Facing Changing Climate, San Francisco Prepares to Share

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Facing Changing Climate, San Francisco Prepares to Share.

I can’t be sure just from reading this one article, but it is encouraging. FINALLY someone is doing something sensible! Taking care of themselves! Wow! What a novel idea!

As they say in the article, ‘it’s about knowing your neighbors, lending a hand, and sharing your knowledge’. Yes, that’s right. Why have we stopped doing that sort of thing and turning OUR responsibilities over to the government?

I disagree with their statement that we “should be able to count on government to respond”, we SHOULD already have learned that they’re NOT going to! We SHOULD have already been doing what they suggest now and helping ourselves and each other. We USED to do that years ago, til we let the government take over all that kind of thing.

In all sorts of disasters all over the world, the most successful ‘programs’ for actually getting the help where it’s needed and fixing things best, it’s been done from the bottom up. Neighbors helping neighbors. People who know what needs doing. People who just DO it. Sure, there might be some outside help, from either government or charitable organizations, but the MAIN driver for getting things done is the local people.

I get really sick and tired of hearing about New Orleans and Katrina. Nobody ever talks about any of the other communities devastated by Katrina, or Rita, or Ike, etc. It seems to me the major difference between what happened in New Orleans and all those other places was the total dependence on government to take care of everything.

Before the hurricane, everyone thought the levees (built by the Army Corps of Engineers) would protect them. But there had been reports for many years that the levees would NOT hold. People trusted the government anyway.

When Katrina was on the way, people counted on the government to take care of them instead of finding ways to get out of town like they should have. Then they depended once again on the government to take care of them in the shelters. How did that work out again???

Most people in New Orleans are STILL waiting for the government to “take care of them” in regards to their housing situation. From the f*cked up formaldehyde laced FEMA trailers to the totally screwed situation with them being able/allowed to rebuild on their properties, almost everything would have been better dealt with if they had just forgotten about any government and just found ways to do it themselves.

 

Junk Food As Addictive As Illicit Drugs

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Junk Food As Addictive As Illicit Drugs : Personal Liberty™.

Oh yeah, they’re definitely working on it. Soon enough, they’ll be making all those fattening foods illegal too. Mayor Bloominidiot  already tried it in NYC. 🙁

We are turning into a nanny state. No doubt about it. ‘Do what we tell you or we WILL find a way to punish you.’ Nanny knows best. 🙁

Yes, sugar is bad for you. Yes, it will make you fat. We’ve all known that forever. We REALLY don’t need anybody coming up with more stupid laws to keep us from eating it. We WILL find a way! Just like the idiotic war against (some) drugs, when people want something, they WILL get it. It’s not the ‘thing’ (whatever it may be) that causes problems, its the prohibition of it that does.

Just like with the war on (some) drugs, a war on sugar will turn into another expensive, destructive war on US. STOP trying to FORCE everybody to live the way YOU think is best!!! Leave us the hell alone! (NO, you should NOT have to pay for my health care when I get sick from eating fattening foods, just like you should NOT have to pay for me if I get cancer from smoking. The problem there is health INSURANCE, NOT my choices of how to live MY life!)

The only thing that would help this situation would be for the producers to label their products CORRECTLY instead of the way they do now (which is borderline fraud). Label foods containing HFCS as poison and maybe people will actually get to know what is in the food they’re buying. Label GMOs as just simply GMOs so people will know what they’re buying. What’s wrong with that??? Why don’t they already have to do that????

Obamacare: Is It A Divide-And-Conquer Distraction?

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Obamacare: Is It A Divide-And-Conquer Distraction? : Personal Liberty™.

Is it? I really wouldn’t doubt it. Can ‘our leaders’ REALLY be so stupid as to think Obamacare can possibly be anything but a humongous failure? Failure if the intention is actually to do something to HELP our broken health care system…

I don’t know about that. Hard to imagine anyone could be that stupid, but I know plenty of people who are ideologically committed to socialized medicine. Somehow, their brains just can’t seem to process the basic laws of economics. That when you offer something to people for “free”, yes, they are going to take it!

Sorry to have to say it (again) but NOTHING in this world is free!!! Someone is paying for all that “free” stuff and those someones will not keep on paying forever!

SO, Obamacare is doomed to failure. It WILL leave our health care system even more broke and broken than it is now. It will break the country with it, since how much more in debt will we go trying to support it?

