How many times have you thought about how you would spend a million if you won a lottery? And when you did think about it did you include doing something for the homeless? Or for single moms? or for the elderly?
When you hear about all these very rich people why do you never hear that THEY SUPPORT LOCAL FOOD AND HOMELESS CENTRES? Companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Bloomberg. They all have the wealth to help with this, they could make a difference. But share holder value is apparently more important then helping your fellow man. Conservatives do not like this, they think it's every man (and women I guess) for themselves. Less government, more poverty is the agenda. Clean water? Clean air to breath? Nope, not important. And then there is education!
It is very clear, the more people are educated, the better their chances at having a better life. Most of the problems in this world are from a lack of education. I'm happy that more and more information is available online, and think this is making a difference, but you still need to be with your peers to help in understanding things.
No, I think most are just overwhelmed with this. It's just too much to think about helping when you can think about having instead.
7 billion, keeping it for themselves, and counting.
Monday 29 April 2013
Saturday 27 April 2013
They want work
In many places around the world the youth are revolting. It would seem that many are without a future, no jobs, no money and no hope. This is going to sneak up on us and bite us hard where it hurts the most.
I'm at a loss in figuring out how this will be rectified. Many of these countries have upwards of 50% unemployment for people under 25. You have all seen these reports, and you all are likely very happy to be living here where it so far has not affected us. My question is this, what are the 50% employed thinking about? Are they happy to have work and therefor not interested in taking part in these protests?
I grew up in the 60's/70's and remember the protests that were happening then. It would seem we are treating this like they treated us back then. In other words they are doing nothing, sweeping it under the rug so to speak. Hey this worked back then didn't it? All the hippies and protesters went to work and that was that.
I feel this time these kids can't do that, austerity is kicking them square in the junk and those that make decisions are looking out for themselves only, and that is a shame. One thing is for certain, these kids have energy and numbers, and if things do not get better this is going to be the hot button of this generation. A new economy is needed, our brightest need to figure this out soon. Will we all pitch in or will we argue till nothing gets done.
Billions without hope and counting.
I'm at a loss in figuring out how this will be rectified. Many of these countries have upwards of 50% unemployment for people under 25. You have all seen these reports, and you all are likely very happy to be living here where it so far has not affected us. My question is this, what are the 50% employed thinking about? Are they happy to have work and therefor not interested in taking part in these protests?
I grew up in the 60's/70's and remember the protests that were happening then. It would seem we are treating this like they treated us back then. In other words they are doing nothing, sweeping it under the rug so to speak. Hey this worked back then didn't it? All the hippies and protesters went to work and that was that.
I feel this time these kids can't do that, austerity is kicking them square in the junk and those that make decisions are looking out for themselves only, and that is a shame. One thing is for certain, these kids have energy and numbers, and if things do not get better this is going to be the hot button of this generation. A new economy is needed, our brightest need to figure this out soon. Will we all pitch in or will we argue till nothing gets done.
Billions without hope and counting.
Thursday 25 April 2013
Indecision
I've been absent for a few days as I am preparing my garden for the current year. I have decided that I will raise my growing beds as this is much better for both the plants and for me as I will not be bending over as much. There are of coarse many more reasons to do this but those two alone make that an easy decision.
But what has me stumped is how exactly I'm going to build them. I've changed my mind at least a dozen times and today I need to order the wood needed to build these raised beds. I'm trying to be efficient and have it work for any crop or situation that comes up.
There lies the rub, unlike most animals on this planet we are always at odds with what to do. Even when we are not, someone else has another way to do it and will argue their case. Then it comes to who has rank and the money, although that does not always get it done.
Nope, as a race we are always unsure of what we are doing and procrastinate on getting it done. Politicians are incredibly good at this, debating endlessly and stalling any changes unless of coarse it benefits them.
Our brains never stop thinking and the arguments that go on inside the brain are incredible. This is the very thing that makes quitting things like smoking so hard to do. The brain just keeps making "the decision" hard to do. How ironic.
7 billion, who can't make a decision, and counting
But what has me stumped is how exactly I'm going to build them. I've changed my mind at least a dozen times and today I need to order the wood needed to build these raised beds. I'm trying to be efficient and have it work for any crop or situation that comes up.
There lies the rub, unlike most animals on this planet we are always at odds with what to do. Even when we are not, someone else has another way to do it and will argue their case. Then it comes to who has rank and the money, although that does not always get it done.
Nope, as a race we are always unsure of what we are doing and procrastinate on getting it done. Politicians are incredibly good at this, debating endlessly and stalling any changes unless of coarse it benefits them.
Our brains never stop thinking and the arguments that go on inside the brain are incredible. This is the very thing that makes quitting things like smoking so hard to do. The brain just keeps making "the decision" hard to do. How ironic.
7 billion, who can't make a decision, and counting
Saturday 20 April 2013
Just like school
So they got their man. The bomb suspect's have been captured or killed. But look at the disruption as a result of their actions. Sporting events cancelled, business's shut down, people locked in their homes. You remember when it only took a few to ruin it for the rest. And now all marathons are doubling security, to go to a hockey game you have to go sooner so they can scan you, man doing anything will be like getting on an airplane! Will we all say to hell with it and not bother? Will we become complacent and allow this to happen again?
For me, I would have given up my season's tickets, I would avoid large public gatherings. Because when the freedom of attending these events gets taken away the fun is gone with it. How can you take a hockey or baseball game seriously when people are being killed indiscriminately. Living in North America has kept us isolated from these kind of things, but not anymore.
Then there is the gun control thing, that is all I heard this weekend. Debate after debate with nothing to come of it. Is there just too many people on this planet? Are we becoming so cramped that to live freely is a thing of the past? And how on earth do these thugs remain in power? So many questions, so few answers. Or at least answers that we can ALL live with. Wake me up when the new age is upon us.
7 billion, wanting it their way, and counting.
Wednesday 17 April 2013
Hey hey, my my
Last night I was doing my usual surfing on TV, you know, flip from a commercial to another program then back. So last night I had the CBC news going but on one of our movie channels Neil Young's solo performance at Massy Hall was on. "Hey hey, my my, rock and roll will never die", clic. And today at the Boston Garden the Bruins were playing their first game after the bombing, clic "theres more to the picture then meets the eye, clic, so the investigation is being pressured by 100 million amature CSI's. Many of which are disrupting the FBI's crack team, clic, "it's better to burn out, rust never sleeps, hey hey, my my" clic, Justin, the new Liberal party leader trying to be philosophical like his dad but failing miserably. However, he is putting fear in the Prime Minister as the attacks are in full force, clic, "Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies, I was lying in a burned out basement with the yellow haze of the sun, I was hopping for replacement", clic, coming next, the man who broke the story on all the tax evaders. Great I want to hear this one and clicked back for just a little more. "Come walk with me, come walk with me, talk to me, come walk with me", clic, and then the President of France says it's time to rid the world of tax havens, clic, " come walk with me, come walk with me.
This story is so big, so big that Wiki Leaks looks very small beside it. If all these tax havens could be closed imagine how much money would be available to the rest of us. Well I for one, am very happy that reporter from Australia had the guts to make sense of all the data he was given. It's time for these cheaters to be put on notice.
Hey hey, all 7 billion, my my, stopping corruption, rock and roll will never die!
This story is so big, so big that Wiki Leaks looks very small beside it. If all these tax havens could be closed imagine how much money would be available to the rest of us. Well I for one, am very happy that reporter from Australia had the guts to make sense of all the data he was given. It's time for these cheaters to be put on notice.
Hey hey, all 7 billion, my my, stopping corruption, rock and roll will never die!
Are we there yet?
The invention of the internet has to be one of the all time great things ever! Right up there with electricity, the internet has sped up our existence to where we are now. No big news there, except where we go from here.
It has been predicted that "all people" will be online by 2020. I agree with this and wonder if by that time we will have "got there" at last. I can't be the only one thinking this way, pretty much everything I see is becoming the same, there are less choices but they are far more efficient and inexpensive. Does everything become free? How does the free economy keep going? Hell we barely need government, certainly much less of it then what we have today. As Steve Jobs told us, "theres an app for that". Well there is an app for everything, road maintenance, welfare, immigration you can pretty much pick a department and an app can replace most of what those people do.
So to answer my question, "are we there yet", I would have to say, hmmmm, soon!
7 billion people, waiting for Captain Kirk to show up.
It has been predicted that "all people" will be online by 2020. I agree with this and wonder if by that time we will have "got there" at last. I can't be the only one thinking this way, pretty much everything I see is becoming the same, there are less choices but they are far more efficient and inexpensive. Does everything become free? How does the free economy keep going? Hell we barely need government, certainly much less of it then what we have today. As Steve Jobs told us, "theres an app for that". Well there is an app for everything, road maintenance, welfare, immigration you can pretty much pick a department and an app can replace most of what those people do.
So to answer my question, "are we there yet", I would have to say, hmmmm, soon!
7 billion people, waiting for Captain Kirk to show up.
