For those who have been bitten by the “living green” bug, you might be interested to know that cultured meat may significantly reduce the energy requirements for meat production. Conventionally raised cattle require a massive amount of resources and produce significant environmental waste.

‘What our study found was that the environmental impacts of cultured meat could be substantially lower than those of meat produced in the conventional way,’ said Hanna Tuomisto of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, who led the research. ‘Cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat.’

Currently, the technology is still in its infancy and is therefore quite expensive. However, the price will undoubtedly decrease as the methods are honed. For those of us who are ethical carnivores, cultured meat solves many of the ethical issues associated with raising cattle for slaughter — like whether the cattle was pasture-raised, how the animal is killed, and how animals are treated throughout the entire life cycle.

Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to pursue the development of this technology is the ability to produce food for populations in which other forms of agriculture are not viable. In drought and famine stricken areas, cultured meat could make a difference in the lives of people who are wasting away from starvation. Don’t forget — the world’s population is only 7 billion right now. How bad will it be when it’s 10 billion?

Update 9/12/2011: Interdisciplinary scientist organize in Gothenburg, Sweden in an effort to attract the attention of investors and others interested in advancing the technology.

In the modern world, our dependance upon electricity has caused us to forget useful skills and technology of centuries past. A prime example is the invention of electrical refrigeration. People switched from food preservation techniques like salting and canning to simply throwing food into the freezer. Electrical refrigeration made direct-to-home milk delivery a thing of the past. While modern refrigeration and freezing is certainly convenient, it creates a dependence upon the device and the electrical grid that powers it. What happens when the power goes out? The unit will only keep foodstuffs cold for a day or so before it is no longer a viable storage method.

There is some evidence that ancient civilizations were able to refrigerate their perishable goods by using evaporative cooling. A very simple evaporative cooler known as a botijo was used in Spain to store drinking water. The botijo jug was made of porous unglazed earthenware and placed outdoors. Over time, a small percentage of the water diffuses through the ceramic’s pores and evaporates, taking heat energy away with it. This has a net cooling effect on the remaining water and under ideal circumstances, the temperature can drop up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit from the starting temperature!

In the 90s, the technology was rediscovered by Mohammed Bah Abba who developed the idea of pot-in-pot refrigeration (or zeer pot). In his implementation, a small pot (glazed ceramic or metal) is placed inside a larger unglazed, porous ceramic pot. Sand is used to fill the space between. Water is poured over the sand until it is saturated and a wet towel is placed over the top of the apparatus. When the pot is left outdoors, direct evaporative cooling can reduce the temperature to the 40-50 degree Fahrenheit range. This is a very impressive feat when considering the design’s simplicity. If one were so inclined, the apparatus could be tinkered with by adding renewable energy powered ventilation fans to increase water evaporation — potentially bringing the interior pot’s contents to the mid 30s.

Here’s a useful chart that shows how effective these zeer pots can be:

(Source: Wikipedia)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZH0K-Qhuw

Marcin Jakubowski, a former graduate student who earned his Ph.D. in fusion energy, decided to take his life a different direction. He started a farm in Missouri. He soon began to understand the woes of farming when he bought a farm tractor, only to have it break shortly thereafter. He realized that it is very difficult to find affordable, sustainable farm equipment that will last decades rather than years. Instead of paying a ton of money to buy the top-of-the-line farm equipment, he decided instead to build his own. That epiphany led him to start the Open Source Ecology organization and the Open Farm Tech wiki site. Open Farm Tech has a goal to create the Global Village Construction Set, a list of fifty machines that can be used to build a sustainable modern civilization. To grasp an idea of what they’re accomplishing, see the video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD1EWGQDUTQ

Mr. Jakubowski recently gave a brief talk at TED in which he discussed the background and goals of their project. See below:

Open Source Ecology/Open Farm Tech releases the blueprints and CAD designs to all their tools through their wiki site for completely free. They utilize knowledge from a contributor community that spans the globe. As more people take Open Source Ecology’s lead and go start their own DIY civilizations, the scope of innovation will undoubtedly be astonishing.

As economic inflation drives up the prices of consumer goods, more people are looking to gain some resilience from looming economic disaster. Consequently, people are turning to the DIY and maker culture to create sustainable technologies that can help families become self reliant and less dependent upon the consumer industry.

Today SLV went up 1.13 and another 0.11 in the after hours, leaving it at 39.97. With silver about to break 40 and the price of gold skyrocketing, there’s strong indication that trust in the dollar is quickly disappearing.