We are already broke, our debt is in the TRILLIONS now!! Add another few trillion??? Who is going to pay for that? You? Me?? Your kids?? We DON’T have the money! Where is the money going to come from? We’ll just keep on printing it up forever? You DO remember what happened when they did that in Germany, right???

Or, we could ‘raise taxes’? How??? I am already being taxed over 50% of my salary! Do you really think I’m going to stick around and have 75% or more stolen from me for something like Obamacare??? Hell NO! I’m already trying to leave! If it gets any worse, I’m just going to have to say the hell with it and take my chances somewhere else.

No, I’m not legally allowed to work anywhere else. That is the ONLY reason I’m still here. Watching this country go downhill is just so frustrating. So annoying. So sad.

I can’t do anything about it but get out before it gets any worse. So, I’ve BEEN trying. I wish the hell I did, but I don’t have enough money saved up to just retire. If I try to use any of the money I’ve managed to save, I’ll get a huge penalty and they’ll steal 30-40% of if! I might just have to suck it up and take that loss. 🙁 I do know that I sure as hell am NOT going to sit around here and LET them steal everything I’ve worked over 40 years for!

I wish someone who supports Obamacare would TRY to explain to me why they think its OK, why they think its a GOOD idea to STEAL from me (and everybody else who’s worked for it) what they’ve EARNED to support anybody else for any reason. That ought to be real entertaining at least. We’ve all been taught our entire lives that its WRONG to steal. Now, why is it right all the sudden???

More Shutdowns, Please: The Pro-Democracy Case for an Obamacare Crisis

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More Shutdowns, Please: The Pro-Democracy Case for an Obamacare Crisis | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

As usual the government is trying to scare us into going along with its desires. The fact that its desires are almost all completely unconstitutional is not something we peons are supposed to ever think about. The FACT that our government is ONLY authorized to do certain very strictly limited functions is never brought up for serious discussion. We are only here to keep on shelling out our hard earned dollars to pay for all the ridiculous things ‘our leaders’ decide is best for us.

You ever notice that every time they talk about what will happen if they have to suffer any kind of minuscule budget cut (or even a cut in the rise in spending), they always threaten the people who need it most? It’s always the social security checks that won’t show up, never the funding for the ridiculous amounts of spending on mini-tanks for small town SWAT teams so they can continue to fight the war on (some) drugs. Never the pork projects they waste billions on every year. Never the corporate welfare they hand out like candy at Halloween to anybody that figures out how to ask.

I say, hell yes! Lets shut it down! NOW!! Let the people see once again that yes, they CAN function very well without all the things the federal government supposedly does for them. Too bad they won’t really be shutting down anything except what will cause you and me some inconvenience and probably major annoyance. They won’t even be laying off any federal workers, they’ll just get to stay home- WITH PAY!

How about lets get rid of Obamacare?! It’s nothing but a very expensive sop to the insurance companies. I guarantee you it will NOT be any benefit to the general public including me and you! It WILL eventually break the country! While we’re at it, let’s stop ALL the wars we are involved in, including the most stupid of them all… the war on (some) drugs!

Do those 2 things and we can all sit back with a sigh of relief. We can start over to maybe, just maybe, start thinking rationally about what would REALLY help solve our problems with health care (and everything else) in this country. Take some time to THINK about real solutions instead of having this crap shoved down our throats that ‘our leaders’ admit they never even LOOKED at it, much less took any time to think about it!

It is NOT worth trying to fix it. It can’t BE fixed. It is rotten at its core!! Best thing to do is stop wasting time, energy, money to save an obviously terrible program and instead come up with something that at least has a POSSIBILITY of working out.

Yeah, shut it down!

Beating Swords into Solar Panels

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Beating Swords into Solar Panels – Politics – Utne Reader.

Well, there’s a lot in this article I disagree with, but I sure as hell agree that we can and should start dismantling our military-industrial(-prison) complex. It has become so big and bloated, it’s corrupting our politicians and its lobbyists have convinced “our leaders” that we MUST continue to spend billions to imprison people for decades for possession of a plant(??!!), or to blow up people in foreign countries rather than take care of our own people here.

We do NOT need to keep spending those billions- no,trillions!- of dollars to keep our country safe! There is no other country in the world today that can even come close to our military capabilities. WHY do we keep on building more, more, more???

