My name is: Johan Löfström

I live in Gävle, Sweden, Scandinavia, Northern Europe.

I was born in december 1971. If someone asks me about my age, i will have to calculate it, every time.

Buy less crap – work less – live more – feel richer

Arab world is changing[edit | edit source]

And the whole world is watching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932011_Middle_East_and_North_Africa_protests

Amazing things are happening. For those of you that haven't followed the events: it started with a vegetable salesman in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazazi [1]. His stall got confiscated by police, and as a protest he set himself on fire. That was starting point to large protests and massive demonstrations in:

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar... even planned protests are going to happen in Saudi Arabia...

Why do I write this:

because I wondered a lot about in how many ways it means a change of the world. For us in north europe, i guess we have lived with prejudice that "those people are uneducated and kempt in extreme radical islam, by their local mullas" It seems there was a much larger group of intelligent well-educated mass of people in those countries. Many of them have been educated in european universities, and do have very good insight in our democratic, secular world.

For people in arab world, i hope that they can get little more freedom, perhaps free elections, perhaps getting state and church separated, so the government can build up proper infrastructure, health care, schools without interference from those people that still live mentally in 7th century.

For Appropedia and welfare organizations, i guess a good opportunity to travel little more freely, to be able to reach people in need, to try to assist them, in their daily lives in desert countries. Perhaps also we will be able to find some clever people that have invented tools or techniques that makes it easier for them to live in harsh living environments. Maybe there exists solutions somewhere, that still havent gotten broader recognition, and now can get spread out to others that live in similar climates.

And of course I hope there will be no more victims or casualties.

World changing events, that are of such speed and proportion we cannot even imagine...

I used to play with the idea when i was teenager, that i wanted to go to visit Libya (or a similar dictator nation, that appeared to have wealth, but all humans lived in total poverty). But I was of course cautious for my own safety. But now, do you think it can be possible to visit Libya in 6-12 months, to try to volunteer and to help with any small or large scale project that they might need?

First project that comes to mind is: the mega-scale German-owned solar and wind power plants, that are planned to stretch from Morocco to Egypt, through the northern Sahara Desert, and connect electrical cables to europe through Gibraltar channel into Spain, and across to Turkey and Greece.

This project will hopefully be realised finalized faster. Libya was the african country with largest oil wells, but now is only believed to be second or third. (possibly corruption caused them to waste large amounts of oil)

other projects: improving farming, infrastructure around fresh water... Schools, culture, grass-roots-projects for improving knowledge about democracy, humanitarianism

I am[edit | edit source]

Industrial Designer & Product Developer

Artist (painting, experimental electronic music, writer) Graphic Designer

Extremely creative mind with speed, positivity and cris-crossing between many different interesting topics at the same time.

Trying to live extremely green and with a minimal carbon footprint. I am having a devoted "green focus" and trying to replace obsolete and inefficient products in my life and hopefully influence some others around me. I am extremely extreme in my green and anti-consumeristic living pattern. I am partner in a little design shop that makes new decorative and useful products from second-hand-clothing, unwanted materials and old flea-market-stuff and so on.

Projects and articles that I started here[edit | edit source]

Some of the things I have done to improve my life[edit | edit source]

I sold my car in 1999. (I used to have a need for a car when I was younger and working a lot) My apartment building is heated with a centralized citywide system of bio-fuels. I try to be way below the average numbers on all aspects of my carbon footprint and climate impact. I always walk or ride bicycle within the city. I work from home.

I eat more and more vegetarian food. Eat a lot more fish and very rarely meat. I have developed several methods of smart cooking that use much less electricity. I very rarely buy and boil groceries that need long boiling times like potatoes, rice, pasta. I never buy or store any frozen foods at home, so I have turned of my deepfreezer. I try to abstain from buying exotic imported fruits, bottled water, imported beer, wine or ice cream. I have drastically reduced my electricity bill, and the energy company is generating around half of its power from hydro-power-plants, about 35-40% nuclear power and only about 5% from coal and diesel.

One whole year I did an experiment when I only bought food (2007 was my personal Buy-Nothing-Year)
And I chose the groceries with least amount of packaging and the most locally produced I could find. I recycle extremely meticulously, already when I choose products in the shops I think about how to dismantle the materials for recycling.
And as a result of these things I have drastically changed my habits and minimized my total garbage waste to 1-2kg per year.

I am very careful with my clothes so that they last longer, and try to keep them clean so I do not have to wash them too often. When I wash I use only low-temperature programs. I do not have any telephone anymore. It was just a waste of time and money. I never buy a new object on impulse. I very rarely buy new presents for other people, I try to create something unique and special, it gets more personal that way. And I have told my family and friends many times that I do not need new and expensive gifts for christmas or birthdays, it is enough with eating food and enjoying their company.

I do not subscribe to the general life style that here in Sweden involves redecorating your rooms constantly, just because you are a bit fed up or bored with the colour of the walls. And the way of buying new crappy furniture, on that enormous warehouse, which will break down within 2 years, and you just throw it away, to buy new furniture, in another enormous warehouse. And they are forced to work like worker bees for more than 40 hours per week at something they really hate doing, just to pay for the interest rates on the big wall-mounted flat-TV and the furniture that will soon break down.