Lately, the dollar has faced pressure relative to nearly every major currency on the planet. Overall, the U.S. dollar index, which includes a basket of several currencies, has reached levels not seen since late 2009. Both the Australian and Canadian dollars are now worth more than the U.S. currency, with the Aussie at record highs and the loonie at its highest exchange rate in more than three years.

With Canada and Australia both being resource-rich countries, the strength in their currencies makes sense, now that gold and silver prices have broken out to the upside. But the performance of the dollar against the euro and Swiss franc is more disturbing. The Swiss franc has also moved well above parity versus the dollar, hitting all-time highs in the past month. And even the euro has performed well lately, hitting a 14-month high despite all the concerns over sovereign debt among the eurozone’s weaker countries. The only currency that has given the dollar a break lately is the Japanese yen, and that respite came largely from coordinated intervention from central banks around the world to keep the yen from strengthening too much after last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

Oh wait, it gets better:

The source of currency woes for the U.S. rests largely in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. The European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates today, with Switzerland potentially following suit. In doing so, they’ll join countries around the world, including Brazil and most recently China, in tightening monetary policy to combat inflationary pressures. As rates rise, returns for holders of those currencies will increase, making them look more attractive to investors than currencies in countries with low-rate environments.

Meanwhile, the Fed seems bound and determined to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. That has unmistakable benefits for borrowers, including the U.S. government. But it also discourages savers from holding onto greenbacks. For instance, interest rates in Australia greatly exceed what you get from comparable U.S. fixed-income investments. Combined with a falling U.S. dollar, investors have lots of incentive to flee to overseas markets and reap the double-benefit of higher rates plus favorable currency fluctuations.

The author’s advice for investors is to diversify currency exposure via currency ETFs, foreign currency-denominated bonds, and foreign stocks. All of those options are great ways to create a more diverse investment portfolio — and most importantly, gain some protection from inevitable fluctuations in the U.S. dollar’s value. However, for diligent non-professional investors, diversifying some assets in the commodities markets can help hedge one’s bets if U.S. dollar hyperinflation occurs.

Loans tied to commercial mortgage-backed securities hit a record delinquency rate in March, with 9.42% of all such loans having missed payments, loan research-service firm Trepp LLC said.

The rate has been on an upward climb since the real-estate market began to turn in late 2007. Facing significantly lower values than when loans were taken out during the peak years of 2005-2007, a number of landlords have been unable to pay off loans as they come due.

The worst-performing sector is multifamily, with 16.2% of loans delinquent.

Still, the pace of the increase in the delinquency rate has slowed in recent months, and the rate for March was up from 9.39% in February. Meanwhile, the commercial mortgage-backed securities sector is making new loans once again, on pace to issue about $40 billion in securities for the year.

Robert Canter’s analysis at the Gerson Lehrman Group strongly criticizes the optimistic reporting being done by the Fed and other securities agencies:

CMBS delinquencies have not decreased rather they continue to increase. Banks are as fragile as ever, despite words to contrary by the Feds.

“Commercial mortgage-backed securities are showing signs of recovery, but investors remain concerned about the quality of the securities. Many of the bonds are backed by shopping malls and office buildings, and the lack of diversity worries some investors. That’s a concentration people may be concerned about because there has been no turnaround in this sector,” said Darrell Wheeler, senior managing director of strategy at Amherst Securities.

And further reported [in mid-March]…

Moody’s: CMBS Loan Delinquencies Rise to 9.18%; “The delinquency rate on loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) conduit and fusion transactions increased 17 basis points in February to 9.18 percent, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s noted that while still rising, increases in CMBS delinquencies have been moderating since June 2010.”

Gee that flies in the face of all the optimistic reporting going on!

1. Hydrolysis -- A chemical reaction where particulates are solubilized and large polymers are converted into simpler monomers
2. Acidogenesis -- A biological reaction where simple monomers are converted into volatile fatty acids
3. Acetogenesis -- A biological reaction where volatile fatty acids are converted into acetic acid, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen
4. Methanogenesis -- A biological reaction where acetates are converted into methane and carbon dioxide, while hydrogen is consumed

(Source: Wikipedia)

As Jason Fields from The Urban Farming Guys says in the video below, a great way to seed a new anaerobic digestion reaction is to start with cow manure. The guts of the Bos taurus subspecies contain a great microorganism flora to serve as a starter culture for anaerobic digestion. A DIY bioreactor can be as simple or as complex as one desires. One of the great features of DIY anaerobic digestion is scalability. A bioreactor can be built on a very small-scale to provide supplemental energy for a single household or a very large system can be made to provide for a cluster of households. Since the system utilizes biowaste, reactor materials can often be purchased at very low prices (or given away for free) from local businesses and restaurants.

