Goodbye

Reluctantly, and for health reasons, my consciousness has decided to implement an isolationist policy regarding my current circle of 'friends'. I am worn out from striving to be there and be helpful for my friends and, in return, always feeling let down and alone when I need help. In short, I'm fed up with being used, abused, and neglected. It all ends today. No more free information, no more free help, no more favors, no more meditation/prayers for them, no more no more.

We've officially hit bottom.

Signing off

A Pointless Debate...

I don't suffer fools well. I'm not sure if this is a virtue or a vice, but people must think me an opinionated, egotistical arse because of it.

Recently, I poo-pooed a slick-looking, HD-quality YouTube (oh sorry, GoogleTube) video of someone saying that Humans are not causing climate change. I was accused of having a closed, unenlightened mind because I refused to watch an hour+ long video on the grounds that I knew it was based on a scientifically invalid premise, yet it considered itself 'science'.

Here's some raw numbers in order to gain a perspective and to understand why I appear to be so dismissive.

But first, the summary.

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1- CO2 warms the planet
2- humans produced more CO2 in 50 years than found in the atmosphere over 400,000 years
3- humans are reducing plankton blooms, which 'eat' CO2
4- humans are reducing forests, which 'eat' CO2
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Humans are not only causing climate change but reducing the Earth's ability to self-regulate!!! Now comes the numbers and refs.

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**Fact #1: CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Uncontroversially, the more of it there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the Earth gets [1].

**Fact #2: There is around 750 billion tons of carbon in the atmosphere with 800 billion tons dissolved in the oceans [2].

**Fact #3: The US alone has been putting 5 billion tons of carbon in the atmosphere every year since 1990 [3]. That's 50 billion tons per decades, and I remind you, that this is long after America's peak industrial output. Looking at the rest of the world nations, the total annual output has gone from 10 billion tons (1960) to 25 billion tons (2000) PER YEAR [4]!

Very conservatively, that's 600 billions tons of CO2 produced in the past 50 years!!! Did you ever wonder why ice cores show we're at the highest concentrations of CO2 in the past 400,000 years [5]???

Now I'd be inclined to believe that despite this HUMAN influence, NATURE might self-balance, but HUMANS are also destroying the capability of NATURE to do this!

**Fact #4: Plankton convert CO2 from the air into Oxygen (supplying around 50% of the Oxygen in the atmosphere) while storing the CO2 in the ocean, but HUMANS are reducing this effect by destroying the ocean ecosystem by polluting the ocean with chemicals and by damming rivers which reduce sediment flow to the ocean. (Land sediment and the minerals in them are responsible for plankton blooms - it's what they 'eat'. Damn up the rivers, block the source of food for the bottom of the food chain [6] To put pesticides (things that kill living things) in the sediment is to put them in the base of the food chain.

While this seriously threatens our food supply, it is only one way human are causing/inducing/accelerating climate change by reducing the effect of the Earth to stabilize itself.

**Fact #5: Forests also convert C02 into Oxygen, the other major source of Oxygen in our atmosphere. HUMANS are reducing this natural conversion - causing a buildup of CO2 - by destroying forests. (For more forest facts, see [7] and [8])

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You can come to your own conclusions, but don't think I have a closed mind simply because I won't entertain YouTube/Google videos of professor/skeptics saying that humans are not affecting the environment.

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References:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

A Tale Of Two Tutus

In Nigeria, a group of men were arrested for dressing as Women. At first, they were charged with Sodomy, which carries a punishment of death. Yes, death... by stoning! Fortunately, that charge also requires four witnesses, so instead, they have been since been charged with "indecent dressing" and vagrancy. Vagrancy? Vaginacy, maybe...

Two weeks ago they were arrested. Only 5 of the 18 men could pay bail; the other 13 are still in jail.

In Uganda, being gay (which isn't the same as cross-dressing, btw, but try telling them a guy in a dress isn't gay) could get you life in prison.

However, in a bold display of juxtapositionalism, Sydney Australia seems to be okay with US Men In Tutus. And thus the phrase, "Toss another one on the Barbie," acquires a whole new meaning.

Your daily perspective...

1861 to 1865 - 600,000 people die (Americans kill Americans in civil war)

1929 to 1933 - 6,000,000 to 11,000,000 people die (Stalin ethnic cleanses)

August 6th, 1945 - 140,000 people die (American President Truman bombs Hiroshima)

August 9th, 1945 - 75,000 people die (Truman bombs Nagasaki)

(Holocaust deaths: 9,000,000 people)
(WWII deaths: 72,000,000 people, 47,000,000 civilians)

September 11, 2001 - 3,000 people die (Al-Qadea attacks New York)

December 26, 2004 - 225,000 people die (Indian Ocean earthquake)

... but which event gets/has the most press? Which is most important to you?

A Modest Proposal

A very, very, slick electric motor-driven car.

However, I wonder... from a physics standpoint... whether a car is gas or electric driven, it still must perform the same amount of work (W = F*d), right? So, if society driving too much (consuming too much energy) is the problem... would this be a solution, or a device that would keep people mired in their love affairs with driving by hiding the source of the energy? (E.g., burning fossil fuels to make electricity.)

I don't know if we fully understand yet all the implications of Ford's invention.

I do know that if everyone switched to electric cars, electricity costs would go through the roof; most companies already have brown outs in summer... can you imagine what the load would be with 2.4 cars per household charging up?

Hmm... biofuels make food more expensive, batteries make utilities more expensive... I know, let's make cars run on water! Yeah, let's grow food and water for machines while 1/3 of our population starves! Ah, if Jonathan Swift were alive today, instead of eating children, we'd be feeding them to our cars!

Your daily perspective...

I'm thankful for power and water NOT being the kind of election issue that it is in Sierra Leone.

Election business not all man business indeed!

Why I Won't Vote For President

Y'all can vote for bigots... I won't.

Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a leading US gay rights advocacy group, has just had a political debate on gay issues (broadcast on Logo).

Not one republican even responded!

Don't feel smug, democrats, all the front runners, including Clinton, Obama, and Edwards still believe that they are somehow better than gays by refusing to acknowledge gay marriage. If blacks or Mexicans were denied marriage rights, it would be a racism issue, but evidently, it's okay to be bigoted toward gays. (Yeah, I know, it's better than being put to death over being gay.)

You don't have to be gay to see the bigotry! It's a tiny step to go from thinking gay people don't deserve the same as you to thinking that anyone different from you is inferior - and claiming that God says gays can't be married is bigoted behavior justified by an irrational belief ... religion is not about intolerance!

Mark my words... "Separate but equal" legislation for gays will only be followed by similar legislation for blacks, immigrants, women, and any minority deemed a threat.

Now then, if a political candidate feels that way about their own constituents, how I can trust them to behave as a leader when it comes to international issues? If they can treat gays differently then themselves, it would be foolish for me to think they consider, Jews or Muslims for example, equals. It would be foolish of me to think that they in fact have the best interests - deep down - of anyone (minority or not) over their own. Full stop.