 | "There's Justice In The Universe" |
| Posted 9/28/2008 1:59 PM CDT Paleoclimatology shows us that the Earth was an inhospitable place 635 million years ago, when ice sheets extended to the equator... methane was trapped in the ice sheets. But ice sheets are inherently unstable. Once they reach a certain size, they begin to fall apart. The collapse of ancient ice sheets at the Equator would have unleashed trapped methane deposits and pushed global temperatures higher. Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, then raised temperatures, leading to more collapsing ice sheets in a looping feedback cycle.... one of the most dramatic climate change events recorded in Earth history. Methane also figures into the Permian–Triassic extinction event, informally known as the 'Great Dying', ' 251.4 million years ago... as well as 55.8 million years ago in another sudden global warming event, leading to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum extinction. And since methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, figures into these ominous global warming scenarios, we should pay attention to the fact that vast amounts of methane [the energy locked up in methane hydrate deposits is more than twice the global reserves of all conventional gas, oil, and coal deposits combined] are now trapped in the permafrost and buried in icy deposits, "methane hydrate", beneath the ocean floors. A warmer climate and oceans could thaw those deposits, and allow the methane to bubble up into the atmosphere, creating very 'undesirable' results. Considering that past interglacial periods in the past few million years have not caused this to happen is NOT much consolation when one realizes that huge amounts of 'extra' greenhouse gases are being pumped into the biosphere by human activities that weren't previous factors (not just CO2). We should pay attention to the the fact that methane gas is already being released from the Arctic permafrost. When the oceans warm sufficiently, the vast stores of methane hydrate that having accumulating there for eons will be released. The only question that remains is at what point will this occur (& is the subject of current investigations that the Cheneys of the world would like to block). I suggest you go to ASK.COM and click in "methane hydrate" and scan the Related Searches. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/05/29/a-monstrous-methane-belch/#more-10 http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/could-methane-t.html http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.html |
| Posted 9/27/2008 4:36 PM CDT Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received from a friend who is a retired engineer from a large computer company: ...."we have reached a point in our history where it is no longer responsible to build fission nuclear plants because the cost to use electricity from solar will soon (about 5 years) be equal to the cost of use of electricity from nukes. It will take longer than 5 years to bring nuke stations on line in the US. It is, thus, irresponsible to bring on line such plants. The cost of solar cells is continuously falling as many new technologies are competing to bring down the costs. The cells’ efficiencies are increasing. The cells’ life times are increasing. Which sources of electricity would you prefer to have in five years? Virtually every politician running for federal office already knows this. I cannot trust a politician who is actively proselytizing for building more because I must question their values. They can only arrive at that position if they value the large corporations who benefit from building such generators more than they value the human lives of future generations." |
| Posted 9/20/2008 3:05 PM CDT You have access to the addresses, etcetera of your federal, state, county, local representatives by going to www.Congress.org & entering your complete zip code into the box next to "Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials". Your representatives are shown & there's directory access at the bottom of the page to access local officials, etcetera. |
| Posted 9/19/2008 5:15 PM CDT "As global food supplies tighten, rich consumers are pushed into competition with the hungry. Middle Eastern (and other wealthy countries) countries are securing their future food supplies by trying to buy land in poorer nations... by setting up a series of farms abroad.... which creates the potential for a nightmare scenario of crops being transported out of fortified farms as hungry locals look on. Through "secretive bilateral agreements" the investors hope to be able to bypass any potential trade restriction that the host countries might impose during a crisis. For example, both Ethiopia and Sudan have offered the oil states hundreds of thousands of hectares. This is easy for the corrupt governments of these countries: in Ethiopia the state claims to own most of the land; in Sudan an envelope passed across the right desk magically transforms other people's property into foreign exchange. But 5.6 million Sudanese and 10 million Ethiopians are currently in need of food