Peace Machine

Peace Machine's Mission: to bring a message about a future where humans and machines live together in harmony. Peace Machine is fueled by Love Energy. So, if you have any to send her way, just email it on to the comic's creator, Kelly Newcomer.

Peace Machine is actually not into marching. Peace walking in the mode of Thich Nhat Hanh is more like it.

Be the terminator of my loneliness. (Nancy Newcomer - my mom - wrote that line!)

Feeling stressed at the store? Peace Machine shows how to achieve grocery nirvana.

Note from Kelly 11/15/07: I took a break from production and there are no new comics since July due to my pregnancy and birth of baby James in September 2007.

"NSP chapters around the country are celebrating July 4 as "Inter-Dependence Day." Our point is to take a traditional ultra nationalist holiday with its them of "bombs bursting in air," and American triumphalism, and reshape it in 2 ways:

a. to affirm all the good in America, particularly the struggles of ordinary citizens that led to the expansion of democratic rights and civil liberties throughout the past two hundred and thirty one years.

b. to affirm that in the 21st century there is no such thing as "independence" without affirming and thinking in terms of our inter-dependence with all other people on the planet, and with the planet itself--so our celebration seeks to transcend chauvinist nationalism and affirm a democratic and human-rights and generosity-oriented internationalism."

Bruce Boraas and his peace pole: "Peace Begins With You." Boraas is a naturopath and Peace Machine is a believer that health & well-being are gateways to peace.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to removing 800,000 cars from the roads.

The energy used in the average home can be responsible for more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the average car. That’s because most electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases into our air. By using energy more efficiently at home, less energy needs to be generated by power plants. Each CFL (compact fluorescent bulb) can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its lifetime.

Electromagnetic waves are out there. They come from the sun, they come from the satellites in the sky beaming down TV. They ?re coming out of the cell phone and the computer and the digital clock and phone next to your bed. Good vibes. Bad vibes.

The EMF expert of Uptown is Dr. Adiel Tel-Oren ("Dr. T") of the Ecopolitan. He has contributed to the emfpollution.com website if you are looking for more info on this. http://www.emfpollution.com
The issue of electrical sensitivity first gained a profile in 2002 when Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, then director-general of the World Health Organization, confirmed in a media report that she banned cellphones from her office because they gave her headaches. (from Distress signals - Electric Hyper-Sensitivity and Solutions
This article, Distress Signals, by Tyler Hamilton, appeared in the Toronto Star, Friday, November 11, 2005. It examines the phenomena called ES (Electrical Sensitivity) , or EHS (Electro HyperSensitivity) , and its known solutions.

One of the reasons Peace Machine was called into being is to bring awareness to peace technology. Popular culture is immensely preoccupied with war metaphors and conflict. Please re-focus on peace again and again.

Fluorescents: they don’t go in the garbage or the recycling. Minneapolis won’t pick them up! (Peace Machine lives in Minneapolis. But different states have different laws regarding fluorescent disposal.)

From Hennepin County: [South Hennepin Recycling and Problem Waste Drop-off Center 1400 West 96th Street, Bloomington (612) 348-3777 http://www.hennepin.us/vgn/portal/internet/hcdetailmaster/0,2300,1273_83267_100205921,00.html]

Mercury is a naturally occurring element found in soil, water, air and living organisms. It has been used as a conductor of electricity, a measure of temperature and pressure, a substance to kill biological organisms and as a catalyst to cause chemical reactions.

Facts about mercury: Elemental mercury is a nerve toxin (affecting the brain and spinal cord) that is especially dangerous when inhaled.Mercury is particularly toxic to the developing nervous system of a fetus or young child.

When mercury is disposed of improperly it is converted to methyl mercury in the environment. Methyl mercury then bio-accumulates in our environment, by building up in the tissues of humans and animals. When fish consumption advisories are not followed, eating mercury-contaminated fish can lead to poisoning.

In Uptown Minneapolis, take bulbs to:
Bryant Hardware 823-4748 818 W 36^{th $1.00 for regular}and $1.50 for curved
Or make a trip to Bloomington. They will accept up to 20 bulbs per year per household at no charge.

