Refused Refuse

             “When the Earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the Earth of many colors, creeds and classes… and by their deeds shall make the Earth green again. They shall be known as the Warriors of the Rainbow”- Ancient Hopi Prophecy (650A.D.) [7].  A prophecy spoken many centuries ago by an almost lost people calls to mind the issues which face humans in modern times. In today’s times, humans have created the above horrific situation in which life, sanitation for life and livable space will be a commodity in the future. Garbage dumps and landfills are now taking up significant areas of livable space for humans and animals alike. Without change, humans will be living within the garbage heaps in the future as some children and families in the third and fourth world as it is called do now [5][7]. Oceans are now filled with garbage that are killing ocean life at an unprecedented pace, land is now filled with Hazardous material sites, Landfills and Garbage dumps that inevitably leak into ground water, food supplies and breathable air are now polluted almost beyond repair [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. A change has to come or the planet concerning human life will be done.

According the United state Environmental Protection agency every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of "trash"--about 4.6 pounds per person per day. Less than one-quarter of it is recycled; the rest is incinerated or buried in landfills. With a little forethought, people could reuse or recycle more than 70 percent of the landfilled waste, which includes valuable materials such as glass, metal, and paper. This would reduce the demand on virgin sources of these materials and eliminate potentially severe environmental, economic, and public health problems [1][2][3]. Recycling and composting prevented 86.6 million tons of material from being disposed in 2012, up from 15 million tons in 1980. This prevented the release of approximately 168 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the air in 2012—equivalent to taking over 33 million cars off the road for a year [1][2][4][7]. However, that still leaves other issues such as Organic materials which continue to be the largest component of MSW (Municipal Solid Waste). Paper and paperboard account for 28 percent and yard trimmings and food waste account for another 28 percent. Plastics comprise about 13 percent; metals make up 9 percent; and rubber, leather, and textiles account for 8 percent. Wood follows at around 6 percent and glass at 5 percent [2][3][6]. These things are not placed in one landfill or garbage dump in the U.S. but many throughout the nation. Most of these places for refuse are noted by the EPA: as Landfills are engineered areas where waste is placed into the land. Landfills usually have liner systems and other safeguards to prevent polluting the groundwater [2][3]. Next would be Transfer Stations that are facilities where municipal solid waste is unloaded from collection vehicles and briefly held while it is reloaded onto larger, long-distance transport vehicles for shipment to landfills or other treatment or disposal facilities [2][3][4]. Finally there are Hazardous waste sites which present immediate or long-term risks to humans, animals, plants, or the environment. It requires special handling for detoxification or safe disposal. In the U.S., hazardous waste is legally defined as any discarded solid or liquid that, contains one or more of 39 carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic compounds at levels that exceed established limits (including many solvents, pesticides, and paint strippers); catches fire easily (such as gasoline, paints, and solvents); is reactive or unstable enough to explode or release toxic fumes (including acids, bases, ammonia, and chlorine bleach); or is capable of corroding metal containers such as tanks, drums, and barrels (such as industrial cleaning agents and oven and drain cleaners). The EPA has a list of more than 500 specific hazardous wastes [1][2][3][6][7]. This short but comprehensive list doesn’t even call out places like Yuka Mountain in New Mexico. The largest Nuclear waste dump in the world [6][7]. According to EPA numbers, humans are making progress in the recycling arena, but are still a long shot off the mark at current pace. Currently there are 86 facilities in the United States for combustion of municipal solid waste (MSW), with energy recovery. These facilities are located in 25 states, mainly in the Northeast. No new plants have been built in the US since 1995, but some plants have expanded to handle additional waste and create more energy. The 86 facilities have the capacity to produce 2,720 megawatts of power per year by processing more than 28 million tons of waste per year [1][2][3[4].