It’s simple, the defense (at home and abroad) industries make billions (trillions) of dollars off our FEAR and ignorance. They will keep on spending millions to convince “our leaders” that they need to keep on spending our tax dollars on the military-industrial-prison complex.

Those ‘leaders’ will not ever think to actually CUT military (or prison) spending. Oh, NO!! They might lose a few jobs in their district. Those people who would be affected by a military operation closing down will be screaming bloody murder.

Maybe they might actually be better off if we weren’t spending trillions on military crap! Or locking people up for trivial BS! Their taxes might go down so they could have a better standard of living if we stopped spending so much on the military.

If people actually followed the suggestion in the article and converted that military spending to spending on something useful (productive) instead, they might actually be SO much better off, they might enjoy making something that HELPS the world instead of destroying it. They might enjoy having more peace and prosperity around the planet. They might enjoy having more money to spend when (if) the US ever gets around to lowering taxes like they should as a byproduct of cutting military spending.

I can’t even imagine all the fantastic things the people who work now on military projects could come up with if they were turned loose into the commercial/civilian marketplace. Wow! Just think of all the cool things they would come up with. These are intelligent, determined, educated people we’re talking about! How about all the good that would come from allowing all those people we lock up for victimless ‘crimes’ (possession, gambling, prostitution, etc) just get on with their lives instead of locking them up and so ruining their (and their families) lives forever?

The article focuses on environmental projects, stopping global warming, etc. Sure, they might eventually be able to make a dent in that. There is just SO much they could be working on to help make things better instead of finding more ways to destroy everything.

Yeah, I’m sure the military people (law enforcement too) probably think they’re out there fighting to save the world. I know they get told that they’re ‘fighting for our freedom’ here. All I can say to that is… why the heck do they always enlist YOUNG people to do all the dirty work???

Probably because by the time they grow up a little and spend a little time learning the truth, they won’t go fight someone else’s battles for them anymore! They finally figure out they’re only being USED to make money for somebody in the background. Anyone who really believes ‘our’ military is fighting for our freedom is surely needing to do a bit more thinking about things.

I could say a LOT more about that, but I’ll leave off by saying this: if they’re fighting for OUR freedom, they’re doing a pretty shitty job of it! We’ve lost a HELL of a lot of OUR freedom since 9-11!!! All those stupid wars (including the drug war) we’ve got involved in since then haven’t saved one tiny iota of OUR freedom! So, maybe, just maybe, all you cops and military people ought to just rethink your basic assumptions.

Texas Adopt a Beach

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Anyone else going out to the beach cleanup this morning? I posted this to my mariners meetup group (www.meetup.com/boating-39) calendar a couple of weeks ago (thanks P.) but only know of 1 other person going. I’ll be there (Surfside). 🙂

I know they do this worldwide. The link to the Ocean Conservancy at the bottom of my post will take you to their website and there you can find a location near you. I’m not exactly sure if they have it the same date as we do. Here we do it twice a year, in the Spring and in the Fall.

Click the links for more information!

http://www.glo.texas.gov/adopt-a-beach/cleanups/participate.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TMFQOrOk3Fo

Cleanup 2013 Map

http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/international-coastal-cleanup/sign-up-to-clean-up.html

Russia’s Imprisonment of Greenpeace Freelance Photographer Crosses the Line

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Russia’s Imprisonment of Greenpeace Freelance Photographer Crosses the Line | gCaptain

I wasn’t there so I can’t vouch for what really happened, but from reading the news I would think that YES, the Greenpeace activists could and should be charged with multiple violations.

Yes, the photographer/journalist has certain rights (here in the USA- maybe not in Russia!). I think he knew very well what he was getting into. Greenpeace has done this kind of stunt before (and not only on the Disco)!

The Arctic Sunrise violated ALL the rules of maritime traffic. There are 500 meter security zones around drilling operations. Greenpeace surely knew that. The vessel captain and crew absolutely must know that! They’re even marked on the charts! It is illegal for ANYONE to enter that zone without asking and being granted permission from the rig.

The Arctic Sunrise at the very least helped the Greenpeace activists in their attempts to board the Russian rig. That boarding can certainly be seen as piracy. It is of course illegal even if they did not intend to harm anybody or steal anything. It is a dangerous place and could have resulted in a major accident (which of course would have been blamed on the drilling company).

Of course I don’t want to see the Arctic ruined by oil spills either. But I can’t agree with Greenpeaces’ tactics. Either they fight to change the laws so that there will be no Arctic drilling, or they fight to change peoples minds.

