It’s hard not to notice the rise in oil prices every time we drive past a gas station. We compare and contrast, looking for the least expensive option, before settling on a price that still makes us extremely uncomfortable. Danny Schechter, author of Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time, published by Cosimo Books, recently wrote an article about the rise of oil and food prices, which addresses the current problem as well as the ones that will very likely develop.

“The Scam Behind the Rise in Oil, Food Prices” notes the sudden rise in oil and food prices, emphasizing that though these prices are rising, incomes are not. This puts many peoples’ standard of living at risk, making it even more difficult for some to earn a paycheck, since they can’t afford to drive themselves to work.

There are two arguments developing around the cause of the sudden rise in oil and food prices, but more specifically oil prices. This article addresses both. The first school of thought is the basic supply and demand theory. The supply is low, while the demand is high, therefore the prices have to go up. It’s the way economics works.

The other school of thought holds suspicions of “unchecked speculation.” This is the belief in speculative movements in commodity drive markets. In other words, investors are buying/investing in barrels of oil and selling them to make a profit. Those who believe this agree that the media and politicians aren’t digging deep enough to uproot the problem and that they’re just accepting what they’re being told.

This article is a thought provoking and informative piece that ties directly into Danny Schecter’s expertise on the current financial crisis, illustrated in his introduction for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report and his speculative viewpoint of popular media. Read “The Scam Behind the Rise in Oil, Food Prices” to find out Mr. Schechter’s conclusion. For further reading about the history of oil and its prices check out The History of the Standard Oil Company, also from Cosimo.

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No one will ever forget where they were on September 11, 2001. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, orchestrated by Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, were the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. And now, almost ten years after the fact, that most infamous terrorist has been brought to justice. He was killed by U.S. troops on a compound where he was hiding early Monday morning.

While this event is momentous and certainly celebratory for many Americans, it is reminiscent of a time shortly after 9/11, when Bin Laden was almost brought to justice. It quickly became known, after September 11th, that Bin Laden was hiding out in the Tora Bora mountains. Even as the military was closing in on him, inexplicably, he escaped.

In November 2009, a report was issued by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by John Kerry. The report describes the military and intelligence mission to capture Bin Laden, possibly one of the greatest mission failures in recent American history. The report, Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed To Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today, in light of recent events, is an exposing read that examines why this day took so long to arrive.

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The unrest in the Middle East has been at the forefront of the news since 2001. The countries have been analyzed. What is their religion? What is their contribution to the world as a whole? How are their governments run? Why do some of them feel such disdain for Americans? Do they wish the Army would leave them be, or are they happy with their presence?

These questions, though insightful, are too broad and too assuming. We are assuming that all countries in the Middle East reflect each other. This is like saying all the states in the US reflect each other, except it’s even more blatantly untrue to claim it of the former. The states in the US have the same fundamentals, though culture, specific laws, and other variables may differ. Many countries in the Middle East have very little in common.

Cosimo has published an insightful and analytical report titled, The Right to Freedom of Religion & Belief: An Analysis of Muslim Countries.

This report examines constitutional provisions in predominantly Muslim countries and the diversity of these provisions. With over forty-four countries discussed, this report is incredibly thorough and thought provoking.

Recently, there has been a series of political unrest in the Middle East. Uprisings, mass rebellions, protests and violence are straying far and wide in the hopes of redeveloping some governments. The populations are looking at their governments and comparing them to others, demanding that what they feel is only right. This report was the first to point out the truth among these governments. Not only comparing and contrasting the different regimes within the Middle East but also comparing them to the recognized international human rights standards.