Monday 15 April 2013
NO you're not, YES I am
As soon as you declare you "are something" there will be an avalanche of comments that you are not that something. It's like living in a police state where you get jailed for saying anything negative about the said police state. When I tell people that I'm vegan, the attacks begin. You are wearing leather, or you eat bread that has an egg in it. You get my point I think, but it seems to be a never ending barrage of attacks by those that do nothing to improve this world. In the end, no one is "anything" as that is pretty much impossible to achieve.
Religion is a good example, are all Catholics really Catholics? If so why do so many priests abuse children? Are atheists really atheists? I suspect that they do believe in something spiritual, how can you not?
So I am going to invent a new "thing" to be, I will call it "Sustainable Rationalist". And the rules to be a S.R. are going to be whatever I decide "fits" at the time. Because that is pretty much what all these other organizations do is make the rules fit what you want them to be. For sure being a "Sustainable Rationalist" will give me lots of wiggle room to make compromises as I live my life.
7 billion, being rational, and counting. lol
Friday 12 April 2013
Todays Garden Tip
First, I want to thank Owen for sharing the story of his school's subsidized food program, very worthy of recognition I think. (My last post "growing food")
Today we are going to talk about starting plants from seed. I was determined to start as much as I could this year from seed. So I want to share what I have learned so far.
1- Don't over plant, it pained me so much to through out perfectly good plants that I just didn't have room for. I thought it would be easy to "offload" the excess but no, everyone has their way of doing this.
2- Don't start too early, but don't start too late. Ya I know, confusing for sure. I'm sitting here looking at snow, and more snow and cool temps that have kept my fast growing plants inside. I was really hopping to get some to the greenhouse, but it is still too cool to leave them out. Of coarse I could heat it, but that is not cost effective and my greenhouse is not quite finished so I'm stuck waiting for some warmer weather.
3- Make sure you have the time to tend to the plants. I spend about an hour every day looking after them. The onions when they pop up need help as they have trouble pulling the seed pod out of the soil. A quick snip and they do fine, they also need to be trimmed to about 3 inches till the third leaf comes. By then they need to be transplanted to deeper pots (at least 4"deep) and then trimmed to 5" to keep them from falling over.
As you can see it is involved to do this. This is my first year, but I have had the time to research everything on my number 1 tool, the iPad, and am learning quickly as I go. One thing is for sure, I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes this year, and will need to learn to can them. I plan to have a canning party and share the bounty with everyone that helps. And what a party that will be!
7 billion, canning food, and growing
Today we are going to talk about starting plants from seed. I was determined to start as much as I could this year from seed. So I want to share what I have learned so far.
1- Don't over plant, it pained me so much to through out perfectly good plants that I just didn't have room for. I thought it would be easy to "offload" the excess but no, everyone has their way of doing this.
2- Don't start too early, but don't start too late. Ya I know, confusing for sure. I'm sitting here looking at snow, and more snow and cool temps that have kept my fast growing plants inside. I was really hopping to get some to the greenhouse, but it is still too cool to leave them out. Of coarse I could heat it, but that is not cost effective and my greenhouse is not quite finished so I'm stuck waiting for some warmer weather.
3- Make sure you have the time to tend to the plants. I spend about an hour every day looking after them. The onions when they pop up need help as they have trouble pulling the seed pod out of the soil. A quick snip and they do fine, they also need to be trimmed to about 3 inches till the third leaf comes. By then they need to be transplanted to deeper pots (at least 4"deep) and then trimmed to 5" to keep them from falling over.
As you can see it is involved to do this. This is my first year, but I have had the time to research everything on my number 1 tool, the iPad, and am learning quickly as I go. One thing is for sure, I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes this year, and will need to learn to can them. I plan to have a canning party and share the bounty with everyone that helps. And what a party that will be!
7 billion, canning food, and growing
Thursday 11 April 2013
Growing Food
All the valium in the world would not calm you as much as growing some food. Working with plants has to be the most unwinding and relaxing things there is to do. It takes you right away from the stresses of everyday life.
But can someone please tell me why this isn't taught in schools? If you lived with a bush tribe in Africa, as a child all you would learn about is how to gather and grow food to survive. And those children are not obese, not violent, and for the most part are healthy. It would seem that drugs is the only choice when dealing with "attention deficit disorder" when it has been shown that planting and growing things is far more effective. Mean kids, small kids, boys and girls alike all do better when they are working with plants. And lets not forget the benefits of growing fresh food in the school, many children that are poor and do not have enough to eat will benefit greatly from this.
I know their are some movements taking place where this is starting to be done, in California there are schools ripping up pavement to plant things, as it has repeatedly shown to improve moral. If you are in a position to influence these kind of things, please try to. The world would be a much calmer and better place to live.
