Category Archives: science

Filthy-Minded Teenager

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Filthy-Minded Teenager | OnEarth Magazine.

This sure sounds like a great idea. It looks feasible. It’s great to hear about kids coming up with such new and interesting ideas. We sure can use all the help we can get on coming up with practical solutions to all the problems we have (mostly self inflicted).

A comment below the article ( http://ecowatch.com/2013/04/09/fallacy-cleaning-gyres-of-plastic-with-ocean-cleanup-array/), leads to another really great article about the issue of plastic polluting the oceans.

So this might not really be a solution after all. Maybe at least its a starting point. So far, I haven’t heard (but Stiv Wilson has) of anybody else coming up with anything to try to get rid of all that crap floating around out there in the middle of the ocean and washing up on our beaches. 🙁

Read both articles for a good idea of what’s really happening out there.

Blowing in the “Vind”

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Blowing in the “Vind”.

This is a very interesting concept. I would love to see how these ships actually perform. It didn’t mention in the article if they had one built yet, so I have to assume they haven’t got that far.

If this really works the way they explain in the article -like a very large sailboat using the hull itself as a sail- then I think it would really do what they claim (save 60% on fuel and 80% on emissions).

I hope they hurry up and get a few built so they can test their theories. 🙂

5 Sky Events This Week: Cosmic Bull’s-Eye and Eskimo Nebula

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5 Sky Events This Week: Cosmic Bull’s-Eye and Eskimo Nebula – News Watch.

Be sure to check out the sky tonight for the Orionid meteor shower. Last night it was raining my entire watch (2400-1200), so I couldn’t even see the moon. 🙁

Addiction?

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I’ve been enjoying a blog conversation on The Culture Monk blog. It started with his post ‘Oreos & Cocaine…REALLY???'( http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/20/oreos-cocaine-really/). There’s been an interesting bunch of comments on his post and I’ve joined in.

I think its a neat coincidence that I got that article in my email that I posted on here yesterday about scientists who think they might have found a cure for addiction of all types (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/is-this-chemical-a-cure-for-marijuana-addiction/). I got it in time to add to that blog conversation. 

Now this morning, I saw another post on the mindhacks blog about how the original study that started the conversation was probably not really the big deal the media made it out to be (http://mindhacks.com/2013/10/17/scraping-the-bottom-of-the-biscuit-barrel/#comment-79421). Surprise, surprise. 😉

They had a link in their post to a post on Reason.com that really makes a lot of sense to me (http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/16/researchers-show-that-cocaine-and-heroin). I’ve subscribed to their magazine for years and I’ve always liked the way they approach things. This is just one more example of some ‘reasonable’ thinking on the issue of addiction.

I think it’s great how we can use all these resources to have a worldwide conversation about all kinds of things. News and research at our fingertips. Isn’t it great! 😉

 

Is This Chemical a Cure For Marijuana Addiction?

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Is This Chemical a Cure For Marijuana Addiction? | Surprising Science.

Oh boy! Let the ‘authorities’ get ahold of this stuff and it’ll be all over. We’ll all be doped into shambling zombies with no ounce of joy left to our lives. All for our own good (of course). 🙁

I’m pretty damn sure marijuana is NOT addicting! It just does not fit the definition of addiction. It’s been around forever and there would probably be ZERO negative results if we weren’t on a prohibitionist rampage against it!

Remember, it WAS legal here and anyone who wanted to could and DID use it up until the congress fraudulently banned it starting in the late 1930s. There was NO problem with it until Nixon ramped up the War on (some) Drugs in the 1970s.

Throwing people out of schools, jobs, their homes, etc because a drug test found a few NANOGRAMS of THC is NOT proof of addiction!!! It’s a circular argument, ‘they’re addicted because they have a problem with pot (they lost their jobs, etc)’, NOT!! They do NOT have a problem with pot, they have a problem with the LAW!

I don’t doubt that some people are addicted to some things. Some people are actually even harmed by their addictions. Most people are NOT addicted physically to anything really, but it suits the people in charge to say so. Once again, they take away OUR responsibility and OUR choices.

But lots of people do have emotional/psychological addictions to all kinds of things. Love, sex, adrenaline junkies like skydiving or race car driving, food addicts, drug addicts, alcoholics, smokers, etc.

