r April1977 RAIN I Large Corporations and City Taxes in Idabo,Report No. 1 of a series entitled "Who Rules ldaho," 5OC each, $5 for the series, fromt Idaho Study Group Box 8482 Moscow, ID 83843 An excellent and concise four-page white paper outlining tax avoidance strategies used by industrial plants in almost every state and, more importantly, sensible strategies for control. Proposals include increased payments for services to such industries, annexation, redistribution of state educational funds and state laws allowing revenue compensation to districts impacted by outside industries-similar to Minnesota's law. A useful series for supporting local initiatives if succeeding papers are as good as this one. (TB) Tbe Formula Book and Tbe Formula Book II, Norman Stark, 197 5, 197 6, $5.95 each from' Sheed, Andrews & McMeel 6700 Squibb Road Mission, KS 66202 We've grown so accustomed to buying highly merchandised products that we often don't realize that most household chemical products-from soap to drain opener to electric pre-shave lotions to glass spray cleaner to toothpaste-can be made simply and much more cheaply at home or as a neighborhood busineis. The Fnrmula.Boofts help take the mystery out of do-it-yourself proctor and Gambling and provide simple, easy-tofollow instructions for making several hundred household products. The second volume is particularly skimpy and fuil of wtrite space for the price, and I have a hunch you might ger a better bargain if you can find a copy of Stark's earlier textbook, Tbe Formula Manual (we couldn't). People being rvhat they are, this valuable approich needs to be taken a couple of steps further-a book that lists the formulae for Ivory or Dial soap, Breck shampoo or Johnson's baby oil so people don't think the formulae are for some inferior "homemade " stuff. Secondly, a listing of relative costs for homemade, generic and brand-name production of the same product would be an eye opener. An important and useful beginning, and an excellent resource book for beginning neighborhood industries. If you have a used bookstore around, you might also look for Tbe War-Time Guide Boik put our by Popular Science Montbly and Grosset and Dunlap in 1942. David Morris recommended it to us, and it contains a weaith of formulae for home products.,(TB) Good Health The good people down at the Briarpatch Network in San Francisco have put together an excellent shared Health Insurance Plan for Briarpatch businesses in the Bay Area. The plan provides life, medical and dentai insurance, including coverage of wholistic approaches to health such as acupuncture, iridology, homeopathy, biofeedback and chiropractic treatment. For more information on the plan, write to Briarpatch Review, 330 Ellis Street, San Francisco, cA 94102. (TB) The Inaisible Hand: Questionable Corporate Pay ments Oaerseas, Gordon Adams and Sherri Zann Rosenthal Council on Economic Priorities. 84 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011 This shouid go on your shelf next to Global Reach, Phantom Taxes in your Utilities Bill, and Size, Efficiency and C ommunity Enterprise. Documents self-admitted questionable overseas payments and outright bribes by American companies. Read, if you have any doubt that excessive economic power leads to political abuses. (TB) $I"0 Reward for Demand Heater Information Demand heaters, flash heaters, or ascors used to be easily available in this country. They hear water right when and where you use it rather than storing it in a large tank where it can lose the heat. I remember lighting thein in European pensions before taking a shower. They're also used in Japanese baths to keep the warer in the bath as hot as you want. (l also remember someone leaving one on all night and walking into the bath in the morning to discover the tub merrily boiling away!) Demand heaters are real useful with solar water heating because you can use solar heat to warm the water in your existing hot water tank as hot as it can, then have the water go through a dem heater to give it a final boost to desired temperatures when enough solar heat isn't available. We'll give a $10 reward ro whomever can find us the best information on available electric, gas or wood fueled demand heaters or designs for do-ityourself heaters by May 15,1977, and wiil pass on the information in RAIN. We're interested in everything from automatic, thermostatic-controlled designs to ones where you throw in the wood and light it! Some that we know of now' Instant-Flow Water Heaters (automaric, eiectric, non-thermostatic), Ascots (British, gas, apparently no longer imported), Blazing Showers (wood stovepipe water heaters), Paloma (gas, thermostatic, semi-automatic). Tell us more ! (TB)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz