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The Vermont Creed
Editorial, Cooks Illustrated via The Oil Drum (comments section)
TOD commenter Todd writes:

This seems like a good place to insert a snip from the editorial in the current Cook's Illustrated magazine(which BTW, I highly recommend for real cooks). It's entitled The Vermont Creed.

1. Think Locally
2. When You Don't Know What To Do, Do The Work In Front Of You
3. Worse Things Than Death
4. Every Day Is A New Day
5. The Early Bird Gets The Worm
6. Look, Aim, Then Shoot
7. Be Useful
8. Know Your (local) History
9. Mind Your Own Business
10. Waste Not, Want Not
11. Life Is Fair, Really!
12. Don't Look In The Mirror
13. Check The Weather
14. Make Hay While The Sun Shines

Now, some of these don't make too much sense without the full commentary. But, still they point to a possibly better way to approach life.
(19 December 2008)
The editorial is not available online Cooks Illustrated unless you are a subscriber. The editorial is titled "The Vermont Creed" and was written by Christopher Kimbell. Two short excerpts:

... the "Vermont Creed," as it were, is shared by millions of working class folks around the country. It can be summed up in two words: 'seen worse,' a wry, tough-minded statement of independence with a streak of macabre humor thrown in for good effect.

... Don't Look in the Mirror:
As far as I can tell, Vermonters don't use mirrors. That's because they don't care what they look like, and that, in turn, is because they don't care what any0one else thinks of them. No point checking on the three-legged dog to see if he grew an extra leg overnight. Some things in life are just not gonna change.

Ban bottled water
Sophie Haydock, The Guardian
When Leeds University students voted to ban bottled water last week it proved something important: that big organisations, for the sake of sustainability, can make decisions that hit their bottom line. During the academic year 2007/08, Leeds University Union sold 180,698 bottles, making water its top-selling product. Without those sales, the Union will forfeit £32,940.

Bottled water companies, however, were not celebrating. The recently formed Natural Hydration Council (NHC), who represent the bottled water industry, responded: "It seems a shame for a university union, whose principles are founded on the right to choose, to take away student choice by removing bottled water from the union. It also seems to be an ill-informed decision."
(20 December 2008)

Sentient Times and social change
Sentient Times
Current issue includes:

Beyond the Bailout: Agenda for a New Economy (David Korten)
Creating Currency for a Resilient Local Economy (Crystal Arnold)
Life On the New Home Front (Sharon Astyk)
Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered (Woody Tasch,)
(December-January 2008-9)
EB contributor EJ writes: "There appears to be several articles of interest in the Dec 08/Jan 09 issue".

Going green for Hanukkah
Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times
Some Jewish communities throughout the Southland celebrated the first night of Hanukkah with a twist Sunday, as one group cooked a giant potato latke in a solar-paneled oven and another lit candles atop a recycled menorah -- all part of an effort to usher in an eco-friendly Festival of Lights.

"With the new president [of the United States] coming in, the whole thing is about the environment," said Rabbi Marc Rubenstein outside Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach, where parishioners in the frontyard crowded around the solar oven that was harnessing the sun's heat to cook a potato pancake, or latke, that measured about 3 feet across.

Rubenstein said he gave a sermon to the 100-family congregation Friday night focused on the environment, with the central message that "we are our brother's keeper, and we also have to take care of the Earth."

"The whole idea of Judaism is tikkun olam," Rubenstein said, referring to the Hebrew phrase meaning to repair or perfect the world.
(21 December 2008)

Ashland group pushes for 'transition town' status
John Darling, Daily Tidings (Ashland, Oregon)
A group of Ashlanders will apply in the coming month to make Ashland a Transition Town, a step that will provide the framework for citizens to form groups to strategize for sustainability in energy, food, water, finance and other areas.

At the same time, Ashland has just gotten its first trainer — one of only 22 in the nation — to educate participants in sustainability initiatives, meaning a community actively working toward energy and resource sustainability and "resiliency" in the face of upcoming challenges from climate change, declining oil supply and a contracting economy.
(22 December 2008)