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Progress on the path to peace and harmony

• Joy in daily life: Can I say that I take pleasure more and more in the everyday things of life? Can I enjoy life more and more? Does my "joie de vivre" increase?
• Equanimity in every situation: Are there less and less things which can upset me? Do I get annoyed less and less? Do I calm down again more quickly after getting annoyed?
• Confidence: Is my confidence in myself and in my future increasing? Am I less and less afraid of things? Are there things or events of which I am still afraid?
• Harmony and peace: Do I more and more frequently stand above things? Do I remain calm internally and externally even in hectic situations, or under stress? Do I feel stressed less and less?
• Evaluation: Can I accept other people, things and events more and more the way they are without dividing them into good or bad?
• Self-determination: Do I do those things which I want to do wholeheartedly?
• Objective: Have I formulated my personal goals (short and long term) clearly to myself and in writing? Do I deliberately follow these goals? Do I check my progress regularly and honestly?
• Health: Am I bodily healthy and fit? Do I feel healthy and fit? Do I take care of my health?
• Intellectual fitness: Am I intellectually fit? Can I keep up with the new developments on the earth?
• State of relaxation: Do I feel relaxed and at ease – even if things are getting turbulent?
• Authenticity: Do I accept myself for what I am, with all my faults and problems, or do I make a pretence in certain situations, that I am someone else? Am I myself in every situation?
• Priority: Do I divide my time correctly according to the priorities I have set for my objectives?

Originally written in German by Jurg Rohrer. See web page.

Liberal v Conservative values

I recommend TED talks. Here's some thoughts about a talk by psychologist Jonathan Haidt on political values.

Liberals value:
- openness to experience, novelty, variety, diversity, new ideas, travel

Conservatives:
- like things that are familiar, safe, dependable


5 foundational values across cultures;
1. Harm/care
2. Fairness/reciprocity
3. In group loyalty
4. Authority/respect
5. Purity/sanctity


Liberals value (1) and (2) slightly more than conservatives. Conservatives value (3) - (5) a lot more than liberals. Liberal response is:
- celebrate diversity
- question authority
- keep your hands off my body

Liberals: pro-change, revolution, risk chaos
Conservatives: value order and stability

We need both: Yin/Yang, Vishnu (preserver) v Shiva (destroyer/change)


Everybody thinks they are right.

Video:
Jonathan Haidt TED 2008

Egypt: population growth

Here's an interesting graph of Egyptian population growth. Up approx 400% since 1950. And up 21% since 2000. I wonder what GDP per capita looks like?

Source: OilDrum

Update:
According to Wikipedia, inflation-adjusted GDP/capita increased about 3-fold from 1981 to 2006, even as the population increased approx 75% in that time period.

Update 2:
A Wolfram Alpha search on 'Egypt gdp per capita' gives the current figure and a time series graph. I expect it's not inflation adjusted. Anyone know how to get that from Wolfram?

Egypt GDP per capita history. Source: Wolfram Alpha

Chevy Volt: 1000+ mpg?

From the dashboard of a Chevy Volt owner: 531 miles using 0.5 gallon (US) of petrol. Nice.

From: gm-volt.com

In a heartbeat

Wow. Over 1.5 billion hearbeats in my 50+ years on the planet...

Declining cost of battery storage

Green Car Congress cites a Deutsche Bank (DB) study predicting more efficient internal combustion engines (ICE) in the short term, with more electric vehicles (EVs) in the long term. DB is optimistic about the future of EVs, observing that laptop batteries (used to power Tesla's Roadster and maybe Audi's forthcoming eTron) have fallen in cost from $2,000 per kWh fifteen years ago to $250 per kWh today. That is equivalent to  a CAGR of -13.8% (see graph). If this trend continues, battery costs will be $57/kWh in 2020.

Note the standard laptop battery (cell) is known as an 18650 based on its dimensions: 18mm diameter x 65mm in length.

Food miles

Does local equal better? Not always...

• British tomato growers emit 2.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of tomatoes grown compared to 0.6 tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of Spanish tomatoes
• cold storage of British apples produced more carbon dioxide than shipping New Zealand apples by sea to London. 
• U.K. dairy farmers use twice as much energy to produce a metric ton of milk solids than do New Zealand farmers. 
• Kenyan cut rose growers emit 6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per 12,000 roses compared to the 35 tons of carbon dioxide emitted by their Dutch competitors.

From:  The Food Miles Mistake

My view: a carbon tax or cap and trade would sort this out; the assumption that local is better is probably counter-productive.

PS: Amory Lovins is working with Wal-Mart to double the mpg of big trucks like the one pictured above.