Renewable Revolution

Open Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: AGelbert on October 17, 2013, 07:12:26 pm


Title: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 17, 2013, 07:12:26 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 17, 2013, 07:13:11 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC2SBX2nnUw&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 17, 2013, 07:44:58 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIXOo8D9Qsc&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: Surly1 on October 18, 2013, 05:00:26 am
Great thread, AG. But emotionally exhausting!
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 19, 2013, 07:05:43 pm
Surly said,
Quote
Great thread, AG. But emotionally exhausting!

Agreed. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-020.gif&hash=2c15038feed2fef3db86754b39ada55b3c81329a)My goal with this thread is to provide perspective that, painful as it is, we must never lose sight of what goes on out there day in and day out that is gut wrenching, tragic and downright frightening in it's level of chaos and the apparent mindless anarchy of the human condition.

Throughout all this apparent godless clusterfuck, I see God acting through the biosphere in general and brave people that struggle in the face of adversity in particular. This is inspiring to me. I frankly don't know how they do it because I don't know how I would have the strength to carry on in their shoes.

But somehow, even though tragic failures abound, those victories are real and I see God working in them to show us He cares. And that gives me hope and strengthens my Faith.

As I now pass the 67 year old mark, this passage from the bible that has always been a head scratcher for me is beginning to make more sense.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
Hebrews 11:1
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: Surly1 on October 20, 2013, 08:41:08 pm
This last comment is why I like your work so much, and your overall attitude and approach.

Doing a great job with this page and the cross posting, BTW. I put a LOT of your stuff up on the Book of Faces.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 21, 2013, 02:30:39 pm
Surly,
Thank you for sharing my zeal to spread hard truths as well as hope, no matter how forlorn that hope may look,

You and I KNOW that hope is out there and it is REAL.  (https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-140622231226.gif)
(https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-170422172929-7511283.gif)  ;D
Title: Doctors Told Sam He Had Until He Was 13
Post by: AGelbert on October 21, 2013, 08:45:35 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffine-films.com%2Fwork%2Flifeaccordingtosam%2Fprogeria_gallery_1.jpg&hash=e5d077530584693d497157b7d7849bae0f9dc3bd)
Sam with his loving parents

Doctors Told Sam He Had Until He Was 13. He's Almost 17. Here’s How He's Fighting.


Adam Albright-Hanna

Sam Berns has progeria, a disease which accelerates the body's aging process. A pair of Oscar-winning filmmakers followed him for three years to make what looks like an amazing documentary about his life. "Life According to Sam" airs on HBO starting Monday, Oct. 21.


Poignant, but Inspirational too, Video Here (https://www.upworthy.com/doctors-told-sam-he-had-until-he-was-13-hes-almost-17-heres-how-hes-fighting?c=upw1)
Title: Alonzo Clemons's Amazing Talent First Went Completely Unnoticed
Post by: AGelbert on October 25, 2013, 12:37:53 am
They Said He Was ‘Evil’ And ‘Bad,’ But He’s Actually Really, Really Astonishingly Good  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)



When Alonzo Clemons was young, he was sent away to be cared for at an institution. Seems like the staff there had no clue what incredibly beautiful things Alonzo had to share.


Alana Karsch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEwt40SAeU&feature=player_embedded

 https://www.upworthy.com/they-said-he-was-evil-and-bad-but-hes-actually-really-really-astonishingly-good?c=upw1
 
 
 


 
Title: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on November 08, 2013, 10:55:08 pm

Letter to a Gaia Person

The Biosphere: A SACRED TRUST

August of 2013

WHD, a Gaia person, wrote to Agelbert the following:
Quote
You exemplify what humans are capable of. As does Ashvin. It is mostly the latter that I spar with, and I do so because I believe what I say to be true to myself, that I have faith that it is true, and to offer an alternative viewpoint.

WHD

Thank you, WHD. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl5.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F3328%2F3328805eipbi6o30e.gif&hash=6b47effe687cb862012c19507f1979f43ff67a02)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl6.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F57%2F57396kkkx0l656b.gif&hash=c32645b24e82e03102d98ba7bc1b5f20c8714e24)

There is much good in humanity. Ashvin (a fellow Christian) and I may not put a lot of emphasis on that  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)  but there is altogether way too much evidence that we, as a species, are seriously out of whack with the biosphere. We think it's original sin. I have no idea if the "Eve eating the fruit" thing was a metaphor, analogy, or whatever. I guess I'm not a fundy in that respect. I believe that the biosphere is a sacred trust. I believe it is a fallen biosphere and understand and respect the fact that you don't.

As far as Homo SAP is concerned, I zero in on selfishness and the behavioral science observation that human children are greedy by nature and must be trained to see the benefits of cooperation and altruism. This is not a religious or faith based view by behavioral sciences.

My explanation for this is a fallen nature of which selfishness is just one (though I do think it's the biggy) part of a larger picture.

This is offensive to you because you feel the answer to mankind's disharmony with the biosphere and his fellows is to respect the land as sacred.

But if there is no god and we are simply rogue elements of gaia's immune system giving gaia a form of AIDS by our planetary toxification, it is illogical to expect us to even grasp the meaning of the word "sacred", never mind enabling us to humbly accept that we are only truly functional as tiny symbiotic organisms on a planetary entity.

1. We are big trouble for each other and the biosphere.

2. We MUST revere the biosphere as a sacred trust if we are to function as we were designed to.

3. God designed us that way but somewhere along the way we gave God the finger which resulted in our fallen nature.

4. In our present state, we need God to keep us from extending that "finger" to our fellows and everything around us resulting in our extinction.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-015.gif&hash=8e6486af5151b5eb075de7af5fb71f325d34dc0c)

5. You feel that requires submitting to a God figure that you don't owe a thing to and that is tied to patriarchal oppression of women, nonsensical ritual and this silly idea that you are doomed without God's intercession to lift you out of the rut of perpetual sin and disharmony from God's garden.

But can we agree that, beyond the obvious "Gaia feeds me so I must tend to what provides for me" stomach pleasing logic of a self aware, selfish being, pretending the land in particular or the biosphere in general is sacred is practically impossible?

If not, please analyze the concept of sacredness and you will see that it is a term associated with something or someone superior to you in every respect; something that requires that you humble yourself before it.

I believe God is sacred. His communication to us may be a bit distorted by our fallen nature but without Him, there is no chance that mankind (as a whole - regardless of the great work of permaculturists like yourself) can live in harmony with nature because of our fallen nature.

We can argue about original sin, the concept of "sin", how did it all begin, why doesn't God get off His fat ass and fix it if He really exists, why is there so much evil in religions if He is behind creating them, etc., but the problem of Homo SAP's violence towards his fellows and the biosphere continues unabated.

Behavioral science has, if anything, made things WORSE by claiming the "selfish gene" gives Homo SAP and "evolutionary advantage". BALONEY!

Science tells us we are fouling our nest and we are doing it because we are so SMART!!?

God tells us we are fouling our nest because we have a fallen nature.

IMHO, only by humbling ourselves before God, accepting we are sinners and doomed to trash the place (and each other) because of our fallen nature and seeking salvation can we learn to RESPECT the biosphere as a SACRED trust.

I just don't see how you can get people to consider the biosphere and this planet as SACRED (a necessary condition for us to be symbiotic with nature) any other way.

God has power over us. Gaia is in subjection to us. What has mankind ever done with something he has in subjection except treat it/they as a slave to ravage at his perverse, selfish, egocentric pleasure?  ???

Quote
sa·cred  adj.

1.  Dedicated to or set apart for the worship of a deity.

2.  Worthy of religious veneration: the sacred teachings of the Buddha.

3.  Made or declared holy: sacred bread and wine.

4.  Dedicated or devoted exclusively to a single use, purpose, or person: sacred to the memory of her sister; a private office sacred to the President.

5.  Worthy of respect; venerable.

6.  Of or relating to religious objects, rites, or practices.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sacred (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sacred)

Self centered, egocentric, selfish beings will never consider anything SACRED but THEMSEVES.  :(
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 12, 2013, 09:13:45 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB_yrWppP0c&feature=player_embedded
In memoriam of an outstanding, brave and resourceful human being. He is an example for all of us of what is possible. A lot of the credit goes to his mother. Ben is in heaven now but there is a special place in heaven for courageous, brave, observant, motivated, tirelessly optimistic and love filled and giving people like his mom. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-060.gif&hash=563ab221a2224107262ffa09357fe39aee4d3b1e)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2014, 08:56:11 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ7968BbMnU&feature=player_embedded
Title: A lucky man
Post by: AGelbert on April 21, 2014, 11:05:21 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syRt4Q9NRbQ&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: Surly1 on April 23, 2014, 05:19:35 am
Terrific video, AG. Another reason for optimism via sustainable living.

Great find. Not the least of which is steam-powered electricity.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 23, 2014, 11:08:20 pm
Surly,
Glad you liked it. I felt quite peaceful watching it. Up here in Trailer heaven, my front neighbor demolished his trailer in sitio with all that "nice" insulation flying around for us to breathe some fiberglass and the poor squirrels to add to their nests which will sicken them while they breath it. SIGH.... My wife was fit to be tied. I told her it only took a month and the  guy HAS TO bring in a new trailer so that raises the value of our home. The guy is a total nut case. AFTER the place isn't there anymore, he STILL comes by every day and parks near the cement trailer pad slab! WTF??! He had a Marine Corps Flag and a US Flag that he didn't take down until they took that last piece of (I hesitate to call it wood  :P) from his dilapidated POS house. Anyway, he retreated temporarily from the place because it is a bit difficult to live on cement slab and it doesn't look good to be exercising biological functions in plain site.  ;D But the crazy territorial marine is tame compared with the taxi cab driver neighbor to my right. ALL the old beds, bed boards, mattresses, a broken  bicycle, all sorts of particle board furniture left outdoors to rot, pieces of old siding and insulation, a huge punching hanging in the trees for several years now (winter or summer - they never take it down  :P), a moldy basketball, etc. are ALL 'arranged" so the people from the street don't see it too well and WE see the trash every time we go into our yard.

The pile of crap just keeps getting bigger. SIGH... The other three sides of there houses have ZERO trash. These people hate our ****ing guts because we are still here. The silent treatment doesn't work on us and that really ****es them off.

So, about a year ago they began piling more junk on the side of their trailer while we keep ours neat. Meanwhile on the other side, we have a line of milk gallons filled with water on the property line (we aren't allowed to build a fence or grow a hedge - the park rules apply to the spic invaders but NOT to Vermonters, never mind what the law says...). The "gentleman" of advanced years there has a bit of a problem remembering where his yard ends and ours begins. Four years ago we had the park owner, who refused to plant trees on the line after saying she would do it for months,  put a ribbon on the boundary to remind the "gentleman" where his side was. Twice we called the police on him. The cop just talks nice to him and claimed he wasn't breaking the law but warned us no to go in the "gentleman's" yard. My wife put the gallons on the line and the "gentleman", after a few years gave up trying to impinge on our side but HE puts all HIS junk on our side too for us to see. Oh the joys of being persona non grata. But then again, I confess that I really would not like to hang around this pack of troglodytes that surround me either. They are VERY limited people. May God Bless and Keep them AWAY FROM ME and my WIFE. This pack of ignorant bigoted ****s think they are intelligent and resourceful! LOL!

Oh well, that's life. May God help me maintain my composure. You know, I could have helped these neighbors in many areas but, no, I don't qualify for their purebred whiteness and my wife and I are depressing the hell out of them by not leaving after nearly 20 years. No wonder our neighbors are trashing their places like they lived in West Virginia. It's the PITS to have to say your neighbor is PUERTO RICAN. AGH! Their property values are being depressed by my presence. POOR THEM!

Well, there's no problem here hat a firing squad wouldn't cure. If anarchy ever breaks out here, I am toast! My French, German, Spanish and Italian roots don't mean JACK **** to these people. But, whatever, we keep to ourselves. We do what we can. God help us.

I wish a tornado would come through here and clean the place up good and proper. J.C. wasn't kidding when He said, "In the world you will have TRIBULATION". I'm pretty tired of it. Oh well, nothing lasts forever, good or bad, so we'll get through eventually somehow to a better world away from this valley of tears.

On the plus side, while working on all these motions, briefs, allegations, complaints and general written activities to **** off a judge in Puerto Rico, I've picked up on various u-tube "videos"(not) that play all sorts of classical music good for thinking, reading or just relaxing. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl7.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F2046%2F2046807qoer9uc27q.gif&hash=b4545bdf1fbc3161b81887e3f6eef473e6b4d549)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl3.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1402%2F1402163an5yjq7sxr.gif&hash=d30f0060b3ee000f62b2fccb19d0e793f70eafdd)

Here are some of the links if you want a pleasant auditory experience:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl3.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1726%2F1726203ha2mjbxeje.gif&hash=2012645f2a6aed4e936f740cdea94fe516dc27fd)

Vivaldi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Nficz8WZwrk

Westhoff Violin Sonatas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DOIRJoHnZYQ

Bach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igETT7Wyt4Y&feature=player_detailpage

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl6.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F57%2F57396kkkx0l656b.gif&hash=c32645b24e82e03102d98ba7bc1b5f20c8714e24)
Jean-Marie Leclair Complete Flute Sonatas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJwnsyEtkK0&feature=player_detailpage
                 

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (60 Minutes Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmj1bMR4Mo&feature=player_detailpage

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl2.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F780%2F780562lvhmtn5nuw.gif&hash=e458dfee9bd1894b58b2d027e7e64c88820fa956)
G.F.Haendel - Water Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cnn3TVBDtcA


Psalms 86:13: For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Psalms 86:14: O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.
Psalms 86:15: But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

 
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: Surly1 on April 25, 2014, 07:15:48 am
For some clearly misguided reason, I thought that Vermont was different from other places. As you describe above, clearly it is not.

Sorry you are going through this ignorance; because ignorance is what it is.

Did something specific occur to precipitate this run of redneck recklessness? You must live among the only passel of American rednecks without their own reality show on TV right now . . .
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2014, 03:41:06 pm
Yes, but it isn't recent. You need to understand how these people think. You get here, they are all smiles and "we are very liberal" (while they start the clock on getting rid of you with several options). A year or so goes by.

You ask why there isn't much diversity here and they claim it's the weather. When you punch through that false logic pointing out high diversity in other places with worse weather, they say that people get bored and move away.

After you have been here SIX to SEVEN years, they get more "active" in a passive aggressive kind of way. Cops start stopping you for no reason. Neighbors turn their heads away from your house as they drive by. The park management starts to "clear the "excess foliage between your property and everyone elses while claiming that those with hedges are "grandfathered" and YOU can't do it. 

My wife looks like a native American. I look more or less French Canadian but my surname is bad news. And so on and so forth.

THERE IS AREASON why, after 250 years the least diverse state in the union is Vermont. THey are EXPERTS at closing employment doors, land use opportunities, quality of life, the silent treatment and low key (and high key as in incarceration when possible) harassment.

I like the weather FORK THEM!
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2014, 06:43:42 pm
One more thing about Vermonters: I actually LIKE the way they treat each other. It's their absolutely closed mind as to outsiders that is their main failing. You see, to them, I'm supposed to have a junked car with beaver tails, a Mexican piñata, some bright colored flags and whatnot, 4 or five "tenants" stuffed in the trailer who wear loud clothes, play salsa music at all hours and hate to work while planning day and night to bang the virginal maids of Vermont ("virginal" before 12 or so but NOT MUCH LATER. The women here are **** AND aggressive - the reverse of the stereotype) and ruin the gene pool. The gene pool is seriously inbred and quite ruined at present, according to medical doctors in Vermont who have warned that more outside gene mixing is needed than the French-Canadian plus Irish mix (low and middle class) as well as the richy rich (English descended and a sprinking of Germans that ALL keep to their clans) that has produced a pack of wily leprechauns AND genetic deficiencies and inherited propensity to certain immune diseases and certain cancers.

But they still stubbornly cling to their idiotic concepts of "racial" purity in direct rejection of medical science. They are breeding themselves to stupidity and disease. But they sure do love and take care of each other well. I like their cooperation and willingness to aid each other in need. I also like the way they respect the staid nature of Vermonters that don't utter more than a sentence or two a YEAR in public. I'm the same way. The problem is that when I DO THAT, I must be weird or hiding something because it just ain't RIGHT for a Hispanic to act like a Vermonter.

I like the weather. F U C K THEM!
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: Surly1 on April 26, 2014, 10:58:52 am
You deserve a better deal, and better neighbors.

Your situation mirrors the corporate environments to the extent that in many corporate cultures, open conflict is frowned upon, so people resort to passive aggressive means to attack and annoy.

Passive aggression really climbs all over me. I'd rather just jack you now and have it out, and clear the air. No go in corplife.

Face it, as you already clearly have- you are an odd bird, an eagle in a nest of ducks. It is what it is.
Title: An END to ALL ENDINGS: Primitive Cultures Understood Death Correctly
Post by: AGelbert on April 28, 2014, 01:08:35 am
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmlkshk.com%2Fr%2F3CER&hash=8a4074823e356e37d685c49c66c351bc44cefeb8)
DEATH


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-HreBHGOag&feature=player_embedded
A powerful and illuminating discussion of DEATH and why nominal Christians should NEVER try to sugar coat it as "God's will" when someone's loved one dies. David Bentley Hart, a Christian Scholar, accurately describes that response to someone's pain as Calvinist Cruelty. I agree. An inspiring talk!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl9.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1529%2F1529939gg8yeanop9.gif&hash=b98dea76243e5c9b95baaad8efdc46a8a8700271)
Title: It's people like this that give me HOPE for our future as a caring species.
Post by: AGelbert on May 20, 2014, 04:26:37 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-062.gif&hash=88ceb4a34a12b2bea2fd9edd887da26d73308257)
Quote

Mickey Dee said...

5 days ago

I was raised in an older home with senior parents and I was around death frequently. I remember going to many funeral homes and services, therefore I feel I grew up not afraid to be around people who were dying or even death itself. I had always remembered hearing the hearing is the last to go. When my Mother was in Hospice, she was in a coma. She never had opened her eyes, but I felt that she knew we were there.

I had been living with her in her home and had a Chihuahua dog that she adored.
(https://img1.etsystatic.com/001/0/6348803/il_340x270.401283661_qz7e.jpg)My middle sister asked if we could bring the dog to visit her. Of course that would be fine. We waited until evening and brought her. I placed Little Bit on her chest and my Mother opened her eyes just for a second and grabbed Little Bit's tail. Not hard, just a gentle touch. When it was time to go, my Mother did not want to let go of Little Bit.

I told her Moma Little Bit can't stay here, but I can bring her back. She never opened her eyes again and the Hospice Nurse said she had given that to me as a gift. I believe my Mother waited until my oldest sister got there to see her before she died. She came at 4PM in the afternoon. My Mother had already been there 12 days and this was the first time she visited. At midnight Hospice called my work And told me the end was imminent. I was only 10 minutes away.

 They had been giving her a morphine drip. I went and sat on the bed with her and held her hand And talked to her just as if she was awake and had knowledge of what I was saying. I had already made peace with her long before Hospice as we didn't have the closest relationship. But I wanted her to know that it was ok, that she could leave us and we would all be alright. She had made most of her funeral arrangements prior, but there were a few details left for me to take care of and problems to resolve. I wanted her to know what I had done and what was going to happen.

I just talked calmly to her. She was not on oxygen and at 1:07AM, she let out a tiny puff of air, her eyebrow raised and she was gone. Hospice is an amazing organization and I was very thankful to have them in our lives.


The comment above  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-036.gif&hash=8ec7abacc074bac7984d9b80fbca377b3afb119d) was in regard to an article on:
Dealing with Death

http://www.caring.com/articles/dealing-with-death
Title: Letters to God: Full Movie based on a true story
Post by: AGelbert on May 28, 2014, 02:20:13 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQxRG6XBJr8&feature=player_embedded
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)


Title: Life AFTER Life
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2014, 01:10:33 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSfNSTB-Xd8&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2014, 01:59:08 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWjH8hAFYkw&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 10, 2014, 11:09:59 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.dailykos.com%2Fimages%2F88205%2Flightbox%2Fmaya.png%3F1402339194&hash=9b40e16e43f97d1b5351d0a00bf1d703ddf8b009)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 16, 2014, 10:36:13 pm
Help an old man stay in his home.
author: John Ferric
target: Everyone
signatures: 14
we've got 14 signatures, help us get to 1,000

Mr. Harper is retired and lives in western Nebraska in an old house. Because of the wiring he could not get insurance and when the hail storm damaged the roof he could afford the cost to repair. The house needs a new roof and rewiring inside. Mr. Harper lives in a rural area with very limited income. He is afraid his ceiling could fall in or an electrical fire could burn the house down.

He has tried to get help from various agencies and charities but to no avail. He is a very independent person, but would give the shirt off his back. He grows a garden every year to benefit his neighbors who are equally poor. He could easily lose everything and end up homeless. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)

Please visit our fund raising effort at: https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/g9m4/woody-harper-house-repair-fund

We are elderly men who are part of a Men's support group, but we have little or no knowledge of how to get this request for assistance out and about. If you have a network and would help us spread the word, we would truly appreciate it. Thank you for reading this.

Please sign here: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ficare.gif&hash=7a81c13fb045a57fc456f34661fddcf04dbfe8b7)

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/466/557/987/help-an-old-man-stay-in-his-home/
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fthankyou.gif&hash=dddf44270b9e7683ff5cbcca041427744de34fe5)


Title: A Love Story about Life, Death and New Life
Post by: AGelbert on August 08, 2014, 02:30:17 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhutLj3SVzQ&feature=player_embedded
A Love Story About Life, Death and New Life
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170614152530.gif&hash=52b2fc5e0033f178e37ea4d4312c7189d06e69fa)
Title: My feline friend died of a stroke yesterday. I have lost a friend I loved dearly
Post by: AGelbert on August 10, 2014, 02:10:40 am
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080814213147.png&hash=8caa9e70560c86d7f1e8f5c50cee91c97d9859f1)

My feline friend died of a stroke yesterday. I have lost a friend I loved dearly. I cried profusely and still I cry for myself, more than for this aged kitty that is now free from pain in this valley of tears. I thank God for the opportunity of rescuing my feline friend in 2008 from a nearly certain soon death from parasites and severe allergies. When we rescued him, he had been scratching at our door for months after we had started feeding him occasionally. He weighed only 7 pounds and defecated three times a day. It took two years of 24/7 attention to keeping him healthy including always wiping his anus after defecation and cleaning his paws after being in the litter box to get him to one poop a day. He was up to 10 pounds within a year and stayed there. He was 9.2 pounds when he passed away.

He was about 14 when we got him in according to the vet from observing his teeth. Last year he began to cry occasionally when he pooped as he did when we first got him in 2008. He has been slowing down all year even though we have medicated him for pain. He gave us 6 wonderful years.

The stroke was sudden and his suffering was minimal, but still agonizing to watch helplessly. Goodbye Nino. Thank you for giving two poor crazies so much love. You are one more proof to me that a Loving God made this fantastic creation. R.I.P.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2955.gif&hash=ddc12d8bdb1bc63b7998a6b086b79a71b7bda755)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 18, 2014, 11:45:25 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5cu1H4Hss&feature=player_embedded
Beautiful, accurate, detailed information proving that our spirit goes on after we leave the body.
Title: Puppy Protects 3-Year-Old Lost for 11 Days in Bear Country
Post by: AGelbert on August 19, 2014, 12:16:50 pm
Puppy Protects 3-Year-Old Lost for 11 Days in Bear Country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR-tFDavzfc&feature=player_embedded


Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/puppy-protects-3-year-old-lost-for-11-days-in-bear-country.html#ixzz3Ar5hSamj
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 27, 2014, 02:59:25 pm
Ashvin said,
Quote
I distinctly remember even at that age sharing this internal feeling of rage with George who viewed their culture as both easy and degenerate. I view modern culture through this same lens.  We have in essence forgotten everything that was truly important and replaced it with with spiritual opium meant to make us feel good rather than to mature us or make us stronger.

As much as it may pain people like Michael Tsarion, John Lash, Jay Weidner, and Joseph Chiappalone all who claim to be “Gnostics”, we are here to be forged in the fires and trials of life so that when the time comes we are able and worthy to behold the face of eternity without turning away in shame.

Well said. I totally agree, not because of Az's fanciful idea that we are locked in groupthink, but because, nearing 70 years old, I HAVE tried out a lot of these belief systems seriously and found them wanting. And when I try something, I go for it 100%. I have the physical and mental scars to prove it.

I will add to what you said that a central issue here is the question of motive. Does a human seek comfort and bliss or Truth? New agers of all stripes claim that is one and the same. We know better. We know, from hard experience, that genuinely seeking the truth is PAINFUL. But that just gets us labeled as masochists by those who basically respond biologically, not spiritually, to spiritual truths.

That is, they AVOID PAIN like the plague and will go into every possible logical chain of unprovable, but nice sounding, premises they can come up with to justify comfort and bliss as EQUAL to Truth and any "groupthink" that does NOT put Homo SAP in the top dog position and advocates personal sacrifice in the service of a personal God is "ridiculous".

When the "ridiculous" label appears too transparently RIDICULOUS, then they go for the "you are being suckered by evil" meme in perfect Orwellian speak.  :evil4:
 
UB,
The adjective "ridiculous" is ad hominem baloney. f you disagree, argue the merits rather than cast aspersions on the narrative or the narrator.

Surly & GO,
Agreed. All this talk of aliens and reptiles are side issues that always come off as buck passing to me. The sin buck stops at Homo SAP. Many Homo SAPs just DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE. Submitting to a higher authority is just not their thing. And the very idea that said Higher Authority requires worship and obedience when that is "ridiculous" for a Supreme Being (all these new Agers of course know exactly how a Supreme Being should think because they are well on their way to Supreme Beingdom!  ;D ). And they are humble too...

Yes, they agree, the world is all **** up, but that's not their fault or some sky God's fault either... All that evil stuff going on out there has nothing to do with human fallen nature of fairy stories about sin and guilt, etc. That's just ridiculous and so boring. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6961.gif&hash=df13f27d25fd180bcc904f19809e2b35dc3309cf)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fbc3.gif&hash=e80a574cef1f1cd31dc58d76fe36b5ffb7fe7d5b)

The common thread in ALL belief systems that reject the existence of a Supreme Being that we owe our existence to is that they do not DO guilt, remorse or acceptance of Homo SAP as a sinful fallen being. We are just nice chumps in a random universe and the bad "____fill in this blank with ANY entity as long as it ain't human___ ;)_____" are ruining our spiritual, happiness and bliss by various sneaky techniques that we must banish from our threatened Homo Sapiness so we can all live happily ever after.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) And these folks have the brass to claim Christians believe in fanciful fairy tales!  ::)

And when they read what I just posted, they do the Orwellian two-step and claim that is exactly what Christian "groupthinking robots" do! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2932.gif&hash=0eaec4791a5825821998245e7fcd7744b56557fe)

It's "perfectly logical" that we can be puppets of reptilians/ETs/groupthink herd following/fear of death escapism/cowardice/mother-in-laws (just kidding!  ;D) and other dark evil forces "out there" in the twilight zone of the random multiplex of universes but it's "just silly" to believe that there is ONE God who has a plan for our salvation in a fallen world. ::)

Ashvin, I suggest you dwell on the subject of guilt. The responses (or lack of them) are quite revealing of the willingness of the debater to be objective about the human condition and the disposition (or lack of it) od the debater to seek the Truth.  8)

In summary, I wish to say that Christianity, as Homo Saps practice it, is far from perfect; but in belief systems, it's way ahead of whatever is in second place.  :icon_sunny:

Te conozco bacalao, aunque vengas disfrazado.


Title: CIVILIZATION AND ITS “MALCONTENT”: THE PROBLEM OF GUILT
Post by: AGelbert on August 27, 2014, 08:33:28 pm
Ashvin, I suggest you dwell on the subject of guilt. The responses (or lack of them) are quite revealing of the willingness of the debater to be objective about the human condition and the disposition (or lack of it) of the debater to seek the Truth.  8)

Ashvin said, "Very good suggestion! Here is a great paper about that. The following are two snippets, the rest can be found at the link."

http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAF006.pdf (http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAF006.pdf)

CIVILIZATION AND ITS “MALCONTENT”:
SIGMUND FREUD AND THE PROBLEM OF GUILT

The Second in an Occasional Series on the West’s
Most Influential Thinkers
by C. Wayne Mayhall

SYNOPSIS

Sigmund Freud despised religion, theism, and the Bible, and, although his goal was to eradicate the problem of guilt, he is ultimately responsible for confusing it. His primary motivation for psychoanalysis was to transform guilt into neurosis and sin into sickness. Freud believed that guilt must be eliminated through self-analysis and that our struggle to transcend the stifling codes of culture is inescapable unless we are willing to break out of our moral prison. Freud viewed himself as a destroyer of conventions whose purpose was to dissociate guilt from sin, making it a problem for science rather than faith.

A careful study of Freudian thought reminds us that as long as people continue to believe in a view that relegates the problem of guilt to biological determinism and ignores individual responsibility, Freud is with us. Secular thinkers, for better or worse, consider him an architect of the modern mind, whereas Christian critics name him an unholy builder of said modern mind, in the line of Marx and Darwin.


...

GUILT AS MAN’S BASIC PROBLEM

In the summer of 1997, exactly one-hundred years beyond Freud’s first intense interaction with religious phenomena and the beginning of his own self-analysis in 1897, after two weeks visiting Nazi Labor and death camps in Germany and Poland, I came by Eurail to the foot of the Heumoz mountains in the Swiss Alps. There I boarded an incline for a ride up into the heart of Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer’s L’Abri Fellowship11 for a time of intense study and the opportunity, I hoped, to get my mind off the absurdity of Hitler’s “final solution.”

I arrived at the cozy retreat to discover it was between student summer sessions and virtually
abandoned. Alone in the Fellowship library, surrounded by hundreds of volumes of the thoughts of great thinkers, I came across a seventy-six-page book humbly titled Freud, 12 written by theologian Rousas J. Rushdoony.13 For the next few days, beginning very early in the morning and lasting long into the night, I explored his thesis that the central problem Freud confronted was the nature and character of guilt and the development of a method for its eradication.

As I write this article, a decade after that experience, I realize why I was so consumed by Rushdoony’s perspective. Five years prior to that trip to L’Abri, in 1992, I was an upstart professional freelance writer plying my trade for national magazines when I was commissioned by Harper’s magazine to do research on white supremacist groups in America. As I combed through stacks of their propaganda riddled with the rhetoric of hate and destruction, I was shocked when I came across a pamphlet blatantly denying that mass extermination of Jewish people had even occurred. I pledged right there and then to visit the sites of concentration camps myself one day, so that I could see it for myself.

At L’Abri, after fulfilling my pledge to wade through historical remnants of Nazi sewers of depravity, alone in that quiet place, my thoughts and experiences coalesced. I realized clearly the guilt of the white racist and the German fascist were cut from the same cloth, one denying the other fabricating a death machine responsible for the slaughter of millions of innocent men, women, boys, and girls. I saw in Rushdoony’s reasoning, how Freud’s desire to eradicate religion under the banner of illusion and eliminate guilt through the language of biological determinism let them both off the hook, with neither God to judge nor conscience to condemn them.



http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAF006.pdf
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 27, 2014, 10:07:07 pm
Knarf,
I didn't know that. My main education on Buddhism has come from Ka and some scholarly and long videos posted here over a year ago of a former Buddhist turned Christian.

It's good to know that some forms of Buddhism accept the existence of God. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fz%2Fchinese-emoticon-22648577.jpg&hash=e5f417f773692d246a108dcc451657cb8b2c6e05)


Ashvin,
I just read the Freud document. It confirmed some suspicions I had about his zeal in wanting to off religions in general and God in particular. One of my first posts here was on a document about Freud that Peter posted defending greed.

I argued vociferously against it and Surly agreed my argument had merit. So I started coming back now and then from TAE until RE recruited me into becoming a Renewable Energy NUT  author. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)

The guy (Mowrer)  that rocked the psychoanalytic free-for-all that Freud started had it EXACTLY RIGHT about human nature:

Quote
He writes: “The basic irregularity is not emotional, but behavioral. [The patient] is not a victim of his conscience, but a violator of it. He must stop blaming others and accept responsibility for his own poor behavior. Problems may be solved, not by ventilation of feelings, but rather by confession of sin.”4

From his position of prominence within the Ivory Tower of the psychoanalytic culture, Mowrer realized that Freudian psychoanalysis turns out to be “an archeological expedition back into the past in which a search is made for others on whom to pin the blame for the patient’s behavior.”5

I'll go farther than that! UB and many here talk about the horrors Homo SAPs, many of them alleged Christians in leadership positions, are inflicting on the world. And all the other non-Christians, say YEAH! But Freud is THE guy that CONVINCED predatory capitalists in Wall Street (New York City is a MECCA for Freudian psychiatry!) that GUILT was WRONG and it DID NOT MATTER how much the USA promoted revolutions, slave labor, mafia tactics, wars for profit, fake religious "Christian Missionaries" backed by the CIA to keep the rubes humble and willing to work cheap.

OH NO! Feeling GUILT for that was neurotic and must be avoided in order to have a HEALTHY and HAPPY life of the APEX PREDATOR. THAT was PRECISELY what snowballed the **** Capitalism and Wars PRE-Freud to the world class, no-holds barred demonic blood fest and Bling craze we are NOW SADDLED WITH!

It was REJECTION of Christianity and God that allowed GUILT to disappear from our leaders, not the LIP SERVICE espousal of it.

Sure, elite **** have always been at that game. But NEVER was the rejection of common decency a guilt free exercise in business executives and government officials UNTIL Freud's bullshit became the "common wisdom". That "common wisdom" is that caring about other people or your employees is a WEAKNESS and NOT looking out for number one 24/7 is MASOCHISTIC. Only STUPID people do not put themselves above EVERYBODY else. What's wrong wid ya? Ya got an inferiority complex or sumptin'? Do unto others before they DO IT unto you! 

GAME THEORY came DIRECTLY from Darwin and Freud. Neither of those two paragons of prevaricating mindfork had ANY use whatsoever for God or Christianity.

MILLIONS of people have DIED and work in in slave conditions BECAUSE of Freud, Darwin and their bastard children, social Darwinism, Greed is Good, Guilt is Bullshit and Game Theory is how you WIN.  :evil4:

And then Christianity gets BLAMED for most of the 20th century EVILS  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgaah.gif&hash=e43fa6be4258ba495007b2bbb3e7dd2f60288fcd) (that is THE century most people have been killed violently in numbers and as a percentage of the population as well!).

The ABSENCE of Christianity is the main CAUSE of those evils. Not that I expect non-Christians to admit it, but the reason they scapegoat Christianity so much is because THEY DO NOT WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE GUILT of looking in the mirror.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fnocomment.gif&hash=e2062ee03ac013cc64a2d5285ec05dd9510c141b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F237.gif&hash=13b71d2444f84b15c53fb1c0272c080f48a165f1)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F290.gif&hash=38949e35cf58eaa4218b5a8176767c806d2f8537) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 28, 2014, 02:55:24 pm
UB,
I understand your genuine concern for how unfair life is and the gamut of human talent, intelligence and societal opportunities or the lack of them that dictates fortune or misfortune in our lives.

But in essence, you are just rephrasing a quote from Freud:
Quote
“I stand in no awe whatever of the Almighty. If we were ever to meet I should have more reproaches to make to Him than He could make to me. I would ask Him why He hadn’t endowed me with better intellectual equipment, and He couldn’t complain that I have failed to make the best use of my so-called freedom.”33
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imgion.com%2Fimages%2F01%2FAngry-animated-smiley.jpg&hash=84657bd1a63cad676e3551587daeb4b39411a289) 


Quote
Freud was a scientist not a theologian, more concerned with the psychology of religion than the nature of faith. “There was no reason why Freud should have been so engaged by the problem of religion—at least no obvious, psychoanalyzable reason. He had never gone through a phase of faith; no family pieties had stifled him so that he had to speak out,” writes Freudian scholar Philip Reiff. “His free-thinking father  :evil4:…raised his children in a secular atmosphere. After a childhood devoid of religious impulse and schooling, Freud was easily converted to the Darwinian gospel...”22 It was only natural, for Freud to address religious belief through  anthropology, “instead of dealing with guilt in terms of God, creation, and man’s fall.”23

http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAF006.pdf (http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAF006.pdf)

Looky here, a Mking "free-thinker"   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) raised Freud!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183543.bmp&hash=0dd31f89969b231b56a05560331875860bb55e56) So now you know what these "FREE-THINKERS" (otherwise known as evolution true believers  ;)) visit upon humanity...   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Fviolent%2Fsterb050.gif&hash=7ab92003788aa87a5cec0e350c97a7bd23eb8b44)

As to all the disparate opportunities Homo Saps have that makes a one shot deal at Salvation look irrational, thereby "justifying" a belief system that incorporates Karma math and reincarnation, I disagree. If God exists, He certainly has the faculty to judge fairly. He understands humanity rather well since He is the designer and creator of our physical and spiritual machinery so He is in an excellent (and logically superior to any human) position to judge human behavior.

Occam's razor dictates that a JUST God taking care of business is far more logical than a complex Karma dance through multiple lives.

GO,
I understand much abuse goes on in childhood that causes inappropriate guilt. But the discovery, through psychoanalysis, that you were freaked out by seeing mommy making it with the milkman or as a child beaten, sold in slavery, ****, made to wear dresses if a male or not allowed to wear them if female, forced to have sex with parents or an older sibling, deprived of a normal IQ through undernourishment, born with Down's syndrome, the wrong color, etc. does NOT justify you perpetuating any anti-social behavior by claiming it's what you GOTTA DO to feel right after all the **** you went through. The VICTIM must NOT be blamed, of course. But the VICTIM has a tendency to BECOME THE VICTIMIZER if morality is a NON-ISSUE, Capisco?

This "He's just DOING WHAT he does" attitude given by Freudian shrinks to the immoral bastards that set up corporate charters of "limited" (institutionalized acceptance of immoral avoidance of responsibility) liability (LIMITED=ZERO LIABILITY=GUILT) is the misanthropic religion (Orwellianly claimed to free humanity from guilt)  that legitimized all the Wall Street War profiteering, soul destroying practices as "business as usual" (i.e. cognitive dissonance on steroids). It's world class mindfork. It's insanity labeled sanity and Game OVER Theory for Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself, PERIOD.

We are all born with different opportunities. For those who say, well, if ya didn't accept Christ, you are doomed to hell, I say that if I didn't accept Christ, I would be doomed to hell. God is the final arbiter of who goes where. The bible says all things are possible for God. "All things" in the context of scripture does not mean He does reincarnation as a salvation mechanism IMHO. It means that He is the BOSS and He decides who goes where after the valley of tears.

It's far simpler for Him, for example, to compress 3 seconds of your last breath as a Hitler to years of instruction and revelation in order to get you to accept Christ than to rig up a complex Karma network of reincarnation. I don't KNOW if Freud went to hell or not! I am happy to get into it with fellow Christians about who gets the heavenly brass ring and who doesn't. I am far more liberal about that than many fundys because I HONESTLY believe that suicides DO NOT EVER go to hell. But that's just me.  ;D

The God I believe in is a JUST God. Regardless of the limitations of humanity to understand WTF God wants us to do (most humans don't have the literacy, brains or willingness to read ANYTHING, let alone religious documents like the Bible!), I'm certain the "math" is done by God to UB's satisfaction (and mine).
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 28, 2014, 05:47:10 pm
GO,
I agree that some people have been helped by this therapy. My point is that overall, Freudian Psychotherapy has harmed humanity, not helped it. A kind, patient Christian approach to a person's past of pain and abuse is far more efficacious in healing those hurts than Freudian Psychotherapy. Freud threw the baby out with the bath water, GO. We need to eschew any and all respect for Freudian Psychotherapy. It is wrong and morally abhorrent. But you are, of course, right in recognizing that there are people that have been helped by it.

I suggest you consider the possibility that you are confusing the God given human mechanism of compassion in listening and learning about someone's past that any human can have or pretend to have (as shrinks do for money) with Freudian Psychotherapy.

Freud hijacked compassion and fellowship for the healing of hurts where people console each other and seek God's guidance and twisted it into Psychotherapy. So they used tools that have been used in the confessional or among friends for centuries and charged for them by setting themselves up as the authority in place of God.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

You think that those who were helped to deal with their pain by Psychotherapy makes it worthwhile. I don't. I think compassion and caring helped them, NOT Psychotherapy. I think Psychotherapy legitimizes a Godless approach to healing abuse so it is wrong as well as being ultimately socially destructive. So we will have to agree to disagree.  ;D

 
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 28, 2014, 06:29:29 pm
Quote
154. Neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander’s Near-Death Experience Defies Medical Model of Consciousness
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.skeptiko.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2Flife-beyond-death-300x160.png&hash=6294b04d96effe2b691229123835bf709c77992e)
Quote
Interview reveals how a near-death experience changed everything neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander thought he knew about consciousness, spirituality, and life after death.
You may listen to the 52 minute interview at this link or read snippets from the taped interview below.  I really enjoyed the butterfly wing experience.
http://www.skeptiko.com/154-neurosurgeon-dr-eben-alexander-near-death-experience/ (http://www.skeptiko.com/154-neurosurgeon-dr-eben-alexander-near-death-experience/)
Quote
What I do remember from deep inside coma, for one thing my first awareness was I had no memory whatsoever of my life. I had no language, no words. All of my experience in life, knowledge of humans, Earth, the universe, all of that was gone. The only thing I had was this very kind of crude existence. And I call it in my book the “earthworm’s eye-view,” because it really was just a crude, kind of underground.
I have a vivid memory of dark roots above me and there was a kind of monotonous pounding, a dull sound in the background pounding away eternally. It was just murky and gross. Every now and then a face, an animal or something would boil up out of the muck and there might be some chant or roar or something. Then they’d disappear again.
It sounds very foreboding to talk about it right now, but in fact, since I knew no other existence I don’t remember being particularly alarmed when I was in that setting. I think that that was the best consciousness that my brain could muster when it was soaking in pus. It turns out that that seemed to last for a very long time. Given that it was my first awareness of anything, it actually seemed to be years or eternity. I don’t know. It seemed like a very, very long time.
Then there was a spinning melody, this bright melody that just started spinning in front of me. Beautiful, beautiful melody compared to that dull pounding sound that I’d heard for eons. It spun and as it spun around, it cleared everything away. This was the part that was so shocking and so hard to explain. It was as if the blinders came off and the reality there was much more crisp, real, and interactive and fresh than any reality I’ve ever known in this earthly existence. That part is very shocking and hard to explain when you go through it, and yet what I’ve found since then is that a lot of people who have had NDEs discuss the same kind of hyper-reality. But it’s very shocking to see it.
For me, I was a speck on a butterfly wing. I had no body awareness at all. In fact, I had no body awareness through this entire kind of deep coma experience. I was a speck on a beautiful butterfly wing; millions of other butterflies around us. We were flying through blooming flowers, blossoms on trees, and they were all coming out as we flew through them.
Quote
Of course, as I healed—it probably took three or four weeks for a lot of my neuroscience and neurosurgical training to come back—all along that time I was still writing all this down and not reading anything. I was very tempted but my son had told me, “You want this to be worthwhile, don’t read anything else. Just write it all down.” I just was shocked; I was buffeted because my neuroscience mind said, “No, that couldn’t happen.” The more I heard about how sick I was, my cortex shut down, “No, that’s impossible, your cortex was down.”
Of course, for a while I was going after the hypotheses that involved formation of these very complex, intricate memories either right before my coma or right coming out of it. That really did not explain it at all. Part of the problem, when you get right down to it, is that whole issue of remembering the melody because that was a very clear part of it. I remember the elation when I figured that I could just remember that melody and that spun the melody in front of me.
Then all of a sudden, boom! Everything opened up and I went back out into that valley, so crisp and beautiful, and my angel was with me, as I came to call her, my companion on the butterfly wing. And then out into the core, outside of the universe. Very difficult to explain in that fluctuation.
I guess one could always argue, “Well, your brain was probably just barely able to ignite real consciousness and then it would flip back into a very diseased state,” which doesn’t make any sense to me. Especially because that hyper-real state is so indescribable and so crisp. It’s totally unlike any drug experience. A lot of people have come up to me and said, “Oh that sounds like a DMT experience, ”or“ That sounds like ketamine.” Not at all. That is not even in the right ballpark.
Those things do not explain the kind of clarity, the rich interactivity, the layer upon layer of understanding and of lessons taught by deceased loved ones and spiritual beings. Of course, they’re all deceased loved ones. I’ve kind of wondered where it is that these people are coming from. They say, “The brain was very sick but it was very selective and made sure it only remembered deceased loved ones.” They’re just not hearing something.
Quote
It seems to me that they’re really barely making a dent in the medical model that we have. The medical model that we have sees us as these biological robots and death as kind of the ultimate Boogeyman. Can we really believe that we’re really going to change such an entrenched system?
Dr. Eben Alexander: I think so. I think that is very much a possibility. There’s this whole issue of mind and brain and duality versus non-dualism and the physical material reductivist models. I go into this in great detail in my book but I think you have to go back about 3,000 years to really get to the beginning of the discussion and to start to see why certain things have transpired.
I think most importantly was the part of this discussion that happened between Rene Descartes and Spinoza back in the 17th Century. They started us into our current era. Our current era is one of mind/consciousness/our soul has been put in the realm of the church more-or-less. There was kind of a truce of sorts that I guess Descartes came up with back then to say there’s mind and then there’s body and just let the natural scientists, those with an interest like Francis Bacon and Galileo and Newton, let’s not burn them all at the stake. Let some of them survive.
So I think it was a good thing to have that truce so that science survived. I mean, I’m a scientist and I love science and the scientific method. I’ve just come to realize that the universe is much grander than we appreciate. So I have to simply broaden my definitions.
I think science is still very important to get us there. Getting back to that mind/brain issue, what happened over time is science kind of grew up and got to be more and more powerful at giving us many things. Science has been a real wonder. But I think that it’s been somewhat at a price and that price came from splitting out mind and body back then and that dualistic approach because as science gained more and more of an upper hand, people were losing track of the kind of mind part of it, the consciousness part.
Quote
Can we really then hope to get out of the consciousness loop that we’re in now? Is it just going to be a matter of a philosophical shift like we had back in the 1700’s? Or is there something fundamental to the way that we’re constructed that’s going to keep us limited in how much we can really tap into and understand that knowing that you experienced?
Dr. Eben Alexander: In my view, what I think is going to happen is that science in the much broader sense of the word and spirituality which will be mainly an acknowledgement of the profound nature of our consciousness will grow closer and closer together. We will all move forward into a far more enlightened world. One thing that we will have to let go of is this kind of addiction to simplistic, primitive reductive materialism because there’s really no way that I can see a reductive materialist model coming remotely in the right ballpark to explain what we really know about consciousness now.
Coming from a neurosurgeon who, before my coma, thought I was quite certain how the brain and the mind interacted and it was clear to me that there were many things I could do or see done on my patients and it would eliminate consciousness. It was very clear in that realm that the brain gives you consciousness and everything else and when the brain dies there goes consciousness, soul, mind—it’s all gone. And it was clear.
Now, having been through my coma, I can tell you that’s exactly wrong and that in fact the mind and consciousness are independent of the brain. It’s very hard to explain that, certainly if you’re limiting yourself to that reductive materialist view.
Any of the scientists in the crowd who want to get in on this, what I would recommend is there’s one book I consider the bible of this. It’s a wonderful book but it is really for those who have a strong scientific interest in it. It’s called Irreducible Mind, Edward Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, Bruce Greyson, Adam Crabtree, Alan Galt, Michael Grassa, the whole group from Esalen and also based in the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, have done an incredibly good job. Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century is the subtitle and that’s exactly what it is.
I felt their book was quite illustrative and of course it caused a huge splash when it came out in 1987, but again a lot of the reductive materialists like myself were not really going to put in the work to go through all of that. We just thought, “We can’t understand it so it can’t be true.”
Quote
Dr. Eben Alexander: I would say for one thing I think that a healthy skeptical approach to all this is a good thing because it helps us get to the truth. It helps us know the answer. What we have to be careful of, of course, is not getting in the trap of having our prejudices rule the day. A lot of these experiments and studies, how you interpret them will depend a lot on what your prejudices are going in.
I found early on in my experience, I had to do as Descartes recommended when he was talking about getting to the truth, and that was to really ignore or to reject everything I had ever accepted as real. That was the only way to start getting to where I could figure any of this out. I
know that a lot of the reductive scientific crowd out there—I have a favorite quote from Stephen Hawking. He says, “There’s a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority or imposed dogma and faith, as opposed to science which is based on observation and reason.” What I would say is I think his statement is true as a general statement but that science, and certainly those who believe in science and scientists, are as prone to addiction to imposed dogma and faith as our religious zealot. So one has to be very careful to really step back and want to know the truth. That’s what I think we all would like to know.
Quote
Alex Tsakiris: In this case, if we really do step back one of the things that’s troubling to me, and you touched on it a minute ago, is how overwhelming the evidence seems to be. At this point, we can confidently say that near-death experiences didn’t just start happening in the last 20 years since we had advanced resuscitation techniques.
We can confidently say that 4% to 5% of everyone who has a cardiac arrest is having this. There’s obviously hundreds of millions of people over time who have had these accounts and we have thousands and thousands of well-documented, consistent accounts across cultures, across times. These are the measures that we would normally use to say, “This is a real phenomenon.”
And then when the skeptics, and really the mainstream scientists have pounded against it for 20 years with really what amounts to a bunch of very silly explanations but ones that have been carefully looked at and dismissed—was it CO2 , a fear of death, other psychological factors? Is it all the different things like REM intrusion? All these things.
Clearly this would normally be something where we’d be putting a lot of attention into it. Or that it would then become the presumed explanation for it. But none of that’s happening. They have managed to hold back the dyke, you know? So what do you make of that?

