New Orleans, EROEI, and collapse

I have just spent some time in NOLA, and it got me thinking about how this plays into, and contributes to, the excelerating collapse, in this case having to do with climate change (or to put it in a different way; the elemetals attack on civilization), civilized human reactions to it, and how that relates to creating primitive anarchies. One of the first aspects of there that i noticed was the debris and its abrupt disruption of the normality and its consiquencial revealing of the sick underbelly of this culture. in all the trees, on the roads, everywhere was/is piles of plastic crap of all the floresent collors of the rainbow. This brightly collored meaninglessness in matrial form contrasted greatly with the drab brown and greys of the leafless trees and sprawling skyon that first day of my arrival. It looks earily like a plane crash here, which is unspurising because it is a jetplane as it is all products of civilization. "but civilization, like a jetliner, this freak phoenix incapable of rising from its own ashes, also collapses across the earth like a million bursting wasps, flames spreading across the runway in tentacles of gasoline, samsonite, and charred flesh. and allways the absurd rubbish, Death's confetti, the fragments left to mock us lying allong the weary trajectory of the dying bird- the dolls head, the shoes, eyeglasses, a beltbuckle". Later I talked to many residents who where there durring the storm and/or returned shortly after, and this aspect that i had observed was not lost on them, much the opposite in fact. The results of this are a sizemic paradigm shift against civilization that is spreading. How so? first, when one looks at this two thing become clear; we (this culture) have too much useless stuff, and that civilization is just so much concreate, metal, wood, plastic, and a percarious belief system. it is not forever. For some of the people i talked to, their experience exposed to them the nature of technology, progress, and their state of utter dependence. This is made clear to thinking people in any severe disruption of the techo-structure. another aspect that became clear was how different groupings of people with this society reacted. On the one hand you have the forces of the State and the elite's corporate interests to which they serve putting massive amounts of resorces into rebuilding the places with the highest profit potecial very quickly, like the oil & gas infrastructure and gambling meccas in places like Biloxi, and putting absolutely no resorces into rebuilding the most maginalized areas like the 9th ward of NOLA, and other black communities. What is interesting here is not that they favored the rich white areas over the poor black areas ( that goes without saying as it is part of the very nature of this system), but that they chose at all. remember, it is in the states interest to maintain the normality everywhere, as a rupture in it anywhere is a threat to its existance everywhere. No wonder there was and still is marial law there, they are valurable. So why was some collapse allowed? because it is no longer possible to fully fuel growth and maintenence simultaniously as the EROEI (Energy Returned On Energy Invested) has turned negative; so some parts must be priorited and others must be given up on. Hence Peak Oil in the world sense is fully underway in Africa, South America, and parts of Asia; first. I also noticed the over-socialized reaction of leftists and how it was mainly negative in that it was directed at upholding the normallity. Now i am not saying that helping the people worst affected by this is a bad thing, but that the main activity was rebuilding things to their perious state. This is thought of as sysnonimous with helping the marginalized groups most effected. But is it really? It seems obvious that that is simply staving off collapse and maintaining the status quo which by extension means keeping marginalized groups marginalized. They are just doing the work the state couldn't, no wonder the State is helping fund the "radical" groups doing said work like the Common Ground Collective, and the rainbow family kitchen (does not label itself as radical however), not to mention that this funding gives them control of these groups. Take note: the collapse of civilization has officially entered the margins of the center, how much longer until it enters the center of the center? does it matter?

Plant Of The Day: CATTAILS- a maltiuse food staple

Cattails have been, and can be, the staple on ones diet and beyond. They grow in virtually all parts of North America, are extremely nutricious and delicious, and have food uses in all seasons. but their uses extenbd to various building uses and medical ones too. durring the spring time, the new shoots below a foot in hieght can be cooked up like asperigus or cut up like green onions and used that way. durring the summer, the seed heads that are green can be roasted/boiled similar to corn. haven't tryed this one though. The mature leaves can be used to weave baskets and a wide veriety of other items. Also, apparently it can be soaked in an oil excellerant and used as a torch. In the fall, the fluffy seed pod can be used to stuff pillows and similar uses in the way cotton is used. From late fall to early spring the lower part of the stalk and the root can be used as a starchy root veggie or dried and ground into a flower. a good reference is the peterson's field guide and i found some info on the net here and here.

Increasing attacks on construction sites in Florida county

Clay County, FL: MARCH 6th- Flemming Island naiborhood was attcked with grafitti over the weekend. officials say that vandalism and theft are more and more common at construction sites in the county. Apparently though, theft is more common than vandalism. this is a positive move that i think very much slows the expansion and development of the pysical aspects of civilization down because as more energy must be expended in maintaining the infrastructure that is already in place (highways, New Orleans, Etc.) the amount of energy available for expansion projects becomes less. so by increasing the amount of energy that they must use to expand slows them down which the sorce article for this bit of news points out. lets slow it down to a halt.