Oceans are currently covered in a plastic soup as discussed in other papers which also leads to the toxicity of the planet when it comes to humans or wildlife in general [4][7]. According to the data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash is dumped in the oceans every year [1][7]. On an average, 8 million items of marine litter are disposed in oceans every single year; approximately 5 million of which are either thrown off board or lost during a storm [1][8]. It is estimated that 70 percent of the total marine litter is deposited at the seabed; the remaining 30 percent either keeps floating in the ocean or is washed ashore (beach trash) [1][7][8]. Interestingly, pollution caused by marine transportation only accounts for 10 percent of the total ocean pollution -- and even that is down from 12 percent in 1990 [8]. As a part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup campaign, 598,000 volunteers collected over 9 million pounds of trash from various sites across the world in 2011 [7][8]. Even oil spills are categorized but rarely looked at in the scope of pollution. These spills are categorized into major spills (over 700 tons), medium-sized spills (7-700 tons), and small spills (less than 7 tons) [1][8]. In 2011, there was 1 major and there were 4 medium oil spills recorded from different parts of the world [8]. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 -- also called BP oil disaster -- was the largest offshore oil spill in the history. It lasted for nearly 3 months and spilled 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico [4][7][8][9].  Ocean-based activities account for 20 percent of the overall pollution, and cruise ships have a major contribution in this 20 percent share [4][6][8]. The waste generated on cruise ships is categorized into grey-water (i.e., the wastewater from sinks, showers, laundry, etc.) and black-water (i.e., the wastewater from medical facilities aboard, toilets, etc.) [3][4][7][8]. According to the Cruise Report Card prepared for the Friends of the Earth in 2009, Ross A. Klein estimates that a moderate-sized cruise ship on a week-long voyage with 2,200 passengers and 800 crew members aboard generates 210,000 gallons of human sewage [7][8] [9]. In the United States, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships prohibits the ships from dumping any kind of waste within a distance of 3 nautical miles from the coast. For certain types of waste, the distance is 12 nautical miles from the coast [8]. Are these areas and the scant resources used to enforce these new laws enough to even make a dent in the issue of Ocean pollution? Science seems to have doubts.

Sadly enough, humans are made to live on land, not in the ocean currently being destroyed. However, in the cycle of pollution everything starts and ends there, eventually making it to land, crops, inland water ways and even the air humans breathe [1][4][6][7][8].  When Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976, it fundamentally changed the way America stores trash. The law and its subsequent amendments require disposal facilities to line their gigantic trash holes with layers of either plastic or clay, or both [1][8]. These liners, and a subterranean piping system, collect the leachate, which is then hauled to sewage treatment plants. Landfill operators must also install pipes to vent the methane gas, which is burned off—reducing the super-potent greenhouse gas to mere carbon dioxide. (Some facilities take advantage of the heat created in the process, using it to power turbines or turn the methane directly into liquid natural gas.) [1][3][8]. The 1976 law was a huge win for the soil and groundwater, however there are drawbacks. Technologically has advanced the landfill sites and expectations of landfills in current operation [1][8]. The word dump now applies only to old-school holes in the ground and are more expensive to design and operate than in the past [2][3][8]. To make up for these costs, landfill operators began to emphasize economies of scale. Rather than having lots of tiny dumps scattered everywhere, now there are a small number of mega-landfills. In 1986, there were 7,683 dumps in the United States. By 2009, there were just 1,908 landfills (PDF) nationwide—a 75 percent decline in disposal facilities in less than 25 years [1][3][4][8]. Which brings America to the problem with the new system: Trash now has to travel further from a kitchen or property to its final resting place, and longer trips mean more greenhouse gas emissions [1][2][3][6][8]. Thirty years ago, a bag of garbage dropped down a chute in Manhattan would have traveled just a few miles by barge to the aptly named Fresh Kills facility on Staten Island. (Until 1931, the city dumped most of its trash in the Atlantic Ocean) Today, it would likely make an overland journey to Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia. One ton of garbage traveling 500 miles by train from New York to the Mountain State would generate 115 pounds of carbon dioxide [1][2][3][8]. If New York City shipped all of its trash to West Virginia the commute would produce 760,000 tons of CO2 each year [1][2][8]. Now air pollution is becoming the issue from landfills all across the nation with little notice and no fix in sight. What are states to do that have no more space to dump internally? This situation has been a boon of revenue for States like Ohio [1][2][3][8]. Much like prisoners, trash shipments can be big business for states willing to accept them. Kentucky, for example, has room for 212 million tons of waste. At the going rate of $29 per ton, that's a $6 billion economic opportunity [1][3][8]. Ohio has $21 billion of available landfill space [1][8]. Because of political opposition to local landfills, most Northeastern states' trash will probably be riding the rails for a long time to come. This is all without the thought of mining waste in this nation [1][2][4]. Yes waste mine material from the same states that collect other’s garbage are also a source of issue for the future, whether the mining is natural, strip, top off or fracking. Or the waste caused by industrial farming, industry in general, a lot of which get Grandfather clauses placed into any new EPA regulation stopping them from being fined, but making it OK for any future attempts to store or deal with waste a finable offense [1][2][3][6]. What land are humans going to live on in the future? Where will humans grow food for sustenance?

