Annie Birdsong's Homepage



    Study For Your Country    




Empower yourself by Keeping wonderful notebooks.
Great Books: What is the Power of Ideas?

Note. You can find almost all books by a certain author or on a subject by searching the World Cat database. You can then order the books at your library through inter-library loan, look for them at a university or local library or purchase them through Amazon.com .

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.::
  • The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right (with John Cronin) Click here to order the book.
  • Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
  • Saint Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy (for children) Click here to have a look inside the book.
  •  Click here to follow Robert on Twitter. Good!
  • Click here to read articles by Robert.
William McDonough and Michael Braungart:
  • Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Paul Krugman (Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics):
  • The Conscience of a Liberal
  • The Great Unraveling: Loosing Our Way in the New Century
Robert Reich:
  • Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
Rachel Carson:
  • Silent Spring (a classic that awakened the environmental movement):
Joseph Stiglitz (recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics):
  • The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict (with Linda Bilmes)
  • Globalization and Its Discontents
Frances Moore Lappe (recipient of the Right Livelihood Award):
  • Now We Can Speak: A Journey Through the New Nicaragua
  • Eco Mind: Changing the Way We Think To Create The World We Want
  • Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for a World Gone Mad
  • Getting a Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Want
  • Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life
  • Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (With Anna Lappe)
  • Diet for a Small Planet
President Jimmy Carter (recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize):
  • Peace Not Apartheid
  • The Blood of Abraham: Insights Into the Middle East
  • Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
  • A Remarkable Mother
  • Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope
Donella Meadows:
  • The Limits to Growth - the 30 Year Update
  • Click here to read articles written by Donella.
Helena Norberg Hodge (recipient of the Right Livelihood Award)::
  • Ancient Futures: learning from Ladakh
  • Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World
  • From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture
Michael Wood:
  • The Smile of the Murugan: A South Indian Journey
  • The Story of England
  • The Story of India
  • China: The Mandate of Heaven
Dr. David Suzuki::
  • It's a Matter of Survival (with Anita Gordon)
  • Good News for a Change: How Everyday People are Helping the Planet (with Holly Dressel)
  • The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (with Amanda McConnell)
  • The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future (with Margaret Atwood)
  • From Naked Ape to Superspecies: Humanity and the Global Eco-Crisis (with Holly Dressel)
  • The David Suzuki Reader
  • A David Suzuki Collection : a Lifetime of Ideas
  • You Are the Earth
  • More Good News : Real Solutions to the Global Eco-Crisis
  • See more films by Dr. Suzuki on the World Cat database
  • See his wonderful lectures on youtube.com
Dr. Vandana Shiva (recipient of the Right Livelihood award):
  • Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology
  • Staying Alive (This important book helps you understand what is destroying the earth's hydrology):
  • Dr. Shiva's acceptance speech for the Right Livelihood Award.
Dr. David Orr:
  • Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
  • The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention
Edward Goldsmith (recipient of the Right Livelihood award) and Jerry Mander (editors):
  • The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local
T. Colin Campbell:
  • The China Study
Aldo Leopold:
  • A Sand County Almanac
  • Round River
E.F. Schumacher:
  • Small is Beautiful (a classic explaining ecological economics, also called Buddhist economics):
Ralph Nader:
  • The Seventeen Traditions
Rabindranath Tagore (recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature):
  • Aranya Devata (Tagore discusses ancient Indian philosophy concerning our need to live in harmony with nature):
Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha, which means enlightened):
  • The Dhammapada (the most widely read and best known book of quotes by the Buddha, a sage.)
Okakura Kakuzō:
  • The Book of Tea (a classic explaining the Japanese tea ceremony)
Anthony Shadid (a New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize recipient tells about the tragedies of the war in Iraq):
  • Night Draws Near
Joseph Collins:
  • Philippines: Fire on the Rim
Confucius:
  • The Analects
  • The Doctrine of the Mean
  • The Great Learning
Dylan Ratigan
  • Greedy Bastards (Ratigan explains the misdeeds of tycoons of the financial sector):
Chris Hayes
  • Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy
Joy Bonds, Jimmy Emerman, Linda John, Penny Johnson, Paul Rupert:
  • Our Roots Are Still Alive: The Story of the Palestinian People
Robert Chesney
  • Rich Media, Poor Democracy
Jim Hightower
  • Thieves in High Places
Eric Alterman
  • Why We're Liberals: a Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals
  • Click here to read Alterman's blog in Nation Magazine.
Sen. Byron Dorgan
  • Take This Job and Ship It
Eric Tucker and John Westerdahl, dessert recipes by Sascha Weiss
  • The Millenium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine (Recipes used during the first three years of operation of the famous Millenium vegan restaurant in San Francisco, California)
Eric Tucker and Bruce Enloe, dessert recipes by Amy Pearce
  • The Artful Vegan (More recipes used by the famous Millenium vegan restaurant in San Francisco, California)

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Maybe you can be a film maker.
Great Films

Note. You might view films for a small fee on Apple Itunes or Amazon.com. Also, see reviews of films on Bullfrog Films home page or youtube channel.

Consider inviting people to your home for a potluck and view a film right on your computer.

I envision library reform where libraries have amazing collections of documentary videos, along with computers where they can be viewed and rooms where groups can come to view films together.

This is where the power lies. If you want to be a powerful researcher, watch documentary videos.

Books are stone age compared to documentary videos.