But can someone please tell me why this isn't taught in schools? If you lived with a bush tribe in Africa, as a child all you would learn about is how to gather and grow food to survive. And those children are not obese, not violent, and for the most part are healthy. It would seem that drugs is the only choice when dealing with "attention deficit disorder" when it has been shown that planting and growing things is far more effective. Mean kids, small kids, boys and girls alike all do better when they are working with plants. And lets not forget the benefits of growing fresh food in the school, many children that are poor and do not have enough to eat will benefit greatly from this.
I know their are some movements taking place where this is starting to be done, in California there are schools ripping up pavement to plant things, as it has repeatedly shown to improve moral. If you are in a position to influence these kind of things, please try to. The world would be a much calmer and better place to live.
Monday 8 April 2013
Okay it's spring, lets grow a garden!
At the urging of my eldest daughter I am going to start giving garden tips in my column. Not that I am a professional in this field, but I do spend a whole lot of time figuring out the misdirection that exists in the wonderful world of gardening.
Last year I had great success for the most part, some failures as well but what I learned will drive me this year to grow as much food as possible in my suburban back yard. What is wonderful about this today is the raft of help that is available on the internet. I sit in front of my iPad and can find info on just about anything related to growing food. So the first and most important tool you need is an iPad.
It is my belief that raised bed gardens are the very best way to go. You have better control of the soil you use, the beds warm up faster, you can cover them easily in the event of some bad weather and the most important thing is that you do not walk on them compacting the soil. This and this alone is good enough reason to "raise your beds". Do a quick Google of raised beds and you will see hundreds and hundreds of different ideas, many of which are easy and cheap to build. Not only that but by raising the beds bending over is much easier and keeping the weeds out as well.
So start there and then we will go into more info on the hows. When you think about it, we could grow so much food right where we live that famine could be wiped out. But most of all growing food is so much fun and rewarding that it makes you wonder why we don't do more of it.
Last year I had great success for the most part, some failures as well but what I learned will drive me this year to grow as much food as possible in my suburban back yard. What is wonderful about this today is the raft of help that is available on the internet. I sit in front of my iPad and can find info on just about anything related to growing food. So the first and most important tool you need is an iPad.
It is my belief that raised bed gardens are the very best way to go. You have better control of the soil you use, the beds warm up faster, you can cover them easily in the event of some bad weather and the most important thing is that you do not walk on them compacting the soil. This and this alone is good enough reason to "raise your beds". Do a quick Google of raised beds and you will see hundreds and hundreds of different ideas, many of which are easy and cheap to build. Not only that but by raising the beds bending over is much easier and keeping the weeds out as well.
So start there and then we will go into more info on the hows. When you think about it, we could grow so much food right where we live that famine could be wiped out. But most of all growing food is so much fun and rewarding that it makes you wonder why we don't do more of it.
What do we really see
Can you trust your eyes? Is what you see real? Can a witness be counted on to tell the truth when it is so easy to discredit the testimony?
Many questions and not near enough answers. I was watching the history of aliens this weekend and after 2 hours of testimonies everything had an alternative explanation. And I mean everything! It made me wonder if we can trust what we see, we don't have "super vision", and our brains can perceive things that are not there. Hypnosis is not reliable as again the brain is very good at making things up. So that question came to me, "what do we really see"?
How about dark matter, this substance has been proven to exist but we cannot see it. Magicians use slight of hand and miss direction to deceive you from seeing the truth in their tricks. I could go on and on but the answer keeps alluding me, can I believe what I see? Is this how religions started? With misdirection and deep mental hypnosis did the founders of our religions just pull the wool over our eyes? And what of all the unexplained UFO sightings, are there that many people that were fooled into believing or not believing what they saw?
Like the Oracle said in the Matrix, this really cooks your noodle as to what is real, and what our brain makes up. 7 billion eye witness's and no one saw a thing!
Many questions and not near enough answers. I was watching the history of aliens this weekend and after 2 hours of testimonies everything had an alternative explanation. And I mean everything! It made me wonder if we can trust what we see, we don't have "super vision", and our brains can perceive things that are not there. Hypnosis is not reliable as again the brain is very good at making things up. So that question came to me, "what do we really see"?
How about dark matter, this substance has been proven to exist but we cannot see it. Magicians use slight of hand and miss direction to deceive you from seeing the truth in their tricks. I could go on and on but the answer keeps alluding me, can I believe what I see? Is this how religions started? With misdirection and deep mental hypnosis did the founders of our religions just pull the wool over our eyes? And what of all the unexplained UFO sightings, are there that many people that were fooled into believing or not believing what they saw?