It seems as though states would rather accept trash for local residents than build housing for those who need. Oceans all over the world are now plastic stews with the carcasses of what used to be marine life intertwined. Land is becoming unmanageable or unlivable as humans dump more and more waste into areas that will eventually affect the species. Water ways used for recreation, travel and the like are almost open sewers in which humans play, eat and defecate again. In some third world nation’s people actually move entire families into garbage dumps and live for years at a time [5][7], a practice which seems unimaginable to Americans, but soon may not be. There is no bubble, no filter and no way of keeping what happens in the rest of the world from “leaching” into America through natural sources of all kinds, be those sources air, water or land. Americans worry about the inundation of Terrorism across the borders and the sanctity of life of the unborn, without ever really looking at the cradle humans have left for that life in the future. Hopefully soon the Rainbow Warriors will wake up, and reclaim or change this before it is too late for the mother that cares for all species… Mother Earth. 

 

 

[1] http://www.learner.org/interactives/garbage/solidwaste.html   - U.S. Garbage totals and World Garbage totals by estimate.

[2] http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/index.htm - Municipal Solid Waste by the numbers EPA.

[3] http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Landfills.htm – “Landfills in the US and management.

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3rhyxpeMA – America’s Mega-Dump Documentary.

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6SPy9qV1M4  – Children Living in the Guatemala City Dump; “Children of the 4th World” – Documentary.

[6] http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/landfill.htm - EPA Landfill watch, differing from Garbage watch on EPA site.

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtoGdrkt9EY – “Inside the Garbage of the World” Documentary.

[8] http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ocean-pollution-facts.html - list of Ocean facts and resources.

[9] 

Bottled Water, the American Abatross.

 Bottled water has many unseen effects on the environment, from the chemicals used to create the bottles, to the water actually used in the process of creating a portable personal dose of water and finally human disposal of the waste produced by these bottles. This is a resource, like air, which is needed for life, and the fight between those who want to privatize it and those who think it is a natural right has already begun [1][3][5]. Statistical data says living within ten miles of any plant that produces the chemicals or the actual containers themselves leads to elevated risks of Cancers, Lung issues and Birth defects [4][5][7]. The water that is used in making these personal hydration devices is barely suitable for human consumption without additional chemical processes to clean it for general use [2][3][4]. All while companies like Nestle, Coke and Pepsi (along with every other beer producer, canned food producer etc…) are vying for the chance to take stake and full ownership of this resource humans need for survival [4][5]. 

            When thinking about water, most people think of a smooth substance with little friction. However, water is the most powerful solvent on earth [2][5]. Leave anything in water for a period of time and it will break down to base elements. Anything placed in water, or that water is placed in will trade molecules with the water in question [3][5]. This leads to a question; why would people store water in a substance when left on its own has been shown to kill and defect people for generations to come? Most disposable water bottles are made from petroleum derived polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [2][3][5]. While PET is considered less toxic than many other types of plastic, the Berkely Ecology Center found that manufacturing PET generates toxic emissions in the form of nickel, ethyl benzene, ethylene oxide and benzene at levels 100 times higher than those created to make the same amount of glass [3][5][6]. William Shotyk (2006) had performed two studies concerning contamination and leaching in PET containers in storage capacities. One study was undertaken to research the notion of “storage dose” of water in acid-cleaned LDPE (low density) bottles compared to that of PET bottles indicated that after three months of storage at room temperature, the water in the PET bottle yielded nearly 200% more of the Sb chemical concentration [3][5][7]. People living within a ten mile prevailing wind zone of most petrochemical plants suffer greater risks of many known diseases including but not limited to Cancer, Emphysema, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Immune Disease, Nervous disorders, as well as Kidney and Liver failure [4][5][7].