There are always so many people out there who just can’t stand to see anyone else having fun! WHY? Why the hell can’t I smoke some weed if I feel like it? What the hell is wrong if I choose pot over booze? We already had a hell of a fight over alcohol prohibition and we FINALLY came to our senses and ‘let’ people drink again.

WHY can’t we come to the proper conclusion that we need to do the same thing with all the other drugs that people choose to use? WHY do so many people think THEY know best?

Most of the people who are supposedly addicted are only classed that way because something ‘interfered with their life’. I’ve seen the AA questionnaire on ‘you may be an alcoholic’, yeah, we ALL may be alcoholics if that’s the standard!

I remember thinking about one question, do you ever drink alone? My aunt drank a glass of wine with her dinner every night, she lived alone, according to AA that meant she was an alcoholic!

I have been arrested for DWI. According to the standards, that means I’m an alcoholic. I have a ‘problem with alcohol’, well NO I don’t have a problem with alcohol, I DO have a problem with COPS!

Because of that supposed “problem” with alcohol, I have been held back from many promotions, even my ability to travel has been cut off! I was recently informed by the CBP that because of my conviction, I can not be considered “low-risk”. Now what the HELL does a conviction for DWI have to do with being able to travel through the fast lane at the airport?????

Now, those controlling type people will have one more tool to use against those of us who would LIKE to be able to enjoy our lives without puritanical interference. Scientists have found that ‘kynurenic acid’ can be used to basically negate the effects of dopamine.

Dopamine is associated with the ‘pleasure center’ of the brain. When you are enjoying yourself, your dopamine levels increase. They also increase when you are using alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc. They also increase while you enjoy a good meal, when you have sex, when you do ANYTHING pleasurable.

I don’t know about you all, but I think we should all be able to take our pleasures any way we can! As long as you don’t hurt anybody else, you should be able to do ANYTHING you want! That DOES include getting high, on WHATEVER you choose to do the trick!

I can just imagine the horror stories to come if/(when) they start using this stuff on people. We’ll all be doped up like a bunch of zombies to treat our ‘addictions’, this stuff will be used to block any pleasure from our brains. Tone us down just enough so we can keep on being good little workers, but we’ll never be able to go out and have a good time on Friday night again, we just don’t know what’s good for us (and THEY do).

WOW! 🙁 And I thought Brave New World was only science fiction. 🙁

This Is Mars in Extremely High Resolution

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This Is Mars in Extremely High Resolution | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

Another good article from the Smithsonian this morning. This one is about Mars. The article shows a dozen or so beautiful black and white photographs of Mars. They were taken over the years by various spacecraft. That in itself is pretty fantastic.

Now, a French photographer, editor, designer- Xavier Barral is putting together a book. Called This is Mars, it will showcase about 150 of these gorgeous pictures. I’ll have to look for it at the library. 🙂

40 Percent of Your Chicken Nugget Is Meat. The Rest Is…

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40 Percent of Your Chicken Nugget Is Meat. The Rest Is… | Mother Jones.

Interesting ‘study’ on just what exactly those chicken nuggets consist of. 🙂

OK, as they admit, it’s only 2 samples (out of billions) so NOT scientific at all. But I seriously doubt if those nuggets are all that much different than the ones they DID pick to study. I mean, it’s not like they somehow knew beforehand just which places would have the bad ones, right?

They didn’t even get into the issue of the breading. What all’s in THAT stuff? I’m pretty sure that’s not good for you either. Probably adds a lot of salt, fat, sugar, GMO, etc to your nugget, on top of all the ‘chicken’.

Do they add the breading to make them taste better? To make them more addictive (salt, sugar, HFCS, etc have been shown to light up the same pleasure centers in the brain as other addictions)? Or to make them LOOK better? all those icky things they throw in there might not look very appetizing.

I admit, I almost never eat chicken nuggets. I can’t remember ever really paying that much attention to them, but now I’m going to have to pick them apart and see if I can tell anything just from looking at them closely. Somehow I doubt it will be that easy to tell what’s really in there. 🙁

Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol

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Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol.

This is the first study I’ve ever seen on IF these tests do ANYTHING. I think some of the premises are false. Such as: using the post accident rates to determine if any drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident.