For people interested in having a little more control over their own energy, starting a DIY biogas anaerobic digester could be one way to achieve another degree of independence — and serve as a baby step toward living completely off-the-grid.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AZv6MjZylo

Science reports:

The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card coated on either side with two different catalysts. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel.

Splitting water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen requires orchestrating two chemical reactions at the same time. Electrons must be stripped from hydrogen atoms in water, which causes water molecules to fracture into positively charged hydrogen ions, or protons, and negatively charged oxygen atoms. One catalyst then must knit together two oxygen atoms to form O2, while a second catalyst welds two hydrogen atoms with two electrons to make H2.

To make its artificial leaf, the MIT team spread its catalysts on opposite sides of a silicon wafer. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes energetic, negatively charged electrons and positively charged electron vacancies to the catalysts on opposite sides that use them to make H2 and O2.

The solar collector is actually slightly more complex than a uniform slab of silicon. That was necessary because splitting water requires at least 1.23 volts, but a single silicon cell provides only about 0.5 volts. So the MIT team used a commercially available material with three silicon cells layered atop one another, giving them enough voltage to drive the water-splitting reaction.

When the device is placed in a clear jar and exposed to sunlight, it produces a steady stream of oxygen and hydrogen bubbling up to the surface. According to Nocera, the setup converts 5.5% of the energy in sunlight into hydrogen fuel. “You literally walk outside, hold it up, and it works,” Nocera says.

While the technology needs some more tweaking before it’s marketable, the potential uses are quite staggering. The artificial leaves could foreseeably be installed on the roofs of carports and attached to pressurized collection tanks. Fueling a hydrogen-compatible vehicle could become a fairly simple process — and most importantly, sustainable and carbon neutral (unlike fossil fuels). With rising fuel costs, the economic viability of fossil fuels from a household-expense perspective is quickly declining.

Imagine for a moment that the United States government is a public corporation. Imagine that its management structure, fiscal performance, and budget are all up for review. Now imagine that you’re a shareholder in USA Inc. How do you feel about your investment?
Because 45% of us own shares in publicly traded companies, nearly half the country expects quarterly updates on our investments. But although 100% of us are stakeholders in the United States, very few of us look closely at Washington’s financials. If we were long-term investors, how would we evaluate the federal government’s business model, strategic plans, and operating efficiency? How would we react to its earnings reports? Nearly two-thirds of all American households pay federal income taxes, but very few of us take the time to dig into the numbers of the entity that, on average, collects 13% of our annual gross income (not counting another 15- 30% for payroll and various state and local taxes).

The entire 266 page PDF file can be downloaded from their site here. I highly suggest you read it when you’ve got some spare time. The report has tons of fantastic graphs and data. A selection of them are posted below:

After reading through the entire report, I’ve been left with a sinking feeling in my gut. It truly is a tragedy to see what has become of the nation’s finances. It’s even more depressing when one realizes the futility of the matter. What can we as citizens possibly do to change things beside sit back and watch the tragedy unfold? To many Americans, the “government” is an unchangeable, all-powerful, monolithic entity. Personally, my family has concluded the only logical thing for us to do is to expatriate and watch the train wreck from a distance.

Reuters reports:

U.S. single family home prices fell for the seventh straight month in January, bringing prices to just above April 2009 lows, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday…

…”The housing market recession is not yet over,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P. “At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing.”

Eleven of the 20 cities fell to the lowest levels since home prices peaked in 2006 and 2007, while the overall index was just 1.1 percent above the April 2009 low, the report showed.

(Sources: Zerohedge.com/Reuters)

There were year-over-year decreases in cities throughout the entire country including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Boston, and New York City. Make note that Phoenix home prices fell a whopping 9.2% from last year’s prices.

(Source: Reuters)

(Sources: Zerohedge.com/Reuters)

With falling home prices and a 17-month surplus supply of homes, it looks like the market may get much, much worse before there’s any sign of a recovery. It’s likely to take a very long time — on the order of decades — before the market recovers. Of course, these numbers aren’t even taking into account the effect future US National Debt and weakening of the dollar will have on the market.

McCarthyism, as defined by Wikipedia, is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. About a week ago, Bernard von NotHaus, the founder and designer of the Liberty Dollar, was convicted of a handful of some quite serious crimes. The charges he was found guilty of include the following:

[Mr. von NotHaus] was found guilty of making coins resembling and similar to United States coins; of issuing, passing, selling and possessing Liberty Dollar coins; of issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins intended for use as current money; and of conspiracy against the United States.