            The suitability and sustainability of the water used to create these exotic waters is and has been in question for some time [1][3][5][6]. The class saw that most bottled waters are indeed no more than dressed up tap water with fancy names and expensive wrappings; a little more in depth explanation of this is needed. Tap water is heavily filtered, measured and studied by the EPA. Industrial DI water is not. DI, or Deionized water is made by a process in which the chemical composition of the water is stripped down to basic molecules by way of solvents, sulfur, sulfur dioxide, charcoals and other chemicals to make water “purer” for the consumer [3][6][8]. However, neither the EPA, FDA nor any other Government agencies are allowed to test the water once it goes through this process in house unless a violation occurs with safety that involves a recall [3][8].  These processes leave residues of the before mentioned substances behind at greater levels than the EPA allows in city tap water on most occasions [1][6][7][8].

            Corporate jockeying for control of the world water supply is now ramping up [3][7][8][9]. Nestle has made it clear the corporation’s intentions to take as much of the water supply as possible for private use in the next ten years [9]. The CEO of Nestle Corp even stating “we do not believe water to be a human right, but a commodity that should be kept and maintained for the greater good”, however it is a rare thing when a corporation does something for the greater good in lieu of short term gain [8][9]. Water levels in places where these companies have set up shop have dropped. In some places water has gone entirely missing from centuries and millennia old waterways and lakes, simply vanishing and being chalked up to naturally lower water levels or drought [3][4][5]. This is not the case, as water is being taken from one area of the world and shipped to another it will naturally cause a shortage in the place from which said water came [3][4][5].

To close, water being the factor Scientists look for on other planets to signify life, being a more important factor than even Oxygen because Oxygen can be derived from water, then it is too important to let go. Letting a water source go bad, be taken over by those who have the means to do so or cause neighbors to be polluted is not a good course for all humanity. Considering people pay up to 2,000 times the price of a municipal water source that is tested many times a day for safety factors costs, hopefully soon a company starts bottling clean air. Consumers seem to be like birds, enamored with shiny bright objects. However once consumers get a gullet full of Cancer, Heart problems and the myriad of other issues caused by bottled water, and retreat to find the local water source depleted beyond use by those who have. Then maybe we will find the human Albatross washed up on shore with a stomach full of water bottle caps.

 

 

 http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=dead%20albatross%20full%20of%20bottle%20caps&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=dead%20albatross%20full%20of%20bottle%20caps&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=DEC9CA1C1F8272A88C3FB4C759819CC492B63A72&selectedIndex=9

 

 

 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e5CaIkrqWU – ABC news report on contaminates and difference in Bottle vs Tap water.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obbbecgjhw8 - Report on what is actually contained in bottles and plant water used in bottled waters.

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1a3tjqQiBI – “Blue Gold” Documentary on water current wars.

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egtKx24dat8 – “A World Without Water” -Documentary 3^rd world nation’s water issues and how they affect the world populace.

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH-NmuG-Wbg  – “Water Science” – Documentary about how private industry is trying to use a life resource against people.

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0  – “The Story of Bottled Water” – Documentary about regulation and testing of bottled water.

[7] http://water.epa.gov/drink/ - US EPA site about water.

[8] http://www.generalwaterservices.com/pages/di-water-systems.php - http://www.apswater.com/article.asp?id=321&title=What_is_DI_Water_ - http://www.generalwaterservices.com/pages/di-water-systems.php - only resources I can give you, but Engineering in these plants for 15 years. I saw the hidden information and records, thus the reason I was asked to come and save them before they made millions sick.

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU – 2013 interview with Nestle CEO.

We don't Riot to Solve Problems... Say what?

Funny how we in this nation keep hearing all these people say "we don't riot to fix problems"...
Folks, we taught the world to riot. We taught the French to revolt. America IS the riot capital of the world, or at least one of the Father's of riots. We rioted over Tea. We rioted over forced service in the Civil War, or the Draft as it was called. America burned during the summers from 1964 to 1969 from Watts to Detroit, from Alabama to Harlem. The Whiskey Rebellion.

Our own military has rioted and... marched Armed on Washington several times in history to get paid...

The Harlan Coal Wars were whites fighting whites in the late 60's and early 70's, and the Matewan WV wars were the same back in the 1920's.

