Humanity Squared

Clips

2012-01-25T14:23:00.001-04:00

Pelicans, Belted Kingfishers and Ospreys all love this tree

Some days the ideas don't come fast andfurious so i surf the net looking for trends that affect humanity. OnSt. Croix the Hovensa closing is the main topic of conversation andwill create unknown opportunities for years to come; we still havefar to go before we feel the real effects. i'm avoiding writing aboutit because i've taken a position of wait and see. So on to otherthings that can also impact us and our environment.

There's a hint of a rainbow wayyyyy back in that cloud

Hawksbills and Greens...of the tentagged in August at Buck Island National Park eight are still sending out signals whoo hoo. The map at seaturtle.org shows all of themremaining in the Caribbean between Puerto Rico and down as far asAntigua. They slowly meandered away from St. Croix with some going north and othersheading south. It will be interesting to see if they come back and when. i'm always checking the turtles at Cane Bay and so far none of ours have been tagged.

Hawksbill at Cane Bay

Hope the Whimbrel...that bird isfreaking amazing and she is ours. Hope lives here from September toMay at Great Pond on the south shore until she takes off to migratenorth to her breeding grounds close to the eastern Alaskan border.She flies non-stop from here to Virginia where she fuels up andcontinues the trek north and west. She has had a monitor on her forthree seasons and is one of the few Whimbrels still transmitting datato scientists. She has proven that Great Pond is an extremelysensitive wetland area and needs protecting.

Great Pond where Hope hangs out

New York Attorney General EricSchnierderman will be co-chairing an investigation into riskymortgage packaging and the abusive lending that lead to the housingbubble that crashed our economy. This was a long time in coming andit is just a start but maybe some where down the road those that tookadvantage of inexperienced buyers will be brought to justice.

Customs House

Newt Gingrich is experiencing a revivalof sorts. This summer his rising star bit the dust when his campaignstaff bolted. i think most of us thought he was finished but hestayed in the game. Now he has won South Carolina and is trying towin Florida...apparently his schtick is redemption, he has seen thelight and changed his ways. i think Gingrich is a professional conman and if conservatives can believe that he has repented of his waysand he becomes their nominee for President of the United States thenthey will prove to the world that they really can be led like a cowto slaughter.

Beliefs...it is easier to believe andnot question than it is to question.

According to Michael Shermer “Men andwomen, indistinctly, have the same tendency to believe weird things.What changes is the type of weird thing. Women believe more inmediums, spiritualists, fortunetellers, witchcraft, amulets,alternative medicine and healers. Men prefer to believe in theparanormal, pseudoscience, creationism and UFOs.”

Saturday Market at La Reine

Jails are a business and we are number one in the world forincarceration. A New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik, "TheCaging of America," shockingly notes:

"Over all, there are now more people under "correctionalsupervision" in America - more than six million - than were inthe Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height."

The toll on minorities is devastating because a lot of poor black and white men were incarcerated for non-violent crimes:

For a great many poor people in America, particularlypoor black men, prison is a destination that braids through anordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich whiteones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diplomago to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on ascale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of ourcountry today - perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was thefundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in thegrip of the criminal-justice system - in prison, on probation, or onparole - than were in slavery then.

Gopnik is appalled: "The scale and the brutality of ourprisons are the moral scandal of American life."

And here's mytwo cents on that issue...when jails became a business the need forcustomers increased. Without customers there can be noprofit so the fact that we are the number one jailers in the world does not surprise me.

Until next week, see ya.

ST Croix Oil Refinery closing

2012-01-18T17:19:00.001-04:00

If you can't wade through the stuff see below for oil refinery comments.

Two individuals interacting through theuse of vocalized reverberations that are recognized as containing acode of sounds that both understand. When you think about speech itis amazing that the grunts we emit induce reactions from those wewant to impact in some way.

Green Turtle's never have goop on the rear of their shells

i don't know if any of the rest of youhave ever done this but when i was young maybe seven or eight i wouldsay a word to myself over and over. i'd repeat a word say...ant... forinstance...ahhhnnnntttttt. i'd watch ants going about their business, trekking along in single file, bumping heads with ones going in theopposite direction and say to myself ahhhnnnttttt. i'd say it slowlyover and over while i was leaning over watching them and think about the sounds and wonder how in the worldahhhnnnntttttt ever came to be the sound we use to indicate an ant. i'd repeat color sounds, sounds for objects, all sorts of things andnever be able to understand why that particular sound becameresponsible for identifying something we take for granted. i stilldon't completely understand how we originally agreed that certaintonal articulations had any meaning at all.

Hawksbills always seem to have goop on the rear of their shells

Apparently i'm not alone. Linguists,anthropologists, philosophers, evolutionary biologists and psychologists have all wondered howhuman language developed. Those that follow the Bible believe thatAdam was the first human to speak a designed language that was laterscattered into separate languages at Babel by God. Chomsky a linguistat MIT thinks we may have a “language center” in our brains thatenables the youngest child to acquire language innately. Others thinkthe evolutionary tweaking of a few genomes way back when is the onlything separating us from the animals.

Moray body language

The Oxford English Dictionary hasalmost 176,000 words in common usage, 47,000 words in it are obsoleteand 9,500 are derivative. No one really knows how many words theEnglish language contains because it adds and subtracts themconstantly based upon usage. It is thought that English has morewords than other languages because of the addition of Latin andFrench after the Norman invasion in 1066.

Atlantic Ray trying to get away

The difference between us all lies not in our understanding but in our vocal projections.Since we attach different meanings to sounds we can't always speak toeach other but we can understand every human on the planet throughtheir body language. All humans recognize laughter, sadness,puzzlement, distress, arm signals, head nods, gestures and picturesthat we draw. Travelers, even without knowledge of the language ofthe country they are visiting can get their needs met through signand body language. We can communicate on an elementary level at alltimes no matter who we are with.

Can you read his body language?

Conversation can be verbal ornon-verbal and both methods or a combination of the two clue us in tothe intentions of those we interact with. Sounds may convey meaningbut the way you look, listen, sit, move or react can give a much morein depth message. You may be trying to convince someone of one thingwhile your body language is sending a mixed message. If the twoaren't working together the receiver of the information may have hisor her doubts.

Today on the island we all got thehorrible news that the oil refinery is closing. Everyone is talkingabout it and most of it is negative. Lots of people will be loosingtheir jobs and moving off island to find work. Everything will beaffected, housing, gasoline, schools and all the business's that worked directly or indirectly with the refinery.

St. Croix has experienced ups and downsthrough out its entire human history and this will not be the worstthing that has ever happened on the island. Over time we have hadearthquakes, hurricanes, tsunami's and declining economies brought onby the demise of the sugar industry, aluminum, rum and now oil. At one point in the 1600's all residents were ordered off. Inthe future it will be something else that will crash and burn...thosecommitted to St. Croix will stay and those that can see no new futurehere will leave.

My advice is wait and see how thingsshake out. Some other company could make a bid for the refinery, Hessmay decide to re-open if market conditions change and there could bebetter days ahead. One just never knows. When the refinery in Arubaclosed they focused on tourism and the island is now one of the topdestinations. Sometimes when things go bad it becomes an opportunityto create something new and better.

Conversation on the streets will befull of melee, take it with a grain of salt. Don't make decisionsbased upon other people and don't bolt just because everyone elsethinks that is their only option. People will continue to live andwork here for eons to come regardless of the Hovensa closing.

Think about it

2012-01-11T14:20:00.001-04:00

Eleven days into the new year. How manytimes have you started to write the year down(2012) and gotten itwrong? Seems like it is a right of passage every year, learning thenew numbers so you don't even have to think about it.

There are so many things we don't thinkabout as we go about our days i thought i'd shake things up a bit.

How many of you know that flooding inThailand is three times normal for January? Eleven days and itsalready three times worse than the average for the whole month.http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2012/jan/10/weatherwatch-floods-thailand-temperatures-us

“2011sets a new U.S. record for combined wet and dry extremes
Ifyou weren't washing away in a flood during 2011, you were probablybaking in a drought. The fraction of the contiguous U.S. covered byextremely wet conditions (top 10% historically) was 33% during 2011,ranking as the 2nd highest such coverage in the past 100 years. Atthe same time, extremely dry conditions (top 10% historically)covered 25% of the nation, ranking 6th highest in the past 100 years.The combined fraction of the country experiencing either severedrought or extremely wet conditions was 58%--the highest in a centuryof record keeping. Climate change science predicts that if the Earthcontinues to warm as expected, wet areas will tend to get wetter, anddry areas will tend to get drier--so 2011's side-by-side extremes ofvery wet and very dry conditions should grow increasingly common inthe coming decades.” Jeff Mastershttp://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Or that 171 inmates still live atGuantanamo. 600 have been released and only 6 ever convicted. According to our own government reports 92% of the prisoners inGuantanamo never fought for Al Qaida. The close Guantanamo banner iused to have here mysteriously disappeared when the site went down,but it doesn't mean i've forgotten it or have changed my mind aboutits closure. It has been open ten years too many.

Or about all that killing going on inPakistan and Afghanistan. Just yesterday 10 “Taliban” were killedby joint NATO and Afghan forces. In Pakistan 29 were killed and 40 injured in a bomb blast. And two of our drone missles killed 4over the border in Pakistan. All deaths are always labeled asmilitants, taliban or al-quaida with no mention of civilians caughtup in the conflict. i wonder when civilian deaths will be counted theway our soldiers are? Or if we will ever care.

Or that UN inspectors have had andstill have access to Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment site. Accordingto Juan Cole at Informed Comment our sanctions are about regime change and not stoppingnuclear proliferation. In fact he thinks our sanctions againstIran could be a war crime.

“I think blockading a civilianpopulation for the purpose of instituting regime change in a statetoward which no authorization of force has been issued by the UNSecurity Council may well be a war crime. Even advocating a war crimecan under some circumstances be punishable, as happened at theNuremberg trials.” Juan Cole

And its not just civilians gettingslaughtered in our wars more than 100 species go extinct every day.The beautiful video up at National Geographic is large and powerful. Go visit.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/visions/field-test/sartore-biodiversity/assignment?source=hp_dl5_ngm_field20120107

Experiment with thinking about things you usually don't think about maybe it will open up new ways of viewing ourselves.

See ya next week.

St. Croix Christmas Parade 2012

2012-01-08T14:35:00.000-04:00

So many beautiful people at the parade yesterday go check out the slide show. Too many to put up here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7584904@N07/sets/72157628779291837/show/

Water has a memory

2012-01-04T11:49:00.000-04:00

i spend a lot of time in the ocean and have always felt a communal, spiritual, reverence for it's ability to cocoon me in wonder and awe. Many times i think it is working with me to make my immersion in its substance more pleasurable. This morning a friend i swim with introduced me to the idea that water has a memory.

Researching on line brought me to two You Tube videos that touch on the topic of water and memory. Pretty exciting stuff. They are both about 3 or 4 minutes long and easy to watch.

We think of water as a necessary part of our survival, something we need to consume every day to stay alive but for most of us it is a mindless task drinking that which is vital. Our bodies weight is composed of 75% water and yet we focus on the other components like muscles, the skeleton, the vascular system and fat before we consider the major impact water has upon us.

Water is essential to good health and longevity; it flushes out toxins in your organs, carries nutrients to cells, and keeps the ear, nose and throat tissues moist. Fresh water is something every human being on earth needs and that we all use communally; it is not something that should ever be controlled by private enterprise.

We think of the earth as being surrounded by water but USGS created a photo that depicts water as a globe superimposed upon the earth. The reality of this photo is a wake up call to all of us. Water is precious, it appears to have a memory and there really isn't as much as we think. "That little sphere of water with a diameter of 860 miles sits over the mid-section of the US and includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as groundwater, atmospheric water, and the water in you, your dog, and your tomato plant." USGS

Credit: Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; USGS..
Data source: Igor Shiklomanov's chapter "World fresh water resources" in Peter H. Gleick (editor), 1993, Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources (Oxford University Press, New York).

Reflection

2011-12-28T11:57:00.000-04:00

If we can open our minds enough to accept nature as our partner and co-worker we will find ourselves at peace. Our energy will increase, our sense of well being and the course our life takes will only be enhanced by our conscious efforts to include nature in the web of connections we weave every day.

Don't be surprised at the growth you experience when you embrace nature. You will become more personally beautiful when you take the small amout of time necessary to interact with it. Wake up early and watch a sunrise, catch a sliver of the moon interacting with Venus, stop to watch leaves flutter as you are walking to work. The time it takes to interact is miniscule in relation to the good feelings it will leave you with.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that we are part of Nature and that we are only one strand of the whole unifying structure that cocoons us.

If we impact it negatively it will increase our discomfort. So partake of its majesty whenever you can.

This morning a large group of us combined exercise and an appreciation for our island environment that encourages us to partake of its offerings. The ocean called and we entered to experience its power and the power it released to us. It was a beautiful morning, clear, sunny and sprinkled with enough waves to move us quickly to our destinations. We had visitors that oooed and ahhhhddd and were most positively touched by the swim and all they saw.

Seeing other people so enthralled with a world we never take for granted just warms my soul.

i hope you enjoy the pictures.

See you next week.

St. Croix Holidays are Here

2011-12-21T11:35:00.001-04:00

doesn't look as bad as it felt while swimming in it

It really feels like the Winter Solstice here today. The northwest swells were a challenge to swim through this morning(a surf advisory was out but we went anyway), visibility was minimal just enough to find the path to where you were going, but the ride back in was a blast...surfing all the way... The wind(20-25k)after getting out raised the goose bumps in warp speed. The Christmas Winds have set in with a vengeance, bringing clouds, big swells and gnarly weather to the island.

Its howling up here at the aerie. Comforters are on all the beds(i know you statesiders will laugh at how wimpy we are). i think the night time temperature hasn't dropped below 70 but we are freezing. Sweat shirts and long pants in the evening are a must.

i've been baking my holiday cookies and handing them out to friends only problem is i seem to be testing the quality more than necessary. Out and about around the island it is very festive. A new friend that just moved to the island and swims with us said his wife woke up to drumming and singing this morning, he told her she was hearing things. But when another friend arrived they said they had gone through a huge group of people dancing along behind Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Nights. So it sounds like jouvet which is the start of festivities. i really, really love this time of year.

Chicken Shack setting up the party

Christiansted is decked out in new lights. The Gentlemen of Jones seem to have replaced a lot of the old decorations and even have the Star of David on one end of town. The lights look really bright this year and the ones that cross the street are lovely. The boat parade was last weekend and the Christmas village is going up and every where you go food smells make you want to eat constantly. The racetrack has lots of activity, trainers working their horses and general sprucing up.

All the stores are jammed, people seem to be doing a lot of shopping and finding a parking spot close in takes all ones ommming skills. Kids and family are pouring in from college and jobs in the states. i'll bet this year more are coming home for reunions. Partying is taking a toll and we have barely gotten started...this won't end until the 6^th when the island winds down the festivities with the big parade.

Yummy Lobster

Music is everywhere and i want to share some of our traditional stuff with all a you in the states. So here is Stanley and his gang singing Mama Bake your Johnny Cake Christmas Comin.

See ya next week if i make it!

St. Croix-Aren't we Lucky to live Here-A Medley

2011-12-14T12:34:00.000-04:00


Steeple Building is getting its shingles replaced today

Anyone going through Christiansted for the next five days will have to put up with some slow down. The steeple building is getting a well deserved face lift. New shingles, matched as well as possible to the historic ones, have to be installed. In order to do this in the middle of town the contractors will be following the practice used in the past to replace them.

What this means is the top has to come off so the carpenters can work safely doing the replacement. To take the top off a large crane will be put in place to lift it down to the ground. The crane will impact the road and traffic will have to be diverted while it is in place. The roof will be repaired, the crane will put it back on and then be removed so traffic can flow smoothly again.


If you have ever wondered how a pig gets roasted this is the first step

Last weekend after a long swim we ended up having coffee at Bernies in F'sted. The owner was having a birthday bash latter that day and friends were preparing the pig to roast. i like to take pictures of all sorts of things and although it looks gross its interesting too. Notice the way it is attached and the seasoning sticking to the skin.

We have such interesting road side stands...love the hats

One of the really great things about driving around St. Croix is you never know what you will see. This stand really caught my attention with all the hats hung out for everyone to view. i hope the owner had a good day.

I love Century Plants and this one is just getting started

Massacred by a crazy bush wacker

A few years ago an amazing Century Plant at the bottom of my driveway decorated the skies with the most incredible curves you have ever seen. A big C that grew into an S and then flowered. i have scoured the entire island for years trying to capture another one and so far nada. Pictures of the curvaceous one are in the August 2008 blog. This one caught my eye the other day because the top had a bit of a curve so i'll be watching carefully to see what it does. Another one that had promise and was in a spectacular spot had its top lopped off by an over zealous bush wacking machine. i can hardly pass it without lamenting its demise. Don't they realize how many years it takes to even get to the flowering stage?

Where are the surfers?

Beautiful waves have been pounding the shores this past week and when waves and weather combined to deliver that "aren't we so lucky to live here feeling" i went out to take pics and just enjoy everything. i was amazed to find no one surfing these waves in a spot that is usually full.

So much character, I love this boat

This island has so many beautiful things to photograph and enjoy it just never ceases to astound me. My underwater camera broke when i dropped it so i missed some spectacular pictures of a very large octopus regaling us with his ability to camouflage himself yesterday. He went through all the hues from bone white to a complete blend in with some dark coral. We also had an outstanding Moray Eel that was a brilliant green and completely exposed, he wrapped himself around one of those hated Lion fish, which are really quite beautiful, and just moved on. The turtles, fish and general good feel made for an outstanding day in the water.

Tanker waiting to unload, sun reflecting off its port side

Tankers can be beautiful too when they are waiting just off shore to be called into the refinery. This one had the sun reflecting off its port side and made a small statement in a huge sea of blue. And finally the moon. Sometimes we get so busy we forget to look around and enjoy the small things. Everyone lives in a place that has its own beauty, capture it, look for it, savor it. Connecting is important in personal relationships but it is also important to connect with your environment. Try to do a little bit of connecting each and every day. See ya next week.

