Video of the Day: An Economy in Accordance with Our Hopes

Tim Jackson on prosperity without growth.

Classic Broke and Beautiful Folk: Dolly Freed's Possum Living

A 1970s documentary on simple, sustainable living. It's a bit blurry, but it's all about making do, right?

Dolly Freed in Possum Living from Tin House Books on Vimeo.

Some of Today's Blog and Twitter Discoveries

Thanks to The Official Ramen Homepage (which you can find in the blog roll) for a couple of interesting posts. The first reports on an article from MIT about how the 3d representation of the human genome ends up looking like uncooked ramen.

“It turns out actually that the fractal globule pretty deeply resembles the model of uncooked ramen noodles,” he said. “You can contrast this with the classic polymer structure, which is the arrangement that the noodles take once you’ve cooked them.”

It also shared a great broke folk recipe that was featured on the Food Network's "Dinner Impossible" program. It's called Pork Ramen Alfredo College Dorm Special.

So ramen fans, I urge you to add the Offical Ramen Homepage to your favorite rss feed reader. (I like a free open source one called Feedreader.)

Although I was initially skeptical, I've come to enjoy Twitter as a personalized newswire that leads me to a host of interesting stories I would not otherwise have seen. I learned today, for example (thanks to my hyper-posting twitter buddy @IanAspin) about the New Economics Foundation, and have added them to the blog roll.

Here's how they describe themselves: "nef is an independent think-and-do tank that inspires and demonstrates real economic well-being. We aim to improve quality of life by promoting innovative solutions that challenge mainstream thinking on economic, environment and social issues. We work in partnership and put people and the planet first."

Today in the blog Andy Wimbush wrote about a lecture by the iconoclastic Lord Turner at the Cass business school:

Lord Turner also reflected on an interview last year in which he branded much of the activity in the financial sector as “socially useless”. “People have asked me whether I regret those comments,” he said, “The answer is no, except in one very small respect, which is that I think it would have been better to use the phrase ‘economically useless’ or ‘of no economic value added’.” This echoes nef’s recent report A Bit Rich which found that Elite City bankers (earning £1 million-plus bonuses) destroy £7 of value for every £1 they create....

Lord Turner’s comments show that, contrary to what been said by some defeatists in the movement for a just and sustainable economy, there is still plenty of opportunity to introduce new ideas and challenging, radical policy proposals. The door that was flung open by the financial crisis hasn’t closed yet. So let’s delve deep into that index of forbidden thoughts and see what works.

Community Bill of Rights

Yes! Magazine reports on a proposition on the ballot in Spokane. Although it didn't win, it garnered approximately 25 percent of the vote—despite the fact that opponents of the proposal (developers, the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Spokane Homebuilders) outspent supporters by more than four to one.

The proposition was unique in that it would have changed the city constitution to give neighborhoods the ability to make legally binding decisions about development.

...despite intense opposition from business interests, a coalition of residents succeeded in bringing an innovative “Community Bill of Rights” to the ballot. Proposition 4 would have amended the city’s Home Rule Charter (akin to a local constitution) to recognize nine basic rights, ranging from the right of the environment to exist and flourish to the rights of residents to have a locally based economy and to determine the future of their neighborhoods.

You can read the entire article at Yes! Magazine.