For 80 years economics was the one subject that I
had the least interest in. Life long
anti-materialism involved a calculated disinterest
in matters of money.

My economic ideal was a man named Bernard de
Marigny, of ancient New Orleans. Starting out as
the richest man in America he managed to go
through every cent before he died. He never
asked any clerk the price of anything.

Of course my own impecunious circumstances made such a habit impossible, but I aspired to it. During the depression we learned to make do with what we had, and after these years I still live by that principle to a large degree.

In 1973 I moved to the D.C. area. A number of my
new friends were economists. I understood that
being an economist was very big in government
employment; that’s about all I understood about the matter.

In the waning months of 2006 a change occured. I
read Barnett, then I read Tosh. Two fascinating
books.

Barnett was saying that we need to promote
globalization everywhere. This would obviate the
need for war, and everyone would become
prosperous. If only….. It had to be too good to
be true.

I started thinking about geo-economics. I knew that in 1947 our country made up 6% of the population and commanded over 90% of the world’s wealth this may be a mere approximation). In Calcutta I had vividly experienced the tremendous gap between the handful of wealthy people and the great mass of people on the edge of starvation.

Then came Tosh. He half convinced me that India
would soon be right up there with the good ole
U.S.A. in terms of economic, and even military
power, alongside China of course.

I found this gratifying (which may likely antagonize a high proportion of ‘good Americans’). But keenly aware of the horrible suffering of old India and of the equally poignant fact that we could certainly not expect to control all the world’s wealth indefinitely, I saw this as a creative change. I think everyone is fully aware that our affluence is
a sometime thing, perhaps too extreme to long endure– also built on borrowing rather than producing, everyone, that is, except the most jingoistic types.

So I have embarked on a new enterprise, going to
school, you might say, studying economics,
especially geo-economics. Where will all this
lead us, the world, I mean. Will it develop in
the shape of Barnett’s rosy prediction, and
Tosh’s? Or are there imponderables not yet
examined. More to come– hopefully!

Here is a wonderful verse written by Clifford Monks of Fair Oaks, California, inspired by Rudolf Steiner and his book The Philosophy of Freedom. More of Clifford’s verses can be found at The Philosophy of Freedom Study Course web site

The Author

Straight he went to Eden’s door
And he was welcomed in,
A mighty yet humble traveller
Now defeating the wages of sin.

And past the old tree now withering
To the Tree of Life he went,
And gladly the branches bearing its fruit
Down to the traveller bent.

He plucked the fruit, and angel voices
Sang the hymn of creation’s story
And the traveler who was, on the Tree of Man
Purest fruit of its own flowering glory,

Who ate now the fruit, then bearing the core

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In case you haven’t seen the recent news, Netflix has moved beyond shipping little red envelopes of DVDs. They are now slowly rolling out a Video-on-Demand (VOD) solution. If you have a Netflix account but don’t yet have the option, try this clever trick to get it working. Here is my experience to date.

The service is a snap to setup on your computer. If you have a broadband connection, Windows, and IE you simply follow the instructions on the screen and everything downloads just fine. In a few minutes - and on the first try - I was able to get “Jackass” running on 3 different computers in my house. On future business trips where I can find a broadband connection, this service is a no-brainer.

Seeking a bigger challenge, I wanted to see how easy it was to get Netflix running on my 32″ CRT HD TV. My expectations were low: I expected a lot of frustration with limited payoff. Actually it was lower than that. I didn’t really expect to get it running at all before giving up. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.

I didn’t buy any new parts or components and used the following:

• Dell laptop (~3 years old),
• 80211g wireless network,
• Broadband cable connection through Comcast,
• An old S-video cable,
• My linksys wireless game adapter (just to boost the signal - my laptop and wireless router are 3 floors apart).
• A pair of old battery-powered external speakers.

After making sure my broadband connection was up, I connected my laptop to the TV via the S-video cable. I also connected the laptop to the external speakers. After flipping through the selection, my wife and I picked Sherrybaby and sat down to watch the flick.