Michael Wood (Maya vision):
  • The Legacy: The Origins of Civilization
    • China: The Mandate of Heaven
    • India: Empire of the Spirit
    • Egypt: The Habit of Civilization
    • Europe: The Barbarian West
    • Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization
    • Central America: The Burden of Time
  • The Story of England
  • The Sacred Way
  • See more films by Maya Vision
  • The Great British History: A People's History (See clips on the BBC website.)
Dr. David Suzuki:
  • The Sacred Balance
  • Turning Down the Heat: the New Energy Revolution
  • Understanding Urban Sprawl
  • Build Green: The Nature of Things
  • Trouble in the Forest
  • Trading Futures: Living in the Global Economy: a Special Report with David Suzuki
  • Water: To the Last Drop
  • How to Live to Be 100
  • The Marsh: Nature's Nursery
  • A Planet for the Taking
  • Subdue the Earth
  • The Hidden world of the Bog
  • Food or Famine
  • When is Enough Enough?
  • The Nature of Things / Arctic Refuge, the Struggle Continues
  • Down to Earth
  • The Suzuki Diaries: Sustainability in Action
  • On a Wing and a Song
  • One Ocean Series
    • Birth of an Ocean
    • Footprints in the Sand
    • Mysteries of the Deep
    • The Changing Sea
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Standing on his shoulders, we can stabilize the country.
The Paul Krugman Blog

Read Dr. Paul Krugman's Blog in the New York Times and bookmark it.

(When you save it to your favorites, choose "favorites bar" and it will always be at the top of your browser.)

Dr. Krugman is a Nobel Prize recipient, a New York Times blogger
and a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

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Growing in effectivelness
For Gentlemen Amateur Scholars

1. Remember that in your notebooks, YOUR QUESTIONS are as important as the facts you dig out. In fact, before reading a chapter, ask yourself questions. What is it I want to know? For example, could USA become a desert? Is the whole world quickly becoming a desert as our waterbodies are depleted by the sewage treatment system and unsustainable forms of irrigation?

2. Do your research at university libraries rather than public libraries.

3. Ask the librarians to teach you how to do find the most important databases. What are the names of all full text databases?
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Responsible journalism
Great Internet News: Microsoft and NBC Bless the Country



If you want to hear internet tv that is truly on your side, where the left (strong reformers) have a place at the table, where journalists expose powerful image-making techniques with no substance, listen to MSNBC News.

Any time of the day, you can listen to videos. You can turn it on and it will play all day while you clean your house. Excellent!

Click on an icon below to see videos of that show.

 

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More independent from vested interests
National Public Radio

The country has an immense problem. The rich have bought out radio stations across the country -- almost without exception. They are being used to promote narrow interests in ways that collide with your wellbeing. But we still have public radio.

Click here to enter your zip code to find NPR stations in your city.

Sparking growth and development
On the Left: High Quality Magazines

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Much is at stake with your computer
Guide to Keeping Your Computer Fast, Sharp and Spyware Free

  • Windows updates are very important in your fight for a spyware free computer, but spyware (a rogue software) can keep your computer from downloading windows updates.


  • Sometimes an update fails to install again and again and again. When this happens, you must keep running windows update until each one is installed.


  • Sometimes when an update fails to install, you can get it to install by running a Microsoft Safety Scan at the same time you run windows update.


  • Run disk cleanup often. Go to the start menu. Go to "help and support." Type in disk cleanup. This will help clean up temporary files where spywares can hide.


  • Block cookies from being added to your website and delete them. Cookies can give a hacker or spyware the IP address of your computer. To clean off your computer go to Internet Explorer. Go to "tools." Go to Internet Options. Go to General. click Delete temporary files, history, cookies, saved passwords etc. Next, go to "Privacy." click on slide until it says "block all cookies." (But you often must have cookies before places will take your password.)


  • In addition to the antivirus on your computer, you can go to the Microsoft website to run an online Microsoft Safety Scan. If your computer is really sick, do this again and again all day. When it sees something suspicious, it will send it to Microsoft, decode it and send something out to address that spyware or virus. This really makes a difference.


  • Don't go to the web downloading free things. Rogues sometimes call offer you a free antivirus when in truth it is spyware. Go into your computer and delete free things you downloaded. To do this, go to start. Go to control panel. Go to "Programs and Features." You will see the programs you have installed. Delete those you don't use. This is very important.


  • Keep antivirus software on your computer -- but only ONE. (YOu can NOT have Norton AND Mirosoft Security Essentials and another.) But make sure it is up to date. Microsoft gives access to a free Safety Scanner. Set this to run every day.


  • Do download Microsoft's free Malicous Software Removal Tool.


  • Clean your computer often from dust that can block the fans and cause it to crash.


  • Run disk defragmenter often. A fragmented computer runs slowly. If you shut down your computer the wrong way by pressing a button, run defragmenter afterwards.


  • If you run into viruses often, try getting a Dell Computer and running "Factory Reinstall" often. It will reformat your computer the way it was the day it was new.


  • When your computer is clean, quick and sharp, make a restore point and give this restore point a name so you can do a "system restore" on those times in case your computer is sick to bring back the computer settings when your computer was clean, quick, sharp and spyware free. Do this often. (If much times has lapsed, you will be missing many windows updates and antivirus updates.) To manually set a restore point and give it a label (name), go to the Control Panel. Go to "system." Go to "system protection." When a small window pops up, go to the bottom of the window where it says "to create a restore point, first select a disk and click apply. Click "create."


  • Games can open a port that allows spyware and viruses to enter your computer. Don't go to the web downloading free games.


  • Go into control Panel. Go to Windows Firewall. Click on "Allow a program Through Windows Firewall." Go to "Exceptions." Don't check anything. (I'm not an expert, but that is what I do and it seems to help me.)


  • Make sure you have the latest version of Internet Explorer. It is more secure.


    • It is so wonderful to have a fast, clean computer.