Now, if someone will claim that my extensive computer use is a waste, i can argue that my current computer have replaced all of the following itmes/objects/services from my life : TV, Cinema, DVD-player, CD-player, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Maps, Games, Telephones, Typewriter, Calculators, Mail, Paying my bills, Musical Instruments. Google Earth, Panoramio and Flickr have reduced my vacations and travelling more than 50%. I do not travel anymore to other cities to go to concerts or art exhibitions. (it is much more marvellous to watch TED-talks, Discovery Channel and GreenTV online than it is to fly to Thailand one week each year)

I spent a bit more money when I bought appliances like the computer, so that they will last longer and suit my purposes. My previous Apple G3 worked perfectly for more than 11 years. I now have a Apple Mini that is extremely small and energy efficient. I still use the same monitor that I bought in 1996!!! (but i have started looking for a new one that will be most energy efficient and last many years)

I have experience from[edit | edit source]

Theoretic education in the swedish school system (but I do not know how large part of it that i picked up there, or if my collected knowledge only came to me later, from living, and from other sources)

Graduated in Graphic design (1986-1989)

summer school for digital 3D animation using open source software, Blender (2008)

Almost a degree in Bachelor of Arts at a community college: for Furniture design, Industrial design, product development, service design, Applied Sustainability Methods (2007-2010)

Working at a cinema (1983-1995)

Working at a print house (1989-)

Working at advertising agencies (very little with internet and web pages)(1995-2003)

Self-employed as a day-trader in swedish stock, fund and futures market (1990-)

Painting art works and exhibiting them in different places (1995-)

Living within a Buy Nothing Year-project, sponsored by AdBusters Buy Nothing Day (2007)

Making experimental electronic music (2007-)

Making animated films (2008-)

Living abroad in Cork on Ireland (3 months in 2000) and on Malta (6 months in 2004)

Writing and ranting about stuff that is so obvious to me, but not to anyone else (1999-) I hope i will never stop caring, or learning. And I hope I will never accept and stand in line and be silent.

Notes[edit | edit source]

Some links to personal web pages and other projects:

My design company: www.yeahvle.se[2] (in swedish only)

Photo gallery of my art and furniture: design.yeahvle.se[3]

My experimental electronic music: Latki.bandcamp.com[4]

Photo gallery of sculptures in my home town: panoramio.com/user/yeahvle[5]

Design Collective: edgeig.blogspot.com[6] (in swedish only, but with product images)

On Bible quotes there[edit | edit source]

Hi Yeahvle,.....

Thank you very much for pointing out the difference of opinion on appropriateness of Bible quotes here. I have no intentions to use the Appropedia space for religious propaganda.

I didn't know about the objections raised through the talk page because there were no email alerts from there for quite some time now. Having known, I am modifying the section.

It is true that I wanted to express my gratitude in public for having made me think differently & leave the beaten track. That is why that section title was chosen. The sentences of the body of that section were to be seen as quotations from a book that has the maximum number of copies printed ever in human history. More over it was felt that those are the sentences that could be framed in the most precise form to express the ideas in my mind. I could not make sentences crispier than these to convey those ideas. The links are given to ascertain the genuineness of the source and text.

It is felt that as much as I am happy, you also might be happy about the popularity of the page. Now a Google search of the words LONG WHEAT brings title of this page as the FIRST of the 85,400,000 results. It literally surprised me. I had never even dreamt about things going to this proportion.

Noticing this popularity I was thinking of seeking your valuable opinion on launching a pilot project to cure persons who are in very advanced stages of the disease - viz. Diabetes. I have no idea about what all are to be done and how to go about.

The findings of Dr. Roy Taylor of the Newcastle University, UK have added trustworthiness to the contents of the page.

Thank you Chris, Lonny, Munimortal, Teratornis & Yeahvle.

Shooter 23:53, 20 August 2011 (PDT)

Hi Yeahvle,

  • Thank you for alerting me on the inappropriate arrangement & content selection as well as vagueness of the article. I value your learned, experienced & expert suggestions. No efforts will be spared in implementing your view on the construction of the article.
  • With regard to the second part of the remark, the regimen went like this from 2006 to 2009 ADE:
  1. Totally excluded all food items of which sugar is a component (coffee, tea, cool drinks, snacks, biscuits, chocolates, toffees etc.)
  2. Discontinued taking fruits (including jack fruit, mango, plantain, banana, papaya (alias papaw or pawpaw), custard apple etc which are very commonly available in plenty in Kerala).
  3. Breakfast and dinner were substituted with long-wheat kanji & appropriate side dishes. (Kanji was a typical staple food of Kerala. Generally it is prepared using Rice.) To make the food supplement, take the required amount of the whole grain Long Wheat, boil it in as much volume of water as six times the grain till the grains are sufficiently cooked. Unbroken long-wheat takes ½ an hour in pressure cooker to get it sufficiently cooked.
  4. Started walking (at moderate speed) exercise for 1 hour daily.
  • Interpretation of the lab results of January & February 2007 ADE as compared to the latest results of August 2011 ADE:
  1. FBS & PPBS values remaining near the lower limits of the normal range during Jan Feb 2007 is achieved with the above listed regimen. Seeing the normal blood glucose value consistently for two months, I added sugar to my morning & evening coffee. This took the blood glucose reading beyond the upper limit of 140 mg% in just two months, in spite of continuing long wheat mash intake twice daily and avoidance of fruits & starchy vegetables completly.
  2. The latest results of FBS 75 mg% and PPBS 90 mg% are with normal diet, ie NO long wheat mash, NO avoidance of fruits, NO avoidance of starchy vegetables, NO avoidance of bakery items and NO avoidance of sugar in coffee.
  3. I am on normal diet from July 2009 onwards.
  4. I have undergone Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) twice after being declared Diabetic. On both occassions the results were negative. (I have my own doubts about whether the 7 out of 11 volunteers of Dr. Roy Taylor of Newcastle University UK have been subjected to GTT before or after declaring them as CURED of Diabetes, since two months according to me is too short a time to get the pancreas repaired.)
  • Hope I have answered the questions. Eager to see your comment on this.

Shooter 01:53, 25 August 2011 (PDT)

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