April 2018

Nature’s Wellness Science: Big Trees

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The ancient oak

*We all need Nature. Nature provides us with powerful,  free medicine that maintains our health and wellbeing especially in this man-made toxic 21st century.

Big, old trees are crucial as superlative carbon dioxide warehouses that also absorb mega amounts of pollution. Big trees regulate the climate, the water cycle, and provide priceless shade in the heat of the summertime as well as create vital habitat for creatures.

As the ancient ones age they increase, not decrease, in their ability to perform as Nature’s giant oxygen generators and carbon warehouses.

General Sherman Tree
General Sherman is largest single stemmed tree on Earth. At over 2,500 years old this giant sequoia reaches 275 feet towards the heavens.
Photo credit: Reese Halter, Sequoia National Park.

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Some Will Go To College – All Will Go Through Life: Part Two- What About Jane?

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Waitress

*On an autumn day in September of 1962, President John Kennedy challenged a nation to do the impossible and send a man to the moon in just seven short years. Perhaps the thing he his best remembered for other than his unfortunate death, we take his declaration for granted.

What is interesting is that at a time before digital calculators and watches, before microwave ovens and before TV shows were regularly broadcast in color, the audience at Rice University did not greet his proclamation that “We choose to go to the moon” with incredulousness, or appear to wonder how such a monumental goal might be achieved, but instead greeted it with eager applause and giddy enthusiasm.
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The “Bigger is Better” Deception

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*One of my favorite questions is what is the largest machine on earth, and one of the best answers is the North American power grid. Spanning thousands of miles and connected to millions of people, the North American power grid is not only a gigantic machine, it has enormous influence on all of our lives, save for those of you who are receiving your internet over an independent satellite and using wind power to generate the electricity needed to power your computer, so that means less than 1% of you aren’t dependent in some way.

If you think that isn’t important, Google “Russians hacking the U.S. power grid” and read the articles just this year (2018) on how many times and how many ways the Russians are seeking to destroy our infrastructure.  Of course, to the Democrats and mainstream media, trying to remove the current president from office supersedes any efforts to protect our critical infrastructure such as our power supply or information systems; after all, one has to have their priorities.

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Harpooning Nature’s Last Masterpieces: Endangered Whales

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Newly killed whales

The ocean-killing nation of Iceland intends on resuming commercial whaling on June 10. Its self-appointed quota of as many as 200 endangered fins, the second largest whales next to blues, is both illegal and morally wrong.

Whaling
Whaling is a gruesome bloodlust, a cowardly display of barbarism. Photo credit: alternews.com

In 1986, a world moratorium on commercial whaling took effect. Iceland, Norway and Japan refuse to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Norway is currently the leading offender then followed by Japan and its whale-trading partner, Iceland.

The sheer brutality of chasing until over-heated and then lancing our brethren, the whales, with harpooned-tipped grenades is horrific. Keep Reading

Some Will Go To College – All Will Go Through Life – Appendix A

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Appendix A for Part One

A Working List of Skills and Knowledge Covered in Sophomore Life Prep Courses

  • The ability to use a personal computer for basic tasks.
  • The ability to fill out a job application – both online and on paper.
  • The ability to create and balance a household budget.
  • The ability to balance a checkbook – both online and on paper.
  • The ability navigate one’s city, either by driving a car or mastering public transportation.
  • The ability to cook basic meals.
  • An understanding of how pregnancy occurs, STDs are spread, and optional methods to prevent both.
  • The ability to explain how interest ($) works, and how credit cards are different and dangerous.
  • The ability to do laundry & clean the house.
  • Basic communication and relationship skills.
  • An understanding of the two-party political system, and some of the basic differences between the parties.
  • The ability to recount a general timeline of American history, at least including and in order, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the world wars, the Technological Revolution
  • A knowledge of alcoholism and other addictions and how they work.
  • A working knowledge of First Aid

Some Will Go To College – All Will Go Through Life: Part One- Curves, Tests and Grades

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College

Teachers, school administrators, school boards and government agencies across America work diligently to educate our youth, yet the U.S. consistently ranks squarely in the middle of worldwide achievement in Science, Math and Reading.  How can this be in what we all like to think of as the greatest nation on earth?

There are two underlying fundamental problems with the American education system in the 21st century.  The first is that there is not now, nor has there ever been, an American Education System.  From the time of the first New England schoolhouse to today, local education has been paid for by local tax dollars, with local government setting curriculum and standards for hiring teachers in accordance with the bidding of local voters.

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Celebrating Cherry Blossoms

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Cherry Blossoms

Hundreds of thousands of visitors come from around the world to witness the spring majesty of Washington D.C.’s flowering cherry trees. This breathtaking event reminds us that trees are remarkable.

There are over 80,000 tree species and their progenitors have inhabited our planet for over 350 million years. They provide watersheds, supply drinking water for billions of people, protect cities from stormwater runoff, and reduce cooling costs to our homes and buildings by as much as 40 percent. City trees also absorb mega-tons of air pollutants each year.

Trees and ancient forests are superlative carbon dioxide warehouses. In return, ancient forests provide more than one of every three breaths of oxygen. Ancient forests provide invaluable habitat for animals. They are also vanguards of some of the most potent cancer, coronary and pain medicines known to science.

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How Monopolistic Capitalism in Tech Can Use Decentralization to Their Advantage

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Monopolistic Header

*First things first, I am not here to neither reprimand nor endorse monopolistic or competitive capitalism, but rather to use first principles thinking as a systematic approach on how some relentless monopolistic markets use decentralized tactics to inevitably excel past expectations compared to markets in perfect competition. This type of thinking is highly encouraged by Aristotle (philosophical works), Descartes (Cartesian Doubt), and Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla, Solar City, The Boring Company).