Dr. Eben Alexander: Okay, I think in trying to get back to your original question with the previous guest, to me one thing that has emerged from my experience and from very rigorous analysis of that experience over several years, talking it over with others that I respect in neuroscience, and really trying to come up with an answer, is that consciousness outside of the brain is a fact. It’s an established fact.
And of course, that was a hard place for me to get, coming from being a card-toting reductive materialist over decades. It was very difficult to get to knowing that consciousness, that there’s a soul of us that is not dependent on the brain. As much as I know all the reductive materialist arguments against that, I think part of the problem is it’s like the guy looking for his keys under the streetlight. Reductive materialists are under the streetlight because that’s where they can see things.
But in fact, if you’re keys are lost out in the darkness, the techniques there are no good. It is only by letting go of that reductive materialism and opening up to what is a far more profound understanding of consciousness. This is where I think for me as a scientist, I look at quantum mechanics and I go into this in great detail in my book, is a huge part of the smoking gun. It shows us that there’s something going on there about consciousness that our primitive models don’t get. It’s far more profound than I ever realized before.
That’s where I’m coming from because my experience showed me very clearly that incredibly powerful consciousness far beyond what I’m trapped in here in the earthly realm begins to emerge as you get rid of that filtering mechanism of the brain. It is really astonishing. And that is what we need to explain. Thousands or millions of near-death experiencers have talked about this.
Not only that but as you mentioned a few minutes ago, people don’t even have to go to a near-death situation. There are plenty of mystical experiences that have occurred over millennia that are part of the same mechanism. That’s why all this talk about oxygen, tension, CO2 and all that you can pretty much throw out the window. You really need to be working towards explaining all of those phenomena. Part of the problem is they’re hard to explain but that is a clue.
Willy Lomans was asked, “Why do you rob banks?” He said, “Because that’s where the money is.” Well, same kind of thing. They are hard issues and the whole understanding of what consciousness really involves. I came a lot closer to that in my coma experience and coming out of it and in doing all the very intense homework for the three years since then to try and understand it. It’s a difficult question because it’s close to the real truth that we’re going after. If it were easy it would be widely available. It would already have been written up by somebody who wanted to publish or perish. That’s not how it works. It’s not that easy.
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on August 29, 2014, 08:49:30 pm
UB does the fallacious argument(s):  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03)
Quote
Blaming freud for influencing our current state of affairs is also like blaming the wright brothers for the disapearance or downing of malaysian airlines planes.

You ignored Darwin as the CHIEF influence on Freud. How **** convenient of you. You ignored Freud's influence on Wall Street through his nephew Bernays. You DID THAT because you KNOW HOW influential and TOXIC they were. How **** convenient of you.

And the incredibly disjointed and illogical comparison of the accomplishment of powered flight with the destruction of an aircraft is shamefully silly. You are using the "all cats die; Socrates died; SO Socrates was a cat" silliness to attempt to ridicule my historically accurate statement. And you are DOING IT because you DO NOT WANT TO DISCUSS GUILT. And you completely avoided the illogic of you claiming to tap into super healing powers from a source that is CONTROLLED by the power of YOUR MIND (something LESS powerful than the powers you claim you obtain). How **** convenient of you.

You don't want to talk about God.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03) You don't want to talk about guilt.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03) The issue was never whether Freud is the bad guy, but if pretending GUILT is the "bad guy" is wrong or right. I say it's wrong and from Darwin to Freud and on down the line, the godless butchery of the 20th century is the result of rejecting God and guilt from disobeying him. You claim it has ALWAYS been that way in human affairs.

Bullshit. You know better but are an evolution true believer so you won't even consider the possibility that your religion has boosted human evils. SO you claim all this is old hat and has not really changed anything,... Never mind the number of violent deaths in the 20th century and the LACK of belief in God beyond lip service of the leaders of those countries that were responsible for all that violence...

You accuse me of the fallacious argument called using a bad analogy. You are wrong.

Quote
Bad Analogy:

claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren't. For example, "The solar system reminds me of an atom, with planets orbiting the sun like electrons orbiting the nucleus. We know that electrons can jump from orbit to orbit; so we must look to ancient records for sightings of planets jumping from orbit to orbit also."

Or, "Minds, like rivers, can be broad. The broader the river, the shallower it is. Therefore, the broader the mind, the shallower it is."

Or, "We have pure food and drug laws; why can't we have laws to keep movie-makers from giving us filth ?"

This is what YOU are doing to avoid discussing the key issues.

Poisoning The Wells:
discrediting the sources used by your opponent. This is a variation of Ad Hominem.

Psychogenetic Fallacy:

if you learn the psychological reason why your opponent likes an argument, then he's biased, so his argument must be wrong. (Agelbert hates Freud so Agelbert must be wrong, thinks UB!)  ;D

Changing The Subject (Digression, Red Herring, Misdirection, False Emphasis):

this is sometimes used to avoid having to defend a claim, or to avoid making good on a promise. In general, there is something you are not supposed to notice.

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#analogy (http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#analogy)

I'm done with this topic. It's clear that you are smart enough to know that you must avoid a topic you cannot counter on the merits. I don't do subject changes as to eschewing guilt by rejecting God as being the culprit in our "modern" dystopia. You do. Have a nice day.

GO,
Thanks for flipping Knarf's argument on its head. That was brilliant, excellent and logical. Knarf won't go there. Knarf has been NOTABLY silent EVERY TIME I brought up the fact that the new age movement, which convinced millions and millions of people that faith in God was bad, silly, stupid and caused all sorts of evils and wars by "neurotic" religious "straight jacketing" of humans, once DISCARDED, would usher in an age of peace and enlightenment.

The result was that every bad aspect of society and civilization, as a whole, got worse. But those who reject God are one-trick ponies and never tire of reminding all of us of all the "horrendous evils" of Religion and Faith in God. The 20th century, the Century of Self, is the first century in human history where religion DID NOT play any role in the wars and DID PLAY AN INSIGNIFICANT role in human affairs. The result is affirmative evidence that rejecting God and Guilt is a path to societal destruction.

They don't buy that and NOW they claim it's MOTHER EARTH that is going to "throw" us off the planet. God is an illusion but MOTHER EARTH, well, she is ANGRY, and has big arms to get rid of the human vermin. ::) Then they rush to say it is just a metaphor and we are being silly to talk about the metaphoric mother earth.

Pin them down and they will FINALLY tell you what they REALLLY believe.  ;) Ya wanna know what that is?  Just Google ANY scientific article about species origins and adaptation. ANY amazing and still unexplained mechanism in life forms is ALWAYs explained by "Evolution" provided this and "Evolution" did that and so on. We OWE this to the GENIUS of  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fd2.gif&hash=98d536bf1047a88ef91e9c45e08b725347c9fe13) Evolution!!! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) Thank EVOLUTION for small favors (and apex predators!)!

God = Mother Earth = Evolution
  Get it?


That's the RELIGIOUS "Evolution" of the FREE THINKING, GUILT REJECTING folks that get highly bent out of shape when you want to "devolve" them back to THEISM!  ;D
 
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 06, 2014, 12:40:20 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxDo0j6l2s8&feature=player_embedded
Mother and Daughter LOVE. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170614152530.gif&hash=52b2fc5e0033f178e37ea4d4312c7189d06e69fa)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 20, 2014, 09:07:29 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3adbayvKWA&feature=player_embedded
Atheist Doctor gets it.  ;D
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 17, 2014, 11:32:43 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m_OMaT5_gc&feature=player_embedded
For Seeing Eye® alumni, Mollie and Jeffery, their dreams to be ordinary, involved parents and active community members have been realized through their partnership with Seeing Eye® dogs. Watch and listen to their inspirational stories in their own words in the above video. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl2.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1225%2F1225662m3squ1oj6v.gif&hash=04764acd98565ded05a519757ede60e502342499)


https://www.seeingeye.org/Donate.aspx
Title: Training for Seeing Eye Dogs starts with special puppies
Post by: AGelbert on October 17, 2014, 11:39:44 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIccl8ZvD3g&feature=player_embedded
It takes a special kind of puppy, but with the right breeding and training, a special few get to grow up and take care of one of the most important jobs a dog will ever do. In the above video, watch and listen to some of our puppies as they begin their adventure to becoming Seeing Eye® dogs!

Please give generously today and help us continue to breeding and training these incredible puppies that go on to create life-changing partnerships.


http://www.seeingeye.org/aboutUs/Default.aspx?M_ID=656
Title: 90% of all blind people are in developing countries - And 85% are CURABLE!
Post by: AGelbert on October 20, 2014, 11:00:26 pm
Giving the Gift of Sight

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fadventure.nationalgeographic.com%2F2009%2F12%2Faoy%2Ftabin%2Ftabin-450.jpg&hash=e0f2ba834b4536943d069ecffc48d5bc9df8dc58)
Quote
In Nepal, a blind person is called a mouth with no hands.   :(


See global ophthalmologist Geoff Tabin describe his experiences performing cataract surgeries in Nepal and Africa.

By The Scientist Staff | October 1, 2014

GREAT and INPIRING video at link! Don't miss it!
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl2.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1225%2F1225662m3squ1oj6v.gif&hash=04764acd98565ded05a519757ede60e502342499)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl5.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F3328%2F3328805eipbi6o30e.gif&hash=6b47effe687cb862012c19507f1979f43ff67a02)

http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/41123/title/Giving-the-Gift-of-Sight/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 31, 2014, 12:52:02 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwYHXNItSks&feature=player_embedded
The First Seeing Eye Guide Dog in the USA. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-060.gif&hash=563ab221a2224107262ffa09357fe39aee4d3b1e)


http://www.seeingeye.org/aboutUs/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 08, 2014, 04:54:53 pm
Astonishing Story Of Survival   :o (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Fviolent%2Fsterb029.gif&hash=7a43a0c106eab798f7ba6133dc5cc550647a03d2)

 This is by far one of the most shocking videos we have ever seen on human self sufficiency in the wilderness.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)


 In this documentary from 2013, the VICE team introduces us to Agafia Lykov, a woman of 70 who is still living in the shack deep in Siberia where she was born, 160 miles from the closest town.

 In 1936 her family, who were members of the Russian Old Believers Christian sect, journeyed deep into the Siberian wilderness to escape persecution and protect their way of life. They lived on the edge of famine, and all of her 3 siblings died when geologists came to study the area and they were discovered, presumably of infection from contact with other humans.

 Today, she is the last surviving Lykov, living in near total seclusion.

 When this documentary crew came to visit by helicopter, she wanted 2 things: a goat and a rooster. She doesn't listen to the radio ("Why should I listen to news of people killing each other?") and she lived through World War 2 completely unaware of it- but astonishingly she points to the sky when she sees chemtrails being sprayed and she knows it comes down and does damage!

 As an addendum, we recommend this article on the Smithsonian's website, which gives even more background information on how the family lived.

 "Famine was an ever-present danger in these circumstances, and in 1961 it snowed in June. The hard frost killed everything growing in their garden, and by spring the family had been reduced to eating shoes and bark. Akulina chose to see her children fed, and that year she died of starvation. The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in their pea patch. The Lykovs put up a fence around the shoot and guarded it zealously night and day to keep off mice and squirrels. At harvest time, the solitary spike yielded 18 grains, and from this they painstakingly rebuilt their rye crop"

 What a fascinating, haunting tale.


 --Bibi Farber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68&feature=player_embedded

 This video was produced by VICE
http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/homesteading-skills/woman-surviving-70-years-in-the-siberian-wilderness.html#sthash.WPJxybRk.dpuf

Title: A real life Jonah! Three days in air bubble in a sunken SHIP and rescued!
Post by: AGelbert on November 15, 2014, 11:17:18 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZsHHOQx-Q&feature=player_embedded

A real life Jonah! Three days in air bubble in a sunken SHIP and rescued!
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-042.gif&hash=76ef1277aabb18fb4b98437f4ebc40a0f80ed4e8)


Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 16, 2014, 10:43:57 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSbtCX-uDEs&feature=player_embedded
Scientific proof of Life after physical Death.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 18, 2014, 08:49:40 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgBpyNsS-jU&feature=player_embedded
An Intentional Life   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frobservations.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F02%2Fhappy-cat1.jpg&hash=468b07d248f880b63fdda22e22561c5ce8d3ae29) 
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 23, 2014, 11:01:29 pm
https://youtu.be/wupToqz1e2g
The Pale Blue Dot.

Agelbert NOTE: Unlike Sagan, I DO believe God is in charge.

However, I do agree with Carl Sagan that we have to get our act together. God is NOT going to solve our problems for us. He gave us the tools. We use them or we perish, PERIOD.

Comment on an article on non-human  predators and the public attitude towards them:
Quote
"Predators have undergone a remarkable transformation in the public consciousness in the last century. While certainly not universally admired they certainly get more favorable press than in years past."

Agelbert reply:

Especially the human ones... See News Media, CEOs and Wall Street...

The non-human predators get a bum rap while the human ones that stupidly do not limit their predation to what they need to live and eat, thereby endangering ALL of the biosphere, get the ALPHA MALE moniker in a truly Orwellian distortion of reality in nature.

I blame the deliberate ignoring of the massive levels of cooperation, nurturing and symbiotic interdependent caring observed in nature and the hyping of the relatively TINY, though important, role that predation plays in the perpetuation of species.

The biomass of the trophic levels that eat SUNLIGHT far exceeds that of the higher order trophics. In fact, without the phototrophic life forms, no high order intelligence or predator can exist in our biosphere. We ALL indirectly are eating SUNLIGHT! That does not make us parasitic of, commensal or symbiotic with the sun. The sun is NOT our "prey"; it is what gives us LIFE with no sweat off its back, period. But that is glossed over in scientific studies.

The mistaken  view  taught to all of us that in nature EVERY life form <em>(when the reality is a small minority of the total biosphere biomass!)  </em>is in a 24/7 competitive life or death struggle in a predation pecking order totem pole where only the top position (apex predator) is the "crown" of evolution is duplicitous and ignorant. 

I blame a massive fail in the proper interpretation of the Theory of Evolution FROM THE START!. Our society has become a culture that HONORS and CELEBRATES the ability to KILL as proof of viability in nature when that is EXACTLY backwards.

But Wall Street likes it. The DISTORTION of Evolutionary Principles through propaganda justifying rampant, unchecked predation as the sine qua non of an "Apex Predator" (not!) is DRILLED into every child's mind by the SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY. 

And that's why no kid in high school gives a second though to cutting a frog open and killing him in the name of "science".

Nature is, and always was, about LIFE, not DEATH.



Quote
"A society that loses the capacity for the sacred, that lacks the power of human imagination, that cannot practice empathy, ultimately ensures its own destruction"
Chris Hedges

If you think the scientific community does not contribute to this mindset with all the KILLING they do for "science" and "the good of society", I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

We need a paradigm shift in science. Science should not be for sale to justify human cruelty against other humans and other earthlings, PERIOD.


Golden Rule Government: A Lawful System Based on Caring instead of Conquest (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/who-can-you-trust/corruption-in-government/msg2043/#msg2043)
Title: Eat some Dark Chocolate to celebrate St. Valentine's Day!
Post by: AGelbert on February 14, 2015, 03:09:33 pm
Eat some Dark Chocolate to celebrate St. Valentine's Day!    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-140215145045.gif&hash=14dc033501177dc0d6607bfc22e68d453d5b7ac4)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 07, 2015, 05:52:45 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBKKnCtNeRU&feature=player_embedded
Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl5.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F3328%2F3328805eipbi6o30e.gif&hash=6b47effe687cb862012c19507f1979f43ff67a02)
 

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 01, 2015, 10:35:39 pm
Tue Mar 31, 2015 at 04:27 PM PDT
Stirring photo: little girl surrenders when she mistakes camera for gun. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-041115022304.png&hash=cd8cb8e28ab8f7fc78c1ea00d30a661bd937aed5)


(https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/viral_photo1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1)
"I was using a telephoto lens, and she thought it was a weapon," says Sağırlı. "İ realised she was terrified after I took it, and looked at the picture, because she bit her lips and raised her hands. Normally kids run away, hide their faces or smile when they see a camera."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/31/1374712/-Stirring-photo-little-girl-surrenders-when-she-mistakes-camera-for-gun
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 15, 2015, 09:55:00 pm
RE,
I am sorry to hear of your plight with all the red tape and threatened costs. It's smart of you to have a lawyer running interference. Insurance companies only listen when they are forced to by lawyers.

As to your neck (C4-C5 vertebrae damage), I will pray for you every day.

What does the surgery consist of? Are they going to reposition the discs or put in some added disc cushioning?
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doomsteaddiner.net%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2FNeck-Injury.jpg&hash=93a0bd869282a20df7fabcbc9d17d08b5d5f704d)
 Is that your x-ray? It looks like C4 rode up on C5. Bummer.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

Why can't they use traction to reposition your vertebrae? Sure, with hospital stays being what they are ($30,000 went to my insurance for ONE DAY in a hospital when I got my pacemaker in 2007). Granted, the big bucks went for the pacemaker and the surgeon but the room is still over $1,000 a day. So if it took a 30 day stay fro a slow repo of your vertebrae with no guarantees that they could avoid surgery, perhaps that is why they are so gung ho to do the surgery.

Do they have you on some kind of anti-inflammatory meds now? I read somewhere that ANY inflammation in the spinal cord is very, very dangerous.

If there anything you want me to research and get back to you on, just say the word and I'll get right on it.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614215719.gif&hash=7983c34cdce12243f05547383307c8b35e9d31ef)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2015, 02:30:41 pm
That is not my X-Ray.  I just used it for illustration.  I would likely be quadraplegic already with that one.  I'm not putting my own snapshots up for legal reasons.

The procedures are C3-4, C4-5  anterior cervical discectomies. anterior allograft fusion, nucel, and a possible corpectomy. If you feel like researching all of them and reporting on what they are planning on doing to fix me up, go for it.

The problem here is the channel is just too narrow to begin with, and the displacement from the injury makes it worse.  Nothing short of surgery resolves this one.

Cost estimate is around $45K just for the Pro from Dover who carves up the neck.  Then there are the costs from the Anesthesiologist and the Radiologist and the Hospital Operating Room charges, then the in-patient recovery time estimated at 2 days (WHAT?  I'm good to go after just 2 days with this operation?), then 6 more weeks recovery time after that at home.  No idea how mobile I will be during that 6 weeks.  No doubt wearing a collar the whole time.  Anyhow, rule of thumb is 3X what the surgeon charges for the whole ball of wax.

I was able to get the lawyer no charge because it's a pretty good case they think they can win or settle on. They only get paid if they win or settle. The lawyer told me when I asked what percentage they lost, his reply was they don't take cases they can't win or settle.  They do the most Workman's Comp cases of any firm in Alaska, so one hopes they know what they are doing.

RE


RE,
Thanks for the info. I'll get to the research tomorrow. I just watched a video (animation) of a discectomy.

As you said, traction is useless. It seems they get between the vertebrae, jack them up a little, pull the disk, clean up the area, put two metal plates with cleats (a top and a bottom where the disc was) in position, insert a prosthetic disk, return the vertebrae to position (which holds the new disc in place) and sometimes fuse the vertebrae together with some special cement after that.

And yeah, the recovery is incredibly short! The  cement, even when they pump it into a collapsed vertebrae, sets within a half hour or so. They claim relief is normally instantaneous (at least with cement filled collapsed vertebrae).

I'm going to bed now but I'll dig up some videos if you are interested in the nuts and bolts (they use screws and bolts sometimes too).

Hang in there.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2015, 05:05:29 pm
RE,
This is what I have so far. I am posting it now in case you have a possibility of taking advantage of  a giant freebee clinical trial.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Felqahera-trading.com%2Fhome%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F04%2Fdollar-sign-thumbnail1.jpg&hash=e1962ecaa694d312d50a9984ee058a45aed1e860)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

I will post graphics on the procedures you listed soon.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

C3-4, C4-5 anterior cervical discectomies (ACDF), anterior allograft fusion, nucel, and a possible corpectomy.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F34y5mvr.gif&hash=835b3a3f26d5d1b7f0acc379ad8ebd3fe9eea488)

Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) Video

http://www.spine-health.com/video/anterior-cervical-discectomy-and-fusion-acdf-video (http://www.spine-health.com/video/anterior-cervical-discectomy-and-fusion-acdf-video)

NuCel® allograft


NuCel is a minimally manipulated allograft product derived from amniotic membrane along with cells from amniotic fluid. Allograft bone is bone that comes another patient. NuCel and Allograft bone will be combined for this treatment.

Is the following a NuCel freebee opportunity?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301014182447.gif&hash=58fbc1dfd905f79b3d4bacde8e89a935c2b859ac)

ClinicalTrials.gov
A service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health


A Prospective Study of NuCel® in Cervical Spine Fusion
This study is currently recruiting participants. (see Contacts and Locations) Verified March 2015 by NuCel, LLC.

Estimated Enrollment: 60
Study Start Date: March 2015
Estimated Study Completion Date: September 2016
Estimated Primary Completion Date: September 2016 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)


Detailed Description:


The study is intended to demonstrate that the NuCel® allograft is effective and safe in promoting bone growth and fusion rate when used in cervical fusion in patients with one, two or three-level diseases of the cervical spine. ... ...

All subjects will have been established with cervical spine disease at one, two or three levels of the cervical spine that requires cervical interbody fusion per the opinion of the treating surgeon.

The primary objective is to demonstrate that NuCel® is comparable to autograft bone graft in producing a successful, contiguous fusion at 6 months ±4 weeks post-operative when used in cervical fusion surgery. Success based on findings of cervical CT scan and plain radiographs. Additionally, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Neck Disability Index (NDI) and patient satisfaction will be used as secondary outcome measures. Success based on findings of cervical CT scan and plain radiographs.


Condition:
                                           
Spondylosis
Spinal Stenosis
Spondylolisthesis
Intervertebral Disc Disease
Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

Intervention:
Other: NuCel with Allograft Bone

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02381067 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02381067)

Aglebert NOTE:
Please checkout the exclusion criteria numbers 1 and 2 for the study participants.

corpectomy

Quote
A corpectomy is a surgical procedure to remove a vertebral body, usually to decompress the spinal cord. In this surgery, the vertebral bodies and adjacent vertebral discs are removed in order to alleviate the pressure on the spinal cord, which is causing spinal stenosis and cervical myelopathy.

Agelbert NOTE: Stenosis, as you know, is narrowing. Sometimes that stenosis is not precisely narrowing. Sometimes stenosis consists of tiny bone spurs here and there inside the channel your nerve cord goes through which are literally a pain in the back, as well as interfering with movement and signaling.

SO, they have to go in there and get rid of those spurs (if they are there) when they are doing an ACDF and/or a corpectomy.

All the fusion cement and metal plates with bolts stuff is their way of guaranteeing that things won't get out of place after they relieve spinal cord pressure. I am certain that fusion won't help you if you want to perform new yoga positions.  ;D But it will, in theory  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fpng%2F200%2Femoticons%2Ffingerscrossed.png&hash=d56f8009d18b55f4cea7be68284c0521be92fc5d), keep you pain free and able to move normally. However, that means no more gymnastics or stunts on your electric bike!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6869.gif&hash=f94938471d343a09155d1f60eefacdb2ceab2457)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2015, 08:07:59 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.axis-hospital-croatia.com%2Fimg%2Fproceduresspine%2Facdf.jpg&hash=f94a17366bd558fa5a3c02019ecf04d1b58ef1fa)
Anterior Cervical Decompression and Fusion Surgery (ACDF)


Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) is performed at the Spine Institute Northwest as a minimally invasive spine surgical procedure to treat nerve root or spinal cord compression in the cervical spine. The procedure has two parts, first a discectomy to remove the problem disc and decompress the spinal cord and nerve roots, then a fusion to stabilize the corresponding vertebrae. ACDF can be performed via a small incision in the front of the neck, providing relief from spinal cord or nerve root pressure and alleviating symptoms including pain, weakness, numbness, and tingling either at the site, or in the parts of the body the affected nerve serves.

ACDF: The Basics

ACDF is used to treat pain caused by a herniated or ruptured disc in the cervical spine. As we age, the fluid in our discs diminishes, sometimes causing them to tear or rupture.

This can cause the nucleus pulposus (the jelly-like padding at the center of the disc) to bulge and press on the outer wall of the disc (the annulus). When this happens, it can create pressure on nearby nerve roots or on the spine itself, causing intense pain.   :(

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spinesurgery.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fnerve-compression.jpg&hash=2ccc2aba4e134fbe4dfe7134645f9a9d1bb2795a)
;): RE, notice the Bone Spurs and Thickened Ligamentum Flavum that contribute to stenosis in addition to the herniated disc creating pressure.

I wish they would call the disc "hernia" something like an aneurysm (i.e. an excessive localized enlargement of an artery caused by a weakening of the artery wall). In the case of a disc, I would call it an excessive localized enlargement of the disc caused by a weakening of the disc wall).

The "hernia" of the disc is the weakened wall of the disc. The localized enlargement which results ALSO leaves behind a localized REDUCTION of disc thickness. This causes pressure on the spinal cord TWO ways. The first way is the bulge pushing on the spinal cord. The second way is the reduced distance between vertebrae from the slightly deflated disc compressing the spinal cord.


Ruptured or herniated discs are not only caused by degenerative discs (spondylosis), however; this condition can also be brought on by injury or excessive wear and tear, for example, from a physically intense occupation.

This combination minimally invasive spine procedure has two parts.

First, in the discectomy, the surgeon enters through a small incision in the left side of the neck, and the affected disc is removed. If there is additional tissue compressing the nerve, this will also be removed to reduce pressure and create more space. 


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203410.png&hash=e4c018477c29e0927a79e3ba1a52ebdee830404b)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203440.png&hash=21c8be0b13e4189c909355b56a7183fe07f69a5d)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203513.png&hash=7764db9fd4581c43af592e858dc592e4d7e56815)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203540.png&hash=5a131ed73c9549966e6a986124da481d20395524)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203814.png&hash=422f631f6d25369635ee94806d2db253a55e79c1)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415203931.png&hash=af8a5ad06f27676cdd067f89b8db0efe49d65e45)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204026.png&hash=15ed335903d57eaf19281bcb5017f853d6a91dd7)

The second step is the fusion, which increases stability and prevents the vertebrae from collapsing where the disc was removed. By filling in the now-open space where the disc was with a bone graft and a cage implant, the vertebrae can be “fused” back together.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mayfieldclinic.com%2FImages%2FPE-ACDF_Figure1b.jpg&hash=feb1ac64a66b99a2aa483573ddc2c7bec15ed70e)

(https://www.spineinstitutenorthwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/COLONIAL-300x210-ACDF.png)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204105.png&hash=7118744301a3bc357e9c88d9bd5be3f34546de90)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204140.png&hash=12431fba8224349789a0c4a4438e8178e99af7e9)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204440.png&hash=e5b48badc7d1c5a654eac95389cac28f124092f0)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204520.png&hash=b19e2383a26b9525810d101019e9025500896e81)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160415204557.png&hash=7a9885faf5756462813da9f28c5448fdbe430d1d)

This will create a bridge of bone that will, with time, keep your cervical spine able to properly support itself and bear normal loads.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medivisuals1.com%2Fimages%2Fcategories%2FMVI%2520ACDF%2520Page%2520Image.jpg&hash=18d790008adc25d7ec54f63fac07a2c622d0734d)

Read on for more details on this minimally invasive spine surgery, including what to expect before, during, and after surgery, as well as potential risks and complications.
https://www.spineinstitutenorthwest.com/treatments/endoscopic-microdiscectomy/anterior-cervical-decompression-fusion-surgery-acdf/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 18, 2015, 04:07:57 pm
Knarf, UB and Ka,
Ahem! I must admit I am not an expert on good vibrations like Buddhists of all stripes and yogis. Furthermore, I recognize that you are not going to charge RE a nickel for giving him the low down on how to make osteocytes be fruitful and multiply while they dance to the "right" tune (fuse dem vertebraes pronto!(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-022.gif&hash=3b60da70b71b7109fe66036056cb1dedc1affb43) ).  :icon_mrgreen:

I have been doing some research to help RE and, of course, further my sneaky agenda to get everybody to do everything they can to adopt a CARING CAPACITY world view and **** can the CARRYING CAPACITY (i.e scarcity equals value predatory capitalist bullshit) destructive world view.

The Agelbert (Anthony Gonzalez Gelbert) Institute for Advanced Caring Capacity Research into BIOSPHERE CFS  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F34y5mvr.gif&hash=835b3a3f26d5d1b7f0acc379ad8ebd3fe9eea488) has made an amazing discovery. I am certain there is another Diner, not included in the above names (who, for the moment shall remain nameless  ;D), who will back up this research anecdotally, if not scientifically.

Rather than boring you with umpteen details about how specific hertz heal HURTS, I will present two graphics and let you vibrations experts take it from there.


The bottom line for RE is that he is going to need some SUCCESSFUL bone fusion.  If they do a bone graft and saw a piece out of his pelvis to stick into his neck, there is ANOTHER place on his body that he will need osteocyte growth and quick healing.

Those pelvic procedures have a rep for causing enduring pain  :(. This is in contrast to the ACDF that usually just causes a sore throat and difficult swallowing for a few days, along with total neck pain relief. Since he is a smoker (a KNOWN cause of slow bone fusion or fusion failure complications), his doctor will probably recommend a bone growth stimulator after the ACDF procedure.

I have issues with that. I think you vibrations dudes may also have issues with that too. Where am I going with this?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6656.gif&hash=2038f9b45636a93e5c0f4ee508ce29778fe9e9b4) I am saying PLAINLY that there is MORE to that bone fusion and healing than the vibrations themselves, even though they are, of course, a vital part of the healing process.

A LIVING BEING must be generating those vibrations, IMHO, for them to be truly efficacious  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53). Human technology is, as usual, a day late and a dollar short because of its STUPID, IGNORANT, NON-SPIRITUAL, mechanistic reductionist world view of cause and effect. 

And ALSO, as usual, they want to charge an arm and a cervical vertebrae  ;D for the "high tech" CRAP they pass off as "superior" to what living beings, NOT JUST HUMANS, give freely in the service of LIFE.

Knarf, UB, and Ka, please shed some light on good vibrations. RE needs our help.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-180415145419.png&hash=eb0527931e69985156973f577d58b9f0331504d0)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-_CjaPgf8YE4%2FU_LjWI0SYXI%2FAAAAAAAAKsk%2FX1gMwn5ujFY%2Fs640%2Fcats%252Bpurrs%252Bhealing%252Bpowers.png&hash=a479ad5fa20a6931b970f3eae89e324aed7c1d63)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fearthhug.gif&hash=3abcf70466f34337f2d702ebd9e02c650d5c4c20)

Agelbert NOTE: The above was posted on another forum. IF you have some healing vibrations info or testimonial, pleas post them here. Thank you.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 18, 2015, 07:37:22 pm
AG---Since I found out about RE's condition, I have been traveling to Alaska to be with him.  We call it throwing your mind, and I am sure it works having lived with the Abbot for 10 years, and dealing with many, many people. We all have ESP and can communicate no matter what the distance.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) I started recognizing the ability when I was about 20 years old. When things I and friend would do in the nick of time just out of instinct that kept us out of trouble. Then it started happening with my children, especially my daughter. She had moved to Illinois, and would start thinking i needed to call her, I would pick up the phone and there was no dial tone, SHE WAS ALREADY ON THE PHONE! This happened several times. Then I developed this ESP with a friend who lived about 15 miles from here. We would contact each other within minutes of feeling like we needed to talk. But the biggest one was when I called my father in 1980 just out of the blue. I hadn't talked to him for about 6 months, and all of a sudden I had to call him.  :emthup: :

He answered the phone and was crying and drunk, and said he had a shotgun and was going to kill himself, that his wife had left him and he had nothing to live for. I talked him down a bit  :emthup: :emthup:, and then contacted friends in California that lived near him, and told them to go pick up my Dad and get him on a plane to Kansas City, where I would meet him.  :emthup: :emthup: :emthup:  :icon_sunny:

He was so relieved that I cared so much to do this, that he complied and I met him at KC, and he quit drinking and was reunited with his wife. I hope RE is open to this type of communication. It is beyond words and involved with listening with top half of your head above your ears. Believe me I am sending him ( YOU RE ) the very best vibes I know of, that includes you AG, and Surly. :)

Knarf,
I certainly DO believe you. I have many ESP experiences myself that convinced me decades ago of the reality of this communication as well as the reality of "spooky action" (science would call it quantum entanglement producing unexplained therap eutic biochemical molecular activity  ;D) Healing (Harming is also possible through exactly the same mechanism in our universe).

Thank you for your healing mind throwing. Unlike the scarcity meme that corrupts this world, when we exert ourselves to heal, the healing multiplies and produces healing side effects in many others as well. There is no limit, as you know, to Caring Capacity. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614220933.gif&hash=7776323fc3649096af67c27660adde4a9fb71743)

In addition to all the above, please consider that owning a cat might help your arthritis too!  ;)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 30, 2015, 05:47:03 pm
Eddie, Matts is just defending his worship of science by ridiculing miracles. I do not consider that disagreeing without being disagreeable; I consider that snobbish baloney. And I was not kidding when I said I felt sorry for him. I really do.

We all get that, believe me. But even though you have a strong opinion, you don't turn nasty and vicious, like some I could mention. That's what it takes to have forum like this. We all have our belief systems, and they're all different. It takes a certain amount of tolerance to have these discussions. I appreciate that you can tolerate views that differ radically from your own. I personally choose to believe that miracles are possible, because we really do need a few, or we're gonna be toast, I'm afraid. I pray for a big miracle every day. Sincerely, I do.

Eddie,
Thank you. I try not to turn nasty and vicious, despite an enormous desire to do so born of my frustration with fighting status quo myths and distortions in this dystopia. However, if raining on Matt's parade of scientific myths is being "nasty and vicious", then I am guilty.

Thank you for your prayers. With enough of us doing just that, RE may get his miracle.

Here is some background on the myth that modern medicine has increased human longevity:



Human Lifespans Nearly Constant for 2,000 Years


by Benjamin Radford, Live Science Contributor   |   August 21, 2009 11:26am ET

 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, often the harbinger of bad news about e. coli outbreaks and swine flu, recently had some good news: The life expectancy of Americans is higher than ever, at almost 78.

Discussions about life expectancy often involve how it has improved over time. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy for men in 1907 was 45.6 years; by 1957 it rose to 66.4; in 2007 it reached 75.5. Unlike the most recent increase in life expectancy (which was attributable largely to a decline in half of the leading causes of death including heart disease, homicide, and influenza), the increase in life expectancy between 1907 and 2007 was largely due to a decreasing infant mortality rate, which was 9.99 percent in 1907; 2.63 percent in 1957; and 0.68 percent in 2007.

But the inclusion of infant mortality rates in calculating life expectancy creates the mistaken impression that earlier generations died at a young age; Americans were not dying en masse at the age of 46 in 1907. The fact is that the maximum human lifespan — a concept often confused with "life expectancy" — has remained more or less the same for thousands of years. The idea that our ancestors routinely died young (say, at age 40) has no basis in scientific fact.

Yet this myth is widespread, and repeated by both the public and professionals. A few examples:

Quote
* An article on Egyptian pyramid builders in the November 2001 issue of "National Geographic" noted, "Despite the availability of medical care the workers' lives were short. On average a man lived 40 to 45 years, a woman 30 to 35."

* In a 2005 press release for the TV show "Nightline," a producer wrote, "I am 42 years old. I live in a comfortable home with my family…. I'm lucky. If I were in Sierra Leone, the poorest country in Africa, chances are I'd be dead at my age. The life expectancy there is 34 years of age." 

* A Dec. 18, 2003, Reuters news story on the impact of AIDS in Africa reported that "A baby girl born now in Japan could expect to live 85 years, while one born in Sierra Leone probably would not survive beyond 36."

Such statements are completely wrong
; most people in Sierra Leone are not dropping dead at age 34. The problem is that giving an "average age" at which people died tells us almost nothing about the age at which an individual person living at the time might expect to die.

Again, the high infant mortality rate skews the "life expectancy" dramatically downward. If a couple has two children and one of them dies in childbirth while the other lives to be 90, stating that on average the couple's children lived to be 45 is statistically accurate but meaningless. Claiming a low average age of death due to high infant mortality is not the same as claiming that the average person in that population will die at that age.

Of course, infant mortality is only one of many factors that influence life expectancy, including medicine, crime, and workplace safety. But when it is calculated in, it often creates confusion and myths.

When Socrates died at the age of 70 around 399 B.C., he did not die of old age but instead by execution. It is ironic that ancient Greeks lived into their 70s and older, while more than 2,000 years later modern Americans aren't living much longer.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53) 

Benjamin Radford is managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. His books, films, and other projects can be found on his website. His Bad Science column appears regularly on LiveScience.
http://www.livescience.com/10569-human-lifespans-constant-2-000-years.html (http://www.livescience.com/10569-human-lifespans-constant-2-000-years.html)

Agelbert NOTE: Eddie, if you can get Matts to back down on his claim that modern medicine has given us longer lives, I will admit that I misjudged him. His "reputable" sources are mendacious double talkers in the service of TPTB, period. He refuses to see that.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.disquscdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fmediaembed%2Fimages%2F1386%2F7541%2Foriginal.jpg&hash=86e9333b666a245825b382f415fe40c33ef8863e)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 30, 2015, 06:33:41 pm
Myths of Modern Medicine: The Increase in the Human Life Span.

Our longer *, healthier life span is due to a range of political social reforms, as described below. Medical interventions and commercial drug products had very little impact. [/size][/color]


* Agelbert NOTE: "LONGER" on the AVERAGE only (e.g. see reduction in infant mortality); NOT in longevity of the aged.

For diagrams that illustrate the decline of infant mortality and of the major infectious diseases see the article: Truth About the Decline of the Infectious Diseases (http://www.medicinekillsmillions.com/articles/truth-about-decline-of-the-infectious-diseases.html)

Quote
Medical products contributed little to increasing the human life span:

For instance, "Researchers John & Sonya McKinlay... showed that medical intervention only accounted for between 1 & 3.5 per cent of the increase in the average life span in the United States since 1900." [1] (Yes you read that correctly, just one to three point five percent.)

Similarly, in the words of Dr Richard Taylor, in Australia: "almost 80 per cent of the reduction in infant mortality between the 1880s & the 1970s occurred prior to the 1930s." [2]

That is, survival rates for infants increased steadily long before the widespread use of pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines designed to combat infectious diseases. Extensive vaccination did not begin in Australia until the mid-1930s and for many diseases did not commence until the 1950s and 1960s. This pattern is duplicated across the developed world.

Social reforms brought about the increase in healthy human life span:

In the words of medical historian Hans Ruesch: "All the medical historians of our century ... agree that the decline of the epidemics which had wrought havoc in the Middle Ages was not due to the introduction of vaccination, but of hygiene, for they had diminished long before large-scale inoculations had begun..." [3]

Medical historians explain that the great advances in human health like:
•the decline of the infectious diseases;
•the reductions in infant and maternal (birth) mortality rates; and
•the resulting increase in overall human life span;

are due to reforms that improved our living conditions - via improvements to our social infrastructure. [4,5,6,7]

Consider that almost everyone used to live surrounded by rubbish and raw sewerage; ideal conditions for disease.

Humans (in developed countries) now live longer healthier lives due to these kinds of reforms during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: [4,5,7]
•Access to clean fresh water supplies.
• Improved sanitation - flushing toilets and sewerage systems; governments collecting and removing rubbish and waste from where people live; burying the dead further away from where people live.

•Access to better nutrition (like fruit and vegetables from afar) due to improved trade, transport and refrigeration.

• Improved hygiene - people washing more often, particularly their hands.

• Improved antisepsis by doctors and hospitals - when doctors did not wash their hands or apply other meticulous antisepsis they spread infections from person to person. Antisepsis improved the survival rates for surgery.

• Improved maternal care - care for mothers who have given birth: "Maternal mortality rates [death rates for mothers] were lowest for home deliveries undertaken by trained and supervised midwives ... In contrast ... maternal mortality rates were very high ... where most deliveries were performed by physicians... due to unnecessary interference." [8]

• Improved housing conditions - so that less people were confined together in unhealthy housing conditions.

• Improved working conditions - shorter working hours, more rest-time, laws and regulations that reduced health hazards.

• Innovations like sickness insurance legislation led to improved care for mothers and infants. [9]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Dr Robert Sharpe:
Quote
"Mortality for virtually all the infections was declining before, and in most cases long before, specific therapies became available... The impetus to better health from the mid nineteenth century onwards can therefore be directly traced to public health measures and social legislation that improved the living standards of working people... Higher wages and welfare benefits made it possible for the poor to eat properly and public health measures radically improved conditions in the densely-populated urban areas, particularly with the provision of clean water supplies, sanitation, sewerage and new housing... Susceptibility to the infections diminished radically as nutrition, housing, hygiene and general living conditions improved..." [5]

Quote
"It is a widely held fallacy that mortality from infectious disease only commenced to fall with the advent of modern [pharmaceutical] agents." Ramsay & Emond, Infectious Diseases. [6]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Quote
In sum, the commercial pharmaceutical industry does not deserve the credit for benefits which came from social and political reforms.