The moon last night

Personal Responsibility

2011-12-07T13:52:00.002-04:00

Moral insanity is mania without hallucination. Sufferers maintain their intellectual capacity but become carried away by emotions or moral dispositions, so much so that facts or reality fail to impact them.

Today we have a group of people on one side of the political landscape that are able to lump and blame all poor people, all unemployed, all disabled, everyone on welfare, and anyone that has had anything bad happen to them into the sub category of those who have failed the personal responsibility test.

This test has no questions but does put you in a category of pass or fail depending upon your economic status. Rich is pass, poor or unemployed is fail. It doesn't matter that you may have been born into wealth or came about it illegally, if you are rich you've passed.

Being poor means you have failed the personal responsibility test even if you have worked your entire life and are now unemployed because your factory shut down or your industry has ground to a halt.

Unemployed means you have failed the personal responsibility test even if you have sent out hundreds of resume's, been to umpteen job interviews along with hundreds of other people and are still on unemployment and can't find a job. Collecting unemployment checks even though you have payed into the system for this very reason to insure you against job loss is still failing the test.

The personal responsibility test never takes into account cause and effect. Never acknowledges that many things are beyond your control, like who your parents were, where you were born and how you were raised. Like the factory you have worked for your entire life that shuts down and sends the jobs overseas putting hundreds out of work. Like the company bailing on the pension plans and health care pay outs...or firing you two years before you reach retirement age for some bogus reason. That's your fault you know, you weren't personally responsible.

Failing the test means those who lost all their hard earned money in pension plans and may need welfare to help out in their old age because they were wiped out they weren't personally responsible. Failing the test means that even though you have planned and saved for old age, have health insurance but have to go on Medicaid after selling your home and depleting all your retirement savings when your wife suffered a type of cancer the insurance company wouldn't pay for. You've failed and deserve what happened to you, you weren't personally responsible. But the people that sold you the insurance policy that doesn't cover your specific disease aren't complicit.

The conservatives defend the view that the rich are moral but the poor or even middle class that are losing homes and jobs and haven't been able to pull them selves out are somehow lacking in personal responsibility and a strong moral fiber.

The personal responsibility test fails to look at that most important segment of society that is causing millions to lose their homes and jobs; that caused the economy to tank by risking other peoples money and then having the taxpayers bail them out, what happened to their personal responsibility, why aren't they held accountable? Why do they get a pass? Its because we passed laws that say corporations are not people when it comes to accountability but they are when they want to finance politics, meaning they write the laws.

Private success and personal freedom depend upon the government protecting all of us equally and that is not happening today. Today it is more about self interest, the ethics of greed and profit as opposed to a market that works for all of us.

The reason that people that put us in this bind are not being prosecuted by our government is because it is too hard. They have too much power and money and can fight for years in court to avoid convictions. But the little guy, that guy that has failed the personal responsibility test he can't even get a hearing to avoid being thrown out of his house.

The hard working taxpayers, the 99% that bailed out the banks and financial institutions don't want corporations controlling their lives more than government. We the People had no control over any of the decisions made in 2008. Corporations govern our lives for their profit not for the nation, those that got bailed out and borrowed that 7.7 Trillion we are only just learning about, they made 13 billion off us...how much did you make? But that shouldn't be the question, it should be how much did you lose? They will send us into oblivion if it means they can make money.

Shouldn't we all be asking why they aren't paying their fair share for the massive amount of tax dollars that 99% of us have spent building the infrastructure they use daily, for the massive amount we have loaned them at rates we will never enjoy?

When we talk about personal responsibility expand that meaning to include those that have caused others to suffer. That have made money off our tax dollars and still want to contribute less and less to the maintenance of this nation.

A robust public is necessary for private success. Corporations have used the government and our tax dollars to their advantage but they don't want you to understand that. We want a Market for All not a Greed Market. When you think about personal responsibility think about how it applies to the wealthy and corporations too, not just the poor and down trodden. Think about cause and effect.

And PS:

When you support busting unions, you support lower wages, longer work hours, and no health insurance or pensions. You support the destruction of the middle class and people moving into poverty. When you support lower taxes for the wealthiest of us you defend the view that the wealthy deserve the power to control you. You support the failure to pass the personal responsibility test. The wealthy and corporations don't care about you, they care about their bottom line, and they sure as hell will use you to vote in their favor.

Corporations and the wealthy need to contribute more, they don't get off using the government for their purposes and to our detriment, that is not what we are about as a nation. Its time to ante up.

Money Takers

2011-11-30T12:46:00.001-04:00

There is no such thing as a “job creator” unless you want to call the customer the “job creator.”

No employer is a job creator, they are all money takers including those that have huge business employing hundreds of people. If any of us have to hire more or get rid of workers its not because we are creating or destroying jobs its because we are trying to make money. Making money has nothing to do with creating jobs. No one started a business to give you a job.

There is no such thing as a job creator, but there are lots of money takers all over the country and they can destroy jobs quite easily in order to take in more money. All that off shoring and closing down factories was done to make more money period.

When you hear don't tax the “job creators” its a load of bull. The rich aren't the job creators, they are the money takers, they hire and fire at will depending on the money, they could care less about creating a job for anyone or paying a decent wage.They are all about making money and nothing else.

American Airlines is a perfect example. They have been trying to negotiate a deal with their employees who took a huge cut(30%) in 2001 so the company wouldn't have to go into bankruptcy. They want them to take even less money today and the employee's are balking. So what does the airlines do but go into Chapter 11 yesterday with $4 Billion cash on hand so they can have their contracts with their workers voided. This is about busting the unions and taking money away from the workers. These guys aren't job creator's they are money takers.

The American consumer is the real job creator. But if they are reduced to poverty then there is no job creation. Without stimulating the economy by spending money on fixing up the nation while the little guy recovers we will see no new jobs only more examples of the above. Without customers there will be no jobs.

Today you have the workers that produce supply and consumers that create demand. The rich are just the middle men that administer the system and suck up the profits. Profits are unpaid wages.

According to US Census data from 2009, 21.7 million of the 27 million small business's are one man or one women shows. i'm a small business, my husband is a small business but we have no employee's and didn't create our jobs to employ anyone else but ourselves.

If any company decides to buy up its stock instead of investing in research and development those people that lose their jobs as a result of this business decision are not considered at all. People that are hired are only there to make the company money, they are not there because the company wanted to create a job for them.

We have had reduced taxes since 2001...1.6 Trillion worth of reductions, where are all these jobs the money takers have created. i don't see them do you?

By 2011, unemployment rolls had increased by over 8 million workers.

If the most powerful driver of the economy is through the spending done by the middle class and poor and they don't have money to spend more jobs are lost. The rich can't spend enough to keep it afloat. As the middle class shrinks, demand shrinks and jobs dry up.

Over the last decade, the top 1% have seen a HUGE increase in their wealth and they have seen the lowest tax rate in over 60 years, so where are the jobs if they are the “job creators?” Why has the stock market not moved in a decade, its because the rich take, that is what they do, they take and now they are hoarding as well.

It is time to wake up and make them pay their fair share in taxes to keep this nation what it was and to put money back in the economy. Remember there is no such thing as a “job creator”, there are only “money takers” and they don't need any more tax breaks.

Dollars-A short history

2011-11-23T12:22:00.000-04:00

There is a money machine down there somewhere

A link to gratitude at the bottom of this piece.

United States Money...Federal Reserve Notes...dollars and cents...those things we carry around in our wallets and pocketbooks...those items we take for granted...those things we work hard to accumulate were relatively unknown up until the last decade of the eighteen hundreds.

Prior to this all sorts of so called “money” was backed by private banks, foreign governments and individuals placing value on items exchanged. There was no common currency that could be exchanged and valued equally until the establishment of the nations first bank after the adoption of the constitution in 1789.

Washington and Hamilton established the first bank but things weren't so easy as the banks charter was only good for 20 years and was voted out only to be reinstated by Madison himself when he was president. Madison, the same man who had argued against a national bank, finally understood its value when faced with the calamity a decentralized system entailed. He was instrumental in starting the second national bank but still had his reservations about its life span so again only gave it a charter for 20 years. In between the lives of the two banks there was a five year span when inflation got completely out of hand.

Squash faces

At the end of the second bank's term the country was thrown back to the vagaries of independent banks that went bust quite regularly. Inflation and counterfeiting were massive problems as was confusion about how to value all the different bank notes floating about. There were 1600 different banks all issuing notes. Finally in 1862 Demand Notes(greenbacks as they were popularly known) were printed but stability was still not to reign.

“During the free banking era banks were short lived compared to today's commercial banks, with an average life span of five years. About half the banks failed and a third went out of business because they could not redeem their notes.” Wikipedia

Break time at the Blue Moon

After the financial panics of 1892 and 1907 the Federal Reserve System was created to regulate the flow of money and credit and to issue currency that would be used nationally. By 1929 the design was standardized and 99% of money exchanged in the US was with reserve notes.

Like most other nations our currency is not backed by anything. We agree to its value and it goes up and down on the open market. “The Fed's monetary powers did not dramatically change for the rest of the 20th century, but in the 1970s it was specifically charged by Congress to effectively promote "the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates" as well as given regulatory responsibility over many consumer credit protection laws.” Wikipedia

Unusual mushrooms in my lawn this morning

Today many in our public domain that have not researched the history of our national currency want to go back to the wild wild west days of the way it was. They would prefer an environment where no one knows what anything is worth, nothing is centralized and banks go bust regularly and only stay open an average of 5 years. Personally i think we are far better off with the way it is, even with all its warts.

Little Factoid...the US is 16^th in broadband speeds and pays the most for it. South Korea is fastest followed by Hong Kong, Japan and then Romania.

This morning a friend pointed out cumulonimbus clouds that were just spectacular when we were swimming. i looked them up just now and realized we were most definitely experiencing a natural high.

CLOUD NINE - "The expression 'up on cloud nine' to describe a feeling of euphoric exaltation is based on actual terminology used by the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Clouds are divided into classes and each class is divided into nine types.
'Cloud nine' is the cumulonimbus cloud that you often see building up in the sky in a hot summer afternoon. It may reach 30,000 to 40,000 feet, so if one is up on 'cloud nine,' one is high indeed. "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins"

i got a link from an acquaintance to a piece about gratitude in the NY times today and since it is the holidays i thought i would share it with all of you. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/a-serving-of-gratitude-brings-healthy-dividends.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

See ya next week

In box

2011-11-16T16:22:00.001-04:00

Cruise Ship Day in F'sted

Today has been a bit hectic so i had decided to re-print an old piece i got in my inbox this afternoon but it wouldn't let me add pics to it so i trashed it.

It was all about beer, an empty mayonnaise jar, rocks, pebbles and sand and how your life is filled up with all these things but you aren't seeing it. You are missing out by filling up your life with useless stuff instead of concentrating on the people around you. It was a strange mix of items but the beer at the end was a bonus when it said to enjoy one with friends or family.

Everyday i get stuff like that in my inbox...jokes, heartfelt poems about how to get along, missives that if you don't send them on something awful will happen by tomorrow(i hate these the most but i love that people send them it means they were thinking of you for a split second even if they want to bring the wrath of all the jumbies down on your head if you don't send it on). It's still the thought that counts haha.

Kentucky Fried in F'sted

Any way i read an article about what may have been a coordinated effort by Mayors in cities around the country to evict the Occupy groups from their respective parks. Apparently the mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan admitted to BBC to having a conference call with 18 mayors around the country just before the removals occurred. If the resulting seizures and evictions were just plain coincidence then you can believe that if you want.

Pictures of Police in riot gear clearing out peaceful demonstrators made me wonder why more American's aren't protesting this behavior. When the Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan, Syrian etc. police forces came out to clear away demonstrators we cried foul. We wanted them to stay in the streets and protest freely, but apparently we don't want those same guarantees here. What's up with that? If we are a democracy demonstrating 24/7 should not be a problem, isn't it written into our Constitution you know that bit about Freedom of Speech.

The ducks at Agriculture, they thought I was going to feed them.

Something to think about:

If i withdraw $100 from an ATM machine and pay $1 for the privilege my percentage is 1%. If a poor person withdraws $20 but gets charged that same $1 their cost of doing business is 5%. So who has an advantage here?

Petty thief's and Don's

2011-11-09T11:28:00.000-04:00

i've been having an exchange with a friend concerning class warfare, stealing from one to give to another and the large gulf of ideology that keep us apart even though we actually agree.

Class warfare in the past was relegated to the fight for decent wages, working conditions, health insurance and pensions. This was a hard won fight that has slowly been chipped away over the past 30 years. No longer are workers confident that any of those provisions above will be available to them or their children. But that is not what this piece is about.

The term class warfare is now being used to take the focus off the extreme wealth disparity that has occurred recently. One side claims that asking for shared sacrifice is class warfare because we are asking the wealthy to chip in and share the burden. The idea that no new taxes means the Bush temporary tax cut can never expire seems to escape them. Its not a new tax just a reinstatement of an old tax that was never meant to be a permanent reduction.

We all agree that spending has gotten out of hand but focusing on cutting so called “entitlements” and not including cutting military spending or government subsidies just doesn't cut it. Just the word “entitlements” brings up “welfare cheats” that makes the blood of conservatives boil. The idea that someone is sitting home using your tax dollars to live in a crappy house, living month to month, probably not having enough money for food by the end of that month is more abhorrent than the corporate big wigs using your military and taxes to fight their wars, using your taxes to subsidize their companies, using your taxes to get back rebates when they have already made billions. Isn't there something grossly wrong here. Instead of focusing on the “dons” that are doing all the stealing, the right wing focus is on the “petty thiefs” the poor single mom that can hardly make ends meet.

The idea that hard work will result in riches is a fallacy. As George Monibot says “If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.”

Print out these statistics and read them over and over. Does this seem right to you? Who is doing the stealing?

Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.

“Their acolytes, in academia, the media, think tanks and government, created an extensive infrastructure of junk economics and flattery to justify their seizure of other people's wealth. So immersed in this nonsense did we become that we seldom challenged its veracity.” George Monibot. He means the wealthy manipulated events to make sure money flowed up.

The theft has not been accomplished by the petty thief's, who most refer to as the welfare cheats, the theft is going on daily by the dons at the top who have manipulated our system of government and the media in such a way that wealth has streamed upwards and not trickled down at all.

The problem today is that all of us really want more representative government. We don't want money and influence controlling the process. Today Washington is a revolving door of legislators and lobbyists changing jobs as the tide turns, one year a lobbyist the next lets work for a legislator so we can write the laws.

Jack Abramov, a DC lobbyist, who was convicted of fraud and corruption and who has just gotten out of jail is doing the rounds of the talk shows. He details how lobbyists use their influence to write legislation that serves their clients not the nation. He details how the whole system is one big bribery scheme and how both sides are in over their heads. He claims the only way to clean it up is to take money out of the equation.

The problems in this country are not related to the poor or entitlements, they are centered around money and its outsized influence in our government and how it operates.

Turning Sixty

2011-11-02T12:16:00.001-04:00

A long time ago i wrote a piece about extended families. Those people that you consider family even though they aren't related by blood. i think the official

definition was all those living under one roof, though in this case i want to include those that don't actually live with us. i want to include all those friends and family that took time out of their lives to take care of me, to spend time with me, and to celebrate with me.

A few weeks ago i took off for England to visit family and to close up loose ends my Mom had left in the place of her birth after she died. All my aunts, uncles and cousins have lived in the same city for generations and can trace themselves back hundreds of years. On this side of the Atlantic our nuclear family missed out on those ties that bind but gets to experience it first hand whenever we visit and i think we extend this sense of family to those outside our family because it just feels like the right thing to do.

From the pick-up at the airport until the drop-off at the end of the trip i was literally wrapped in a cocoon of family love. There was nothing they wouldn't do to help make my trip as comfortable and stress free as possible. To say i had a fabulous time is an understatement. Every single day i was taken care of, i was fed gourmet meals, i was toured around and i was helped to accomplish those tasks necessary to finalize the hanging bits of my mother's life. i had lovely walks in the park, bird watching outings, fish and chips, lovely long chats with every member of the family. We dined in quaint restaurants, shopped in fancy stores, picked up groceries on sale and indulged in sweet tooth debauchery in tea shops. It couldn't have gone any smoother if i had written a fictionalized story.

Everyone in England was super and it never rained. Believe it or not it never rained. Even the traveling back and forth across the Atlantic, going through customs, renting cars, finding arrival and departure gates, never getting jet lag. It was surreal. i think my Mom must have had a hand in it as someone was definitely looking out for me.

Back in the states i even had time to visit more family in NY, help with homework and fly out the next day just in time to miss winter moving in.

When i got home to St. Croix, more unforeseen events awaited. My daughter and her friend had decided to surprise me with a visit to celebrate my 60^th birthday and popped out from behind the half wall when i arrived home after the trip. i have never been so astounded in my life. Being taken care of continued on through the long party weekend. They cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner and wouldn't let me do a thing.

Kaja,Mo,Sheelagh,Ariel

It started with cracked Stone Crab that Kaja brought from Florida. The Finfolk breakfast on Saturday with all my buddies i have been hanging out with for 20 years. Art, Ariel and Kaja put on quite a spread making the whole morning seamless, but this wasn't the end. The culmination came on Sunday with close friends they had invited for dinner outside on the deck. The Filet Mignon, Scallops, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, salad with homemade blue cheese dressing and Ariels Chocolate cake and Arts vanilla ice cream. My sweet husband, daughter, son and second daughter catered the most amazing weekend i have ever had in my entire life.

i'll turn 60 every year if this is what it is like. So many friends joined in with the family and celebrated with us. i don't ever write about myself or post personal pics, this blog wasn't supposed to be about me but these past few weeks have been the most amazing and i don't ever want to forget that family and friends are what makes life worth living.

Thank you all for a wonderful few weeks.

Sheelagh

Shopping on St. Croix

2011-10-12T15:28:00.000-04:00

Going food shopping in my house is referred to as going over the hill. i can't do a major shop unless i drive at least 15 minutes to the first large grocery store but i can do baby shopping all along the way and that is what this piece is about today because i was noticing there are a heck of a lot of people out trying to make a buck on the side of the road. i don't know if the numbers have increased with the economic downturn but it sure seemed like newbies were out hustling.