Just like in the Exxon Valdez incident, these figures can be totally misleading. As found after that investigation, Captain Hazelwood had NOTHING to do with that accident, so even if he WAS totally wasted, the accident had NOTHING to do with it,( if he was or if he wasn’t drinking). The fact that he had a couple of drinks simply allowed Exxon to use him as a scapegoat and get away with the FACT that it was THEIR policies which REALLY caused that accident.

I REALLY hate the fact that we use the excuse that someone, somewhere might be doing (some) drugs, to strip away the rights of millions of innocent people. There is NO authority in the constitution for either the outlawing of (some) drugs OR any sort of random drug testing to be forced on us by the federal government!

Is it worth stripping the 4th amendment, the 5th amendment from the constitution to allow these tests? Is it worth forgetting about the 9th and 10th amendments to even allow the federal government to have ANY say-so about what we choose to put into OUR bodies?? I say NO, I say HELL NO!!!

It is NEVER worth it to give up our rights! Not for ANY reason. And the fact that they haven’t even tried to show any kind of proof that their stupid rules do ANY good at all up until this just shows that they could give a flying f*&k!

Why in the heck are they even in charge of licensing us in the first place? Who the hell gave the federal government the authority to tell me if I can go to work, who I can work for, what hoops I have to jump through in order to apply for a job??? I sure as hell can’t find anything about that in the constitution. It’s NOT there. So, in fact, every single licensing law is unconstitutional and void!

Lets get the companies and the sailors together on this and eliminate the government out of the mix! Now would be a great time since they are ‘shut down” (yeah, riiiight- I only wish they really were)!

Lets come up with a scheme that would actually be sensible and affordable to the people actually involved (instead of a bunch of clueless bureaucrats). Maybe we could stop all our ships from moving overseas and get some jobs back for American sailors if we did that.

Too bad now we have to deal with the IMO. Maybe ALL the sailors around the world should get together on this. I’m sure they realize there is no one in any governmental position anywhere worldwide that is actually on THEIR side. Its always all about the money and we (sailors) don’t have any. ;-(

This Guy’s Stomach Made Its Own Beer

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This Guy’s Stomach Made Its Own Beer | Smart News.

This is pretty interesting. I wonder how the law on DWIs is going to treat this. If you did NOT drink anything, but your BAC is over the legal limit, do you get charged and have your life destroyed for not hurting anyone? Just like the people who are in the exact same condition who have had a drink??

I’ve been arguing this for years, that the laws against DWI are just wrong, totally unjust and so should NOT BE laws! If I can drive down the highway, talking on my cell phone (or eating a burger, or falling asleep, or yelling at the kids, etc), get in an accident and kill 15 people and not get charged. Then, I could go home and have a beer to take my nerves off, get pulled over for having a tail light out, and have my entire life destroyed for being “drunk”. How in the HELL does that scenario make sense??? Simple answer, it doesn’t!

Our ‘justice’ system is totally screwed up. This situation with alcohol is just one example.

I wonder how many college kids are going to try and fill their bellies up with these bacteria? Cheap date?? Oh hell yes, I bet this becomes a new fad. 😉

Everything You Wanted to Know About Migaloo, the Real White Whale

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Everything You Wanted to Know About Migaloo, the Real White Whale | Surprising Science.

Smithsonian reporting on the fact that there really are while whales. Moby Dick might have really been based on a true story about someone seeing a while whale.

I thought it was interesting how many of them have been seen around the world. They must not be all THAT rare after all. I’ve never seen one but I haven’t seen all that many whales of any color in all my time at sea.

The white whales aren’t albinos either, which would have been my first thought. They think these whales have something called leucism where pigments are lost in patches of cells.

I think its pretty but its probably harder on it to get by as a whale. It really stands out. Spotted a long way off by predators and all that. But maybe the females like it better?

If I ever make it to Australias’ Great Barrier Reef, I hope I can run into Migaloo, he seems to be OK around people. Jenny Dean got some great shots of him breaching.     🙂

Video: A Drone Mates With a Queen Bee in Glorious Slow-Motion

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Video: A Drone Mates With a Queen Bee in Glorious Slow-Motion | Surprising Science.

This is a pretty cool video, I kept wondering how in the hell they managed to film it. A drone filming drones?

It’s part of a documentary, More Than Honey, which investigates the world of honeybees and Colony Collapse Disease which has been devastating the bees all over the US. I would like to know what’s causing it. Bees are so important, besides making honey, they pollinate a LOT of our food crops. Think about that. 🙁

 

Functional Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases

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Functional Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases – Mind & Body – Utne Reader.