Like the Oracle said in the Matrix, this really cooks your noodle as to what is real, and what our brain makes up. 7 billion eye witness's and no one saw a thing!
Sunday 7 April 2013
Cleaning up
If there is anything that is true, we humans are very dirty. We through our trash everywhere, and even those of us that you would call "neat freaks" still make a lot of waste.
Some think this is our planet to dump what ever we want on it, and up to a few hundred years ago we got away with it as the garbage was compostable for the most part. But now, the garbage we are making is almost impossible to keep up with, and it doesn't biodegrade. It has to be processed, after it has been gathered and shipped to some place where they don't mind working for peanuts.
Just keeping up with our own homes is exhausting, I swear I could walk around our house and clean and pick up stuff 24/7, and still not get ahead of it. There is a never ending stream of crap that we deal with every day and no one has an answer to this. We recycle, we compost and still it only scratches the surface. I'm in waste overload and feel helpless at stopping it.
7 billion tossing their shit everywhere and counting.
Some think this is our planet to dump what ever we want on it, and up to a few hundred years ago we got away with it as the garbage was compostable for the most part. But now, the garbage we are making is almost impossible to keep up with, and it doesn't biodegrade. It has to be processed, after it has been gathered and shipped to some place where they don't mind working for peanuts.
Just keeping up with our own homes is exhausting, I swear I could walk around our house and clean and pick up stuff 24/7, and still not get ahead of it. There is a never ending stream of crap that we deal with every day and no one has an answer to this. We recycle, we compost and still it only scratches the surface. I'm in waste overload and feel helpless at stopping it.
7 billion tossing their shit everywhere and counting.
Friday 5 April 2013
Time for Relection
I think Face Book just turned the corner, in my mind, now is a good time to buy some stock. But at any rate the release of Face Book Home will be a game changer if they pull it off. They will have cut Apple off at the pass. Not that iOS is in any danger here, but Home will be very significant in blurring the market, it wont matter what brand of Android you run, the interface will be the same. This will hurt Samsung for sure, and help out some other hand set makers. In the end we will have cheaper devices to carry around. Face Book is in a position to really disrupt many start-ups and dominate like Microsoft did on the desktop. FB will dominate on the home screen of many users transitioning themselves for advertising. This is BRILIANT! Make no mistake about this, it's a real game changer for sure.
One other brilliant thing I saw today was a new direction for hacking protection. Think of this for a moment, you "let the intruder" in and give him all he wants, of coarse it will be rubbish but the intruder will not know. With a bit of good work and some time, this kind of defence will put an end to most of the hacking going on as you will never really know for sure what info you have! This too is BRILLIANT!
Don't you just love the future?
7 billion and counting
One other brilliant thing I saw today was a new direction for hacking protection. Think of this for a moment, you "let the intruder" in and give him all he wants, of coarse it will be rubbish but the intruder will not know. With a bit of good work and some time, this kind of defence will put an end to most of the hacking going on as you will never really know for sure what info you have! This too is BRILLIANT!
Don't you just love the future?
7 billion and counting
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Nudge and a wink
Back-room deals are the staples that have bound us together for ever. This, of coarse should be common knowledge as pretty much everyone does these things. Making deals with each other has been the way of life since time began for humans. But what happens when you can no longer "own up" to the promises made? How can you pay your own deals if the one before you does not pay?
The case of Governments going broke is just that. The deals are all strung out and the music has stopped. Grab a chair and hope to hell the legs don't collapse! I think this is where we find ourselves as a race today. The escalator has reached the top, not much room for error. So now what, hmmm.
Is it me? I notice that most common jobs around the world pay for roughly the same level of life style. Why do we need elected officials tinkering with these things. All the deals they made " to get elected" need to be satisfied, putting strain on the economy. This web of deals has become way to tangled, it all needs to be much more simplified. Easy to understand and in plain language. No more nudges and a wink.
7 billion and counting.
The case of Governments going broke is just that. The deals are all strung out and the music has stopped. Grab a chair and hope to hell the legs don't collapse! I think this is where we find ourselves as a race today. The escalator has reached the top, not much room for error. So now what, hmmm.
Is it me? I notice that most common jobs around the world pay for roughly the same level of life style. Why do we need elected officials tinkering with these things. All the deals they made " to get elected" need to be satisfied, putting strain on the economy. This web of deals has become way to tangled, it all needs to be much more simplified. Easy to understand and in plain language. No more nudges and a wink.
7 billion and counting.
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