C O L L A P S E

Human Extinction By 2030

The Choice Is Yours: Paradise or Oblivion

economics is a form of brain damage

original post on Facebook

David Suzuki on Economics

Geneticist and climate activist David Suzuki explains how conventional economics a form of brain damage in this clip from the 2011 documentary "Surviving Progress." (available on Netflix)

Will Work For Free

Paradise or Oblivion

Kaitiakitanga

The long-established Māori system of environmental management is holistic. It is a system that ensures harmony within the environment, providing a process of, as well as preventing intrusions that cause permanent imbalances and guards against environmental damage. Kaitiakitanga is a concept that has "roots deeply embedded in the complex code of tikanga”. Kaitiakitanga is a broad notion which includes the following ideas: guardianship, care, wise management.  (read more)

RISE UP !

paradise or oblivion

Jobless Men

The Great Depression

▶ Take Back Our Government_Dr. David Suzuki / Stand Up For Science - YouTube

▶ Take Back Our Government_Dr. David Suzuki / Stand Up For Science - YouTube

Published on Sep 25, 2013

Dr. David Suzuki speaks at a "Stand Up For Science" rally in Vancouver BC. Things sure get hot in this presentation folks! Dr. Suzuki speaks of the importance of science in this rapidly changing world to ensure decisions are made wisely in affairs effecting our environment & the well-being of future generations of humanity. We are currently undermining the very things which keep us alive and healthy. Decisions must be made on facts, not on the wishes of private interest groups as we are now altering the chemistry, the physics and the biology of the biosphere on a geological scale . Dr. Suzuki tells it like it is accusing our government of "willful blindness". By muzzling scientists & restricting research our government is committing an intergenerational crime, affecting the well-being of humanity for many generations to come.. To view more of the photographic artwork of Stewart Brennan as used at the opening of this presentation, please visit: The Art & Expression of SFBrennan http://sfbrennanart.blogspot.ca/

Decision making

Decisions are mostly intuitive, logical explanations
catch-up milliseconds later ~ Robert Sapolsky [ link ]

something to live for

Necessitous men are not free men. 

Liberty requires the opportunity to make a living, 

a living decent according to the standard of the time, 

a living which gives man not only enough to live by, 

but something to live for.

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

David Suzuki on Rio 20, "Green Economy" & Why Planet’s Survival Requires Undoing Its Economic Model

As the Rio+20 Earth Summit — the largest U.N. conference ever — ends in disappointment, we’re joined by the leading Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki. As host of the long-runningCBC program, "The Nature of Things," seen in more than 40 countries, Suzuki has helped educate millions about the rich biodiversity of the planet and the threats it faces from human-driven global warming. In 1990 he co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation which focuses on sustainable ecology and in 2009, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award. Suzuki joins us from the summit in Rio de Janeiro to talk about the climate crisis, the student protests in Quebec, his childhood growing up in an internment camp, and his daughter Severn’s historic speech at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 when she was 12 years-old. "If we don’t see that we are utterly embedded in the natural world and dependent on Mother Nature for our very well-being and survival ... then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economies, corporations, markets," Suzuki says. "Those are all human created things. They shouldn’t dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere, and the leaders in that should be indigenous people who still have that sense that the earth is truly our mother, that it gives birth to us. You don’t treat your mother the way we treat the planet or the biosphere today." [Includes rush transcript]

> David Suzuki on Rio 20, "Green Economy" & Why Planet’s Survival Requires Undoing Its Economic Model | democracynow.org

job killer

seven sins of nuclear power

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The Truth About Nuclear Power: Japanese Nuclear Engineer Calls for Abolition　　核の真実−−日本の核技術者、廃絶を訴える :: JapanFocus

The seven sins of nuclear power

"(In closing,) - I would like to quote the “seven social sins” that Mahatma Gandhi warned against, and which are inscribed on his tombstone. The first is “Politics without Principle.” To those who gathered here today, I would like you to take these words deeply to heart. Gandhi’s other sins, such as “Wealth without Work,” “Pleasure without Conscience,” “Knowledge without Character,” “Commerce without Morality,” all apply to electric power companies, including TEPCO. And with “Science without Humanity,” I would challenge academia and its all-out involvement with the nation’s nuclear power policy, and that includes myself. The last one is “Worship without Sacrifice.” To those who have faith, please take these words to heart, too. Thank you very much."

