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LOOKING BACK OVER 2003....... I cherish the opportunity to look back upon the year just past, and examine the highlights and goals accomplished or yet to be fulfilled. It is great to have the Internet emails - to be able to share something of myself with many friends, teachers and colleagues at the same time, some close and others I've just met in passing but thought to stay in touch with. 

ACTIVISM FOR A BETTER WORLD GENERATIONS HENCE: Philosophical - Each year I get involved in several activist activities - the farthest reaching being the philosophical. Last year, I made some progress on this front by, for the first time, making a public presentation to the environmental philosophy community (at the annual conference of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy in Boston). Presented a paper entitled: Non-sustainability and the Math-based Vision of Nature. It outlines some of my philosophical views - especially my view that our deep faith in the mathematical explanation of nature lies at the core of a global corruption of western civilization's relationship to nature. It was also submitted for publication. A draft of a second paper was presented at Binghamton in preparation for a conference at Fordham later this year - and progress was also made in working toward my Ph.D. program. Furthermore, I've begun designing a website centered on Transmathematical Ecology - the name I've settled on to express my philosophical view as a kind of "school of deep ecology." The website will post current & past papers - along with important visionary writings of others, related sites, and events.

 Health and Environmental - Here my activities included researching and writing an article on current trends in GE foods. Published in Sierra Atlantic (Chilling Trends in Genetic Violence - Winter 2003 Issue)  and helping to form a sustainability group in Oneonta. With this group we had outings to the Solar Fest in Vermont and a green construction conference in Ulster county NY. Since then I have superinsulated two homes - reducing energy consumption by roughly 50% and 20% respectively.

Political - Campaign Manager - I have been privileged to coordinate the 24^th Congressional District Dennis Kucinich for President campaign, and a group of 32 wonderful volunteers helped collect 751 signatures to put his name on the March local ballot. I also helped organize two fundraising events and attended many peace activist gatherings in Oneonta & Binghamton. To find out more on Dennis' campaign and his issues, please visit www.kucinich.us. If you're a registered Democrat, please vote in the primaries. Partake since this will be an important election year for the future of the country. Helpful to me is keeping in touch with the alternative press - and where http://www.commondreams.org has been a great discovery this year.

Intentional Communities Visits- Each year I make a pilgrimage to some intentional communities in the US or abroad - and this year I had the fortune to visit Twin Oaks in Virginia www.twinoaks.org. There I  volunteered and took part  in their annual communities conference. I also made a presentation of a film on intentional communities at Hartwick (Visions of Utopia by Geoph Kozeny). For more information on this see(http://store.ic.org/products/visions-of-utopia-video.html. The presentation was part of Hartwick's  sustainability program series - what helped stimulate the formation of our local sustainability group.

All Else:  As to the rest, things have been going rather well. I managed to get back into running and competed in two races (10K and 5K) last year in Oneonta. My age adjusted time beat what I did in the late 1980's. I have also managed to expose myself to the sacred religious services in our community - from Moslem to Roman Catholic to Jewish, and appreciate ever more living in the Oneonta area. My kids are doing well. My son graduated from Lehigh and is now working at his first consulting job; my daughter is continuing her Jewish cantorial studies at a reconstructionist Philadelphia seminary. This is her last or 5^th  year of studies coming up. We got together over Thanksgiving and all are doing well. My stepdad continues to be chipper and I look forward at his  86^th birthday party in Florida! Lastly, my income-generation activities continue to prosper. I rented out the second home in Oneonta - after completing some gutting and renovations of the "Ballentine House," pics  at www.cooperstownlodging.com and purchased another for renovation. The accounting and cash flow businesses (certified last year) continue to develop, and will be aided by two websites www.solvingcashflow.com (live) and www.nathanbatalioncpa.com (live). I have also dabbled with some construction work under AAA Custom Renovations, with logo signs - what is fun at times during the downtime past the tax season.  While the naturopathic license is being renewed, I don't plan to use it currently or not until, sometime in the future, my dream of a retreat community comes to pass.

Favorite movie of the year- the German film Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika). Most memorable book - The Metaphysical Foundations of Science by E.A. Burtt. That was the year in brief and I greatly thank those who accompanied and helped me on this journey.