Commerce on the island of St. Croix is a constant pressure for those folks that make their living selling goods on the thoroughfares. They have to compete with the large bulk stores that get everything shipped in and although their things are usually fresher on the road the selection is small and spread out over miles of roadside.

Wednesdays or Thursdays are usually good days to go out and bulk shop. The container ships have arrived from Florida or Puerto Rico laden with fresh food that the small mom and pops and the big grocery stores will use the new inventory to restock the shelves for another week. Produce is relatively fresh and most things are available at the commercial establishments, but the best stuff is found along the road if you have the patience to make a lot of stops.

i pretty much have to get completely over the hill before i start to see the roadside stands. The first one to greet me this morning on my journey was a Rasta(not guy in pic) with jelly nuts piled high in the back of his pick up truck. Having just finished eating breakfast and not needing a drink i watched him stand at the back of the truck with two or three people waiting patiently for him to hack off the top. His face was beaming so i guess business was good.
Just down the road from the jelly nut man was a largish woman with a home made wooden table. Off to the side were big red coolers and a sign up saying fish. She didn't have any customers but her table looked wet so i was betting that she had probably just finished up with someone. She usually has local pot fish which is as fresh as you can get. After her i came up to the post office where the lady that sells the bananas had them all laid out on the concrete wall that surrounds the parking lot there. She was sitting in the shade talking to a man not doing much business but patiently plying her goods. i just got those sweet little bacubas yesterday from my neighbor so wasn't in the market for bananas.

Over by the fisherman's market (which is no longer functioning) there were more stands set up just off the road. One of them had what looked like a dolphin slit down the middle, and an old man and the sea type standing behind the fish with a machete. A man was standing in front of the table looking like he was waiting for the fisherman to whack him off a nice slab from that fish. i had quite the time watching them, wondering how he had caught that fish while i waited for the light to change. Shades of Hemingway.

Heading towards Sunny Isle down Queen Mary Highway some of the stands were empty and some full. Two ladies were sitting behind a table that had guava liquors, jams and cucumbers. They had a beautiful umbrella up and were chatting away as the cars streamed past. I always need cucumbers and hadn't seen any so far. No one was stopped there but they didn't seem to mind. i was going to stop but put it off until on the way back. Across the street a lady had her table spread with some squash, okra, bananas and small red local peppers.

Rounding the corner the Rasta artist was busy working on what looked to be a charcoal drawing of a family. He was holding a picture in one hand and drawing with the other, oblivious to the traffic streaming past. All around him tee shirts were fluttering in the wind beside his Jah rules flags. Business was bad there, no cars stopped and i wondered how having people stop to buy things might impact his drawing.

At Sunny Isle there was another pickup truck loaded down with jelly nuts. Two guys were at the back of that truck doing a booming business whacking away and handing out the refreshing drinks. More ladies had a table set up with jams and an assortment of baked goods, they looked to almost be sold out. People were milling around and i couldn't figure out if they were buying something or waiting for a Taxi Van. Sometimes my people watching skills have to be retired in order to focus on driving. i have been known to be honked at for not moving along fast enough when mesmerized by human activity. i am definitely a people watcher.

Heading out from the intersection the action going east was non-existent except for one woman with a table filled up with nothing but avocados, our tree is pumping them out now so didn't need them. But on the other side of the road a couple of guys had a cage set up and big land crabs were crawling up its sides, that was a treat but business was slow there too.

At Cost U Less the parking lot was full and long lines of people were backed up at the check out stands. The produce section was weak and i left thinking i should have gone shopping tomorrow as they were out of a lot of things. Sometimes you have to make lots of stops to get all the things you need and even then you may end up at home still needing to fill a third of your list on the next trip out.

Shopping here trains us to improvise, it educates us in the ways of denial and gives us lessons in using products that are produced locally rather than shipped in. People all along the roads are trying to make a living selling us their goods, they need us to patronize them just as regularly as we patronize the big stores.
Patience is a real virtue on St. Croix and i think it trains us to realize that we really can't have everything we want which is a good thing.

See Ya Next Week

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

Over on Red State Erick Erickson has a picture of himself holding a piece of paper saying “I have 3 jobs, I have a house I can’t sell, My family insurance costs are outrageous, I’m paying massive student loans, But I don’t blame Wall Street, Suck it up you whiners, I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain. Get a job hippies.”

Occupy Wall Street has finally caught the media’s attention and that of right wing blogs that have been hammering on the “jobless hippies” that are showing up to lend their support. The issue is complicated at best.

As they are wont to do conservatives have lumped those protesting into the “dirty hippie” category to demean them and turn conservative followers away from considering what has really galvanized them to come out and protest. The fact that the protestors are a mixed bag of people from all income levels, races, working and not working…rich and poor seems to escape them.

Concealing the fact that it is a mixed bag of people is paramount. Those controlling the purse strings and the media do not want you to ever consider that these are normal people who are fed up with the status quo.

What is lost in the above screed of Erick’s is that the protest concerns the out of proportion influence corporate money has in government. It’s about the slow decimation of the middle class and Erick is a prime example. He has put up a picture of himself, in his tee shirt, with his screed to prove his ideology is working when it isn’t. He’s working 3 jobs and is still not comfortable. Why isn’t he comfortable? Why isn’t he able to make a decent living on one job? He can’t blame anyone because it would trash his world view.

In April of this year McDonalds held a job fair. They wanted to hire 50,000 people but ended up hiring 62,000. Sounds great right, all these people got jobs even if it was part time, but the sad part is that ONE MILLION applied. Percentage wise it would be easier to get into Yale than to get a job at McDonalds. The admit rate at Yale is over 7% this percentage is 6.2%.

Maybe if Erick the poster boy gave up two of his jobs other people would have some work. But then he'd really be in a fix, not able to pay his mortgage or student loans. How many are out there working two, three maybe even four jobs and still aren’t “comfortable?” Where is the American Dream if even one of its staunchest supporters hasn’t found it?

The issues are complex and not simple. Why aren’t companies CEO’s that didn’t fund pensions in jail? Why are banks that were bailed out by all of us still awarding huge bonuses? Why hasn’t anyone been prosecuted for bundling sub prime mortgage securities and selling them on the open market? But those are just my questions not necessarily the picketers. There is a lot of discontent on both sides. The Tea Partiers are upset with government control and the Occupy Wall Streeters have had it with profit over people.

In my mind there is only one solution and that is to sever the connection between Wall Street and Washington. Outlaw corporate campaign donations and corporate funding of political parties.

Somewhere in the middle we should be able to find some common ground that we as a whole nation can consent to. Trickle down doesn’t work, it’s been trickle up for three decades and the middle class is feeling the heat, Erick Erickson is a prime example…go look at his picture, he is totally stressed. These people occupying Wall Street are tired of shoving our problems under the carpet; they want to have a national discussion about where we are going. The time is now and this will spread as more and more middle class wake up.

See ya next week

Rich pay more taxes...duh!

2011-09-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

Some brief thoughts about the environment, why are large international companies planning for man induced climate change? Why is the US military in their long range plans that they publish every year planning for man induced climate change? And especially why are insurance companies also planning for man induced climate change?

If, as the deniers claim, there is no such thing as man induced climate change, why then are all these groups planning for it? Do they know something the deniers don’t know?

Taxes

A lot of people get confused when doing the math concerning who pays the most in income taxes. On the right the argument is that the wealthy pay the majority of income taxes. Well duh i say.

If you have the top 1% making more money than 150,000,000 million people at the bottom end of the pay scale of course they will pay more, even when taxed at a lower rate because they make more than all those people combined. Remember that salient fact…they make more money than all those people combined.

The real problem is that the middle class pays more in taxes than those making over $1,000,000 a year and that just isn’t right which is why the Buffet Rule is so popular with 73% of the country according to Public Policy Polling. Even middle class Republicans like this rule.

Loopholes in our tax code allow the super wealthy who can afford to take advantage of them get away with paying a lower percentage in tax.

Example…the rich guy makes $1000 and pays $100 in taxes which equals 10%

The poor guy makes $10 and pays $2 in taxes which equals 20%

Who pays a higher percentage of their income in taxes?

To make the percentages equal the rich guy should be paying $200 in taxes and yes it looks like more money but percentage wise it isn’t.

Some will argue that 40% of the population pays no Federal income tax at all. i’m not sure if those statistics are true but let’s look at it. All those workers are paying payroll tax (paid by those making less than $106,000/year), sales tax, state tax etc. They are not getting off scott free. In fact the bottom 40%(120,000,000 million Americans) own a mere 0.3% of the wealth while the top 20% own 85% of the nations wealth.

In 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. (See Norris, 2010, for more details.) They only get taxed the same as the rest of us on that 19% the other 81% is taxed at a lower rate.

One of the problems with taxes and the arguments about who is paying more(which is really a non issue) is each individual’s deductions and use of loopholes varies according to how savvy you are. Like so many of these "articles" that discuss taxes they all totally ignore what is actually paid – because in the end they can’t take into consideration loopholes, exemptions, deductions, capital gains and shelters.

So when you hear that 40% pay no taxes don’t believe it, they pay more than you think just trying to exist.

C'sted, VI Steeple Bldg. Views

2011-09-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

i'm pretty prejudiced when it comes to St. Croix and its historical beauty compared with other islands through out the Caribbean. We were very fortunate to have the Danes layout Fredericksted and Christiansted and throughout our history to have concerned citizens that fought to preserve and renovate important historical structures.

In 1952 The Christiansted National Historic Site was created to preserve the Fort, Customs House, Steeple Building, Danish West India and Guinea Company Bldg., and Government House. These structures located within walking distance of each other have been re-done many times since their original construction in the 1700's and are a small representation of how the Danish economy churned from then until they sold the islands to the United States in 1917.

Today some of these buildings are getting a lot of loving TLC from contractors hired to do some needed renovations. After too many hurricanes passing through the buildings were looking stressed and the Park Service put in their requests to the Feds for funds to do some much needed repair on all the buildings.

The Customs House is the biggest part of the project, its getting rotten wood that had been impacted by water and termites replaced and or repaired. Park Service personnel and government architects have put a lot of effort into maintaining the integrity and antiquity of
all the buildings even down to reproducing the lime plaster that goes on the outside of the structures.

They are repairing windows and doors, the gallery roof, replacing shingles, repainting and putting the weather vane back on top of the Steeple Building. The Scale House, the bathrooms and both of the Guniea House kitchens are getting attention. The Fort was tended to first and the project overall is scheduled to be complete sometime in April.

But the reason i wanted to write this piece is more about the views that can be had from the top of the Steeple Building. Christiansted is beautiful, people from all over the world photograph it from all angles and lighting conditions. It is a never ending study in architectural beauty across all the ages.

Access to the tippy top of the Steeple Building has been cut off for a long long time. When i heard they were doing repairs up there i asked if someone could take a camera along and snap a picture out of all eight sides.
Since access is limited and timing for the lighting was not going to happen i had to be satisfied with what ever results were obtained. The day of the shoot it was cloudy but i think St. Croix shines even on a cloudy day.

Enjoy the spectacular views from a building your government is renovating because it wouldn't be happening without them!

Potpourri

2011-09-14T13:44:00.000-04:00

Originally this weeks edition was going to focus on local architecture and the continued support for its preservation but the pictures i wanted to publish aren't available right now so its on to other things.

There is a contest going on in England to develop a new design for Pylons(electrical wire support structures) that grace countrysides everywhere. England has decided to update theirs so they solicited the help of designers from all over the world through a contest. The contest closed in July with 250 entries but is now down to the final 6. Over at http://www.ribapylondesign.com/shortlist you can view the finalists and comment if you so desire. i kind of fancy number 4 because it keeps the lines in a vertical configuration and looks esthetically pleasing. i do wonder if it will hummmm in high winds and also how easy or difficult it will be to climb if repairs are needed.

Guess where this is.

This is a new one for me. Apparently in Cameroon women in the mistaken belief that they are protecting their daughters from advances by men will iron their daughters breasts to make them unattractive. The Association of Aunties has been trying to educate rural women about their sexual health and how to teach their daughters to protect themselves without doing physical damage. A study has found that 1 in 4 girls are affected by this practice. All of the 200 ethnic groups in Cameroon use some form of breast ironing.

This mornings moon and clouds

So i was reading an article on psychology that had researchers studying students at Columbia University by asking them a series of questions that would divulge their confidence levels and how that affected their overall grasp of reality. The study revealed that if you were 100% confident that your view of the world was correct you were less likely to absorb factual information that would challenge that view. The article claimed that if you didn't want to be stupid you should not let emotion drive your intellect.

Did you know that Google Maps has opened up their editing to volunteers from around the world? If you have been upset by misleading map features you may want to check out their policy and send in your fixes.

Green Heron thinking he's hidden!

Hope the Whimbrel, who was fitted with a satellite transmitter in May of 2009, and that some of us here on St. Croix have been following since she landed here in August of 2009 finished her Northern migration and took off for St.Croix a few days ago. Before the final push she had attempted to fly home in August but got caught up in Tropical Storm Gert and used the slingshot effect to fly back to Massachusetts at 92 miles per hour. She rested up and moved south to Virginia where she was originally caught and fitted. She sat out Hurricane Irene and then tried again a few days ago flying straight into Tropical Storm Maria. Her transmitter is still working and the last location showed her at sea but closing in on us so we are hoping she makes it home maybe today. If you'd like to watch her you can learn more about her travels at http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=88043
and even sign up to get e-mail alerts.

i don't recall if i updated you on the Kingbirds that had been building nests in our West Indian Cedar tree. i think when i last left off they were working on their third nest. Well they failed again and gave up. i'm hoping next season they will do it again and have more luck. The one i called the Protector still comes and sits on the railing or visits for a bit on his old outpost, i think he learned that we were Ok to hang around and is not skittish like the other Kingbirds.

See ya next week!

Sharks Oh My

2011-09-07T13:34:00.000-04:00

Sargasso seaweed and fishermen

By 2012 sharks that have been facing extinction will now have a sanctuary. In July the governors of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia signed a resolution to create the worlds first marine protected area for sharks.

Sharks have had a bad rap but the on going slaughter of sharks for their fins forced the islands to band together in order to protect the biological diversity of their marine environments. The area created (2,500,000 square miles) will be larger than the United States and will ban the possession, sale or offer for sale of any shark fins. The islanders claimed in their resolution that the lack of full scientific certainty about the size of the remaining populations of sharks was no reason to delay action.

Manta Rays will be protected in all the waters of Yap state.

People working together

Here in the Atlantic NOAA and France have recently partnered to protect the Humpback Whales that migrate each year from Massachusetts’ Stellwagen Bank to the French Antilles Agoa Sanctuary. The agreement will strengthen the relationships, monitoring and management of the whales between the two marine sanctuaries’s and help to preserve the species.

Our East End Marine Park here on St. Croix is part of a larger trend around the world to create areas of protection that are managed by local governments. Managing locally means the needs of fishermen, residents and those being protected are mutually compatible. Our park provides a host of allowable activities unlike the shark sanctuary. Some fishing and recreation is allowed in the turtle nesting areas; while on the underwater banks, no-take areas have been developed to protect spawning fish and their nursery’s freeing them from human predators.

Ready for visitors at Rainbow Beach

St. Croix’s other protected areas include the Buck Island National Park, Sandy Point National Refuge, Jacks and Isaacs run by the Nature Conservancy and Southgate managed by the Environmental Association. All these protected areas add to the rich environmental diversity St. Croix offers to its residents and visitors.

But is that enough, have we protected enough or are we just scratching the surface? On St. Croix environmentalists have been working on an Area of Particular Concern out at Great Pond. Great Pond is regularly visited in the spring and fall by migratory birds going back and forth between North and South America. We are a refueling stop for most species of sandpipers and some warblers. The endangered Least Terns nest at Great Pond over the summer and a small group of Whimbrels one of which has been tracked to Alaska spend the winter there feeding before they make their great migration back to the Hudson Bay area and further points west. Although we aren’t the biggest land mass compared with other islands we are just as important in the over all scheme of things. Every preserved step along the way of a migratory path for marine animals and birds means a greater chance for survival.

Sunrise

As more and more trans boundary endangered species face extinction nations have to come together to create safety zones where these species can reproduce and grow unhindered by commercial concerns. We share whales, sharks, dolphin, turtles, game fish and other migratory species such as birds with many countries. It is imperative that we cooperate with other nations and amongst ourselves to preserve their habitats so they can continue to thrive and be available to enjoy and cull for future populations.

There can never be too much preservation.

See ya next week.

Sunset

American Dream

2011-08-31T11:23:00.000-04:00

i was reading (reading you know is a form of work) a piece on Red State(a conservative website) about secular journalists getting Christianity and creationism all wrong. The piece found fault with the continual regurgitation of this one sentence.

If we establish Earth’s age at 4.5 billion years, then we contradict the biblical view that God created the world just 6,500 years ago.

Erik Erickson claims that no Christian he knows believes the earth is only 6,500 years old. The reason for this is that in the first days when God was creating the world there was no sun or moon so how could anyone know what length a day was. But he does go on to say that according to Gallup polls many Christians believe that modern man was created in the past 10,000 years.

According to the fossil record so far…Homo sapiens (that’s us) started spreading out from Africa 200,000 years ago and became fully modern approximately 50,000 years ago. These numbers could still be significantly wrong and may need to be pushed back further because relying on fossils to paint an historical picture is only valid when you can find fossils.

All sorts of climatic conditions and geologic strata are necessary for the preservation of bones. Unless sediments quickly hardened into stone the bones would have decomposed. Finding an area that has all the appropriate conditions for fossilization plus is in a vicinity that humans occupied is like finding a needle in a haystack. Digging up the entire land and ocean bottoms is never going to happen so we have to make do with the little we find. In some parts of the world excavation has barely begun. These new areas of exploration can contribute a wealth of information that may in future change prevailing views concerning mans age.