aid. The deals their governments propose can only exacerbate such famines. None of this is to suggest that the poor nations should not sell food to the rich. To escape from famine, countries must enhance their purchasing power. This often means selling farm products, and increasing their value by processing them locally. But there is nothing fair about the deals now being made. Where once they used gunboats, the rich nations now use checkbooks and lawyers to grab food resources. " [ My Comment: The scramble for resources is escalating. Whether its oil, cotton, minerals or food, the powerful will always seek to leverage their ability to control to their advantage. To better understand, click on the following link and read about Europeans 'pirating' fish legally from Senegal.] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/26/food.eu |
| Posted 9/19/2008 1:22 AM CDT Slow Food -- the "anti-fast-food", anti-industrial-agriculture movement, is calling for reform of our global agro-industry they say has failed farmers and eaters alike. The one thing Slow Food and its critics agree on is that something is wrong with the global food system. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2007 50 million more people were hungry than in 2006. At the same time, unhealthy, heavily processed, American-style fast food has spread beyond our borders, eroding traditional ways of eating. The solution, say Slow Food devotees, is to shift to cuisine that is "good, clean and fair," grown mostly organically by local farmers. Meanwhile, agribusiness has long argued that industrial farming is the only way to economically feed a global population nearing 7 billion. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838757,00.html [My Comment: As 'agribiz' interests push to strengthen their market share of the world's food production, the use of chemical fertilizers and genetically modified crops increases. They walk hand-in-hand with hard right religious believers who implemented & maintain the Global Gag Rule to deny contraception to those who most need it. Fueling population growth exponentially increases human misery. The notion that indefinitely increasing food production will solve the world's "hunger problem" is hypocritical and insane. It helps create the self-fulfilling prophecy of the Apocalypse.] |
| Posted 9/17/2008 11:40 PM CDT If you are sixty or older & have a blood relative who'd experienced the torment of 'shingles' aka 'herpes zoster', read this & consider receiving the 'shingles vaccine': "Shingles itself is not contagious, although exposure to it can trigger chicken pox in someone who has never had that infection; both are caused by the same virus. Approximately 1 in 3 chicken-pox veterans suffers a reactivation of the bug as an adult. Whether the virus, which can lie dormant for decades, resurfaces appears to depend on a lot of things: Age is a risk factor, since most cases occur in people 60 or older. Stress and trauma have been implicated too. So has a weakened immune system — which makes sense. Your body has to work to keep a virus shackled for so long. A University of Texas study also made a persuasive case for the role of genetics, comparing more than 500 people who had contracted shingles with more than 500 who had not. They found that shingles patients were four times as likely as members of the other group to have a parent or sibling who had had shingles. "Antiviral medications can help, and in 2006 the Food and Drug Administration approved a shingles vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends for all adults 60 and older. The vaccine isn't perfect, but it seems to decrease the target group's risk approximately 50%. " http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1703763_1703764_1824082,00.html |
| Posted 9/17/2008 7:40 AM CDT As much as I find 'googling' to be very useful, there are times when I simply don't know enough about a subject to establish the proper search parameters for an effective and efficient internet search. That's when I go to Ask.com to enjoy the benefit of their Related Search feature that helps to define the exact search realm I need. I often have two windows open -- the first to Ask.com & the second to Google.com. Bouncing between the two helps find the best route to find the information I want when I'm in 'uncharted waters'. |
| Posted 9/16/2008 7:25 AM CDT Not so very long ago, I happened to drive a route different than I usually do and spotted a pit gouged into the shoulder of the roadway at an intersection. It had been formed by the repeated hits from tires going off of the asphalt as people made their sharp right turns at a busy intersection. It was easy to see that this had been going on for a long time --- and that, after a rain, both the asphalt and the pit would be underwater and the hazard would be unseen. When I reached my destination, I called 3-1-1 and reported it. By the time I returned home at the end of the day, the problem had already been fixed by Austin's road repair crew. My Point: How many people drove past this obvious hazard and did nothing? How many others actually experienced dropping their right side side wheels into it and "chose to sit on their thumbs" when they should have reported it? On other occasions, I've reported road hazards that were potentially far more serious than this (thick foliage completely blocking stop signs, tree limbs hanging down that forced you into oncoming traffic on a sharp blind curve, etcetera). In each of these cases, I could tell that these were long term problems that had gone unreported. In each case, the City of Austin promptly fixed the problem. What's scary is the general level of uncaring, uninvolved and irresponsible level of citizenship in the adults who kept "their heads stuck where the sun don't shine". What's even scarier is the fact that I know many of these people on a 'first-name basis'. |