As reported by CourierPress.com,

The 2007 raid was a development in a dispute between von NotHaus and the U.S. government. In a federal suit filed in March 2007 in U.S. District Court in Evansville, von NotHaus sought a permanent injunction against the federal government to force it to stop referring to the Liberty Dollar as an illegal currency and to require the removal of a warning from the U.S. Mint’s website stating that use of the Liberty Dollar violates federal law.

The suit was triggered by a public warning issued by the U.S. Mint in September 2006. The warning informed Liberty Dollar users that federal prosecutors had determined circulation of the medallions is a federal crime.

According to federal prosecutors, Liberty coins were marked with the dollar sign; the words “dollar,” “USA,” “Liberty,” “Trust in God” (instead of “In God We Trust”); and other features associated with legitimate U.S. coins.

Prosecutors claimed von Not-Haus and Liberty Services had since 1998 been issuing, disseminating and placing into circulation the Liberty Dollar in all its forms throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The goal was to compete with United States currency.

Today, Tyler at ZeroHedge posted an op-ed written by Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com.

Here’s a few noteworthy excerpts:

To be clear, NotHaus made some serious mistakes, including pressing his coins to look semi-similar to standard federal currency, and also using language which could be interpreted to insinuate that his currency was “legal tender”. There are many barter networks in the U.S. that use gold and silver that do not have these kinds of problems with the government simply because they are careful not to make the same blunders.

However, it wasn’t the conviction itself that struck me, so much as the language of the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins, in her post trial statement. Let me reprint my favorite parts for you here:

“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,”

“While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country,”

“We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.”

My feeling (and this is only an intuitive notion) is that Tompkins had little to do with the writing of those statements, or had much “coaching” from the Department of Homeland Security, which has been expanding its absurd definition of terrorism to include almost anyone who does not agree with the philosophies of establishment elites and corporate global banks. Even returning military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as possible domestic terrorist threats. Why not proponents of gold and silver?

What we see here is the not so subtle conditioning of average Americans towards categorizing certain innocuous behaviors as being related to possible criminal or terrorist motives. Owning guns is anti-social, and you are a naughty bad person for liking big boom boom stick. What’s that? A pocket Constitution!? Didn’t McVeigh or one of the 9/11 hijackers carry around something like that? You have a survival garden? Hmm, that sounds fishy. I better call the FDA and make sure everything you’re doing is on the up and up. You want to trade gold and silver? Privately?! That’s obviously “black market” barter, and you are the reason the economy is so unpleasant. I don’t get as many food stamps and free big brother goodies as I used to, and I blame you and your dastardly sense of self sufficiency! The IRS should have your head! And so it goes…

Today, we stand at a bottleneck in the flow of history; a nexus of events which challenge our values, our resolve, and our better natures. Our deepest social and political beliefs will be called into question, our sacred principles of individuality and freedom will face an onslaught of malicious legislation and misguided cultural doubt. These principles always do in the face of global crisis.

To waver is not an option. To retreat is unimaginable. To compromise our core, in this kind of conflict, is to welcome defeat. At bottom, we live in an age of wills that only the strongest of hearts can endure.

As overwhelming as these kinds of struggle can be, as frightening as this kind of responsibility sounds, these are also days of truth and providence. Opportunities to right so many past wrongs in the single breath of an era are rare and precious. Men dream of living in the midst of such moments.

As a people, Americans have been challenged. The test is not only one of might, but one of honor and benevolence. How far are we willing to go to not only save ourselves, but to save each other? What are we really fighting for? Personal survival? The temporary stability and solace of the present? Or something more?

Do we intend to hide away, to merely eek out an existence at the dawn of economic and political catastrophe, or to stand steel faced and immovable in the very wake of the storm? To return to our foundations and hold fast. To not only subsist, but to prosper. To leave for the future something truly better than what we now have.

The most powerful position of defiance we can commit to as a movement is to teach average Americans to stand on their own. To become the purveyors of their own destinies. For me, what we call the Liberty Movement is not only a political entity but a vital philosophy driven by decentralized action and intensified by the growing uniqueness of its participants. It is the anti-thesis of globalization, which aspires only to diminish and dominate the individual, and replace sovereign thought with weak minds and absolute tyranny.

Ultimately, the greatest leaders do not actually seek to lead, but to teach. They do not seek power for themselves; they seek to empower the common man. This is an act of real survival, for a country of steadfast individuals is unconquerable. It is a place without fear.”