The picture was as good as DVD quality - really. I don’t think I would have believed it myself, but it was amazing. The sound was ok - I didn’t bother to try and hook it up to my stereo system, but this would have improved it greatly. Since this is a relatively easy problem to solve, it doesn’t concern me much.

The only problem was a slight line that scrolled through the picture from bottom to top, an error from the refresh rate I assume. Certainly nothing worse than the quality I get from cable.

The experience was good enough that I’m motivated to finally create a media PC. I don’t relish the thought of dragging my laptop to the TV each time I want to watch a movie, even if the setup was a snap.

Was there a downside? Well, yes, actually. A big one. The selection is currently horrible. I know all VOD offerings have suffered from this problem because studios are still unwilling to release a lot of titles to this channel.

Netflix is definitely on to something, and it is a matter of time before the word-of-mouth starts spreading and entrepreneurs begin selling devices to overcome the hardware challenges. For the service to truly take off it needs an appliance as simple as a DVD.

Given the cost of Netflix, I can’t wait to ultimately dump Comcast and begin watching the movies I want to see, when I want to see them. I suspect it will take several years for Netflix to get the license rights, but the service will be compelling when they get a larger selection.

Comcast should be really, really scared.

Who wants to live to 94? Easy. A person who is 93.

As long as I can continue to live an enriching life - which is mainly a self-defined scenario - I have no doubt that I will never be ready to die. If you have any doubt about how you will view the world at 93, I suggest you check out this beautiful blog post by Donald Crowdis - a 93-year-old blogger.

Don, you are a hero and an inspiration to us all.

I’ve been practicing Calorie Restriction for about 4 years. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it is an attempt to slow the aging process by eating fewer calories but optimizing the nutrient levels of those you do eat.

Over the past year or so there have been a number of articles in the mainstream press about CR and I’m amazed at how much the purported experiences with the diet differ from my own. I suppose much of the confusion results from our society’s need for instant-gratification. Emily Yoffe’s My Starvation Diet from Slate is a perfect example. I’ll spare you the trouble of reading it with this summary: without apparently learning a lot about it, she suddenly tried CR for 2 months and gave up when she found herself too hungry and not feeling better.

There is a wealth of science and debate on the topic of CR. I’m not going to attempt to rehash the issues but instead provide some context based on my own experience.

For me, CR is a journey and not a destination, a part of puzzle in a personal commitment to longevity and the pursuit of an enriching life. The key for my long-term commitment to CR has been to practice it in such a manner that I can still enjoy occasional treats, play sports, and have a career and healthy relationships. This balancing act is different for everyone, and unfortunately articles like Yoffe’s suggest that we have two choices

* Continue to eat like the average blissfully-ignorant American and accept the consequences.
* Suddenly and permanently committing to eating 1500 calories/day in the pursuit of a longer life of starvation and misery.

FWIW, I think that suddenly picking arbitrary calorie targets and attempting to stick with them is an exercise doomed to failure. 1500 calories/day would not be enough for me, although based on this article some people will assume this is the magical number they would need to target for a Calorie Restriction diet.

I don’t track the number of calories I eat. I found the whole exercise of counting calories to be boring and unproductive. Most people who do target a specific calorie range usually eat the same thing for every meal. My career doesn’t allow this and I enjoy the social aspects of dining with my loved ones.

Instead I simply target a weight that keeps my BMI around 20 (which is about 10 pounds less than my college weight) and eat the healthiest foods I can find, including a large bucket of salad at least once per day. Some people call this approach “Mild CR”. I have dropped by BMI below 20 and found that I had a difficult time playing sports, I felt constantly cold, and I looked pretty scary. So 20 it is.

Hunger isn’t much of a problem. If I get too hungry I eat something. Being constantly cold is actually more of an annoyance and is the most frustrating part of the diet. At the same time I found that my digestion is much, much better and I need less sleep but still feel energetic. So there are pros and cons.
Fortunately, the emerging studies and common sense suggest that mild CR + exercise might be as beneficial as more severe CR. So I continue to exercise regularly as well.