So in changing prevailing views you must be wondering where i’m going with all this. If a large percentage of Christians (according to Gallup polling) believe that man was created within the last 10,000 years then what other misleading information have human beings in general bought into?

Can you see a misleading mechanism in the term “American Dream?” The two words alone are so well known all around the world that there is no need for me to define it. One mechanism that is used with these two words is the idea that everyone can be wealthy if they work hard enough. Just repeating the words “American Dream” will induce the reader to identify with the outcome or ideal even if it will never occur in their lifetime.

The significance of the fact that most hard workers will never be wealthy is lost in the pursuit of the dream. The dream of wealth holds more weight than the reality of a life spent working hard, paying bills and putting some away for a future retirement that hopefully will not be decimated by a medical bankruptcy.

Someone, probably not you will get there and even if it isn’t you, you will continue to support the idea that the “American Dream” is not a myth.

Depending on a folk tale to get you to the pot of gold maintains the status quo for those who have already achieved that status. All of us create the misleading reality by buying into the idea that hard work will make you wealthy. It might make you comfortable but it probably won’t make most of us wealthy. It will most definitely make you want more than you can afford by keeping you in debt for most of your life but the upside is that your wants will help to churn the economy.

Popular culture is limiting when it pigeonholes the ideals of wealth and hard work. There are a lot of wealthy people that don’t work hard in the physical sense of the word just as there are a lot of people that do work incredibly hard in the physical sense of the word and are not wealthy. So how do you rationalize these two types of people with the ideal of hard work and wealth?

Intellectual wrestlers will note the exaggerated example; ideological purists will argue the fine points. The ideological audience accepts the suffering and punishment of the hard workers that haven’t become wealthy. It is their fault for not having “made it” they must not have worked hard enough or saved enough because everyone can make it otherwise the ideal would be false and therefore a myth.

This myth that wealth and work go together is perpetuated by an elite that uses the media to keep those less comfortable from ever considering what the definition of work means. As long as you are in debt you can’t fight the myth. The truth is everyone will not be wealthy or even comfortable even though they have spent their whole lives working hard.

i started writing this piece yesterday so i thought it was appropriate to end it with a quote i saw this morning from a fellow who calls himself the

Ministry of Truth

“Corporate profits are at record highs, and so is poverty. There is a reason for that. Your poverty is their profit. Keeping you poor means keeping you dependent on the loan sharks. As you get poorer, they get richer. It isn't a coincidence. It is on purpose.

Republicans like to cry that the government is enslaving us, but the reality is that Wall Street and the Banks are enslaving us, the rich are enslaving us and starving us so they can charge us a fee to lend us money." Ministry of Truth

If you are in debt the things you think you own you don't. You are just renting them from the bank or the credit card company or the credit union until you have everything paid off. Only when it is all paid off do you truly own it.

Tropical Storm Irene

2011-08-24T10:52:00.000-04:00

Flooding

Patterns occur in everyone's life, the predictable summer, fall, winter, spring, the twelve months, the holidays, the celestial milestones, full moons, solstices and eclipses births, deaths and tropical storms. St. Croix is so well situated that a pattern has developed over time that brings the eye of storms directly overhead, aren't we lucky!

Our language for all these patterns take into account the regularity by which they occur. Our insight is gained through annual experience that helps us communicate to newcomers the after effects of even a mild storm. In ancient times and maybe even for some today calamitous weather events were and are attributed to the wrath of God. This was done as a practical matter to explain away disruptive life altering changes. Any kind of divine reasoning behind why it all happens has really got holes in it. If there is a God i don't think he would regularly batter places like Haiti, making their lives that much more difficult. You might think God is doing you wrong but the odds are its the annual weather pattens and your ability to withstand its effects that are doing you wrong. Negative things happen to every human alive on this earth, no one is singling any of us out.

Run off at Cane Bay

Tropical Storm Irene had been slowly building all day Sunday, dark skies, squalls, wind shifts and the ocean build up. She really started her visit around 2:00pm Sunday afternoon with heavy rain and winds; by 6:00pm we were all feeling the eye for about an hour and knew the worst was yet to come. Typically the back side of storms tend to be more damaging and i've never figured out exactly why that is. After the eye passed the winds picked up so we put up a few panels on the north side of the house and basically left the rest exposed. The power went out about 8:00pm and we were plunged into darkness. Not wanting to turn the generator on we lit the kerosene lamps, stayed up for another hour and went to bed for a fitful nights sleep.

Flooding

Irene was very kind to us...she decided to grow into a Level One Hurricane while passing us by and up here on the hill we probably only had gusts of about 75k. Which when you think about Hugo and its 200k was a blessing.

Tree damage was mild, we only lost some limbs off the Flamboyant and Turpentine trees plus two of our banana trees were uprooted. The Avocado tree dropped small avocados that only filled half a bucket while most stayed on the tree. Otherwise the most annoying part of Irene is the lack of power.

Irene

We have been on the generator since Sunday. They say it may come on today but i've heard a transformer blew on our hill, i've also heard an electrical wire is rubbed off and that is what is delaying our section being turned on. Who knows, but i can tell you if we follow the regular pattern we will be the last to be turned on.

The phone works but the cell phone is still down. Rumor has it that AT&T lost 6 towers, if it is true it explains why i can't get any bars on my cell anywhere on the island. i already have bad service so this doesn't bode well.

All in all Irene spared us her rath. i hope those further north are spared as well.

See ya next week.

Buffet and Trump

2011-08-17T13:29:00.000-04:00

That time of year again, they almost have it all devoured

When you go to the conservative sites they claim that Warren Buffet must be a socialist because he thinks the rich should be taxed more. i love how the word socialist is used so much on the their sites. You’d think they’d all get sick of seeing it in every conceivable piece of political counter argument. If a piece these days doesn’t have “socialist” in it i think God they’ve lost the thread, they might loose their masses if they don’t repeat it over and over. In the conservative world that word is so fraught with terror, the commies are coming, the commies are coming its become an outright joke to the rest of us.

So today i’m wondering how they will respond to Donald Trump saying Monday that he is not averse to paying more taxes but that the oil companies won’t want to pay more because they aren’t patriotic. Is he a socialist now and if he isn’t how come? Trump claimed that he would be willing to pay more in taxes because he is patriotic but that other’s in his wealth strata aren’t and will leave the country before agreeing to up their ante.

Sargasso grass reminds me of the century plants curves

Here is a man that wanted to run for President on the Republican ticket. The Tea Partiers loved him but how are they going to reconcile his agreement with Buffet that the country needs the wealthy to pony up? Trump just stabbed the Tea Partiers, the Birthers, the Deathers, the Republican Party, Koch Bros., Rush Limbaugh and Fox News in the back, and gave President Obama a big leg-up politically. i wonder what all those millionaire congressmen and representatives will do now that one of their own has gone to the dark side. i’ll bet Trump wishes he had kept his mouth shut.

i read somewhere that some on the right think that the two of them (Buffet and Trump) should just donate their money to the government. The writer i read claimed that taxes are imposed thus making us slaves of the United States and not free human beings. i think he or she has no idea what they are talking about and probably spouts off about the Constitution without really understanding that taxes are an integral part of those documents.

An early morning birding spot with moon bonus

Paying taxes are specifically laid out in the Constitution and are to be used to promote the general welfare of its citizens and the defense of the country. If he and anyone else on the right doesn’t support paying taxes then they are not patriots and that is where Trump really stuck his foot in it, Republicans don’t like paying taxes.

Liberals support paying taxes, they understand what the common good means, they understand what defense of this country means and that they both cost money. i’m curious to see if more wealthy come out of the woodwork to promote more taxes, wouldn’t that be a shift.

Next topic…corporate personhood. From the tenth century up until the early 1900’s corporations, churches and government were considered artificial persons. Natural persons were and still are you and i.

i love the places that have showers on the beach

If you are at all concerned about the ever enlarging power of corporations to control politicians, judges, natural assets, jobs and the law you might be interested in supporting Move To Amend, a group formed to amend the constitution. This group believes corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges citizens and their elected representatives willfully grant them. They do believe corporations can engage in a limited form of personhood which includes entering into contracts, suing and being sued etc. They don’t believe corporations should enjoy certain rights elucidated in the Constitution that were intended for natural human beings. Their Amendment will reverse the Supreme Court’s (Citizen United) recent invention of corporate personhood and limit corporations to their proper role: doing business. Go visit their site and learn more. http://movetoamend.org/learn-more

See ya next week

Ten inventions that improved our lives

2011-08-10T13:33:00.000-04:00

It’s a tidbit day, lots of littjavascript:void(0)le interesting bits of trivia that you may not know about but have contributed to making this world a better place for all of us.

The Chocolate chip cookie…did you know that when Ruth Wakefield turned her toll house building into a restaurant she ran into difficulty while creating a common chocolate desert for the establishment? She had run out of baker’s chocolate but had Nestlé’s bars on hand in the candy counter. She grabbed a few of these, crumbled them up thinking they would melt and threw them into the dough. Ouila, chocolate chip cookies.

Paper bags…did you know that paper bags first resembled envelopes until Margaret Knight decided the bags should have a square bottom. She figured that with a square bottom more things could be carried in it.

Windshield wiper…how many of us take these simple devices for granted when we need to clean off our windshields? Well Mary Anderson while on vacation in New York took a tram during a storm. The tram driver had to stop frequently to go outside and clean off the snow that accumulated on his windshield. Mary thought this was a complete waste of time and invented the windshield wiper.

The Zipper…went through a few designers before Gideon Sundback increased the number of fasteners on the C-curity device his wife’s father’s company produced. He was distraught after her death and focused exclusively on improving the four per inch hook and eye to eleven per inch facing rows of teeth which later became known as the zipper when B.F. Goodrich decided to put it on their boots. It took twenty years before the fashion industry in the 1930’s used it in children’s clothing and today you can hardly find a piece of clothing that doesn’t have one.

Scissors…I’ll bet you thought these are a modern invention; I know I did but have come to find out that there are examples of scissors dating back to the First Century but becoming more popular in the Fifth. Cross bladed shears were used to cut hair in the barber shops of old. Researchers have found scissors in the shape of male and female figures carved into each blade of bronze apparently complementing each other during the act of cutting. Hmmmmm

Seat Belts…Volvo started use of the first seat belt in 1849 and by the early 1960’s they had introduced the shoulder strap which is standard in all cars sold today.

Candy…The first combinations that ancient man used to attend to his sweet tooth involved the use of honey. Farming bee hives until the advent of sugar in the middle ages was the only way to get that rush unless one ate fruit. During the middle ages only the rich could afford candy made from sugar so the masses had to make do with whatever they could find. It wasn’t until the Seventeenth Century that hard candy became popular and affordable.

Flashlight…Joshua Lionel Cowen invented the flashlight while trying to decorate his potted plants with light. He was the original owner of Eveready but wasn’t interested in the company. He passed it on, along with his design for a tube, light bulb and battery to Conrad Hubert who patented the idea and made millions. Lionel went on to invent toy trains while trying to come up with an idea to light up a display window.

A marshmallow…The root of the marshmallow plant was used in ancient Egypt to cure sore throats. It was mixed with honey originally but in a later Asian version it was mixed with egg whites and made into a lovely meringue. After many reincarnations through the ages our marshmallow’s no longer have any of the original plant included in the ingredients.

Umbrella…We have all seen pictures of native peoples holding large plant fronds over their heads to ward off rain but the idea for an actual umbrella came from wanting to ward off the sun not the rain. All cultures made shading devices but the Chinese were the first to lacquer their paper umbrellas to protect them from the rain. Later in the Eighteen hundreds Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella and from there they invented the collapsible one most of us use.

And so these simple items have made huge differences in all our lives but we hardly think about them, today you did.

S&P Downgrade

2011-08-06T15:28:00.001-04:00

President Obama will probably become the conservative’s scapegoat for the Standard and Poor’s downgrade. As a group, accepting blame for anything is an anathema, conservatives are never to blame, but this time this is their baby.

If President Obama hadn’t gone completely against his base and offered to put entitlements on the table he might be culpable and have to share part of this. But as it turns out the conservatives are the ones that rebuffed his offer to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the table in exchange for closing some tax loopholes. When Cantor and Boehner walked out of meetings during the most recent debacle because of their refusal to even consider anything revenue based they took on complete ownership of the downgrade. President Obama tried to negotiate much to the chagrin of liberals, i don’t know what else he could have done.

We do have a debt problem, but it could be solved by raising revenues. Unfortunately Standard and Poor's came to the conclusion that our government will never again be allowed to raise revenues as long as the loonies on the right continue to block that avenue. Their adherence to the “no taxes” mantra for the wealthy has ruined our credit rating. They own it now, no one else. They do not care what happens to the country or to you.

Will they accept responsibility for the mess they have made of our country since 9/11, i doubt it? Although i don’t put much value on the S&P assessment, according to reports their initial accounting was off by 2 trillion and their evaluation of the mortgage backed securities as triple A credit worthy was a complete disaster, just the fact that it is out there gives the vulture’s carrion to eat.

i don’t usually post on the weekend but i want this out there. The ideology of the right has ruined our credit rating, chew on that and pass it on.

Music

2011-08-03T13:57:00.002-04:00

John Lee Hooker: This song is so good go listen...
http://youtu.be/DtbtONej4ao

Music Makers!

Music is a binder, it draws people together and is a way of life for many. i'm a listener, a foot tapper, a windows rolled up in the car belter outer and a dancer when it moves me. i've always listened to music in the car and for some strange reason switched to talk radio trying to get a handle on local happenings. That was a huge mistake all it does is makes me depressed so i switched back to music and seat dance my way to where ever i'm going. i usually arrive feeling good which is definitely a good way to start out anything.

Night time in F'sted

John Coltrane
http://youtu.be/8j_TDoOPnIA

Lately i've been listening to a variety of music. Jazz, blues, reggae, rock and roll, and some alternative stuff i find around the web. When you have Emilies threatening the region, constant power outages, no phones for over a month, dysfunction in DC and 8% across the board wage cuts in the islands i find music to be the great soother. It makes me feel good no matter what else is going on and probably makes you feel good too.

Malathini & The Mahotella Queens
http://youtu.be/TEWYFkjH2jc

The Guardian newspaper site is an amazing place to pick up music you might have missed, mostly European bands that don't get much recognition here. Pandora is great for setting on your computer and piping into your home to fit whatever mood you are in. You can pick bands you like and their algorithm finds other bands you might also enjoy. i've been listening to them since they first started and although sometimes they can get the music really wrong for the most part they do a good job. Allmusic and Pitchfork do reviews and AOL lets you listen to bands on their site. My favorite Lulu was bought out by Apple and shut down. i still haven't found one i loved as much as that site. Apple really saw their competition as a threat and solved that one fast. i wish they hadn't done them in, but i still have hopes that someone else will come along and do it again.

Early evening at Sprat Hall

Gregory Issacs: Night Nurse
http://youtu.be/K6oYyG0KcvQ
Gilberto Gill:
http://youtu.be/wVEZzX214FQ
Elite Gymnastics: So Close to Paradise
http://www.myspace.com/elitegymnastix
Barrington Levy: Black Roses
http://youtu.be/KG39b3GNCXg
Portugal. The Man: Got it All
http://youtu.be/8JyZZIQC3v4
Toro y Moi : Still Sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gqh4e1S6j0
The nice thing about music today is you don't have to buy all the crappy songs on an album just to get the one you like. You can mix and match.

Emilies purple sunset

Music unites and all over the world people work together to raise awareness to teach and inspire others to express themselves through this medium. Music can help people sympathize with those they might not understand, musicians use it to protest everything and to speak of love, love lost and love found. We all can reach across religious, ideological and cultural divides by introducing others to our music, i've put a few links up...check them out, stop them if they irritate you and move on to a next one. But think about this if you can't reach someone through talk or writing, try music.

See ya next week.

Is it five or more senses?

2011-07-27T15:12:00.000-04:00

Did you know that we have more than five senses (hearing, taste, sight, touch and smell)? Each of these senses has organs that have special receptors to take in specific stimuli, we know them intimately as our ears, our tongue, our eyes, our skin and our nose. The other senses outside of these five you probably do know but you just haven’t really thought about it.

So...think about the last time you went to the bathroom, was it because you felt an urge to purge or you just went for no reason. Most likely the sensors in your rectum or bladder noted a certain pressure being exerted upon those organs and got you off your duff to go expel the waste your body had accumulated. This is the purge sense, bet you never thought it was a sense but if you are like me i don't think you would ever want to be without it.

We all get hungry and thirsty and those senses are pretty self explanatory. You can’t go too long without having to eat or drink, if you did ignore these two you would certainly put your body at risk. Some of you may say Hey! These could be lumped under taste, but taste doesn't make you eat. Just tasting something is vastly different from tasting something because you are hungry or drinking something because you are dying of thirst. The hungry and thirst comes first before the taste and that usually stems from activity inside your body not your tongue.

The sense of pain is another sense that goes under a special label called nociception. Nociceptors detect mechanical, thermal or chemical changes above a set threshold and send signals along the spine to your brain. Without these wonderful nociceptors there would be nothing to tell you to stop inflicting pain to your body and nothing to notify you that you have pain in your body and you should probably start tending to it. The sense of pain saves you from yourself, something i think we can all relate to.

So look outside...today is a pretty hot day for those of us in the islands, most of us try to avoid being outside under the sun for prolonged periods of time. If we are outside we usually spend some time trying to cool off either in the ocean, a pool or under a hose. If not doing that we are not outside at all and are hiding inside a building with AC or fans or limin under a shade tree. Somehow we all try to cool down to keep our body temperature at a comfortable level. If we were in a cold climate we would be doing the opposite to warm up our bodies. Thermoception is another one of those senses we don’t think about as being a sense but if we didn’t have it we would probably do serious damage to our bodies if we couldn’t recognize excess temperature ranges.

Have you ever had that sense of toppling over but catching yourself in time and managing to maintain your balance? Well equilibrioception or the sense of balance is what keeps you standing upright whether you are standing still or moving. Three systems, the eyes, ears and the bodies sense of where it is in space operate together to keep you vertical. Without these you would have difficulty moving around and would have to be trained to overcome any lack of one of these three. The sense of balance helps us everyday as we navigate our world on two feet.