Most medical interventions lack scientific evidence:

In closing, the British Medical Journal reports: "Only about 15% of medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence... This is partly because only 1% of the articles in medical journals are scientifically sound and partly because many treatments have never been assessed at all". [10]

Related Articles:


•A History of Western Medicine: From ancient Greece to modern times ... a summary of how human medicine: i) progressed due to scientific clinical observations of humans; and ii) was stalled and led astray for millenia due to misleading results from vivisection ... excerpts from a book by the medical historian Hans Ruesch.

•Myths of Modern Medicine:
The Decline of the Infectious Diseases happened before commercial vaccines, immunisations and drugs were develeped for them. This page contains numerous graphs and diagrams that illustrate the statistics and trends.

•Doctors warn about the dangers of Vaccination-Immunisation.
They explain how vaccines may not protect and how they could cause serious illnesses. Also, a contract for your doctor to sign before vaccination, in order that they reimburse you for any damages.

•The Decline of Smallpox in Great Britain
- Vaccination in Doubt. It includes a critique of Edward Jenner's book and theories.

International-Medical-Council-on-Vaccination-Doctors-Against-Immunisation

For information on studies that show how modern medicine is a leading cause of human death and injury, see:

•Death By Medicine - studies in science journals reveal that medical treatment may be the leading cause of death in the USA

•Why Do Pharmaceutical Drugs Injure & Kill So Many People? Are we the real guinea-pigs?



References:

[1] J.B. McKinlay & S. McKinlay, Health & Society, Millibank Memorial Fund, 1977, pp.405-28 (as cited in The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket Part 1, CAFMR, 1993 p.7, a two part 40-page booklet that exposes the drug industry; see http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html for excerpts).

[2] Dr. Richard Taylor, Medicine out of Control, 1979 p.9, Sun books.

[3] Hans Ruesch, Slaughter of the Innocent, CIVITAS Publications, Hartsdale NY, 1991, page 194.

[4] T. McKeown, The Role of Medicine, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1979; T. McKeown and C.R. Lowe, An Introduction to Social Medicine, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1976 (both cited in The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket Part 1, Jon Lesso, CAFMR, 1993 p.7, a two part 40-page booklet that exposes the drug industry; see http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html for excerpts).

[5] Robert Sharpe, The Cruel Deception, Thorsons Publishing Group, Wellingborough, U.K. 1988, chapter 1, p.24

[6] A.M. Ramsay and R.T. Emond, Infectious Diseases, Heinemann, 1967.

[7] Hans Ruesch, Slaughter of the Innocent, CIVITAS Publications, Hartsdale NY, 1991, pp. 147-287.

[8] Irvine Loudon, "Maternal mortality in the past and its relevance to developing countries today", The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2000 vol. 72 no. 1 241S-246S.

[9] John Bowblis, "The Decline in Infant Death Rates, 1878–1913: The Role of Early Sickness Insurance Programs", The Journal of Economic History (2010),70:pp 221-232

[10] Richard Smith, editor, "Where is the wisdom?... The poverty of medical evidence", British Medical Journal, October 1991, Vol 303, 198-99, http://www.bmj.com/highwire/filestream/334291/field_highwire_article_pdf/0.pdf

http://www.medicinekillsmillions.com/articles/medical_history_truth_about_human_lifespan_increase.htm

Agelbert NOTE: So how come so many people swear by our "modern" medical/pharmaceutical system? How come so many people actually DO get healed by these questionable and mostly UNscientific therapies? FAITH! IOW, the FAITH that people have in the medical system is what heals most people while the medical system STUDIOUSLY tries to undermine ANY FAITH except that in the medical system because of YOU CANNOT BILL PEOPLE FOR FAITH:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280914174538.jpeg&hash=bcf9cf2d12c22ea43304cdaf580bffa32387186d)
Medical system fat cats PROTECT their food bowl  ;).



Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 01, 2015, 07:36:50 pm
MattS is saying by his chart that Life Expectancy at Birth is going up. He is right. AG is saying Life Expectancy at aged 7-10 is going down. He hasn't charted it, but he might be right.  How can both be true?  Because the first year of life is when people are at the highest risk of birth defects showing up, and are generally less resilient to disease and trauma (birth itself is often traumatic). Something like this effect extends to age 11, that is the chances of dying in the current year goes down until age 10-11, and then starts going up again.

So which is the right measure to use to substantiate the claim that modern medical intervention does/doesn't extend your life?  Well, at what age does modern medical intervention start?  At birth, of course.

Now to prove something like this, you really need to be a lot more specific in your statements. 
1.  You need to state which population you are considering - the US is NOT the only country in the world, despite its exceptionalism, but let's consider the US anyway.
2.  You need to state the time range over which you are considering "going up/down" - since medical procedures have been used to attempt to prolong life as far back as the data goes, we need ALL the data available.

The data is presented in Life Tables for each year. The US Life Table for 2010 is available at
ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Publications/NVSR/63_07/Table01.xlsx (http://ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Publications/NVSR/63_07/Table01.xlsx)
from which you really only need one data point - Expectation of life at age (x) for Age = 0 - 1, but you can choose some other age if you want.

There are also Abridged Life Tables published, where the "x"s are grouped in five year brackets, or you can compose your own age bracket (like 7 - 10), but this is not just simple addition. 7 - 10 is an odd sort of group to choose - I suspect it would be influenced by boys killing themselves by doing silly things like falling out of trees or drowning.

Then you download all the life tables going back as far as you can, to collect the corresponding set of data points over the years, and then chart them.

Fortunately some analysis has already been done for you by the demographers:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_07.pdf (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_07.pdf)
In 2010, the overall expectation of life at birth was 78.7 years. Between 2009 and 2010, life expectancy at birth increased for all groups considered. Life expectancy increased for both males (from 76.0 to 76.2) and females (80.9 to 81.0) and for the white population (78.8 to 78.9), the black population (74.7 to 75.1), the Hispanic population (81.1 to 81.4), the non-Hispanic white population (78.7 to 78.8), and the non-Hispanic black population (74.4 to 74.7).

AG, by picking the unusual age bracket 7 - 10, seems to be selecting the data that minimises the "child effect", and maximises the "adult effect".  This is statistically valid, but is a common way statisticians bend things to support a point.

Anyhow, it has been admitted by everyone that antisepsis intervention does make a difference (it saved my life at my last hospital visit), so the argument seems to be that only SOME interventions make things worse.  This argument can only get somewhere if you look for as many points of agreement as possible, and stop shouting "I'm right!" and "You just don't get it !" at each other.

Palloy said,
Quote
This argument can only get somewhere if you look for as many points of agreement as possible ...

True, IF we can AGREE on what a "REPUTABLE" source of empirical data is. Can you trust the World Health Organization (WHO) to tell you what the number of deaths from radiation caused sickness and birth defects are? NO. WHY? Because in the late 1950's they were GAGGED by the Atomic Energy Commission (prohibiting publishing epidemiological studies about radiation effects without the "approval" of the fox in the henhouse AEC). The AEC morphed into the NRC which continues to spread the nuclear happy talk agnotology far and wide in "REPUTABLE" publications. YOU, as a mathematician, are hamstrung by mens rea profit over planet folks entrenched in the status quo BECAUSE you have NO OTHER DATA SOURCE. Of course data can be manipulated. But your assumption that the original "empirical" data was not massaged is NOT realistic.

Which means:
A) My overall point is NOT the cohort in life expectancy; it is my healthy distrust of most of the data.

B) There IS NO OBJECTIVE MATHEMATICAL standard that you can use to measure who is right here.

C) There is NO common ground between MattS and myself on what "Reputable" empirical data is.

D) This is not really an argument about life expectancy anyway; it's an argument about competing world views that are REALLY incompatible because one world view STRESSES that, sans measurable empirical data, no phenomenon is REAL, while the other STRESSES that, even though it is impossible to measure the response of biochemical mechanisms to the metaphysical activity, said metaphysical power is MORE powerful and MORE real than measurable phenomenon.

The best I could say is that the 3D universe is a subset of the overall universe. Hence, there is SOME predictability that science can work on and study to obtain improved health care. But that in no way provides an excuse to claim "miracles" are NOT really miracles because ALL have a cause and effect empirically measurable source. And, just you wait, soon we'll have it all figured out. That's your position, isn't it Palloy?  IOW, YOU have FAITH in your empirical world WITHOUT all the answers. Hell, you don't even want to admit the published data by TPTB is slanted six ways from sunday!  You don't want to admit that THAT is the NORM, not the exception to the rule. Neither does MattS.

And it's a never ending story because I finger the NRC and you will dig up some data by somebody here or there that is "irrefutable" followed by me digging up some that I claim is "irrefutable" and so on and so forth. AT NO POINT in that exchange will you ADMIT to the POSSIBILITY that "irrefutability through empirical evidence" is IMPOSSIBLE in human biochemical events involving spontaneous healing even if I provide a laundry list of documented events of this nature. YOU and Matts will ALWAYS fall back on the "Well, someday we are going find out! That's what SCIENCE is about! So There!".  ::)

But I am supposed to **** can my FAITH because a "miraculous event" cannot be measured.   I don't think so.  ;D
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 01, 2015, 09:24:04 pm
Palloy said,
Quote
I recommend you totally abandon your faith in the non-3-D universe, because it will never yield any uncontestable assertions, and you will be going round in circles for ever, but that is up to you.

The generalization that my world view will never yield any uncontestable assertions is not accurate. I am alive. I should not be. My rib cage rotated about 10 to 15 degrees. My head was slammed back and forth against the right front side of a car windshield and the left driver's side window so hard, and so many times in a 15 second crash sequence at about 140 mph, that I would feel the pain on the left side of my head while my eyes registered my head on the right side of the passenger compartment. I should be dead. The doctor wanted to do an exploratory. Ask UB what THAT entails. They don't do that on people that make sh it up. I am living proof that miracles occur. No question about it.

Your definition of "going around in circles" is at odds with mine. Your assertion that my view necessarily negates belief in SOME empirical evidence is false. As much as you want to believe that, I do not live in la-la land.

You are the one who flat refuses to include immeasurable, but documented, spontaneous healing in your world view. And I know why. You see, you may not have pondered this, but I have. IF the ONLY WAY our biochemical machinery can be repaired is by obeying the laws of thermodynamics while remaining within the tight life range of oxygenation and homeostatic requirements in temperature ranges, pH and so on, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be spontaneously healed.

Yet, it happens. In the 3D part of our universe, these events are not reproducible on demand but, nevertheless, their occurrence is empirically documented. This is a conundrum for materialist atheists. This requires that they adopt the position that, "therefore, what we THOUGHT was healing a person when we gave them this medicine or that therapy is not accurate". But they won't do that. They instead adopt the position that it's a random event of ZERO importance to their world view. When challenged they suggest the believer go back to reading entrails or shaking sticks at the sick. I am not proposing that. Aspirin really does help with headaches. ;D   

IF Your world view really did require irrefutable evidence before you accepted something as real, you would not accept much of what you now accept ON FAITH, as real. Mine assumes irrefutability is a pipe dream. IOW, you are the one doomed to run around in tautological circles. You are the one limiting the boundary of your thoughts to an arbitrary standard of proof.

For example, if you saw a flying saucer, you would immediately get out your light speed limit assumptions and claim, "well, I'm seeing things" or "That could NOT have come from another star system so it must be some high tech toy the military has cooked up to scare the rubes with".

You have, Palloy, all sorts of road blocks to accepting the possibility of what is real and what is not because of a self imposed construct of reality. And a lot of what you believe, you cannot prove anyway. Yet you fancy that you've got reality nailed down and are keenly aware of when something cannot be part of it. That is a pipe dream.

But thanks for politely trying your best to enlighten me. Others might ask me to walk off a tall building since it's all "mind over matter" or whatever.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)  I disagree with your world view but know you mean well.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)

   
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 02, 2015, 04:42:18 pm
Quote
I'll be watching it from Box Seats on the Other Side.

Most email applications have a Send Later function, which typically leaves the message in your Outbox until the next automatic Send/Receive.  Thunderbird also has the add-on called, surprisingly enough, SendLater, which allows you to choose a date-time for the message to be sent.  Thus if you are going to commit suicide, you can leave your goodbye email until some time after the event, to prevent interference.  You have to leave your computer on, obviously.

I can't find an add-on for emailing from the Other Side, but if we get an email from dr.hunter.s.doom@theotherside.com I'm sure we will all work it out.
Palloy,
u may be trying to help, but u r not helping here.
RE,
I understand Palloy is just trying to help, but I agree with UB.

Sure, we are all gonna die someday. If you want to get mathematically predictive about it and project a date, Palloy is the go to guy. But I have actually pondered that as well.  ;D I even have a final countdown going.  :evil4:

There is a free widget that I have on my desktop called FreeCoundownTimer http://free-countdown-timer.com/. (http://free-countdown-timer.com/.) After you set the time, date and sound for each timer, you can use a text field to write a note to yourself as a reminder about the timer's purpose. 

Free Countdown Timer offers a number of convenience features:

The timer wakes up your system from a Sleep mode.
The timer will automatically turn up the volume (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-028.gif&hash=24570cb7e8246617010ce900a07bc85117ff78ca) if you have it on mute by accident, and set a predefined volume level.

It rings bells, sounds a siren or tweets bird sounds (whatever your choice to remind you of that a date has arrived).

How many days, hours, minutes and seconds are left for all the dates are displayed any time you click on it. I use it for the dates of summer, fall, autumn, winter and the 2,140 days or so left in my prison sentence on planet earth  :icon_mrgreen:.

My math is, unfortunately, not based on any revelations from upstairs  ;D. I am rather boring and hard boiled empirical about some things, after all. I mean, you don't have experience flying airplanes and controlling air traffic because you did these things with a crystal ball  :icon_mrgreen:.

What I did was study deaths and disease in my family. Specifically, when and why did my grandparents on both sides, and my parents, die.

I even filled out a "When are you gonna die" thing on the web by entering how many years I had smoked and other stuff the bean counter actuarial folks use to jack up life insurance premiums  :evil4:. Of course, heaven forbid that these objective folks would game the data to make it look like you would DIE SOONER than they think so they can jack up the rates. No sir, no conflict of interest THERE, is there Palloy? After all, their data sets are from "reputable" sources...

But I digress. The actuarial folks claimed I have about 6 years left. SO, understanding where THEY are coming from, I figure I have a few years MORE than that. And yeah, these SAME folks that claim you have a foot in the grave and another on a banana peel are the ones who turn around and trumpet how "modern' civilization (HELLO FOSSIL FUELS!) and medicine has "increased" our life expectancy.  Of course, there is no cognitive dissonant mindfuck contradiction there, RIGHT?

Whoops, I digressed again. Mea culpa.

One of my grandmothers died from cancer around the age of 50. The other one (on my dad's side) died at 85. One of my grandfathers died at 67 of cancer (on my dad's side) and the other one died at 75. Atherosclerocis and assorted dementia complications offed the ones that didn't die of cancer. My mom died at 75 from cancer (ALL the cancers for all the above cancer victims were different cancers.). My old man died at 95.

Palloy could have great fun crunching those numbers but I keep it simple. Life expectancy in general, as has been PROVEN EMPIRICALLY, is a function how old you are at the time you crunch the numbers. Nevertheless, I KNOW that I have now outlived one grandmother and one grandfather on different sides. The next target is age 75. My dad is an outlier in the cohort that I consider of little importance to my math because his personality was that of a reptile. His world view enabled him to not worry or be bothered by absolutely anything or anybody. I've never been like that. I think people like him are those that have contributed MOST to our dystopia. Yet I accept the FACT that those people generally live longer because they are untroubled by the pain of their fellow earthlings, humans or otherwise.

After all this uncredentialed "math" on my part, I have formulated the hypothesis that I will die within a year or two of 75. So, I set my timer to that and click on it every now and then. Have a nice day.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-020515153146.png&hash=727cbccb0977b5403f7a863cd25352ed24ac2420)

Quote
IF the ONLY WAY our biochemical machinery can be repaired is by obeying the laws of thermodynamics while remaining within the tight life range of oxygenation and homeostatic requirements in temperature ranges, pH and so on, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be spontaneously healed.  Yet, it happens.

That is a small step of progress.

If (strictly for the sake of the argument) I concede that spontaneous healing does happen, then how much more of an explanation for it do you have, over what I have?  I don't want to put words in your mouth, but isn't your explanation that "it is done by some unknowable, invisible entity, for whom breaking the Laws of Thermodynamics is no problem", while my explanation is "I can't explain it" ?

How much more do you know than I do?  It seems like your explanation doesn't have any more explanatory power than mine. It doesn't tell you that there is life after death, for instance.

There you go again. Your explanation is not simply that "You can't explain it". That is not an explanation, is it? That is an unsubstantiated claim that your world view will EVENTUALLY explain it. You flat refuse to question the basic tenets of your world view even though the empirical data out there contradicts it. Since when do you HAVE TO believe in something because no other "suitable explanation" (see ONLY physical matter and energy cause and effect is the only thing "permitted".)?

That is not an objective position. If the data does not fit the hypothesis, the hypothesis is supposed to be rejected, whether you have a new one or not.

RE, for example, actually has presented his conditions for accepting that J.C. exists. It has been tongue in cheek but at least he DID say that, if J.C. shows up at his place with some free Samuel Adams, then RE would revise his hypothesis, so to speak.

This is where I am going with this, Palloy. I DO want to talk about spontaneous healings. I DO want to present the empirical evidence. I DO want it clearly stated that the occurrence of spontaneous healing is NOT superstition and MUST BE accepted as part of our reality by any objective person, be they an atheist or not. As long as we split hairs about the frequency of the occurrence, the lack of explanations and so on, the ISSUE of the REALITY of their occurrence is placed on the back burner. Spontaneous healing is a FRONT BURNER issue for those that claim it is IMPOSSIBLE.

As to life after death, of course spontaneous healing does not prove that exists. Even out of body experiences would only prove that life OUTSIDE THE BODY is possible, not that life after death exists. We may have some faculty within the electromagnetic spectrum that allows us to "radio" our 5 senses a certain distance from the body. There are serious medical studies (many by the military, by the way) trying to figure out how that works.

Life after death is one subject; spontaneous healing is another. That's what we are after on thread, is it not?

And I do agree that many people receive spontaneous healing because of their OWN faith in their OWN power to heal without the aid or existence of a supreme being directing the show. Knarf could probably provide you with lots of evidence of faith healing power that can't be measured empirically. UB has documented some of those occurrences. He has spoken about them in the past. UB is a medical doctor. He does not do bullshit or fairy tales. I'm sure he can tell us stuff (that I am certain he can prove without a shadow of a doubt, by the way) that could make our hair stand on end!

Question: Would you consider modifying your view of reality if RE was spontaneously healed according to your strict requirements (x-rays and so on) that proved the laws of physical biochemistry in regard to tissue healing were violated and no medical science, therapy was responsible?
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 02, 2015, 07:22:17 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-VcrNn8AiWMc%2FTq2CavD4Y1I%2FAAAAAAAABCs%2Fiv07lVmamsE%2Fs1600%2FSomeone%2Bis%2Bwrong%2Bon%2Binternet.png&hash=548eb643210c7bc05842ffb291e67b2ee0ca1435)

After my last stroke the doctor was urging me to follow his advice to take three pills, three times a day for the rest of my life, so we got into a discussion about life expectancy.  He had access to a web app for doctors, which took the obvious stroke factors, age, sex, lifestyle factors, medications and so on, and came up with a prediction for percentage chance of surviving 5 years, with and without the medications.

A typical doctor, talking down to his ignorant patient, he clearly didn't realise he was talking to a mathematician/demographer who had started their working life at the Census Office.  I pointed out that as a 62 year old with a family history of heart problems, my chances of surviving another 5 years were not all that high anyway, and certainly not the 100% he was implying by not mentioning it at all.  As a smoker, I wasn't like my cohort, who probably would have been smoking for 40+ years, since I had given up for 25 years in that time and that had mostly reset the clock on that.  And as someone who made the conscious decision at 30 to live in a clean air and clean water environment, with regular exercise and low stress lifestyle ...  Anyway I managed to get him to agree that my chances had magically improved from 16% to 30%, and he didn't have data on factors that I felt improved my chances further.

So how does anyone assess what 30% chance of surviving 5 years, as opposed to 40%, really means?  The short answer is, you can't.  What actually happens to you, as opposed to the statistically average cohort member, is stochastic - dependent on so many immeasurable variables that it is effectively random.

Best just take it one day at a time, and enjoy it as much as you can.

Agreed. You can't. And you can't because it is involves too many variables for accurate prediction. Yogi Berra — 'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.'   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)

But to address your exchange with the doctor, let us discuss a phenomenon that psychology (based entirely on your world view that we live in a random universe) calls, "The Illusion of Control". They call it that because stuff happens that isn't reproducible on demand and appears (i.e. "illusion"  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)) to violate the "rules" of this universe, therefore, it MUST be a random event. I disagree, but let's see where they go with this.

It's a tricky subject because there ARE people that fall into the magical thinking trap from an actual illusion of control. One size fits all is not the way to approach this but the psychology folks try to do just that. They take blatant examples of people believing baloney and equate them to actual, empirically documented examples of the power of people to overcome negative cause and effect, particularly in the health care area.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260415172247.png&hash=efddc0104611c7a90148ae57964584fa7fc53594)

Here are some bonafide examples of "Illusion of Control" from the article:

Quote
The ‘illusion of control’ is this: people tend to overestimate their perceived control over events in their lives. It’s well documented and has been tested over-and-over in lots of different studies over four decades.
 
Here’s an example:
you choose an apple which tastes delicious. You assume you are very skilled at choosing apples (when in fact the whole batch happens to be good today).

Another: you enter the lottery and win millions. You assume that this is (partly) a result of how good your lucky numbers are (in fact lotteries are totally random so you can’t influence them with the numbers you choose. Although most of us know and accept this, we still harbour an inkling that maybe it does matter which numbers we choose).

Sometimes this illusion manifests as magical thinking
. In one study participants watched another person try to shoot a miniature basketball through a hoop (Pronin et al., 2006). When participants willed the player to make the shot, and they did, they felt it was partly down to them, even though they couldn’t possibly be having any effect.

It’s like pedestrians in New York who still press the button
to get the lights to change, despite the fact they do nothing. Since the late 80s all the traffic signals have been controlled by computer, but the city won’t pay to have the buttons removed.

It’s probably just as well: they help boost people’s illusion of control. We feel better when we can do something that feels like it might have an effect (even if it doesn’t).

So it is clear that they poo poo ANY concept or idea that involves mind over matter. HOW, for example, does "feeling better" about some power we don't have "help"? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F237.gif&hash=13b71d2444f84b15c53fb1c0272c080f48a165f1)

But then they show conclusive evidence that something is going on that they cannot explain randomly! Yet they try hard to shove it into their cause and effect Procrustean Bed.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

Quote
... studies find that hospital patients who are able to administer their own painkillers typically give themselves lower doses than those who have them prescribed by doctors, but they experience no more pain (Egan, 1990: What does it mean to a patient to be “in control”).

LESS PAIN is clearly NOT an illusion. But they don't want to go there, do they?  ;)

So, they surround the above with clever (and unscientific) disclaimers:

Quote
A beneficial illusion?

It’s sometimes argued that the illusion of control is beneficial because it can encourage people to take responsibility. It’s like when a person is diagnosed with an illness; they want to take control through starting medication or changing their diet or other aspect of their lifestyle.

Notice the subtext. That is, it is allegedly IMPOSSIBLE for ANY thought process coming from the FAITH of a sick person to heal a sick person. Those taking less pain pills were, IOW, DELUDING themselves (SEE cause and effect Procrustean Bed straight jacket).

Nevertheless, since there IS (though not predictable or easily measurable) an irrefutable cause and effect relationship between what people believe and the outcome of life events, as psychological studies have born out, these psychologists now want to go in the OTHER direction! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

No, they don't want to question their world view; they want to change the term  "Illusion of Control" to "Illusion of Futility"! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F245.gif&hash=67462ab647fbd65cb336e77c93c2601e477da0a9)

Quote
Illusion of futility

So far, so orthodox. What’s fascinating is the idea that the illusion of control itself may be an illusion, or at least only part of the story.

What if the illusion of having control depends heavily on how much control we actually have? After all, we’re not always totally out-of-the-loop like the experiments above suggest. Sometimes we have a lot of control over the outcomes in our life.

This has been recently tested out in a series of experiments by Gino et al. (2011). What they found was that the illusion of control flips around when control over a situation is really high. When participants in their studies actually had plenty of control, suddenly they were more likely to underestimate it.

This is a pretty serious challenge to the illusion of control. If backed up by other studies, it reverses the idea that the illusion of control is usually beneficial. Now we’re in a world where sometimes the illusion is keeping us back.

For example, applying for more jobs increases the chance of getting one, exercise does make you more healthy, buying a new car does make you poorer. All these are areas in which we have high levels of control but which we may well be assuming we don’t.

This effect will have to be renamed the illusion of futility. In other words: when you have high control, you underestimate how much what you do really matters.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/02/the-illusion-of-control-are-there-benefits-to-being-self-deluded.php (http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/02/the-illusion-of-control-are-there-benefits-to-being-self-deluded.php)

The "loop" is a fascinating scientific term, is it not?  I think Cheney authored the "Theory of the Loop" sometime ago. I am anxious to hear how the psychologists define the "Loop".   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 02, 2015, 07:47:54 pm
Quote
Question: Would you consider modifying your view of reality if RE was spontaneously healed according to your strict requirements (x-rays and so on) that proved the laws of physical biochemistry in regard to tissue healing were violated and no medical science, therapy was responsible?

I am dissatisfied with the "I can't explain it" answer as well. That's why I maintain my scepticism that miraculous events really are as described.  I don't doubt your sincerity, but it cannot be as you describe it.  The Laws of Thermodynamics cannot be broken, not in any universe, how ever many dimensions it has. Universes would fall apart if the LoTs didn't apply everywhere all the time.

"Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence" and it is up to the claimant to substantiate the claims.  Once you admit that the LoTs would have to have been broken, you have to make out a strong case for something even more complex than the entire body of Physics.

I hesitate to delve into particle physics (because it can really only be described in complex mathematical language, not English), but the Standard Model was conceived circa 1960, and it predicted that some hitherto unknown sub-atomic "particles" (that are not particles in the English sense) must exist.  Since then the Top Quark, the Tau Neutrino and the Higgs Boson have been discovered.  Note that belief in the Standard Model is by Deduction, not Faith.  It is dubbed "the theory of almost everything" because it cannot yet reconcile Quantum Mechanics with Einsteinian Gravity, but no nuclear scientist doubts that the LoTs will still be there when the Theory of Everything is finally nutted out.

That's an interesting point of view considering that particle physics does accept spooky action at a distance as an (as yet) unexplainable fact that DOES NOT use any energy whatsoever to accomplish that task. The entire world of physics was forced to adopt the multiverse theory (TOTALLY lacking ANY scientific evidence WHATSOEVER) because the incredibly exquisite fine tuning of this universe argues for a creator. Just the charges of hydrogen and oxygen that make water, if they were slightly different (in either direction in either atom) would prevent the existence of life as we know it. But, by the same token, you can argue that there is more evidence for a creator super being than there is for miraculous healing, simply because the creator set all these finely tuned rules up in the first place (i.e. no miracles are allegedly necessary with such fine tuning).

I would say, sure, but miracles are documented. Also, I can get you a physicist that WILL talk in your math language to explain why there is no conflict with the violation of the rules of thermodynamics observed in spontaneous healing with the latest knowledge of the physical universe's most fundamental units.

Of course that physicist (he is not alone in that, by the way - there's a large group of them questioning the theory of evolution based on mathematical probabilities and the exquisite fine tuning of the universe) is a Christian. But not all of them are. Some of them are atheists. They just do the math, all of it.

Quote
Question: Would you consider modifying your view of reality if RE was spontaneously healed according to your strict requirements (x-rays and so on) that proved the laws of physical biochemistry in regard to tissue healing were violated and no medical science, therapy was responsible?

I am dissatisfied with the "I can't explain it" answer as well. That's why I maintain my scepticism that miraculous events really are as described.  I don't doubt your sincerity, but it cannot be as you describe it.  The Laws of Thermodynamics cannot be broken, not in any universe, how ever many dimensions it has. Universes would fall apart if the LoTs didn't apply everywhere all the time.

"Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence" and it is up to the claimant to substantiate the claims.  Once you admit that the LoTs would have to have been broken, you have to make out a strong case for something even more complex than the entire body of Physics.

I hesitate to delve into particle physics (because it can really only be described in complex mathematical language, not English), but the Standard Model was conceived circa 1960, and it predicted that some hitherto unknown sub-atomic "particles" (that are not particles in the English sense) must exist.  Since then the Top Quark, the Tau Neutrino and the Higgs Boson have been discovered.  Note that belief in the Standard Model is by Deduction, not Faith.  It is dubbed "the theory of almost everything" because it cannot yet reconcile Quantum Mechanics with Einsteinian Gravity, but no nuclear scientist doubts that the LoTs will still be there when the Theory of Everything is finally nutted out.

Emotion, thought, matter in that order palloy. You are like someone studying a cake and describing all its physical properties according to a table of elements, but because u have not been to a bakery or seen a supermarket where the ingredients came from do not want to acknowledge the processes of baking and shopping contributing to the end product. You acknowledge there is particle physics, Which it is common knowledge shows physical matter is simply vibrating in and out of existence. That is only one end of the frequency spectrum and the end result of others. Compute these math; search under user RE for the keywords 'seeu on the other side' and 'going to the great beyond' BEFORE the onset of his condition. Now he is talking about getting insurance sorted to get surgery, which is why I dont think your focussing on dying as an inevitability here helps matters. Traditional Aborigines will get sick and die in a few days if they believe a medicine man is "singing" them or pointed a bone at them, they will also get better as soon as they hear the medicine man stopped. You could dispute pointing a bone or singing a song can kill you just like you can dispute your life insurance risk factors for about how long you should live and both times what you believe, in other words have faith in has an effect.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 04:11:00 pm
Womb milk nourishes human embryo during first weeks of pregnancy

18:25 01 May 2015 by Andy Coghlan
 
Call it the milk of life – not breast milk, but womb milk. For the first 11 weeks of pregnancy, before the mother's nutrient-rich blood supply is plumbed in, all the materials and energy for building a baby are supplied by secretions from glands in the uterus lining.

For the first time, researchers have worked out in detail how nutrients make their way from these glands into the developing embryo. "It's like a rapidly growing building site," says John Aplin of the University of Manchester, UK.

During pregnancy, the lining of the uterus behaves quite differently to normal: the glands start storing large amounts of glucose as glycogen, which is then secreted to nourish the embryo during its first 11 weeks.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030515155952.jpeg&hash=feb94052269b43148b37149625b0ec8715d77c45)

After this time, the mother's blood supply delivered via the umbilical cord takes over and the "womb-milk" secretions dry up. But how the glycogen and other materials for baby-building were transported to the embryo and placenta was a mystery until now.

Vital nutrients


To investigate, Aplin and his colleagues examined womb, placenta and embryonic tissue donated by women who had chosen to terminate their pregnancies. The samples came from all stages of early pregnancy, so the researchers were able to analyse how they changed over time.

By using a staining dye, they were able to see wherever glycogen was present in the tissues. They found that it was abundant in the recesses of the womb lining, where it is broken down into smaller molecules. These molecules then diffuse into a cavity just outside the placenta, known as the intervillous space. From there, they are absorbed into the placenta.

"Once the sugar is there, some is used straight away as energy to help the embryo grow, and the rest is reconverted to the storage molecule, glycogen," says Aplin.

The team also tracked the transport of substances called glycoproteins. These are vital for growth because as well as containing sugar fragments, they contain protein that can be broken down into amino acids – the building blocks from which tissue is assembled.

Precarious state

Aplin says that in the first crucial weeks, womb milk is the embryo's only source of nourishment. This is no accident: at the beginning of a pregnancy, the placenta is much larger than the growing embryo, so the pressure of arterial blood would likely dislodge the embryo from the wall of the uterus. Only by 11 weeks or so is it big enough to withstand and accept its mother's blood.

Next, Aplin and his colleagues hope to investigate how a mother's diet and other factors, such as smoking, affect the build-up of glycogen in the womb lining. "It could be that these trigger settings in the embryo that affect the risk of obesity or diabetes in life," he says.

"The first few weeks of pregnancy is a critical phase for embryonic development," says Graham Burton of the University of Cambridge, whose team discovered in 2002 that the uterus lining – not the mother's blood – nourishes the embryo.

[/color]"Our understanding has been revolutionised over the past decade by the discovery that nutrients are supplied by these glands in the uterus lining during the first trimester – the so-called 'uterine milk'," Burton says.

The latest research adds new insights into the enzymes that help deliver glucose across cell membranes to the embryo and placenta, he adds.

Journal reference: Placenta, DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2015.01.002
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27460-womb-milk-nourishes-human-embryo-during-first-weeks-of-pregnancy.html#.VUZzBWctHm4

Agelbert NOTE: So, the FACT that what goes on in the first 11 weeks to keep the fetus alive is NOT an accident, but a very deliberate REQUIREMENT involving placental growth biochemical math, means, uh, WHAT, exactly?

I did a term paper on what that means in zoology before all the above was known. The point I made to the class, a point that had the female pre-med students squirming  ;D, is that BOTH the fetus AND the placenta are NOT part of the female bearing the new life form. In fact, the new life form is a type of parasite. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

WHY? Because, even in 1986, it had been clearly established, by studies of pregnant mammals (of several species, not just humans), that the pulmonary (gas exchange), hepatic nutrient uptake and renal waste disposal functions of the placental fetal life support system WILL successfully attack the host pregnant female for the benefit of the embryo.

IOW, bone loss and malnutrition effects will manifest in the pregnant female long before the fetus is affected simply because the placental machinery (tiny fingers in the in va gin ated arterial blood vessels surrounding the uterus) gets whatever it needs, even to the point of demineralizing host bones.

It's ALL business. That business is the clear priority of the placenta to keep the fetus alive and growing over the health of the host. It is the placenta, not the pregnant females' endocrine system, that sends the biochemical signals to get her mammary glands to produce milk at a certain point in the pregnancy. It is the placenta that keeps the pregnant female's immune system from attacking the "parasite" feeding off of her by some clever biochemical tricks to fool the host into thinking the fetus is not a separate entity.   

The critter in there is NOT a part of the female host FROM THE START. It is HUMAN and it is separate and it has a placental space suit to take care of BUSINESS. The host CAN, of course, kill the tiny human with modern technology. The fetus is a parasite and will tax the health of the host if said host cannot get proper nutrition. In fact, there are many species of mammals that cannot get pregnant UNLESS they have a certain level of nutrition. I'm sure TPTB are working on applying that to the "useless eater" humans out there  ;). But there is NO WAY anybody can claim scientifically that the fetus is a "part" of the body of the host.

The above new scientific discovery just underlines the fact that, ALREADY in the first 11 weeks, the human embryo/fetus is an individual, separate from the mother.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 06:12:16 pm
Quote
Quote
... dependent on so many immeasurable variables that it is effectively random.

... let us discuss a phenomenon that psychology (based entirely on your world view that we live in a random universe)

Whoa - you have turned "effectively random" (for one person) into "a random universe".  That is the exact opposite of what I believe, and I'm pretty sure you know that.  You would also know (about me) that I would have little truck with what psychologists say.

Quote
they want to change the term  "Illusion of Control" to "Illusion of Futility"!

That isn't what they say at all - "the illusion of control itself may be an illusion, or at least only part of the story". They are saying if you have little control, you feel like you have more, and if you have lots of control, you feel like you have less.  You do them an injustice by laughing at them for something they didn't say.  If it mattered, I would look at the experiments they performed, and how many people actually fitted their profile - I doubt it would be 100%, or anything like it.  But when it gets translated in English simple enough for the average reader, all that statistical doubt gets lost.

When doctors over-prescribe pain killers, it is likely because too much won't hurt, while too little will (and might also cause themselves to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to re-prescribe).  Everybody responds differently to pain-killers, and the patient is the best arbiter, not the doctor.  So no need to invoke the Illusion of Control, or faith, there.

Quote
That's an interesting point of view considering that particle physics does accept spooky action at a distance as an (as yet) unexplainable fact that DOES NOT use any energy whatsoever to accomplish that task. The entire world of physics was forced to adopt the multiverse theory (TOTALLY lacking ANY scientific evidence WHATSOEVER) because the incredibly exquisite fine tuning of this universe argues for a creator.

That's a complete misunderstanding on multiple fronts.  Do you seriously think the term "spooky action" popped out of a mathematical equation?  Out of ALL sub-atomic physicists trying to feel their way through a difficult problem, SOME have suggested way-out theories, but the rest just smile politely and carry on with their own theories. 

Compare that with when Einstein postulated the the universe wasn't 3-D (like Newton said), but 4-D with the 3 Length dimensions plus Time, adjusted to make it also a Length dimension by multiplying it by a speed "c" (Time x (Length/Time) = Length).  The outcome of such a universe is that nothing go faster than that speed c, and that a key axiom, that Mass is constant, that was so obvious that Newton never even mentioned it, is wrong!  A mind-blowingly different theory, but quickly accepted by all who could understand it.  If Newton had kept up with things from the other side, he would have agreed too.

There is no "exquisite fine-tuning" of fundamental constants.  They are what they are, that's all, and that makes the universe like it is (and thank goodness for that).  It doesn't "argue for a creator", there is no argument there at all.

So, the true (see arrogance, hubris, stubbornness and appalling ignorance piled on top) Palloy emerges.
 
Absolutely every discussion with you devolves into hairsplitting BULLSHIT posed BY YOU to AVOID the overall poverty of your logic and the paucity of your "evidence" for BELIEVING the fairy tales you have been brainwashed with.

Not only do you have ZERO interest in logical debate, despite your disingenuous appearance of a willingness to do so, when you can't "make your points", you stoop to ridicule, appeals to authority and nuanced ad hominem typical of university prof snark.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__burp.gif&hash=8ff3ef6c016d8baf5f61ed5e8db58f069b64da00)


  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030515143436.png&hash=4f7d7234157a58c6aefbbfb67ba622b64d1f9e07)

A day in the life of Palloy and MattS when they discover one of their own credentialed poobahs does not tow the "RELIGION of evolution" line or the "LIFELESS particle physics and RANDOM (but oh, so luckily fine tuned because one of the zillions of multiverses HAD to be! LOL!) UNIVERSE" line or the "BELIEF in the power of mind over matter is SILLY" line (and so on).

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 06:31:22 pm
Palloy said,
Quote
There is no "exquisite fine-tuning" of fundamental constants.  They are what they are, that's all, and that makes the universe like it is (and thank goodness for that).  It doesn't "argue for a creator", there is no argument there at all.
Quote
Fred Hoyle (British astrophysicist): "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question." (2)
Quote
George Ellis (British astrophysicist): "Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word 'miraculous' without taking a stand as to the ontological status of the word." (3)
Quote
Paul Davies (British astrophysicist): "There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming". (4)
Quote
Paul Davies: "The laws [of physics] ... seem to be the product of exceedingly ingenious design... The universe must have a purpose". (5)
Quote
Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy): "I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing." (6)

Quote
John O'Keefe (astronomer at NASA): "We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in." (7)
Quote
George Greenstein (astronomer): "As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency - or, rather, Agency - must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?" (8)

Quote
Arthur Eddington (astrophysicist): "The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory." (9)

Quote
Arno Penzias (Nobel prize in physics): "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say 'supernatural') plan." (10)

Quote
Roger Penrose (mathematician and author): "I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there just somehow by chance." (11)

Tony Rothman (physicist): "When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the
Quote
strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it." (12)
Quote
Vera Kistiakowsky (MIT physicist): "The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine." (13)

Quote
Robert Jastrow (self-proclaimed agnostic): "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries." (14)

Quote
Stephen Hawking (British astrophysicist): "Then we shall… be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God." (15)
Quote
Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics): "When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics." (16) Note: Tipler since has actually converted to Christianity, hence his latest book, The Physics of ChristianityThe Physics of Christianity.
Quote
Alexander Polyakov (Soviet mathematician): "We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it."(17)
Quote
Ed Harrison (cosmologist): "Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God – the design argument of Paley – updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one.... Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument." (18)

Quote
Drs. Zehavi, and Dekel (cosmologists): "This type of universe, however, seems to require a degree of fine tuning of the initial conditions that is in apparent conflict with 'common wisdom'." (21)

Palloy, you do not have the remotest idea of what you are talking about.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 07:52:41 pm

Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?


By Anil Ananthaswamy on Wed, 07 Mar 2012

SNIPPET:

Quote
The laws of physics and the values of physical constants seem, as Goldilocks said, “just right.” If even one of a host of physical properties of the universe had been different, stars, planets, and galaxies would never have formed. Life would have been all but impossible.

Take, for instance, the neutron. It is 1.00137841870 times heavier than the proton, which is what allows it to decay into a proton, electron and neutrino—a process that determined the relative abundances of hydrogen and helium after the big bang and gave us a universe dominated by hydrogen. If the neutron-to-proton mass ratio were even slightly different, we would be living in a very different universe: one, perhaps, with far too much helium, in which stars would have burned out too quickly for life to evolve, or one in which protons decayed into neutrons rather than the other way around, leaving the universe without atoms. So, in fact, we wouldn’t be living here at all—we wouldn’t exist.

Examples of such “fine-tuning” abound. Tweak the charge on an electron, for instance, or change the strength of the gravitational force or the strong nuclear force just a smidgen, and the universe would look very different, and likely be lifeless. The challenge for physicists is explaining why such physical parameters are what they are.

This challenge became even tougher in the late 1990s when astronomers discovered dark energy, the little-understood energy thought to be driving the accelerating expansion of our universe. All attempts to use known laws of physics to calculate the expected value of this energy lead to answers that are 10120 times too high, causing some to label it the worst prediction in physics.

“The great mystery is not why there is dark energy. The great mystery is why there is so little of it,” said Leonard Susskind of Stanford University, at a 2007 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “The fact that we are just on the knife edge of existence, [that] if dark energy were very much bigger we wouldn’t be here, that’s the mystery.” Even a slightly larger value of dark energy would have caused spacetime to expand so fast that galaxies wouldn’t have formed.

That night in Hawaii, Faber declared that there were only two possible explanations for fine-tuning. “One is that there is a God and that God made it that way,” she said. But for Faber, an atheist, divine intervention is not the answer.

“The only other approach that makes any sense  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) is to argue that there really is an infinite, or a very big, ensemble of universes out there and we are in one,” she said.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2012/03/is-the-universe-fine-tuned-for-life/

Agelbert NOTE: AND, the "sense" they are making about "an infinite, or a very big, ensemble of universes" is TOTALLY LACKING IN ANY EVIDENCE WHATSOVER except the Excedrin headaches atheists get from where the ACTUAL EVIDENCE of FINE TUNING POINTS TO.  ;D
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 08:27:04 pm
Quote
... physicists were left to explain the startling fact that the positive and negative contributions to the cosmological constant cancel to 120-digit accuracy, yet fail to cancel beginning at the 121st digit.  :o   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)

Curiously, this observation is in accord with a prediction made by Nobel laureate and physicist Steven Weinberg in 1987, who argued from basic principles that the cosmological constant must be zero to within one part in roughly 10120 (and yet be nonzero), or else the universe either would have dispersed too fast for stars and galaxies to have formed, or else would have recollapsed upon itself long ago.

The Anthropic Principle

In short, numerous features of our universe seem fantastically fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life. While some physicists still hold out for a "natural" explanation, many others are now coming to grips with the notion that our universe is profoundly unnatural, with no good explanation other than the Anthropic Principle—the universe is in this exceedingly improbable state, because if it weren't, we wouldn't be here to discuss the fact.

They further note that the prevailing "eternal inflation" big bang scenario suggests that our universe is just one pocket in a continuously bifurcating multiverse.

Inflation cosmology, by the way, got a significant experimental boost with the March 17, 2014 announcement that astronomers had discovered gravitational waves, signatures of the big bang inflation, in data collected from telescopes based at the South Pole.

In a similar vein, string theory, the current best candidate for a "theory of everything," predicts an enormous ensemble, numbering 10 to the power 500 by one accounting, of parallel universes. Thus in such a large or even infinite ensemble, we should not be surprised to find ourselves in an exceedingly fine-tuned universe
. ::)

But to many scientists, such reasoning is anathema to traditional empirical science. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) Lee Smolin wrote in his 2006 book The Trouble with Physics:

We physicists need to confront the crisis facing us. A scientific theory [the multiverse/ Anthropic Principle/ string theory paradigm] that makes no predictions and therefore is not subject to experiment can never fail, but such a theory can never succeed either, as long as science stands for knowledge gained from rational argument borne out by evidence.

And even the proponents of such views have some explaining to do. For example, if there are truly infinitely many pocket universes like ours, as physicists argue is the case, how can one possibly define a "probability measure" on such an ensemble? In other words, what does it mean to talk of the "probability" of our universe existing in its observed state?