Koide Hiroaki began his career as a nuclear engineer forty years ago drawn to the promise of nuclear power. Quickly, however, he recognized the flaws in Japan’s nuclear power program and emerged as among the best informed of Japan’s nuclear power critic. His cogent public critique of the nuclear village earned him an honourable form of purgatory as a permanent assistant professor at Kyoto University. Koide would pay a price in career terms, continuing his painstaking research on radio nuclide measurement at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute (KURRI) in the shadows. Until 3.11.

Since the earthquake tsunami and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, he has emerged as a powerful voice and a central figure in charting Japan’s future energy course in the wake of disaster: in scores of well attended public lectures, in daily media consultations and interviews, in his widely read posts and in three books that have helped to redefine public consciousness and official debate...

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whats up: Truth About Nuclear Power | Lethal Levels of Radiation

August 1, 2011
Nuclear Crisis in Japan

NIRS: Tepco reported today the highest radiation levels yet measured at Fukushima Daiichi—1,000 Rems/hour (10 Sieverts/hour)—a lethal dose. The measurements were taken at the base of the ventilation stack for Units 1 and 2 (the stack that did not work during the accident). The actual levels may have been more than measured, since the monitoring equipment could not measure more than 10 Sieverts/hour. Workers sent to the area to confirm the measurements, which were first picked up by a gamma measuring camera, received doses of about 400 millirems in just a few minutes.

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Conspiracy theory

It was the intention of the Bush administration to raise unemployment and drive more middle-class citizens to lower economic classes. They felt it was necessary to get middle-class Americans to accept lower wages. Lower wages mean lower prices and greater demand for American-made products, which helps balance the trade deficit. Reduced purchasing power also means less tolerance for high-priced foreign oil, which helps domestic oil companies expand their operations into coastal waters as well as wildlife sanctuaries. Furthermore, they figured it would discourage fanatics from developing renewable energy sources. A larger class of low paid workers creates greater competition for low-paying jobs. Greater competition for low-paying jobs is how you get the job market to deal with immigration. Fear of foreign workers helps Republicans enact tougher immigration laws ..like denying immigrants any chance of citizenship, which also goes for their American-born, college-educated children ..as well as those serving in the military. Another advantage of the politics of fear is that it helps Republicans win elections. That’s probably what helped Republicans gain control of Congress. Records show that the more support there is for republican issues in congress ..the more cutbacks you can expect to see in public education (especially in the form of federal grants and student aid). Cutbacks such as these deny middle-class access to higher education. What was their intention ..? To create a larger pool of low-cost labor. These advantages are short-term however, and the cycle will turn. When the disparity becomes so great that higher education becomes a luxury only the wealthy can afford, they might as well shut down the state universities ..there aren’t enough wealthy students to go around. When the GOP cuts all ties with the Latino community, and their efforts at stemming immigration fail (because it’s like trying to stop water) ..they’ll have succeeded in creating a larger population of democratic voters. And when support from the rural Midwest farmer collapses because they haven’t kept their promise to repeal the estate tax ..the cycle will come full circle.

The advantages of ADD

The kind of focused attention ordinarily required in a classroom is not all that helpful overcoming obstacles outside the classroom. A wider focus of attention, which is usually associated with ADD, is actually more adaptive according to neuroscientists John Kounios and Mark Beeman [link]. And from what I’ve seen, I believe it ..! They found that when students are more receptive and open to distraction, they do better navigating a computer-simulated labyrinth than when they are focused and blocking out distractions (as seen on an fMRI). Students actually see and hear more .. finding their way faster by heuristic than by analytic reasoning. In other words, discovering relationships between vague and loosely connected information was more advantageous than step-by-step analysis.