The ONLY way we are ever going to not NEED the oil is for people to limit the growth of the human population. Either that, or come up with some miracle energy source that is cheap, efficient and can replace everything we use oil for today. There is nothing even close to oils ability to provide the things we NEED to survive now.

The Missed Opportunity For Medical Freedom

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The Missed Opportunity For Medical Freedom : Personal Liberty™.

As stated in the article, freedom of choice in medical care is a RIGHT. Where we have become confused is over what is a right. Our ‘public’ schools don’t do a very good job anymore of explaining what is and what is not a right. They have completely confused the issue.

There are natural rights, those are the ones we had BEFORE there was a Constitution. Those are the ones we are all born with. They are part of what makes us human beings. ALL people all over the world have them, it’s just that the USA is the only country ever in the history of the world to base its entire purpose on PROTECTING those rights. (Too bad the USA no longer protects them but is intent on destroying them now).

Our schools now confuse the “rights” we get from government, like voting rights for example, with those natural rights. Now, most people think something like an education, or healthcare are rights. They are NOT. Yes, you have a right to seek an education, to apply for health care. But you do NOT have any claim on anyone else so that they must give it to you. That is the difference.

Obamacare supposedly turns health care into a right. That is impossible. You can not just SAY something is a right when at its core, it involves violation of other people. That is NOT a right! You can not ever justify raping or stealing!

That is exactly what Obamacare does. It takes the very lives (their TIME) of every health care provider and says to those people, YOU have no rights. You are now our slaves. You will only be allowed to do what WE want and we will only pay you whatever WE feel is correct. How many of them do you think will stick around for that kind of treatment?

It ALSO violates the rights of everyone who uses it. Who may think they’re getting a good deal. Hey, they’re finally getting to screw the system. Yeah, riiiiight. It doesn’t quite work that way. Besides the fact that ALL your medical data will be digitalized and available online to anyone who wants to spend a minimal amount of effort, YOU will not be the one deciding anything about your own medical care anymore. There will of course be rationing. There is no way around that! There is only a certain amount of resources and so those resources will have to be managed. YOU will no longer get any say-so about HOW they are managed! You will lose any semblance of privacy and don’t forget about the huge increase in risk of identity theft. 🙁

Obamacare is just another scam. It will never work. It is probably intended to fail, just so they can move us into a (totally) government run system. It’s just simple economics. When something is ‘free’, more people are going to use it than if it has a cost to it. Our health care system is already broken. How in the world can that help it? (It can’t).

More and more people are going to use it for more and more stuff. That is a large part of what caused the prices of our health care system to get so high in the first place. Government wage and price controls after WWII encouraged corporations to pay their employees with health insurance instead of wages.

That insurance encouraged people to spend more on health care (to use that insurance!). Since no one paid any attention to prices (insurance covered it), the price naturally went up. Add in medicare and medicaid and the problem only got worse. So, now how in the heck can adding even MORE people to the insurance scam make prices go down???? Simple, it WON’T!

Just Who Are We Radicals And Reactionaries?

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Just Who Are We Radicals And Reactionaries? : Personal Liberty™

Originally posted in the Dollar Vigilante, this is an EXCELLENT article. I couldn’t have said it better so I won’t try. Please take a look, it makes some important points.

Yes, I am a libertarian. 🙂

Obamacare Rate Table Offers A Great Incentive To Stay Healthy (Forever)

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State-By-State Obamacare Rate Table Offers A Great Incentive To Stay Healthy (Forever) : Personal Liberty™.

I have been against Obamacare from the beginning. I am against it in principle and in practice. I do not believe it is in anyones interest to FORCE people to buy anything.

Insurance is usually a scam and no one should have to buy it for ANY reason. Not for property, not for car, not for health. A person should be able to CHOOSE whether they want to take the risk of being financially wiped out or not.

The problem here is that we have decided as a country (not really since we have NEVER had any kind of discussion about any of this) that we are going to spread the risk. We are NOT going to let anyone choose to take any real risk of anything. We will take over all such decision making, since we know best. We can not allow anyone here to fail.

I could go on and on and on about all the multiple reasons why Obamacare WILL fail and will take the entire country down with it. But I’ll limit this post to just the very basic issue of responsibility.