This is a book review from Utne Reader on the new book The Immune System Recovery Plan. Dr Susan Blum MD MPH recounts her own experience with immune disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) and how she has been able to cure herself and even repair her body using functional medicine rather than the usual type we get now a days. They sound like totally different fields of endeavor. 

I like how she describes the ‘new’ field of functional medicine as an approach that looks at the person as a whole, not as a collection of symptoms. I would really like to find a Dr that treated me like that. I’ve always had a hard time with that, most Drs I’ve had take one look at me and blame everything on my weight. My arm could be half chopped off, I’m spraying blood all over the place, and they would tell me I needed to go on a diet and that would fix it. 😉

Yes, it would be ideal to live in such a way that you stay healthy all the time, never get sick or come down with a disease. I just wonder how HARD will it be in reality to be able to do that? I do have to admit, I’m lazy. I don’t want to go on a strict diet. I don’t want to have to exercise for hours every day. I don’t want to take pills every day for the rest of my life either. So, is there any hope for people like me?

From reading just this article, it looks like there actually is. I have a couple of friends who swear their lives have been totally changed by ‘simple’ changes in their diets (and have lost a lot of weight). A couple of friends who’ve had their hormones adjusted and say they’ve been feeling SO much better. I remember my dad had such bad arthritis, but then he started using apple cider vinegar and it just went away. I guess I’ll have to try to find a copy of the book when I get off. 

Best Stargazing Events of September 2013

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Best Stargazing Events of September 2013 (Sky Map Gallery) | Space.com.

This is pretty neat. I just found this. It gives you a run down on all the interesting things you can see in the night sky throughout the month of September. Tonight is the Harvest Moon. The 22nd is the equinox. It tells you where to look for the  planets,etc.

Be sure to flip through the slide show. 🙂

CDC Reveals Scary Truth About Factory Farms and Superbugs

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CDC Reveals Scary Truth About Factory Farms and Superbugs | Mother Jones.

Here’s a little update from the CDC on all those antibiotics they’ve been pumping into your food supply for years now. Turns out, they were wrong about how safe all that is. There actually IS a link between overdosing your factory farmed meat animals (cows, pigs, chickens, etc) to the escalation of antibiotic resistant bacteria (and resulting deaths) in humans.

OK, so now we know (for sure). What are they going to do about it??? Turns out, not much. Remember, here in the USA we rely on government to keep us ‘safe’. We could probably do much better if we would get rid of our government protection and create a system that really could and would do a proper job. Read the article, you’ll see what I mean. 🙁

Watch Out for the Harvest Moon

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Watch Out for the Harvest Moon – NASA Science.

I knew about the Harvest Moon, but I didn’t know that every full moon had a special name. It’s almost time for the Harvest Moon, it’s coming up here (USA) the night of Sept 18-19.

I was out earlier this evening and looking at the moon. Took a few pictures. It was already up pretty high by the time I got out there. This should remind me to get out there earlier and try to get some good moon shots. 😉

It’s real hard to do out here with the motion and vibration. Maybe some of you can get some nice, clear shots. Best time is early, right around sunset. 😉

This Next-Generation Bug Spray Could Make You Invisible to Mosquitoes

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This Next-Generation Bug Spray Could Make You Invisible to Mosquitoes | Surprising Science.

Hey, this would be great! Maybe they could have a booth for this stuff at the Great Texas Mosquito Festival (www.mosquitofestival.com) !

I’m one of those people who always gets eaten up by mosquitoes every time I step outside. I use the sprays but they don’t seem to help much.

I remember I was traveling a couple of years ago in Sulawesi Island and the mosquitoes were just horrible at this one place. I kept thinking I hope I don’t come home with some strange tropical diseases. It really ruined the atmosphere. 🙁

How Chemistry Can Explain the Difference Between Bourbon and a Tennessee Whiskey

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How Chemistry Can Explain the Difference Between Bourbon and a Tennessee Whiskey | Food & Think.