| Posted 9/15/2008 2:02 AM CDT For over two decades, Japanese ships have butchered thousands of whales taken from the icy waters around the Antarctic in the name of research. Measurements taken from more than 4,500 minke whales slaughtered since the late 1980s reveal the animals have lost significant amounts of blubber, and are getting thinner at a worrying speed. This is a big change in blubber (whales rely on their thick layer of blubber for energy and as insulation against the cold water) (the 9% of blubber lost is roughly equivalent to a not insignificant equivalent 36 fewer days of intensive summer feeding) and will make it more difficult for the whales to reproduce and to survive. This indicates there have been some big changes in their ecosystem. Krill numbers in the water around the rapidly-warming Antarctic peninsula have collapsed by about 80% since the 1970s... krill are the tiny crustacean at the base of the food chain. This is blamed on the loss of sea ice, which provide shelter and food for krill. Part of the problem is warming waters, but over-fishing for krill to use at fish farms and the ozone layer hole have contributed to the drop as well. [It should be noted that shark populations and shark behaviors have also been impacted. And if we think that none of this effects humans, then we're in even more of a predicament than I'd thought.] http://tinyurl.com/skinnywhales http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/26/whaling.conservation Take Action: http://tinyurl.com/4s57lw |
Posted 9/13/2008 4:12 PM CDT
There has always been a 'new age' religion --- religion that's new to whatever's the current religion of that age. As mankind's perception of reality evolves & becomes more sophisticated, so does our conception of God. Pre-pagan beliefs (nature worship) evolved into pagan beliefs (nature gods) -- into polytheistic (supernatural gods) -- into monotheistic (Jehovah). And until Christ brought in the message of Universal Love, our concept of a deity was always dominated by the punishing aspect.
An increasing sophistication of Homosapiens' ability to experience & conceptualize deeper abstractions is part of 'spiritual growth'. The degree to which a religion helps bring someone closer to realizing the Eleventh Commandment is the measure of its spiritual orientation. To the degree that we 'actualize' this is the measure that the Christ has been Resurrected.
For those who take everything in the Holy Bible literally (as concrete thinkers do), this is not an easy to accept. To illustrate: Was Lot's wife really turned into a 'pillar of salt' -- or was it symbolical of what happens by looking back to where you shouldn't have been & not looking to where you needed to be? I'll let the theologians discuss the meaning. [Note: The symbolism will vary as to the emotional, mental, spiritual level of development of those discussing it. And each can be right without the others necessarily being wrong.]
Hopefully, we can appreciate the existence of God and 'deeper meanings' without having to be first convinced of there having been an actual pillar of salt.
Now, before you literalists try to crucify me, remember His words:
"Love one another as I have loved you."
An increasing sophistication of Homosapiens' ability to experience & conceptualize deeper abstractions is part of 'spiritual growth'. The degree to which a religion helps bring someone closer to realizing the Eleventh Commandment is the measure of its spiritual orientation. To the degree that we 'actualize' this is the measure that the Christ has been Resurrected.
For those who take everything in the Holy Bible literally (as concrete thinkers do), this is not an easy to accept. To illustrate: Was Lot's wife really turned into a 'pillar of salt' -- or was it symbolical of what happens by looking back to where you shouldn't have been & not looking to where you needed to be? I'll let the theologians discuss the meaning. [Note: The symbolism will vary as to the emotional, mental, spiritual level of development of those discussing it. And each can be right without the others necessarily being wrong.]
Hopefully, we can appreciate the existence of God and 'deeper meanings' without having to be first convinced of there having been an actual pillar of salt.
Now, before you literalists try to crucify me, remember His words:
"Love one another as I have loved you."
