Priceless liberation

By Tiara Walters, Times LIVE

An economist's decision to give up cash is spawning a global movement of moneyless environmentalists

Force of circumstance has driven people throughout the world to live below the breadline and, if the looks on their faces are a measure of things, it's safe to say they think it sucks. Not Mark Boyle, however. The 31-year-old Irish economist turned "moneyless man" has given up money voluntarily - and, with that, his desire to earn or spend any more of it ever again.

"I went into economics to make as much money as I could, but then I realised I wasn't meant to spend my short time on Earth like this; that I was actually meant to show people a more respectful way of interacting with each other and treading on this planet," he says while talking on his mobile ("incoming calls only") from the solar-panelled caravan he pitched in a Bath orchard, southwest England, two years ago.

"The word 'economy' is totally misunderstood - economics is simply about meeting one's needs and money is just one economic model," says Boyle, who founded the "Freeconomy" movement, a global online forum that exchanges skills and resources for free, just before he renounced notes and coins on Buy Nothing Day in late 2008.

"When you completely localise your economy, when you meet your needs within the 15- to 20-mile (30km) radius in which you live, you stop your reliance on money, on fossil fuels and all the other environmental destruction that our pact with money buys," he says.

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Freakonomics - Official Trailer

Release Date: November 2010
Genre: Documentary
Cast: Zoe Sloane, Jade Viggiano, Alisha Nagarsheth, James Leibow
Director: Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney
Writer: Peter Bull, Alex Gibney, Jeremy Chilnick
Studio: Magnolia

Plot:
Some of the world's most innovative documentary filmmakers will explore the hidden side of everything

NSC Study Shows You are More Likely to Killed By a Cop Than a Terrorist

From News Blaze:

After 9/11, the fear of another attack on U.S. soil cleanly supplanted the fear of having one`s penis chopped off by a vengeful lover in the pantheon of irrational American fears.

While we`re constantly being told that another attack is imminent and that radical Islamic fundamentalists are two steps away from establishing a caliphate in Branson, Missouri, just how close are they? How do the odds of dying in a terrorist attack stack up against the odds of dying in other unfortunate situations?

The following ratios were compiled using data from 2004 National Safety Council Estimates, a report based on data from The National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 2003 mortality data from the Center for Disease Control was used.

-- You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane

-- You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

--You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

-- You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

--You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

--You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

--You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

--You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

SOURCE: The Progressive Review

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days is an independent documentary film that chronicles six Americans with 'incurable' diabetes switching their diet and getting off insulin.

The film follows each participant's remarkable journey and captures the medical, physical, and emotional transformations brought on by this diet and lifestyle change. We witness moments of struggle, support, and hope as what is revealed, with startling clarity, is that diet can reverse diabetes* and change lives.

Additional wisdom is provided by Morgan Spurlock, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Robbins, Rev. Michael Beckwith, and Doctors Fred Bisci, Joel Furman, and Gabriel Cousens.

Boo! Kinder, gentler demon possession now PC

By Linda Harvey, WorldNetDaily

Maybe you missed the headline that the American psychology profession has a new approach for patients who are, or believe they are, possessed by one or more spirits. These clients may need "concurrent treatment protocols" that blend traditional counseling with successful management of "unseen spirits." Yes.

But there's a catch. The patient – the human one – must be an indigenous person. Native-American patients, you see, recognize a "permeable boundary between the seen physical world and that of unseen spirits." Western therapists should try harder to honor this pagan worldview.

This breakthrough approach comes from Suzan McVicker, MA, LPC, in an August 2010 paper published by the American Psychological Association. She tells her readers that among indigenous cultures, a "spirit force" may enter a human and seek to stay. This can be resolved, she explains, by engaging in "spirit depossession." But far from the "forceful banishment" of an exorcism, here the spirit is safely conducted back to its place of origin, which for most of them has been discovered to be Washington, D.C. ( Just kidding – she did not say that.)

Anyway, this gentle exit is accomplished with "skill and compassion" (presumably lacking in Christian exorcisms) and with minimal trauma. Jesus could have learned a lot from the APA! No need to send demons into herds of pigs, none of that teeth-gnashing stuff. All very civilized, indeed.

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Now, 'How to arrest a witch' guide for UK cops!

The next time a police man bumps into a witch in the UK, he would exactly know how to handle her-thanks to a new guide book which has various tips to offer. The Metropolitan Police has produced a 300-page guidebook, which includes instructions on how to deal with members of the pagan community,
reports the Daily Mail.

It offers the policemen a range of dos and don'ts when it comes to followers of a range of religions and beliefs, from atheism to Zoroastrianism, druidry and shamanism.

They are advised to avoid touching a witch's Book of Shadows, or spellbook, and handling the ceremonial dagger known as an athame.

Police are also advised not necessarily to panic if they encounter a person in the nude with hands tied together.

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william s. burroughs - what washington what orders

And on the philosophy of Do Easy...




Hat tip to poet Vasilis Kyriakis


How to produce and escalate riots: Instructions by William S. Burroughs.
Beat Poetry Cut Up Psych