Now, what is the REAL common thread? Those with power abusing those without. Whether black, white or indifferent... This is no longer about race, it is about power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Riots_of_1884

My Company vs My Freedom

What happened to personal freedoms, and why do some people only complain about a few, while they watched others be taken as they stood by and “dealt with it” as a nation? People are going “crazy” over the Supreme Court ruling against Birth Control provisions by companies who chose our healthcare for us in this country. I am in NO WAY for the ruling, but it is the same way it is legal for a company to fire an employee who smokes cigarettes now.

Why no uproar about that one when it started the "slippery slope"? Why no uproar 30 years ago when drug testing became the normal practice among companies? It is a “racket” where companies spend in the neighborhood of Twenty Billion Dollars a year to perform these tests, and it has only been shown to recoup a few million dollars at best. Do they care? No. Why? Because your company has investments in these same testing companies.

Studies have shown that by the time a person needs to be tested for suspicion; the signs have started and been in place for some time. No shows, lateness etc… However, all of us as employees need to pay for the mistakes and decisions of a few. The mistakes of the abuser need to regulate my life. The “perceived ills” of a “woman who may ABUSE birth control” (whatever that means) also should be regulated in this country?

Isn’t it my right to smoke? If it is legal can I not participate? Isn’t sex legal in this nation? Is it a company’s right to tell either of those groups what to do or not do with their personal body? If it is legal can you persecute me for it just to make YOUR morals feel better? Why is a company allowed to take a life insurance policy out on me with themselves as beneficiaries?

Why must a man who shows his face on TV in Washington State showing a momentous occasion be fired for partaking in a currently LEGAL activity?

When is the revolt against this garbage we allow going to begin? Voters, employees and customers all have one thing in common: They vote with their feet. If you do not like a company you quit, if you do not like a product you do not buy a product, if you do not like a political stance you move your feet to the other side. I am starting to wonder when we the people are going to start banding together in the name of good for all of us and not hatred for all the other guy has and does. When is it going to be time to take back our healthcare, our personal decisions and our freedom?

Corporations are not people.

No Corporation has the right to tell any of us what to or not to do as long as we aren't committing armed robbery against them.

"New" Feminism

I am becoming more and more confused with the current and more modern strain of Feminism that has manifested itself in the last several years. Can someone explain it to me? I have seen serious discussion; comedy and just light hearted banter lately revolve around a new form of Feminism, a type of which I was not familiar. As a man, I am all for women’s rights, equal pay for equal work, reproductive rights… I am sure I missed something, but you get my point. As a Liberal, I do believe women should have equality.

What I am speaking of is the new outcry from women that they face a “sexual gauntlet” every day of their lives when dealing with men. That each day spent in the company of a male is a day of threat, likely violence, constant harassment, ogling, and assault in many forms, innuendo, boorish behavior and abhorrent sexual advances at any given moment. In the next breath you may hear the same woman decry the fact that she doesn’t feel pretty, wanted, needed, loved, sexually or physically “blessed” as she perceives her female counterparts to be, and would like all of that to change immediately as well. You may hear her talk about “50 Shades of Grey” or “Twilight” as if she were about to have an orgasm in front of you, but make mention of her actions, and you are a letch or misogynist.

I am becoming more and more confused at how a gender can want to be attractive, but not want to be told. Why go through the motions of getting up, showered, dressed and made up if you do not want attention? Why attest need for good sexual relations and to be desired, but protest when that desire shows itself in a male’s approach to you. The Sexes are sexual in nature, all studies show it to be true, but WOMEN reserve the right to turn down. Yet as a man, if I see something in you, be it physical or not, am I to keep my mouth shut until you decide you want me? Men would be terminally alone if life worked in that manner, and women would be more hateful than they ever were.

I also am getting confused about the “we don’t need your help” types in all of this. Guess what: you do need my help. You need sympathetic men to your cause or you will get nowhere. How did the ERA work without male support? Suffrage? Didn’t Hobby Lobby just get their way in lieu of YOUR wants and needs? Yeah, please stop acting as though you can go it alone, we need you and you need us. Without each other we all die as a species.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Jonh McCain and Republicans in General it Seems

So that is McCain's issue...
They only released him for Vietnamese prisoners when the war was almost over. Actual Vietcong soldiers who had killed American Servicemen.
I guess the war needed to be over before we traded for Bowe... but didn't they declare Mission Accomplished in 2004?