Before you suddenly adopt a new starvation diet, take the time to do a bit of research. Phil Graves’ article is a great start, particularly the summary:

“The successful voluntary practice of CR in humans is

1) the life-long focused commitment
2) to gain knowledge, self-control, and motivation
3) to reduce calories consumed,
4) while maintaining adequate nutrition,
5) under active monitoring of current state of health,
6) with the hope of living better,
7) and the hope of living longer.

That’s really it in a nutshell.”

25% of people in developed countries die of cancer. One in 200 people are diagnosed with cancer every year. Almost everyone knows someone who has been afflicted with this horrible disease.

Cancer is terrifying because it seems to erupt like a bombshell without symptoms. Many of us know people who appear otherwise completely healthy (and often young) who suddenly develop melanoma, breast, or testicular cancer.

Cancer is also interesting because “the cure for cancer” stands out as a major scientific challenge for our species. The phrase regularly makes it into our common dialog.

“Nice solution. It’s no ‘cure for cancer’, but it sure is cool!”

“What do you want to do when you grow up, Billy?”, asks the teacher? “Why I’m going to find the cure for cancer!”, Billy proudly responds.

Can you think of a human achievement that would have a greater, instant, more positive impact on our species than curing cancer and alleviating the human suffering and lost productivity it produces every year? Imagine further if the cure was cheaply and widely available at almost no cost? Surely a potential solution like this would be front-page news in every major media outlet. What could possibly be more important to the American public?

Last week I stumbled upon this story in NewScientist.com. Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) which has the potential to kill most cancers without harming healthy cells. They have demonstrated this solution outside the body and are now quickly moving to clinical trials. Because DCA has already been through Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials, they anticipate that the process will move forward much faster.

There are a lot of interesting aspects to this story. For instance, DCA is available in the public domain (no patent protection), so the funding from clinical trials won’t come from the pharmaceutical companies.

What I find most shocking is that nobody seems to care. On the day I discovered the story I couldn’t find one major news media outlet covering it. On the same day I was unable to find any outlet that wasn’t blasting me with information on the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

I had never heard of Anna Nicole Smith, but it sounds like the poor woman lead a tragic life that was on constant public display. I suppose the death of someone so young and who seemingly has everything you could want in the world is news. But is the story so critical to our lives and so interesting that we need constant, 24/7 updates for days on the situation? Does anyone really think that this story is more important than the prospect of a “cure for cancer”? What does this tell us about our human values?

Perhaps we should recognize that the public has grown cynical of “the war on cancer” after 40 years of little progress and billions of dollars spent on the fight. After all, DCA might very well turn out to be another “miracle” cure which works in the lab but is ineffective or harmful in the human body.

Nonetheless, this episode strikes me as another bizarre example of how the mainstream media doesn’t report news or put it into a meaningful context for the world. Fortunately, the old models are crumbling and we are entering a new age media where the public has the opportunity to drive the dissemination of news.

Consider this story my small contribution.

Dear Community of Anthroposophical Friends,

Carl Flygt’s second essay for this newsletter, found below, is entitled American Transcendentalism and Goethean Conversation. It goes further into Carl’s ideas about conversation as a tool that both “awakens” us on our deepest levels and remains subject to our conscious usage. Now, in this essay, he brings light to Goethe’s ideas and the American Transcendentalists using Emerson’s language in the American Scholar.

I hope you enjoy his fresh approach and feel free to share your comments with me and with Carl at his email carl@consciousconversation.com

ABOUT CARL
Carl is an anthroposophical theorist, lecturer and workshop leader. Born and educated in Middle Tennessee, he migrated to California in search of a solution to the mind-body problem. He works with modern philosophy, Chinese qigong, and Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy.

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Just to share with you these quotes from Goethe. Hope you enjoy them. Tony

Be generous with kindly words,
especially about those who are absent.

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.

One ought every day at least,
to hear a little song,
read a good poem,
see a fine picture,
and, if it were possible,
to speak a few reasonable words.

In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

Men show their character
in nothing more clearly
than what they think
laughable.