is a temple, and we are invited to go there first to see Radha and Krsna. After seeing the Deities in the temple, we are offered mahaprasad sweets made of milk from cows that live in the community. Continuing our tour, we are taken next to the community school, where we see happy children in the playground.

A little further down the road we are shown an anaerobic composting digester that transforms biomass, including human and animal manure, into high grade compost, methane, and CO2. The compost, we learn, is used to enhance the soil in the fields and gardens, and the methane is used for heating and cooking. The CO2 is harnessed to enhance growth in the adjacent greenhouses. Everything in the village gets recycled, including especially the biomass left from harvested fields, which is seen as a great asset.

We observe solar panels on the rooftops of most buildings. Our guide then shows us the micro-hydro turbines that are hooked into nearby streams.

Near the border of the village is a parking lot with several buses, cars, and small trucks. Two of the buses, we learn, have brought visitors to this now-famous self-sufficient village. Another bus belongs to the village and is used by the community for going to local towns for sankirtana, and for going to Rathayatra festivals in the big cities. Sometimes the bus is used by the village school for taking students on field trips. We also learn that the families in the village cooperatively own several cars and trucks to be used for their occasional trips outside the village. Using the hemp grown by farmers in the village, they are able to produce all the fuel needed to drive these vehicles.

This ends our short tour, and we prepare to return to the present. Hopefully we will return again to find out more about the history and dynamics of this wonderful place, but at least for now we have been able to observe some highlights. One of the deepest impressions we take with us is the presence and importance of cows in the village and how much they are obviously loved by all the villagers.

Back to the present

Click here to read the rest of this article.

(Part of it was too small to read when I saw it so I had to go under View and Zoom in a few times to read it, maybe it will be fixed by the time you read it.)

The hot new movie in the theaters is Avatar.  It has ground breaking computer generated images and that is drawing a crowd even though the plot is said to be pretty derivative.

In the media buzz surrounding its release, a lot of emphasis has been put on how it has an environmentally conscious perspective. Hah!

However environmentally conscious it purports to be, we can see that is only to take advantage of an emerging consciousness about the environment and not a true commitment to the principles of environmentalism.  It is simply pandering to what some people want to hear. They will already get the war pic buffs.

The tipoff that it isn’t real is that they are doing a huge advertising tie in with McDonalds. That’s right, they talk about environmentalism but where the rubber meets the road, money, they are in bed with major animal killer corporation McDonalds.

For those of you who don’t already know that meat eating is worse for the environment than SUVs, check out Vegetarian is the New Prius.

“Ox carts are an important part of Costa Rica’s cultural history. Each year, in March, there is a large parade of ox carts in Escazú, on the outskirts of San José. Last Sunday was Ox Driver’s Day and I was able to watch the parade for the first time in quite a few years. There must have been around 250 carts, some very old, some very ornate. I think I enjoy the bullocks more than the carts themselves; some are huge and very beautiful…”

Read more and see more here Dia del Boyero.

Should you eat meat?

by Elizabeth Kolbert

“Americans love animals. Forty-six million families in the United States own at least one dog, and thirty-eight million keep cats. Thirteen million maintain freshwater aquariums in which swim a total of more than a hundred and seventy million fish. Collectively, these creatures cost Americans some forty billion dollars annually. (Seventeen billion goes to food and another twelve billion to veterinary bills.)

“Despite the recession, pet-related expenditures this year are expected to increase five per cent over 2008, in part owing to outlays on luxury items like avian manicures and canine bath spritz. “We have so many customers who say they’d eat macaroni and cheese before they’d cut back on their dogs,” a Colorado pet-store owner recently told the Denver Post. In a survey released this past August, more than half of all dog, cat, and bird owners reported having bought presents for their animals during the previous twelve months, often for no special occasion, just out of love. (Fish enthusiasts may bring home fewer gifts, but they spend more on each one, with the average fish gift coming to thirty-seven dollars.) A majority of owners report that one of the reasons they enjoy keeping pets is that they consider them part of the family.

“Americans also love to eat animals. This year, they will cook roughly twenty-seven billion pounds of beef, sliced from some thirty-five million cows…

“One day while in Berlin, Franz Kafka went to visit the city’s famous aquarium. According to his friend and biographer Max Brod, Kafka, gazing into the illuminated tanks, addressed the fish directly. “Now at last I can look at you in peace,” he told them. “I don’t eat you anymore.”…”

“Foer’s position is that all such arguments are, finally, bogus. We eat meat because we like to, and we devise justifications afterward. “Almost always, when I told someone I was writing a book about ‘eating animals,’ they assumed, even without knowing anything about my views, that it was a case for vegetarianism,” he says. “It’s a telling assumption, one that implies not only that a thorough inquiry into animal agriculture would lead one away from eating meat, but that most people already know that to be the case.”

“What we know about eating animals is that we don’t want to know. Although he never explicitly equates “concentrated animal feeding operations” with the Final Solution, the German model of at once seeing and not seeing clearly informs Foer’s thinking…

“Meanwhile, it could be argued that even a vegetarian diet falls short. As Foer is well aware, some of the animals that suffer most from the factory-farm system aren’t the ones that end up on the table. Most dairy cows spend their lives in sheds, where they are milked two or three times a day by machine. Many develop chronic udder infections…

“But is even veganism really enough? The cost that consumer society imposes on the planet’s fifteen or so million non-human species goes way beyond either meat or eggs. Bananas, bluejeans, soy lattes, the paper used to print this magazine, the computer screen you may be reading it on—death and destruction are embedded in them all. It is hard to think at all rigorously about our impact on other organisms without being sickened.”

by Leo Cullum

(Word of advice though, don’t stock up on extra flourescents, the screw into existing fixtures LEDs are coming.)