Who set up Iran in the 1950's? Oh that would be us and the British. Who supplied both sides with weapons during the Iran Iraq war? That was us again. Who traded arms for hostages? Oh us under a Republican President. Who originally cut and ran from the Middle East? That was Reagan, the Lebanon Hustler... 240+ Americans died and he ran like the place was on fire. At least 15 Consulate and Embassy attacks under Bush, and not one peep from these idiots...lol
I am confused...lol

American Gun Control

I am back, not that it means much because most think I am crazy...lol But I will come up with a multi part answer on gun control and use in America, and only give basics for the first answer because follow-ups will come, and I will "flesh it out" more then.
1) Bridge the gap between educated and non educated. By this I mean, most think these are 2 different worlds but they in fact are not. We all walk the same streets, live in the same areas and some of us actually have to venture to places where danger is a question and self preservation the answer. Get the guy wearing Camo's/ Alex Jones shirt and screaming about his rights to understand he scares people who don't understand from where he comes. However, you must also get those who "believe" they are too educated to entertain such a person to actually sit and listen to him. Honest discussion sans AR-15 slung over the back, and sans looking down nose at "lower educated" individual from the other side.
2) Remember when we had Archery in school? I do. My Dad remembers A time when they had a shooting club at high school. I remember a time when the first day of Gun hunting season for Deer would start, and the parking lot was an arsenal. EVERYONE had a gun in their car because most were going right after school to spend a weekend in the woods and hunt. No fear then was there?
3) Education. On both sides. This is all part of sitting down and asking honest questions of gun owners, and those opposed to ownership. Why? Both sides give me a quick why. That is a good place to start part 1. Now I don't mean giving trite answers that are only cutting toward the other side, but honest, heartfelt discussion. Not about how a carrier is lacking in male endowment, or how Liberals are too stupid to see... No, honesty without finger pointing at either side. No name calling out of lack of answers, but REAL talks. Why PERSONALLY does a person feel the way they do?
4) If we are going to tighten gun laws, then we need to loosen Assault laws. In England, it is common to have a dust up and beyond a cut or bruise, no one is worse for the wear. Same in France, Italy and Germany. In Denmark they encourage their kids to learn to fight and lift weights. In Finland they all get Government guns handed to them, and scrap in the streets when there is a problem. Same in Holland, Norway and Sweden. My point is this: should I really be threatened with doing as much time for punching a guy in the mouth as I would if I just shot him cold dead and claimed he threatened me? No, but we have such a litigious, babied society anymore it has become almost comical. The "bully", the bad cop, the bad teacher, the angry dude on the corner. So many things we fear now, that 30 years ago we would just "deal with" as a community and it would be done. Kid gets bullied? Bigger friend steps in. If not, then kid goes to weight room, takes his lumps and gains much respect from peers. Fear is part of life, it is how you face that fear and overcome it that makes you a winner or loser in life. I don't want to get eaten by a shark, but I will swim in the ocean and will not be mad someone didn't kill them all to make me safer. I don't want people to drive while on a cell phone, but it happens, and I may die from it, but I don't think taking all cell phones will help.

There is no reason every citizen can't carry, and there is no reason a citizen should be forced to carry. I think we lose sight of something in a "free" society depending on which side of the aisle you wake up on... Freedom comes with a cost. It isn't free. That doesn't mean just for the guys fighting our wars for us... that means ALL of us in everyday society take a chance going out on the street for a gallon of milk. Yes, you can get shot at the UDF down the street trying to buy your milk, you can get shot in Kroger trying to do the same. You can also get hit by a car while someone is on a cell Phone and not watching (many more of that happens than shootings). You can get struck by lightening. You could fall off the step stool and break your neck and die. Life is a risky business, and I personally don't want or think we all need to be wrapped in bubble wrap.
I agree there can be better control in place. But for whom and to protect who?
I will entertain questions/ comments...lol I know more detail is needed.
I am here all night...lol

A Funny set of Words

I have a funny set of words I will not say much about, but I do think they are thrown about way to often.
Common Sense

I love the wonderful book Thomas Paine wrote of the same name. However, in this day and age is there really a "common sense" anymore?

