Diamond-Cut Life

It’s about time that I write about Christmas, given that my blog is about happiness and consumption. I suggest we can decouple Christmas from spending, especially overspending, i.e. we can celebrate Christmas happily while living within our means, and the earth’s means.
What we all need is a rich quality of life: loving relationships; health; meaningful [...]

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My next post will be Part II of Making The Ocean Drinkable, my short series on desalination (see here for Part I). This weekend I am in Southern California, where I grew up, visiting family and friends, but particularly my elderly parents. Today’s post is more personal and inspired by my mother, who is in [...]

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We’ve got lots of blame, anger and flat-out fear flying around in reaction to the collapse of giants like Merrill Lynch — and also the government/taxpayers bailing them out.  I’m feeling calm this morning, myself, which makes it a good time to write.  What does it mean that all these profitable companies, these diamonds, are [...]

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I am lucky enough to be in a carpool with five great people for my two-hour round-trip commute. (I found them through Carpool Match Northwest.) We save money, save emissions and have fun. So on the morning of April Fool’s day I tossed off a prank email to them.

I wrote: “It has been such a pleasure knowing you! My new inheritance means I can now afford a

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