To Be at This Moment...

Source: http://www.universetoday.com/
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Temple Terrace - -    As you sit on your laptop or computer, take a minute to ponder.  To be at this moment, history of thousands of years had to happen exactly the way it did.  Of course, you made decisions that have kept you alive and hopefully healthy.  History and Technology have created the world we live in today.  People like Lewis and Clark exploring America's uncharted territory.  The Westward Expansion, where the white man forced the Natives to leave there lands and keep migrating.    Men and Women conquered the Natural Environment with the use of wagons and horses.   The most advancement came with the increasing supply of petroleum from fossils, as technology has progressed individually and privately.  The invention of the internet, by Vinton Cerf and D.A.R.P.A.  That increased the speed of time, creating a relative impatience within the developed world.  We, as developed nation citizens, want efficiency, speed, less cost, and the best quality. With 3G and now 4G networks, nobody is out of reach. 
Decisions made by each of us, have a collective effect on the entire population and thus the world. 
That is History!  History since the Human rose to be the 'Alpha Species of Earth'.
You are sitting here today, most likely, because a world around money and oil has been created so you do not have to waste time.  Wasting time hunting food, finding clean drinking water, place to go to the bathroom safely, and a place to sleep inside a built environment.  All that is available for a price.  Coal is becoming the new oil in terms of going electric with vehicles, but that may be reduced once solar panels and alternatives grab hold of the market.   Seemingly endless amounts of energy for a price.  There is an end however.  That's another topic!

The music we love, the movies we love, the memorable conversations; being able to travel in one day what used to take months or years;  These are some of the great things you and I can enjoy through the creations with technology.  We live in a world that has been taken over by the dependency of energy, especially water and electricity and oil.  These three components have given us the time required to make more advancement in a lifetime than what used to be much more with just the bare hands of labor and slaves.  But resources are finite so we must progress.  However progress at the moment is a different play book in each of our mind's.  I am thankful for the fact that I am still alive and have found a life that makes me happy and keeps me bettering myself.  As much as I am against the dependency on Energy, I realize how my life and probably your life would be much less experienced and fulfilling without the consistent source of electricity. May we find a balance between minimizing energy consumption while still maximizing our lives.

So as you get back to your day, remember how technology and history have shaped the person you are today!!

Facts about Coal

Source: http://media.treehugger.com/assets
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Temple Terrace - -

     So You have seen those commercials on cable lately about "Clean Coal".  We'll today I did some research and found some interesting facts.  The Sierra Club collected data from the Coal industry and all the National Parks in the United States in 2011 and found that coal mining and burning for electricity has some of the worst natural environment effects, especially on these ecosystems. 
 
Facts in Numbers (2011)
260,000,000 gallons of water every day used in mining
 90,000,000 gallons of liquid waste.
 2,000 streams destroyed since the use of mountaintop removal
47 states warn against consuming fish contaminated from mercury emission due to burning coal
130,000,000 tons of solid waste every year from burning coal
 21 million people live within 5 miles of coal burning power plants

 Facts about National Parks and nearby coal fired power plants:
 Great Smoky Mountains - since 1990, every summer visibility has been low at 20%
due to sulfur and nitrogen release from coal fired power plants.  

Big Bend National Park - increased wildfires, droughts, and flooding; visibility and air  quality severely impacted

            Yellowstone National Park -
Summer warming so intense, streams boil and kill trout; White Bark Pine extinction linked to increased pollutants in soil

         As the reader can see, the emissions from producing electricity by burning coal may have scrubbers, but the worst environmental effects have no controls applied.  There is no American progress involved with destroying natural environment to be used and wasted.  Please do more research and you will find overwhelming data on the negative effects of coal mining and burning rather than the benefits it gives society.  We must implement all alternative energy and off grid living capabilities to counter the increasing use of coal as an energy source.  The technology is available, just not on a mass market scale yet.  Individuals are taking creative and efficient steps towards self sufficiency.

Source: Sierra Club, 2011

Hollande and Socialism: Brief Opinion

Source : http://archive.workersliberty.org
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Temple Terrace --

  Ah Monday morning, bright and sunny.
France has elected a new president, Monsieur Hollande.
He is a socialist candidate and is an odd man out within the Euro-Zone.Two of his strongest promises during the campaign:
75 per cent tax on income of those making over 1.3 million Euro annually and to cut Austerity measures from France that are currently imposed throughout Europe. 

   Many people in America and globally are upset that the french people chose Hollande and believe a collapse of economic proportions will occur.  Some of them believe the government will just steal everybody's money now.  I have read many comments suggesting his tax on the rich is ludicrous and just the idea of Socialism is a fallacy.. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT PURE SOCIALISM MEANS!!Socialism

    Free High Quality Education, Free High Quality Healthcare, Public Sector Job Growth, Infrastructure job growth, and best of all, community ownership.  People are actually more concerned with being happy and living life than just making money!! I feel very sad for those who just make money and do not care about helping make a better country or world. 

   If everybody is a capitalist, as the majority of citizens in America are, we see poverty, lack of quality education, lack of job performance in all sectors, laziness, Substance abuse, obsessive behaviors, social and emotional problems, disconnection from reality, and stealing money from the system, as well as pollution and consumerism of epidemic proportions.  The Individual is rewarded monetarily, no matter how he steals, cheats, or lies to get IT.  The Invdividual never experiences the reward of time and effort as that is experienced by those who did not earn but stole your time and effort.

If everybody was a socialist, we would see community gardens and farms to get food, community squares to work and play, community high quality education, strong work ethic, strong ethical and moral factors in decision making, Nobody is better than anybody else that works just as hard.
 A visible connection between surviving and helping others to survive and live happy lives, lack of selfishness and greed and obsession and impulsiveness to consume.


   Although socialism goes against what America was founded on, socialism not co-opted will heal this planet and the Human if played by the rules of those in government.  We all have ambitions and goals but its time to look around, take stock, and realize there is
NO VALUE in FINANCIALIZATION.  VALUE is TIME.  How long Something takes to make, the benefit It gives, and how long It lasts. Not investment or marketing!! 
   We live in a world where the greatest commodities to life became  ARE FOR ALL LIFE  and are now held hostage by big corporations and selfish, disgusting individuals.  They just existed as Clean Air,  Clean Water, Organic Food, and  Organic Shelter.  They are created through a natural process of Time and modified by labor, not by throwing money at them. It may seem that way but that's the illusion of capitalism.  Our disconnection with what it takes to survive will have dire consequences for the unlucky billions that will realize one day how far away and lost in space Human beings have become.  3% annual growth indefinitely is impossible because we live on a finite planet with boundaries!! I could write much more about how capitalism forces Everyone to become individualistic, competitive, and self defeating and I will but this article is about HOPE for a future   . 
    Hollande may become co-opted at some point but his rhetoric at this moment seems very appealing to those in France and around the World who are opposed to financial capitalism and consumerism.
     The 75% rich tax will encourage all middle class and low class earners to open businesses and apply for jobs and have a better chance at succeeding.  Instead of being greedy or individualistic,  people will see the whole country creating and working together to build a nation of workers of  many professions and services that would not been seen or heard of in the global market.  Those who make +1.3 mill. Euro will have to decide where to invest their profits so the tax will not bite their earnings.  Possibly investing in non-profit and beneficial services for the community as well as public-private co-operatives.  There will be top earners who will pay the 75 per cent tax, however they must adapt and see how they are not better and deserve more life than any other hard working citizen putting in time.
  Their may not be any financial market of worth to investors outside France, but inside the country will experience high employment, better infrastructure, and high quality services IF Hollande holds pure socialism over his own ideas of Socialism.