Interesting article in Smithsonian online. I like a good whiskey every so often 😉 What sailor doesn’t (or at least a shot of rum)…

Is it really that important that we find out exactly what all 4000+ chemical compounds do for the drinks? I’d rather spend my time on simple taste tests. 😉

I’d LOVE to go wander the whiskey trail over in Scotland, or Ireland, or even Kentucky one of these days. 🙂

Costa Concordia Parbuckling – Live Updates Plus How to WATCH

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Costa Concordia Parbuckling – Live Updates Plus How to WATCH | gCaptain

Here’s the latest on the salvage of the Costa Concordia. They did manage to get the ship upright with no major problems. Now they still need to stabilize it and refloat it so they can tow it off to dismantle it. I thought at first they were going to try to fix the ship but now it looks like they’re just going to scrap it. Such a sad story…

You can watch the videos in the link.

Could Panda Poop Be the Secret to More Efficient Biofuel?

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Could Panda Poop Be the Secret to More Efficient Biofuel? | Surprising Science.

Interesting question! It sounds like it might just be feasible. I think it would be much better than using corn for all the reasons mentioned in the article (and more).

Only problem is, I had understood it was pretty hard to get those pandas to procreate. How many pandas will it take to produce the amount of poop needed to power one proper plane?

No, I’m just kidding around. Read the article, you’ll see, it really does make sense.

😉

Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest

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Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest | Mother Jones.

Here’s a nice little listing of interesting ‘sea stories’ from Mother Jones. The link is to a page with blurbs from a few (5) different articles. All previously published in places as diverse as the New York Times (A Son of the Bayou, Torn Over the Shrimping Life) to Popular Science (The Quest to Uncover the Secret Life of Sharks).

I think my favorite would have to be “A Sea Story” by William Langewiesche (The Atlantic). Its the story of the sinking of the ferry Estonia where over 850 people died in one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the century. I remember watching a movie, something in a safety class I think. This one would really be worth reading, lessons learned and all that…

Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013

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Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013.

Read it and do your own thinking.

I said a long time ago,  scientists can’t prove (yet) that we are in the midst of “man-made” global warming. They tricked me once when I was a kid when they were all in agreement that we would all be frozen into ice cubes by now.

At this point in time, I want proof that…

1. People are the cause of global warming.

2. There is something effective that people can do to stop it.

So far, I have not seen enough evidence of either one of those propositions to make me want to do anything about the issue. I’m still waiting…

Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll decide we’ll be freezing again. I only wish the governments of the world would stop trying to use this issue to force us into their ridiculous ideas of how we need to live.

Yeah, riiiighht, like any of them really know anything about MY life. Or yours (assuming you’re not at least a millionaire). Or even how to really LIVE life. You don’t learn about that when your life’s ambition is to control other people!

Costa Concordia Salvage: Parbuckling Could Kick Off Monday

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Costa Concordia Salvage: Parbuckling Could Kick Off Monday | gCaptain

Here’s the latest news on the Costa Concordia salvage operations. It looks like the parbuckling could be starting as early as tomorrow. That should be an interesting operation to watch. I expect it might go veeerry sloooowly til all the sudden the ship flips!

Maybe not, maybe they will have it all totally under control the whole time. I wish I was home so I could watch it in real time. 😉

Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment

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Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment – Utne Reader.

Love the picture they start this off with. Right off the bat they make out Exxon as the cause of all the worlds suffering. Yeah, riiiighht…

OK, for the record, I do NOT think we need to stop using fossil fuels! I do NOT think we need to stop the rest of the world from developing up to first world standards. In fact, I think that will be one thing that could help solve everything.

OK, I bet some people are pretty skeptical…

First point: rising incomes = lower birth rate. Lower birth rate + rising incomes = more resources to give a shit about something other than bare survival. So, the first thing we should do if we want to ‘save the planet’ is to help everyone in the world move up the economic ladder asap.

Second point: all of this increase in productivity and rising incomes (time/effort/money spent on other things than energy) depends on CHEAP energy. At this point in time, alternative energy (sources other than fossils) are NOT cheap. They are not anywhere near as efficient and they are not practical (yet). (I DO agree with technology like solar ovens replacing wood burning stoves- that is a GREAT use of solar power in the developing world and a great example of how solar will be able to help)

Third point: they talk about how the entrenched energy companies (meaning fossil fuel companies) earn “staggering profits”, which makes them somehow evil and so they should be either nationalized (BAD idea) or have their ‘profits’ stolen “for the better good” (another really bad idea).