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-science-philosophy-collide-fine-tuned-universe.html

Agelbert NOTE: In a less erudite manner, but using exactly the same logic and facts that science has at its disposal, I have made the same arguments to Palloy, all of which he flat refuses to accept as even valid "arguments", never mind the multiplicity of physicists and astronomers that have made them.

He has no argument, so he cleverly pretends I'm the one without one.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-291014182422.png&hash=f5178cb31c0bf9067fb3cf408d7047840a10e3f4) That's a tired fallacious debating technique.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

Klas konchen, gaspadine. (excuse my lousy Russian for "gentleman, class dismissed."  8)).
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 09:21:31 pm
Why the Universe Is the Way It Is

Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe


For physical life to be possible in the universe, several characteristics must take on specific
values, and these are listed below. In the case of several of these characteristics, and given the intricacy of their interrelationships, the indication of divine “fine-tuning” seems compelling.

1. Strong nuclear force constant
2. Weak nuclear force constant
3. Gravitational force constant
4. Electromagnetic force constant
5. Ratio of electromagnetic force constant to gravitational force constant
6. Ratio of proton to electron mass
7. Ratio of number of protons to number of electrons
8. Ratio of proton to electron charge
9. Expansion rate of the universe
10. Mass density of the universe
11. Baryon (proton and neutron) density of the universe
12. Space energy or dark energy density of the universe
13. Ratio of space energy density to mass density
14. Entropy level of the universe
15. Velocity of light
16. Age of the universe
17. Uniformity of radiation
18. Homogeneity of the universe
19. Average distance between galaxies
20. Average distance between galaxy clusters
21. Average distance between stars
22. Average size and distribution of galaxy clusters
23. density of giant galaxies during early cosmic history
24. Electromagnetic fine structure constant
25. Gravitational fine-structure constant
26. Decay rate of protons
27. Ground state energy level for helium-4
Part 1. Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe 2
28. Carbon-12 to oxygen-16 nuclear energy level ratio
29. Decay rate for beryllium-8
30. Ratio of neutron mass to proton mass
31. Initial excess of nucleons over antinucleons
32. Polarity of the water molecule
33. Epoch for peak in the number of hypernova eruptions
34. Numbers and different kinds of hypernova eruptions
35. Epoch for peak in the number of type I supernova eruptions
36. Numbers and different kinds of type I supernova eruptions
37. Epoch for peak in the number of type II supernova eruptions
38. Numbers and different kinds of type II supernova eruptions
39. Epoch for white dwarf binaries
40. Density of white dwarf binaries
41. Ratio of exotic matter to ordinary matter
42. Number of effective dimensions in the early universe
43. Number of effective dimensions in the present universe
44. Mass values for the active neutrinos
45. Number of different species of active neutrinos
46. Number of active neutrinos in the universe
47. Mass value for the sterile neutrino
48. Number of sterile neutrinos in the universe
49. Decay rates of exotic mass particles
50. Magnitude of the temperature ripples in cosmic background radiation
51. Size of the relativistic dilation factor
52. Magnitude of the Heisenberg uncertainty
53. Quantity of gas deposited into the deep intergalactic medium by the first supernovae
54. Positive nature of cosmic pressures
55. Positive nature of cosmic energy densities
56. Density of quasars during early cosmic history
57. Decay rate of cold dark matter particles
58. Relative abundances of different exotic mass particles
59. Degree to which exotic matter self interacts
60. Epoch at which the first stars (metal-free pop III stars) begin to form
61. Epoch at which the first stars (metal-free pop III stars) cease to form
62. Number density of metal-free pop III stars
63. Average mass of metal-free pop III stars
64. Epoch for the formation of the first galaxies
65. Epoch for the formation of the first quasars
Part 1. Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe 3
66. Amount, rate, and epoch of decay of embedded defects
67. Ratio of warm exotic matter density to cold exotic matter density
68. Ratio of hot exotic matter density to cold exotic matter density
69. Level of quantization of the cosmic spacetime fabric
70. Flatness of universe’s geometry
71. Average rate of increase in galaxy sizes
72. Change in average rate of increase in galaxy sizes throughout cosmic history
73. Constancy of dark energy factors
74. Epoch for star formation peak
75. Location of exotic matter relative to ordinary matter
76. Strength of primordial cosmic magnetic field
77. Level of primordial magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
78. Level of charge-parity violation
79. Number of galaxies in the observable universe
80. Polarization level of the cosmic background radiation
81. Date for completion of second reionization event of the universe
82. Date of subsidence of gamma-ray burst production
83. Relative density of intermediate mass stars in the early history of the universe
84. Water’s temperature of maximum density
85. Water’s heat of fusion
86. Water’s heat of vaporization
87. Number density of clumpuscules (dense clouds of cold molecular hydrogen gas) in the universe
88. Average mass of clumpuscules in the universe
89. Location of clumpuscules in the universe
90. Dioxygen’s kinetic oxidation rate of organic molecules
91. Level of paramagnetic behavior in dioxygen
92. Density of ultra-dwarf galaxies (or supermassive globular clusters) in the middle-aged universe
93. Degree of space-time warping and twisting by general relativistic factors
94. Percentage of the initial mass function of the universe made up of intermediate mass stars
95. Strength of the cosmic primordial magnetic field
96. Capacity of liquid water to form large-cluster anions
97. Ratio of baryons in galaxies to baryons between galaxies
98. Ratio of baryons in galaxy clusters to baryons in between galaxy clusters
99. Rate at which the triple-alpha process (combining of three helium nuclei to make one carbon
nucleus) runs inside the nuclear furnaces of stars
100. Quantity of molecular hydrogen formed by the supernova eruptions of population III stars
101. Epoch for the formation of the first population II (second generation) stars
102. Percentage of the universe’s baryons that are processed by the first stars (population III stars)
Part 1. Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe 4
103. Ratio of ultra-dwarf galaxies to larger galaxies
104. Constancy of the fine structure constants
105. Constancy of the velocity of light
106. Constancy of the magnetic permeability of free space
107. Constancy of the electron-to-proton mass ratio
108. Constancy of the gravitational constant
109. Smoothness of the quantum foam of cosmic space
110. Constancy of dark energy over cosmic history
111. Mean temperature of exotic matter
112. Minimum stable mass of exotic matter clumps
113. Degree of Lorentz symmetry or integrity of Lorentz invariantce or level of symmetry of spacetime
114. Nature of cosmic defects
115. Number density of cosmic defects
116. Average size of the largest cosmic structures in the universe
117. Quantity of three-hydrogen molecules formed by the hypernova eruptions of population III stars
118. Maximum size of an indigenous moon orbiting a planet
119. Rate of growth in the average size of galaxies during the first five billion years of cosmic history
120. Density of dwarf dark matter halos in the present-day universe
121. Metallicity enrichment of intergalactic space by dwarf galaxies
122. Average star formation rate throughout cosmic history for dwarf galaxies
123. Epoch of rapid decline in the cosmic star formation rate
124. Quantity of heavy elements infused into the intergalactic medium by dwarf galaxies during the first
two billion years of cosmic history
125. Quantity of heavy elements infused into the intergalactic medium by galactic superwinds during the
first three billion years of cosmic history
126. Average size of cosmic voids
127. Number of cosmic voids per unit of cosmic space
128. Percentage of the universe’s baryons that reside in the warm-hot intergalactic medium
129. Halo occupation distribution (number of galaxies per unit of dark matter halo virial mass)
130. Timing of the peak supernova eruption rate for population III stars (the universe’s first stars)
131. Ratio of the number density of dark matter subhalos to the number density dark matter halos in the
present era universe
132. Quantity of diffuse, large-grained intergalactic dust
133. Radiometric decay rate for nickel-78
134. Ratio of baryonic matter to exotic matter in dwarf galaxies
135. Ratio of baryons in the intergalactic medium relative to baryons in the circumgalactic media
136. Level of short-range interactions between protons and exotic dark matter particles
137. Intergalactic photon density (or optical depth of the universe)
138. High spin to low spin transition pressure for Fe++
Part 1. Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe 5
139. Average quantity of gas infused into the universe’s first star clusters
140. degree of suppression of dwarf galaxy formation by cosmic reionization

http://www.iloveatheists.com/top_100/challenge_category/Creation/challenge_answer/289
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 03, 2015, 10:02:54 pm
December 12, 2013 Issue

Miracles happen in medicine  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)
 


By Dr. Victor S. Sierpina

The other day, a lovely 81-year-old patient, let’s call her Edna, an active community volunteer, came in to see me after a bad fall.

The swelling and lack of mobility in her upper arm made me suspect that she had broken her humerus, the big bone in the upper arm. I based this nearly certain assessment on my many years of primary care and emergency room practice.

Since I don’t have X-ray eyes, I ordered an X-ray while our hardworking staff simultaneously arranged for a visit to orthopedics for the requisite splinting.

Imagine my surprise and relief later that morning to find the X-rays were normal. No fracture at all.

When I called Edna to report this happy outcome, she told me she had prayed fervently on the way to Radiology and was quite sure this prayer had had its desired effect, that things would be normal.

Of course, I could have dismissed her personal miracle, but I chose instead to reflect on this story and share it with you. Every doctor knows his or her fallibility, the limits of both our art and science. We can always be wrong though we constantly study and try not to be.

Quote
Something left out of medical school curriculum is the realm of miracles. The medical field is primarily driven by a view of the world that can be called scientific materialism.

In this world, experiences like Edna’s are foreign. We just don’t teach our students and residents to consider miracles as realistic or even remotely possible or relevant to the care of the sick or dying.  :(



I recently came across a quote by one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis:

Quote

“Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion.

If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say .

What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.”

So the realm of the supernatural, including the occurrence of miracles, is routinely left out of modern medicine training and practice. None of that kind of superstitious thinking for us! Yet every doctor in practice for any significant amount of time has experienced the occurrence of mystery and the unexplainable in the lives of his or her patients.

Among the challenges to current thinking are the many documented cases of unexplained healing. Dr. Andrew Weil’s book “Spontaneous Healing” is a log of numerous cases that cannot be accounted for by our contemporary medical science.

One poignant example was a 10-year-old boy, call him Steve, with a usually fatal osteosarcoma. This is a bone cancer usually treated by amputation of a limb. This treatment, the standard of care, was reasonably and responsibly recommended by a top cancer center doctor in New York.

However, rather than having the recommended amputation of his leg to save his life, Steve and his parents declined this option. Instead, they chose to return to the supportive community of his family, friends and home in a remote Idaho town. There, they would let things run their course.

In the view of his cancer doctors this was a suicidal choice, maybe even child neglect. Without treatment, he was expected to die, likely in a year or less.

Many years later, a researcher on spontaneous healing found Steve. Despite the grim prognosis, the boy with bone cancer was in his 20s, alive and well, and cancer free.

When the researcher contacted Steve’s cancer doctor in New York to verify the original diagnosis, she was initially greeted professionally and pleasantly.

However, once she told him that this former patient was still alive despite not taking treatment, the doctor cursed and slammed down the phone on her.


Apparently, the occurrence of such a surprising healing, perhaps best described as a miracle, was an unacceptable shock to his belief system.

While I certainly do not recommend ignoring a doctor’s advice, especially with a life-threatening disease like cancer, in this case, something miraculous happened. No one, not even the patient and his family had the least idea how his unexpected survival might have transpired.

Maybe miracles are normal, natural and occur all the time. Only our failure to believe in them keeps us from recognizing how ordinary they are and how regularly they occur.

If you are ready, open yourself to the unexpected, the unknown blessings and the personal healing that some call miracles. You won’t see it until you believe it.

Dr. Victor S. Sierpina is the WD and Laura Nell Nicholson Family Professor of Integrative Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at UTMB.

http://www.utmb.edu/impact/archive/article.aspx?IAID=1245
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 04, 2015, 01:56:34 pm
Quote
UB: You do not state this is what you believe, as nobody does believe this. but lets grant you there are an infinite number of universes and this one randomly got it just right for matter to form.

I really only intended it to show that the "only other explanation" that was quoted, was hardly a well thought through statement (unlikely), or a carefully crafted misquote of Faber by Anil Ananthaswamy and re-quoted by AG.  Since we are in a universe where matter formed, of course the fundamental constants are right for matter to form, and of course that looks odd.

If you want to hazard a guess as to the cause of the oddity, then my explanation is one explanation, but it could only be substantiated by Faith because there is no evidence either way.   Another explanation might allow various specific combinations of constants that produce various kinds of matter.

Cosmologists get a kick out of dreaming up zany new ideas, Hoyle was renowned for this.  I'll leave it in the "no evidence" basket until someone comes up with something better. Anything that requires Faith is automatically not better.

Your belief that no amount of fine-tuning data serves as evidence for an Intelligent Designer requires faith. You are making an ideological commitment to something beyond your control and (I assume) the outcome of which matters to you based on what evidence you have (or, in your case, the "lack" of evidence you perceive).

As UB mentioned, the physical constants of this Universe are only the tip of the fine-tuning iceberg. You also have to account for the fine-tuning of our galaxy, solar system and planet, which cannot be explained away by an infinite multiverse non-hypothesis. Then you have to account for the fine-tuning of the biochemistry required for life on our fine-tuned planet. Again, multiverse is a non-starter here.

As AG has clearly shown, almost all agnostics and atheists AGREE that the Universe appears to be designed for life (human life especially). Then the question becomes whether they choose to believe abstract theoretical multiverse musings or their lyin' eyes. The former is quite obviously intended to avoid conclusions of ID at all costs. Make no mistake, this is faith. It is faith in an almost insurmountable resistance to the idea of God and everything this idea represents or implies.

The fact that this came up on a thread about RE's health problems and the possibility of "miracles" is telling...

RE, I know you don't exactly buy into this, but... :exp-angel:

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,c
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me."


Best of luck with the operation! 
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)

Isn't amazing how Palloy flat refuses to view himself as a faith based fellow? There is nothing intrinsically wrong in being a faith based fellow. However, when said faith refutes documented biochemical events evidencing the violation of the laws of thermodynamics involving spontaneous healing based on his studied rejection of all "extraordinary claims" that refute his faith based world view (that faith = Illusion of Control/Delusion/Silly), his studied rationality is patently irrational.

C.S. Lewis had it nailed down quite well.

Quote
“Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses are not infallible.

If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion.

If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say .

What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.”

C.S. Lewis
Quote
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley


Ashvin,
Thanks for showing up. You are better at poking holes in irrational arguments disguised as reasonable and logical ones than I am.   ;D



Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 04, 2015, 02:12:14 pm
Good Newz! The Neck Pillow helped!  :icon_sunny:

This was the first morning in about a week I didn't wake up with my feet feeling numb and able to walk OK right out of bed.  I can wait and see what turns up with the Pros From Dover in Atlanta running the study and not rush in to Anchorage to get carved up this week.  :icon_sunny:

RE
Excellent!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F2203%2F2203581bnrjxumnn6.gif&hash=cbe539d89200318441a2848b3620ecd4ed7dee04)

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-231214183727.jpeg&hash=4527bc6badaa00dd8e04529067959ad296c9b33d)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 07, 2015, 07:34:04 pm
GOOD NEWZ

I got a "secure" email from the Surgical Scheduling lady from the Doc's office, requesting my Medical Records.

Those secure email sites are a PIECE OF ****!  I tried twice to respond inside the system and never saw my sent mail in the sent folder.  Besides that, file sizes on attachments limited to 20MB.

So **** the security bizness here, I went back over to my regular email, copy/pasted her ACTUAL address (which shows on the "secure" screen), then I uploaded my Medical Records to **** Google Drive and turned on the File Sharing there.  LOL.   Added HOT LINKS to these files into the email so all they gotta do is click the link, and POOF full Medical Records! I also CCed the Doc himself with this email,  since his actual email addy is in the Study Proposal AG dug up and he is the first one I contacted on this.

I ALSO went into the MRI CD and collected up a couple of images, which I had to do a screen capture of because they store these files under some weird proprietary format.  They also make it **** difficult to search these CDs.  I added the Snapshots as a File Attachment to the email also.  :icon_sunny:

I doubt any patient ever got them records this fast.  LOL.

I inquired in the mail as to what my financial obligations are if I am accepted for the Study, how long I will have to stay in Atlanta, how often I will need to return there for followups, etc.

Now wait and see what they say.

RE

I expect they won't charge you a nickel. WHY? Because they have a vested interest in controlling the study participant behavior as much as possible and they stand to make a ton of money from the sale of the Nucel.

However, post op they MIGHT try to get you to buy a bone fusion accelerator, a device that sends out a frequency of around 76hz to use for about 30 minutes a day. They claim that it excites a protein in the Igf family that, in turn, makes the osteocytes multiply faster and achieve quicker bone fusion.

They DO want to look good and that device IS FDA approved.  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLz8sC1HO5M&feature=player_embedded

I still swear by cat purring (25hz and the 50hz harmonic they produce) that, according to an oft repeated quote by Veterinarians, "You put a few cats next to a bag of bones for few days and the bones fuse together."  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca).




Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 10, 2015, 03:15:39 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpreviews.123rf.com%2Fimages%2Frtimages%2Frtimages1205%2Frtimages120500028%2F13567063-Photo-of-a-injured-man-in-pyjamas-with-a-bandaged-head-leg-cast-arm-sling-and-neck-brace-struggling--Stock-Photo.jpg&hash=bea2a843e715711cffd91f1089b4f6e8d26fa20a)
Moan, huff, puff, SIGH...  :P I really should have moved that table and the fridge a little closer to my chair (AND bed) BEFORE the procedure.  :(

RE,
This may have some utility in making your post op life easier as well as shorten your recovery time. The person involved is not an ACDF patient so some of the tips might not apply. I'm sure that you can tailor the list to your needs once you put your thinking cap on in regard to your post op convenience. I scratched out items on the list that I believe do not apply to you or are rather useless, as well as expensive  :icon_mrgreen:.

Also, any heavy lifting pre-op measures to make post-op life easier (like raising your bed on blocks) should obviously NOT be done by you, but somebody that comes to your place and does it for you.  8)

Originally posted by LCMiller, who had a four level fusion.

Post op surgery tips:
-raised toilet seat
-shower chair
-long handled reachers/grabbers
-handicap rails put in shower
-long handled back brush for showering
-shower mat so you don't slip
-soap on a rope, or liquid soap for showering
-extra bed pillows to prop your back up when side lying and for between your knees and down to ankle
-remove all throw rugs so you don't slip or trip on them
-elastic shoelaces for shoes that tie, or slip ons
-straws for drinking while laying down
-a stack of good books, magazines, or small crafts to keep you busy
-go to movie rental store and/or library and make a list of what you will want to watch/read during your recovery
-if you have cable, get a couple of movie channels Agelbert NOTE: I refuse to pay for being propagandized.  ;D
-put new batteries in the remote control
-a walkman with your favorite music
-have all your clothes and pjs easily accessible
-prepare meal ahead of time and keep in the freezer
-get paper plates, napkins, and plastic silverware so you have less clean up to worry about
-keep prescriptions close by
-check your drawers around the house, and if they stick, use a bar of soap to make them glide easier
-re-arrange cabinets, refrigerator etc. to have the things you will need to use at a height that won't cause you to bend
-if you'll be wearing a brace, wear it for a while pre-op to get used to what it's like to get around in it
-raise your bed on blocks for ease in getting in and out of bed
-move your computer to your bedside so you can keep in touch with all your cyber friends
-have lots of extra cotton t-shirts or tank tops to wear under your brace.
-make sure your clothes will fit over a brace
-teach your significant other, or kids to work the washer and dryer
-build a platform for the clothes dryer. It has been raised up approx. 2ft. I can just reach in and pull out with no strain, when I am more healed.
-Make sure that all the liquids you drink are in light weight containers.
-Also make sure if you have pets that you have help in feeding them or walking them if you have a dog that requires such. You should not bend over to feed and water your pets. I used a very low computer chair with wheels and very carefully leaned over to feed my cat. I didn't bend, I leaned. It was quite a trick, but I figured out how to safely do it.

------------------
20 years intermittent back pain - no treatment sought
Nov 2001 - herniated disk - Right leg radiculopathy
Jan 2002 - Chiropractic care
Mar 2002 - MRI, X-Rays, Oral steroids
Apr 2002 - L4/L5 Microdiskectomy
Sept 2002 - PT, Oral steroids
Oct 2002 - MRI, Xrays - Failed Back Syndrome
Apr 2003 - TFESI, EMG, MRI
Diagnosis - DDD - foraminal narrowing, disk bulges, osteophytes, ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, active marrow edema, levoscoliosis, retrolisthesis, scar tissue encompassing L5 nerve root, disk height diminished, abnormal EMG results for left leg
Sept 2003 - Discogram with Xrays, CT Scan.
Tentative date: Nov.18 - 2 level 360 degree fusion surgery

Read more: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/back-problems/19953-post-surgery-tips.html#ixzz3ZlEEaOXi (http://www.healthboards.com/boards/back-problems/19953-post-surgery-tips.html#ixzz3ZlEEaOXi)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 20, 2015, 01:35:13 am
Six women and three men went to Heaven recently because of a demonic massacre perpetrated by a young man in the grips of evil.

Empathy Deficit Disorder is the greatest evil mankind has been saddled with. I am certain that young man has it. I am certain it aided him, above and beyond his racism, in perpetrating the massacre of innocent Christian African Americans methodically, calmly and without remorse. I am certain a drone operator in the USAF cultivates it every bit as much as the top CEOs in the Fortune 500 do.

If that young man can be convinced that he must shed his empathy deficit disorder if he wishes to have any peace whatsoever, then good can come from this great evil.

Those Church people who died are alright now. They no longer suffer in this valley of tears. They are more alive than we are. And they knew the score on planet earth. We don't like it, but that's the way things ARE down here, ESPECIALLY for Christians who live their Faith. From the point of view of the afterlife, the young people that died in the balcony collapse in Berkley may have been the real tragedy.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6f/e9/b9/6fe9b9eb708da1e3c0e46f5b70215206.jpg)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 13, 2015, 03:03:03 pm
Quote
Proverbs 30:7-9

7 O God, I beg two favors from you;

let me have them before I die.

8 First, help me never to tell a lie.

Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!

Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.

9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”

And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

Title: The stray cat Masha and an Abandoned Baby: A Feline Heroine in Russia
Post by: AGelbert on August 19, 2015, 08:43:21 pm
Just don't forget to tell your daughter, when she is about to be sexually mature,  about anti-luteinizing hormone, okay? There is NO WAY for her to avoid its influence when she is ovulating, capisce?  ;)

My problem is the opposite problem. I have three daughters, ages 32, 30, and 24. None of them is showing any sign of having babies.

I fear that I will never know my own grandchildren. It's not uncommon in our family. I only knew one of my grandparents. It's that long generation thing.

I understand. Three different females, all nurtured, educated and influenced by you and your wife's life experiences and views, yet they all are reticent to produce offspring.

They all may have different reasons, not just one. but do you think they are pessimistic about the quality of life their offspring will have, and therefore wish to prevent the parental suffering (and grandparental suffering too) of having to witness an environmental catastrophe leaving them living hand to mouth (or worse)?

You are a thinker. I imagine your wife is as well. So, it is expected that your daughters are deep thinkers too. Anyone with a lot of gray matter, and knowledge of how we ACTUALLY got to where we are, cannot be too optimistic about the future.

And having kids is ALL about HOPE for a better future for one's offspring, is it not? The slave women in Haiti knew what their children would face without any doubt whatsoever so they did whatever their limited knowledge provided them to avoid them. Contemplating the possibility that your daughters feel robbed of a decent future for their offspring by the bastards that have polluted this planet is not improbable. They were given love through shelter, security, nutrition and health in their upbringing and may not be confident that they can provide the same level of comfort they received, to their own offspring. 

Or, it could be something else. What do you think? Perhaps you should have JD or his wife talk to one or all of them. JD knows the score, but still decided to have a child.  8)

I just read about a baby that was found by a cat. The cat is a big hero heroine ;D  now because she would not stop meowing and actually snuggled up right next to the baby in a cardboard box to keep it warm (it was cold with snow on the ground when the baby was abandoned).

God wanted that baby to live, IMHO. So, being the simplistic Christian that I am, that means that there IS a future for babies born now. Of course many would scoff and say God lets people come into the world and suffer 24/7 until they die so there "ain't no God". Perhaps. But I am rather confident that their IS a creator and said creator is GOOD.  ;D

Quote
A friendly neighbourhood cat has saved the life of a baby boy abandoned by his parents in a freezing Russian city. The long-haired feline, affectionately named Masha by the block’s residents, discovered the baby boy inside a cardboard box in apartment block in the Russian city of Obninsk after hearing his cries in the cold.

Masha apparently climbed inside the box and wrapped herself around the abandoned child, believed to be less than 12 weeks old, to keep him warm. Hearing Masha’s loud meows, resident Irina Lavrova rushed to rescue the cat believing she was injured – instead she discovered her curled around the now quiet baby.

“You can imagine my shock when I saw her lying in a box next to a baby,” she told RT. The baby was rushed to hospital, with Masha attempting to follow the car, and was found to be healthy, despite his outdoors stay. “She was so worried about where we were taking the baby,” paramedic Vera Ivanina told REN TV. A search has now been launched to try and locate the child’s parents. He was discovered with clean clothes, extra nappies and some baby food.

VIDEO of Baby and Masha the kitty heroine!    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smile-day.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F12%2FSmiley-Thumbs-Up2.jpg&hash=4c6cf4d5dab0f54b88dfa0c9247ae699eff03821)


https://youtu.be/GzVcJV8yvnA

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg2-2.timeinc.net%2Fpeople%2Fi%2F2015%2Fpets%2Fnews%2F150126%2Fhero-cat-800.jpg&hash=c6e5105109a5f0639931dff7e326e7f71474b2d7)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageprest.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F02%2FSunflower02.png&hash=b1ee5cc37ef919b774882d21f052a4126a484a18)



Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 29, 2015, 06:26:09 pm
Words of Wisdom and Advice from Lucid,  A Wise Man:

I spent a lot of time dealing with death as ya'll know.  I'm not sure that one can deal with one's own death before the time comes, but I've done some preparations.  Namely I have a place picked out that I will arrive at upon just dying.  It's a vortex in Sedona that I visited recently.  Even if I find myself in Sedona I will not go back to that place.  It is reserved for my death so that I will know I have died. 

I'm only 35, but the first signs of my physical deterioration are arriving.  It's looking like I'll probably develop arthritis (my grandma was ate up with it).  The joints in my fingers are starting to give me mild pain from time to time.  Like a bruise, but with no bruising.  I've had a broken molar for a year or so now, but luckily there is no pain involved.  Other than those things it's taking me longer to recover from hard days of work than it used to.  I don't want you ole farts to think I'm complaining, I'm not, just chiming in with my thoughts on death and dying. 

Lately I've been thinking about death because of the things I just outlined.  I used to think about death and say "I'm not afraid to die."  I didn't have any physical signs of deterioration yet.  Now, just with the few minor things that have come about because my body is aging, I'm already thinking about it more.  I can't imagine what it will be like when I start having health problems due to my aging.  I'll get cancer at some point.  As far as I know 3 of my family members got cancer and two died from it.  Diabetes abounds as does heart disease.  I attribute all of the modern day health problems to the chemicals we've created that are ubiquitous in the air we breath, food we eat, and water we drink.  We have made our world toxic to human life.

I've watched people die on the back of an ambulance, and I've seen them dead before they even got a chance on the ambulance.  I've talked to people as they were dying and it certainly is the great equalizer of humanity. 

I think it's healthy to marinate on your mortality from time to time.  It helps keep things in perspective.  I read an article a while back that was written by a hospice nurse.  She said the number one thing that people regret on their death bed is that they didn't live life how they wanted to...they lived it how society wanted them toThey wished that they had done more of the things that they wanted to do. 

I think there is a lot of wisdom there.  We should all live as if we will die tomorrow, and we should live that way everyday.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FHjPbLbmep2aJO%2Fgiphy.gif&hash=3c7f7703f00cb341d3e9bdba607208d4204a294c)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 03, 2015, 02:54:25 pm
Egypt billionaire offers to buy Med island for refugees  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

The telecoms tycoon announced on Twitter that he would temporary shelters to house the people, before starting to building housing, schools, universities and hospitals.
POSTED: 04 Sep 2015 00:12
 
CAIRO: Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.

The telecoms tycoon first announced the initiative on Twitter.

"Greece or Italy sell me an island, I'll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country," he wrote.

More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country's four-and-a-half year conflict. Sawiris said in a television interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about his plan.

Asked by AFP whether he believed it could work, he said: "Of course it's feasible. You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees."

Sawiris said an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10 million and $100 million, but added the "main thing is investment in infrastructure". There would be "temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals.

"And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back," said Sawiris, whose family developed the popular El Gouna resort on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

He conceded such a plan could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island, and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations.

But those who took shelter would be treated as "human beings," he said. "The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle."


Sawiris is the chief executive of Orascom TMT, which operates mobile telephone networks in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries plus Korea as well as underwater communications networks. He also owns an Egyptian television channel.

- AFP/yt
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/egypt-billionaire-offers/2099374.html
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 10, 2015, 07:36:20 pm

This ex-Black Panther started an urban farm to create jobs for ex-inmates


By Katie Herzog  on 9 Sep 2015 

Ray Kidd was incarcerated for violent crimes from the ages of 16 to 23. Both of his parents are currently in federal prison. Now, Kidd wants to break the cycle, and he’s doing it through farming. Kidd is an employee at West Oakland Farms, a for-profit operation founded by former Black Panther Elaine Brown. “Every day I come here I learn something new,” says Kidd. “I didn’t know that a lot of fruits start life as a flower; that just blew my mind.”

Kidd is one of 10 former inmates working at West Oakland Farms. “People come out of the joint with nothing to do and $200 in their pocket,” says Brown. “Once that money runs out … they’ll do anything to survive, including hitting somebody in the head for $20. We have to create positive opportunities for these people to return to the community.”  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

Which is exactly what Brown is trying to do. West Oakland Farms, which has 40 raised beds full of fresh produce, is part farm and part prison re-entry program (workers make $20 an hour), but Brown has ambitions for even more. Civil Eats reports:

Down the road, Brown wants to add a juice bar, fitness center, grocery store, and tech design space, along with affordable housing on the city-owned property under the umbrella of the nonprofit organization she founded last year, Oakland & the World Enterprises. …

The farm is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Oakland & the World Enterprises leases the three-quarter acre plot from the city in a section of Oakland that has been slower to bounce back than other areas. The land is located directly across from the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) line, which connects Oakland to San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. As with much of the rest of this city, West Oakland is a neighborhood that many believe is rapidly gentrifying: Community farms, cafés, and restaurants are popping up, but the area still lacks a supermarket.

Brown, who returned to Oakland in 2010 after at 30-year absence, has a long history of activism. An author, musician, and community organizer, she served as chairwoman of the Black Panther Party in the mid-’70s. “I’m not in the farm business,” she told Civil Eats. “I’m in the business of creating opportunities for Black men and women who are poor and lack the education, skills, and resources to return to a community that is rapidly gentrifying without economic avenues for them in mind.”

There is, however, a long way to go. Brown estimates the entire cost of the operation will be between $30 and $40 million. But it won’t just be good for the prisoners, she says. It will be good for the whole community. West Oakland was once a vibrant African-American hub, but redevelopment — including a series of freeways and a train line that divided the neighborhood — left it to decay in recent decades. This project, Brown hopes, will help to heal some of that damage.

http://grist.org/article/this-ex-black-panther-started-an-urban-farm-to-create-jobs-for-ex-inmates/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 26, 2015, 03:14:19 pm
New program to help young adults who are blind get hired

Intensive 10-week workshop teaches job-search skills to students and young adults with visual impairments  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)


The Perkins Pre-Employment Program is tailored to young adults between the ages of 15 and 22 who want to strengthen their job search skills.


October 1, 2015

BY Alix Hackett

Perkins School for the Blind has launched a groundbreaking new program to give young adults with visual impairments the skills and confidence they need to navigate the job-search process and find meaningful employment.

The Pre-Employment Program (PEP), which begins in January 2016, is tailored to young adults between the ages of 15 and 22 who want to strengthen their job readiness skills and break through the barriers that have traditionally kept many people who are blind from getting hired.

“Work, whether paid or voluntary, is a great equalizer in society,” said Karen Wolffe, an international expert on career counseling for people who are blind or visually impaired who helped design the PEP course. “For youth with visual impairments to be fully integrated, they must learn how they can contribute and help support themselves and their families.”

Every Saturday for 10 weeks, participants will immerse themselves in a different aspect of employment – from identifying their career interests and goals to searching for jobs online and preparing for interviews. They’ll also learn how to disclose and discuss their disability to potential employers, a common stumbling point for candidates who are visually impaired.

Quote
]“We’re going to be teaching them about advocacy and self-determination,” said Kate Katulak, a Perkins teacher and co-facilitator of the program. “It’s important that they’re able to communicate their disability and, more importantly, explain how they can overcome their disability to get things done.”  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

During the program, Katulak and other Perkins educators will be joined by hiring professionals and disability specialists from leading Boston corporations like Wells Fargo and Tufts Health Plan. They’ve also invited a panel of young adults and professionals who are blind to share stories of their own employment journeys and lessons learned.

“One thing that research shows and that we’ve heard from parents and families is that students really need role models who are visually impaired who have gone through the process,” said Katulak. “I think they’re going to gain a lot of perspective from this.”

In addition to career education, the program stresses skills like assistive technology and social interaction, which often aren’t formally taught in public schools. For students who are visually impaired, these skills, which are part of the Expanded Core Curriculum taught at Perkins School for the Blind, are crucial for workplace success.

“Something as simple as smiling when you walk in the office and nodding to someone to say hello is an important way to establish yourself in the workplace,” said Katulak. “We’re going to be teaching students things like body language and facial expressions and providing opportunities for them to practice.”

By the end of the 10-week program, students will be armed with hiring portfolios stuffed with references, cover letters and a polished resume. They’ll know how to fill out a job application and put their best foot forward at an interview.
Quote

“Looking for work is often harder than working,”

said Wolffe. “But knowing how to find jobs and convince employers that you’re able to do the work tasks they need doing can make the job search process manageable. The Pre-Employment Program gives youth with visual impairments those skills in a structured and supportive environment.”

The Pre-Employment Program is open to students and young adults ages 15-22. Learn more at Perkins.org/gotowork.

http://www.perkins.org/stories/news/pre-employment-program
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 07, 2015, 03:27:08 am
Former President Jimmy Carter told his Plains, Ga. Sunday school class Sunday that he is cancer-free, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fza4.gif&hash=2db0a6001703f4089cb64dc38159bb3d467e1bff)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.123rf.com%2F400wm%2F400%2F400%2Fyayayoy%2Fyayayoy1106%2Fyayayoy110600019%2F9735563-smiling-sun-showing-thumb-up.jpg&hash=09b45642ec6d7943d30b5b87548676e3ee7dbe3d)


“He said he got a scan this week and the cancer was gone,” Jill Stuckey told the newspaper. “The church, everybody here, just erupted in applause.”

Carter, 91, announced In August that he had cancer, but that he hoped it was limited to his liver. He later said doctors found small melanoma lesions on his brain. He received drug treatments and radiation therapy.
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/12/06/report-carter-says-cancer-is-gone/#cx_ab_test_id=19&cx_ab_test_variant=cx_trend&cx_art_pos=4&cx_navSource=arttop&cx_tag=trend&cx_rec_type=trend&cx_ctrl_comp_grp=true&cxrecs_s
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 10, 2015, 07:17:48 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SziFg_HYzNY
A wind driven land mine detector
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 27, 2015, 04:27:05 pm
What does it feel like to be a surgeon and have a patient die on your operating table?  ???


Greg W Self, Specialist Vascular Surgeon, Southern Vascular Clinic (Melbourne, Australia) •

Raghuraj S. Hegde, I'm an Ophthalmic plastic surgeon. What's that you ask? read my answer to that:


Quote

It depends on the situation, but in answering this question I am assuming that the patient was not on the operating table for last ditch, hail Mary pass kind of operation. That is, they were not expected to die.

This happens to me about 1 to 2 times per year, despite meticulous pre op planning, seemingly uncomplicated surgery can go pear shaped.

The first thing that happens is you begin to feel a little anxious, unnerved that something is not quite right - the operation is not moving the way it should be.

This is followed by fear, fear that the patient might actually not make it off the table, fear at how their family will react, fear at what your colleagues will say to you, or worse, what they will say about you to others. At this point a little panic begins to set in, as you mentally run through possible solutions to whatever it is that is the problem.

Next comes the rearguard action, where you take increasingly more desperate measures to try and save the patient.

Then, at the end, there is almost a feeling of acceptance and calm, a little like when you finally accept that you are not going to make that appointment and rushing panicked into traffic is not the answer.

Finally, after it is all over and you have spoken to the family, the coroner and often debriefed the nursing staff comes the anxiety, different this time to the beginning. What could I have been done differently or better? Did I leave something out, did I make mistake, should I have operated at all?

This last anxiety can be brief, running through the case with a colleague may be enough to realise that it wasn't you, that there were unknown forces at work. More often it lingers, burns itself into your subconscious to the point where it permanently affects the way you practice. This can be a good thing, you need to learn from your mistakes, but it can also be destructive, turning good surgeons to nervous, conservative practitioners. Worse, it can destroy careers and lives.

It is never easy. It never 'just is'.

https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-a-surgeon-and-have-a-patient-die-on-your-operating-table
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 02, 2016, 05:04:22 pm
What you need to know about FROSTBITE that most people (even some doctors  :o) don't know:

So, you think you know what to do if you suspect frostbite?

Please take this quiz:
True  ???  or False  ???

1. The ABC's (Airway, Breathing and Circulation) basics of the victim must take priority over tending to the frostbite affected area.

2. If you come upon a victim of frostbite that you cannot carry and you need to walk a distance with the victim to get to a vehicle, it is better for the victim to walk on a frostbite affected limb, even if they risk further injury, than for you to begin suboptimal (less than 38-40C hydrotherapy - the use of circulating water at 40-42°C is common.) warming right away.   

3. Pressure bandages on a frostbite injury help to improve circulation. 

4. Rewarming in the field should not be attempted unless the time to arrival at a definitive care center exceeds 2 hours.

5. Massaging frostbite injuries for patient comfort and pain reduction during hydrotherapy at 40C degrees  (that is not part of this question and is the actual recommended ideal temperature for restoring adequate circulation and preventing added injury), initiated when normal reperfusion (the action of restoring the flow of blood to an organ or tissue) pain begins, is harmful to the patient.

6. Amputation of frostbite affected anatomy should be delayed until the necrotic tissue is clearly demarcated, normally 6-8 weeks.

7. Healed tissue that experienced some degree of frostbite injury will be subsequently more sensitive to, and susceptible to injury from, heat or cold than surrounding tissue.

8. Thawing and refreezing is preferable, for the reduction of tissue morbidity, to delayed thawing of a frostbite injury.

9. Topical application of Aloe Vera Cream on affected areas is an important part of frostbite therapy.

10. During hydrotherapy at 40 degrees C, you know when reperfusion (the action of restoring the flow of blood to an organ or tissue) occurs in a frostbite injury when the distal (situated away from the center of the body or from the point of attachment) area of the extremity is flushed, soft, and pliable. 


The correct answers to the above quiz are:
1. True
2. True   
3. False 
4. True   
5. True   
6. True 
7. True   
8. False 
9. True   
10. True 

The main thing you need to understand about frostbite injury, even if you forget everything else, is this:

Ischemic injury in frostbite is most often caused by vascular compromise from thrombosis and not by compression from edematous tissue, ... .

WHY?
Because ischemic injury (Ischemia comprises not only insufficiency of oxygen, but also reduced availability of nutrients and inadequate removal of metabolites.) is a HUGE part of the complications that ensue when frostbite is treated incorrectly. Tissue swelling (edema) contributes to Ischemia.

In the next post I will discuss each true or false statement of the quiz, one by one, to clarify and possibly enable you to save someone from excessive frostbite injury at some future date. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-004.gif&hash=7221c4a729e7e6f98824e811bbedfca7d6dcf2d2)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 02, 2016, 08:08:44 pm
The management of frostbite itself may be divided into 3 phases: field management, rewarming, and postrewarming management.

Now I will discuss each question on the frostbite quiz.

NOTE: All the information provided is from the following article:
Frostbite Treatment & Management Author: C Crawford Mechem, MD, MS, FACEP; Chief Editor: Dirk M Elston, MD (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/926249-treatment)


1. The ABC's (Airway, Breathing and Circulation) basics of the victim must take priority over tending to the frostbite affected area.
TRUE
Quote
Be sure to correct the ABCs (A irway, B reathing, and C irculation) and life-threatening conditions before treating frostbite. The goal of frostbite treatment is to salvage as much tissue as possible, to achieve maximal return of function, and to prevent complications. Correct any systemic hypothermia to a core temperature of 34°C before treating the frostbite. Remove the patient from cold.




2. If you come upon a victim of frostbite that you cannot carry and you need to walk a distance with the victim to get to a vehicle, it is better for the victim to walk on a frostbite affected limb, even if they risk further injury, than for you to begin suboptimal (less than 38-40C hydrotherapy - the use of circulating water at 40-42°C is common.) warming right away.
TRUE

Quote
Rewarm the frostbitten area if no danger of refreezing is observed. However, rewarming should be avoided if it cannot be maintained (freeze-thaw-freeze cycle). Walking on frozen frostbitten areas and risking tissue chipping and fracture is considered better than thawing and refreezing. Reports from Canada show that forced-air rewarming with portable units can be used effectively to warm victims of hypothermia and frostbite in the field and during transport to a regional medical center.




3. Pressure bandages on a frostbite injury help to improve circulation.
FALSE
Quote

Replace wet and constrictive clothing with dry loose clothing. Dress the extremity in a manner that minimizes mechanical trauma.

Pressure dressings, occlusive dressings, and elastic wraps will decrease tissue perfusion and increase the risk of tissue loss. The presence of a concomitant injury with active bleeding requires direct pressure over the bleeding site, but caregivers should be aware that such actions are performed as life-saving measures and can result in increased morbidity.

In a report of a single patient treated with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy, Poulakidas et al described improved tissue salvage and early reepithelialization, suggesting that VAC may be of some benefit in the management of frostbite-induced tissue damage.



4. Rewarming in the field should not be attempted unless the time to arrival at a definitive care center exceeds 2 hours.
TRUE
Quote

When suspected frostbite does occur, transport to a trauma or burn center becomes a priority. Field rewarming should be started only if the time to arrival at a definitive care center exceeds 2 hours.


5. Massaging frostbite injuries for patient comfort and pain reduction during hydrotherapy at 40C degrees  (that is not part of this question and is the actual recommended ideal temperature for restoring adequate circulation and preventing added injury), initiated when normal reperfusion (the action of restoring the flow of blood to an organ or tissue) pain begins, is harmful to the patient.
TRUE

Quote
On admission, rapidly rewarm the affected area in circulating water (ie, a whirlpool bath) containing an antibacterial soap at 38-40°C. Constantly monitor water temperature. Thawing takes about 20-40 minutes for superficial injuries and as long as 1 hour for deep injuries.

Analgesics (eg, ibuprofen and morphine) for pain relief are indicated during and after rewarming.

The most common error in this stage of treatment is premature termination of the rewarming process because of reperfusion pain. Mechanical trauma (massaging or rubbing with ice or by hand) and rewarming at higher temperatures and for longer periods of time are detrimental to preserving viable tissue and should be avoided. Direct dry heating using fire or a heater can lead to burns secondary to loss of temperature sensation and so should be avoided.



6. Amputation of frostbite affected anatomy should be delayed until the necrotic tissue is clearly demarcated, normally 6-8 weeks.
TRUE
Quote
Because of the extreme difficulty in differentiating viable tissue from nonviable tissue in the first few weeks after frostbite injury, amputation surgery is best avoided until complete demarcation and separation of gangrenous tissue occurs. This process normally takes 6-8 weeks. Consider early amputation if liquefaction, moist gangrene, or infection develops in the frostbitten area.

It may take weeks to months for frostbitten tissue to be declared viable. The affected area generally heals or mummifies without surgery. Lower-extremity involvement, infection, and delay in seeking medical attention are associated with an increased likelihood that operative therapy will be necessary.

Early surgery usually is contraindicated in frostbite, because of the time the nonviable tissue takes to demarcate. Older series show that performing debridement earlier than 2-3 weeks after warming significantly increases the amount of viable tissue removed and is harmful to the patient, resulting in increased amputation rate, mortality, and morbidity. The only indication for early surgical intervention is postthaw compartment syndrome warranting fasciotomy.
Compartment syndrome is generally not applicable in frostbite. WHY? Because the main issue here is the injury that results from reperfusion of frostbite areas. The Ischemic Cascade is a huge part of that contribution to tissue injury. But the injury itself has nothing to do with the compression of tissue.
Quote
Ischemic injury in frostbite is most often caused by vascular compromise from thrombosis and not by compression from edematous tissue, ...
The part of the tissue below the dermal layers called the fascia looks like a white jellylike substance. It is composed mostly of collagen. When it swells it compresses tissue around it and can result in necrosis of said tissue from loss of circulation. They call that "Compartment Syndrome". To reduce the pressure on the tissues so adequate perfusion can be maintained, some of the fascia is removed (fasciotomy). In frostbite, unnecessary tissue destruction, and possibly compartment syndrome, will occur when tight bandages are put on the affected area and also when the area is massaged during hydrotherapy. This is because both those actions will result in the cells producing more inflammation triggering chemicals.