Who the hell decided that ‘our’ government was now going to be the responsible party instead of the individual??? When did that happen and WHY??? There is SO much to discuss on those issues. I really can’t get into it all right now. I’ve been traveling all day and I’m just too tired.

I’ll give you a hint. Think back about the Civil War. Think about the issue of states rights and the peoples rights. The 9th and 10th amendments. Think about how that whole thing went down. How did congress legally declare war and how did they re form afterwards. There is SO much involved in that history. I don’t even understand all of it myself but I’ve learned enough that it REALLY makes me think.

Check out the table, I don’t see even 1 state where you’re not going to wind up paying more for your insurance. Most of them are at least double (+100%) and many of them are more than tripled. These are for the young, healthy people who will now be paying for the old sick people. Its just another SCAM! It will not and CAN NOT work. You can try, but you can not succeed at breaking the laws of economics!

A Word a Week Challenge- Arch

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I finally got off the ship (DB-50) in Singapore and stayed over a couple of weeks. I wandered around and found this art museum. It had a lot of interesting things and the buildings were very interesting in themselves. It used to be a school (if I remember right) 🙂

Arches, Singapore Art Museum

 

http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/

A Word a Week Challenge- Arch

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Singapore Art Museum

I finally got off the ship (DB-50) in Singapore and stayed over a couple of weeks. I wandered around and found this art museum. It had a lot of interesting things and the buildings were very interesting in themselves. It used to be a school (if I remember right).

http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/

A Word a Week Challenge- Arch

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Paris Las Vegas

Another one from Las Vegas. I was there for the Freedom Fest a couple of years ago. I had to miss it this year since I couldn’t get off work. 🙁

Here’s a link to the original post…http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/

A Word a Week Challenge- Arch

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arch at Ballys Las VegasP

I took this at Ballys in Las Vegas when I was there for the Freedom Fest a couple of years ago. There is a rounded arch at the front and then there’s kind of a tunnel with arches supporting it.

here’s the link/pingback to the originating post…http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/

Dock Talk – Are you earning all you should?

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Dock Talk – Are you earning all you should? – WorkBoat.com.

Here’s an interesting post by WorkBoat magazine on their website. It’s a salary comparison survey. I think I responded to it this year. I think its good to get this kind of information out there.

The companies seem to like to keep that kind of thing a big secret. They don’t want us to find out another company is paying more and quit.

There’s a lot more to a good job than the money they pay, tho a lot of people seem to think only about the money. I would gladly take a pay cut if the company would treat me with the respect I’ve earned rather than like I’ve never seen a ship before. They just don’t seem to get it that we want to feel respected and a valuable part of the team. Not as just ‘boat trash’.

Maritime Monday for September 23rd, 2013: Movies About Sailors, Part IV

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Maritime Monday for September 23rd, 2013: Movies About Sailors, Part IV; The Navy Comes Through | gCaptain ⚓ Maritime & Offshore News.

Part IV of Monkey Fists great series on maritime movies, this one has a lot of Navy related movies.

Everything from comedies like McHale’s Navy (Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway) and The Navigator (Buster Keaton) and musicals like On the Town (Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra) to drama and suspense (Riddle of the Sands based on the novel by Erskine Childers). There’s bound to be something for everyone.

There’s almost two dozen movies to choose from. Take a break and check it out. 😉

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. 😉

In Defense of the Blobfish

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In Defense of the Blobfish: Why the “World’s Ugliest Animal” Isn’t as Ugly as You Think It Is | Smart News.

Interesting article. I wouldn’t have thought about any of the things they mention. I wouldn’t have voted for this being the ugliest animal either. I actually think its not that bad.

After reading the article, all I could think of is ‘looks can be deceiving’.

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.     🙂

How Long Have You Been a Sailor?

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How Long Have You Been a Sailor? | gCaptain

sir stuffington cat

What a cute kitty. Too bad it looks like its already been through hell. 🙁

I would adopt it if I could. Anyone need a good ships cat?

So, how long have I been a sailor? Almost as long as Sir Stuffington. 😉

I wasn’t born on a boat but my brother almost was. He’s only a year younger than me so that’ll give you some idea. For sure I could swim before I could walk. My family has always been close to the water.

