Here used to be a post proclaiming the Path to Freedom website people as heroes of the Urban Homesteading movement but I removed all links and postings pointing to their site and I here I am explaining why I did that!
Path to Freedom - Lost Urban Homestead Hero status!
Luckily, we still have Urban homesteading Heroes in our midst
Patti Moreno aka 'The gardengirl' on gardengirltv.com is the first person I came across who was doing the Urban sustainable homesteading, even tough she was not the first in doing it, she became my first garden hero of this movement. Patti showed me what is possible on an urban city lot. She inspires me to become a better gardener and try to grow more food. It is because of her, that I decided to get some chickens for my garden.
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne are blooging at
Homegrown Evolution
they live in Los Angeles in one of those typical small California Bungalows where they grow most of their food. They also wrote a book called 'The Urban Homestead'
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Where the heck am I
Fact: The United States is the only major industrial country without universal health coverage.
To me, being German, it is just inconceivable that the richest country in this world will not provide this safety net to its citizens.
Almost on a weekly basis I read an article in the newspaper about someone without health insurance, who is loosing their home, having to file bankruptcy because they happened to get sick. I read about the numbers of the uninsured steadily rising. Just today I read about young people, like my 21 year old son, who loose their coverage on their parents policy once they turn 19 or after finishing college, who turn to online resources like WebMD for self diagnosis. Some resort to set their own broken bones, or share pharmaceuticals with others, or stretch their Asthma and Diabetes drugs. The young adults are the nation's largest group of uninsured people in America. There were 13.2 million of them in 2007, or 29%. To be able to get Medicaid, a single adult has to earn less then $707 a month, which is more then the minimum wage but the average insurance premium for a single, young adult is about $900. You do the math, who could afford that?
The latest numbers by the Census Bureau show there were 47 million-15.8% of Americans without health insurance in 2006. In 2000 this number had been 38.4 million, in 2005 the number was 44.8 million people-15.3%, so the average annual increase of uninsured people has been 1.4 million each year. Since the year 2000 there has been an increase of 22% in uninsured Americans.
For the last six years the numbers of Citizens without insurance has gone up each year and we don't even know yet the numbers from last year. For all I know it has not gotten better.
We don't even take care of the children. If the parents loose their health coverage, or they can't afford it and they earn too much money for Medicaid the little babes loose their health care as well. In 2005 there were 10.9 % of uninsured children, this rose to 11.7% in 2006. The census also found that children between ages 12 and 17 were more likely to be uninsured then children younger then 12.
More then 21000 people die each year because they have no insurance.
I can not understand, that in this day of age, the 21st century, in the richest nation of this world a statistic like above does not shock, depress or upset Americans enough to revolt.
People should be enraged, be out on the streets protesting this unjust treatment of their fellow citizens. It is time for this to end.
This is a bad reflection on this country.
Come on America, India has better health care then the US.
Health care is a human right!
When will you vote for universal health care?
http://standupforhealthcare.org/
To me, being German, it is just inconceivable that the richest country in this world will not provide this safety net to its citizens.
Almost on a weekly basis I read an article in the newspaper about someone without health insurance, who is loosing their home, having to file bankruptcy because they happened to get sick. I read about the numbers of the uninsured steadily rising. Just today I read about young people, like my 21 year old son, who loose their coverage on their parents policy once they turn 19 or after finishing college, who turn to online resources like WebMD for self diagnosis. Some resort to set their own broken bones, or share pharmaceuticals with others, or stretch their Asthma and Diabetes drugs. The young adults are the nation's largest group of uninsured people in America. There were 13.2 million of them in 2007, or 29%. To be able to get Medicaid, a single adult has to earn less then $707 a month, which is more then the minimum wage but the average insurance premium for a single, young adult is about $900. You do the math, who could afford that?
The latest numbers by the Census Bureau show there were 47 million-15.8% of Americans without health insurance in 2006. In 2000 this number had been 38.4 million, in 2005 the number was 44.8 million people-15.3%, so the average annual increase of uninsured people has been 1.4 million each year. Since the year 2000 there has been an increase of 22% in uninsured Americans.
For the last six years the numbers of Citizens without insurance has gone up each year and we don't even know yet the numbers from last year. For all I know it has not gotten better.
We don't even take care of the children. If the parents loose their health coverage, or they can't afford it and they earn too much money for Medicaid the little babes loose their health care as well. In 2005 there were 10.9 % of uninsured children, this rose to 11.7% in 2006. The census also found that children between ages 12 and 17 were more likely to be uninsured then children younger then 12.
More then 21000 people die each year because they have no insurance.
I can not understand, that in this day of age, the 21st century, in the richest nation of this world a statistic like above does not shock, depress or upset Americans enough to revolt.
People should be enraged, be out on the streets protesting this unjust treatment of their fellow citizens. It is time for this to end.
This is a bad reflection on this country.
Come on America, India has better health care then the US.
Health care is a human right!
When will you vote for universal health care?
http://standupforhealthcare.org/
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sustainable OSU Corvallis
A newspaper article I read this morning told about a new thing the Oregon State University in Corvallis Oregon is doing. The OSU students in 2007 voted to tax themselves $8.50 per student per term to purchase renewable energy for the campus. Since then, 3/4 of the university's electricity is coming from renewable production using sustainable technology paid for by this tax.
Now they came up with something neat again, they figured, there are thousands of students regularly using the cardio exercise machines to stay in shape. The spent energy of the students could be used to make electricity. So they retrofitted 22 of the eliptical exercise machines in the student-fee funded Recreation center with new technology developed by a firm in Florida and are harnessing the energy of the machines to generate electricity. Student Power in the true sense of the word.
The say the workouts of the students will produce an estimated 3,500 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which would be the equivalent to the electric needs of a small, very efficient house.
Cool, isn't it?
Students generating electricity while sweating on the exercise machine.
Just imagine, if every place using exercise machines would do that. It won't power a city, but it could power the building they are in. Every little bit counts if we want to get conserve energy.
Oregon again is the Frontier in Sustainability
Now they came up with something neat again, they figured, there are thousands of students regularly using the cardio exercise machines to stay in shape. The spent energy of the students could be used to make electricity. So they retrofitted 22 of the eliptical exercise machines in the student-fee funded Recreation center with new technology developed by a firm in Florida and are harnessing the energy of the machines to generate electricity. Student Power in the true sense of the word.
The say the workouts of the students will produce an estimated 3,500 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which would be the equivalent to the electric needs of a small, very efficient house.
Cool, isn't it?
Students generating electricity while sweating on the exercise machine.
Just imagine, if every place using exercise machines would do that. It won't power a city, but it could power the building they are in. Every little bit counts if we want to get conserve energy.
Oregon again is the Frontier in Sustainability
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