7. Healed tissue that experienced some degree of frostbite injury will be subsequently more sensitive to, and susceptible to injury from, heat or cold than surrounding tissue.
TRUE
Quote
Counsel patients that the frostbitten area is more vulnerable to future heat and cold injury. Encourage patients to undergo active physical therapy.

Further outpatient care includes wound management, analgesia, and avoiding re-exposure to the cold. The choice of outpatient medications is dictated by the patient’s hospital course and may include antibiotics, analgesics, and ibuprofen.



8. Thawing and refreezing is preferable, for the reduction of tissue morbidity, to delayed thawing of a frostbite injury.
FALSE
Quote
Partial thawing and refreezing generate more damage than does prolonged freezing alone, through the release of multiple inflammatory mediators. In patients who experience a refreezing injury of thawed areas, rewarming should be delayed until it can be maintained.




9.
Topical application of Aloe Vera Cream on affected areas is an important part of frostbite therapy.
TRUE

Quote
Apply topical aloe vera cream to all frostbitten areas every 6 hours to inhibit the arachidonic cascade ("induces inflammation by its chemotactic and degranulating actions on polymorphonuclear lymphocytes (PML), and of LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4, the amino acid-containing LTs that induce vasoconstriction and bronchoconstriction ..." (http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/life-science/cell-biology/cell-biology-products.html?TablePage=9561026#sthash.cXOSqNrY.dpuf)) , especially thromboxane synthesis. Other arachidonic cascade inhibitor agents currently being investigated include topical methimazole (a thromboxane synthetase inhibitor) and topical methylprednisolone acetate (a phospholipase A2 inhibitor).
What all that means is that your tissue cells, when they 'wake up' while thawing and receiving oxygen again (reperfusion), release all kinds of chemicals that destroy cell walls and trigger inflammation. The Ischemic Cascade and the Arachidonic Cascade are tissue destroyers in frostbite victims. The biochemistry of the Ischemic Cascade in frostbite is even more damaging than in heart attack victims because the jacked edges of ice crystals in your tissues have scored and cut and pierced cell walls. The cells 'think' they are being attacked so they send their chemical warfare agents out - which end up killing healthy cells along with damaged or defective ones.  :P So, agents which thin the blood (to prevent clotting), agents to reduce histone release (inflammation triggering chemicals) and agents to reduce release from injured cells of cell wall attacking chemicals help to prevent further tissue injury. Finally, the therapy must include pain relief because sensed pain will also contribute constricted blood vessels from stress hormone release. You need MORE oxygen reaching your cells and wider blood vessels to carry away the waste products from the mentioned deleterious cascades.



10. During hydrotherapy at 40 degrees C, you know when reperfusion (the action of restoring the flow of blood to an organ or tissue) occurs in a frostbite injury when the distal (situated away from the center of the body or from the point of attachment) area of the extremity is flushed, soft, and pliable. 
TRUE

Quote
Rapid rewarming is the single most effective therapy for frostbite. Variations on the original work of McCauley et al are used at most centers experienced in the management of the frostbite patient. This includes admission of all frostbite patients to a specialty unit, if possible. Consider obtaining photographic records on admission, at 24 hours, and serially every 2-3 days until discharge.

On admission, rapidly rewarm the affected area in circulating water (ie, a whirlpool bath) containing an antibacterial soap at 38-40°C. The circulation of water allows a constant temperature to be applied to the affected area. Warming is continued for 15-30 minutes or until thawing is, by clinical assessment, complete (ie, when the distal area of the extremity is flushed, soft, and pliable).


They don't mention it, but I'm certain Cannabis products, that are anti-inflammatory, vasodilators and analgesic, would help in treating frostbite. Below are some of the mentioned potential therapies for reducing tissue damage by preventing blood clotting (Thrombolytics), insufficient perfusion (oxygenation) and promoting cell wall repair and blood thinning.

Quote
There are several other medication regimens that appear potentially beneficial, but they have not been prospectively validated, and standard doses have not been established. Such regimens include daily infusion of low-molecular-weight dextran, which may prevent erythrocyte clumping in cold-injured blood vessels. Low-dose infusions of heparin may prevent microthrombosis.

In addition, some data suggest that intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) with or without heparin, prostacyclin, or iloprost may improve outcome in some patients.[41, 42] Finally, bupivacaine has been used for either cervical or lumbar sympathetic blockade to decrease sympathetic tone and relieve pain, but its efficacy is unclear.

Other ancillary modalities that appear promising but have not been tested in well-controlled human trials include the following:

• Thrombolysis using intra-arterial tPA in deep frostbite to decrease tissue loss by 10% when administered within 24 hours of exposure

• Limaprost (a prostaglandin E 1 analogue) as a thera peutic vasodilator to increase peripheral blood flow

• Buflomedil (an alpha-blocker) to increase peripheral blood flow

• Hyperbaric oxygen [43, 44] 

• Subatmospheric pressure therapy (anecdotal) [45] 

• Pentoxifylline

• Vitamin C

• Superoxide dismutase

• Nifedipine
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 05, 2016, 11:10:39 pm
Progress can Kill: Survival report reveals world's highest suicide rate
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.survivalinternational.org%2Fpictures%2F5545%2Fbraz-gua-jr-47_screen.jpg&hash=8aafc1dcc032e2d5060eb9215bc963ec810ecbc8)

Suicide is often seen as the only option by people forced from their land and into a way of life they did not choose © João Ripper/Survival

A new report published by Survival International reveals that the appalling suicide rate among the indigenous Guarani Kaiowá people of southern Brazil is the highest in the world.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)

The rate of self-inflicted deaths within the tribe is 34 times the Brazilian national average, and statistically the highest among any society anywhere on earth. Suicide rates among many other indigenous peoples such as Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans in Alaska also remain exceptionally high. This can be viewed as the inevitable result of the historical and continuing theft of their land and of "development” being forced upon them.

The report, “Progress can Kill”, exposes the devastating consequences of loss of land and autonomy on tribal peoples. As well as the shockingly high suicide rates among tribes, it also reveals high rates of alcoholism, obesity, depression and other health problems.

Particularly striking statistics include the sky-rocketing rates of HIV infection in West Papua, which increased from almost no cases in 2000 to over 10,000 by 2015, and the rate of infant mortality among Aboriginal Australians – twice that in wider Australian society. In large parts of the world, poor nutrition continues to cause further problems, such as malnutrition for Guarani children in Brazil, who are forced to live on roadsides, and obesity for many Native Americans, for whom junk food is the only viable option.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.survivalinternational.org%2Fpictures%2F10633%2Fpar-ache-dmc-01-copy_screen.jpg&hash=3da79f8881c6392a16692d9429553c442f69cd75)
Many Aché starved to death after being forced from their forest home in Paraguay © Don McCullin/Survival

Roy Sesana of the Botswana Bushmen, forcibly evicted from their land in 2002, said: “What kind of development is this when the people lead shorter lives than before? They catch HIV/AIDS. Our children are beaten in school and won’t go. Some become prostitutes. We are not allowed to hunt. They fight because they are bored and get drunk. They are starting to commit suicide. We never saw this before. Is this “development”?”

Olimpio, of the Guajajara tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, said: “We are against the type of development the government is proposing. I think some non-Indians’ idea of “progress” is crazy! They come with these aggressive ideas of progress and impose them on us, human beings, especially on indigenous peoples who are the most oppressed of all. For us, this is not progress at all.”

All of these statistics demonstrate the fatal consequences of forcing change on tribal societies in the name of “progress” and “development”. In many cases, tribes have been forced to move away from abundant and sustainable food sources and a sure source of identity in favour of poverty and marginalization on the fringes of mainstream society. Tragic repercussions of such forced change can continue even several generations down the line.

Around the world, tribes continue to fight for the recognition of their right to live on their lands in peace. Where this right has been respected or restored, tribes flourish. For example after the creation of an indigenous reserve in the northern Amazon in 1992, medical teams worked with tribal shamans and together they halved the mortality rate among the Yanomami Indians. Likewise, the Jarawa In India live on their ancestral lands and enjoy what has been called a “life of opulence”. Nutrionists rate their diet as “optimum”.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-106.gif&hash=f996659d18df7f3b445e6135e884397ac91f25b1) Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, is calling for the United Nations to enforce better protection of tribal land rights and to call on governments to uphold their commitments to their indigenous peoples.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11071?
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 20, 2016, 11:45:56 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EkIK5OYfpjQ

Suspend loans tainted by Uzbek slavery  >:(

In Uzbekistan, the whole country suffers because of the government’s dependence on revenue from the cotton harvest. The government operate the world’s largest state-run system of forced labour where activists like Elena are brutally repressed, pensioners are being forced to pick cotton or submit 50% of their pension, and education and health care are undermined for two months every year due to the mass mobilisation of teachers and doctors.2

What’s worse is that there are international actors helping Uzbekistan keep its dirty secret – including the World Bank. The World Bank is an international institution that provides loans for developing countries. Right now they are funding projects totalling $500 million in Uzbekistan that are documented to be using forced labour.3

The good news is that the World Bank signed a contract agreeing to suspend loans if evidence of forced labour was uncovered.4 Now we need your help to hold them to this promise.

This year, as the latest announcements calling “everyone to the cotton fields” were heard echoing around the countryside of Uzbekistan, we’re planning to hit the Uzbek government where it hurts – its pocket.5

By calling on the World Bank to account for its actions in propagating Uzbekistan’s forced labour regime, we’re showing that the international community will not accept or fund this state-sanctioned form of modern slavery. But without huge public pressure, the World Bank may turn a blind eye – please don’t let this happen:

Sign our petition now and help put an end to forced labour in Uzbekistan.

https://www.walkfree.org/uzbek-slavery/?utm_source=taf&utm_medium=post-action&utm_campaign=uzbek-slavery
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 12, 2016, 02:58:10 pm
Which is the most horrifying thing/disease you have seen in your medicine career?

Crysti Drake, Am a University of Oklahoma grad. Have two grown children

Crysti is a Most Viewed Writer in Medical Professions and Professionals.


I was an R.N. in Oklahoma for awhile. One day we had a young couple come in the E.R., he had cut his arm off with an axe. We immediately took him into surgery. A little while later I told his wife we were able to reattach the arm. She began to cry, while I calmed her, she told me that they were short on money and had insurance for a disability, they had purposely cut his arm off hoping to cash in on the insurance, she was distraught because they had no way to pay for the surgery. I was appalled at the length they were willing to go to pay their bills. He survived and recovered very well. I never said a word about the situation.

Anthony G. Gelbert
 
There is no excuse for people being placed in such an economically difficult position in this country. This is an indictment on the empathy deficit disordered 'greed is good' worshipping society that is degrading our biosphere, our society and our democracy.
 
Irrespective of what any religious book may correctly claim, biosphere math (i.e. the successful perpetuation of a species in harmony with those life forms from it and around it), dictates that we ARE our brother's keeper. Spencer was WRONG. Darwin made it CLEAR that altruistic behavior was sine qua non for a successful species.
 
I know there are quite a few hairsplitters here (and some INTJ/psychopaths too!) that will scoff. They are wrong. They are, true to their egocentric and selfish nature, defending 'greed is good'. GREED IS BAD!
 
I applaud Crysti Drake for this post and for the way she handled this tragic case.

https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-most-horrifying-thing-disease-you-have-seen-in-your-medicine-career

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fscrivle.com%2Fstatic%2Fuploads%2Fgift-vs-greed-economy-1024x575.png&hash=da37fa85e9d3944b9e84c7ef2c70b5c7c5a53632)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.videoinspiration.net%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F11%2Fgreed.jpg&hash=38cd4bc8ef427d752caf66d9fad8e310ea2d0b1e)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.issuesandalibis.org%2Fview.jpg&hash=f83e36b990c53150646f05a9b32dd80f30baf237) (https://redor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/gree.jpg)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatamimissinghere.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F03%2F61854_Greed-is-Bad-by-Vince-OFarrell-The-Illawarra-Mercury-Australia-515x437.jpg&hash=21eed25a91cb45e96e30aa1c5dffb48645b809e4)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Finspirably.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2F30033-the-fool-heap-up-wealth-and-possession-out-of-pride-and-greed_325x325_width.png&hash=2cd97780e20634fe20ae01cb299db08752961ca1)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsadmoment.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FWise-Words-Of-An-American-Indian-On-21-Century-Greed-Corruption.jpg&hash=357e3082cd8216c457697f5482e0705d96155319)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 13, 2016, 08:46:50 pm
Agelbert NOTE: The following article, comment and references are even more applicable today than they were in 2013. The "Poverty Level" is so ridiculously low balled in this country that it should be a national disgrace  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)  (unless you are an empathy deficit disordered crook   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978) - then you (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4) consider it 'too high' and a 'giveaway' to 'welfare cheats'. ).


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg4.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20080719200951%2Funcyclopedia%2Fimages%2Fe%2Fe0%2FDownarrow.PNG&hash=4fd64e7b48c1d4f60b87dae1dff6ab5ace9a6e3d)

Why is the Federal Poverty Line So Far Off? ???


September 18, 2013

by John Light

SNIPPET:


Origins of the poverty measure

From the early 1980s until last September, the Health and Human Services employee responsible for responding to that frustrated mother and others like her was Gordon M. Fisher. Fisher worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, where his job was to calculate the poverty guidelines — commonly referred to as the “poverty line,” used to determine benefit program eligibility — and to answer questions from the public.

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/18/why-is-the-federal-poverty-line-so-low/

Quote
SophieBlue 

I like the idea of a new series of poverty measures that take into account real expenses, but then there is the battle of what expenses should be considered. When I teach Sociology of Poverty, I always ask my students whether an internet connection should be considered a basic expense, like electricity. Until they think about what is required to get a good job, they don't. But the more complicated the measure gets, the less useful it is.

Then there is the problem of trying to define poverty. Do we use a subsistence measure, or do we use Sen's and Nussbaum's capabilities approaches?

One option is to measure inequality instead of "poverty." The OECD generally uses a percentage of the median income. The problem with that is that it assumes that the median is a good measure of well-being. We are seeing the median income lose value over time, so that people who earn the median have a more difficult time affording all those things that denote them as "middle class."


What is the Capability Approach? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fcomputer3.gif&hash=cd6007945e9cbaabf029ebaef6ad36b8505bc341)

• Sen’s capability approach is a moral framework. It proposes that social arrangements should be primarily evaluated according to the extent of freedom people have to promote or achieve functionings they value.

• This is an Evaluative Approach.


Welfare Motivation

– Atkinson notes that ‘despite the prevalence of welfare statements in economics, we are no longer subjecting them to critical analysis

– ‘The welfare basis of policy evaluation is a topic which should receive greater priority in economics.’ ‘The Strange Disappearance of Welfare Economics’ 2001.  ;) 

Capability Approach (CA) provides a partial basis for econ policy

Intellectual History of CA

• 1979 – Sen ‘Equality of What’?

• Basic Needs – same motivation but in some versions people are passive. CA adds freedom

• 1980s – focused on growth as end; CA growth as means; needs to be complemented by HD / CA

• 1990s to present: Annual Human Devt Reports

• Key texts by Sen:
– 1984: Commodities and Capabilities
– 1992: Inequality Re-Examined.
– 1993: Quality of Life (edited with Martha Nussbaum)
– 1999: Development as Freedom
– 2009: The Idea of Justice


• Now a large group of other authors (Nussbaum et al)
• Is this approach still relevant, or has it been superseded?


Capability

• the various combinations of functionings (beings and doings) that the person can achieve. [It] is, thus, a set of vectors of functionings, reflecting the person’s freedom to lead one type of life or another...to choose from possible livings. (Inequality Re-examined)

• think of it as a budget set

• “The focus here is on the freedom that a person actually has to do this or be that – things that he or she may value doing or being.” Idea of Justice 232

• All formulations of capability have two parts: freedom and valuable beings and doings (functionings). Sen’s key contribution has been to unite the two concepts.

Indicators of Functionings

Which are direct indicators of functionings?

A. Asset index
B. Access to schooling
C. Body Mass Index
D. Income
E. Self-reported health
F. Times per week consume egg


Freedom is regularly misunderstood

• Freedom is Not a ‘paper’ freedom: it has to be effective freedom, a real possibility.

• Freedom is Not maximization of choices without regard to their quality and people’s values “Indeed sometimes more freedom of choice can bemuse and befuddle, and make one’s life more wretched.”

• Freedom is Not necessarily direct control by an individual , groups, states, etc can increase freedoms by public action and investment.


Freedom

• “the real opportunity that we have to accomplish what we value”

• “The ‘good life’ is partly a life of genuine choice, and not one in which the person is forced into a particular life – however rich it might be in other respects.”

It is authentic self-direction – the ability to shape one’s own destiny as a person and a part of various communities.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

Click here for pdf on the Capability Approach (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwj_x77s3IzMAhVEbD4KHSUeDpgQFgg8MAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ophi.org.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FOPHI-HDCA-SS11-Intro-to-the-Capability-Approach-SA.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFsKACdAUOy_KEa96k5uug56J-Jcw&sig2=cWUnrs8tSVoY0imnhdIptw&cad=rjt)


Measuring Poverty

Quote
The most significant shortcoming of the federal poverty measure is that for most families, in most places, the poverty level is simply too low. While the Standard changes by family type to account for the increase in costs specific to the type of family member—whether this person is an adult or child, and for children, by age—the FPL increases by a constant $4,160 for each additional family member and therefore does not adequately account for the real costs of meeting basic needs.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.selfsufficiencystandard.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fselfsuff%2Fimages%2FFPL-vs-SSS_CO-2015_0.gif&hash=3ed50a3c6b2887fb5cdeb58e783d6fcc60b03157)
Quote
The Self-Sufficiency Standard   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3) shows that the income needed to meet basic needs is often far above the FPL, indicating that families can have incomes above the federal poverty measure and yet lack sufficient resources to adequately meet their basic needs. For this reason, most assistance programs use a multiple of the federal poverty measure to determine need. For instance, children’s health insurance with low-cost premiums is available through Colorado Child Health Plan Plus program for families with incomes up to 260% of the FPL.

However, simply raising the poverty level, or using a multiple of the FPL, cannot solve the structural problems inherent in the official poverty measure. In addition to the fundamental problem of being too low, there are five basic methodological problems with the federal poverty measure.
 

First, the measure is based on the cost of a single item—food—rather than a “market basket” of all basic needs.


Over five decades ago, when the FPL was first developed by Mollie Orshansky, food was the only budget item for which the cost of meeting a minimal standard, in this case nutrition, was known. (The Department of Agriculture had determined household food budgets based on nutritional standards.) Knowing that the average American family spent a third of their budget on food, Orshansky reasoned that multiplying the food budget by three would yield an estimate of the amount needed to meet other basic needs, and thus this became the basis of the FPL.
 

Second, the poverty measure’s methodology is “frozen,” not allowing for changes in the relative cost of food or non-food items, nor the addition of new necessary costs.


Since it was developed, the poverty level has only been updated annually using the Consumer Price Index. As a result, the percentage of the household budget devoted to food has remained at one-third of the FPL even though American families now spend an average of only 13% of their income on food. At the same time, other costs have risen much faster—such as health care, housing, and more recently, and energy—and new costs have arisen, such as child care and taxes. None of these changes are, or can be, reflected in the federal poverty measure based on a “frozen” methodology.
 

Third, the poverty measure is dated, implicitly using the demographic model of a two-parent family with a “stay-at-home” wife, or implicitly assumes she is not employed.


This family demographic no longer reflects the reality of the majority of American families today. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, both parents were employed in 59% of two-parent families with children in 2013. Likewise, 68% of single mothers with children were employed and 81% of single fathers with children were employed in 2013. Thus paid employment with its associated costs such as child care, transportation, and taxes is the norm for the majority of families today rather than the exception. Moreover, when the poverty measure was first developed, these employment-related items were not a significant expense for most families: taxes were relatively low and child care for families with young children was not common. However, today these expenses are substantial, and borne by most families, and thus these costs should be included in a modern poverty measure.
 

Fourth, the poverty measure does not vary by geographic location.


That is, the federal poverty measure is the same whether one lives in Louisiana or in the San Francisco Bay Area of California (with Alaska and Hawaii the only exceptions to the rule). However, housing in the most expensive areas of the United States costs nearly four times as much as in the least expensive areas. Using the 2015 Fair Market Rents, the cost of housing (including utilities) at the 40th percentile for a two-bedroom unit in the most expensive place—the San Francisco metropolitan area—is $2,062 per month. This is nearly four times as much as the least expensive housing in the country, found in most counties in Kentucky, where two-bedroom units cost $558 per month. Even within states, costs vary considerably: in Colorado, the cost of a three-bedroom housing rental in Bent County is $801 per month, while in Park County a three-bedroom unit is $2,307 per month.
 

Finally, the poverty measure provides no information or means to track changes in specific costs, nor the impact of subsidies, taxes, and tax credits that reduce (or increase) these costs.


The federal poverty measure does not allow for determining how specific costs (such as housing, child care, etc.) rise or fall over time. Likewise, when assessing the impact of subsidies, taxes, and tax credits, poverty measures cannot trace the impact they have on net costs unless they are explicitly included in the measure itself.

For these and other reasons, many researchers and analysts have proposed revising the federal poverty measure. Suggested changes would reflect twenty-first century needs, incorporate geographically based differences in costs, and respond to changes over time. One such effort is the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM).  Read more about the SPM and how it differs from the Standard. (http://www.selfsufficiencystandard.org/node/92)

http://www.selfsufficiencystandard.org/measuring-poverty







Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2016, 06:39:02 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-110415012411.jpeg&hash=b5154b421d46e8a2c9656423cb920bb430391eae)

How to Grieve: 5 Myths That Hurt

By Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com Author

Grief is a natural response to loss, and it can unfold in many ways. Unfortunately, well-intentioned onlookers -- dubbed "grief police" by grief expert Robert Neimeyer, professor of psychology at the University of Memphis -- often say things that mistakenly imply to the bereaved that there's a "right" way to grieve.

Consider these all-too-common grief myths:

Myth #1: It's possible to cry too much.


Everyone grieves differently. There's no single correct way to express the pain, sorrow, yearning, and other aspects of the transition of adjusting to the death of a loved one. Intense responses are sometimes seen as "losing control," when in fact they're simply how that person is actively (and productively) processing the loss.



Myth #2: If you don't cry now, it'll be worse later.


Some people never cry. Tears or outward expressions of anguish simply aren't everyone's grieving style, says psychologist Neimeyer. This doesn't mean they're grieving less intensely than a visibly shaken individual, or that they loved the person who died any less. Nor does a lack of obvious emotion mean the griever has an emotional block or problem or will face a longer, more difficult adjustment to the loss.



Myth #3: Grief is something you "get over."


Most people never stop grieving a death; they learn to live with it. Grief is a response, not a straight line with an endpoint. Many psychologists bristle at words such as "acceptance" or "resolution" or "healed" as a final stage of grief. The real stages of grief involve tasks of processing and adjustment that one returns to all through life.



Myth #4: Time heals slowly but steadily.

Time is the commodity through which a grieving person sorts through the effects and meaning of a loss. But that process isn't a steady fade-out, like a photograph left in the sun. Grief is a chaotic roller coaster -- a mix of ups, downs, steady straight lines, and the occasional slam. Periods of intense sadness and pain can flare and fade for years or decades.



Myth #5: Grieving should end after a set amount of time.

Ignore oft-quoted rules of thumb that purport to predict how long certain types of grief should last. A downside to six-week or eight-week bereavement groups, says Sherry E. Showalter, a psychotherapist specializing in grief and the author of Healing Heartaches: Stories of Loss and Life, is that at the end of the sessions, people mistakenly expect to be "better" (or their friends expect this). "Everyone tells me the same story: 'I failed Grief 101,' because they still feel pain," Showalter says.
Quote
"We grieve for a lifetime, because we're forever working to incorporate the death into our own tapestry of life."
Learning how to grieve is ultimately part instinct, part stumbling along, part slogging along -- a bit like learning how to live. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2gwb921.gif&hash=05dd931359ca7118dca81dba32bc782664d97d8f)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-062.gif&hash=88ceb4a34a12b2bea2fd9edd887da26d73308257)


https://www.caring.com/articles/how-to-grieve
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2016, 08:16:44 pm
"We grieve for a lifetime, because we're forever working to incorporate the death into our own tapestry of life."
Learning how to grieve is ultimately part instinct, part stumbling along, part slogging along -- a bit like learning how to live.
https://www.caring.com/articles/how-to-grieve (https://www.caring.com/articles/how-to-grieve)


How surprising to read this here. But I am glad I did.
You're full of surprises, AG.

Thanks for sharing this.


You are very welcome, my friend in need and in deed.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)

By the way, I got a ride to my pacemaker appointment (which was routine so no worries)  with Vermont SSTA. The donation was just $2. You just have to be over 65 and lacking suitable transportation.

Special Services Transportation Agency. SSTA   http://sstarides.org/]http://sstarides.org/

Yeah, they have volunteers that drive fossil fuel powered vehicles so I guess I'm a hypocrite, at least according to MKing. Mea Culpa. Beggars can't be choosers.  8)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2016, 03:47:56 pm
What Are the Odds That You Exist?  ;D
https://youtu.be/m1o5EA-ALmo
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on May 08, 2016, 12:47:52 am

A negative view of Christianity and religion in general

May 03, 2016

SNIPPET:

Quote
Truly, the state of religions today is a sad one and you will not hear me defend it.  Christ warned about that when he said “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Mat 5:13). 

Yes, sure, the modernists currently control all the holy places (ancient churches and cathedrals), courtesy of secular police forces who are more than happy to evict “non-official” denominations from their places of worship, but this was also predicted by Christ when he spoke of the “abomination of desolation” in the “holy place” (Mat 24:15).  There is probably nothing much we, the simple people, can do about that. 

But what we can do is remember the “real thing” and never allow the modern “verisimilitudinous Christianity” to take its place in our hearts and minds.  Finally, we should always remember the words of Christ who told us that His Church was the “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15) and that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18). 

This means that no matter how ugly and even horrible our situation becomes, God will never let His Church truly disappear from our world.  Somewhere, maybe only in a small corner of our planet, His Church will always survive, faithful to the Church of the Apostles and the Fathers, unchanged by all the persecutions and slow motion descent into apostasy of the rest of the world.  And if somebody really wants to find this Church, he/she will.  This is also a promise Christ made to all of us: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Mat 5:6).

The Saker
http://thesaker.is/a-negative-view-of-christianity-and-religion-in-general/

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FHjPbLbmep2aJO%2Fgiphy.gif&hash=3c7f7703f00cb341d3e9bdba607208d4204a294c)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2016, 10:37:41 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl7.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F2046%2F2046807qoer9uc27q.gif&hash=b4545bdf1fbc3161b81887e3f6eef473e6b4d549)

RIP Anton Yelchin: ‘Star Trek’ Actor Dead at 27 After Freak Accident  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2955.gif&hash=ddc12d8bdb1bc63b7998a6b086b79a71b7bda755)

Yelchin was crushed by his own vehicle

Jun 20, 2016, 1:54 pm EDT  |  By William White, InvestorPlace Writer
 
 
Anton Yelchin, who played Pavel Chekov in the new Star Trek films, died on Saturday in a freak accident.


Anton Yelchin was found by friends pinned between his 2015 Jeep Cherokee and the front gate of his house. His death is being attributed to blunt traumatic asphyxia. He will appear posthumously in Star Trek Beyond, which comes out on July 22.

It’s possible that Anton Yelchin’s death was the result of a recall concerning 2014 and 2015 Jeep Cherokee vehicles. The recall is due to the vehicles not properly letting owners know that it isn’t in park before getting out. The actor’s driveway is steep and it’s believed the Jeep rolled back and crushed him after he got out of it, reports USA Today.
Quote
“Anton, you were brilliant. You were kind. You were funny as hell, and supremely talented. And you weren’t here nearly long enough,”
Star Trek director J.J. Abrams wrote in a letter to Yelchin after learning of his death.

http://investorplace.com/2016/06/anton-yelchin-star-trek/?cc=marketbeat&cp=referral#.V2n3xa32bm4

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 14, 2016, 09:26:35 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.disquscdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fmediaembed%2Fimages%2F1366%2F3967%2Foriginal.jpg&hash=05ef3511691d4d021e6155ab432cd85c69aea270)
Dexter August 2014 - December 2014 R.I.P.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-020115133753.png&hash=7d7a002dce98b1f1002bd86c2468532bebe0d2a5)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 11, 2016, 02:18:23 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-110415012411.jpeg&hash=b5154b421d46e8a2c9656423cb920bb430391eae)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 11, 2016, 02:57:45 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.survivalinternational.org%2Fimages%2Flogos%2Flogo.dark.png&hash=723eccb02f7a39a937d1fd970fda4da7dc97f9f7)

UN Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Uncontacted Amazon tribe faces annihilation  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)

 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.survivalinternational.org%2Fpictures%2F11339%2Fkawahiva-still-02_screen.jpg%3Futm_source%3DENGLISH%253A%2Bemail%2Bupdates%26amp%3Butm_campaign%3D4b2462ef6b-News_as_it_happens%26amp%3Butm_medium%3Demail%26amp%3Butm_term%3D0_241e47c256-4b2462ef6b-87773793&hash=8e59200c487e9002c54463f441f714453809d659)
The Kawahiva's land is being targeted by illegal loggers and cattle ranchers © FUNAI 2013


On UN Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Survival International is calling for the full demarcation and protection of the land of the Kawahiva people, an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon that is at extremely high risk of extinction.

With the eyes of the world on Brazil during the Rio Olympics, campaigners are hoping that more will be done to secure their land for them, and to give them the chance to determine their own futures.

Many powerful people in the region, including José Riva – dubbed “the most corrupt politician in Brazil” – are targeting the tribe’s land. The Indians are acutely vulnerable to the threat of forced contact from these loggers and ranchers.

In April 2016, pressure from Survival International supporters helped push the Brazilian Minister of Justice to sign a decree ordering the full mapping out and protection of the tribe’s land.

But despite this, the Minister’s demand has not been carried out. Until the Brazilian indigenous affairs department enacts the demarcation, the tribe faces annihilation.

First contact has been catastrophic for many Brazilian tribes. Jirusihú, from the Zo’é people in the northern Amazon, who were forcibly contacted by evangelical missionaries in the 1980s, said: “After the outsiders came, Zo’é became sick and some died. Back then… there was diarrhea and there was pain. Fever killed many, many Zo’é.”

 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.survivalinternational.org%2Fpictures%2F8819%2Fbraz-zoe-fw-211_screen.jpg%3Futm_source%3DENGLISH%253A%2Bemail%2Bupdates%26amp%3Butm_campaign%3D4b2462ef6b-News_as_it_happens%26amp%3Butm_medium%3Demail%26amp%3Butm_term%3D0_241e47c256-4b2462ef6b-87773793&hash=ea4a9070fcd1591913909a2a6d29debb77db64ae)
Brazilian tribes like the Zo'é have suffered terribly since forced contact. © Fiona Watson/Survival


Many tribes have been wiped out as a direct result of land theft and forced contact. Konibu, the last shaman of the Akuntsu people, died in May 2016. He left behind just four members of his tribe.

Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Whole populations are being wiped out by genocidal violence from outsiders who steal their land and resources and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

Quote
We know very little about uncontacted tribes, but we do know there are more than a hundred around the world. Brazil is home to more of these peoples than any other country on Earth.

All uncontacted tribal peoples face catastrophe unless their land is protected, but, in areas where their rights are respected, they continue to thrive.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said: “It’s time for Brazil finally to end centuries of genocide by respecting the rights of its tribal peoples and protecting their land. Uncontacted tribes are not backward and primitive relics of a remote past. They are our contemporaries and a vitally important part of humankind’s diversity.”

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11377

Agelbert NOTE:
For those wishful thinkers who believe the fairy tale that hunter gatherers have a greater chance for survival than the rest of homo sapdom, perhaps you need to wrap your head around the scientific consensus that the biodiversity in the tropics (that all those hunter gatherer tribes living there REQUIRE to survive and thrive) is more degraded by climate change than the biodiversity in any other part of the planet.

Climate Change: Why the Tropical Poor Will Suffer Most
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538586/climate-change-why-the-tropical-poor-will-suffer-most/


Tropical ecosystems appear to be more sensitive to climate change and less able to store carbon
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tropics-feel-the-heat-of-climate-change/

(https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/snap-2013-11-06-at-14-31-28.png)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 28, 2016, 03:38:52 pm
At precisely this time one year ago today, I was under anaesthesia and under the knives of the Pros from Dover.

A year later, not only did this operation not bring any of the benefits it was supposed to, my condition continues to deteriorate.  About the best thing you might say is that it maybe slowed down how fast I am deteriorating, but no way to prove that.

The biggest issue now is my appetite and trying to get nutrition into my body.  First off I have little to no appetite.  I don't feel hungry and nothing appeals to me to eat anymore.  Even my one time favorites like Ribeye Steaks on the BBQ don't appeal to me.  My big problem is food that is visually appealing for me to buy at the grocery store but then I don't get round to eating much of and it spoils and I throw it out.

Then after I do force myself to eat, anything more than a couple of mouthfuls makes me feel nauseous.  Even Beer is making me feel nauseous!  I take some vitamins periodically, but I don't like taking them on an empty stomach so it's a Catch-22 problem.

The poor nutrition is definitely contributing to overall deterioration.  My hair has thinned out a lot over the course of the year.  My skin is getting thinner and more wrinkly.  It's like an ultra-rapid aging process out of a Star Trek episode.

Walking has become harder both because my ankles seem to have lost strength and because my PAD is acting up again.  My calf muscles bother me even when I am just sitting.  If I walk around at all, it has to be REAL SLOW or the calves cramp up.  I don't think it really pays at this point to waste tax payer money on getting another roto-rooter job done on the arteries.

So, all in all, the title of this thread remains correct, I'm definitely dying.  Everybody is of course from the moment you are born you begin the inexorable progress toward death, but in my case now the process has speeded up tremendously.  My birthday is in 3 days on August 31st.  I'll be 59 years old.  My hope is to make it to my 60th birthday.  I doubt I can last much more than that.

RE


Take care, my friend. I am a decade older than you and am experiencing the gradual deterioration of my body. Some time during the last two years, the muscle tone on my arms and legs changed. I got up one day and noticed my legs and arms looked like 'old people's parts'. They sort of hang on the bone instead preserving equal distance of the fascia from the bone structure on all sides, if you know what I mean. So it goes.

Here's an ultra HD video sampler to brighten your day.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fballoons.gif&hash=a64bb5ff3e76c3e11999996c460fa02de1ee10f7)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxRHBw-k8M&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 30, 2016, 02:19:08 pm
I just wish to take a moment to thank everyone who read my posts.

I won't be posting for a while. I feel very weak and am losing weight. I have never experienced such a low energy level in my life.

I hope to be back soon.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 31, 2016, 09:15:52 pm
I just wish to take a moment to thank everyone who read my posts.

I won't be posting for a while. I feel very weak and am losing weight. I have never experienced such a low energy level in my life.

I hope to be back soon.

I know the feeling.

Take two aspirin and a glass of orange juice and call me in the morning.

If that doesn't work try half a gram of Colombian Flake and a glass of Glenlivet single malt and call me immediately. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)
Hope you feel better soon.

RE
Hang in there AG. Hope it's better soon.
All the best hope you get better soon.

Thanks all for the encouragement. 

I wish I did have some grass to smoke. No such luck.

We'll see. But I know my body. Something is not right.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)  I really don't want to know if it is something serous or not. I don't like to go to doctors unless I have no other recourse.

I have a pacemaker check coming up in October. If the old ticker (my heart, not the pacemaker) is going, they will probably give me a heads up. We'll see.

In the greater scheme of things, it doesn't really matter that much anyway. We do what we can. If it's not enough, so be it.

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 27, 2016, 10:06:56 pm
Finding The Famous Painting of the Blue People of Kentucky
 
Posted September 22, 2016 by Ricki Lewis, PhD in Uncategorized
 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.abcnews.com%2Fimages%2FHealth%2Fht_fugate_family_blue_people_ll_120217_wmain.jpg&hash=eb0769c8bb3d6970953c6d7a8b8c62bfaff09196)

SNIPPET:

     
Most stories about the blue people of Kentucky include an eerie, compelling drawing of a family, with the stark faces of 5 of the 9 members a striking bluish-gray, due to an inherited disease. Most stories also borrow heavily from a terrific article by Cathy Frost from Science 82, a long-gone magazine that I quite liked. Frost’s piece, “The Blue People of Troublesome Creek,” is usually credited, but the painting not, or misattributed to ABC News, various newspapers, or simply deemed “unknown.”

The artist, Walt Spitzmiller (photo at article link)

The artist Walt Spitzmiller in fact painted the portrait of the Fugate family (see Walt Spitzmiller Fine Art). A Science 82 editor asked him in 1982 to draw a family, who lived in rural Kentucky, in which the father and some of the children had blue skin. “That’s all I knew about it. I did research on the period they talked about and took old photos and put them together. I added the hunting dog in the lower right, the rooster, that type of thing to add authenticity,” Walt told me.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUGATES

 The blue people of Troublesome Creek had methemoglobinemia, a metabolic condition affecting hemoglobin, the four-part protein that carries oxygen bound to an iron atom at each subunit’s core. Like my recent post about the deaf community on Martha’s Vineyard, it is a tale of an autosomal recessive disease that has dissipated over time as the descendants of the original carrier couple left home. The community in Chilmark so embraced the hearing impaired among them that everyone used their own local form of sign language. The Kentucky families did not experience such acceptance, according to the sparse literature on them. Their blue hue was a genetic badge of inbreeding.

I’ve written about the blue people in nearly every edition of my human genetics textbook. Because part of the blue people tale is about plagiarizing, I’ll plagiarize myself:  ;D

“A rare but very noticeable condition of abnormal hemoglobin affects the “blue people of Troublesome Creek”. Seven generations ago, in 1820, a French orphan named Martin Fugate who settled in this area of Kentucky brought in an autosomal recessive gene that causes methemoglobinemia. Martin’s mutation was in the CYP5R3 gene, which encodes an enzyme (cytochrome b5 methemoglobin reductase) that normally catalyzes a reaction that converts a type of hemoglobin with poor oxygen affinity, methemoglobin, back into normal hemoglobin by adding an electron. Martin was a heterozygote but still slightly bluish. His wife, Elizabeth Smith, was also a carrier for this very rare disease, and four of their seven children were blue. After extensive inbreeding in the isolated community—their son married his aunt, for example—a large pedigree of “blue people” of both sexes arose.

 
(https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/hemoglobin-23464646.jpg)
Hemoglobin

In “blue person disease,” excess oxygen-poor hemoglobin causes a dark blue complexion. Carriers may have bluish lips and fingernails at birth, which usually lighten. Treatment is simple: A tablet of methylene blue, a commonly used dye adds the electron back to methemoglobin, converting it to normal hemoglobin. In most members of the Fugate family, blueness was the only symptom. Normally, less than 1 percent of hemoglobin molecules are the methemoglobin form, which binds less oxygen. The Fugates had 10 to 20 percent in this form. People with the inherited condition who have more than 20 percent methemoglobin may suffer seizures, heart failure, and even death.”

Once young people began leaving the hollows of Kentucky, disease incidence there plummeted. Methemoglobinemia is also seen in Alaska and Algeria, and among Navajo Indians.

 
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/0a/83/1d/0a831dc00afd1e4bc64c260eb2131ea6.jpg)
The Blue People of Kentucky In an unusual story that involves both genetics and geography, an entire family from isolated Appalachia was tinged blue.

TRACKING DOWN THE PORTRAIT

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2016/09/22/finding-the-famous-painting-of-the-blue-people-of-kentucky/

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 04, 2016, 01:40:03 pm
More CHS.

 When Did Our Elites Become Self-Serving Parasites?

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/10/when-did-our-elites-become-self-serving.html

They have ALWAYS been PARASITES.

"Elites" & "Parasites" are synonymous terms.

All rich people are parasites.  That is how you become rich, by sieving wealth from the poor or raping the resources of the earth, or both.  The richer you are, the more of a parasite you are.

RE

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FHjPbLbmep2aJO%2Fgiphy.gif&hash=3c7f7703f00cb341d3e9bdba607208d4204a294c)

I just want to take a moment to say how much I admire you for your efforts on behalf of LD and family. God is with you.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fthankyou.gif&hash=dddf44270b9e7683ff5cbcca041427744de34fe5)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 08, 2016, 12:13:12 pm
The Battle is not ovah yet with Social Security.

There are some laws on the books which are designed to prevent "double dipping", in this case getting BOTH a Workman's Compensation settlement AND collecting SSDI.  So if you get a WC settlement, you're supposed to inform SS of this so they can determine if you should still get your full "entitlement".

So, in August I received a mail from SS asking me if my WC case was resolved and how much I got, and what my monthly check from them is so they can "offset" this amount.  My case was resolved by this time, so I set them the full Compromise & Release (11 pages), signed by all parties involved.  Because of this "offset" rule, I receive nothing monthly from WC.  I just got a one time payment for the injury and the medical bills.  According to my lawyer, my SS is not supposed to be affected here by this.

So, OKAY, I send them the C&R via Priority Mail via the USPS PRIORITY MAIL in August.  In September, I get my usual mail box money so I figure all is now copacetic.  Nope.  Upon checking my mailbox on returning from the SUNvocation, I got a NEW mail from SS, telling me they have not received anything from me and will reduce my Mailbox Money by the MAXIMUM allowed if I do not get back to them inside 30 days with proof I am not collecting more mailbox money from WC.

So now RE goes into OVERDRIVE last night.  I reproduce not 1 but 4 copies of the C&R, and this time I send them not only Priority Mail, but Registered and Return Receipt too!  I sent the fu cking thing to the address on the letter, the local SS office in Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski's office AND I got on the phone and after around 3 hours managed to get through to SS and got a FAX number in Alaska to fax this document to also!  I spent around $60 to send out all these mails and do the faxing!  ::)  I got all the receipts including the original one I sent out last August.

The thing here is it is about impossible to get anything going with SS or any Goobermint office via email, they simply do not provide email addys. "My Social Security". the website they provide has a message system, but it is one-way.  They can send YOU a message, but you cannot message THEM.  Youhave exactly two ways to contact these folks. On the phone, and you need to try this several times to get through, and after you do, it is just some call center guy who knows nothing other than what he can bring up on his computer screen.  Otherwise, you need to use Snail Mail, and you never know if what you sent actually made it to somebody's desk who knows what is going on.  You can wait weeks for a response, if in fact you ever get one.

Besides this s h i t, after returning from the SUNvocation, I finally went to my Pro From Dover regarding the increasing problems with my legs, which got really bad during the trip.  Apparently they are WORSE than when I got them roto-rootered last time around 6 years ago,  and now I am referred to a Vascular Surgeon.  Appointment for this one is Oct 18th, and I suspect I will go under the knife again in Nov or Dec.

Perhaps this will keep me going a few more years.  ::)

RE


I admire your tenacity in the face of adversity.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 08, 2016, 01:57:42 pm

I admire your tenacity in the face of adversity.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

I have to go in to Anchorage a week from Tuesday for the consult with the Vascular Pro from Dover, so I will in addition at this time make a HAND DELIVERY of the C&R to the SS office in Anchorage.  I will ask for a signed receipt as well for this delivery.  If that is not good enough, I will book a plane ticket to NY and show up at the Northeast Regional Center in Jamaica, NY Shity and hand deliver it there also.

Here is a kicker for you on this.  The address on the Self-Addressed Envelope THEY provide is not listed in the USPS database of valid addresses.  They also have two different addresses listed, one on the inside letter, the other on the SAE.

The inside letter reads "1 Jamaica Plaza, Jamaica NY".  The SAE reads "15510 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, NY".  The USPS clerk asked me if I had a Suite number or anything else to add, there is no additional information.

I also know how NY Shity addresses work in Queens, and this is not how they are written, there is a dash in there, in this case it would be 155-10 Jamaica Ave.  The first numbers are the street on the grid, the second part is the block number of the property.  My old address from our house in Queens where I lived after returning from Brasil was 154-04 Beech Ave, Flushing NY.

However, not even changing the address to 155-10 Jamaica Ave brought this up in the USPS database.  HTF is it that a main SS processing center is not in the USPS database?  INCLUDING the 9 digit Zip Code! ???  :icon_scratch:

This is why I sent copies ALSO to the local Anchorage SS office and Senator Lisa Murkowski's office.  Her office is what got me through the gauntlet to begin with here, hopefully they will be as helpful on this occassion as they were initially.

If all this fails, I go back to the Lawyer with all my documentation and sue Social Security.  Also hit on All Wrong Insurance to make up the shortfall on this "offset" bullshit.  The whole offset thing is bullshit to begin with, I paid into BOTH insurance schemes, and there is no reason that I should have bennies cut from one because I am receiving the other one.

If all of this fails, do not be surprised if there is a Postal Event in some SS Office somewhere as a crippled Alaskan shows up and starts shooting spitballs out of a Bic Pen in protest of SS incompetence.