Knowing where your body is and what it is doing is also a sense. You always know what your body is doing in relation to itself unless you have some underlying kinesthetic deficit. Anything you do with your body like taking a piece of food and putting it in your mouth, or reaching over and picking something up or even driving involves the nervous system and its ability to keep your body functioning without actively watching it. Closing your eyes and putting your finger to your nose is a good demonstration of this sense. Your body knows how to find your nose without looking. It always knows where you are.

According to some of the things i have been reading we really have between 9 and 20 separate senses depending on which sense researcher you follow. Time, itchiness, internal perception, a host of touch and eye senses etc. are all considered respectable groups that deserve their own studies. Who knows maybe extra sensory perception will some day be listed among those for more serious consideration. Anyway if you are still stuck believing that we only have five senses maybe you don’t need to go to the bathroom and have toppled off your chair taking the computer with you.

See ya next week.

God complex

2011-07-20T12:49:00.000-04:00

Tim Harford has a talk up on TED that highlights the difference between the “god complex”, that affliction that we usually ascribe to someone who consistently asserts that their opinion is automatically above those with whom they may disagree, and the practical use of trial and error.

When i went to look up a more concise definition of the god complex i found myself having a huge belly laugh because the last sentence of the description said that the term god complex does not appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; made me wonder if it might someday be found there.

The problem with the god complex is that no matter how complicated a problem is if you have an infallible belief that you are right you could be really wrong. This means that you eliminate all consideration for alternative roads to a mutually beneficial result because you are right and everyone else hasn't a clue. i would imagine all of us could find ourselves exhibiting god complex characteristics at some point during our lives.

Tim talks about the problems with trying to do anything using a defined set of criteria that does not involve trial and error. He claims that without trial and error nothing can be created. He advises us that the world is so complex there is no right answer but many answers and that it is imperative to use some humility when getting to those answers.

His dream is to have teachers work with children not only to get the right answer but to acknowledge our ignorance and to teach them that you don’t always know the answer. He claims that trial and error are the very philosophy of the universe.

He goes on to reflect on problems. When we encounter a problem and that problem is complex then you will need a complex solution. Trial and error gives you the courage and willingness to pursue different courses of action understanding that you might be wrong initially but eventually you may find the correct answer or solution.

Having an absolute belief that your way is the only way can lead to enormous mistakes. Resistance to change is not always beneficial to the final outcome. Learning from mistakes the way chemists did when they finally hit upon the strategy for making antibiotics changed health care as we know it. The chemists learned from their original failures, they modified their experiments and tried again and again and again until they reached their goals.

Today in the political arena we have a lot of god complex types running roughshod over our economy. They don’t seem to understand that they represent all of us, the wealthy, the corporations, the middle class and the poor. They haven’t set out any future goals that impact all of us positively.

The surplus that Clinton left is GONE, the temporary tax holiday to use up the surplus has pushed us into recession. Taxes need to be reinstated; more tax holidays will not improve our condition. The god complex belief that a lower tax creates jobs needs to find its place in the trash heap of bad ideas, its time to move on as a nation and try a different method. These guys running the show today are going to ruin the country if we don’t stop them and it is you the little guy who will feel it more than the big guys.

Booman over at booman tribune had this to say yesterday.

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 have reduced the revenues taken in by the treasury by slightly more than the cost of the ten-year war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. In other words, if we hadn't cut taxes early in the last decade, we could have paid for those wars completely. On the other hand, if we hadn't committed either blunder, we'd have nearly three trillion dollars to pay down the debt or make investments in our country. What's going on now is an aggressive effort to make middle class people pay for the wars, with interest included. If rich people had paid their taxes over the past decade, we wouldn't be in this position. What we're doing today is filling the hole created by Bush's tax cuts. So, for example, we're going to cut spending on education and transportation and research to make up for the fact that Steve Forbes didn't pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes over the last ten years.

So Stop supporting bad ideas.

Reducing taxes does not produce jobs.

Spending cuts do not produce jobs, they eliminate jobs.

Trickle down is really trickle up.

See ya next week.

Dishonoring Greed

2011-07-13T13:41:00.002-04:00

i want to dishonor greed. For too long in our society the “greed is good” slogan has been bandied about. It is actually a shortened version out of the movie “Wall Street." The character, Gordon Gekko, states that “greed for lack of a better word, is good.” This slogan has been applied to an aspect of the American Dream that covets a vast accumulation of wealth, status and power. Dishonoring of greed means discussing where that can lead.

According to Plato “The man who is under the despotism of a master passion (fill in the blank) is the unhappiest by three tests of well-being: freedom, wealth, and security from fear. His unlimited license to “do what he likes” is not a genuine freedom.” As he and his fellow wealthy accumulate more and more the disparity between their great wealth and that of their countrymen leads towards an oligarchic state where the wealthy control the reins of government.

For the greedy man his pleasure is illusory because he is always consumed with want and fear. Want for what his wealthy neighbors have and fear that someone might take what he already accumulated away from him. To control the fear and want he must be at all times in control of his environment and either in control of government or sufficiently connected be able to influence political outcomes.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his speech "The Children of Gordon Gekko" concerning the Financial crisis of 2007-2010 stated “It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. Today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko.

In order to hang onto wealth, the wealthy have to manipulate the common man to emulate the greed is good mantra. Most of us will never reach the echelons of wealth that the 1% enjoy but the thought that maybe some of us could creates a garden of ideas the wealthy have been watering for 30 years now. Today some of the failing middle class are waking up to the fact that those 1% are just getting wealthier while the rest of the country has stagnated or gone backwards.

There is no way to be greedy without exploiting others. There is no such thing as good greed and if you are religious you are well acquainted with the fact that greed is one of the 7 deadly sins. Greed does not find peace; it is the catalyst for war and today it is becoming more about a class war than a nation united.

Plato discusses the disparity in wealth as a decline of society where the rich are in control and the poor man can not attain public office. We are seeing this now all over the country, where only those with sizable fortune’s can even run for office. As the wealth flows upwards the powerful exert more influence (Citizens United) to keep that wealth while virtue suffers. They despise the poor man, they ridicule and demean him while promoting the rich who enjoy all the praise and admiration. Eventually as Plato describes there is a limiting of privilege in this kind of society which we can certainly recognize through the debates about health care, education and government jobs.

Getting involved in believing that greed is good means you will loose sight of how you are taking advantage of others. You will put on blinders so that the advantage is minimized. Empathy will become a dirty word and compassion will be executed in measured doses.

There is something perverse about more than enough. When we have more, it is never enough. It is always somewhere out there, just out of reach. The more we acquire, the more elusive enough becomes. –Unknown

When honest people are thrown out of work, as they have been in Wisconsin and other states, because the hoarders don’t want to pay taxes to support schools, policeman, firemen etc., it is time to re-evaluate why 1% of our population is hoarding 40% of the nations wealth. These values of self interest and greed are contributing to the bad economy we all are experiencing.

When the elderly are threatened with not getting their Social Security checks we have gone over the top. When are we going to open our eyes and ask why the wealthy can’t pay a little bit more?

Some have gone so far as to refer to the “Free Market” as the “Greed Market.” i just want to know when people are going to wake up and start looking out for their interests and not those of the wealthy.

raise the deficit ceiling

2011-07-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,

Future investigators, trundling through all the mess we have left behind will wonder why we weren’t out there demanding accountability and a change away from all which ails us.

Last week i wrote that we are not as set in our ways as we think, we can change and we can come out of the fog of propaganda.

After the last Great Depression the country woke up and started to invest in itself. Those who had been voted in (even though wealthy in their own right) realized that the wealth concentrated in the top two percent was not good for the country as a whole. Taxes went up, public works were implemented to put people back to work and the economy started to stabilize as more citizens could afford to spend.

Today we have a group in Congress that won’t raise revenue to pay off debts that they created by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and engaging in two wars they kept off the books. Their idea is to shrink government while putting more and more people out of jobs. How this can be viewed as beneficial to the economy when it is contracting is beyond me.

Propaganda is all about successful liars revealing considerable truth in what they say, but also sufficient untruths to cause the listener confusion about what the reality really is. Today too many believe that the deficit is our main problem. Its not, jobs are our real problem and neither party has come up with any ideas concerning a solution.

The Independent has a piece up in their science section that declares wide faced men more prone to lie. Professor Haselhuhn said.

"Importantly, we found evidence that the link between men's facial ratio and their unethical behavior is caused by a sense of power. Men with larger facial ratios feel more powerful, and this sense of power then leads them to act unethically. Our findings suggest that some men are simply predisposed to act unethically in order to achieve their goals.”

Well duh and i don’t think it has one bit to do with how wide a man’s face is. They had a picture up of Nixon as an example of a wide faced man and suggested that you should examine the width of any salesman’s face before you buy something from him because he could be lying.

Men and women lie to achieve power over others, those who believe the lie to be true become accomplices in manipulations that may be detrimental to their lives. Today many in this country are blindsided by the BIG LIE, the worst kind of lie which tricks the victim into believing something about the country and its government that can be contradicted by information they have access to but refuse to embrace.

The big lie today is if we default all we have to do is pay the interest on the loans. Wrong, no one in government signed on to interest only loans, the contracts are for interest and principal and if you were holding the loans you would not like a reduction in your payments. Reducing the payment is defaulting and defaulting could have negative repercussions all over the world, including your savings and investments. Supporting this crazy scheme puts us all at risk.

i read an example last week on line that used credit cards to explain the deficit. Say your card should max out at $5,000 dollars but you spent over your limit and now you owe $7,000. How much should you pay back $5,000 or $7,000? If you answered $7,000 you are correct. You owe all the money even though it is above your limit. You and no one else is obligated to pay it back. Our deficit has gone over the limit Congress set. Do you think we should or should not pay it off? If you think we are obligated to pay our debts then you are in favor of raising the debt ceiling. This does not mean more borrowing it means we can now pay off what we have already spent.

We all want reductions in government spending but not on the backs of the middle class and poor who are already stressed enough. The Republicans are holding the government (which is all of us) hostage by tying raising the debt ceiling to reducing money that goes to fund the social safety net. There are other more humane ways to do this that won’t eliminate jobs, won’t send the poor and elderly into the streets and will improve our economy.

We can cut the defense budget, end all three wars, and still be spending more on our military than any other nation in the world combined.

backfire theory

2011-06-29T13:14:00.000-04:00

Protecting his third nest

Did you know it costs US taxpayers $20 billion a year to cool the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq? That’s right to keep them cooled down we spend more money per year on cooling than we spend on financing NASA.

Have you ever wondered why strange, kookie, peculiar, freakish ideas persist? Why conspiracy nuts latch on to beliefs and no matter how much evidence is out there to refute it they still believe the untruth and find material to bolster their ideas?

Lately on line there have been articles that refer to studies done by researchers that have determined that when beliefs are threatened by information that doesn’t reinforce the belief but in fact negates it the believer will not give up the belief but will become further entrenched.

These studies are based upon single instances where the participant is given something to read that disagrees with their ideology, then tested after to see if the factual information changed their mind. Say for instance one group that believed Saddam had WMD’s was given a paragraph to read that was based upon information correcting this belief and saying there were none. Instead of believing the new factual information they became more firmly entrenched in their original beliefs. This condition has been labeled the “backfire effect” and is being pushed on line to influence people not to bother trying to change minds because you won’t succeed.

Nest 2 destroyed last Wed. Now she is on nest 3

Well i decided to research the “backfire effect” and discovered that before it was called “effect” there was other studies done that called a different outcome the “backfire theory.” The “backfire theory” looks instead at movements that have been created when actions by those in power are perceived as unfair or unjust. Kind of like what has happened in Wisconsin, where people who were probably ideologically split came together to protect their rights and their jobs. Where recall petitions have garnered more signatures than those in office received for votes and where those in power have been blindsided by the backlash against their draconian changes.

Anyway

“Conditions for the backfire theory as defined by Brian Martin are “an action perceived as unjust, unfair, excessive or disproportional.” Martin is one of the originators of "backfire theory", which analyses the political forces at play in cases where repression or injustice inflicted on vulnerable groups in society "backfires" against the perpetrators of
the injustice. According to Martin's theory, authorities commonly use five distinct methods to prevent their injustice from backfiring: cover-up, devaluing the target, re-interpreting events, using official channels and using intimidation and bribery.” Martin

Studies done on the "backfire effect"(which says you won't change your mind) don’t evaluate how a constant stream of factual information can change minds. There is a tipping point at which people can no longer hold onto their beliefs when the facts just don’t support it any longer. The “backfire theory,” and what happened in Wisconsin is a perfect example of people who can come together regardless of ideology and fight back.

In a study done by Redlawsk, Civettini, Emmerson their abstract says:

“We show experimental evidence that such an affective tipping point does in fact exist. We also show that as this tipping point is reached, anxiety increases, suggesting that the mechanism that generates the tipping point and leads to more accurate updating may be related to the theory of affective intelligence. The existence of a tipping point suggests that voters are not immune to disconfirming information after all, even when initially acting as motivated reasoners.”

If you are continually bombarded with information that trashes what you thought to be true eventually you have to stop believing and re-evaluate. Believing in the “backfire effect” as opposed to “theory” would tend to make one stop trying to change minds. If we bought into “effect” instead of “theory” the powerful can keep us divided and they can get on with squeezing every bit of loose change out of our pockets, shutting down all the social safety nets, and engaging in endless wars.

Right now i believe that there are powerful forces afoot that don’t want us all talking to each other. If you believe in the "effect" you will stop trying to talk to anyone who doesn't agree with you, but if you believe in the "theory" (like me)you will never give up trying to change minds.

So in my constant work at changing hearts and minds here are a few things we need to do as a country to tend to the deficit and try not to burden the middle class and poor with any more setbacks.

Tax Wall Street fairly

Wind down the wars responsibly

Close down some of our overseas bases

Roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy

Close corporate tax loopholes

As Van Jones says, “We are not stupid. We can do the math. The pie, the country’s GDP, is getting bigger! It’s just your slice that is getting smaller. The social contract between corporate America and the rest of America is broken.”

Beautiful pollen at Sunny Isle

The private sector caused the credit crunch, the financial crisis, and the global recession. The public sector bailed out the banks and brought the world back from the brink of ruin, when is the public sector going to get the recognition it deserves?

Pelosi had this to say about Cantor,“Leader Cantor can’t handle the truth when it comes to these tax subsidies for big oil, for corporations sending jobs overseas or giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country, while they’re asking seniors to pay more for less, as they abolish Medicare,”

Tax cuts don’t produce jobs, the Republicans proved during the Bush years, that tax cuts produce deficits.

Recent studies have shown that states that cut spending have also seen their economies tank. Jobs have been lost in the states where cuts have been made. In fact the more money cut the more jobs have been lost. States that have increased spending or maintained the spending levels have seen their states enjoy more private sector jobs and actual increases in the employment statistics. According to the study spending cuts have gone hand in hand with job losses. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/27/255010/chart-states-cut-most-spending-jobs/

And finally,

When the history of America's decline as a great power is written, it will be stories like this that are used to illustrate how warped our priorities had become, and how we as a people allowed the corrupt and greedy to hijack our political process to enrich themselves at the expense of the nation, and to use the military to secure corporate objectives not essential to national security.

The public is you

2011-06-22T14:05:00.000-04:00

Jacks

Why is it we always hear that “Big Government” strangles small business but i’ve never seen any proof of this? By strangle do they mean making them pay taxes or putting them out of business?

i was recently reminded of our not so distant past when small towns and cities had local hardware stores, family pharmacies, small grocery stores, clothing shops, shoe shops, and electronic shops where you could get all your appliances fixed, candy and ice cream shops and i think you get the picture. Now you can hardly find one and almost every place in America has lost those businesses to the corporate behemoths that we know as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Best Buys, K-Mart, Cost-Co, Krogers, Exxon etc.

All over the country large corporations have put small family run businesses out of business through competition, bulk buying and marketing. They have the resources to take a loss at one store and count on sales at another to balance their books until the store takes off. Small business owners can’t do that, they can’t compete and must depend upon their customers to remain loyal and supportive. If they loose that customer base they have no other option but to close or go bankrupt.

Beach just below Point Udall

Most of those corporations i listed above make billions of dollars a year all over the world. Their influence is much more powerful than any individual business owner trying to get a break, so they use it, they use their profits to buy influence, they lobby Congress and state governments all over the nation to do their bidding, they finance think tanks to get the electorate confused and focused not on them but on government. They want you to believe that lower taxes will help your business because it’s “BIG GOVERNMENT” that is ruining small family businesses.

And you believe that right? Was it taxes that put these small business out of business, can someone show me the proof that taxes ruined small business or was it something else? And if low taxes make more jobs why do we have record unemployment after a period of unprecedented low taxation?

I think you can answer that for yourselves.

Large corporations have been putting people out of business for a long long time but that is not all they can do. Since the early 2000’s large financial companies have been setting up in house departments that are strictly focused on purchasing public property. That’s right, purchasing property that you the tax payer have already paid for. They will privatize the property and charge you to use it.

Cane Bay mini wetlands

All over the nation towns and cities that have finalized the process of privatization of infrastructure are realizing it wasn’t such a good deal. In Indiana where they sold off a highway in 2006 to pay their debts the reality of a 75 year lease is coming back to bite them. Tolls that had seen no price increase since 1985 doubled from $18 to $35 and will still increase every year, alternate roads can’t be improved any where near the toll road if it will affect its revenue stream, the public is responsible for paying the bill for flooding that resulted in lost revenue and the money gained from the purchase was used up in a few years. This deal constrained the public’s ability to use roads it had built fifty years before.

In Chicago the city parking meters now belong to a wealth fund based in Abu Dhabi but partnered with Morgan Stanley. Parking fees increased almost immediately, meters broke and no one fixed them but when people parked at the broken meters they got tickets from the new consortium. The deal was done by Mayor Daley for approximately 1 billion but should, according to the actuarial reports, bring in more than 11 billion for the consortium. Bad deal for the public, great deal for the company.