First of all, they don’t make anything like what I would call staggering profits. They only sound like that because of the way they are reported. Which is intentionally to make you feel like something is wrong with it. They are manipulating you to make you want to punish those ‘evil’ corporations. Please read this article to get a more balanced perspective… http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/big-oil-isnt-as-profitable-as-everyone-thinks/

And to end my review of this article, I would like to point out my personal favorite way to ‘save the world’ with the least pain and anguish for everyone (and everyTHING) on the planet… start using BIRTH CONTROL!!!

If you really think about it, almost every problem you can come up with is minimized if you cut down the amount of people running around the planet. Global warming for instance. If you say that global warming is caused by the actions of people, then it could easily be solved by reducing the amount of people acting. Right?

YES! So, wouldn’t it be better to just use some birth control rather than kill off the people that are already here (through starvation, disease, war, pollution)???

China has done the world a great service with their one child policy (the only problem is their use of force instead of persuasion). If everyone around the world would think about this and resolve to just have one child voluntarily, it would solve a LOT of our problems. War, hunger, pollution, would all be just about eliminated, or at least minimized to the greatest possible extent.

Yes, it would take a while. But in the same time period they’re talking about 2040, we could make a huge, lasting impact, especially if people really came to value the rest of the planet instead of only humanity.

Personally, I would LOVE to see the use of non-polluting alternative energy sources grow to overtake the use of fossil fuels. I DO value this beautiful earth and all the other creatures living here with us.

I would be happy to use wind, solar, ocean current, fuel cell, or anything else that can match fossil fuels in price and efficiency. I am hoping they will come up with new technology that will allow me to make that choice sometime soon. So far, that day has not come. I’m doing what I can see as feasible in the meantime. No, I’m not going to be a martyr.

 

Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity

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Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity | Mother Jones.

I thought this was a really good interview with Katy Butler. Author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death”. I think its a very important issue that we just keep on avoiding. Even with all the talk about ‘death panels’ in Obamacare, we still don’t really get to the point. We need to have the discussion. We need to really do some deep thinking about how we want to deal with a major injury/sickness and death.

I’ve already been through the ordeal of losing both my parents. I was the one who had to make the decisions at the end for both of them. I do totally agree with Katy that we in America spend WAY too many resources on people who are in the last stage of life. Resources that could be much better spent on helping the quality of life rather than the quantity.

I myself would prefer to die before they put me on the machines, before I don’t know who I am anymore, or recognize my best friends. I don’t even consider that as LIFE! I hope I’m strong enough to just get it over with and off myself if I ever get to that point. I would hate to have to put someone else at risk of going to prison for helping me end my life with some dignity. Yeah, I say that now…

Reading the interview I was reminded of how my father changed his outlook once he found out he had cancer. The doctors at the VA hospital only gave him a few months to live. He had a rare form of cancer and so with a lot of help from friends was able to get treatment at MD Anderson hospital instead. It’s one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. They did everything they could for him. It added probably a few more months to his life.

But he was sick as hell from the treatments. He was in pain most of the time. He was dying and he knew it but he was also determined to fight til the very end. He did. He died anyway (like we all will).

We were able to get some help for him at the end but it was too little, too late. I was trying to help deal with a lot of medical issues I wasn’t really prepared for (even tho I do have medical PIC- it’s harder to deal with someone you know and love).

Near the end, my father had no idea who I was. It would have been nice if he could have been helped by hospice at home, where he was comfortable and had his friends around. We were finally lucky to be able to put him in a hospice facility in Houston, he died there in only a couple of days.

I have no real idea of what all that cost. I just know it was a LOT and there was no way he could afford it. (And yes, I’m pretty sure those costs were passed on to the general public). No way anybody could afford all that! If he didn’t have that rare form of cancer, I’m sure he would have been ‘allowed’ to die a lot sooner. The hospital thought it was worth keeping him around so they could learn from his case. Hopefully they learned something to help someone else down the road.

I really should have had a discussion with my dad before he got sick. I would have felt better knowing what he really wanted. Not a decision made under that kind of stress. Some states have passed a Death with Dignity Act. I don’t think Texas is one of them. I would support it.

Zombie Pigeons Are Invading Moscow

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Zombie Pigeons Are Invading Moscow | Smart News.