RE

The foot dragging by the bureaucrats at SS is inexcusable. But I think it is part of their MO to make it harder to obtain what is rightfully yours. Ever since Reagan, gooberment has been adding more and more stumbling blocks to prevent justice and equity for the general population. I laugh when I read stories like "X thousands of people are not taking advantage of their benefits and the agencies don't understand why people aren't doing what they need to do".    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-220216203149.gif&hash=bd184b6edccce4045e246847a0c84e89bd5a18b6)

At present, ANYTHING that involves pushing papers for this, that or the other could be done electronically (including voting!). They just don't want to do it. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

Let us hope that you do not reach the "if all else fails" situation.


Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 31, 2016, 10:43:08 pm
I finally heard back from  SSA today, via Sen. Murkowski's office.

BAD NEWZ!

SS has "adjusted" down my bennies by fully ONE THIRD  :o, when according to my lawyer my SS Bennies were not supposed to be affected at all by the agreement, which took into account the SS "offset".

While Sen. Murkowski's office can assist me in communications with Social Security, they can't fight them or advocate for me, so looks like I will have to engage the lawyer again.  Since there is no direct benefit to the lawyer for this, I doubtless will have to pay for his assistance, if he even does that sort of fight.  There is an appeal process, which of course takes forever.

This does not put me in any immediate difficulty, since I have a tidy sum in the bank from the settlement, but it does put a crimp in my plans to get on the road out of Alaska next spring.  I am doubtless going to be fighting this thing for the next year at least, and you can't really be on the road while you are doing that.  Gotta keep my address the same so none of the mail gets lost (although it does seem to do that anyhow).

I put in a call to the lawyers office just before writing this post, but it won't be until tomorrow at least before I hear back from him.

This bullshit is getting very tiresome.

RE



You're 59. SS knows this. Being hung out to dry until you're 62 is very real & possible.
AT 62 the Eagle **** the real deal.


They ALSO want me to pay them back a healthy sum for "overpayments" over the last year, unless I get the appeals process started, which of course I will do, either with the lawyer or on my own.  I have 30 days to get that started.  If I don't get it going, then SS will withhold even the reduced payment until this sum is paid off, which gets pretty close to when I am 62.  6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other, I could pay them back or just take nothing and live off my bank account until 62.  I would need to be more penurious though either way.

About the only upside here is if I stop getting SSDI payments, I could try to find some type of work my crippled ass could do for the next couple of years.  What that would be I got no idea though.

Good Newz is I did hear back from the paralegal at the office, and they are on it.  Probably won't hear from the lawyer until Thursday.

RE

 
    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-041115022304.png&hash=cd8cb8e28ab8f7fc78c1ea00d30a661bd937aed5)

I'm sorry to hear of your woes. I hope and pray you will weather this storm well.

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 01, 2016, 10:14:30 pm
I'm sorry to hear of your woes. I hope and pray you will weather this storm well.

I am in OK shape to weather the storm at the moment.

The main thing pissing me off is that I have to put all my plans on hold..again.  I was hoping to move on past this period of my life,, but noooo....  Looks like this will go on a while longer. ::)

RE

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2017, 04:52:10 pm
British Artist Anish Kapoor to Give $1 Million Prize to Refugees (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)

By Yosola Olorunshola| Feb. 8, 2017

Turner-prize winning artist Anish Kapoor has dedicated a $1 million prize to helping refugees around the world.

Dubbed “the Jewish Nobel,” the annual Genesis Prize is awarded to individuals who “have attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields, and who inspire others through their engagement and dedication to the Jewish community and the State of Israel.”

Based in the UK since the 1970s, Kapoor was born in Mumbai to an Iraqi-Jewish mother and an Indian father. Inhabiting an identity that extends across borders, he is a longstanding advocate for those forced to flee their homes. In a statement accepting the award, he said:

“To lose one’s home, one’s land, one’s sense of belonging, is bewildering. All that is left is one’s body … how long before – for so many – even that is lost?”

“I am an artist, not a politician, and I feel I must speak out against indifference for the suffering of others. There are over 60 million refugees in the world today – whatever the geography of displacement, the refugee crisis is right here on our doorstep.”

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/anish-kapoor-refugee-crisis-activism-art-ai-weiwei/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2017, 12:19:35 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300614160245.gif&hash=26cf0af4ea082bdb608bb7b2656d54ec7199969b)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fthankyou.gif&hash=dddf44270b9e7683ff5cbcca041427744de34fe5)

Quote

Support Social Services Block Grant (SSBG)

Organizations in support of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) are currently seeking additional signers to a letter urging Members of Congress to oppose cuts to SSBG. The letter is open to national and state organizations. Your organization may have already signed this last year (we have been keeping this open and updating Congress).
 
SSBG funds vital programs important to babies, children, youth and families, including foster care, child abuse prevention services, child protective services, and child care. It also funds programs important to older individuals and individuals with disabilities.
 
Because of SSBG’s importance to so many in our nation, and because the House Ways and Means Committee voted in 2016 to eliminate SSBG (http://www.cwla.org/same-committee-votes-to-eliminate-ssbg-in-partisan-move/), it is critical the letter have a strong showing from groups on this letter. 1)    Please review the letter and current sign-ons below.

2)    If your organization is not signed on to the letter, please sign on. If your organization is already signed on, you don’t need to do anything else.
 
3)    Share this letter with other national and state organizations that would like to sign-on.
 
For more information, please email John Sciamanna at jsciamanna@cwla.org.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Social Services Block Grant

XX, 2017

Dear Member of Congress:   

Representing a diverse coalition of groups serving vulnerable populations, the undersigned organizations support continued funding of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).  We have strongly opposed previous attempts to cut SSBG and will oppose any efforts to do so in 2017.   

SSBG is a major funder for state and local child abuse prevention services, child protective services (CPS) and it supplements services for adoptions and for services to infants, children and youth in foster care. In some states, it is a significant source of local funding for adult protective services. 

Congress cut SSBG funding when TANF was enacted into law and when funding was needed for a 1998 transportation bill, with the assumption that at some point it would return to its former level of $2.8 billion.  SSBG was never restored.  We are concerned that some members may again propose to use SSBG for deficit reduction or to fund specific human services programs. SSBG funding has already been used to cut the deficit  and rather than using the funds for specific needs identified at the federal level, the strength of the current program lies in its flexibility to allow state and local governments to determine how best to use the funds to meet local needs.   

The champions of SSBG have included the leadership from both parties. In past congresses SSBG has had bipartisan support on both the House Ways and Means committee and the Senate Finance Committee. We hope this will be true again. 

SSBG is a vital and flexible funding source helping children, older adults and people with disabilities in a range of ways. The outcome results for SSBG are clear, in 34 states more caseworkers are available to investigate reports of child abuse and because of SSBG 36 states can provide services for victims of domestic violence and victims of elder abuse.  It supports services for those adults in jeopardy of entering a nursing home or institution and helps to fill the numerous state and local budget gaps in areas as diverse as senior services, mental health services, and services to people with disabilities. SSBG supports children in need of child care, children and youth who have been abused and neglected, foster youth in need of transitional services, and a range of low income individuals and families. Cutting or further targeting SSBG will inevitably harm vulnerable populations.   

The undersigned organizations urge you to protect SSBG.   
   
Sincerely,

The ARC
Alliance for Strong Families and Communities
Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association on Health and Disability
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
American Psychological Association
Americans for Democratic Action
Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance
Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare
Association of University Centers on Disability
Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness, Altarum Institute
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)
Children’s Advocacy Institute
Children’s Defense Fund
Children’s Home Society
Children’s Leadership Council
Child Welfare League of America
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Coalition on Human Needs
Donaldson Adoption Institute
Easter Seals
Elder Justice Coalition
Every Child Matters
First Focus Campaign for Children
Foster Care to Success
Foster Family-based Treatment Association
Futures Without Violence
Generations United
Healthcare Alternative Systems, Inc.
Healthy Teen Network
Humanity Preservation Foundation
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Federations of North America
John Burton Foundation
The Kempe Foundation
LeadingAge
Lutheran Services in America
Meals on Wheels America
Medicare Rights Center
National Adult Day Services Association
National Adult Protective Services Association
National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.
National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds
National Alliance To Advance Adolescent Health
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
National Association for Children's Behavioral Health
National Association of Counsel for Children
National Association of County Human Services Administrators
National Association of Counties
National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP)
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities (NASUAD)
National Center on Adoption and Permanency
National Child Abuse Coalition
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
National Council on Aging
National Crittenton Foundation
National Foster Parent Association
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
National Organization of State Associations for Children
National Respite Coalition
National WIC Association
National Women’s Law Center
Network, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Prevent Child Abuse America
Ray E Helfer Society
Standing Up for Rural America
Voice for Adoption
Woman’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER)
Zero To Three
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.


STATE AND LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

Alabama
Successful Living Center, Alzheimer's Adult Day Care

Alaska
Alaska Behavioral Health Association
Alaska Children’s Trust

Arizona
Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest
Our Family Services
SEAGO/Area Agency on Aging Region VI

Arkansas
Jacksonville Senior Wellness & Activity Center, Inc.

California
Alliance for Children's Rights
Angelus Plaza
Calaveras County Health and Human Services Agency
California Association of Food Banks
California Family Resource Center
California Foster Families, Inc.
Ceres Community Project
Child Abuse Prevention Center
Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento
Children’s Defense Fund--California
Children’s Partnership
County Welfare Directors Association of California
ElderHelp, CA
First Place For Youth
Food For Thought
Foster Care Counts
FosterEd: Santa Cruz County
Fred Finch Youth Center
Home Start, Inc.
IVROP Project ACE
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles
Lake County Office of Education
LeadingAge California
Meals on Wheels California
Meals on Wheels San Diego County
Meals on Wheels Yolo County
Monterey County Department of Social Services
Orange County Social Services
Prevent Child Abuse California
Safe Kids California
San Diego County Office of Education
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Solano County Health & Social Services
SOS Meals on Wheels
Whistlestop's Meals on Wheels

Colorado
The Adoption Exchange
Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners
Boulder County Board of Commissioners
City and County of Denver Department of Human Services
Colorado Counties, Inc.
Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments/Area Agency on Aging
Sharing the Care Campaign of Northern Colorado

Connecticut
Connecticut Alliance of Foster and Adoptive Families, Inc.
Connecticut Association for Human Services

Florida
Athens Community Council on Aging
Children's Home Society of Florida
Fayette Senior Services, Inc.
Meals on Wheels South Florida
Monroe County Social Services
Palm Beach County Human Services
The Poverello Center, Inc.
We CAN Do It!
West Palm Beach Housing Authority

Georgia
Athens Community Council on Aging
Fayette Senior Services, Inc.
Georgia Alliance to End Homelessness
Georgia Alliance to End Homelessness
Senior Citizens Inc.

Hawaii
Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii

Idaho
PATH Idaho

Illinois
Aging Care Connections, Illinois
CJE Senior Life Home Delivered Meals and Kosher To Go
Gift of Hope, Grandparents and Others Raising America's Children
Illinois Collaborative for Youth

Indiana
Children First Center Health Families

Iowa
Lutheran Services in Iowa
Polk County Health Services

Kansas
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging
East Central Kansas Area Agency on Aging
Jayhawk Area Agency on Aging, Inc.
Kansas Association of Area Agencies on Aging & Disabilities
Kansas Children’s Service League
North Central-Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging, Inc.
Northwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging

Kentucky
Children's Alliance Kentucky
Kentucky Youth Advocates

Louisiana
Educational and Treatment Council, Inc.
Kingsley House
Reilly Center for Children and Families, Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge

Maine
Community Concepts Inc
Families and Children Together

Maryland
Adoptions Together/FamilyWorks Together
Advocates for Children and Youth
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
PeterCares House

Massachusetts
Association for Behavioral Healthcare
Children's League of Massachusetts
Community Servings
Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley
Elder Services of Worcester Area, Inc.
Massachusetts Home Care
SeniorCare

Michigan
Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan
Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan
Living Independence For Everyone
Lutheran Social Services of Michigan
Methodist Children's Home Society
Michigan's Children
Senior Resources of West Michigan
Spaulding for Children
Tri-County Office on Aging
United Methodist Community House
Valley Area Agency on Aging

Minnesota
Association of Minnesota Counties
Kandiyohi County Minnesota
Minnesota Association of Area Agencies on Aging
Minnesota Association of County Social Services Administrators
Minnesota Council of Child Caring Agencies
Olmsted County
Olmstead County Community Services
Pope County Human Services
Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota
Ramsey County Board of Commissioners
Southeastern Minnesota Area Agency on Aging
Washington County Community Services Department, Stillwater

Missouri
Bonne Terre Senior Nutrition Center
L & C Ministries
Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging
Missouri Kids First
Senior Citizens Community Center

Montana
Fergus County Council on Aging
The Parenting Place

Nebraska
Southeast District Health Department

New Hampshire
Home Healthcare Hospice and Community Services
Rockingham Nutrition and Meals on Wheels Program
St. Joseph Community Services, Inc.

New Jersey
Community Access Unlimited
Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey
Meals on Wheels of Salem County, Inc.
New Jersey Association of Area Agencies on Aging (NJ4A)
Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey
Union County Advisory Council on Aging

New Mexico
All Faiths
Los Alamos Retired & Senior Organization
New Mexico Voices for Children

New York
Adoption Center of Upstate New York
Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York
Behavioral Health Services North, Inc
LiveOn NY
Meals on Wheels of Chemung County, Inc.
Meals on Wheels of Syracuse

North Carolina
Alamance County Department of Social Services
Anson County Department of Social Services
Burke County North Carolina Department of Social Services
Cabarrus Meals on Wheels, Inc
Catawba County Social Services
Centralina Area Agency on Aging
Children & Family Resource Center, Inc.
Currituck County Department of Social Services
Dare County Department of  Health and Human Services—Social Services Division
Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners
Graham County Department of Social Services
Halifax County Department of Social Services
Jones County Department of Social Services
Lincoln County Department of Social Services
Martin County Department of Social Services
Meals on Wheels Durham
Meals on Wheels North Carolina
Pitt County Council on Aging
Pitt County Department of Social Services
Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina
Richmond County Aging Services
The Jackson County North Carolina Board of Social Services
The North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services
Tyrrell County DSS
Watauga County Department of Social Services
Wilson County NC Board of Social Services

North Dakota
PATH, Inc.
PATH North Dakota, Inc.

Ohio
Ashtabula County Department of Job and Family Services
Consortium Against Adult Abuse(C3A) 5-County Organization
Direction Home Akron Canton
Guernsey County Meals on Wheels
Guernsey County Senior Citizens Center, Inc.
Hancock County Job and Family Services
Hardin County DJFS/PCSA
Jackson County Department of Job and Family Services
Job & Family Services - Marion County
Lorain County Children Services
Lorain County Department of Job and Family Services
Madison County Department of Job and Family Services
Meals on Wheels of Fairfield County
National Association of Social Workers, Ohio Chapter
Neighborhood Alliance
Ohio Area Agency on Aging, Region 3
Ohio Area Agency on Aging, Region 9
Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging
Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies
Ohio Association of Senior Centers-OASC
Ohio Coalition for Adult Protective Services
Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association
Policy Matters Ohio
Public Children Services Association of Ohio
Scioto County Department of Job and Family Services
Seneca County Department of Job and Family Services
SourcePoint

Oklahoma
Areawide Aging Agency, Inc.
Prevent Child Abuse Oklahoma

Oregon
Oregon Association of Area Agencies on Aging & Disabilities- O4AD
Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC)/Oregon Adoption Resource Exchange (OARE)

Pennsylvania
Center in the Park
MANNA (Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance)
Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County
Montco SAAC
Pennsylvania Association of County Human Services Administrators
Philadelphia Senior Center

Rhode Island
Foster Forward
Prevent Child Abuse Rhode Island

South Carolina
Calhoun County Council on Aging
Dillon County Council for the Aging
Hampton County Council on Aging
Senior Resources, Inc.
Union County Council on Aging
York County Council on Aging

Tennessee
Goodwill Homes Community Services, Inc.
Meritan, Inc.
Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee

Texas
Amigos Del Valle, Inc.
Christian Senior Services
Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Texas
Lena Pope
Meals on Wheels Association of Texas
Meals on Wheels of Johnson & Ellis Counties
Meals on Wheels Plus, Inc.
Meals on Wheels Texoma
Meals on Wheels, Inc. of Tarrant Co.
Nutrition and Services for Seniors
Orange Community Action Association
Senior Connect
Texas Foster Family Association
Tri-County Senior Nutrition Project, Inc. DBA Meals on Wheels Texoma

Utah
Children's Services Society
Crossroads Urban Center, Salt Lake City

Vermont
Vermont Association of Area Agencies on Aging

Virginia
FeedMore
LeadingAge Virginia
Valley Program for Aging Services

Washington
Many Lights Foundation
Senior Services for South Sound
Washington Association of Area Agencies on Aging
Washington State Council on Aging

West Virginia
Appalachian Area Agency on Aging

Wisconsin
Waupaca County
Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies
Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association, (WCCAA)
Winnebago County Human Services Department

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 02, 2017, 11:57:10 am
Human Population Growth: The Truth About How Human Activity Threatens The Conditio Sine Qua Non For Our Survival

What Is the Greatest Number of Children Born to One Woman?


As of 2014, the greatest number of children born to one woman was 69. Birth records from the 1700s show that the wife of a Russian peasant named Feodor Vassilyev gave birth 27 times — to four sets of quadruplets, seven sets of triplets and 16 pairs of twins. It was reported that 67 of the 69 children survived past infancy. Vassilyev’s second wife reportedly gave birth to 18 children, which would make him the father of 87 children, with all but three surviving infancy. It has not been proved that the records are true, and some people believe that the numbers might be inaccurate.

More about child birth rates:

Niger is the country with the most births per woman, at an average of 6.16, with more than half of all Nigerian mothers giving birth before age 18.
The greatest number of surviving children born to one woman at one time was eight in 2009 in the United States.

The United Kingdom has the highest rate of childless women older than 45, at more than 20%.


Why Sterilizing the Poorest 50% of Homo Sap Won't Solve ANYTHING!

Brainwashed Propaganda Victims and Fossil Fuelers'  REACTION to the ABOVE: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6961.gif&hash=df13f27d25fd180bcc904f19809e2b35dc3309cf) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F237.gif&hash=13b71d2444f84b15c53fb1c0272c080f48a165f1)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fnocomment.gif&hash=e2062ee03ac013cc64a2d5285ec05dd9510c141b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fbc3.gif&hash=e80a574cef1f1cd31dc58d76fe36b5ffb7fe7d5b) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F290.gif&hash=38949e35cf58eaa4218b5a8176767c806d2f8537)


The "Human Population Must Be Reduced" Propaganda Myth. Why it is a divide and conquer tactic and why it has absolutely no basis in scientific fact.


Quote

"The total biomass of all the ants on Earth is roughly equal to the total biomass of all the people on Earth.

How can this be?! Ants are so tiny, and we are so big! But scientists estimate there are at least 1.5 million ants on the planet for every human being. Over 12,000 species of ants are known to exist, on every continent except Antarctica. Most live in tropical regions. A single acre of Amazon rainforest may house 3.5 million ants."
http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/a/10-cool-facts-about-ants.htm

The Human biomass is tiny compared with thousands of species from insects to spiders to rodents, along with many marine creatures.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

See for yourself the Evidence: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)

I will provide for you a couple of links for you to research but let me give you a brief introduction to earth's biomass pyramid.

You have different trophic levels (life forms that eat other life forms to survive).

The lower you are on the pyramid, the more collective mass you have as a segment of the biosphere. What does that mean?

Here's a quote so you can see where I'm going with this:

Quote
"An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation that shows, for a given ecosystem, the relationship between biomass or biological productivity and trophic levels.

A biomass pyramid shows the amount of biomass at each trophic level.

A productivity pyramid shows the production or turn-over in biomass at each trophic level.

An ecological pyramid provides a snapshot in time of an ecological community.

The bottom of the pyramid represents the primary producers (autotrophs). The primary producers take energy from the environment in the form of sunlight or inorganic chemicals and use it to create energy-rich molecules such as carbohydrates. This mechanism is called primary production. The pyramid then proceeds through the various trophic levels to the apex predators at the top.

When energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next, typically only ten percent is used to build new biomass. The remaining ninety percent goes to metabolic processes or is dissipated as heat. This energy loss means that productivity pyramids are never inverted, and generally limits food chains to about six levels. However, in oceans, biomass pyramids can be wholly or partially inverted, with more biomass at higher levels."


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F8%2F86%2FEcological_pyramid.svg&hash=5e9eb4ac5334727418a703aa8ac02d270cc20f05)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)

Take insects as one example of the Laws of Thermodynamics as applied to life forms in the Biosphere trophic (food chain) pyramids.

In order for insects to BE food for spiders as well as many other creatures, the biomass of insects has to be much, much greater because of the heat energy losses in transferring energy from the insect to the spider (about 90% is lost in heat). The predators (that's what we are, by the way) are at the top of the pyramid and have the least total biomass of all the life forms.

Lions, tigers, sharks, whales, bears, wolves, etc. have a tiny planetary biosphere biomass in comparison with ants, earthworms, rodents, and krill (those tiny shrimp like creatures that whales eat). And the krill eat tiny nearly microscopic phytoplankton (that has more biomass than the ubiquitous krill).

Mollusks, as well as ants and several thousand other species have a larger biomass than humans. I bring up the mollusks because they have a HUGE biomass. I studied them in depth in college Zoology.

The phylum Mollusca:
Quote
"The phylum Mollusca is the second most diverse phylum after Arthropoda with over 110,000 described species. Mollusks may be primitively segmented, but all but the monoplacophorans characteristically lack segmentation and have bodies that are to some degree spirally twisted (e.g. torsion).

The Phylum Mollusca consist of 8 classes:

1. the Monoplacophora discovered in 1977;
2. the worm-like Aplacophora or solenogasters of the deep sea;
3. the also worm-like Caudofoveata;
4. the Polyplacophora, or chitons;
5. the Pelecypoda or bivalves;
6. the Gastropoda or snails;
7. the Scaphopoda, or tusk shells; and
8. the Cephalopoda that include among others squid and the octopus."

Agelbert Note: The biomass pyramid in the oceans in regard to mollusks and fish is NOT inverted. The oceanic "confusion" is due to the fact that some mollusks are apex predators like giant squid and the smaller mollusk predators like Octopodes that eat fish. Most mollusks are small to very small and are food for fish. They are the ones (bivalves near Fukushima) that concentrate radionuclides in their tissues that then get in the fish that eat them.  :( :P

The smaller mollusks (most of them are less than a foot long) are FOOD for fish. That means there HAS TO BE much more of them than there are fish. And I'm sure you don't believe the human biomass is greater than that of all the fish species, right?  ;D
.
Now for some biomass weights:
Human population = 335,000,000,000 kg.
Quote

"Human population = 335,000,000,000 kg. This figure is based on an average human weight of more than 100lbs, though (50kg, to be exact).  I don't know how accurate this estimate is, especially considering that about 1/3 of us are children.  There are supposedly around 1.3 billion cattle in the world, and, put together, they may weigh almost twice as much as our species."

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba =  379,000,000,000 kg.
There are more ants than krill. Also, metabolism plays a role along with biomass. A "million ruby-throated hummingbirds will consume much more food than one African Elephant, even though both have about the same biomass (3,000kg, or 3.3 US tons). 

Thus, ants, as a group, may actually consume more resources per year than antarctic krill, even though both may have roughly the same biomass, because ants tend to be smaller, and live in warmer environments. Although there may be about 10-15 times the biomass of termites than cows in the world, studies have suggested that termites might produce almost 30,000 times as much methane per year because of their faster metabolism."
http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2010/10/do-ants-really-have-the-largest-biomass-of-all-species-on-earth-laurie-usa.html

So how come nobody is hollering about reducing the termite population?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imgion.com%2Fimages%2F01%2FAngry-animated-smiley.jpg&hash=84657bd1a63cad676e3551587daeb4b39411a289)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)


As the article in the quotes above points out, humans are a huge problem, not because of our biomass, but because of our carbon footprint (I.E. the use of fossil fuels!). And guess what portion of our population does over 80% of the Fossil Fuel consumption? You guessed it! The upper 20%!


 Who Done it?   (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/10/one-percents-planetary-assets-equals-80-responsibility-for-funding-a-100-renewable-energy-world) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6656.gif&hash=2038f9b45636a93e5c0f4ee508ce29778fe9e9b4)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260214201233.png&hash=2c784ea86c703de06549ce14091214ff7fc0d461)
The Global Compact: 20% using 80% of the Resources (http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/other/DTIx0601xPA/docs/en/Module2%20-%20Session1.ppt)

To ACTUALLY address, confront and STOP the biosphere damage that Homo Sap is doing, we must face the scientifically confirmed REALITY that  if you get rid of the bottom 50% of the human population (the most poor among us) you will, I'm sorry to say, not even dent the pollution and biosphere destruction.

AS pointed out in the biomass numbers, the amount of people eating and defecating is not the problem, CARBON FOOTPRINT is the threat to a viable biosphere. We must attack that problem by reducing the carbon footprint of the most powerful people on this planet.

NOTHING ELSE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM. The solution, in addition to a 100% transition to Renewable energy, involves eliminating corporate energy welfare queen subsidies for both fossil fuels and nuclear poison.

Democracy and a viable biosphere requires it from all of us. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)

The "let's reduce the human population" (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03) baloney is a divide and conquer tactic to avoid billing the top human pigs (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fpirates5B15D_th.gif&hash=32438e1ed2c4d1823d4ed2a193286525c840a605)  for the damage they do while attempting to give the rest of us a totally unwarranted with ZERO empirical basis ( but VERY clever (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdrphilyerboots.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F05%2Fcherry-picking.jpg&hash=c196a0ec409afacfa8f087d5a4556de272d44c6b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) ) guilt trip. It's a lie. Don't buy it.

What we need to do is transition to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible. That will give our future generations a chance to live in a viable biosphere.

If you agree please pass it on. Also, feel free to visit my forum and post on any subject you wish. Thank you.

 Renewable revolution  (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/index.php?action=forum)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-160614020633.gif&hash=fdf5d23d2c843efabecbe3e36591f441e9e047bc)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 22, 2017, 02:31:17 pm
Knarf, there is no doubt at all in my mind that i am a wanderer even mendicant sort of person.  My supergo likes to imagine I'm a cosmic viking sort of character exploring the unknown edges.  A million bucks in the bank account i'd be go on an expedition every year or so, have a farming homestead, huge library, shop and crazy off grid tinkering projects.  Its what I have shot for in my trajectory, sometimes feeling like i was getting close to it.  My previous girlfriend wanted something similar and was already on a grass fed dairy milking cows.  I clashed with her family, and then her and ulitmately felt controlled and left.  I've held decent paying gigs like an engineer at a power plant, and idealistic jobs like installing renewable energy.  But I always blow out of my path because it doesn't seem fast enough or giving the desired results.  My addiction to the frackers has been no different. From the start i thought it would just take two or three years to stash away enough.  Then the crash came and I just sort of subsisted on intermitent working not saving a fraction of what i'd hoped after three years.  I think part of what has caught me off guard, or at least is scaring me is that for the first time in my life at 34 years old I feel a bit out of gas and energy and ideas and also the wave of external reality hitting me. 

I think the only cause worth dieing for is to help create systems that empower people to drop out and become self sufficient real human beings again.


We are all one, Roamer. It's not about me and it's not about you. I urge you to stop thinking so much and just treat your neighbor as yourself as well as treat all living things as you think will ultimately benefit them.

As Ka says, and I agree,
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210315154750.jpeg&hash=75270f33e13a7d19a309e7a87ec850cff33a2232)


May God Bless and reveal Himself to you.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7WSxu.jpg&hash=07423a3c7048479fa35d5ea8b3fd9cee51e26826)
AG, I know I've been selfish, but i felt compelled to out of survival instincts...  I really do hope to build or do something useful for people once i figure out what.


If your entire motivation has always been survival, you have never actually been selfish. I think you have a good heart and do not now, or ever have before, enjoyed the possibility that others must suffer for you to live well, even if everyone around you claimed that "that's the real world".

The "survival of the fittest", dog eat dog meme has been proven, BY EVOLUTIONIST Scientists, to be an irrational and perverse fig leaf for the defense of the failed evolutionary dead end "apex" predator that eats up his food supply, instead of protecting and nourishing it in order to perpetuate his species.

Unthinking predation exists, but is always subordinate to altruism in defense of the herd in nature.

Of course, Wall Street tries to pretend that truth about how nature ACTUALLY harmoneously works is not so.

 The behavior of a turtle dove doing the broken wing act to save her offspring, even though she may get killed in the process, is altruistic, even if it is instinctive altruism. The mother grizzly that eats her cubs when the food supply is sparse is also NOT selfish because she is acting to preserve her species (she can get pregnant again - if her cubs and her die of hunger, the species suffers).

You have been taught many things that are propaganda about the meanest, smartest most callous individuals being the ones that come out on top in this world. Yes, some of them do. But all of them pay for their behavior sooner of later, despite what you may have heard to the contrary.

I know you don't dig the Bible, but I think, under your current mindset and circumstances  ;), you would get a kick out of reading Ecclesiastes.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b)

It's a short book allegedly written by King Solomon, although some claim that other authors were involved. As you know, King Solomon was loaded, so he pretty much tried EVERYTHING. He was a logical fellow that methodically observed human behavior and cause and effect. He pretty much figured out what makes us tick.  8)

Here's a snippet:

Quote
Ecclesiastes 9 (KJV)

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.

Nick, I think you will do great good in your time.
    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fearthhug.gif&hash=3abcf70466f34337f2d702ebd9e02c650d5c4c20)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 23, 2017, 01:34:49 pm
The Forces Driving Middle-Aged White People's 'Deaths Of Despair'

March 23, 2017 5:00 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

Jessica Boddy

In 2015, when researchers Ann Case and Angus Deaton discovered that death rates had been rising dramatically since 1999 among middle-aged white Americans, they weren't sure why people were dying younger, reversing decades of longer life expectancy.

Now the husband-and-wife economists say they have a better understanding of what's causing these "deaths of despair" by suicide, drugs and alcohol.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-230317134843.png&hash=3472ec1fa676a51dfc9a9a4daf7122e79b220d9e)

In a follow-up to their groundbreaking 2015 work, they say that a lack of steady, well-paying jobs for whites without college degrees has caused pain, distress and social dysfunction to build up over time. The mortality rate for that group, ages 45 to 54, increased by a half-percent each year from 1999 to 2013.

But whites with college degrees haven't suffered the same lack of economic opportunity, and haven't seen the same loss of life expectancy. The study was published Thursday in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.

Case and Deaton, who are both at Princeton University, spoke with NPR's David Greene about what's driving these trends. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Interview Highlights

On the original discovery of rising mortality rates for middle-aged whites


Deaton: Mortality rates have been going down forever. There's been a huge increase in life expectancy and reduction in mortality over 100 years or more, and then for all of this to suddenly go into reverse [for whites aged 45 to 54], we thought it must be wrong. We spent weeks checking out numbers because we just couldn't believe that this could have happened, or that if it had, someone else must have already noticed. It seems like we were right and that no one else had picked it up.

We knew the proximate causes — we know what they were dying from. We knew suicides were going up rapidly, and that overdoses mostly from prescription drugs were going up, and that alcoholic liver disease was going up. The deeper questions were why those were happening — there's obviously some underlying malaise, reasons for which we [didn't] know.

On what's driving these early deaths

Case: These deaths of despair have been accompanied by reduced labor force participation, reduced marriage rates, increases in reports of poor health and poor mental health. So we are beginning to thread a story in that it's possible that [the trend is] consistent with the labor market collapsing for people with less than a college degree. In turn, those people are being less able to form stable marriages, and in turn that has effects on the kind of economic and social supports that people need in order to thrive.

In general, the longer you're in the labor force, the more you earn — in part because you understand your job better and you're more efficient at your job, you've had on-the-job training, you belong to a union, and so your wages go up with age. That's happened less and less the later and later you've been born and the later you enter this labor market.

Deaton: We're thinking of this in terms of something that's been going on for a long time, something that's emerged as the iceberg has risen out of the water. We think of this as part of the decline of the white working class. If you go back to the early '70s when you had the so-called blue-collar aristocrats, those jobs have slowly crumbled away and many more men are finding themselves in a much more hostile labor market with lower wages, lower quality and less permanent jobs. That's made it harder for them to get married. They don't get to know their own kids. There's a lot of social dysfunction building up over time. There's a sense that these people have lost this sense of status and belonging. And these are classic preconditions for suicide.

Case: The rates of suicide are much higher among men [than women]. And drug overdoses and alcohol-related liver death are higher among men, too. But the [mortality] trends are identical for men and women with a high school degree or less. So we think of this as people, either quickly with a gun or slowly with drugs and alcohol, are killing themselves. Under that body count there's a lot of social dysfunction that we think ultimately we may be able to pin to poor job prospects over the life course.

On how mortality rates differ among races   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffc06.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2Ff%2F2009%2F347%2F2%2F6%2FWTF_Smiley_face_by_IveWasHere.jpg&hash=8ca673f8cf785d9dac626f9fd91e37a1a318c7ac)

Deaton: Hispanics [have always had lower mortality rates] than whites. It's a bit of a puzzle that's not fully resolved, to put it mildly. It's always been true that mortality rates have been higher and life expectancy shorter for African Americans than for whites. What is happening now is that gap is closing and, for some groups, it's actually crossed. What we see in the new work is if you compare whites with a high school degree or less, at least their mortality rates are now higher than mortality rates for African Americans as a whole. If you compare whites with a high school degree or less with blacks with a high school degree or less, their mortality rates have converged. It's as if poorly educated whites have now taken over from blacks as the lowest rung of society in terms of mortality rates.

Quote
Agelbert RANT: Since WHEN are "Hispanics" a RACE!!!? Hispanics share some culture but are from ALL RACES! Hispanics are NOT considered a "race", but an ETHNIC GROUP. Yes, "race" is an unscientific concept itself because we are all one species, but the term "race" has always been associated with skin color, NOT CULTURE or LANGUAGE (until Trump, that is). You just read an NPR article making the thoroughly unscientific BACKDOOR allegation that "whites" can not be "Hispanics".  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Fc6492e4b47cfdbd50e74d285fde3c53e%2Ftumblr_inline_mm3g4yCaZc1qz4rgp.gif&hash=4b1cad5ea13f7430a0c01f3065039d21d78da398) What next, the old "one drip of black blood makes you a you know what" revival from a century ago? I guess they've been listening to Trump (Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) said, "What the hell is a white Hispanic?".).  So it goes in our brave new world of racist Trump pseudo science. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

On the geography of mortality rates

Case: There's not a part of the country that has not been touched by this. We like to make the comparison between Nevada and Utah to look at the extent to which good health behaviors lead to longer life. Two thirds of Utahans are Mormons. They don't drink, they don't smoke, and they don't drink tea or coffee. Two thirds of Nevadans live in Las Vegas paradise, where there is a little more of everything, so the heart disease mortality rates are twice as high in Nevada as they are in Utah.

But both states are [in the] top 10 for deaths of despair. Utah has had a terrifically hard time dealing with the opioid crisis, and suicide rates [are] going up as well. There's a lot of surprise here in parts of the country that we weren't really expecting to see.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/23/521083335/the-forces-driving-middle-aged-white-peoples-deaths-of-despair
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 13, 2017, 10:15:09 pm

Bad Newz.  :(

I got a second rejection on my appeal to Alaska Legal Services to get some representation for my SS Hearing.  So I am now once again left twisting in the wind.  I can make a 3rd Appeal to the Executive Director but I suspect it will be the same result.

So next week I am going to try a new tactic of walking in to a local lawyer's office for a consultaion, and not telling them what the case is until I am actually face to face with the scum sucking bottom feeder.  I'll pay for the hour of his valuable time.

If that doesn't work, it's time for the Nuclear Option.  I'll make an appointment with the Newz Editor of the Frontiersman and see if I can get them to do a story about this.  Perhaps that will get me a lawyer, and at least it will give a lot of Bad Publicity to SS, the Dimwit who took over for Colleen at Sen. Murkowski's Office and the Legal System and Bar Association of Alaska.

I'll probably lose the appeal anyhow, so there isn't much in the way of downside risk.  If I do lose the Appeal, I can still appeal again to the Federal Circuit Court.  That will drag it out another year at least.

The worst case scenario is I will have to cough up $10K to pay SS the clawback they want for "overpayments"  ::) , and continue to live on the current reduced income until I turn 62, at which time I believe my SSI turns to SSR and I SHOULD get back to the original payment amount.  I haven't been able to verify that though, SSA doesn't respond to my queries on this sent by Snail Mail.

I'm in no danger at the moment of ending up as a Homeless Cripple  Freezing to Death on the Streets of Palmer, Alaska ©,  I have just about enough to meet my monthly bills without dipping into my savings, and so far according to both my WC lawyer and HR Block, there is no tax liability on my WC settlement. The IRS accepted my Tax Return far as I know, though it can take months and sometimes up to 3 years before they whack you with an audit.  After 3 years they can't question it long as you filed a return.  Even reduced by $10K it's a good buffer, more than I had when I went the first 7 months with no income.  So as long as the monetary system doesn't crap out, I should be OK until the Nukes start flying in.  If the monetary system does crash, everybody will be in the same deep pile of **** as me, so I don't worry about that.  I will have met my goal of lasting long enough to see it all go down in flames before I Buy My Ticket to the Great Beyond. ©

RE (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frs717.pbsrc.com%2Falbums%2Fww173%2Fprestonjjrtr%2FGet%2520Well%2Fwheelchair.gif%7Ec200&hash=6fc8a2fd411447564ae93c19bc7c6d73e78f2fda)



Here....

http://law.freeadvice.com/government_law/social_security_law/ (http://law.freeadvice.com/government_law/social_security_law/)

I've been to that site.  They don't list any lawyers handling SS cases in Alaska.

RE

Bummer. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2955.gif&hash=ddc12d8bdb1bc63b7998a6b086b79a71b7bda755)

Here in Vermont, the moment they figured out Trump was going to ax programs that helped the poor, aged and disabled, they went into overdrive to make sure Vermonters don't suffer because of Trump's inhumanity. They collected $50,000 in just a few weeks so nobody would miss any meals on wheels service this year. Needless to say, the Republicans here don't have any use for Trump whatsoevah.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) ;D

But, I understand Alaska is a bit different.  :(

Keep us posted. I hope and pray for the best outcome for you.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 22, 2017, 02:59:31 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohio.com%2Fpolopoly_fs%2F1.468694.1393211012%21%2Fimage%2Fimage.jpg_gen%2Fderivatives%2Flandscape_500%2Fhist24cut.jpg&hash=46f6e42c73226567b54e78c5e9f0f3ed94cd8547)

As you folks know, I am now engaged in another "appeal"   ::) to Alaska Legal Services to get representation on the SSA case, which I fully expect to fail.  The first appeal was to the Asst. Director, who works in the same office as the Executive Director and I am certain consulted with her before rejecting the first appeal.  Very unlikely the Executive Director will countermand the Asst. Director on this.  Cupla Girlfriends who have lunch together every day of course.

Originally, I was rejected when I first applied because my assets were too high for this free legal service for poor people.  The reason they were too high was because of the one time award I got from Workman's Compensation, which is precisely what this whole case is about!

In this second rejection, an entirely NEW reason was given, that due to their "limited resources", they can't represent me.  This doesn't surprise me much, given they probably have an overwhelming caseload of poor people with worse problems than I got.

I'm still not quitting on trying to get an attorney though, what I am doing now is some documentation of my attempts to GET an attorney, so that when I go into the hearing WITHOUT one, I can claim my right to representation (which SS themselves informed me I have) and show that I made every attempt to do so.  I will represent myself under duress.  Then the hearing becomes unconstitutional from the get-go and I can file an appeal in the Circuit Court of Appeals on Constitutional grounds. That can go to the **** Supreme Court!  I can face down Neil Gorsuch!  lol.

So, even though I already know after 2 phone calls to the Alaska Bar Association that they have no lawyers listed in their referals who take SS cases, I am sending them a Snail Mail letter requesting that once again this way.  They will reply to me they have no lawyers to refer.  BLAM, that goes in my case file, along with the rejection letter from ALS AND the requests for a Court Appointed attorney sent to SSA which they never responded to.

Now for some really GOOD NEWZ!  :icon_sunny:

Even better than all of this is that tonight I decide to research the Offset Law as pertains to Alaska, and I FOUND the specific case law that applies to my case!  It's SSA's OWN document off THEIR website! Here's the URL if you want to read all 9 pages.

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/1502505002 (https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/1502505002)

Here are the relevant paragraphs:

Quote
CONCLUSION

It is our opinion that the Agency should recognize Alaska's reverse offset provision that was enacted in 1977. See AS § 23.30.225(b). However, the Agency should ignore the additional provision that the Alaska legislature enacted in 1988. See AS § 23.30.225(c). The Agency should disregard the August 1977 Regional Attorney opinion, and should no longer implement the federal offset computation under 42 U.S.C. § 424a(a). Therefore, the Agency should change the current POMS guidance as Ms. H~. has requested. See POMS DI § 52120.010(A).

a. Alaska WC Payment Types That Meet the Federal Offset Exemption: Temporary Total, Temporary Partial, and Permanent Total

The Alaska legislature enacted its provisions for temporary total, temporary partial, and permanent total WC payments in 1959. See AS §§ 23.30.180, 23.30.185, 23.30.200; and SLA 1959, ch. 193, §§ 7(1-2), 7(5). The Alaska legislature amended these provisions twice after February 1981, namely, in 1983 and 1988. See SLA 1983, ch. 70, §§ 5-6, 8; SLA 1988, ch. 79, §§ 31-33, 35-36. However, these amendments did not affect the reverse offset provision already enacted in 1977. See AS § 23.30.225(b); and SLA 1977, ch. 75, § 9./ Accordingly, we believe that these WC payment types meet the federal offset exemption, and the agency should implement Alaska's reverse offset when processing disability cases involving these WC payments.

CONCLUSION

It is our opinion that the agency should implement Alaska's reverse offset when computing temporary total, temporary partial, and permanent total WC payments. However, the agency should ignore Alaska's reverse offset when computing permanent partial impairment and reemployment/vocational rehabilitation benefits.

Besides all that, I don't actually receive any benefits from the State of Alaska.  The entire settlement was paid for by a PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANY!  All WC did was mediate the settlement!

I am going in there with a **** BULLETPROOF CASE!  I am going to have a reporter there from the Frontiersman.  I will record on video also if possible, in full Trotsky RE getup!  :icon_mrgreen:  I will SMOKE these motherfuckers!

Clarence Darrow RE is BORN!  ;D

 RE
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fclassroomclipart.com%2Fimages%2Fgallery%2FPeople%2FHistorical_Personalities%2FTN_Darrow-Clarence-portrait-photo-image.jpg&hash=51fc3cad014d03144b827a0789153f133563fbf4)
GO FOR IT!
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2017, 06:54:24 pm
What could be more important for a healthy psychology than a sense of purpose?  Without purpose what type of a life can be lived?  Purpose is not something that you can fool yourself into either.  I'm not referring to the purpose of family life.  If you are married, your purpose can be to be a good spouse, and if you have kids, your purpose can be to be a good parent to your children.  Those things are purpose with a lower case "p."  They are important, but we all have our own unique purpose for being here.  Or do we?

That statement is one of belief.  I want to believe that there is a purpose for me and everybody else on Earth.  To believe otherwise seems to be the germination of Nihilism.  If there is no purpose to my life than there is no purpose to anything else. 

The things that I am advocating for in my life are important.  Specifically I'm referring to Bamboo and Permaculture.  For me the two go hand in hand.  Both are fringe topics.  Permaculture comes from the margins of society.  My favorite principle is the 11th one: use edges and value the marginal.  Permaculture itself is marginal in our society, and within that margin, on the margin of Permaculture, bamboo is there.  Even in the Permaculture community bamboo is seen mostly as just another invasive.  It's the most useful plant to our species that grows on this planet.  How is it that it is such a hatted plant?  I believe this hatred goes directly to the root of our anti-cultures dysfunction.  That dysfunction begins with privacy fences on property lines.  Property lines being the main dysfunction (closely tied up with money of course).  Bamboo does not respect property lines.  It goes right under fences, and with enough time will cross a road bed.  It's also the most useful plant to our species!  Yet in our anti-culture it is the most hated!  Why!!!  Are we ultimately an anti-culture composed of sadist and masochist? 

Then there is Permaculture itself.  It's antithetical to the conventional suburban landscape of monocultured grass and shrubbery, just as bamboo is. 

My purpose is to advance bamboo and Permaculture into our anti-culture in an effort to do what needs to be done for a life of lower per capita energy.  Because we will eventually get that life, if they don't blow us all up with the "mother of all bombs" first.  Yet, holding that purpose I go forth with small engines to make money managing the typical suburban landscape.  The "greatest misallocation of wealth in the history of the world." 

I'm all the time fighting to advance the usefulness of bamboo and permaculture all while pouring gasoline into my hemi and mower and plethora of other small engines.  I burn gasoline everyday to make money.  We all do this in the working first world.  We have to.  I have no choice.  But why?  You never end up with enough money either.  Everybody works because they need money, and we all come up short and use credit.  Extend and pretend goes all the way to the lowest level of poverty that's just above mailbox money.  Many times in the recent past I have said "what's the **** point in working so hard?"  My efforts are met by more financial obligations, and there is never enough money no matter how much I make.  Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up and just being a shitbag in line for some mailbox money. 