Private companies will buy the assets for much less than they are worth and extract every penny of profit. If there should be a disaster that destroys the asset, the company will walk away, and the public will be left with the rubble. The assumption is made that anything run by the government is so inefficient that the private sector can run it better, make a huge profit and the public will still be better off. What a laugh!

Selling off our public assets is akin to selling off your living room furniture then renting it back so you can sit on it, where is the benefit to the public?

Taking the public out of everything in American life is driving us towards a future where only the privileged will have access. So you decide, do you still think government is ruining businesses, are you ready to auction off American public property? If not you better start speaking up cause the public is you.

The Protector

2011-06-15T12:24:00.001-04:00

The Protector

i’ve taken to calling a local bird the Protector. He spends most of his day perched on my railing ready to attack anything. He is stealthy, fast and an incredible defender; spending long hours standing at attention, listening and watching for incoming predators. He rarely takes a break to eat or wash because his main concern sits on a rickety nest, and i mean rickety.

The Protector is a Grey Kingbird that is locally indigenous and not threatened. They have adapted well to life on the island and are one of the more prolific birds here, but the ones around my house have been failing to reproduce for about four years now. Every late May or early June i have a pair that builds a nest in the West Indian Cedar tree which is also an indigenous tree.

Grey Kingbird Nest

This year they built a nest and laid some eggs in a Cedar tree just out of the wind, unlike years past, where they were completely un-protected. The nest looked pretty good and i thought maybe this year they would finally succeed but the rains took it out so they built another one. The nest in the picture is the second one they have built in the same tree this year. They finished it in no time and are sitting on eggs again.

The whole nest building process and guarding is tough work. The Protector’s job is not easy as he is burdened by Pearly Eyed Thrashers that try to dive bomb the nest. The Thrasher's lie in wait in the Turpentine tree and when they think he is derelict in his duties they do a surveillance tour. He usually spots them on the incoming flight and dive bombs. Sometimes the female will come off the nest and the two of them will attack together, bashing and pecking until the Thrasher flies off. None of the other small birds that visit the tree bother the Protector and he lets them suck the nectar out of the flowers or perch on a branch with nary a look.

The Thrasher is an aggressive, opportunistic bird that is rarely put in its place by other birds, but the Grey Kingbird is a formidable foe and battles relentlessly to protect his family; quite a feat for such a small bird. The even bigger Red Tailed Hawk never even gets close to the nest because if the Protector sees one flying in he is on its back in no time, pecking and dive bombing, keeping it far away from even seeing what he is protecting.

Watching this little bird work hard every day to protect his family just warms my heart, but makes it ache too when i think about those in our nation that want to deny that we humans have played a negative role in the state of our environment.

This little bird is representative of all of nature out there trying as hard as it can to keep the cycle of life going, while we cut down his trees, pollute the air, rape the land and force him into narrower and narrower environments to survive. When are we going to wake up and be real stewards of this earth?

Oh Yeah, the answer to last weeks logic problem is the German.

rain rain go away

2011-06-08T13:24:00.001-04:00

It’s still raining here, we have been under some kind of stalled system that is now producing flash floods and thunderstorms so we are still under a watch. For days we have been in a band of weather that is coming out of the west and heading north east, an unusual direction for us this time of year. The air is warm and heavy with moisture, and the seas are suffering from run off. All along the shore muddy gook has replaced the beautiful blue. The hillsides are so saturated that i worry when ever anyone drives down our steep roads that they may not hold. The long term forecast is for more rain maybe petering out sometime this weekend.

Even with all this rain St. Croix is a beautiful emerald green and everything is growing like mad. Good for the trees and grasses but it’s not so good for the farmers who are having a hard time with their crops. Their fields have been flooded, re-planted, and flooded again. My favorite farmer has closed his vegetable stand because his crops have been ruined. He’s still selling meat and poultry but on a more limited schedule. Usually this time of year all sorts of goodies can be found along the roadside but now it’s not the case, so we all have to buy imported stuff which doesn’t taste as good.

So enough of the weather…i have been collecting tid bits from around the net and thought i’d put a few up today.

1. Louis de Sousa at the Oil Drum goes into a detailed discussion on why he thinks peak oil is what brought down the Soviet Union.

“The causes of the fall of the Soviet Union are thought to be inefficiency and the Soviet response to the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s. However, a more plausible explanation is the decline in Soviet oil production caused by peak oil. This gives the world an example of a modern economy confronted by peak oil and what lessons we can learn from it.”

2. Wisconsin Republicans just passed a new law that allows a property owner the right not to replace his septic system even if his land is swimming in s**t as long as it hasn’t impacted his neighbors land. The old law, which had advised cutting edge septic systems for replacement of old dysfunctional ones, is being replaced by one that will allow sewage to lie openly upon a piece of private property. Doesn’t this sound like a case of individual rights going out of control. i’m glad i don’t live in Wisconsin.

3. Free markets don’t exist. A book just came out that explains that there is no such thing as a free market. “23 Things they don’t tell you about Capitalism” by Ha-Joon Chang who teaches at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge. i’ve never read it but the review looks interesting.

4. The Pentagon under the auspices of National Security is ignoring the climate skeptics in Congress who have scuttled legislation to combat climate change. In a 2011 report called, "A National Strategic Narrative" (pdf), written by two special assistants to chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Mike Mullen, it was argued, "We must recognize that security means more than defense." Part of this entails pressing past "a strategy of containment to a strategy of sustainment (sustainability)". They went on to assert climate change is "already shaping a 'new normal' in our strategic environment". They believe climate change is real and that plans must be implemented now to deal with it as a strategic issue.

5. Real Estate news:

According to Core Logic Nationwide, 10.9 million mortgages (22.7 percent) were upside down in the first quarter vs. 11.1 million (23.1 percent) in the fourth quarter.

Nevada had the highest negative equity: 63 percent of all mortgaged properties underwater.
Next came by Arizona (50 percent), Florida (46 percent) and Michigan (36 percent.)
California only had 31 percent underwater — to an average $93,000 shortfall.
As for big regions? Las Vegas was tops at 66 percent upside down; followed by Stockton (56 percent), Phoenix (55 percent), Modesto (55 percent) and Reno (54 percent).

6. Einstein said 98% of the world’s population couldn’t figure out this logic problem.

Clues:

The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
Looking from in front, the green house is just to the left of the white house.
The green house's owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Malls raises birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the leftmost house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps a horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemasters also drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Who owns the pet fish?

Answer next week unless you look it up on the net, but that is cheating.

See ya

$2,000 for a rainy day

2011-06-01T13:55:00.001-04:00

Wednesday June 1, 2011

St. Croix, Virgin Islands

8:00am Salt River NDBC weather station

Water Temperature…82.8

Air Temperature…….82.4

Did you know that half of all Americans do not have access to $2,000 for a rainy day? Half could not come up with the money right now if they had to, without taking out a loan or maxing out their credit cards. When asked if they could come up with it in 30 days 28% said they wouldn’t be able to do it. According to a survey done of 1,900 participants the National Bureau of Economic Research found that only 25% of the American population could come up with $2,000 in an emergency, 34% said they could get the money by asking family or friends.

Some may say that a lot of those people who can’t come up with $2,000 smoke, drink, have cell phones, big screen TV's, cable, internet, Ipods, a new car, X-box, designer clothes and shoes, and/or buy their lunch or at least coffee everyday. Maybe even some of them are on welfare. The point being that the way they spend their money would exhibit a lack of delayed gratification and no financial planning. This would be attributed to half the American population with no basis in fact. Its very easy to accuse half the population of this even when its not true.

Top 1% owns 42.7% of the total net worth of the nation
Bottom 80% owns 6.9% of the nations net worth

Average Net Worth of bottom 80% : $48,600
Average Net Worth of top 1%: $23.77 Million
Average Tax Rate on bottom 50%: 20%
Average Tax Rate on small business owners: 32%
Average Tax Rate on the top 1%: 18.8%
Average Tax Rate on the top 100 corporations: 9.7%

Source FRB Survey of Consumer Finances

Today the Federal Reserve is punishing people for saving money. Interest rates are hovering at around 1% for regular bank and CD savings, which is less than inflation and the cost of living. Houses are losing value and the stock market is too risky for some. On the opposite extreme the media is telling you to spend or the economy will collapse. You are encouraged to go into more personal debt even as you are bombarded with deficit talk, because without demand the economy can’t expand.

No wonder so many people are living on the edge. Wages have not been going up and with the outsourcing of manufacturing those high paying jobs are disappearing at a rapid rate. With so many not able to reach into their pockets and pull out $2,000 in an emergency don’t you think that this is more like the fallout from decades of the "trickle-down" myth. Most Americans can't come up with $2,000. . .but a select few can reach in their pockets and pull out $2,000,000. . .and those are the important ones that get the tax breaks.

Just look back up at that chart again? Who's getting screwed here?

i truly wish people could see it. Factors like ingenuity, competition, corruption, and just dumb luck will always play a role in anyone's measure of success. Reality dictates that we all cannot be corporate executives, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and rock-stars. Not everyone will be able to become rich. Fresh invention and hard work can pay off...But the real truth is that the majority of Americans will work their lives away as car salesmen, real estate brokers, policemen, firemen, construction workers, nurses, janitors, clerks, waitresses, exercise specialists, military personnel, bus drivers, teachers, etc. dreaming of hitting the lottery some day.

Please remember that success is not guaranteed and a lot of people are suffering despite how hard they worked.

So for all these reasons i continue to keep the signature on my e-mails front and center.

"Taxes do not "take money out of the economy" they enable the economy. The rich do not "create jobs, We, the People create jobs through demand."

"Entitlements are cost-cutting business like efficiencies that save money for society as a whole."
Lets not reduce the deficit on the backs of the middle class and poor, bring home the troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and all the rest of the places around the world. Tax the wealthy making over $1,000,000 per year and corporations that are getting away with no taxes that will solve the deficit problem.

See ya next week

Too much rain

2011-05-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

Rain

This piece today is going to hit on two topics.

First off the Global Peace Index for 2011 has just been released. A few weeks ago i wrote about the peace rankings of the 50 states. Today it is the world index being released and 153 nations are ranked, unfortunately the news is not so good. For the third year running the world is less peaceful.

Beautiful clouds

We have all been watching the events in the Middle East and realize there is much unrest all over. Ordinary citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and even Spain and Greece have clogged the streets of their main cities to clamor for change through peaceful demonstrations that have led their governments to use violence to combat the threat. Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have experienced continued unrest as have large parts of Africa. These hot spots have contributed to a less peaceful world.

The index is the worlds leading measure of peacefulness and measures twenty three separate indicators that reflect the existence or absence of peace. Iceland bumped out New Zealand and now occupies the top spot while Iraq has moved up one and let Somalia lay claim to last place. The US is 82 rising three slots upwards but still two spots behind China at 80. Canada has moved into the top ten residing at number eight while Western Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world. In Mexico, at 121, organized crime and the drug trade contribute to low scores.

Buck Island in the rain

“The US rank reflects much higher levels of militarization and involvement in external conflicts than its northern neighbor. Several measures of societal safety and security also receive higher scores, including access to light weapons and the proportion of the population in jail(the largest of the 153 countries surveyed).” Institute for Global Economics and Peace

According to the report if the US reduced its violence to the same levels as Canada it could save approximately $360 billion and create a stimulus that could generate 2.7 million jobs.

Some of the findings found that societies that had lower discrimination, more informed citizens, high levels of trust within society, and gender equality tended to be more peaceful. For a more in depth look at the index visit http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

The other topic i wanted to visit briefly has to do with privacy. i’ve been thinking a lot about this topic as more and more of us use social media instead of one on one to connect with our “friends.”

Flooding

Privacy has to do with selective information. We choose or think we choose what we want to broadcast to our “friends” and the world at large which includes government. The boundaries of this information vary for each individual with some maintaining total blackouts while others spill their guts voluntarily.

The right to privacy can be found in each countries laws with some claiming no privacy rights while others like our own lay out the parameters. Privacy is not a universal concept, but we in the west have used privacy laws to protect ourselves from an intrusive government.

My only point here it that when anyone collects information about you it is harmless until that time that the collector decides to use it against you. In his essay The Value of Privacy, security expert Bruce Schneier says, "Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance."

community and racism

2011-05-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

And so it is.

Last night a meeting was called so that a developer could present his plan to the local community. His project would impact a local beach by diverting a road through his property, taking it away from its place next to the ocean. The issue is thorny and i'm not getting into the nitty gritty details of all the whole sordid mess.

What i wanted to write about is two people, one a white woman and the other a black man, both of whom attended the same meeting last night, but came away with vastly different outcomes. This story is about community and racism in that community.

Although it was a full moon, the sky was obliterated by thundershowers. Most people arriving late had to make do with standing room only. The facility was overflowing, the rain was coming down in buckets and the attendees were antsy. Keep in mind this is one of the few communities on the island where the out turn was a melting pot of young, old, black, white and in-between.

i’m the white woman and my impression of the evening was one of glee. So many had turned out on such a wet soggy night to listen to and discuss an issue that could impact beach usage permanently. i was proud of our community, proud of the cohesiveness when the final vote was taken, and proud of all the people who took the time to voice their concerns.

As i was walking out a local West Indian friend stopped me to chat. She told me she was worried that the Caucasians would vote in favor of the change but that she was so happy with the vote against it that her fears had been dissipated. The final tally of the evening was all in attendance against and no one raising their hands to vote in favor of the road change.

Even after the meeting finished and i was able to talk with people of all shades of white and black the glow remained. i was so thrilled that so many people were of one mind and were willing to fight this to the end. The community i have always loved came through.

This morning i got an e-mail with this story about the same meeting.

Before the meeting started, but in an area where it was standing room only, one white man who was agitating in favor of the project addressed a black man as “You People” while he was describing 20 years of business at Cane Bay. He went on to accuse “You People” of leaving garbage on the beach that he and his workers that he hired cleaned up daily. When asked who he meant by “You People” he went off and used the F word.

My friend was offended and rightly so. He was there at a community meeting hoping to learn something and possibly contribute constructively to the conversation. “You People” most positively meant that black people and only black people were responsible for trash on the beach.

Now as an aside we all know that is not so. In fact the area of the beach that sees a lot of trash accumulating in front of the restaurant and especially on weekends is probably frequented more by whites than blacks.

To accuse one man and every other black person by association, just because he is black of wholesale littering is the epitome of racism. Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s on the continent my friend had been here before, but hadn’t expected it last night. The altercation ruined his evening and he left with a bad taste in his mouth and a belief that this man was one small example of the attitude that would come as more developers tried to implement their idea of change on a small West Indian island.

So... here you have two completely different experiences at the same community meeting, one filled with joy and a feeling of connectedness with everyone and the other experiencing a racist, not for the first time and probably not the last either. Luckily i was informed of this on the day my blog comes out because it needs an airing.

It shouldn't be ignored and it should be discussed. Racism is a problem on St. Croix and it exists.

Being a strong man my friend is following up with a letter to the local newspaper exposing who and what this man is and rightly so.

power surge and planets

2011-05-11T12:37:00.002-04:00

Sunset clouds

Last night we had a power surge, not anything new, happens all the time. Most of our appliances and computers etc. have surge protectors that kick in when the power goes out. Booting back up is usually no problem and we get back to normal.

My main computer is old and last nights surge did it in. i'd been thinking it wasn't long for this world but i wasn't actually ready to move it out. Fortunately the only thing i hadn't backed up was yesterdays work and eerily enough i had second thoughts when i decided not to print anything out or back up.

i should have listened.

Cool clouds

We have been having cloudy weather here with much needed rain. So this morning it was touch and go as to whether we would get rained upon during the morning walk. Fortunately the clouds had broken up and the sky was visible. i commented to my friend that as i was walking to meet her i saw really bright planets or stars in the eastern sky. As it turns out it was one of those rare optimal viewing times to see Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. i guess i got really lucky and was one of the few to see it.

After a bit of research i found out that Jupiter and Venus were so close together this morning that they almost looked like a supernova. That must be why i thought it looked so unusual. If you are out tomorrow morning you should be able to see them again but looking more like a triangle with Mars in there too. NASA has a piece up about the configuration through out the rest of the month. Between 5:00 and 5:30am is a great time to see them if its not too cloudy. Do go its definitely a lovely sight.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Sticking with the stars and planets, there is a new theory out that suggests some black holes predate the big bang and could be part of the Big Crunch. All very interesting stuff if you have ever wondered about the Big Bang theory. Way back when i was in college and taking Astronomy i found myself having a difficult time believing in the Big Bang. Why, thought i did the universe have to have a beginning? Was it because we all are born and then we die, so everything else has to too?

i had always thought back then that we thought ourselves too significant in the whole universal scheme. Who were we to come up with a Big Bang theory when we couldn't see any edge to the universe? Expansion did not mean explosion and what exactly was it we were exploding from?

Now scientists are theorizing(that again) that we collapse over and over again, which creates new questions like if we are only a mere dot in the universe maybe our view is limited and these expansions and collapses are always happening. Maybe there is no edge(which has always been my theory) and if we are exploding over and over could it be normal and natural? If black holes are surviving the blast, leaving their signatures and sending out gamma rays that we examine could it be there never was a Big Bang that started it all? Could it be we can't see enough of the universe to develop a Big Bang or Big Crunch Theory?

i'd like to think so.

Public schools and vouchers

2011-05-04T15:02:00.001-04:00

Pond reflection

Public schooling has been taking up a lot of my time lately. During an e-mail back and forth with my brother-in-law in California i asked him if there was anything positive he could say about Democrats. He responded back that he was supporting what Jerry Brown was doing there for public education. Although surprised, i was thrilled to read his response.

South Shore

Here on St. Croix i volunteer three days a week in a public elementary school helping kids to read. i’m working in a second grade classroom with twenty nine students, a few of whom English is a second language. With that many children the slower ones stand out like a sore thumb and need an incredible amount of individual attention that they aren’t getting. i can see how children, even in the first few years, get left behind.

But to get to my point, all good politicians need a wedge issue to drive a stake through the status quo. In order to achieve the end goal of total privatization of education baby steps must occur. Inflaming those who hate paying anything for anyone else through taxes is easy when you use vouchers as the wedge.