We’ll analyze the mammoths, Microsoft and Google, and use reasoning to find out which of these companies are going to survive and which will fail due to lacking any type of decentralized organizational structure.

“With first principles, you boil things down to the most fundamental truths … and then reason up from there.”

– Elon Musk

Elon Musk

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A Father’s Journey – Part 3. Independently Breathing

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Father and Baby

* A small victory; independently breathing

Stephen Pecevich, a single dad of three in the Boston area, had his life take a complete detour when his youngest child was diagnosed with cancer before she she was even 60 days old.  Follow the story of how this devoted father found faith and strength on what Stephen calls “a life detour”, as we publish regular excerpts from Stephen’s own memoir, which will be available in its entirety in the near future.

January 22nd

Dear Sydni,

You stepped forward today (figuratively speaking of course). Your dedicated overnight nurse said you slept well all throughout the night (your first good night’s sleep). And then, at 11:00 A.M., the ICU staff began weaning you off the respirator.
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Brilliant Blundering Billionaires

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Brilliant Blundering Billionaires - Facebook

*Mark Zuckerberg addressing the Y Combinator Startup School at Stanford University: “I want to stress the importance of being young and technical,” he stated, adding that successful start-ups should only employ young people with technical expertise.

(Zuckerberg also apparently missed the class on employment and discrimination law.) “Young people are just smarter,” he said, with a straight face, according to VentureBeat. “Why are most chess masters under 30?” he asked. “I don’t know…Young people just have simpler lives. We may not own a car. We may not have family.” (Margret Kane March 28, 2007 www.cnet.com)

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Chemical Chaos in the Ocean – the Death of Dolphins and Sea Turtles

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Ocean Pollution

Dolphins and sea turtles are in dire jeopardy. Necropsies, or autopsies performed on animals, show that as poisons are brimming in the oceans, animal deaths are piling up.

Over the previous several months, hundreds of scrawny, frightened and bloated gray dolphins have been stranded along Rio de Janeiro’s coast. Their autoimmune systems were completely compromised by a measles virus. These highly intelligent mammals were discombobulated, covered in grotesque rashes and gasping for oxygen – a terrifying way to die.

Dead dolphins and sea turtles
Photo credit: Instituto Boto Cinza.
The tragic death of dolphins and sea turtles is a wake-up call to stop polluting our planet, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Phase Two is Necessary to Denuclearize North Korea

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Korea Meteorological Administration

* Opinion: President Trump’s Maximum Pressure campaign has, as planned, become a threat to the Kim regime’s survival. Average North Koreans are now enjoying more access to outside information than ever before and their money can buy them whatever they want. Kim is unable to stop the free market, but he’s started imposing life sentences on his citizens for contacting the outside world.

In the short span of one year, Kim has changed tone from turning the U.S. and Seoul into ‘a sea of fire’ to ‘okay, we are willing to denuclearize.’ As a result, Kim has embarked on an unprecedented charm offensive.

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Investing in Education = Investing in our Future

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Never Stop Learning

The bell rings and twenty-nine angelic faces look to her for guidance. In that moment she realizes that while as Governor overseeing the statistical lives of her state’s almost four million citizens is a huge responsibility – one she takes seriously, being entrusted with the actual lives of these twenty-nine cherubs is a grander burden.

Initially an eager participant in the new ‘Leaders in School’ program, the Governor is becoming increasingly dismayed as the reality of spending an entire day working as an educator in the public school system is becoming clear. It was bad enough that she had to make her own coffee and breakfast this morning and then actually drive herself to school, but facing a day without her personal assistants seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

The day is only forty seconds old, and she is already looking for a light at the end of an awfully long tunnel.

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Contemporary Colonization

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Virtues of Lady Liberty

Make no mistake; this is colonization under the guise of immigration.

You enter the country without permission, disrespecting the laws of that country. You settle in and establish your culture, ignoring the native culture. You don’t speak the language, and make little effort to learn the language.

You even fly the flag of your home country, instead of the flag of the country where you reside. You take advantage of the already built industries as well as the infrastructure. If fact, you stress the wealth of the country that you have taken over. You have no intention of adopting the language, and you exploit the economy, as well as the infrastructure, to your advantage.

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Responsible Right of Way

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Crossing Light

Once upon a time in a land called America, schoolchildren were taught how to cross the street by their parents or their older siblings.  Red light means the cars stop, and green light means the cars go. Pedestrians were not so confused by basic traffic etiquette.

Wait for the red light and make sure the cars have stopped, look both ways, carefully cross the street.  For decades, first graders across the nation successfully crossed the street without tens of thousands of dollars worth of flashing lights and annoying beeping and counting and pictures of a cute little walking man at every stinking intersection.

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Aussie Glimpse at a 2.4C World

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Sydney Australia Skyline

There is a revived fossil fuel fever taking hold of the climate Down Under.

Burning fossil fuels releases CO2, which triggers the release of two other planetary, heat-trapping gases: methane and nitrous oxide. These three gases together are known as CO2 equivalent (CO2eq).

Currently, CO2eq is 495 parts per million and rising. According to the 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Earth is committed to a temperature increase of at least 2.4C (4.3F), which translates into climate instability with more frequent and intense extreme weather e.g. heatwaves, droughts, firestorms, insect epidemics and flooding.

Dead mangroves in Queensland Australia
Photo credit: digitaljournal.com Tatiana Gerus. 200,000 people from 22 towns were affected from extreme weather, torrential rains and flooding, December 30, 2010.

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