I found the same thing to be true once while I was applying for a home loan. After obtaining the 1st mortgage ..I was looking for a bank to help me with the down-payment. After three banks turned me down because they considered this ‘risky’ and ‘somewhat irresponsible’ ..I sat on the beach, got over the feeling that I was ‘risky’ (and somewhat irresponsible) ..and pulled together the real reasons why. They had nothing to do with my ability to meet my obligations. It was not a personal failing on my part but a circumstance of the recession (i.e. time required to find a buyer for my prior home). When I put this and other reasons down in a letter-of-explanation ..the next bank understood intuitively and, with just a couple of questions ..they approved my application.

some kind of nightmare ?

Altered state of California

The outcome of legalizing marijuana in California won’t be what you might expect. It doesn’t signal the end of western civilization because laws don’t make that much difference. Most people I know take it or leave it for reasons of their own. I do expect to see a big drop in the price of marijuana. In anticipation, local governments are going to impose a usage tax instead of a sales tax for marijuana purchases. So, even though the price will go down to something like $38.00 an ounce ..we will be paying an additional $50.00 to $100.00 an ounce in fees. I expect this will result in a black market created to avoid paying these fees, which means there will be less money than anticipated for state revenue and we’ll be back to the days when we busted marijuana users for tax evasion. I can’t imagine Humboldt County pot farmers are too enthusiastic. At roughly $14 billion a year, marijuana is the largest cash crop in California. Legalization will definitely take a bite out of their profits. The biggest factor in the price structure is the risk of getting caught. However, in Humboldt they’ve already offset that risk with fees paid to local law enforcement agencies to look the other way. You can do that when you’re the biggest player in the local economy. They may be able to offset their losses by selling to other states. Interstate commerce will be lucrative since it will continue to be a federal offense. I hope there’s a way to create a legal supply chain from the ‘emerald triangle’. They produce the finest quality marijuana in the land ..no one else comes close. One factor that may defeat proposition 19, in addition to overblown fear ..is the loss expected by the legal establishment. Police officers, attorneys, courts and penal institutions are built around treating marijuana users as criminals. I can’t imagine defense attorneys sitting idly by while two thirds of their clientele are about to disappear. Confusing as it might sound, I do hope proposition 19 passes. It’s a step in the right direction. I’ve seen criminal penalties ruin more young lives than marijuana ever did.

Coherent curriculum

No other country, with a history of successful education, applies economic principles of competition and incentives to the teaching profession. It’s too narrow-focused. There are so many other variables to consider. Community, family, individual differences. Schools are not factories. No other nation, with a successful school system, abandons courses in cultural subjects, like music and foreign languages, to focus only on basic skills and testing. Schools work best when teachers collaborate to help students, not when they compete for higher scores and bonuses. Otherwise, the lesson we’re teaching our children is: how best to be nothing more than a fucking commodity.

In education, collaboration is not socialism !!

Morihei Ueshiba

Economy is the basis of society.

When the economy is stable, society develops.

The ideal economy combines the spiritual and the material,

and the best commodities to trade in are sincerity and love.

...Morihei Ueshiba...

A most lucid explanation

If I understand what he’s saying ..the current economic crises can be traced back to the Reagan Administration. In 1980 they deregulated the Savings and Loan industry ..which put the business of making home loans in the hands of amateurs. Then, in 1987 ..the Reagan Administration had to bail out the Savings and Loan industry when it collapsed under the weight of it’s own incompetence (and unbridled greed). The Federal government allowed the Savings and Loans to package questionable loans, and sell them as stocks ..or mortgage-backed securities. It was mortgage-backed securities that helped make the housing slump of 2006–2007 ..go global in 2008 ..and wipe out investment houses from Bear Stearns to Deutsche Industriebank