Hibiscus Show

First you start by claiming that public education is a socialistic regime and needs to be dismantled. Claim that private education does a better job and you can get your children into a private school through the simple process of vouchers. Don’t tell anyone that vouchers won’t pay the whole private school bill nor will the schools accept you if you are not an A or B student. Do tell them that this is a bipartisan issue and it will make education better for everyone.

In order to achieve the goal of total privatization and the evisceration of public education vouchers are the gold standard.

Historically public education was created so that schooling could be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Jefferson saw that education was highly localized and only available to the wealthy; i'm going to say that again, education was localized and only available to the wealthy. Jefferson wanted to change that scenario and make it available to all children regardless of wealth.

Pretty Chicken

As the state and federal government’s got more and more involved in financing public education the percentage of educated Americans increased. By 1996 the number of teenagers that had graduated from high school increased from a low of 6% in 1900 to 85% today. That is one heck of a statistic that is not ever talked about.

The reason it’s not talked about is because the voucher folks don’t want you thinking about the positive aspects of public education. All those educated folks came to be because of public schools. If Jefferson and his supporters hadn't supported public education those numbers might be significantly different. If you think about that statistic from 6% to 85% it makes public schools look pretty successful.

i'll bet many of you reading this were public school students.

According to government data only one tenth of the total student population (55,203,000 in 2010) attends private schools. Where are all these private schools that you will use vouchers to attend coming from? Who is building them?

Well you already built them with your taxes but the voucher folks want you now to flip them into private institutions so they can start making money off of educating your child. Remember, making money is the only goal in life.

A voucher is a government issued certificate which allows parents to apply the amount given toward tuition in a private school. Now keep this in mind, a voucher does not pay for the complete bill involved in private education. It only pays for a part of the bill. The main argument in favor of vouchers is that it allows choice and will create competition that will increase savings and educational outcomes. Makes you wonder who is going to save and get better educated?

The argument against vouchers is that they will decimate public schools. Those same public schools that are graduating 85% of the nations children. That there will be a lack of accountability to the taxpayer, and that the real risk is not everyone will be able to afford school if all of them eventually become privatized; meaning a larger population of uneducated citizens.

Jonathan Kozol, a former public school teacher and prominent public school reform thinker has called vouchers the "single worst, most dangerous idea to have entered education discourse in my adult life.”

Please also keep in mind that private schools select their students; they are not mandated like public schools to accept everyone.

Working in the public school system this is abundantly clear. These kids are all across the board in ability levels, some of the kids i work with in second grade could be in fourth grade they are so skilled while others would be barely starting kindergarten their skills are so lacking, but they are all in one classroom and learning regardless.

In private schools this kind of broad ability in one classroom is an oddity. Most of the kids there are working at the same approximate level.

Sunset

Remember vouchers are a wedge issue to get to the final point of no public education.

“Whether or not the public generally supports vouchers is debatable. Majorities seem to favor improving existing schools over providing vouchers, yet as many as 40% of those surveyed admit that they don't know enough to form an opinion or don't understand the system of school vouchers.” Wikipedia

Although this was very brief if you are at all concerned about educating the nation and not just your own child, do more digging. An educated nation means less poverty, more skilled workers, longer life spans etc. But if your pining away for tax cuts then by all means support the dumbing down of America.

Peace Index for the United States

2011-04-27T13:43:00.000-04:00

The Peace Index for the United States came out while i was in California. i had a notice in my in box but with all the confusion i decided to wait until now to write about it. Being passionate about peace i couldn't let this one pass.

Every year the Institute for Economics and Peace puts out a global peace index that is a collection of data that has been compiled over the previous year.

Reflection of the sun as it is going down

This year for the first time they tried something different by focusing on each state in the nation instead of the global community. They will do a global index that will be released the end of May.

Accumulating statistics about the United States took place in five main areas, Education, Health, Politics and Demographics, Crime and Economic conditions. These five main areas were again divided up to cover things like high school graduation, educational funding, percent of females in the labor force, single parent families, voter turnout, infant mortality, teenage pregnancy, life expectancy, access to basic services, poverty, internet access, homicide, violent crimes, jailed population, availability of small arms, numbers of police in a state, and more categories too numerous to mention. The main crime delineations had the heaviest weight.

All in all a pretty concise use of a broad range of categories leading to a score that details the peacefulness of each individual state. For me an interesting outcome was that the data has shown that since 1995 the US has become more peaceful as a result of reductions in violent crime and homicide.

One of those knock out gorgeous, flat, glassy days

Now sit up and take notice, Peace, for all you political junkies out there, is politically neutral in the US. Neither Republican nor Democratic states showed an advantage when it comes to peace.

The report does say that if we as a nation were to reduce our homicides and violent crime to levels seen in Canada we could create 2.7 million extra jobs and reap $272 billion in additional economic activity, certainly not something to ignore.

Peace affects all of us in many positive ways and is directly correlated to economic opportunity, education and health. Below is a ranking of the states, Maine being the most peaceful while Louisiana is the least. You can visit http://www.visionofhumanity.org/info-center/us-peace-index/ for more information. i don't know about you but if a peaceful environment means more money and more jobs whats not to like?

Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Minnesota
North Dakota
Utah
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Iowa
Washington
Nebraska
Hawaii
Oregon
South Dakota
Connecticut
Idaho
Montana
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Kentucky
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Wyoming
Indiana
Virginia
New Jersey
Kansas
Colorado
New York
Alaska
Michigan
North Carolina
California
Mississippi
Illinois
Delaware
Arizona
New Mexico
Georgia
Missouri
Maryland
South Carolina
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Texas
Alabama
Florida
Nevada
Tennessee
Louisiana

St. Croix is so beautiful

2011-04-20T15:42:00.000-04:00

"Wow, Mom, its really clear out there," yelled my son as he left for work this morning.
i realized when he said it that i had been tucked away in the family room looking at real estate listings for work. i hadn't noticed how beautiful the day was until his call to come out got me up from my seat and on the deck.

It really is a beautiful day today, one of those crystal clear types that jolt you out of your routine to take it all in. It's the kind of day when you wish everyone got to enjoy it just like you did.

Green Cay framed by palms

i live on a beautiful island and everyone who hasn't been here yet should come, but if you can't come enjoy the pics.

Looking down on Carambola

We make good music.
Kurt Schindler has a few St. Paddy's days video's up of his music...he is so good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r20rAE4Hr8E&feature=related
The Reggae Bubblers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd2NAouzbR4&feature=related

We make good rum
http://cruzanrum.com/

You can learn all about us at this website, even has web cams.
http://www.gotostcroix.com/

And some of my most recent pics from around the island taken this past week while entertaining visitors from California.

Cactus and view

So incredibly clear

The Baths

Coral sculptures at Issacs

So here is a little video of my favorite sound at the baths and some more pics.


The Hut at Issacs

Green Cay and Buck Island off in the distance

My mom, the atheist, died peacefully

2011-04-14T09:31:00.000-04:00

Loved her in her stylish snake skin coat

If you are wondering why i didn't post last week it was because i had to travel out to California suddenly as my mother was ailing. She died peacefully at the age of 82 early last Monday morning surrounded by family.

What an incredibly lucky woman she was, she knew she had had enough of life and told all those she loved that she was ready to die. She told the doctor straight to his face that she would not be hospitalized any more and was ready to go. She showed no fear, had no pain and died in her sleep just like she always wanted to. Her three kids and those grandchildren that lived close by were there to help her pass on.

The family cycled in and out of the bedroom for 26 hours, always leaving one in attendance to let her know she was loved and that it was Okay to leave us. Not once did she moan or cry out and when her sisters called from Europe she opened her eyes to acknowledge their voices.

My mom was an atheist, but it took her a very long time to finally embrace it. All her life she had questioned her Christian upbringing but could never quite let it go because of an over-riding guilt complex that had been instilled at a very young age. When she was in her 70’s she finally said enough and then claimed it was the most liberating experience she had ever gone through. The day she told someone she was an atheist she said it was like a chain being released from her throat, the freedom was exhilarating.

i’m writing this because i had a friend that told me my mother’s passing would not go well because she hadn’t been saved, but that she still had time and could rectify it.

She always wore that hat

i want to let that friend know that a good death comes without much pain, a good death comes when it takes place in the home with children and family, a good death comes naturally after a long and well-spent life, when the deceased has made peace with loved ones, when they are at peace with themselves and when they are at peace with their own death.

All the things that could have gone wrong didn’t. The whole universe was definitely in our court. It got me to California in time, it stopped the policeman from holding us up when we were clearly breaking the law by driving too fast, and it helped us navigate numerous other incidents that could have snowballed after she passed. Not a one of us practices religion regularly.

Her punk rock hair do and stylish glasses

So for those out there that believe, i just want to say that there is another way that is just as rewarding for the whole family and comes without all the dogma. If fear is keeping you religious here is a tale that is free of fear but full of love, understanding and a peaceful passing.

i loved my mom and i'm really going to miss her.

ta daa lists

2011-03-30T13:59:00.000-04:00

In my e-mail this morning.

This year we're going to experience four unusual dates. 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 and that's not all...Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born -now add the age you will be this year, and the result will be 111 for everyone...!! This is the year of Money..!!! This year October will have 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Saturdays.

This happens only every 823 years... These particular years are known as 'Moneybags'... The proverb goes that if you send this to eight good friends, money will appear in the next four days as is explained in Chinese feng shui Those who don't continue the chain won't receive.. Its a mystery, but its worth a try.
Good luck...

Looks like the South West doesn't it, but its Jacks Bay and a beautiful Kestrel

So what do you think, do most people start the day start off with plans for accomplishing various goals on their to do list? Do you think we all do this or are there some out there who never make a list but function just fine? i tend to think we all have a to do list, even if its just waking up, turning off the alarm clock and getting ready for work.

All over the internet you can find ways to organize yourself, 25 to do lists to stay productive, learning how to create a functional to do list, real simple to do lists, and how to follow through on your to do list.

Yum, Yum my favorite fruit

Personally i like the ta daa lists the best. i get a kick out of making a list and seeing how fast i can get to the ta daa part.

Ta daa’s are nothing more than doing what you said you were going to do. If you start off knowing you will never get to the ta daa, don’t put it on the list. Don’t create failure, its really pretty simple.

Yesterday i was with some really nifty ladies that were talking about tapping. If you haven’t heard of tapping it is a method that is used to reduce stress and free yourself from negative feelings and beliefs. To do lists have the capacity to throw us all into the negative feeling realm, but ta daas can save you. i haven’t ever tried tapping but the two ladies i was with both use it and find it beneficial.

So this morning while opening up e-mail i had a notice from tapping solution. Most times i delete these notices but i decided to open it up and see what was up because i had just been discussing it yesterday.

Full Moon in Frederiksted

Anyway the piece in my inbox had everything to do with what i was going to write about today so i’m copying and pasting it here so you can all enjoy it.

General Overwork and Overstress

Karate Chop: Even though I’m totally overworked,
really stressed out and have WAY too much to
do.... I deeply and completely accept myself

(Repeat the above phrase three times while
Tapping on the karate chop point)***i’m not sure what this means but i think you are supposed to tap on all these spots while thinking about the phrases. The tapping should be rhythmic.

Eyebrow: Way too much to do...
Side of the Eye: My “to-do” list is a mile long...
Under Eye: When will I ever get it done?
Under Nose: I’ll never get it done...
Under Mouth: I’m overworked and stressed out....
Collarbone: When can I relax?
Under the Arm: I can’t seem to relax
Top of the Head: Too much to do...

(Repeat the above phrases a couple of times,
you can throw in your own phrases as well, and
when you feel significant relief, move on to
the positive phrases)
Fort in Frederiksted

Eyebrow: I chose to relax now...
Side of the Eye: I chose to REALLY relax now...
Under the Eye: I’ll never get it ALL done...
Under Nose: And that’s ok...
Under Mouth: I chose to slow down and take a breath...
Collarbone: I am not my “to-do” list...
Under the Arm: I am good enough no matter
what I get done...
Top of the Head: I chose to relax and let it go now...

Seems easy, give it a try and maybe you will get to the ta daa today.

TA DAA!

Food and Water Safety

2011-03-23T13:25:00.000-04:00

Sejah Farm

Over at the Food and Water Watch website a new videohttp://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ has been put up that alerts all of us living in the US to be aware that some of the safety protections we take for granted are being threatened by this new Congress.

Independent of each other President Obama and Congress have both proposed cuts in their budgets to food and water safety. “The House GOP budget slashes $88 million from the USDA's meat safety inspections and $241 million from the food safety budget of the Food and Drug Administration, and slashes nearly $2 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency's funds for water infrastructure—money critical to keeping drinking water clean and sewage-free.” This drastic cutting is all going on while retaining subsidies that benefit large corporations and now not paying for three wars.

Cutting up the Jelly Nuts
"Food and Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control." Their Mission Statement

"At least 14 Americans died and many thousands became ill from tainted meat, spinach, peppers, peanut butter and eggs in recent years," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, said in a press statement. "Now, Washington is seeking to slash the budget for our food and water protections, which will put more people at risk."

Eating a Jelly Nut

There are all sorts of cutbacks on inspections that are getting the ax under the Republican budget. Cattle that are slaughtered may carry more E. Coli, salmonella and other bacteria’s without adequate inspections occurring. Food in the supermarkets may go inspection free because cutting the Food and Drug Administration by $241 million could mean 8,600 inspectors out of a job.

Yum Fresh Dolphin

Only one percent of the imported food is inspected as it is. As more and more of our food comes from other countries, the gutting of these food and safety departments leaves us all at risk. The Centers for Disease Control has reported that one out of every six Americans gets sick each year from food-borne illnesses, how many more will that increase to without inspectors on the front lines? How much does that cost in medical expenses that are unnecessary?

No one company will ever do the job that government can perform in ensuring safe, edible food and drinking water. Relying on companies to recall their own tainted food is a fool’s errand. Remember the corporations that sold peanut butter, chicken, pork etc. until they got caught? Selling food that is substandard may be good business if you can get away with it, but its not good for the population as a whole.

Cocao

Regulations, inspections, and fines are a necessary part of government to keep spoiled and infected meat,contaminated water, and e-coli riddled vegetables out of our homes. Without government playing a role in protecting these public resources all of us place ourselves and families at greater risk of illness and or death.

When you see your representatives cutting these vital services, call a halt. We can slash and burn in other areas of the budget, but food and water safety should be a priority for all of us.

rain

2011-03-16T13:48:00.001-04:00

In the water at Green Cay squall a comin

i’m going to rain on the parade with a little history that refutes the talking point concerning how this nation got to where it is today. For the record, Business did not do it alone. For so many the interactions of government and private enterprise in churning our historic economy is minimized in favor of private enterprise being the sole creator so to speak.

Many don’t know that the United States of America would not be where it is today without government and private enterprise working together.

Elk Horn at Green Cay a National Park

Lets take Alexander Hamilton for instance. When he was Treasury Secretary of the US government he instituted programs that would churn the economy. Harbors and river navigation were integral to moving goods from point A to point B. Hamilton understood that for business to thrive smuggling had to be under control. Then as now smugglers detested customs collectors and like all business people everywhere they avoided paying duty (taxes) on their goods.

Hamilton asked Congress to commission a fleet of vessels that would patrol offshore and stop the flow of contraband and keep tallies on goods coming into American ports. This new service of revenue cutters would later morph into what we call the Coast Guard. Everything that moved on the water was fair game for Hamilton’s revenue taxes and as a result of his attention to detail he improved harbors, dredged rivers and kept pirates at bay with “government money” so commerce could flow.

Octupus at Cane Bay

Hamilton beefed up river navigation, sent out survey crews to explore water borne paths to the Pacific and created safe new paths for commerce to move west(the Lewis and Clark expedition was initiated under Hamilton) and although they never found a river path that would connect the Pacific and the Atlantic they did initiate new trails that would become major arteries in the movement of goods across our nation.

Octopus Eyes. Can you find him?

“After Hamilton’s initial forays into the west, dozens of other expeditions were sent out, from after Lewis and Clark, right through the 1850s, when the Army assisted or outright ran surveying expeditions to select the various routes for transcontinental railroads. The transcontinental railroads themselves were capitalized by massive grants of public lands in the west. And before those, the earliest railroads in the East were almost all surveyed, planned, and built by officers of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was the ONLY repository of knowledge of civil engineering in the country, so government had a huge hand in expanding commerce.

“The evolution of transportation continued through the centuries, with wagons and stagecoaches, flatboats, canals, steamboats, and railroads providing increasingly efficient, ever faster service.” Weingroff

"Modern metal working machine tools were developed in the early 1800s in the national armories. Their contractors, in response to a War Dept. requirement for interchangeable parts for firearms, came up with the new methods for making tools. Studies have shown how the foremen and supervisors of these armories spread out into other companies, creating the modern metal working industry, and eventually leading DIRECTLY to the breakthroughs in systemization of industrial production by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Ocean at Green Cay

Maritime steam navigation relied heavily on the discoveries of Admiral Benjamin Isherwood of the Navy's Bureau of Steam Propulsion in the 1840s-50s.

The automobile age was made possible by the Good Roads movement, which directed local, state, and federal governments to grade, maintain, and pave roads and highways. Then there was the Interstate Highway System begun in the 1950s by Eisenhower. Today without our system of highways and interstates, manufacturers would spend obscene amounts of money moving their goods on private toll roads.

The aircraft industry was almost totally dependent on military funding at its beginning. This industry was basically created and underwritten deliberately by federal air mail programs.

Radio, at first called wireless telegraphy, was almost entirely funded in its industrial infancy by the Army and Navy.

Green Turtle at Cane Bay

Computer technology was developed under the auspices of the Army and Navy for purposes of gunnery control. After World War 2, the Navy in particular informally sponsored Seymour Cray and his development of super-computers. The internet, of course, began as the Defense Department's ARPANET.

For some in this nation it is extremely unfortunate that they continue to close their eyes to the vast improvements government has made on American lives. That government has contributed and worked hand in hand with business to move this nation forward, needs to be hammered home.