Peace Machine’s vision for neighborhood committees. (I could use some green grants for our home projects!) A future uptown where installing home wind-energy systems and solar heating units is just as easy as getting satellite television set up. It’s called small scale micro-generation can have a real impact on tackling climate change. This is already happening in Scotland! Home wind energy systems are maintained by British Gas Co. http://www.handsontv.info/series7/01_energy_wise_reports/report5.html

In the late 1950’s the first satellite photos of earth ushered in a new way of imagining our world. Instead of a map showing the different boundaries of nations, we could see the earth as a whole: alive and our home.

The beings of earth share the same resources: air, water and land. We are all connected as one family here on mother earth. Peace Machine tries to not only be a good US citizen*, but also a good “world citizen.”

United Nations Secretary-General U Thant spoke of Spaceship Earth on Earth Day March 21, 1971 at the ceremony of the ringing of the Japanese Peace Bell: "May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."

The Gaia Hypothesis proposes that our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.

How do urban people connect to mother earth energy? By composting and gardening! Also, by propagating native plants. For your garden, consider using the plants that naturally were growing in your area before the city sprang up.

Why should anyone care about connecting to mother earth energy? Part of the problem with pollution, over-consumption and materialistic shopping for junky stuff is that people are disconnected from the natural world. Being connected helps people to be happy and grounded. The earth can also soak up your heavy and uncomfortable energy and leave you feeling unburdened. Try it.

Get connected to the earth’s cycles and energy and good things start to happen.

Lynn Elling, a Navy officer in World War II and the Korean War, says we are all citizens of spaceship earth. He founded World Citizen, Inc. and began the Peace Sites program in Minneapolis in 1968. Now there are over 700 peace sites worldwide, and over 200 in Minnesota, including parks, schools, churches and businesses - even the Mall of America. Peace Machine says Yeah -- It’s magic! The intention of dedicating a space to peace causes a shift in one’s consciousness. Like a prayer or a radio wave, energy is sent out with the message of that intention. Let’s create peace sites now for our communities and also for our scientists and engineers! http://www.peacesites.org Then you can put a peace pole on your peace site. http://www.worldpeace.org/wpps.html

Roberta Lord wrote this about the startling messages in the sky. http://www.cultureport.com/cultureport/artists/eldred/index.html She was married to sculptor Dale Eldred. Consider all the mysterious secret and invisible electromagnetic waves of information coursing around us right now! It's wonderful, freaky, and cool.

Who suffers due to crappy applications for crappy technology? In 1968, beat digger poet Richard Brautigan pointed the way with his poem, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace." This comic was not available in its regular venue The Uptown Neighborhood News this month (I think because there was not room, but there were also some people on the board who didn't get it and wondered why the paper was even running it!). We will see if we can find a new venue.

What kinds of energies motivate your actions? Peace Machine has a way to cultivate postive energy when you're in danger of being greedy and fearful. His little peace/compassion prayer comes from "Loving-kindness, or metta, as it in called in the Pali language, is unconditional, inclusive love, a love with wisdom. It has no conditions; it does not depend on whether one "deserves" it or not..." read more about it here http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/subnav/kindness.htm

Learn more about the Gizmos - the fleet of cute little electronic vehicles that deliver pizzas for Uptown Minneapolis business Galactic Pizza : http://www.galacticpizza.com On a personal note, Kelly used to date Chris in Eugene, OR and Chris built Gizmos. Yes, Kelly visited the Gizmo garage and saw them being built. The relationship didn't work out and actually, the Gizmos are out of production right now. But you can buy one used sometimes. They are cute little cars.

Find out more about the proposed Department of Peace http://www.dopcampaign.com - Includes information about the proposed Office of Technology for Peace, which "shall provide grants for the research and development of technologies in transportation, communications, and energy that (1) are nonviolent in their application; and (2) encourage the conservation and sustainablility of natural resources in order to prevent future conflicts regarding scarce resources." The legislative bill is on this website and it is easy to read and very interesting.

For more about DARPA, see http://www.darpa.mil - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, estimated budget 2005: $3,090,279,000.00 "established in 1958 to prevent technological surprise like the launch of Sputnik, which signaled the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into space. Today, DARPA's mission is to prevent technological surpise to the U.S., but also to create technological surprise for our enemies. Stealth is one example where DARPA created technological surprise."

September 2005--Secret Meaning of Uptown Power Outages & Solar Oven of Minneapolis

Note from Kelly 7/24/05: Watch this page for updates - (I've been pretty busy taking care of baby Everett, so just trying to get up a basic website for now.) For information about the comic's author see her website: www.kellynewcomer.com Kelly's contact: email .