Photo help

i take a lot of pictures all over the island and recently noticed a quirk. i had taken a photo of this old run down house about a month ago and posted it in my blog.

A friend had seen it in the blog and told me to go back and look at the place again. i went back and found this which looks like it has been there forever.Double click on them they are nice photos.

Does anyone know why the building was plastered with these old photos? Who are they?

Interesting old site:  A sandstone cave located in southwest Egypt close to the Libyan border is called the Cave of Swimmers because of the figures on the walls. Here in the middle of the desert drawings that are believed to be 10,000 years old show human beings in the act of swimming.

You can be put to death in 13 countries around the world for atheism.

The National Day of Reason is on May 1, 2014.

Investment is driven by demand if there are investments to be made they will be done regardless of tax rates.

Inequality hurts economic growth. When people can't buy the economy can not grow.

Obamacare does not ration health care by income like our previous system.

Every time the CBO estimates how much Obamacare will cost the number gets lower...how come you never read that on the conservative sites?

Studies are showing that more and more of the wealthy get their money through inherited wealth.

Studies also find that the wealthy give less of their total income(1.3%) to charity than middle class Americans(3.2%).

Causes of bird fatalities:

wind turbines...less than 10,000

communication towers....50,000

pesticides.......................710,000

vehicles..........................850,000

cats................................1,060,000

high tension lines..........1,370,000

Buildings/windows..... 5,820,000

 i think FOX news incites hatred, animosity, and fear, maybe FOX news watchers think all the other stations do the same thing, i don't.

Apple says climate change is real and a real problem for the world. 94% of its corporate facilities and 100% of its data centers are powered by renewables.

See ya next week.

Visitors mean this one is a shorty

A study from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and US Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that “free-ranging domestic cats” kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals every year.

Saudi Arabia spent $67bn on it military, Russia spent $87.8bn, China spent $188bn, and the US spent $640bn in 2013 according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Laws against sleeping in your car or on the sidewalk are called “quality of life laws.” Quality of life for who i wonder.

Spotted Sandpiper

Findings by the National Academy of Sciences released yesterday make claims that China's air pollution could be contributing to intensifying storms over the Pacific.

Adam Smith is quoted a lot by conservatives, i wonder what they would think about him saying this.

"The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state."[121]

or this:

"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."

According to the CBO regarding the Affordable Care Act:

1.ACA enrollment through exchanges reached 7.1 million, ahead of early estimates.
2.The ACA is quickly reducing the uninsured rate.
3.Thanks in part to the ACA, health care spending has slowed dramatically and health care inflation is at its lowest point in 50 years.
4.According to the Department of Commerce, the ACA is also having a positive effect on personal incomes.
 5. And according to the CBO, the system is even more affordable than previously projected.

The International Space Station is able to recycle 75% of astronauts pee.

See ya next week.

Did you know

Working together on the Roseway

That there is a company called Opower that has developed a way of communicating with utility customers to help them lower their energy bills and consumption.

China invested more in renewables in 2013 than Europe did.

Japan increased their renewable investments in 2013 by 80%.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis of CNN, FOX news, and MSNBC found that FOX news had the most misleading statements concerning climate change.

Bananas might be getting more expensive because of a disease strain ruining crops in Asia.

Red states(Republican) have a higher number of uninsured and lower minimum wages than blue states.

The US places first in number of people believing in angels.

In the top ten most livable cities not one US city is included.

Countries ranked highest on the Social Progress Index invest in schools, collective bargaining and universal health care.

There has never been a time since the Civil War when states weren't involved in providing social services.

It is a myth that charities have enough resources to replace state and national social services.

During acute need charities quickly become overwhelmed and can only serve a small portion of the population.

i've never heard any one claim that if Medicare was abolished elder care charities could fill the gap.

“There is more money to be made from the ignorant than the enlightened, and deceiving Americans is one of the few growing home industries we still have in this country. A truly educated populace would be bad, both for politicians and for business.” Charles Simic

Only one in six Americans can find Ukraine on a map.

According to Neil DeGrasse Tyson if creationists were right we wouldn't be able to see most of the stars in the sky.

“If medium household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000 instead of $50,000.” Mother Jones

The cost of living has increased 67% since 1990. Mother Jones.

Poverty Myth busted:

Black dads are the problem...wrong. Among men who don't live with their children, black fathers are more likely than White or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids' lives according to a study detailed this month in Mother Jones

See ya next week

Shorties

Every once in a while i like to publish things that most of us don't have the time to look for. The pieces are discordant but there is a thread of wise words if one takes the time to think about them.

Omar Khayyam

Don’t try every door
because of some bauble;
you just have to accept
the good and bad of your time;
a shake of the cup
and a toss of the dice–
whatever comes up,
you’ll just have to play it.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Whinfield 31 .

Bertrand Russell from the book “In Praise of Idleness”

Written in 1933

“Amid wars and rumors of wars, while “disarmament” proposals and non-aggression pacts threaten the human race with unprecedented disaster, another conflict, perhaps even more important, is receiving much less notice than it deserves—I mean the conflict between men and insects.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

“There is another thing about the Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of an herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana.”

Kahlil Gibran

“Mankind have I loved. Ay, much have I

loved men,

And men in my opinion are three:

The one who curses life, the one who

blesses it, and the one who contem-

plates it.