Do I have a common sense of anything with a person who may have lost their legs in war?
Do I have a common sense with a person who didn't grow up in a lower middle class area?
Do I have a common sense with the leaders I elect to represent me?
Do I have a common sense with my friends?

Do I understand what common sense is? Does it stop at don't kill your neighbor because it is wrong, or is it supposed to be more in depth than that shallow view of the nature of man?
Do any of us truly possess a common sense of anything in this world anymore?

I'd love some comments... :)

Mother's Day 2014

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers I know. Kids: respect and love them for every second you have them in your lives. They can aggravate, complain, feel like they are bringing the weight of the world down on your head... because they love you. They want the best for you. They are that tiny kitten who will fight the Rottweiler for you. They will sacrifice all to be there for you and to support your greatest and not so great work. They are there with a gentle reminder to keep pushing, and a harsh reminder to be careful...
They are Mother's, and all of you who are fortunate enough to have had one in your lives... I envy you.
I was fortunate to have a Cornucopia of Ladies who took on the role in my life.
My first and DEAREST mother was Aunt Mae. You will always be in my heart Mae, and my deepest love went with you so many years ago and it will forever break my heart you didn't get to see more. I will cherish everyday I got to spend with you walking and talking about the world or God and what he meant to you, or just sitting and watching Jeopardy with you. I will NEVER get that back, and I miss it daily. I miss you Mom. Aunt Teresa, mean at points because she knew I had better in me than I showed... but became a loving and understanding force in my life as years passed and she found out what the true nature of my life had been. Even my Father tried to play a bit of the role. To all the friends Mom's who actually acted as though they cared, from Dave Taylor's "Red", to George Due's "Weenie" to any of my other friends Mother's... I thought the world of them all, and was the most jealous kid in the world that I had none to speak of in my life, but you had yours to complain about and be friends with in the long run.
To ALL of you Mom's who stick it out every day and fight to keep those kids going and on the right path... Happy Mother's Day!!!
To all you kids who have Mom around, CHERISH EVERY MINUTE YOU GET, they are fleeting and can be over in a literal heartbeat as my Mother's time has.
Love her for who she is and what she has done for you... You never get another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTmd4SAJrs

Movie Review: "Gravity" - 2013

                                      


Movie review for General Audience: "Gravity"

 

Scream and no one can hear you. There are no sound waves to carry your noise; any noise. Cry for help and no one is there; you are alone in a place few ever go. Try to leave your life rafts in any way, and within 10 seconds your blood boils and you freeze dry. Welcome to Gravity the new DVD release starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Slated for release in late March of 2014, Gravity, directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón is a story which starts out peacefully enough, and turns to a thrill a minute ride through our limited capabilities for Space Travel and life sustenance in those harsh conditions. It places a significant highlight on how “Space Junk” has become an issue over the course of the Space Race and man’s subsequent journeys into space, especially in the last 30-years as space has “opened up” to other populations of possible explorers. The main characters were engrossing. Sandra Bullock as the new traveler not “battle hardened” to the harsh realities of space and George Clooney the wily old Veteran who has seen it all, prepared for it all and brings a calmness to each situation no matter how grave it may seem to be. The constant rotational orbit felt by those who venture to the Stratus is captured wonderfully by Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and there is no wonder from a visual, story and acting perspective this movie garnered 10 Academy award Nominations, which is nearly unheard of in the genre of Space centric filming (Konow, David). In my opinion this was a wonderful story, shot on the background of emptiness that humans can scarcely imagine, much less understand and master.

            The first part of the movie that was of interest to me personally was the depiction of space. The vehicles and equipment we currently use in space exploration, the visual of being upside down 350 miles above the surface of the Earth and whether this film caught the “reality” of being in a limitless vacuum where the temperature fluctuates from absolute zero (−273.15° on the Celsius scale and −459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale) to a boiling 300° or so in seconds depending on positioning of the sun to you (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest). A place where there is not a breath to be had of anything but total vacuum (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest). We stay within a relatively safe distance of only 350 miles above the Earth’s surface to partially protect us from being baked alive by the microwaves and Solar Ejections that are common place issues of major concern when maintaining life during a deep space exploration (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest)(Watercutter, Angela). Except for a few minor exaggerations and missteps, very few of each, from a scientific perspective this movie was very well done in its entirety. Let's move onto a few of the more glaring missteps that are worth at least a mention as they were created to aid in the telling of a story, but in fact do give the average viewer of the movie the idea that things are a little “tighter packed” in space than they truly are.

