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John Curl, a woodworker and historian, has published a new book with PM Press, For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America. Journalist Richard Brenneman of the Berkeley Daily Planet interviewed Curl at Heartwood Cooperative Woodshop. Curl told his interviewer:

“In the globalized corporate world, either you’re an employee or you’re marginalized, a ‘useless person,’” he said, and one of the consequences is perennial unemployment. “Capitalism can’t live without unemployment,” he said.

The interview contains several such nuggets. Take a look.

Source

Richard Brenneman, Passion for Community Revealed in Curl’s History of Co-ops, Berkeley Daily Planet, Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 2009.

Tags: Reading by GD
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A recent issue of Organic Gardening says that you can visit the Pollinator Partnership to learn what plants to add to your garden (U.S. only) to attract beneficial insects and other animals for pollination.

A search by zip code for my urban Northern California garden turned up a regional guide (in PDF format) that is written for the California coastal chaparral forest and shrub province along the Southern California coast. That seems a stretch, but perhaps planting the suggested flora will help restore the chaparral forest over time. If my garden begins a shift southward, I will give up the project entirely.

Source

Free Advice to Attract Pollinators, Organic Gardening, late summer 2009, p. 48.

Related Posting

Take Part in the Great Sunflower Project

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In a recent short article, James Temple of the San Francisco Chronicle gave a pointer to Bloggers’ Legal Guide, published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF bills itself as “the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.”

Source

James Temple, The Tech Chronicles: “Skank Case” Precedent Worries Privacy Groups, San Francisco Chronicle, August 20, 2009.

Tags: How to, Tech by GD
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Jacqui Cheng has written Facebook Privacy: A Guide, with detailed instructions and screenshots for how to limit who sees what in your Facebook postings and profile.

Here’s the article teaser: “Facebook has decent privacy controls, but most users don’t realize how to take full advantage of them. Ars guides you through Facebook’s privacy settings so that you can be both social and respectable at the same time.”

Source

Jacqui Cheng, Facebook Privacy: A Guide, from Ars Technica, August 14, 2009.

Tags: How to, Tech by GD
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