If the mess of revolutions in the Middle East has you hooked to your preferred news outlet, this report is a must read. Filled with an overwhelming amount of knowledge on Middle Eastern government, it is sure to pique your interest. If you’re not all that interested in the Middle Eastern turmoil, consider this. Stereotypes are infectious. One is developed and the world picks it up, assuming the stereotype is true. Maybe it’s not, maybe it is. Either way an education beyond the mass consensus is needed to prevent the development of a seemingly ignorant opinion. There are a lot of unstable Middle Eastern countries highlighted in the news, but what about those that are stable? This report is a great way to educate yourself on the truth about religious freedom and human rights in the Middle East.

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This month Dr. Judy Griffin, renowned herbalist, aroma therapist, and author, has some advice about a common skin ailment: eczema. You can read her entire list of remedies in this month’s newsletter on her website, Aroma Health Texas, and you can also buy them at a discount.

Here’s some advice about the affliction:

Allergic eczema is the most common skin disease, often beginning early in life. One in 5 children of industrial countries is affected by this red, inflamed itchy skin. It is usually followed by a host of allergies to food, animals and the environment.

Recent research indicates a mutation of the filaggrin gene is often involved with children suffering with eczema. Filaggrin is a protein involved with the formation and hydration of a protective layer of skin. Mutations in the gene create dry, flaky skin unable to form an effective barrier from foreign irritants. These “allergens” pass through this porous layer of skin producing an allergic response and resulting in eczema. Afterwards, these same materials, or allergens will also produce an allergic reaction in the lungs or in the coryza skin of the nasal tissue only because the skin was unable to maintain a strong barrier during the initial exposure. The natural skin barrier must be repaused to avoid continuous allergic responses and more eczema.

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Good news has been coming from the authors of The Power of Yin! Hazel Henderson and Barbara Hubbard both have conferences and events coming up, and Hazel Henderson has some updates from her company, Ethical Markets Media. Read more below:

The Hazel Henderson - E. F. Schumacher Library has been catalogued in collaboration with the E. F. Schumacher Society (now the New Economics Institute), and we are also making it available to my longtime associates at Schumacher College (UK) where I am still teaching. Available online, most of the 5000 volumes deal with what’s wrong with economics, systems approaches, science, technology, policy and multi-disciplinary facets of sustainability, as well as sub-categories of war, peace and elections thanks to the work and contributions of Alan F. Kay, Ph.D., internet pioneer and Ethical Markets Advisory Board member. Over 1000 periodicals and reports will be added in the future, as well as the books reviewed regularly at www.ethicalmarkets.com. We hope students of sustainability will take advantage of this resource. The Library in St. Augustine is open to Schumacher College students and E. F. Schumacher researchers by appointment.

Today we released our February 2011 report of the Green Transition Scoreboard® (GTS). The GTS represents time-based, global research of non-government investments and commitments for all facets of green markets. This update of the GTS totals $2,005,048,785,088 from 2007 to the end of 2010, significant because many studies indicate that investing $1 trillion annually until 2020 will accelerate the Green Transition worldwide. The updated 2010 finding puts global investors and countries on track to reach the $10 trillion in investments goal by 2020. The press release went out this morning via CSRWire, and the full report is available online. Please link, repost, blog, forward or otherwise send out as appropriate. As you can see, we’ve moved the icon’s barometer to the $2 trillion mark, right on schedule!

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES
• The Sacred Way of Conscious Evolution: April 15 - 17, 2011
  A Weekend Workshop with Barbara Marx Hubbard
  THE SOPHIA INSTITUTE, Charleston, South Carolina
• Real Time in the Chrysalis Retreat: April 29 - May 1, 2011
  A weekend retreat with Barbara Marx Hubbard, is being held for all students and developers of conscious evolution.
  SANTA BARBARA MISSION RETREAT CENTER, Santa Barbara, California
• Renewable Energy Finance Forum: Canada, April 5-6; Wall Street, June 21-22
  Timothy Nash, MSc, will be reporting on the REFF-Canada and Martha Shaw will be reporting on the REFF-Wall Street, co-organized by our friends at the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).
• The Future of CSR Leadership: March 14 - 17, 2011
  Good Business IS Good Business, Featuring Hazel Henderson
  FAIRFAX, Virginia

Find out about more conferences and events at their websites, ethicalmarkets.com and barbaramarxhubbard.com.

