Prepare for Change

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/why-46-billion-in-pentagon-cuts-shouldnt-make-us-less-safe/273408/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution?CMP=twt_fd "That might have been the end of the story had Sumant's friend Nitish not smashed the world record for growing potatoes six months later. Shortly after Ravindra Kumar, a small farmer from a nearby Bihari village, broke the Indian record for growing wheat. Darveshpura became known as India's "miracle village", Nalanda became famous and teams of scientists, development groups, farmers, civil servants and politicians all descended to discover its secret." this is so great. A simple, cheap, safe way to grow more food.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/viewfinder/2013/01/20131994836277368.html

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/01-3 "The commons movement is a reaction to exploitative free market capitalism. It rejects the notion that resources, spaces and other assets are purely a means to wealth. It condemns the privatization of public works, such as the parking meters in Chicago, which allows the sovereign wealth fund that controls it to increase the rates. When an economy allocates wealth to private entities, Bollier says, those property rights inevitably get consolidated until a few large institutions control its means. Instead, he says, we need to protect the commons with rules that bar individual ownership of that property. It is not, however, a space that is left as a free-for-all; it still has regulations and state recognition that prevent private groups from exploiting it." This is where you gauge the value of your economy not on some amount of goods bought and sold over a year, but how well the community is doing.

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/27/open-source-ecology-explained.html You should read the comments as well. I think economies of scale at some point make DIY a waste of time.  But perhaps what these guys have produced so far are simple enough to make them still worth while.

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/01/25/16651660-next-big-thing-in-real-estate-300-square-foot-apartments?lite "New Yorkers are famous for their teeny apartments, but a new trend in dwelling seeks to transform those tiny spaces into big assets . They're called "micro apartments," and they make a few hundred square feet feel like over a thousand. Fold-away beds, moveable walls, and coffee tables that expand to seat 10 for dinner are just a few of the clever touches that transform these shoe boxes into veritable mini-mansions." Our cabin in the Black Hills ghost town is about 400 square feet, plus an outhouse.  For one person I could imagine it's ok, but not for two.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/technology-job-killer-history-lessons-18296093?singlePage=true "To workers being pushed out of jobs by today's technology, history has a message: You're not the first. From textile machines to the horseless carriage to email, technology has upended industries and wiped out jobs for centuries. It also has created millions of jobs, though usually not for the people who lost them. 'People suffer — their livelihoods, their skills and training are worth less,' says Joel Mokyr, a historian of technological change at Northwestern University. 'But that is the price we pay for progress.'"