When I was very young, we spent a lot of time playing on the beach and our families had boats we would go out on. We spent a lot of time around Long Island NY. My grandfather had a nice old cruiser we used a lot. We would go to Montauk, East Hampton, Jones Beach, Fire Island…

We settled down in Florida when I was ready for 1st grade. My father fell in love with the Island Girl. She was a large (LOA 72′) staysail schooner built in Detroit in 1910. He bought her and sailed her around from Miami to Madeira Beach where we spent the next few years working and living aboard (part time).

He eventually turned the Island Girl into a commercial fishing boat which is where I got my start working on the water. Between fishing trips, he would take friends out for fun sails around the Gulf of Mexico. We had such a blast with that boat. She was well known around Florida for years.

Island Girl

I moved on to the party boats down the street as soon as I could. That was a much more fun job for me. I could make a couple of trips on the weekends and earn enough to pay my dad rent for the month. I know it was unusual to rent an apartment from my dad instead of living with him but it worked for a while.

I was able to go to high school with the Oceanics. That was a HUGE opportunity for me and I jumped on it. It literally changed my life. I was able to sail around the world and I decided on that trip I was going to be a sea captain (instead of a Dr). 🙂

I’ve been working toward that goal ever since. I moved to Texas to go to school to get certified as an AB/QMED (Able Bodied seaman/Qualified Member of the Engine Department).

I finally earned my license from the US Coast Guard as Master Any Gross Tons just a couple of years ago. I was SO happy! I still haven’t had time to properly celebrate that accomplishment. If any of you reading my blog are sailors, you’ll know what I mean.

I do plan to have a party one of these days. As soon as I can find both the time and the money to spare, we’ll be having one to remember! 😉

So, here’s my question to my readers… how long have YOU been a sailor? Tell us your story. I’d like to hear it.

I’ll call it the ‘How long have you been a sailor’ challenge. Write up your story: when did you start sailing? why? do you still like it? or not? what kind of boat (it doesn’t have to be a sailboat!)? where? If you have a blog, do a link from your blog back here (pingback). If you don’t have a blog, don’t feel left out, just post it as a reply.

Via Colori Street Festival

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I’d like to go see this if I’m not offshore. I didn’t know about this. It looks fun.

Melon Collie

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White Chocolate Lemon Truffles

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Sugarcoated: White Chocolate Lemon Truffles.

Just saw this on my facebook page (its suddenly working tonight). It comes from the sugarcoated blog. It looked so good. The recipe looks so easy. I’ll definitely be trying these when I get off.

Aerial Views of Our Water World

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Aerial Views of Our Water World | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

Smithsonian reports on the latest project from photographer Edward Burtynsky. His focus has always been to capture the impact humans have on the landscape. “Nature transformed by industry” is how he puts it.

I remember reading about one of his earlier projects on the subject of Oil and I thought he did some fantastic work. His photographs of a ‘dirty’ subject were really beautiful. This project on Water is even more exciting. His work is simply stunning!

Burtynsky spent the time from 2007-2013 traveling around the world to investigate the way water is used, how it (or lack of it) effects the land, effects our lives, how we deal with it, how it deals with us. Now, he is coming out with a triple header.

He will be releasing a new documentary film, a book and multiple exhibitions, all on the theme of water.

Watermark, his 92 minute long documentary will premier at the Toronto International Film Festival and continue showing in theaters across Canada afterwards (and hopefully worldwide).

His book, Burtynsky- Water, will feature over 100 of his photographs.

His large scale photographs will be making the rounds of a number of exhibition spaces around the country. In New York at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery and the Howard Greenburg Gallery (September 19- November 2), the show will move on from there.

It will be in New Orleans at the Contemporary Arts Center from October 5- January 19). I’ll be in town for the Workboat Show and will be sure to see it then. I can’t wait to feast my eyes. 😉

Here’s a peek. Enjoy 🙂

 

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. 🙁

 

Sonic Bloom! A New Solar-Powered Sculpture

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Sonic Bloom! A New Solar-Powered Sculpture | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

An interesting and beautiful sculpture using solar power. Check it out. 🙂

A Recipe for Community

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A Recipe for Community.

Here’s another one from Utne Reader. Linda Buzzell writes about what it takes to build a sustainable community. Community- yeah, she’s right, we need it, we yearn for it, we miss it, we seek it out.

I remember growing up in a little fishing village on the beach in Florida. We used to have a real community there. Everybody knew each other and would keep an eye out for each other. Yeah, it was like a soap opera sometimes. But I always knew I was home, I fit in, I was accepted.