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The Power of Ridicule vs. an Uncomfortable Truth: Why We Need to Take UFOs Seriously

When: Saturday, March 5, 2011
Where: The Edgar Cayce Research Center (ARE), 241 West 30th St, New York, NY. Between 7th and 8th Aves on the north side of the street, Second floor, buzzer 102. Just a block down from Penn Station.
Time: 1:00 to 3:00 PM
Cost:$10.00 ARE members, $15.00 non-members

The subject of UFOs and their implications have been ridiculed and laughed at since the summer of 1947, the advent of our so-called modern age of sightings. How and why did this pattern of behavior come to exist? What were the actual events which set it in motion, and why is so important for us to grasp the reality of and implications surrounding this historically distorted and derided subject? In this illustrated presentation, investigative writer Peter Robbins guides us through the birth and growth of the ridicule factor, the strategies which govern its effectiveness, and how it serves the interests of government repression and the tabloid press and broadcast media. Time allowing, Robbins will then examine some of the most significant and best documented UFO cases and events. An excellent introduction to the dynamics surrounding this extremely serious and profoundly important area of study.

Peter Robbins is the co-author of Left at East Gate: A First-hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest Ufo Incident, Its Cover-up, and Investigation, Cosimo Books, 2005

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A sample of Earth Fever is now available on Scribd! Go check it out to read the introduction and preface to the book, as well as the first chapter. Help spread the word about the dangers of climate change, and what you can do about it!

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The Broadway show “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” a play modeled after the book of the same name by George Bernard Shaw, opened in New York on Sunday October 3 at the American Airlines Theater. It was on Broadway more than 100 years ago, for one night, before the “filthy product” was banned by Anothony Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. The New York Times reported this in 1905. This year the Times had more pleasant news to report, in a “glowing” review of the play.

As anyone knows, if the play or movie is good, the book must be even better. Shaw wrote a social commentary that was largely considered taboo for his time, yet his message pervaded–women are strong, deserve to be treated with respect, can have their own opinions and ideas. And while we in the U.S. don’t really condone prostitution as viable career even today (and actually, neither did Shaw-go read it!), we can still take away the idea that women are capable and intelligent and all around impressive. Good for Shaw, sticking up for the ladies!

UPDATE: Interestingly, it has come to my attention that Anthony Comstock, the writer of the original tirade against George Bernard Shaw and his work, also wrote some books to further his cause of the suppression of vice. The books, Frauds Exposed, or How the People are Deceived and Robbed and Youth are Corrupted and Traps for the Young contain “warnings, restraints, guidance and sympathy” that “alone” might “save the youth” from vileness and corruption, and compulsively itemizes the “traps” that were seducing American youngsters into lives of debauchery and vice, including “pernicious literature,” gambling, “free love,” “lewd art,” and more (from the back cover). Delightfully, Cosimo offers both of these hard-to-find editions, available in our bookstore.

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Yesterday the New York Times posted an article about the death of (yet) another bookstore: The Barnes and Noble on 66th and Broadway near the Lincoln Center in New York City. It’s an enormous building, stuffed to the brim with books, and it’s all going the way of the record player. The article interviews independent-street-side-used-book-seller Charles Mysak, who laments the death of books in general, a phenomenon he has noticed in the last ten years as Apple Products and Kindles become more pervasive. The article spends a lot of time genuflecting on the loss of readers, and print books, and how sad it is that people are getting more stupid. And by people we must mean kids, because the younger generations are the majority of the gadget-buyers and the target audience for the New York Times is older and will understand the John Donne literary references from the columnist.

At the end of the article, Mysak comments:

It is apparent that we have a real serious issue, that the life of the mind has been in decline for some time now. [. . .] Ignorance and indolence is the primary problem. If you take care of the mind, everything else follows.

