Monday, January 24, 2011

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

The above quote is one of my favorites by Albert Einstein. He spoke this amazing Einsteinism around 100 years ago and look where his imagination has taken mankind since then.

In upcoming issues of PBS's NOVA series Neil deGrasse Tyson will be discussing the future. The possibility that man will be headed toward Mars in the next decade is becoming more and more realistic. The first issue of the new season will be discussing a planned manned space flight to Mars. Although such a trip may result in unimaginable disasters, will require vast sums of money, and although the trip and exploration of Mars could be managed by robotics, men will nevertheless go there.

Just because we eventually do what we imagine we can do. Another NOVA issue will be discussing the possibility that man will soon be living much much longer than our present 70 plus years. This presents mankind with an entirely new outlook and possibilities for our species never before considered. It may be possible to figure out what to do with an additional 10 or 20 years of life but imagine what you might do with an extra 150 or 200 years.

Just imagine.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Water water everywhere but none for free.

Until recently this would have been impossible to believe.

The one thing I have taken for granted all my life was that there would always be access to free and plentiful fresh water. In fact in the northeast part of the country where I'm from we had far too much; rain to the point of flooding in spring and summer and copious amounts of snow late fall and all winter.

But the Times they are a changing. Until the last 40 years or so there wasn't such a thing as acid rain to contend with. Today clean water supplies are dwindling rapidly and agricultural expansion into arid lands is literally sucking lakes and rivers dry, particularly in the Southwest.

As a result water is morphing into a major commodity; a cross between milk and oil. Water rights will become more valuable than mineral rights. Like other commodities water will become the target of monopolistic companies and price manipulation. In fact, T Boone Pickens is already in the process of developing an aquifer on his ranch in Texas which will, in time, drain the water from the surrounding hundreds of thousands of acres. In the not too distant future T Boone will be pickin his neighbor's pockets selling them back their water.

Some people predict that the big bottling companies will attempt to control the world's water resources so eventually everyone will be depending on them for drinking water. The State of Michigan is currently trying to secure the water rights to Lake Michigan. No joke!

An interesting play on water is a company called S2C Global Systems, Inc. (stock ticker STWG). They are developing a freshwater distribution potential. They have managed to gain the water rights to a pristine fresh water river and plan to fill and float huge balloons of water(similar to the balloons of glue which supplied our plywood mills == only thousands of times larger) all over the globe. They anticipate trains of water bags miles long heading to deserts everywhere.

If you have children or grandchildren you might consider giving them the gift of water. Shares in this company can be purchased for about a half a cent apiece,
(.005$), which means you can buy 10,000 shares for $50.

Over the next 20 years those shares may grow into a small fortune, or who knows, maybe a large one. The odds of success are way better than the lottery.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Stop the government union from bankrupting America!

I wish I could take credit for that headline but Larry Kudlow gets the credit.

The truth is bureaucrats have managed to allocate to themselves and their political brethren salaries upwards of a million dollars annually in a few cases, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and benefits annually in most cases, without the tax paying public paying any attention.

Federal employees enjoy a lifetime of medical benefits and 100% of their last year’s salary, plus cost of living increases for the rest of their lives, once they reach middle management level and beyond.

I worked for MasterBrand for several years. For every year I worked I accumulated a benefit of $20 per month in retirement pay, vested after the first five years of full employment. In other words after 30 years with this company (this company is no different from many others) I would receive upon retirement age $600 per month/no medical benefits.

Had I worked for the government for those 30 years I would be entitled to a minimum of $6,000 per month and full medical benefits for the rest of my life. The average cost to the taxpayer per retired federal public employee currently is (correct me if I've missed my number by much) $125,000 per year.

The conclusion is obvious. We are completely out of our minds. Without realizing it we have put an entire segment of our population, i.e. the government sector, under European-style benefits and care worth far more than their lifetime service ever was. What's worse, the entire cost is being born by the private sector.

So to fill the gap in reason we are borrowing real money, in annual amounts which will sooner rather than later bankrupt every governmental budget nationwide. The next domino to fall will be the country.

Add it up. Would you give up 20 years of your working life as a highly paid public servant entitled to receive a lifetime of retirement pay and a lifetime of first-class medical care? Keep in mind that the cost of equivalent medical care would cost the average private retiree his entire monthly retirement benefit and more.

So don't bother to add up. If you are a private employee you're screwed. And we did it to ourselves.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Where the confusion in the country begins.

Patriots abound. I suspect that if a box for “are you a patriot” YES ( ) NO ( )
were added to the U.S. Census poll close to 100% percent would check the YES box. Therefore we need to keep in mind that criticism of this country is not unpatriotic unless it is deliberately based on false analysis (manipulation) or outright lie and deception. (the controversy over wiki-leaks comes to mind) Everybody complains; that's patriotic!

Where the confusion begins is when people mistake the person for the office. If someone were to criticize this country in general my hackles will rise. Although statistically speaking the USA is no longer the best country in the world to live in, I would not trade it for another. There is still plenty to love about our country.

On the other hand, if someone were to criticize Dick Cheney I would do my best to pile on. Cheney outright lied to the American people often and bullied others in the administration to bend to his evil will, all for the most ambiguous of reasons. Hunger for power, greed beyond belief, and as a result a severe over-dose of fear and paranoia are my guesses for his behavior. However, I do not hold the office of the Vice President in disrepute because of Dick Cheney's actions. In spite of the fact that he was vice President of this country for eight years, the man was no patriot.

I don't believe the public will ever be told the whole truth about a whole range of bad acts covered up by the nation's dirty launderers. Some brilliant wordsmith once coined government expressions like “they are protecting us from ourselves”, or better still, “they are lying to us for our own good”. Speaking for myself I don't believe, or at least can't imagine, a single truth the universe could throw at me that I couldn't deal with. Of course, I am broad-minded. Don't ever lie to me and tell me it's for my own good. I am no mushroom.

Public officials, “lying to us for our own good”, are where the confusion begins. Starting with the Kennedy assassination our government has consistently lied to us where matters of national security were deemed to be concerned. Great orators and even greater speechwriters combine to elevate spin doctoring to a fine art and whose combined talents could bring the Mona Lisa to tears.

We the people are not stupid or brain-dead; we are just sorely misled. Until we hold the people who sit in public office accountable for their evil deeds those who follow in their footsteps will continue to push the envelope and abuse us further. Throwing a few bums out of Congress was a good start. Allowing big money to elect their replacements was a huge step backwards. Until our win/loss ratio turns positive this country will continue on its present course.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Something to think about

The secrets that death holds will never be known by the living.

And why should they be?

When we are born we have no memory of where we came from. Everything in a newborn's universe is brand spanking new to that unique life.

However, looked at from another perspective, all the atoms which comprise that new life are atoms that have been in existence since shortly after the Big Bang. In other words, every life is composed of component parts that are eternal; from bits
and pieces that have been around for as long as the universe itself.


So when we die our eternal atoms get recycled. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The slate gets wiped clean.

And why shouldn't it be?