I moved to Texas when I was just barely 17. I didn’t know a single person. I moved there to go to school and luckily I found a community in my little group of fellow OMT students (Ocean Marine Technology).

We most definitely did NOT fit in with the rest of the school or the surrounding towns. 😉 Bunch of hippie ‘boat trash’ with long hair, shorts and flip-flops in a town where no one left the house without perfect makeup, new cars all washed and waxed. We were definitely on our own.

I made friends with the only other girl in the class. She took me to meet her ‘mother’ and we’ve been best friends ever since. That was over 30 years ago- wow!

With my friends from class, we went to the beach and had cookouts over the bonfire. We played music. We drank beer. We danced. We hung out with each other even when we weren’t in class. We had many similar interests. After all, we had come from all over the country to take this course in Ocean Marine Technology. We had an automatic community.

When I finished the program, most of my friends wandered off into the wild blue yonder and I never heard from them again. Only occasionally I’ll hear of someone or run into somebody in some unlikely place.

Since then, I’ve tried a few times to find or create another real community. I think I find it most easily at work. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy working at sea. After all, we are still isolated out here. In our own little world. We have to depend on each other for everything. To get our work done, to have someone to talk to, to help us if we need it, to take care of us if we get hurt. We get to know and care about each other. It is a community in its own right.

In the article, there’s a checklist for community building success. A list of 16 things to do or have. I think a lot of the things are good to have and I’ll definitely suggest them to our local meetup group (Campaign for Liberty). We’ve been struggling to grow and find more members.

We’re a community, we do a lot of those things, but maybe not consistent about it. Somehow we can’t keep the new people who come excited enough to come back, to join our community. What can we do to make them more comfortable? Maybe the things in the article will help. We can try…

The Sharing Economy Just Got Real

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Politics.

This is a link to an article on the Utne Reader site. Janelle Orsi is a ‘sharing lawyer’ from California and coauthored the book Policies for Shareable Cities.

I think the whole idea of sharing things we aren’t using all the time is a great idea. Rent my truck from me while I’m offshore and I can’t use it anyway. Or I’ll rent you a bedroom if I’m going to be home for a while. People are doing more and more of that sort of thing. Airbnb is just one example. Of course, the officials want to step in and ruin it before it even gets a chance to get started.

The problem Orsi seems to have with it is that the firms who are getting into this now are all just the usual types of business. She seems to be fixated on the issue of the corporations and their owners (shareholders) getting rich(er). I do get the idea of the rich getting richer, that is true- for sure! No argument. But why is it always assumed by the left (Utne Reader is definitely on that side of the aisle), that to get rich you MUST be raping the poor?

Yes, in this country, at this point, we DO help big business get bigger and stay that way. We DO use all kinds of tax dollars and incentives from the public (the poor financing the rich) to help a bigger business over a smaller one. That is WRONG and should not be allowed to go on! There is nothing in our Constitution that allows for that sort of thing and so it is illegal as well as just plain wrong. We are supposed to be for the FREE market, NOT helping some businesses at the expense of others!

The fact that we do those things is NOT an excuse for saying that any kind of business but a co-op, (or another kind that is owned by the employees and customers), is unacceptable. It is only a reason to go back to our founding principles and STOP providing welfare to big business! STOP picking the winners and losers in the business world and allow the process of creative destruction to function properly. Try allowing the free market to work for once (which of course does include co-ops).

I’m not sure that any kind of co-operative won’t eventually deteriorate into exactly the kind of thing that the left is always crying about. Read George Orwells’ Animal Farm. Somebody has to run the thing. Whoever is in power eventually gets corrupted. It seems to be an unchangeable part of human nature. 🙁

I admit, I would need to do a whole lot more studying to try to figure out how something like what Orsi suggests would work in practice. The idea seems to be very much in line with the ideas of personal liberty and empowerment, voluntary actions, etc. I like that. Yes, co-ops can work. The ones I’ve seen have been on a pretty small scale. Fishermen co-ops in one small area. Farmers markets. All very small in scale. How would a large scale one work? One involving hundreds of thousands or millions of people?

The idea has some merit, I would just like to see some details of how to make it work in reality. I would like to see it work. I would like to see the sharing economy compete with the corporation based economy we have now. I just don’t see how it could be made to work in the real world with real people. Maybe she explains it in her book on shareable cities. I haven’t read it yet. One more for my list. 😉

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. 

What’s Your Plan?

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