The first I have loved for his misery, the

second for his beneficence, and the

third for his wisdom.”

Krishnamurti

“In thought first; and that is not easy, for there are in the world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions, and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore you must not hold a thought just because many other people hold it, nor because it has been believed for centuries, nor because it is written in some book which men think sacred; you must think of the matter for yourself, and judge for yourself whether it is reasonable. Remember that though a thousand men agree upon a subject, if they know nothing about that subject their opinion is of no value.”

Bhagavad Gita.

“Both you and I have passed

through many births.

You know them not;

I know them all.”

Carolos Castaneda “A Separate Reality”

“Let me tell you something,” don Juan said. “It was a waste of time for you. His lesson was for someone who can see. Pablito and Nestor got the gist of it, although they don't see very well. But you, you went there to look. I told Genaro that you are a very strange plugged-up-fool and that perhaps you'd get unplugged with his lesson, but you didn't. It doesn't matter though. Seeing is very difficult.”

Ernest Hemingway “The Old Man and the Sea”

“He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them, although they are more noble and more able.”

Number 43 from the Tao Te Ching:

The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.

See ya next week.

Things you might not know

There are more wind and solar workers in the US than coal miners.

Air pollution killed 7 million last year.

The rate at which CEO to worker pay has increased since 1950 is 1000%

Norway has hosted a bike lift for over twenty years which is 130m long and carries cyclists up one of their nasty steep hills.

Eating bananas has been associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, breast cancer and renal cell carcinoma...they are also an excellent source of the B6 vitamin.

The Obama administration has cut the deficit from 1.4 trillion in 2009 to a projected $514 billion by the end of 2014.

Turtle remains at Sandy Point

NASA states that 97% of scientists around the world that study climate believe that man made climate change is not a hoax. Average temperatures on a global level, year over year are getting higher.

Cars are regulated; you need a drivers license, you must wear a seat belt, exhaust is regulated, you can't drink and drive, and they are not built specifically to kill. We should regulate guns and their owners the same way we do cars and their owners.

David Frum(R) says an American is 50% more likely to be shot dead by his or her own hand than to be shot dead by an assailant.

You don't have Freedom if you don't have free time.

US citizens work longer than their fellow humans in any other industrialized nation except South Korea.

The Protestant work ethic was so you could spend more time on spiritual and cultural endevors not on more possessions. Free time was supposed to make us better citizens not better consumers.

Study after study shows that over work hurts productivity.

So far in 2014 the Koch's through American's for Prosperity have aired 17,000 TV commercials while Republican mainline groups have only aired 2,100. Vast wealth is changing our democracy. It behoves all of us to think about who really represents our interests.

According to the American Journal of Medicine 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical illness even though most had medical insurance.

Corporate Welfare

Boeing...13.2 BILLION

Alcoa...5.6BILLION

Intel...3.9 BILLION

GM...3.5 BILLION

Ford...2.5 BILLION

Dow Chemical...1.4 BILLION

Berkshire Hathaway...1.1 BILLION

and that is only a handful...stop blaming poor people and look where the real money is going.

America has the largest prison population in the world.

Why is the richest country on earth so poor?

See ya next week.

Whales Ho

This past week has been one some of us will never forget. Every season humpback whales migrate south to birth their babies in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean. On their way they pass St. Croix and give those who are watching lively shows and close encounters.

Finfolk Caribbean Swimmers of which i'm a member organizes open water swims all around the island on Saturdays, but during the week there is a regular Mon., Wed., Fri. group that swims at Cane Bay. For years we have been hearing whales, seeing them from shore, but never actually swimming with them until this past Friday.

It was one of those barely a ripple on the surface and relatively clear days swimming at Cane Bay. We were heading east along the edge coming back from North Star when we heard all this yelling. i looked up and saw the back of a humpback whale breaching up ahead. Immediately i yelled as loud as i could WHALES to the other swimmers. He was coming towards us and i managed to fumble about and get my GoPro out of my suit and turned on. The video is not the best but if you watch the white spot in the middle which is one of his flippers you will see it grow into the whole whale as he passes underneath us.

Swiming with Humpback Whale at Cane Bay, St. Croix

We were ecstatic and couldn't believe we actually captured our experience on video. That experience was one of those touched by nature days you couldn't stop thinking about. As if that wasn't enough the next day the Finfolk walked out to the tip of Sandy Point and got in the water to swim back to Sandcastles. Not five minutes in we were visited by a pod of six dolphins. One frisky member of the pod seemed to like us and stayed around long enough to again give me time to get the Go Pro out and film. This video is actually better than the whales.

Regularly when we are swimming we encounter turtles. i had been filming them at Cane Bay and other places where we swim. A good friend took my raw video and edited it then put it to music by the Reggae band Pressure. She did a really good job. i can't post it here but check out the link.
VI Sea Turtles

i'm not sure why the whale and turtle video are on and off here on Blogger, they work fine on Facebook.
i put them up on the Finfolk Caribbean Swimmers page which is public so if you have a Facebook account you can watch them there and like us if you want to keep informed about our swims. The whale one is about 2 minutes and the dolphin one is 1 minute. You can hear our exclamations and the dolphins clicks.

This is enough excitement for one week...so see ya next week.