Category Archives: HandsOnPracticalExperience

When did you last prepare a full meal from scratch, not one packaged product?

on August 22, 2025 in HandsOnPracticalExperience

I wrote last week about how people decline free produce in my post More fresh juicy local peaches and heirloom tomatoes than I can handle, saved from waste by rich and poor alike. The people declining them include from homeless, probably crazy maybe homeless people as well as volunteers who appear mainstream, likely without a worry about money or food. Here’s an heirloom tomato I got for free that many[…] Keep reading →

Read my plucky quote in today’s Washington Post

on August 19, 2025 in HandsOnPracticalExperience, Stories

The Washington Post‘s Climate Coach column by Michael Coren quoted me today. Here’s the part with my quote, which responded to his column last week about people figuring out solar on their own when they can’t install it on their buildings, which is my case. Did I let my coop board or the Department of Buildings stop me? No, because I live by values including Do Unto Others As You[…] Keep reading →

Libertarians confused on pollution, sacrificing their core values. At the root: lack of hands-on practical experience.

on August 16, 2025 in Freedom, HandsOnPracticalExperience

I found a podcast episode from the Cato Institute, where I spoke last year and met some wonderful people: How Does Libertarianism Deal with the Problem of Pollution?. I’m posting quotes from them mainly for future reference. Sorry if the post isn’t my most readable, but my main response: Lack of hands-on practical experience leads them to opposed their own values. They think no pollution means the end of civilization,[…] Keep reading →

My CPR training certificate

on August 13, 2025 in Education, Fitness, HandsOnPracticalExperience

If I’m going to post my certificates from Leadership Institute and Hillsdale College classes, you can bet I would post that I got certified in CPR. The training was provided to auxiliary police officers. It was optional, but once I heard it was offered, I knew I wanted to do it. I hope no one around me ever has their heart stop, but if it happens, I hope my training[…] Keep reading →

A comment on refrigeration and freezing to a zero-waste blog

on August 8, 2025 in HandsOnPracticalExperience

I responded to a blog I follow on zero waste cooking and didn’t think much of the response. I’ll give the context then what I wrote, then the author’s response. Context: The author wrote about how to use freezers to reduce food waste. I know from hands-on practical experience that home refrigerators and freezers may help leftovers from a given meal from going bad, but systemically, they lead to more[…] Keep reading →

Professions and people NOT to ask how to solve our environmental situation

on August 7, 2025 in Education, Exercises, HandsOnPracticalExperience, Leadership, Nature

I have a PhD in physics, the most advanced degree in the most fundamental science. It was my priority for most of a decade. I loved and still love the field. I believe if you want to understand our situation, you must understand science or at least its findings. I also consider nature among the most beautiful thing to learn about. Scientists found out about our environmental situation. They project[…] Keep reading →

Do you think BP tricked us? Here’s a way to respond.

on August 5, 2025 in Doof, HandsOnPracticalExperience, Models

Environmentalists constantly point out BP promoting personal carbon footprints and bizarrely use it as an excuse not to act. It would seem counterproductive except when you remember that people are less rational than rationalizing. Whatever their words, if they pollute and deplete without meaningful attempt to change, their deeds oppose their words. Environmentalists rarely have hands-on practical experience trying to live sustainably. Do you know any who are trying to[…] Keep reading →

Consent of the Governed and NIABY: Not In Anyone’s Back Yard

on August 2, 2025 in Freedom, HandsOnPracticalExperience

Context: The United States has a region called Cancer Alley. Flint, Michigan is known nationwide, maybe globally, as a place where water is poisoned. We’re “solving” that problem with bottled water, which poisons others, so it’s more like kicking the can down the road. Actually, by accelerating a cultural distrust in municipal water, it accelerates bottling, so it’s more like accelerating a snowball or avalanche. Nobody consents to cancer, birth[…] Keep reading →

I love a good leadership or entrepreneurial challenge, but few others seem to

on July 26, 2025 in Education, Entrepreneurship, HandsOnPracticalExperience, Leadership

Why do my students give me reviews like: “This was the best course I ever took at NYU. There is no substitute for doing the exercises. Thinking I understand a concept and actually trying to execute the concept was difficult. Only in working through the exercises was I able to be aware of what I am currently doing. With these exercises, I now have a roadmap for how to be[…] Keep reading →

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