Braaaainsssss… 😉 LOL! I LOVE zombie movies, books, etc! I just had to check out this post I got from the Smithsonian. I don’t want to ruin your anticipation so, read the link…

I didn’t get to see the birds before they died, but I wonder if they have the same thing going around S. Louisiana? I had to stop by Houma (LA) on my way home from work last hitch to renew my HUET (Helicopter Underwater Egress Training) cert. I was outside the hotel having a smoke (HATE these new non-smoking places!), in the early morning and noticed a few dead birds on the ground. OK, 1 dead bird is one thing, 2 is curious, 6-7 of them is something of concern! They all looked the same to me. I’m not any kind of bird expert but I think they may have been some kind of swift or martin (purple martin?) . Nope, too bad, I didn’t take any pictures 🙁

I asked the lady at the desk if she knew about them and she said, yeah, they’ve been dropping like flies just around her hotel and a couple of blocks nearby for the last couple of weeks. She said they had called the authorities and no one cared enough to come out and investigate 🙁 We were all left wondering what was happening to those birds???

Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes

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Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes | Mother Jones.

Here we go again with the global warming… Am I the only one who remembers back in the 70s when we were all supposed to be frozen into ice cubes by now. According to the almost unanimous scientific consensus, we should start shopping for parkas and load up on the firewood! Next it was global warming and now it’s ‘climate change’. Can’t these guys make up their minds?

I actually met one of these so-called experts a couple of years ago. I got off my tuna boat in Kiribati. They were having a meeting where I was staying. Here’s a link to an article written at the time- (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/nov/09/kiribati-climate-change-conference-intro). The reporter even asked me what I thought about it for a man in the street’s opinion piece.

I asked a delegate why should I (or anyone else) believe him when the scientists were more in agreement about global freezing back in the 70s than they are about global warming now. I think I pissed him off. I mean,  disrespecting his so superior scientific knowledge and all that. REALLY??!! He had NO idea what I was talking about! OK, he was a few years younger than me so he probably doesn’t remember all the hysteria personally like I do, but he’s supposed to be an expert. Can’t we expect the experts to know more than just the ordinary guy in the street???

Back 'yard' of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

Back ‘yard’ of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever

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One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever | Mother Jones.

One weird trick? Seems like this ‘trick’ has been around forever, it’s just our modern factory farming techniques that tend to overlook it.

I don’t really know enough about farming to say with a definite yes or no to any of this stuff. I have been learning more about it lately and I’m coming to find out that contrary to what our government schools are telling us, that no, factory farming is NOT necessary to feed all the people on this planet now.

I always thought that because of the humongous amount of people running around and needing to be fed, that factory farming was the ONLY solution. Now, I’ve been learning, it isn’t. In fact, it is causing a lot of harm. Not only to the animals, but to the water, to the soil, to the plants, to the people involved in the farming, AND to all the rest of us.

Check out the article, read it all the way through and even the comments at the end. If you want some more info, check out this book I read called “Genetic Roulette” on GMOs (they even made a movie out of it). We’re working on showing that one at our local (Campaign for Liberty) meetup groups movie night sometime soon. Or another movie called “Farmaggedon”. There are lots more but those are a couple of good ones that’ll open your eyes and get you started asking questions. I’ve been a fast food junkie my whole life and they did open my eyes to a lot of things. Even tho I’m still eating all the crap food, at least I’m learning 😉

Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat

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Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat | Mother Jones.

Another instance of the law of unintended consequences… here we go with the use of (usually) expensive face cleansers causing environmental damage due to the inclusion of ‘microbeads’ in the formulas. What’s the matter with just using plain old soap and water to wash with? I almost never use anything else and most people say my skin is still in pretty good shape. Even after a lifetime of working on the water. Most of it outside in the sunshine (and I DO get sunburned easily). I have to admit, I do use some lotions sometimes. Usually just the ones I’ll pick up from the hotel rooms when I go to work, they smell real nice 🙂

Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math

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Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math | Mother Jones.

Well, this is a different kind of article but I still found it interesting. Remember, I did manage to get a degree in math so it might not be interesting to many of you 😉 I think its interesting since it seems to show that the better you are at math, the more you’ll let your political views skew your outcomes to other problems, even math. I think some of the comments below the actual article come up with some other results.  I do think this sort of study could be useful. I definitely think people need to question EVERYTHING they are told by the so-called experts. Especially when those ‘expert’ opinions are going to be used to dictate how the rest of us are going to be able to live our lives. It’s worth paying attention to how they design their studies and so how they get their results.

Corals

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Corals