The major idea of the film is based on the Kessler Syndrome. This is the idea that fragments of space junk will eventually cause an avalanche of problems in space and maybe render space unsuitable for several hundred years in the future because a cloud of super speeding fragmented garbage will be floating around the planet (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest)(Watercutter, Angela). We get a premonition of this issue when Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) loses grip on a small bolt while repairing the Hubble, and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) uses his jet pack to retrieve it and tells her, “relax, you are almost done”. That scene sets the stage for the rest for the movie; a roving cloud of space junk created by 2 satellites colliding heads toward our players Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski as they work on the Hubble telescope. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson came out and stated, “Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher” and “how Hubble (350mi up), The International Space Station (230mi up) and a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another is not a reality of current space exploration.” However, he was very happy the film actually put out a scenario involving the Kessler Syndrome which has only been featured in one other film I can think of, Pixar’s “Wall-E” from 2008 which was critically acclaimed but didn’t get a large audience. In this movie, humans left planet earth because of garbage on the planet and a cloud of space junk surrounding the planet. One other issue I noticed was when Dr. Stone gets to the first escape capsule and undresses and gets in fetal position as atmosphere fills the cabin. She would have frozen to death or asphyxiated before that point (Watercutter, Angela)(Parry, Dan).

            The characters as played by Bullock and Clooney were totally believable and realistic. Sandra Bullock is the newbie Dr. Ryan Stone who trained for 8 months to make this flight and a specific range of upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope but wants to go “home” as quickly as she can.  George Clooney’s Matt Kowalski is the Veteran Astronaut who according to the movie, “has spent more time in space than all but one man in history”. The same level of angst, fear and trepidation she brings to her character he brings the total and equal opposite of happiness, calm and personal assuredness that only many hours doing what you love can bring. From the opening scene she is focusing on her job, hands, tools and the part she is working on, while Clooney roams around on a jet pack and tells Houston stories whether true or not; they have heard before, but since this is his last trip up, they give a little leeway for play and enjoyment of the feeling of weightless joy.

            Lastly, the film was done in a stunningly visual way. In the 3D version people were leaving the theaters with motion sickness (Konow, David). The views of space, the earth, the space stations, satellites and other things in space were created with stunning detail even using actual cutting edge devices that only NASA has access to. The movie was shot using several new camera inventions just for this film such as the incorporation of 3D axis software using a stationary object. In other words, a 3D world can now be created around characters and anything in that world can become the point of perspective (Konow, David). If you saw her ‘floating to space’ sequence, you get what I mean. One minute the Earth is the center of her focus, then the focus is on her, then the focus shifts from her perspective and how she feels like she is tumbling with no control as would happen in space. Many story line questions have arisen from the movie, because it turns out a few of the writers who assisted Cuarón actually worked on such psychological shows with deep underlying plots and twist such as “Lost”, the hit ABC TV show that ran from 2004 – 2010. These questions only add to the wonder that is this film. The writing team and the unusual film style leave many questions in the viewer’s mind. When you see the film, ask yourself if your questions have been answered.
            In summary, even with the inconsistencies, questions and odd script turns this movie is sure to be a classic in the genre of Space movies. In this reviewer’s opinion, not since Stanley Kubrick’s 1968, “2001: a Space Odyssey” earned him an Academy Award for Best Visual has a movie about space been so intense and such a thrill to see. 

 

Works Cited

 Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest. “DK Space Encyclopedia” New York: DK Pub.             1999. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0789447081. Print.  p. 72-106. Web. 11 April 2014.

 

Watercutter, Angela. “Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson Fact-Check Gravity on Twitter”. wired.com.  Permalink. 07 October 2013. Web. 11 April 2014.

 

Parry, Dan. “Moonshot: The inside story of mankind's greatest adventure.” London: Ebury P, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0091928377. Print. p 15-55. Web. 11 April 2014

 

Konow, David. “Gravity Making the Case for Good 3D”. tgdaily.com. 08 October 2013. Web. 11 April 2014.