I'm told that what I am doing is of the utmost importance.  "The world needs you," my mentor says.  The world needs me because of my unique understanding and knowledge on bamboo.  Apparently the world is hungry for bamboo experts.  It's a similar story with permaculture.  The world needs me for that as well...to advance that sanity.  This must be a tired old story that has always been throughout all of the ages.  That which is most important gets pushed to the margins, and hated...or at the very least ignored.  Money is repelled by importance.  The more important something is the less money is available for it. 

I'm struck lately by how this works.  What I'm doing is so important and yet I have to spend the majority of my time worried about acquiring money.  It seems to me that if what I'm doing is so important then I should not be worried about money.  If it's so important then where is all of the money that should be helping to advance these causes?  It makes my life feel like a delusion. 

I have been struggling lately to maintain a belief in purpose.  My destiny is bamboo, and I'm starting to wonder if that's a good thing?  My destiny is hated by the majority of our anti-culture.  Out here on the furthest reaches of the margins, where even the marginal argue my cause...it is lonely.  I've begun developing a hatred for my species and it's ignorance and stupidity.  My vital energy has been declining.  I'm growing tired of the fight. 

Me too. However, we all make a series of decisions in life that require that we honor the good ones and learn not to repeat the bad ones as we live, observe and learn.

Nurturing the lives of those that depend on you is part of the package for you, as it is for me and Eddie. It ain't always a lot of fun, but it is part of your purpose in life. A horse drawing a cart with his family in it would be a type of metaphor for anybody that starts a family. It has become part of your responsibility to haul that cart.

RE says the main thing is to respect oneself. Well, I CANNOT DO THAT if I act irresponsibly. RE's argument to Eddie ignores the fact that being a provider is part and parcel of Eddie's self worth calculus, as it is mine and yours. We can't just ignore what we have contracted responsibly for. RE didn't make that contract, so he has, technically speaking, a lower threshold of physical requirements that he must meet to continue respecting himself.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2FBanane21.gif&hash=ea8aefd6edec2a8f8e52b83aa2874cd9f97fe9ae)

LD, in regard to your purpose in permaculture work and bamboo growing efforts, I think what is getting you down is a low level of peer group acceptance (we all have to deal Maslow's hierarchy) from humans around you that you interpret correctly as lack of respect for your efforts on behalf of the biosphere.

Furthermore, you are keenly ware of the vital importance of those activities you engage in for the future of mankind in general and your offspring in particular.

Your anger at the willful and destructive ignorance of humans who do not value such activities, while they value highly some commercial baloney or feel good propaganda, is a logical and reasonable threat response being activated. The fact that you see that anger as being misanthropic is normal. When I first began to feel that way, I felt the same.

But now I realize that it is NOT because I "hate" those dummies that I get angry. On the contrary, it is because you (and I) CARE for them that you/we get angry.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ficare.gif&hash=7a81c13fb045a57fc456f34661fddcf04dbfe8b7)

True, nothing I said will make you feel any better. I know because I'm where you are quite often.

The only thing I recommend that may offer you some justification for everything you do that is good (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)is considering what would happen if, all of a sudden, you weren't there?

You may, as I have often done, wish that you had never been born. But more likely, you will see, as I have also done when I thought about it for a while, all the BAD STUFF that would have happened if you were not there to prevent it from happening.

Therefore, my friend and brother, I ask you to do what is, and always has been, very hard for me to do. YET, somehow, I have managed to do it (see below).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270317142022.png&hash=cc4dab8ff3e2d5b51acc393917751d9837eaf785)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2017, 07:43:18 pm
Hear, hear!

  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221317.gif&hash=b7f6a2e1f9fabc79701fbc947c13b6d7eb254a07)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2017, 10:54:12 pm
RE didn't make that contract, so he has, technically speaking, a lower threshold of physical requirements that he must meet to continue respecting himself.

Actually, it's a higher threshold.  A monast has nobody else to blame his shortcomings on, and nobody to comfort him and love him when he makes mistakes.  Married people share these burdens, they don't have to bear them alone.  It's why solitary individuals are far more likely to commit suicide.  It's a much higher calling and more difficult path to follow than marriage.

RE

The perceived ability to pass the buck on perceived lack of success in marriage and family is an illusion. Yes, some people certainly do that. But single people can do that too with their peer group, society, etc.
Honest people, be they married or single, have the same principles.

I do agree with you that single people are more likely to off themselves. But this stat is unrelated to the ease, or lack of it, of providing food, shelter and clothing. It is simply due to the fact that humans are social beings wired to live, care for, and depend on, each other in social groups. Your ability to remain stable and at peace with your accomplishments or lack of them in your life is certainly more challenging when you rely only on yourself for assessing your value as a human.

All that said, the fact that you are single, does NOT mean you are not dependent on others for peer group acceptance. For you to claim that you need no moral support, or feel you are independent of the need to provide any, just ain't so. You HELPED LD because you CARE. That means you are LINKED emotionally to LD's success in life. You are, in effect, a PART of that social group, even though you live by yourself.

I'll go further. I'll say that, despite your claim to have an ego the size of Mount Everest, you would suffer from depression and lack of self esteem if LD failed in life. Your skin ain't all that thick, RE. And that is one of the reasons I remain your friend after having some heavy duty arguments with your over the years.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185441.png&hash=26743778f1a536d8268441c8736c8a6b4cec217b)

You hide it pretty well most of the time, but you are as much a slave of ethical behavior and the responsibility to treat others with respect as I have ever been. GOOD FOR YOU!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 26, 2017, 08:02:09 pm
Knarf said,
Quote
So it matters not your station in life, but what you do with it.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FHjPbLbmep2aJO%2Fgiphy.gif&hash=3c7f7703f00cb341d3e9bdba607208d4204a294c)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 26, 2017, 08:05:17 pm

Well, RE, while you are singing solitary man, I'll sing my song too!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185047.png&hash=384024358ff8d5e7133d19b6e6638da4584a8154)

https://youtu.be/kNjU-E0JjqE
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 05, 2017, 08:41:44 pm
You are not your body: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) Janine Shepherd at TEDxKC

https://youtu.be/bX32U_hfri4

Published on Oct 1, 2012

We often define ourselves by things that are "outside" us: relationships, work, family — even our own bodies. But what would it mean to have your life dramatically altered and your body irrevocably damaged? Who would you be then? This talk explores the impact of loss on the human psyche and the universal quest to find meaning and fulfillment. It is only through the process of losing everything we thought we needed that we find who we truly are.

BIOGRAPHY

Janine Shepherd is a walking paraplegic; she is also a qualified pilot and aerobatics instructor
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7), international speaker and author. Once voted as one of the world's most outstanding and inspirational people, Janine devotes her professional life to empowering others to overcome adversity.

www.janineshepherd.com
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 18, 2017, 05:25:08 pm
May God Bless you and your family and heal you of your afflictions, my friend. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040716230142.jpeg&hash=e3e3e3018263d5b26d55382ceaec3f28aac961b9)
Thank you very much for your sentiments.  God has already blessed me greatly.  I count well over 1000 people praying for me.  I am also blessed, for now, to have health insurance that nominally pays 80% of my costs and in actuality is cutting my costs well over 95%.   I am also blessed to live where I can get cancer treatment within daily commuting distance.  I am also very blessed to have an extremely supportive family, especially my wife.  I am also blessed to currently live in a functioning global economy where I can buy products like organic coconut oil to speed my healing. My afflictions pale in comparison.

You are most welcome.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl2.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1225%2F1225662m3squ1oj6v.gif&hash=04764acd98565ded05a519757ede60e502342499)  You are a credit to a life well lived as a servant of God.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl5.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F3328%2F3328805eipbi6o30e.gif&hash=6b47effe687cb862012c19507f1979f43ff67a02)
Title: Re: In the Interest of Harmony Among People With Different Beliefs
Post by: AGelbert on June 23, 2017, 02:40:26 pm
https://youtu.be/_WyN7B0e93g


Published on Jun 18, 2017

Pastor: New Film Makes Steve McQueen’s Wish About Christ Come True
Legendary actor Steve McQueen returned to the screen Sunday before an audience of 38,000 packed into a Phoenix stadium for the Harvest America Crusade as Pastor Greg Laurie shared the most important part of McQueen’s saga.

Laurie, a McQueen fan whose book, Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon has now been made into a documentary, gave the audience a preview of his film.

“I thought this is a story that needs to be told,” Laurie said. “It’s a story McQueen, in his own words, worried he’d never be able to share with the world. Now, almost 40 years after his step into heaven, he’ll finally get the chance.”“And one thing Steve said before he died was, ‘My only regret in life is that I was not able to tell people about what Christ did for me,'” he added.

McQueen, who starred in more than two dozen films from 1953-1980, died in 1980 at the age of 50 from mesothelioma.

“In a significant turn toward the end of his life, ironically, just before he found out that he had cancer and while still the top movie star on earth, Steve did something that showed me that he really was ‘the coolest of them all.’ He put his faith in God and became a believer in Jesus Christ,” said Laurie.

“He was simultaneously the most unlikely and then again maybe the most likely person to come to faith in God,” Laurie said.

Despite being one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood at the peak of his career — and one of its highest-paid — Laurie said McQueen sought out a spiritual significance in his life.

“When you’ve experienced everything that this culture offers, you will see how empty it is,” Laurie said. “That was true of Steve: He had it all, but something was missing, and that led him to a little church in Santa Paula, California, where he heard the message of Jesus Christ for maybe the first time in a way he understood it.”

Laurie said McQueen’s experience was like that of many others: He asked a church-going friend if they could attend church together. In this case, Laurie noted, the friend was flight instructor Sammy Mason, who was teaching McQueen to fly a biplane.Leonard DeWitt, the pastor of Ventura Missionary Church at the time, helped McQueen accept Christ, Laurie said.

“I know this because Pastor DeWitt met with Steve maybe a month after that, and they had a long discussion where the pastor answered a lot of Steve’s questions,” Laurie said. “The pastor asked Steve, ‘Have you become a born-again Christian?’ And Steve said he had.”

Laurie said there is a message in McQueen’s journey.

“Steve had the statistical cards stacked against him — no father in his life, an alcoholic mother who really didn’t have time for him,” Laurie said. “The fame and all the power he acquired actually, in some ways, made his life worse. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire.

“He could have ended up overdosing on drugs or killed behind the wheel of an automobile, but yet he made his way to hear the gospel and so I think the takeaway truth is, ‘Wow, if God can reach someone like Steve, he can certainly reach me,’” he said.

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.

Top comments

Ray Piper 5 days ago
I was a street fighting heavy drinker all through the first 35 yrs of my life....25yrs ago by pure chance I found myself at a large Christian rally in a tent filled with a thousand people....at first when a old man was preaching I struggled to understand then I clearly heard the words.  if your yoke is heavy take mine for it is light ....in a flash I understood ....I crawled my way. out of the tent literally on my hands and knees and under some stacks of benches and cried for what seemed like hours. ..I ended up back inside and joined those at the front to give my life to the lord..all the pain and ignorance had been lifted in a instance  .....I  relearned how to live through Christ's example
......I am not a churchgoer or bible basher but live my life as a spiritual grown up .....the drinking and violence stopped that day....thank you Jesus .
Read more
Reply 223     
View all 56 replies


Simon Nicklin 43 minutes ago
Thank you, that is a wonderful testimony.
Reply 4   
 

South American 23 minutes ago
Ray Piper:....We have similarities,....I also had an exiting background,...only diff. is that since birth I always believed in God and Jesus,....but in my Ignorant and irresponsible youth I sinned a lot , I have my way to obtain ...redemption and you have yours...........................good luck.
Reply     

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 30, 2017, 09:40:00 pm
I See Dead People: Dreams and Visions of the Dying

 Dr. Christopher Kerr | TEDxBuffalo

https://youtu.be/rbnBe-vXGQM

Published on Dec 2, 2015

Dr. Christopher Kerr speaks at a 2015 TEDx event Buffalo, New York.

Dr. Christopher W. Kerr is the Chief Medical Officer at The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, where he has worked since 1999. His background in research has evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patients’ dreams and visions at the end of life.

Although medically ignored, these near universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning as well as insight into the life led and the death anticipated.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 10, 2017, 09:57:49 pm
I am super weak and can't focus my brain on anything.  I do not think I will make it down to the Total Eclipse of the SUN☼ now.

I can't think of anything I want to write for the Diner anymore.  That alone tells me I am on my way to the Great Beyond.  I have some videos in the can I am going to try to get up on YouTube.  My self-obituary is in the Drafts on the Blog.  I sent out some additional copies of my Will earlier today to Eddie & K-Dog here on the Diner plus my friend Brian in Couer d'Alene, ID and my sister in Springfield MO.

As of right now, I am going to die in one of 4 places I shuffle/limp/crawl to around my digs.  I make a little circle that goes from the Bed to the Throne in the Bathroom to my Office Chair to the Chair out on the porch where I go to smoke a Cancerette.  I never got cancer though!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)  Anyhow, as I said before, this is a good place to die.  It was perfect for me these last 3 years in retirement.

I am not going to go to hospital now.  My medicaid was cut off for some unknown reason and my medicare doesn't kick in until Sep 1st.  I'm not going to have my Nest Egg for SUN☼ eaten up by the sick care industry in a stupid attempt to keep this broken meat package ticking for another day.  I don't want to live inside it anymore anyhow.

I know I have been even more insufferable than usual over the last few weeks.  The process of dying kind of irritates you.   My apologies for this.  I do wish all the Diners all the best as Collapse makes its inexorable progress forward.  I'll keep my eye on all of you from my new perch on the 50 yard line of the Great Beyond.


SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

RE

Dedicated to my Friend RE.

I too am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean. a vapor in the wind. Still, God hears me when I'm calling, and it is my prayer that He will hear you too.


https://youtu.be/NWeEYKqAdQ8
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 11, 2017, 01:33:30 pm
I am super weak and can't focus my brain on anything.  I do not think I will make it down to the Total Eclipse of the SUN☼ now.

I can't think of anything I want to write for the Diner anymore.  That alone tells me I am on my way to the Great Beyond.  I have some videos in the can I am going to try to get up on YouTube.  My self-obituary is in the Drafts on the Blog.  I sent out some additional copies of my Will earlier today to Eddie & K-Dog here on the Diner plus my friend Brian in Couer d'Alene, ID and my sister in Springfield MO.

As of right now, I am going to die in one of 4 places I shuffle/limp/crawl to around my digs.  I make a little circle that goes from the Bed to the Throne in the Bathroom to my Office Chair to the Chair out on the porch where I go to smoke a Cancerette.  I never got cancer though!  :icon_sunny:  Anyhow, as I said before, this is a good place to die.  It was perfect for me these last 3 years in retirement.

I am not going to go to hospital now.  My medicaid was cut off for some unknown reason and my medicare doesn't kick in until Sep 1st.  I'm not going to have my Nest Egg for SUN☼ eaten up by the sick care industry in a stupid attempt to keep this broken meat package ticking for another day.  I don't want to live inside it anymore anyhow.

I know I have been even more insufferable than usual over the last few weeks.  The process of dying kind of irritates you.   My apologies for this.  I do wish all the Diners all the best as Collapse makes its inexorable progress forward.  I'll keep my eye on all of you from my new perch on the 50 yard line of the Great Beyond.


SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

RE

Dedicated to my Friend RE.

I too am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean. a vapor in the wind. Still, God hears me when I'm calling, and it is my prayer that He will hear you too.


https://youtu.be/NWeEYKqAdQ8 (https://youtu.be/NWeEYKqAdQ8)


Thanks AG.  Your friendship means a lot to me.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)


I may still make it through this episode, and perhaps the long saga of the Diner will continue a bit longer.  We'll see.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191404.bmp&hash=007a2c20b76f970316a559a6e27cfd70c11f5998)

RE

You are welcome, bro. At any rate, neither of us is going to be around in the valley of tears much longer. So, though we have much to daily be thankfull for in this life, it is prudent to live each day as if it may be the end of this short experience and the beginning of a much better experience (see below).

https://youtu.be/wBxoqZ_GlE8

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-150614143022.gif&hash=cefa56b01f6368056a7f3e6a8b68104f0bf14b40)
       
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 11, 2017, 07:31:11 pm
RE,
I want to touch base with you on cogntive issues. I am having a lot of toruble speeling words that I am well acquainted with. It seems like a form of dyslexia or the beginning of Parkinsosn. I don't know but I'm making more and moe mistakes on the keyboard too. I mean, how many times do I have to write common words like "believe" and "neither" and "weird", etc. to stop having to think about whetehr I am spelling them right?  :icon_scratch:

In short, I am having cognitive problems.  :(  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03)


Is that how it is with you, or is it ti totally different?


No, I'm not having trouble spelling as far as I can tell although my keyboard speed is much slower.  It's more a short term memory issue.  I will get up from my chair to go do something, but then before I do it I have forgotten what I wanted to do.  So then I go back and sit down and a few minutes later it comes back to me.  Then I get up again to do it and forget again.  Rinse & Repeat.

Then I have developed this huge fear of misplacing or losing my keys, phone and wallet.  I don't want to go anywhere because I think I will forget one of them.  I had an episode at Home Depot when I got back to my car to go home I couldn't find my keys in the pocket I usually store keys when out and about, and I panicked.  I tapped all my other pockets and they didn't seem to be there either.  I was about to go back into HD to have them search the store or call a locksmith to get me into the vehicle.  I have another key stored inside.  But then at the last minute I found the keys in a little pocket I don't usually use in my sweatshirt.  PHEW!

Other than that, the issues are more physical than mental.  Every little task is exhausting.  Stuff like cutting up the veggies took ages because I keep having to go sit down to rest.  I don't want to get out of my chair to do anything.

Also, nothing gives me any pleasure anymore, not eating or drinking or smoking.  In fact all of them are chores I don't want to do also.

Excretion is a chore.  Fortunately, I still wake up when the call of nature comes so I don't wet the bed, but then I have to drag myself from the bed to the throne.  Then on the other side, when I get the call of nature there, I have maybe 30 seconds to make it to the throne or there will be poopy pants.

All in all, this is a very unpleasant way to live.

RE


I agree those are VERY unpleasant experiences. Thanks for the info. I didn't mention it, but I have similar short term memory problems, though not more than once a week or so.   It is very frustrating.  I have a timer software clock to remind me of paying bills and updating passwords and such. That helps somewhat. I'm still walking on the treadmill five days a week and still do enjoy the taste of food. I am also relatively pain free.

But if my mind goes (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fp8.gif&hash=34db9228a959b3b83fc65b38a1aa92a40d56f976), what good is health? The upside is, of course, that if my mind goes, past a certain point, I won't even know it. :D

But then I would be a huge burden for my wife.  :( I've told her that if that happens, just put a harness on me and a leash to keep me out of trouble! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fugly004.gif&hash=c56db4280057389afd154a1cb4057410151579c8)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 14, 2017, 05:04:55 pm
Agelbert Note: A fascinating trip to the other side and back. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F7428.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F03%2FSunflower-and-Butterfly-Vector.jpg&hash=dfafca178136dffdfa54e3abc2171ecd4f72ca61)


Kimberly Sharp - Beyond the Body but not Over the Line: NDEs and OBEs

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fekladata.com%2FTgmMA5n4jBQyhAPS8E_FC-qEEog.jpg&hash=a311a75ecd3af4e4828b32353ce9bcd78c3ee981)
Quote
"Where Mountains met Water."

https://youtu.be/CEo_b-a8XUA

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quotehd.com%2Fimagequotes%2Fauthors40%2Fa-c-benson-author-very-often-a-change-of-self-is-needed-more-than-a.jpg&hash=7ed814408b29cb5c1d873a5001b6452c867fd3d2)

Published on Aug 8, 2013
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 04, 2017, 06:54:13 pm
Remind me again where your mortal remains are to be interred....or where the monument will be, if you don't want the box? I'm taking a pass on being boxed.

Since it isn't legal to compost me in the garden (my preference) I suppose I'll go for the oven. Sky burial wouldn't be bad....


Originally I was going to go with cremation to keep it cheap sending my meat suit back to MO, but then I figured why should I deprive the worms of a meal?  Also why waste all that fuel to burn me up? The traditional burial recycles my remains, plus I found out with this type of burial I also get a crypt or vault made of concrete (I am requesting basalt rebar be used) the casket gets dropped into.  Costs an additional $1100, already paid for.  It's 3' X 9' so there is plenty of room in it to drop whatever I want besides my corpse into the crypt.  So I am not limited to the time capsules I have embedded in the stones.  I will be dropping The Book of the Diner printed on fine 100% Cotton rag acid free paper vacuum sealed in plastic with oxygen absorbers in aluminum file cases and filled with beeswax, then encased in a wooden Pirates Chest at my feet, also filled with beeswax.  The chest is soaked in linseed oil and painted with 9 layers of polyurethane on sealing.

The limited run First Edition of The Book of the Diner in Leather Bound Hardcover will be available at the Funeral with signed copies, assuming I get them before I croak.  SUN☼ University Publishing will print enough copies for all regular Diners, plus some Lurkers from the Blog.  Digital Copies on DVD-R will be available as well for anyone who shows up.  The Funeral will also feature a fine Buffet and a great soundtrack of Doom Themed music. 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)
(https://images10.newegg.com/ProductImage/A00Y_1_20130412141697161.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepirateslair.com%2Fimages%2Fantique-steamer-trunk%2F232-jenny-lind.jpg&hash=4f2394aad16f5fd8430c29a37da9e8791d73b143)

The remains of my Meat Suit will rest for All Eternity at North Greenlawn Cemetery in Springfield, MO, a stone's throw from where my mom is buried.  You won't be able to miss the Tombstone if it is still standing, it's very distinctive.   :icon_sunny:  If Greenlawn happens to be the site of Carpet Bombing or a Nuke dropped by the NKs and you can't make out the landmarks and my Tombstone is destroyed, it's at 37.263847N, -93.277334W.

[smg id=4020 type=preview align=center caption="Cemetary My Plot 2sm"]

SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

RE

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fdying.gif&hash=8a81cd554b4f2e54035bd9343758bbced01701ac)           (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221017161839.png&hash=7d34712243960aa20883775dad728bc2115ed6fe)
       
RE reaches the other side and immediately starts asking questions:  ;D

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191117164025.png&hash=5dfac6bb0f07d44c48dd26527cd49fa2af0ac999)
Apologies to John McPherson for Agelbert Fair Use Cartoon tampering.  ;D



Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 05, 2017, 01:15:10 pm
RE reaches the other side and immediately starts asking questions:  ;D

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191117164025.png&hash=5dfac6bb0f07d44c48dd26527cd49fa2af0ac999)
Apologies to John McPherson for Agelbert Fair Use Cartoon tampering.  ;D

I definitely will be Grilling God after I pass through the Pearly Gates.

If he doesn't give me some solid answers and tries to weasel out with Ad Hom argument or Appeals to (his own) Authority, I will Napalm the Living s h i t out of Him. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)

I am currently looking for an ISP with a High Speed connection to the Great Beyond.

RE


 ;D The great argument (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817124926.gif&hash=19239c1de105aba8c59dd4d25b4f33d4c6f2f81d) between God and RE (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27) is something I definitely hope to be present for. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135517.gif&hash=997b4c75489bfb5769fd6cb69861fab64829e25a)

I recommend you use your napalm judiciously.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2544.gif&hash=3eebdffc763448f0b2a411f423f3095098566d10)

I predict your desire for communication with the Valley of Tears will cease as soon as you get up there and see the big picture. Look at it this way: Why would a butterfly want to talk to a bunch of catterpillars?
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl3.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F723%2F723623pjc70713cu.gif&hash=de33a99698de42e193a2cd61fed12a33c0dccaae)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 18, 2017, 07:32:07 pm
Quote
Have you ever killed another human being?

Bill Perrino, Electrician (1976-present)

Updated Jun 21, 2017

I was going to answer this anonymously because of the off chance that a family member might read this. Then, I decided, I hope everyone who knew about this would read this and know the truth about what happened 41 years ago, almost to the day.

I had just graduated High School and was anticipating the joys which summer would bring. A girl, who I knew from 7th to the 12th grade, and I began dating after graduation. Joan and I attended an annual picnic put on by a major aerodynamic contractor. She drove her newly purchased convertible Fiat to the picnic which was located in the mountains north of Los Angeles.

We had a wonderful time that afternoon and we planned on camping the night then driving home in the morning. Before we went to our campground we stopped at a local market where we met a friendly gentleman, Paul, who, after we told him of our plans, invited us to spend the night with him at his place. We declined his offer. “Just in case,” he told us where his place was and how to get there.

We went to our campground and went to sleep. We were awakened by a friend of mine’s mother’s yelling, bitching and carrying on in a drunken diatribe. This went on for 20 minutes or so before we decided to leave the campground and take the dude up on his offer to house us for the night.

Joan and I jumped into her Fiat and proceeded to get the hell out of there. As we were leaving, the intoxicated woman’s son, John, stopped us and asked if he could accompany us - wherever we were going - he needed to get away from his mother. John jumped into the back of the Fiat, which, mind you, is a two seater, and away we went.

We found our destination easily. It was a couple of miles down a canyon road. We found Paul, who we learned was a caretaker for this property. Paul gave the three of us a tour of the property which happened to be a Wildlife Preserve. He showed us an elephant who was chained to a tree stump, then an area which was separated by a chain link fence and housed 86 lions. It was a fascinating place, the lions were beautiful. After showing us the lions, Paul said he needed to take a ****. I stated that I needed to also and we both turned away from the lions and started walking to the house. As an afterthought,Paul, looking over his shoulder, said, “Do not try to pet the lions.” As soon as his words were spoken, Joan screamed the most terrifying scream I, to this day ever heard. I spun around to see Joan clutching her hand while she screamed. Her fingers were attached only by her skin. I immediately remove my shirt and wrapped it around her hand. “Where is the closest hospital?” I asked Paul as John and I brought Joan to the Fiat. John was seated on the trunk of the Fiat holding my shirt around Joan’s hand as I flew through the canyon road not knowing where nor how far the hospital was. This was the first time driving this vehicle on a road I had never traveled.

As I maneuvered a curve traveling at a high speed, the rear tires hit some sand, and the Fiat was slammed into a guard rail. John was thrown down the side of the mountain. Stunned, I made sure Joan was alright, she seemed not to have any injuries other than her hand, then jumped down the side of the mountain in search of John. I was wearing only a pair of shorts, no shirt, no shoes. I found John halfway down the mountain. As I reached him I noticed several people approaching. They were from a campground at the bottom of the mountain, had heard the impact of the Fiat hitting the guard rail and came to see if they could be of assistance. One of them was a nurse and she began treating John. I ran back up the mountain and found Joan being attended to by the paramedics, which was a needed relief. Immediately I ran, more like slid, down the mountain where the nurse was giving John CPR. He was alive. I sat down placing his head in my lap, he was looking up at me. Seconds later, he was dead. I ran back up the mountain to see that Joan and the paramedics were gone. I ran back down, looked at John, then it hit me, he was dead. Devastated, I walked down to the campground in a daze. I sat on a picnic table and wept for I don’t know how long.

A married couple who were camping there asked me if I needed a ride home.This was hours after John died. These kind people drove me home where I passed out in my bed. The next morning the CHP were at the door and I was subsequently arrested for DUI, Hit and Run. I was taken to Men’s Central Jail in Downtown LA, where, I was told I would remain for my safety, in case John’s parents wanted to get revenge. John’s dad, a wonderful human being, demanded my release. John’s family helped me through the aftermath. If it wasn’t for their kindness I don’t know what I would have done.

A couple of months later I am sitting in Juvenile Court (I was 17 at the time of the accident) listening to the Judge read the charges against me: Vehicular Manslaughter, Leaving the Scene of an Accident and Driving While Intoxicated. From the audience I hear a voice asking the judge permission to speak. When I locate the person who spoke, I recognize who it is: the man who gave me a ride home, his wife alongside of him. He proceeds to tell the judge that I did not leave the scene, I was there hours after the accident and that I was not intoxicated.

All of the charges were dropped thanks to a kind stranger. How he knew when my court date was and where, I’ll never know. If by chance either of you kind people are reading this, thank you again.

Wow! The number of people who have read my answer is amazing. Thank you for all of your comments.

Once I started writing about what happened, memories flashed through my mind so fast, I could not write fast enough. As soon as I finished I submitted it. Now, after reading what I wrote, I realize I should have proof read it before submitting it and I left out some critical information:

Joan tried to pet one of the lions and was bitten by a lion. She was taken to Henry Mayo Hospital in Valencia where her fingers were re-attached to her hand. The Doctors did an excellent job.

659.5k Views · 28,432 Upvotes

https://www.quora.com/profile/Bill-Perrino
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on December 21, 2017, 05:19:36 pm
The Spectrum of Hope: An Optimistic New Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ficare.gif&hash=7a81c13fb045a57fc456f34661fddcf04dbfe8b7)
 

by Gayatri Devi, MD

Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia can leave a trail of devastation in their wake, but it’s possible to find a glimmer of hope amid the gloom. “The Spectrum of Hope: An Optimistic New Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias” provides a more positive outlook on a disease that often feels like a prison to those who have it and to their families.

Author Gayatri Devi, a neurologist with more than 20 years specializing in memory loss and dementia, offers encouragement to those with dementia and their loved ones and emphasizes the possibilities for living fulfilling lives even as the disease progresses. Topics covered in the book include maintaining independence, communication with someone who has dementia and dealing with dementia-related behaviors like paranoia.

Learn about this and the 5 other best books on caregiving: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614215943.gif&hash=f433bd08b785121007ef4d1e35962419c5828baf)

https://www.caring.com/articles/best-books-about-caregiving
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2018, 07:12:24 pm
(https://charterforcompassion.org/images/menus/EdInstitute/walkingeachother.jpg)

JAN 09, 2018 TD ORIGINALS

And Compassion for All

By Eric Ortiz

SNIPPET 1:

Are you hopeful? It’s a simple question without a simple answer in these uncertain times.

But Sarah Silverman did something cool to end 2017 that should provide some hope. After encountering a troll on social media who called her the C-word, she showed compassion.

I believe in you. I read ur timeline & I see what ur doing & your rage is thinly veiled pain. But u know that. I know this feeling. Ps My back Fu cking sux too. see what happens when u choose love. I see it in you.
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 29, 2017

 

I can’t choose love. A man that resembles Kevin spacey took that away when I was 8. I can’t find peace if I could find that guy who ripped my body who stripped my innocence I’d kill him. He fu cked me up and I’m poor so its hard to get help.
— Jeremy jamrozy (@jeremy_jamrozy) December 29, 2017

 
No I just smoke weed. I’m prescribed medications which I take accordingly
— Jeremy jamrozy (@jeremy_jamrozy) December 29, 2017
 

I will go. But I trust no one I’ve been burned so many times. I’d give the shirt off my back and everytime I get burned. I’m super antisocial. I have no friends. I’m sorry I gave u  s h i t.
— Jeremy jamrozy (@jeremy_jamrozy) December 29, 2017

 
Im so psyched you’ll go. KEEP ME POSTED. Don’t give up on yourself. Be brave enough to risk getting burned. It’s what happens when u fight for yourself. But it’s worth it. I promise.
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 29, 2017

Silverman then used her platform as a celebrity to put out a request to help Jeremy, her new friend.
 
Yo SAN ANTONIO! Any kickass back/neck care specialists willing 2 help my friend @jeremy_jamrozy He has several slipped discs, no insurance, & can’t work bc of severe pain. Let’s get him back on his feet!! Who’s in?
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 29, 2017
 

I was their Director of Finance for 6 years and my sister is a CRS there @lmarti25 I’ll get her to reach out to him to get him in!
— Jen Carriedo (@jcarriedo) December 29, 2017

Jeremy started a GoFundMe page to raise $150 for back pain relief and was overwhelmed by the generosity of complete strangers.


SNIPPET 2:

America needs a life preserver. Liberty and justice for all are not the reality of today’s America (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fpirates5B15D_th.gif&hash=32438e1ed2c4d1823d4ed2a193286525c840a605). The system is still rigged against minorities, particularly blacks and Latinos, who are still moved to the bottom of lists. The government has failed and continues to fail the people, and the failure is by design. According to Nancy MacLean, author of “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” in an interview with Salon, radical far-right forces are working to destroy “the model of government that has prevailed in the United States and in many other countries for a century.” This new vision of America wants to undo all semblance of democracy—removing government responsibility for education, health care, food, housing, old-age support—to line the pockets of a wealthy few.

MacLean explained:

Quote
I think that what we need to convey to people is that this is a messianic cause, with a vision of the good society and government that I think most of us would find terrifying, for the practical implications and impact that it will have on our lives.

We are at a crucial moment in our history, and we will not get another chance, by this cause’s own telling. They say again and again that this is going to be permanent, and they’re very close to victory. So I think we need to be really clear-eyed about understanding this and reaching out to one another without panic.

… [T]he Koch network (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-070118134926.png&hash=02a998409f3976d1232a3505fb85b3a7343f74b2) and all of these people (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) are doing what they’re doing because they understand that their ideas make them a permanent minority. They cannot win if they are honest about what they’re doing. That’s why they’re doing things in the deceitful and frightening ways that they are.

And that, I think, is a sign of great power for the majority of people, who I think are fundamentally decent, and agree on much more than we’re led to believe.

The trouble is, the assault on democracy with Donald Trump in the White House is also coming from Democrats, who have moved to the right under the influence of financial elites to create what Paul Street calls the “nauseating nothingness of neoliberal capitalist and professional class politics.”

Thomas Frank said as much in the new afterword of his book “Listen Liberal: What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?”:

Quote
There was brilliance in the billionaire’s bluster. By denouncing free trade and the culture wars, [candidate Trump] was dynamiting the consensus orthodoxy that had dominated Washington for many years. This orthodoxy had, among other things, made possible endless sell-outs of working people by Democrats, who could savor their Tom Friedman columns and celebrate globalization’s winners and still count on the votes of the angry working class because such people had ‘nowhere else to go.’ Clintonism would only work, however, as long as Republicans did their part and adhered to free-market orthodoxy. Take that consensus away and leave the Democrats as the only party of globalization, and they would immediately be exposed to a working-class revolt within their ranks. … Trump was openly calling for such a revolt.”

That revolt has yet to happen. Trump has grown the swamp in Washington, D.C., instead of draining it. At the same time, he and his administrative tyrants have set out to destroy all sense of American humanity and the multicultural, “nation of nations” fabric and spirit upon which our country was founded.

The ruling class wants to keep American citizens divided.
That’s why we keep seeing policies opposed to what the majority of Americans want, with little substantive analysis of those policies. Instead, we get an abundance of “soap opera” news and “worldwide wrestling” narratives. Sensationalism sells. The rubes stay distracted and uninformed. The ruling class wins. All they care about is power and money. Anything or anyone that runs counter to making money or maintaining power is the enemy.

Our current government has no empathy because its political donors lack empathy. They don’t care about immigrants, economic equality, the poor, the middle class, the environment or peace—what a majority of Americans care about—because human rights, civil rights and decency are bad for business

FULL EXCELLENT ARTICLE with videos: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/and-compassion-for-all/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 19, 2018, 04:55:06 pm
🌊 WATCH: Aerial Drone Used to Save Two Swimmers’ Lives in Australia


January 18, 2018 by Mike Schuler

Lifeguards in Australia are being credited with saving two swimmers’ lives using a relatively new life-saving drone in what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind rescue.

The rescue in question took place on January 18, 2018, after lifeguards in New South Wales spotted two swimmers caught out in a rip current. According to officials, within just 70 seconds the UAV was hovering over the boys and launched an inflatable for them to grab onto – essentially saving their lives.

The rescue is believed to be the first time a drone has been used to rescue swimmers at sea.

Of course, the amazing rescue was caught on video by the drone itself:

https://youtu.be/YMJuN8npYCo

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3kbo302xo3lg2i1rj8450xje.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2F26167869_506099529774020_3875040000721910303_n.jpg&hash=02df13b5c863a84d6193d2eb979bb5765ca32a63)
Photo credit: Little Ripper Lifesaver

The new drone, called the Little Ripper Lifesaver, is being used as part of a major investment New South Wales to incorporate drone technology to aid in shark tracking and monitoring, the Verge reports.

The maker of the Little Ripper drone, Kevin Weldon, said he was inspired to develop the device after seeing unmanned helicopters being used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

http://gcaptain.com/watch-lifesaving-drone-credited-with-saving-two-swimmers-lives-in-australia/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 19, 2018, 05:11:43 pm
Family of El Faro Crew Member Delivers More Than 30,000 Pounds of Relief Goods to Puerto Rico🕊

January 18, 2018 by gCaptain

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3kbo302xo3lg2i1rj8450xje.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FTote-Loiza-114.jpg&hash=2b6de82b735741b68c5821523e08f38cd57b8f82)
Deb and Robin Roberts  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)deliver goods in Loiza, Puerto Rico. Photo: TOTE Maritime

Family members of an El Faro’s crew member who lost his life when the American cargo ship tragically sank in 2015 are being recognized for their effort to assist Puerto Ricans impacted by Hurricane Maria.

In November 2017, Deb and Robin Roberts of Wilton, ME began a drive for relief goods in honor of their son Holland. Holland was one of 33 crew members who perished when the cargo ship the El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015.

For three days in December, the Roberts visited Puerto Rico to distribute more than 30,390 pounds of food, water, personal hygiene supplies and other key goods to those in need.

While there, the Roberts visited Hogar Casa Feliz in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, an elderly home on the island as well as the community of Loiza, Puerto Rico to distribute goods, while the remainder of the items were provided to communities in need in conjunction with Para la Naturaleza.

Holland is said to have spent a significant amount of time in Puerto Rico as the El Faro was dedicated to the Puerto Rico trade lane. As such, the Roberts felt called to support the people and communities who played such an integral role in their son’s life.

“It was truly a rewarding experience to be able to help the people of Puerto Rico in memory of our son, Michael” commented Deb and Robin Roberts. “We are so grateful to everyone at TOTE for helping us to make the drive a success. Without their efforts and support, we never would’ve been able to make it happen. Upon our arrival in Puerto Rico, we were amazed at the sharp contrast between the sheer beauty of the island in areas like San Juan and the utter destruction in areas like Loiza caused by Hurricane Maria. Yet during our supplies delivery, the people of Loiza taught us a lesson in how to deal with adversity. Despite being without power for over three months, they were all smiling and even broke out in song and dance while they awaited the arrival of the delivery truck. The people of Puerto Rico truly love their island just like Michael did!”

TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, owner of the El Faro, helped support the Roberts with their transportation and distribution efforts.

“Partnering with the Roberts to bring goods to the island has been a gift”   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7) commented Anthony Chiarello, President and CEO of TOTE. “There are still so many families and communities struggling to survive after Hurricane Maria – these goods will be invaluable to people throughout the island.”

http://gcaptain.com/family-el-faro-crew-member-delivers-30000-pounds-relief-goods-puerto-rico/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 20, 2018, 03:34:06 pm
This is a heartwarming story.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)

BRAZOS!

RE

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579196353/after-four-months-without-power-a-puerto-rico-town-strings-its-own-lines

After Four Months Without Power, A Puerto Rico Town Strings Its Own Lines

Adrian Florido

(https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/01/19/img_2995-ffc94e4e0009310d89005cda827956539073056b-s800-c85.jpg)
Rosa Cruz and Luis Felipe Colón standing beneath the newly illuminated light on their front porch. The couple had been without electricity for four months.
Adrian Florido/NPR

Four months after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, nearly 40 percent of the island's electricity customers remain without power.

Rosa Cruz and her husband, Luis Felipe Colón, both retired, are among them. They've eaten mostly canned food and prayed that Rosa doesn't have an asthma attack, because they can't plug in her nebulizer.

Their little house in a rural part of western Puerto Rico sits on a hillside. From their porch, they look down on the town of San Sebastián.

"When there was no electricity," Colón says, "it looked really beautiful at sunset."

But slowly, the lights are coming back on. Colón says as power is restored to the town below, it's looked even more beautiful.

"I tell him, 'look there's light down there,' Rosa says. 'It's getting closer to us!'"

This morning, the couple woke up and saw that a crew had re-hoisted the downed utility pole in front of their house. Colón says he literally jumped.

"What joy!" he said. "It's our turn!"

Volunteers with the Pepino Power Authority repair electrical lines on the outskirts of San Sebastián de las Vegas del Pepino, Puerto Rico.
Adrian Florido/NPR

San Sebastián takes charge

The men working out front were not with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the island's sole utility. Nor with the Army Corps of Engineers. Nor any of the official government crews working to restore electricity to Puerto Rico.

They were San Sebastián's police chief - a retired employee of the utility - and a bunch of other men from this municipality, all volunteering to restore power to their town.

San Sebastián's city hall is on a picture-perfect plaza with a fountain and a church. In his office, Mayor Javier Jiménez says that back in November, after nearly two months of waiting for the electric utility to start grid repairs in his town, he couldn't take it anymore.

"The first thing I did," he says, "was find out which of our employees were electricians." Jiménez said he then put out a call for help for linemen and others who used to work for the utility but were now retired.

"And so we started these brigades," he said. The volunteers gave themselves a name: the Pepino Power Authority, the PPA, after the town's full name, San Sebastián de las Vegas del Pepino. They designed a logo and slapped it on their helmets and utility trucks.

Official logo of the unofficial Pepino Power Authority. Pepino is Spanish for cucumber.
Adrian Florido/NPR

The Pepino Power Authority (pepino is Spanish for cucumber) started fixing electric lines in the center of town, and has been working its way out to the hills.

They have met resistance. The The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority accused Jiménez of circumventing its monopoly. He admits he did. But he objects to another accusation — that what he's doing is unsafe.

"One of the first things we did," Jiménez says, "was establish a safety protocol, and we brought in a government inspector."

Pressure builds on the government

Across Puerto Rico, mayors still waiting for repair crews to arrive in their municipalities have started pressuring the governor to allow them to legally restore their own power. So this week, the legislature announced a bill that would permit cities to hire their own contractors.

In San Sebastián, the Pepino Power Authority has already restored service to about 2,500 homes. Joaquín Cruz, a volunteer, says the goal is to restore 100 percent of the town's homes before the end of January.

"Yesterday we did between 60 and 80," Cruz says, "and today will be the same."

One of those is the little hillside home of Rosa Cruz and Luis Felipe Colón, who've been watching the progress from their porch all day. Every time the workmen of the Pepino Power Authority are ready to turn the power back on to a new home, they get giddy with excitement.

Félix Avilés, the police chief turned electrician, races up to the house, switches on the breaker and then flips the switch for the porch light.

It turns on.

"Thank you!" Rosa Cruz tells the workers. "We're so blessed!"

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 08, 2018, 09:45:54 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

February 8, 2018

Depression: Not Just Personal, But Also Neoliberal? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121424.gif&hash=384c17a4d2be4831084933b91808f8a60f73f7f5)

In his new book "Lost Connections," Johann Hari argues that depression is more than a chemical imbalance: it's an illness rooted in the traumas of adverse childhood experiences and an atomized neoliberal society.

https://youtu.be/gP0esG8Lgw8

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21094:Depression%3A-Not-Just-Personal%2C-But-Also-Neoliberal%3F


Quote
NoDifference • 18 hours ago

Excuse me while I pick up my jaw. Wow. I've come to this exact same conclusion myself. I also went through the same struggle that the guest describes. I've also been following the Basic Income story for years, but especially the last 2 or 3 now. I've always known that my depression was never caused by me, but rather by the environment I lived in.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

The isolation that Mr. Hari (maybe he deserves the title of Dr.!) describes is not limited to just the usual things that he mentions, as well as the loss of control. Part of the problem is the way we are told that, somehow, we must stop "feeling sorry for ourselves." This is absolute BS. Of course we do -- when we feel hurt or loss, we grieve, we feel pain, we hurt mentally as well as physically. Sadly, Emotional-Relational (ER) therapy is still quite popular, which involves reprogramming ourselves to be less human and more like machines. I got a dose of that back in the 1980s, in my search to find a "cure."

Shutting people down because we cannot see the pain THEY feel is not only cruel and adds to their isolation and pain, it is also idiotic. There is no reason why anyone should expect people to act "normal" in an environment that is hardly like anything natural or normal. Besides "normal" being subjective and difficult to define or get consensus on, it demands people behave in ways the human body and mind are not fit to handle (with, albeit, those hardy few with the toughest and best genetics). I do not and never did like being shut down, and I cannot see why anyone else would either.

The anti-anxiety meds I've been taking for 15 years -- and they've switched them a few times, and changed dosages as well -- are barely chipping away at the discomfort I feel. But the advice -- really, re-programming -- I've received can only transform people into even more unfeeling personalities as they shed the most human of emotions, the reaction to societal detachment. Full-blown cases are better known as sociopaths, those hardy souls who can shuff off pain, whether their own or anyone elses... and then continue with the same, or worse, anti-social behavior. And it is not difficult to imagine that some sociopaths could ultimately become psychopaths if the pain suppressed for so long suddenly explodes after years of concealment, like a water heater without a relief valve gone awry.

Why are we expected to feel content in an environment that makes too many days of our lives unbearable? We need to stop listening to those people who continually tell us everything will work out because the only way to guarantee that result, or anything near it, is to actually do the work of making everything work out. Basic income is essential to that end.

This interview was so good, I will be taking another listen to it!

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2018, 07:44:09 pm
What Social Programs 🕊 Were Pioneered by the Black Panther Party 💫?