You can and should go read the article for yourselves. There are a lot of interesting comments on the article, most following in the usual vein: “It’s true, the loss of the print book is sad and terrifying, these fools and their gadgets don’t notice anything around them or know how to think for themselves.”; “OH, THE SMELL OF PRINT BOOKS! IT’S THE BEST SMELL IN THE WORLD! DON’T LET THEM DIE!”; “People are just reading on those gadgets, get over it, technology is here to stay!”; “Literary types are just as absorbed as the tech-types, no one has room to talk.”

Our publisher also offered his comments on the article, which are pretty interesting and insightful:

This is a fascinating article as it describes a reality - not based on statistics or corporate financial newsflashes - but based on a personal and very vivid experience which for many of us is becoming clearer and clearer every day: people are too busy with digital gadgets to focus on our surroundings, they are too focused on quick soundbites rather than longterm absorption of (reading)knowledge.

The question is if this is fundamentally different from moving from horse & buggy to cars -which most people would agree was inevitable and positive for mankind’s mobility and development - or are we moving to a world resembling sci-fi movies such as Idiocray and Minority Report, where people no longer care about the fundamentals of life & civilisation, and are pre-occupied by technologically driven entertainment.

Who knows for sure, but an important question also for the NYT to pursue further in their reporting.

I agree to an extent. But the real-life experiences reflected in the Times are from those who are uninterested in what technology and these admittedly distracting gadgets can do. Perhaps children are losing their attention spans and college students refuse to read anything that doesn’t come in the form of a text message. But I’m young enough that I was a partial product of the technology era, and I read in both print and digital formats, and while I can find myself distracted by Twitter and Facebook and blogs, here I am also disseminating information to a slew of people by those very same means.

It goes both ways; which I think all the dissenters know well enough. Technology is a tool, and how we choose to use it is what’s important. People lament the loss of print books and their smell and texture and the feelings they invoke. Well, I propose this. If it’s the physical book that’s making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside then you have no business reading and claiming to be a great lover of books. It should not be the physical product that warms you; it should be the content of the book. That’s what’s important, that’s what changes people, NOT a cover with some musty used pages.

There are upsides and downsides to reading in print and digitally. Print doesn’t die from a used battery or become unusable because of a smashed screen. But you can’t carry an entire library of print books with you on vacation, either. The fact that the loss of one bookstore or the inattention of some people who wouldn’t be reading anyway is not a reason to think that people are stupid or books are dead. Books are more alive than ever in more formats than ever. Publishers, readers, gadget-users need to broaden the definitions of the terms they use and realize that the tools they have can be valuable in multiple ways.

I know that this is going to be an on-going conversation and that others have expressed the same feelings more poignantly, but I think it’s a conversation that still needs to be had. I don’t think there’s going to be a reversal of technology or that people will go back to the old ways. But we can influence how technology is used and whether we’re going to become more knowledgeable and cultured because of it, or let reading and books and everything they stand for fall to the wayside.

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Hey everyone! These are the LAST TWO DAYS you can vote for bloggers so that Proctor & Gamble will donate 2 Liters of water to a person in need in a third world country! Together, bloggers have helped donate more than 9,000 days of water to suffering families! During these last two days, P&G is DOUBLING the amount of drinking water they donate with each vote! SO GET OUT THERE! In addition, the blogger who gets the most votes wins a trip to Africa with Dr. Greg Allgood to help children and families in need. You can read the whole story here.

By checking out the Changents.com site, you can see and read other blogs who are participating. Be sure to check out some of their fantastic stories, and VOTE!

Also remember that after the Changents.com contest is over, you can go over to the Proctor & Gamble website and donate water yourself! You CAN help make a difference and contribute to solving our global water crisis!

To read more about the water crisis and the value of water, check out Allerd Stikker’s book, Water, The Blood of the Earth.

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