We were not a wealthy Nation when we began improving our highways... but the roads themselves helped us create a new wealth, in business and industry and land values... So it was not our wealth that made our highways possible. Rather, it was our highways that made our wealth possible.

Thomas H. MacDonald
Chief, U.S. Bureau of Public Roads

Today we need to understand that government has a real place in moving the economy forward. We need government to invest our tax dollars in renewable energy, to invest in drug research and science, to invest in education and a whole host of other things that benefit all Americans. Private enterprise cannot do it alone.

Nurse Sharks at Cane Bay

Drowning government in a bathtub will not be good for America, we need government and as soon as we realize this as a nation we will begin to move forward again.

Notes: The list of government created aspects of our lives after Hamilton i copied from other sources. i unfortunately lost who to credit it with.

American Jobs at risk

2011-03-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

People have different asset management skills. For some saving for the future is an integral part of their lifestyle whereas for others just getting the basic necessities paid for is an overwhelming burden. Those without a formal financial education are at a disadvantage and experience a lack of funds more frequently.

A lack of funds is becoming more and more pertinent as income instability and income inequality raises its ugly head. As the rich become richer, the middle class is getting squeezed at a rate not seen since the 1930’s. More and more people that had been living comfortable lives are experiencing a reduction in income. The middle class in particular experienced a 4.8% drop in income between 2000-2009, this during a Republican dominated government.

Competition for jobs is happening on a global scale rather than on a strictly local level. There is now an equal lack of the right circumstances(demand) for job growth all over the country. Employment is moving in a negative direction, becoming less secure rather than more secure. There are fewer good paying jobs available like the ones we used to think of with pension benefits, health insurance, and retirement. Today we see less and less of these jobs being offered.

"There is mounting evidence that economic growth is less effective in reducing poverty in the face of rising trends in inequalities," Danesh-Yazdi said. "These forces combined have created a world where young people without privilege and wealth are unable to get a foothold in the labor market, and older persons whose proportion throughout the world is increasing rapidly enjoy less and less security for a lifetime of work." The US is moving faster and faster in a negative direction.

According to job statistics there has been an uptick in employment levels lately but we still won’t see the economy getting back to 5% unemployment levels until approximately 2033 according to the Americans for Progress website. Those who state that everyone can find a job are delusional, there aren’t enough jobs available to employ everyone that is looking.

Conservatives in the House have proposed cut backs in spending all across state and federal governments. These cuts in spending will directly impact jobs all across America and may do considerable damage to an economy still reeling from the banking excesses of 2007-2008.

Goldman Sachs estimates that the Republican controlled House proposed cuts to spending could reduce economic growth by 1.5-2%. Now does this sound like the gang that believes in creating jobs?

Getting the economy to roar, getting people to spend and demand services means creating more jobs, not cutting back on jobs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers says we need to spend over a couple of trillion dollars over the next five years just to upgrade our infrastructure to where it should be. This means investing in roads, bridges, water systems, electrical systems, communication systems, schools, hospitals etc. Could the private sector come up with this kind of investment that we need now, trillions to upgrade? I don’t think so, but it is something government has the capacity to do. Those who always discount government need to wake up.

Republicans complain about taxes, small government, deficits and the free market, well it’s a sham. Government size exploded under Reagan and G.W.Bush. Deficits grew under Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. The “free market” has consistently caused income inequalities, huge market volatility and severe financial collapses. “In fact, the Great Recession we are now climbing out of should have been strike three for the Free Marketeers. Strike one was the Panic of 1893 and the depression which followed it. Strike two was the Great Depression of the 30’s. In all three cases, these collapses were preceded by conservative, laissez-faire policies featuring deregulation, low taxes and weak governments.” John Atcheson

Giving money back in taxes to people who don’t need it is doing grave harm to our nation. We are looking at more job losses, more off shoring, more reductions in hourly wages, just so some can make obscene profits.

Taxes are shared social investments that yield significant benefits for all segments of society which in many cases outweigh the cost, they are not some abstract burden.

Think where this nation is headed, if we continue down the conservative path we could be looking at an oligarchy staring us in the face. i don’t think any of us want that, remember we are all in this together.

Doing your part

2011-03-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

Hybrid Hibiscus

i pick up little snippets from around the web that may or not have any meaning for you but did for me when i collected them.

Recently i read a piece by Robert F. Kennedy that explained why Canadians had voted against allowing FOX to have access to their TV bandwidths; apparently truth is very important in Canada and FOX coincidentally has a problem with truth.

The Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) prohibits the broadcast of false or misleading news. This law was passed to prevent political parties from spreading propaganda and as a result Canadians enjoy an exemplary level of news and journalism. Canadians are some of the most informed in the world.

Squid

“Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio.” R.F. Kennedy

Here in the US we used to have a law(The Fairness Doctrine) that required news stations to present both sides of any topic. The law required news outlets to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced. Equal time was not a requirement of the law.

Roseway passing by

PBS’s Lehrer News Hour is one of the few that still make an effort to let both sides have air time. In 1987(during Reagan’s term in office) the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine claiming that it was unconstitutional.

Today, there is no law on our books demanding that news stations tell the truth.

On to another subject from the Associated Press:

NATO apologizes for killing 9 Afghan civilians. . . Local officials say nine boys, ages 12 and under, were killed as they were gathering firewood. . .Top NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus said the coalition was "deeply sorry" for the tragedy. . .

Gentle Winds

Hmmm is this a lesson in how to make friends and influence people or is this a sure way to make more enemies? How would “deeply sorry” feel to you if that was one of your children?

Next up…..last Saturday over 100,000 people came out to support union workers in their fight to keep collective bargaining on the table in Madison,Wisconsin…all over the rest of the country thousands of supporters turned out in their cities and towns but if you were watching CNN, FOX News, or MSNBC you wouldn’t have known so many people were concerned. It seems whenever liberals demonstrate it is not news but when conservatives demonstrate it’s all over the news, i wonder if it has anything to do with those corporations being anti-union?

i was having a talk with my husband last night about the problems with budgets all over the nation when he rightly pointed out that teachers, firefighters, policemen and other hard working government workers are not responsible for the current government deficits. In this politically charged time of demonizing government workers the fact that Wall Street caused the economic recession seems to be left out of the hard discussions.

Another Squid

Balancing the budget on the backs of these government workers who had nothing to do with the state we are in and will cause more job losses seems misguided. Why aren’t we discussing cracking down on tax loopholes and tax dodgers or the special interest tax breaks given to corporations some of which have paid no tax at all?

So to end this piece i picked up this anonymous quote:

Why is it that a 3% tax increase for the wealthy is considered "socialism" and
an 8% wage cut for the middle class is "doing your part?"

Taking in information

2011-02-23T15:06:00.001-04:00

Christiansted

Well these past few weeks have been interesting internationally and right here at home.

Today i thought i’d just make mention of things we might like to be paying attention to but may not have the time to investigate.

Europe…Increasing investment in green technologies could give Europe’s GDP a €600 billion boost, according to a report by Germany’s Institute for Climate Impact Research. Twenty four hour strike grips Greece, clashes erupt. Europe rushes to pull foreigners out of Libya.

Middle East…Tunisia and Egypt have deposed their dictators. Bahrain, and Yemen are working on getting rid of theirs. Saudi Arabia is nervously watching as are the other countries in the area.

Africa… Libya, Gaddafi says he will not go and government forces fire on civilians. Somalian pirates have resorted to killing which is a new twist in the kidnapping business. East Africa is pushing the Nile Basin countries to work out a cooperative agreement. In Nigeria crude oil production has risen to 2.6 million barrels a day. Rwanda is doing tests on an anti-HIV gel that has been approved, it is hoped the vaginal gel will reduce the risk of HIV infection among women.

Helmet Shell

Asia… The Philippines celebrates 25 years of the people’s revolt. Malaysia is going ahead with the first solar power plant. National rice production is fine says the Indonesian government. Mobile users in Bangladesh cross 70 million.

USA…There are 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the US according to the census bureau. "The average amount owed on credit cards by 46% of owners is $15,788.00. YIKES! "Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income".

The drama in Wisconsin has spread to Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio where labor unions are standing up against conservatives who have vowed to crush their right to bargain collectively. This is our homegrown uprising and one has to question how any taxpayer is harmed personally by teachers, policemen, firemen and others fighting for their rights and benefits.

Green Turtle

Latin America…Brazils ex President Lula being probed for administrative misconduct. Mexican president claims US isn’t doing enough to help fight drug cartels. Amazon Indians in London to stop dams they say will destroy them. UNESCO claims Machu Picchu needs fewer tourists. Venezuela denies giving refuge to Gaddafi.

Australia and New Zealand…The death toll from the devastating earthquake has risen to 75 with 300 still missing, a state of emergency has been declared. Western Australian coastal communities avoided major damage as a Category 2 storm barreled through. Residents in southern New South Wales have been urged to take extra precautions against mosquitoes after a rare and potentially fatal virus was detected near the Victorian border.

News impacts all of us in different ways. If it appeals to the emotions the audience may be likely to suffer pangs of compassion or empathy like we have recently seen with the events in Egypt. If big news happens close to home those who may know some of the victims can feel a direct link to the events that occurred as we saw with the recent floods in Australia. Any disaster, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes can bring up long repressed Post Traumatic Stress Syndromes in those who have experienced a similar event.

Steel pan

News creates controversy. News that involves conflicts or new legislation which will induce readers to take sides can polarize a community. Although most news sources see their role as a public service they still need to make money to survive and many times may editorialize their position on the issues. Where you get your information is important to your understanding of the issues; if you are only getting it from one outlet you are apt to be missing all the various sides and i would highly advise busting out of your rut.

Up above i picked short sound bites that most of us can read and absorb quickly. But in one piece i expressed two opinion's that i slipped in. Propaganda can be based upon facts which are skewed in such a way as to influence your opinion. If what you are reading only tells one side of the story, you could be basing your decision making upon faulty information.

i definitely have an agenda here at this site, i’m not a journalist just a lowly blogger who is interested in explaining that we humans are more alike than different. Explore the internet, go to sites you don’t usually go, broaden your horizon and break out, read the oppositions pieces and see if your mind isn't changed by the new information you take in. Don't depend on one or two places to get all your news and opinion pieces because you don't want to be making decisions that could be detrimental to your future and your childrens.

ley lines

2011-02-16T15:13:00.001-04:00

An overcast morning saluted us with some mild swells and air and water had that wintry bleak feel.

The sun peaked in and out as the wind blew and chilled our scantily clothed bodies. Four of us swam out in visibility that wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been.

Looking to the first buoy we established our ley lines that got some of us there faster than others.

Ley lines you say? Isn’t it lay lines like one would use in sailing. You know “Lay lines” the ones that are the straight line tracing the course following which a boat can reach an upwind mark (the shortest course to reach the target).

No, i mean ley line the one that brings you to some mystical energy. Some force that guides you in to a place where you can experience a random event. Some people believe that ley lines and their intersection points resonate a special psychic or mystical energy. Hmmm you must be thinking.

My favorite fish can you find him?

People that don’t swim always ask if we just race all the time. i explain that we usually stop for any number of reasons including turtles, flashy fish, unusual formations or anything odd looking. If we haven’t stopped at all on the way out to the first buoy then it has probably been an uneventful swim and highly unusual. We derive a lot of energy out of these swims be it physical, spiritual, psychic or mystical.

This morning at the first buoy we got to talking about “Obamacare”, single payer health insurance, and a host of other things that involved ideology from both sides. Up until recently i have been the only “bleeding heart liberal” with a “fiscally conservative” mindset. i’m always beefing up the conversation with tidbits my fellow swimmers were unaware of.

Anyway we left that buoy not having finished the conversation but needing to get going. i’m sure some of us had thought that by the time we got to the second buoy our thoughts would be more concise and we could continue the discussion by revealing points we had previously omitted. Out came our new ley lines and off we went.

Sea Fan

By the time we reached the second buoy we were to be silenced by the arrival of five gorgeous dolphins that wanted to play. Unfortunately i had left my camera at home thinking if the sun wasn’t out the picture would be dull, my mistake. Those dolphins’ two mamas with children and one huge male swam so close to us i could have gotten beautiful pictures.

The kids rolled on their backs showing off their white bellies while the mamas nodded their heads. The male, who was longer than me, got into a vertical position right in front of me, nodded his head and then played. He was as frisky and happy as was one of the children who stayed with us the longest. We of course trilled our excitement and kept up with them as long as we could.

Elated, spiritually and physically we gushed over how lucky we had been to swim with them while heading to shore. i think we all genuinely felt we had been touched by something special.

We acted as a group, we experienced as a group and we shared as only groups of people can do. Those that are usually in our group but weren’t there today missed out. Our group was benefiting from a positive environmental encounter with a species different from our own and we were all feeling the glow.

Society’s beliefs have consequences for the population at large. We know this from our most recent experience with an economy that almost went into free fall. This morning our talk was about repealing “Obamacare” tomorrow it will be about something else, climate change, the deficit, poverty, education, wars and peace but you know we will still feel connected and act as a group.

i believe in social safety nets, i believe in the common good, my friends do and they don’t. Unfortunately we only have time in our jam packed lives to listen to sound bites concerning the issues. Back on shore we returned to expressing our views on "Obamacare" before splitting up.

We humans want the same things, a world of contented healthy children, families, communities, and natural systems. We usually get along just fine as long as we aren't trying to control something. Cultural stories are used to shape our understanding and our choices. Today the choice is “Obamacare” or repeal of this care. My cultural story is different from my friends even though we want the same things. The choice we are presented with by our government is limited because both create outcomes that will not benefit the population at large. Some of us find this a problem and some of us don't.

So what is it we all want...we all want the same things peace, contentment, prosperity, safety, healthy outcomes, strong families and communities. What will benefit the population at large is what we all want even though we don't always recognize this.

My question to my friend is if single payer insurance would benefit you more than purchasing health insurance on the open market why in the world would you fight against it?

Change through peaceful protest

2011-02-11T14:47:00.000-04:00

Those Egyptians in the streets are the real people. They represent people all over the world that want freedom and democracy and are willing to go out into the streets and protest peacefully for their rights. Even in the face of thugs sent out to foment discord they held strong. Their triumph goes against all the propaganda spewed by the powerful all over the world that change can only come about through violence.

This is a complete slap in the face to those who believe the gun is mightier than the soul of a nation. The Egyptian people are now directly involved in creating a new future for Egypt and themselves; they wanted change and they persevered in the streets to get rid of a regime they considered out of touch.

Rulers are measured by how they treat the governed; Mubarak failed to gain the complete trust of his people. He failed over and over again with his dictatorial mandates, his tyranny, repression and torture and the people have had enough. The people in the streets haven’t just told Mubarak to leave they also told Al-Qaeda that violence is not the way; they have proved Al-Qaeda wrong. They have shown that peacefully demonstrating can bring about positive changes.

The people hope Mubarak is gone for good. i’m still apprehensive about those he left in place, they are the old guard still operating under a police and military mind set. i hope the Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei is right about what he told the Associated Press. "This is the greatest day of my life. The country has been liberated after decades of repression," He said “he expects a "beautiful" transition of power.”

If the actions of the protesters over the last two weeks are any indication of a will to move forward without violence, the odds are in their favor. If the military steps aside and lets the different factions unite to create a new government then the people of Egypt have every right to expect a “beautiful transition.”

Our President last night had the moral courage to stand with the Egyptian people and i applaud him for it. Here is the speech he made.

Statement of President Barack Obama on Egypt

The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient. Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world. The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity.
As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles. We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy. To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt’s future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair.
We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek. Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties. Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard.
The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.

dance of the strandbeests

2011-02-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

Green Cay

A friend sent me a link to go and view a contraption that lives on the beach. Both of us being water/beach people, i guess this friend thought i would appreciate all the time and innovation the creator had put into it, plus the fact that it resided on a beach.

i did.

Then i sent the link on to other (water/beach people) that i thought might enjoy it.

Cramer Park

After doing that i decided that even though we aren’t all “beach people” others might enjoy this contraption just as much as i did. The more i thought about it the more people i came up with, and although not “beach people” they still might find a connection and send it on to people they think might enjoy looking at it.

Of course, before including it here i had put in even more thought and the categories of people that might enjoy it grew. Those who like the wind and what it can move came to mind; those into airplanes, gliders, sailboats etc; anyone that builds things would be into this contraption because it is constructed out of PVC pipes and walks on its own, i felt sure they would be curious to see it.

Lawyers, playwrights, scriptwriters and computer geeks would be sure to love these critters coming up with all sorts of ideas for futuristic movies or games, just by taking a peek at it.

Southgate Beach

Artists, architects and engineers of all types would appreciate the design. Parents, teachers and anyone involved with educating or raising children could see this as a way to open minds to the possibilities that are available all around us. Even medical people used to fixing our broken bodies could find enjoyment in the bone structure (legs, knees and feet) visibly moving along the beach.

Truck drivers used to driving big mammoth hulks of metal down the highways of this nation would probably find this walking graceless mess respectable in its good natured design. It might not be the weirdest thing they have ever seen on their travels but i'll bet they call it “cool”.

Coakley Bay Pond

What i like about it is its appeal to everyone i could come up with. i can’t think of a single person that wouldn’t think these creatures were amazing feats of artistic ability and unusual engineering. Who wouldn’t find this creation odd and yet strikingly functional. This moving design made from some of our most basic materials will act as a full-blown connector set; connecting us all up to marvel over the amazing talents of Theo Jansen.

i love that, i love the connection. i love the ability we all have to guide each other through use of this medium. i love that it happens each and every day in our in-boxes, in our surfing of the web and in our daily communications through social sites. i wonder how many people will go on to research more or look at other innovations after viewing these creatures.

Theo Jansen is the designer of these beach animals’s that feed on wind, avoid dangers and escape from the sea. His idea is that these animals will not need food but will be able to survive on their own. He claims that they can carry heavy loads, can hunker down during storms, and will move of their own volition.

You’ve got to go look at these things.

http://www.talkingscience.org/2011/01/the-dance-of-the-strandbeests/

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html