There were many facets to the generation that spawned the protest era of the late 1960s, including anti-war activism, free speech, civil rights, and a general anti-establishment vibe, all of which spread throughout the San Francisco area.

Community groups like the Diggers sprang up to help people in need in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, providing free clothes, food, and medical care.

The Black Panther Party 🕊 pushed numerous social initiatives, as well, such as creating a Free Breakfast for School Children program that fed tens of thousands of hungry kids -- and provided inspiration for today’s government-run breakfast program for kids.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

Power to the people:

The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966 to address police brutality in Oakland, California. A faction led by Stokely Carmichael began advocating self-determination for African-Americans, which became known as Black Power.

The Black Panthers' free breakfast program began at an Episcopal church in Oakland. Party members and volunteers solicited donations, consulted with nutritionists, and prepared and served the food free of charge to underprivileged children. The initiative spread across the country in the early 1970s.

The program addressed a critical community need and also helped to counter the militant image of the Black Panthers that was held by many Americans.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-social-programs-were-pioneered-by-the-black-panther-party.htm
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2018, 02:47:34 pm
February 20, 2018

Why this Rohingya refugee mother 🕊 has a reason to smile

https://youtu.be/9faC438OEQs

Quote
USA for UNHCR donors help this Rohingya mother feel safe again 🌞


“My husband carried his mother and I carried my two children. We couldn't carry anything else with us,” said Alin Nisa, a 22-year-old Rohingya refugee now safe in Bangladesh. Despite enduring unimaginable trauma, Alin’s bright smile shares her hope for her family's future. ✨

The family was forced to flee when armed men came to their village in the middle of the night. After a treacherous 10-day journey across rivers and mountains, they reached the border of Bangladesh. Exhausted and hungry, Alin was relieved to finally see UNHCR staff members whose distinctive blue vests symbolized safety and hope.

Once settled in a refugee camp, the UN Refugee Agency supplied materials for the family to build a shelter. These included plastic sheeting and a tarp to protect against the region's heavy rains. The Nisa family also received kitchen supplies, mats, blankets and other humanitarian relief items.

With a sturdy shelter to call home and the means to feed, clothe and care for her children, Alin is smiling again because she feels safe — for the first time in quite a while.

Alin and her family are survivors of the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world today. Since August 2017, approximately 647,000 Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Myanmar, have fled violence and persecution.

With the generous support of caring Americans, UNHCR has responded to the massive need by:

֍ Airlifting humanitarian aid including blankets, plastic sheets, sleeping mats, family tents, plastic rolls, kitchen sets, jerry cans and buckets.

֍ Constructing 8,000 latrines to protect refugees against potentially deadly, water-borne diseases and diarrhea.

֍ Establishing safe spaces within refugee camps where survivors of sexual and gender-based violence can receive counseling and referrals for legal support.

https://www.unrefugees.org/news/why-this-rohingya-refugee-mother-has-a-reason-to-smile/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 08, 2018, 04:37:05 pm
Who am I besides a flower quickly fading 🥀or a brief wave 🌊 tossed in the ocean? I am His. 🕊

Who Am I - Casting Crowns (w/ lyrics)

https://youtu.be/mBcqria2wmg

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl2.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1225%2F1225662m3squ1oj6v.gif&hash=04764acd98565ded05a519757ede60e502342499)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2018, 08:27:02 pm
  I asked him to make a referral to a Rheumatologist anywhere and I would fly there, but he refused saying he himself is a Specialist and doesn't do referrals. So I will have to go back to the Bimbos at Mat-Su and see if they will get me a referral for a Rheumatologist.  ::)

This is bogus and an artifact of the current HMO insurance system and has nothing to do with medical practice. Actually,any doctor has an obligation to you as a patient to make any referral that he/she considers reasonable. His excuse is lame, but these days most patients buy it because they've been trained to go to their  primary care physician for referrals.

What if he'd found evidence of cancer, and it didn't happen to be a cancer he was qualified to treat? He would have made a referral in a heartbeat.

Yes, I know it was bullshit.  Further words to come out of his mouth during this portion of the conversation were: "I don't want to insert myself into this".  He also appeared angry at me for even suggesting it.  All he wants to do is deal with urinary tract issues, all the rest is "not his department".  Referal making is for PCPs, not a Specialista like him!  ::)

Anyhow, I have to call today to see if the results for my Schnitzler's tests came back and then also discuss the possibility of getting my endoscopy & colonoscopy done by fasting instead of drinking the gross kool-aid.  So I will talk to them about getting another referal.  The **** Doc said an Internal Medicine specialist might work also, and we do have a few of those up here.

RE

I just want to let you know that every specialist that does colonoscopies has a published "score" relating to finding polyps. I'm not sure exactly how the scoring is done, but the ones with a bad score (they can't avoid having the public know their score) can, not only miss stuff they should see, but cause problems. A perforated colon can be very dangerous. I suggest you find out the score of the person that is going to do your colonoscopy. Eddie may be able to help you get it.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 07, 2018, 06:02:17 pm
I don't know why you want to have it done at all.  I refused mine and it would have been free.  They only do it because they are then free from the possibility of being sued.  All it will tell you is that you are going to die at some time, or not, and you knew that anyway.

Of course you can always then go for a bowel/bladder ectomy and do your stuff into a plastic bag hung from your waist for the rest of your miserable life in a miserable hospital, or at least until you run out of money and they sneak a double dose of morphine into your nightly cocoa.

To be honest, I think it is a complete waste of time and money and will elucidate nothing.  I have a pretty good sensation of my problems, and they aren't in my colon or in my stomach per se.  It has something to do with the autonomic nervous system controlling appetite.  I think the stomach and intestines and bowels are operating just as the nerves tell them to operate, but they are not getting the right signals.

However, in order to drill down to this, I HAVE to do do what the Pros recommend for testing, and this is the one test I refused to do, because I feel unsafe to ingest the s h i t they want you to ingest for it.  So I will do it, but only if they agree to make me feel safe in doing so.  Also tell me how much it will f u c k ing COST!

RE

Get the cost in writing with a declaration clearly visible that it is not an estimate, no matter what the fine print may say.

Also tell them ahead of time you are not signing a f u c k ing thing 5 minutes before any procedure.

That is basically what I do unless I am against the wall and if I don't sign I get no treatment.

RE

I read your post and it got me to thinking about the autonomic nervous system and the signals to your digestive tract. Some time ago I learned that Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine in the valium benzo family of anxiolytics, was discovered to be produced in small quantities by the human intestines. It is a nervous system reaction appparently designed by the creator (though some will swear on a stack of Darwin's Origin of the Species Bibles that it was Doctor Evolution  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)) to make us feel kinda nice when digestion begins so we will relax and not run around doing stuff so our body can work on processing all the goodies we just ate.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, your innards are not putting out enough lorazepam boost. As you have surmised, the autonomic nervous system and the "tone" of your vagal nerve, coming from your brain, is a BIG DEAL because there are an incredible amount of brain to gut connections (more than can be possibly explained by pain receptors alone!). They still don't know all that they do, but they know your gut manufactures anxiolytics. If it isn't doing that properly, I imagine a lot of the symptoms you suffer from might surface.

It's just a thought. Lorazepam can only be taken sporadically because it is addictive after a month or so of taking over or about one milligram a day. BUT, taking it every few days or no more than once a week or so guarantees you will never be addicted to it.

I know you have other problems unrelated to your gut, but perhaps Lorazepam will help you.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on April 07, 2018, 06:11:56 pm
I don't know why you want to have it done at all.  I refused mine and it would have been free.  They only do it because they are then free from the possibility of being sued.  All it will tell you is that you are going to die at some time, or not, and you knew that anyway.

Of course you can always then go for a bowel/bladder ectomy and do your stuff into a plastic bag hung from your waist for the rest of your miserable life in a miserable hospital, or at least until you run out of money and they sneak a double dose of morphine into your nightly cocoa.

To be honest, I think it is a complete waste of time and money and will elucidate nothing.  I have a pretty good sensation of my problems, and they aren't in my colon or in my stomach per se.  It has something to do with the autonomic nervous system controlling appetite.  I think the stomach and intestines and bowels are operating just as the nerves tell them to operate, but they are not getting the right signals.

However, in order to drill down to this, I HAVE to do do what the Pros recommend for testing, and this is the one test I refused to do, because I feel unsafe to ingest the **** they want you to ingest for it.  So I will do it, but only if they agree to make me feel safe in doing so.  Also tell me how much it will **** COST!

RE

Get the cost in writing with a declaration clearly visible that it is not an estimate, no matter what the fine print may say.

Also tell them ahead of time you are not signing a **** thing 5 minutes before any procedure.

That is basically what I do unless I am against the wall and if I don't sign I get no treatment.

RE

I read your post and it got me to thinking about the autonomic nervous system and the signals to your digestive tract. Some time ago I learned that Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine in the valium benzo family of anxiolytics, was discovered to be produced in small quantities by the human intestines. It is a nervous system reaction appparently designed by the creator (though some will swear on a stack of Darwin's Origin of the Species Bibles that it was Doctor Evolution  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)) to make us feel kinda nice when digestion begins so we will relax and not run around doing stuff so our body can work on processing all the goodies we just ate.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, your innards are not putting out enough lorazepam boost. As you have surmised, the autonomic nervous system and the "tone" of your vagal nerve, coming from your brain, is a BIG DEAL because there are an incredible amunt of brain to gut connections (more than can be possibly explained by pain receptors alone!). They still don't know all that they do, but they know your gut manufactures anxiolytics. If it isn't doing that properly, I imagine a lot of the symptoms you suffer from might surface.

It's just a thought. Lorazepam can only be taken sporadically because it is addictive after a month or so of taking over or about one milligram a day. BUT, taking it every few days or no more than once a week or so guarantees you will never be addicted to it.

I know you have other problems unrelated to your gut, but perhaps Lorazepam will help you.

Good suggestion AG, I'll see if Dr. Bimbo will write me a scrip for it.

RE


 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 27, 2018, 07:58:09 pm
I will be 81 in September. When my grandfather died at 75 I was about six years old and I lay on the floor looking at the ceiling and promised myself I would try to get to 100. His wife, my dear grandmother, made 96. That's only one side. The other side, not so lucky. But I do hold to the Meditteranean diet. Ten or even twelve vegetables per day, lots of Caucasus kefir, no red meat, and lots of vitamins. Eschew the confined animal cruelty. Pray and have reverence for a higher power, as AA says. Have respect for life and be part of the natural world. Respect the ancestors who have come before and shown the way. Do not throw away their wisdom for a mess of lentil soup.

There is every chance that you just might make it, particularly with that dietary regime. I hope you do.
But I don't understand what's wrong with lentil soup? I regard a good lentil soup as a thing of beauty.


It's a metaphor about Jacob and his brother. Jacob conned Esau into selling him his inheritance for a bowl of matzo ball lentil soup.  ;D

Of course.

(https://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/agents/noahzark/files/dumbass.jpg)

Your honesty and noble humility have always been aspects of your personality that I admire greatly.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)

You sir , are certainly NOT a dumbass! You are gettin' old, just like the rest of us. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 28, 2018, 03:17:46 pm
Agelbert NOTE: This is part of a series of posts involving the correct action by Surly to delete a hate fullied post by Palloy.


If Surly had, he would have owned it and explained why he was doing  it, I think. Not sure about RE. He's drugged out of his gourd at the moment, so who knows.

I have made inquires to both RE and Surly about the missing posts. Not sure what happened, but I question whether it was a mod at all. Occasionally comments do disappear completely on this platform and reappear months or even years later.


It was me. One comment was a vicious trolling of RE, and another was ad hom disparaging a poster's religion. Well beyond the bounds of taste and decorum, and I own it fully. With no regrets.

Thanks.

I'm not second-guessing Surly. I have his back. If he says a post was in violation, I believe him. However, it helps for moderators to give some explanation when they feel the need to delete a comment. Otherwise, things can get confusing.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040817140651.png&hash=c43dc47dbb4ef892fb7c5680dba982b56fdad700)

This is a double-edged sword.  To acknowledge you deleted a comment is to invite commentary on the deletion process to begin with.  Then you get into the "free speech" debate and "censorship".  It also costs you time and energy to defend your reasons for the deletion.  The whole purpose of doing this is to NOT get into such debates, they are off the topic at hand.  They derail the topic. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)

I didn't see this posting, although I could go look for it in the DNF file.  Once a Mod chooses to delete though, I have no interest in it.  It is no longer up for public consumption, for whatever the reason was that the Mod made this decision.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

RE


I remain loath to delete any post. And I will tolerate a great deal of opprobrium directed at me. But I hate gratuitous bulling, and cruelty from any vector. And have decided I'm not going to put up with it any longer.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FHjPbLbmep2aJO%2Fgiphy.gif&hash=3c7f7703f00cb341d3e9bdba607208d4204a294c)

What those who like to snipe never, quite deliberately 😈, want to understand is that First Amendment Free Speech is NOT a libertine's license to hurl gratuitous insults at a person.

The reason for that is that the MOTIVE of said insults is ALWAYS, though the clever person hurling the insult will deny it in perfect sophistic form (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85), to undermine the credibility of the messenger, NOT to claim disagreement with the message.

THIS is the CRUX of the free speech argument. IF you are disagreeing, it's fine and dandy to say so. BUT, if you are claiming the argument is flawed because the one delivering the argument is an ****, you are NOT exercising free speech and deserve to be DISAPPEARED from civilized discourse. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smiley-lol.com%2Fsmiley%2Fexagerent%2Fpolice%2Fenprison.gif&hash=4912c6e4685052e7a6084b2d6740020437d7dae4)

I have tried for many years to get you, Eddie, to see the difference. I think you do but sometimes you don't want to deal with it. But, at least you are honest about it.

Insults, UNLESS they are blow off "insults" to the person doing the insulting ;D, DO NOT edify those communicating or advance the dialogue, Eddie!

As to certain others here who play the objective saint 😇 some days  while refusing to even address their occasional descents into bold faced attack the messenger mode, I am done even addressing these sanctimoneous cretins when they are in attack mode.

Arrogant lack of humilty is not simply unChristian, it is prima facie evidence of IRRATIONALITY. These people LACK objectivity. Listening to said people is stupid.

There are many reasons to keep the destructive poison said people spew from public disourse and NO reason whatsoever to protect their customary hate filled invective. These are people, as Surly indirectly stated in a recent comment, that never grew out of the childish tantrum/playground bully stage.

Everyone knows that the best way to deal with a spoiled brat is to censor their behavior. Some brats grow up and learn to stop that heinous conduct. Some don't. That's their problem.

Allowing them to continue this anti-social destructive critcism rewards this heinous conduct and encourages MORE OF IT! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

As a Christian, I often have to remind people that turning the other cheek does not mean feeding a SICK NEED!

  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.disquscdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fmediaembed%2Fimages%2F1230%2F6680%2Foriginal.jpg&hash=bef2b475b019155b3299763f1d1962e899ec8669)
(https://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/p9047017-030close-up.jpg)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on May 28, 2018, 07:31:32 pm
TruthDig

MAY 27, 2018 TD ORIGINALS

Teaching ‘Les Misérables’ in Prison

By Chris Hedges

SNIPPET 1:

I spent the last four months teaching Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Misérables” at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. My students—like Hugo’s main character, Jean Valjean, who served 19 years in prison—struggle with shame, guilt, injustice, poverty and discrimination, and yearn for redemption and transformation. The novel gave them a lens to view their lives and a ruling system every bit as cruel as Hugo’s 19th-century France.

“Les Misérables” was wildly successful when it was published, including among Civil War soldiers in the United States, although Hugo’s condemnation of slavery was censored from Confederate copies. It was American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’ favorite book—he read it in French. The socialist British Prime Minister Lloyd George said “Les Misérables” taught him more about poverty and the human condition than anything else he had ever read and instilled in him a lifelong ambition “to alleviate the distress and the suffering of the poor.” Hugo’s novel, however, enraged the ruling elites. It was panned by French critics. Copies were burned in Spain. Pope Pius IX (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) put it on the church’s list of banned books, along with “Madame Bovary” and all the novels of Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac.


SNIPPET 2:

The decision by the bishop to lie on behalf of Valjean triggered an intense debate in my classroom.

“Who would do this?” a student asked.

“No one,” another student answered.

Several students dismissed the scene as improbable.

And then from the back of the room a student, speaking in emotional undertones, told this story.

“I came back to my bunk one day,” he said. “There was a new Bible on it. Inside was a letter. It was from my victim’s sister. She 🕊 wrote, ‘I forgive you. Now you must forgive yourself.’ I broke down. I could be more than a criminal. I could change. She made that possible.”   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

My students will spend their lives condemned as felons. They, like Valjean, will never completely wash away the mark of Cain. Transformation, even when it occurs, will not free them from the criminal caste system. Transformation must be carried out not for what it will achieve, for often it will achieve nothing, or how it will be perceived, for most of the wider society will not perceive it. Transformation is about making peace with yourself. It is about obeying your conscience, which Hugo equates with the divine. It is about never living at the expense of another. Transformation is about rising above the hatred many feel, with justification, for a society that has betrayed them.

“If you are persecuted for virtue, why be virtuous?” a student asked.

“Those who have nothing need other people,” another student said. “We can’t survive alone. The more we sacrifice for those around us, the more we reduce our collective suffering; the more we recover our humanity, the more people reach out to us when we need help, and we all need help. Goodness is contagious.”

And yet, as my students know, this internal battle is hard and fierce within a society that denies the poor dignity and respect.

“Obscurely he perceived that the priest’s forgiveness was the most formidable assault he had ever sustained,” Hugo wrote of Valjean, “that if he resisted it his heart would be hardened once and for all, and that if he yielded he must renounce the hatred which the acts of man had implanted in him during so many years, and to which he clung. He saw dimly that this time he must either conquer or be conquered, and that the battle was not joined, a momentous and decisive battle between the evil in himself and the goodness in the other man.”

Hugo was aware that there are some who cannot be redeemed. They are incapable of empathy or remorse. They are driven by greed and ambition. They take a perverse joy in inflicting suffering on others. They are capable only of deceit. These people must be kept at bay. In the novel they are represented by Monsieur and Madame Thénardier, “human creatures which, like crayfish, always retreat into shadow, going backwards rather than forwards through life, gaining in deformity with experience, going from bad to worse and sinking into even deeper darkness.”

This cold reality, nevertheless, proved to be a painful one to digest in the classroom. Several students argued passionately that everyone, no matter how depraved, could ultimately be redeemed, and yet the reality of prison, my students conceded, amply illustrates that there are human predators to whom one can never show vulnerability or expect mercy. Fyodor Dostoyevsky described hell as the inability to love. These predators inhabit this hell. This internal hell, a barrenness of the soul, is exemplified in the police inspector Javert, who hounds Valjean throughout the novel. Hugo wrote, “The Austrian peasants believe that in every wolf-litter there is a dog-whelp which the mother kills, because otherwise when it grows larger it will devour the rest of her young. Endow this dog with a human face, and you have Javert.”

Full EXCELLENT article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doomsteaddiner.net%2Fforum%2FSmileys%2Fdd1%2Ficon_study.gif&hash=1cf00a8329d6fd992f7fd6d76ef38ca0a2bbaa14)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/teaching-les-miserables-in-prison/ (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/teaching-les-miserables-in-prison/)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 08, 2018, 04:37:06 pm
Frankly Scarlett, I never liked Charles Krauthammer much. But his story is fairly amazing. Very interesting karma.

He just announced he's got terminal cancer and expects to live only a few weeks. I found this letter he wrote to be extremely courageous. I wish him good luck in his next life, or wherever he's headed.

 
June 8, 2018

 I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decide on a different course for me.

In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen. That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications which I have been fighting in hospital ever since. It was a long and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.

 However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict.

My fight is over. I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, whose efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.

Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life’s work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.

 I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life, full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

Charles Krauthammer




Frankly Scarlett, I never liked Charles Krauthammer much. But his story is fairly amazing. Very interesting karma.

He just announced he's got terminal cancer and expects to live only a few weeks. I found this letter he wrote to be extremely courageous. //

I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life, full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

Charles Krauthammer[/i]

Me neither. But I agree with your assessment.

Who among us can say that they truly lived the life they intended?

I disagree that a person should feel pride because they lived the life THEY intended (see the Sinatra song: "I did it MY WAY" (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)).

The only life worth living or being proud of is the life GOD INTENDED for us. Everything else, especially the lack of regrets, is egotistical false pride. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

Krauthammer is an erudite person with a good vocabulary who, instead of using his extensive knowledge of human nature to combat injustices, has served evil causes all his life.

His fight, the only fight that actually matters, is just beginning for the remainder of his time here. If he does not repent of his evil, he is HELL TOAST.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2018, 08:25:03 pm
I Believe. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

https://youtu.be/HMm83YR9cQg

(https://lh6.ggpht.com/sw_iT7GZASdAYeiecsZEHJE-EgDhdK2rCWUzZOJS0OFiGpoi9qn8iMH2nuXHgWg2PA=h900)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 15, 2018, 06:06:18 pm
Az:
Quote
McPherson Calls It, Extinction Sept. '18

https://youtu.be/cFJwkTJuB6I

Az, McPherson is wrong. It Can't be September '18! Superman died on November 18!

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080416030758.jpeg&hash=feec2fc99644a0affff368341113d2b3402d8584)

You know someone's come to end of their leash when they start throwing dates at doom.

Guy's gone complete Harold Camping  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-291217164030.png&hash=36cbf9c36fa6d6d240ed8a29a0c020cdee7b26e3)


Guy has often talked about suicide, though he claims he would never do it. However, the fact the he harps so much on his claim that there is NO HOPE, may ultimately cause him to off himself. I hope and pray he does not do this. I hope he just keeps practicing what he preaches about being good and kind to those one cares about.

I've listened to and watched many of his presentations. He tries to be, oh so calm about the threat of extinction (that he thinks is a sure thing). However, I detect an undertone of raging anger at the stupidity of mankind, particulaly TPTB. Guy is VERY angry, though he pretends it's all like water off a duck to him. I don't believe that for a second. It eats at him.

Also, he has a confirmation bias problem that, when these dire predictions DO NOT come to pass on Guy's timetable, might cause him to resist having to admit he was wrong due to excessive pride in his intellectual and analytical powers.

Shutting himself off from any potential solutions is a sure way to get clinically depressed, and dangerously suicidal. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

Where there is life, there is hope. Unfortunately, McPherson claims that is not so, due to Confirmation Bias.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 16, 2018, 03:34:43 pm
https://youtu.be/cFJwkTJuB6I


I can believe it will come in September, but I don't think it will be this September.

"It" being an event one could clearly tag as being "the end of industrial civilization".

And even if it is this September, we sure as hell won't be able to confirm that it WAS this September by the first of October, as Guy seems to think.

The collapse is clearly ongoing and incremental. Waterfall events will surely occur that make it more obvious, as time goes on.

As usual. Guy is guessing. He used to be guessing human extinction by 2030 if I remember right. I can believe that more readily than I believe that industrial civilization will collapse this September.

Another case of confirmation bias.

I find myself in the position that I have often found myself over the past few years. I agree with most of the data that shows that collapse is imminent, and that real catastrophic climate change is imminent. But I disagree with Guy's take on timing. And the take of others who think economic disaster will come this year. It is coming, but we have a bit longer to wait.

Not the worst thing, for most of us.


Well said, however with earth changes on the up tick, we could be in for a bumpy rest of '18.

It appears that there is a lot more human displacement currently. If the hurricane season is huge than
who knows.

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2018, 08:30:58 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

Humanitarian Boat 🕊 Turned Away by Italy Arrives in Spain ✨ (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311017193926.png&hash=135a7bcd2093b679e425bbd2086adb8ddfd2e7b5)

June 17, 2018 by Reuters

SNIPPET:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3kbo302xo3lg2i1rj8450xje.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F06%2F2018-06-17T123909Z_716778565_RC18CD0E75B0_RTRMADP_3_EUROPE-MIGRANTS-ITALY-SPAIN.jpg&hash=0d934426267ed231261f6ddaa1f0a0322850e3fb)
The Aquarius rescue ship arrives to port carrying 106 migrants in Valencia, Spain June 17, 2018. REUTERS/Heino Kalis

reuters logoBy Luis Felipe Fernandez and Jordi Rubio VALENCIA, Spain, June 17 (Reuters) – A migrant rescue boat turned away by Italy and Malta arrived at the Spanish port of Valencia on Sunday, ending a grueling voyage which has made it a symbol of Europe’s failure to agree on immigration.

Spain swooped to help 629 mainly sub-Saharan Africans on board the Aquarius last week after Italy’s new government, asserting its anti-immigrant credentials, refused to let it dock. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who took office two weeks ago, took the opportunity to show a more liberal stance.

But the plight of the Aquarius, run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) with Franco-German charity SOS Mediterranee, highlighted the European Union’s failure to agree on how to manage the huge influx of people fleeing poverty and conflict.

In Valencia, officials in white protective suits and masks greeted the migrants as they debarked and police started identifying them and processing their information.

The Aquarius arrived carrying 106 people rescued from unstable boats near Libya. The others had been transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel and a ship belonging to the Italian navy to make the journey safer.

The coast guard boat was the first to arrive, docking in the eastern port with 274 on board just after dawn.

Shouts and singing erupted on the ship as the migrants on board saw Valencia on the horizon, Spanish journalist Gabriela Sanchez tweeted from another boat traveling alongside it.

A staff of 2,320, including volunteers, translators and health officials, were waiting on shore. Red Cross Secretary General Elhadj As Sy was also in Valencia for the arrival.

Related: Italy Cries ‘Victory’ as Spain Opens Port to Rescued Migrants

“This sad odyssey of the people on the Aquarius is another reminder that all people, regardless of their nationality or immigration status, should have access to basic assistance and protection,” Sy said in a statement.

Quote
“No human being is ‘illegal’, and people who need help should receive help,” added Sy.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)
 

“CALM AND PLEASED” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)

Doctors Without Borders tweeted a photo of one of its team telling the people on board what they could expect.

“People are calm and pleased to be arriving in Spain,” the group said.

All seven pregnant women on board the ships will be immediately taken for check-ups, and all the arrivals, including 123 minors, will receive psychological help.

Full article:

http://gcaptain.com/humanitarian-boat-turned-away-by-italy-arrives-in-spain/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 20, 2018, 09:18:37 pm
Quote
June 20, 2018

Dear Friend,

Last weekend, I traveled to the Texas-Mexico border to investigate the administration's unconscionable family separation policy. This is what I witnessed:

֍ I saw dozens of children penned in chain link cages silently staring straight ahead. No smiles, no laughter. None of the joy characteristic of children.

֍ I toured a government-run migrant processing facility aptly dubbed the “ice box." Children wrapped in foil-like blankets huddled on floor mats to stay warm. I witnessed three young brothers clinging to each other, as if for dear life.

֍ I met with a group of mothers just separated from their children. When the first began to speak of the pain she was enduring not knowing where her daughter was, the others began to sob as if on cue. One woman told me, “With God’s help, I will be reunited with my baby soon.”

֍ At another facility, I met Andrea who described her treacherous journey to the Texas border while 8 months pregnant. She fled her home in Guatemala after she was targeted for assassination by thugs due to an outstanding loan. The hit was to take place just outside the local hospital right after she gave birth. Her escape to the Texas border took 13 days. Along the way, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. At the border she sought political asylum. She and her baby were denied entry and detained.

֍ Inside a windowless former Walmart converted into a cavernous shelter, I saw 1,500 boys warehoused and alone. There was not a parent in sight. They were allowed outside for two hours each day.

֍ I was barred from visiting any of the detention facilities housing girls, or infants and very young children who, in an Orwellian twist, are labeled by the government as “children of tender age.”

Parents in Vermont and around the world have one thing in common:  Each of us will do whatever it takes, at any cost, to protect our kids from harm and secure for them a better future. The parents I met on the border were no different.

Contrary to the president’s tweetstorms, they were not criminals, rapists, or gang members. They were not “animals” as he has asserted. They simply seek a safe haven for their kids free of gang violence, human rights abuses, domestic violence and desperate poverty.

The president's shameful decision to criminalize the act of seeking asylum and separate innocent migrant children from their parents is an atrocity that flies in the face of everything we stand for as Americans: 

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free."

President Trump blamed Congress for his policy, claiming he was merely enforcing existing law and that only Congress could change it. That was a lie.

In a head spinning reversal, he responded today to public outrage over heart wrenching images of children locked in chain link cages on the southern border. It appears that he backed down on his cynical decision to separate innocent migrant children from their parents. While welcome news, the devil is in the details and in his follow through. We must remain vocal and vigilant because too often with this president, what he says is not always what he does.

Since my trip to the border, I have heard from hundreds of Vermonters wanting to know how they can help. First, you can let the president know what you think by calling the White House at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414. 

Second, in the days ahead, you can participate in rallies being held in Vermont and across the country.

And finally, you can reach out to friends and relatives in other states. Urge them to call their senators and representatives and demand they vote to prohibit the forced separation of innocent migrant children from their parents so that this never happens again.

The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics called President Trump’s policy "government sanctioned child abuse." I was an eyewitness to the trauma being inflicted on these kids and I will never forget it.

Sincerely,

PETER WELCH
Member of Congress
         
Contact:

E-mail Congressman Welch

Vermont Office

• 128 Lakeside Avenue, Suite 235 • Burlington, VT 05401 • Phone:(802) 652-2450

Washington D.C. Office

• 2303 Rayburn House Office Building • Washington, DC 20515 • Phone:(202) 225-4115
https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=205363&c=VT00PW (https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=205363&c=VT00PW)

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 27, 2018, 01:36:10 pm
Agelbert NOTE: These hunter gatherer tribes who, unlike most of us, live in harmony with God's Creation, are being victimized by "civilized" human criminals because of greed. Some tribes are acting as Guardians for the uncontacted tribes.

Survival International is celebrating the good work of these Guardians. I applaud this work. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Unfortunately, this is an ultimately quixotic endeavour.  WHY? Because, Catastrophic Climate Change will kill humans in the tropics before it begins to kill them in large numbers in most other places. These hunter gatherer tribes, the most innocent of all human groups responsible for this profit over planet predatory stupidity by the hydrocarbon producing conscience free crooks, are doomed by that hydrocarbon ERoEI COST, left out of most calculations, Catastrophic Climate Change.

At present, that is not the case. At present, millions of humans annually die from breathing the particulates, and from other toxic effects visited on the land and sea, produced by the burning of hydrocarbons ☠️. One of the leading causes of death among humans in poverty stricken areas, where they cannot boil water due to the lack of hydrocarbons, dysentery, is a drop in the death toll bucket ☠️ in comparison.

This is one of the reasons I get so exercised about people so concerned with a collapse from a LACK of hydrocarbons, when many millions MORE are NOW perishing each year from the burning of them.

This inexcusable profit over people and planet death dealing PRESENT irrefutable reality, as sad as it is, does not even address Greenhouse Gas(es) caused Catastrophic Climate Change, which is 100% unavoidable at this point (I will post on the inevitability and centuries long duration of the multi-species harm by GHG caused Anthropogenic Global Over-Heating at another time).   

I have common ground with Professor Palloy in the respect and admiration I hold for these hunter gatherer tribes. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) However, for the reasons I just stated above, I do not share his belief that they will survive when most other humans begin to perish from profit over planet stupidity.

There will be no collapse for at least 50 years, if ever, from lack of hydrocarbons to burn. The hydrocarbons will, of course, being a finite resource of energy, eventually run out, but the corollary that the lack of hydrocarbons to burn will trigger a collapse of civilization is not, at least for a half century or so, a valid assertion.

Quote
Definition of corollary

1 : a proposition inferred immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof

2 : something that naturally follows

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corollary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corollary)

There will continue to be a larger and larger death toll from the PRESENT AVAILABILITY of hydrocarbons that are burned annually. I share with Professor Palloy the duty of all humans to be as frugal as possible and to do all we can to reduce our carbon footprint, not just to zero, but negative. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

Our main point of contention (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201903.png&hash=f7b1f3e1f363fe16e0e17f9c2d82b60fa83b8731)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201722.png&hash=5299cc10ee42beae76e4d3b7c79dbf5f4c0addac)  ;D is that he believes the greatest threat to human civilization is Peak Hydrocarbons, while claiming that GHG pollution mitigation is of secondary importance. I believe he has that exactly backwards. Prima Facie evidence that I am right and he is wrong is the FACT that many millions more humans annually die from hydrocarbon burning pollution than from the lack of hydrocarbons (e.g. death for dysentery due to not being able to boil water to make it potable). Added evidence supporting my claim is that ZERO plants and animals, from microscopic to macroscopic, perish from the LACK of hydrocrabons we stupid humans burn. Sure, life and death is part of nature. They die from lots of causes in the natural course of events. BUT, hydrocarbon pollution PLUS Global Warming IS killing them off even more wantonly than the particulates pollution from hydrocarbon burning is killing humans! As Catastrophic climate Change gathers velocity, more and more biosphere fauna and flora will be destroyed by "natural" disasters that would NOT have taken place if we had not overheated the atmosphere.

There is just no excuse for continuing this charade of placing biosphere degrading hydrocarbon use in a privileged, civilization "protecting", position.

The world needs hydrocarbons like a dog needs ticks. I'm sure the tribes in the following articles agree wholeheartedly. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Survival_International.png)

June 25, 2018

Exclusive! Catch a glimpse of an uncontacted tribe.

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ozoPPBZZsb59qE1SOdj9ke2ZLP9eydEmkOs7aZNSdlpAVj8lybeUdZQD2w3NSod6JEDildmkje59_PpSc3xbnnOURf1lO-OdWETSa-PgcQkbZBfPQeU4An-nQqpOa-YCCOHCzZ1pqH__fc-NJUPP_q4hRFES9Xb-duppy9U=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444/images/c995d6d5-3161-4b60-98bc-083b64d80926.jpg)

These photos, also taken by the Guardians of the Amazon🕊 (https://www.survivalinternational.org/actnow/emails/guajajara_guardians/actions/new), show an old camp site that was once the home of the uncontacted people in the video. They’re hunter-gatherers, often on the move, and these small huts are their homes. The shelters, called tapiris, are constructed quickly and skilfully from branches and palm leaves. The bundle is a homemade lunchbox for carrying their food around with them. Societies such as this are the most eco-friendly and sustainable on Earth.

(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/kQaYzLMR7_cJC-4HiBc9u5gNy1KXMAl5TOgXipOMiU5DqvnrbVO3zUoltURljtPjvuPORp_gEBLY_jWvBvh5XCPeLKJrFS5y7ZvEymhDEqurx3hM7XCPbMk1PSX6JgEvaFyPMcG6YC3dSRZ7KCb11pq6-Ls77krZmPRRufI=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444/images/43ab9256-10b9-43b5-8979-e22b8a4b00f2.jpg)




(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/AkD-xJSaq9ktWkliGEX6glIzZ8EVCZ8hMP6McUX1wYpRndFTaffuLlIhkTBcbL3CaLxk8Ds12KSrlbJL934xfOQBH3UumiWF20WyyYIYkEawsjmDHQwiOnr9Tm31xR-EKuhLOObgd6IW85YptfEzxvwjPCCkYitMJRWBwyVUlIxZ594=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444/_compresseds/b1c06153-38b2-4aea-b4d4-eee2d643cd85.jpg)

This astonishing footage was passed to us by the Guardians of the Amazon🕊. It was captured by chance, and shows a close encounter with uncontacted Awá Indians. The forests around are swarming with loggers 👹and any encounter is likely to be fatal for the Awá. That is why it's so important for us to show this footage; it proves there are uncontacted people living in this forest and so the loggers must be kept out at all costs.
https://vimeo.com/271124270 (https://vimeo.com/271124270)

Quote
We’re excited to share some good news stories with you!

The Guardians of the Amazon 🕊 are a brave group of men from the Guajarara tribe who are working tirelessly to defend the territory they share with uncontacted neighbors from illegal loggers.

The Guardians are struggling alone against violent logging mafias with very little support from the Brazilian government. We used your donations and your emails to put pressure on Brazil to act. It worked! A few weeks ago, environmental police finally showed up to help the Guardians kick loggers out of their territory. Though the police didn't stay long, and the Guardians are still in grave need of more support from the authorities, this goes to show that together we can make a real difference.

The Guardians are re-energized and inspired by this intervention: “Thank you for helping us with our fight, and with the situation we are facing here now…It was thanks to you and your pressure that the back-up appeared here at our village. So, thank you once more. We are fighting for what is ours. We're in this together."

But that’s not all. A few years ago, Survival supporters fought hard to persuade the government to remove loggers from the uncontacted Awá tribe’s territory. We succeeded, and now we’re pleased to announce that one of the loggers’ ring-leaders is being brought to justice.  It’s extremely rare for cases like this ever to reach trial, so this is real cause for celebration – and proof that persistent campaigning pays off.

These are two rays of hope in an increasingly anti-indigenous climate in Brazil which is allowing illegal logging of tribal peoples’ forests to flourish. Although we’re encouraged and spurred on by these successes, our work in this area is very far from over. Driven by ruthless greed, the loggers just keep coming – and they won’t give up easily…

With your help, neither will we. We have to keep piling on the pressure and pushing harder and harder to ensure the loggers stay out forever. And any help you can give us to do this will be hugely appreciated. Don't forget, one of the most useful things you can do is help spread the word about our vital work. Please share our posts on social media and take every opportunity to talk about the global movement for tribal peoples.

Thank you once again for being a part of these successes. We look forward to sharing many more with you in the future.

With thanks,

Survival International

Survival International USA, PO Box 26345, San Francisco, CA 94126 | A 501(c)(3) organization
Survival International, 6 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7ET, UK | Charity no. 267444

You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from Survival International.
If you're unhappy with the frequency of our emails, you can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
Since 1969 | Supporters in over 100 countries
Offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris and San Francisco
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 05, 2018, 02:37:13 pm
A certain fix for constipation is Epsom salts, Magnesium sulphate crystals. (Buy from the pharmacy, non-prescription).  Stir three teaspoonsful of crystals into warm water, and drink - it tastes metallic and rather unpleasant.  Then stay close to the toilet for about 6 hours, but go to it as soon as you feel you can.  Your entire gut will have turned to liquid, and will come out in 1 or 2 lots, after which you will need to repopulate your gut flora with good bacteria. So no great slabs of meat and fat, or rich spicy stuff.

You don't need feet, but when you need to have your feet cut off, your body is trying to tell you something.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/458746798270447616/U-eXuzjf.jpeg)

RE, as you are painfully aware of, humans cannot think properly when they are in pain. The RE in pain is a different RE. You must not allow him to control your behavior. Do what you've gotta do to stop that pain, RE. THEN you can address the path to eliminating the cause of that pain.

To the compassion free ASS HOLE that pedantically preaches to RE, a man of superior knowledge of biochemistry, what "pain is telling RE", see below:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1701182507/poopprobs.jpg)

Ease up, AG. I am willing to believe Palloy meant well, although I have to believe his recipe is near the end of things I would try. Sounds irredeemably harsh.

BULLSHIT!

I am NOT convinced Palloy meant ANYTHING but another excuse to play the "Erudite Professor" PEDANT! I am not you and I am well aware of your inexplicable reticence to castigate Palloy. I disagree with it and I will not discuss it with you. You are dead wrong on this one, Surly. Delete my post if you will.

It is clear that you hold a high opinion of Palloy's knowledge base. Yeah, Palloy has some book learning, but it thoroughly tainted by his desire to use it for an evil agenda DEFENDING the hydrocarbon celebrating STUPID status quo, while making a clever pretense of being "pro-environment".

What is you fu cking problem, Surly, that you cannot see that his agenda is DESTRUCTIVE, not constructive?

Palloy mixes hard facts with bullshit seamlessly and you get your drawers in a bunch every time I expose the arrogant bastard for what he truly is! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

After the defamatory CRAP he pulled on Dr. Brown, all you could come up with is some lame request for "proof", which he DID NOT PROVIDE, by the way, and you left it right there, rather than ask me if that constituted "proof" (which it did NOT), after putting me in the exact same "don't Ad hom" scolded at position as the routinely defamatory Palloy PEDANT.

I will NO LONGER TOLERATE you coming after me for alleged AD Hominem towards Palloy. I told you loud and clear what a dangerous F U C K he is in PMs. He is pushing a meme that will kill ALL of us, and you, like Palloy, are too bound up in your belief that a lack of hydrocarbons caused collapse will come before environmental catastrophe caused collapse to see that. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

Allowing an ASS HOLE like Palloy to keep parading his pseudo-erudite BULLSHIT continually is a testament to EVERYONE HERE's incredibly STUPID world view that is contributing to the AGE OF (hydrocarbon loving) STUPID that is DOOMING human civilization. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

GET OFF your "hydrocarbons are needed for civilization" STUPID VIEW, Surly. It IS STUPID.

Here is PROOF that it is STUPID!

Conversation with a Buddhist.

Ka said
Quote
I think it likely that the remaining hegemons will say -- time to withdraw to the Western Hemisphere (except maybe keep the sea lanes open to Nigerian and Angolan oil). If so, then I think the West has better long-term prospects than the East.

I hope you are right. But the MO of the goons (with a CONSISTENT historical track record) in charge that you are totally ignoring makes your wish look more like a prayer than a serious possibility.

THE MO of the neocon has a LONG history. As a scholar, you probably know it better than I do but you JUST DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE. It's time you did.

Let me refresh your memory on how this works:

Richard Nixon was the first (in our country - as far as I know) to espouse the policy of acting super belligerent and crazy as a foreign policy tactic. The purpose is to intimidate the other nation into acting "reasonable" and acceding to our predatory corporate demands RATHER THAN BEING DESTROYED. You need to convince the other nation that you will gladly go beyond the brink even if your economy will be hampered by it! This BULLY policy has gotten more polished but it's still the same basic MO.  Look up some quotes from the Republican speaker of the house (Gingrich). He said NEVER back down. When an opponent attempts to negotiate a settlement agreeable to both, DOUBLE DOWN on the threats. Never admit fault. Never go on the defensive. Always remain on the offensive. THAT is the MO that you want to pretend does not DOMINATE US foreign policy.

The problem with that type of MO is that it leads to WAR if the other party does not back down. It has worked BECAUSE it has been used on WEAK countries for the past few decades. If you think Russia is going to back down here, you just do not understand the situation.

Russia, by the way, STILL has complete underground cities and an extensive plan to survive (as well as possible under the circumstances - they KNOW how to grow food in sealed areas - they did a multiyear study to simulate a closed food system on mars) a full scale nuclear attack. Have you forgotten that?

The people doing this in our country have LOST IT. They aren't PRETENDING to be crazy. They have GONE CRAZY! It's called megalomania born of too many monstrous "successes" like Iraq and 9/11. 

It happened in Germany before WWII. We are there. Only some smart people that can counter them INSIDE our government will avoid WWIII. The neocons BELIEVE, like the crazies Reagan spoke about in the 1980s (you've got to be pretty crazy to be to the right of Reagan!) that "we" can win a nuclear war. They will NOT EVER accept a multi-polar world. That's the reality. We are all in danger as long as they are commanding our government sponsored terrorism.

All that said, I envy your ability to pretend all this is an illusion. That means your stress hormones are probably lower than mine and you will never have heart disease from stress. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714194256.bmp&hash=1c2795e25df0dc7d9be4879b7bba6f1632f715e1)

I wish it was an illusion. I don't think so. I remember how you claimed Fossil fuels had NOT gamed the playing field against renewable energy in the 1980s as if dirty energy actually WON the cost competition in those days. I gave you all sorts of circumstantial evidence but since it wasn't in the New York Times, I guess you remained unconvinced.

Watch this two minute tape. Accept EVERYTHING on it as true. If you don't, then watch the entire video the clip comes from and you WILL see the evidence for yourself. You were wrong to think fossil fueldom did not screw us back then and continues to screw us now. These people are not stupid; they are evil. But I agree that if this is all an illusion, it does not really matter...

Fossil Fuel Government 2 minute Video Clip FULL VIDEO, "The Age of Stupid": 


https://youtu.be/va_MVxpboqg

corruptio optimi pessima

THIS is not an illusion:

https://youtu.be/3zyizEz9XUs

Surly, if you are too enthralled with your concept of "freedom of speech" to see how SUICIDALLY STUPID it is to allow **** like Palloy to claim the greater problem for human civilization is the "lack of energy from the lack of hydrocarbons", then you, like Palloy, are part of the problem and I am in the wrong forum.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 05, 2018, 11:12:29 pm
France's 'Spider-Man' Migrant Is Now Using His Formidable Skills as a Firefighter (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)

Gassama’s remarkable rise comes as France struggles to deal with migrants.

Why Global Citizens Should Care

(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Y8apR_-LesA1VrJiS3_JRKx7Zd49h8Xnn6bjj5bt2J2Pq07X75bq7YrtJSWFHWE2uUrzYypt82CYaC5fQGr_EioOwijo3GED4ZAGhIdzUMj7_rsV1Rxlnw6ocTpe5q_sR7LQ1RvKXgVnixyMjs047vxVkC4H6rAIS6t14vyXfiN0B5kHYxNt8Bp6yCijSIFBEkRDgzB1pMla5ITIckW0trhT5lBKJEv8Hrf9Ss_F7SxF9nZdXKYAsjty=s0-d-e1-ft#https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/public/users/Integrators/669d5713-9b6a-46bb-bd7e-c542cff6dd6a/27fad69291be4dde8af89f92a62e8fe5/FrenchSpiderman_Newsletter.jpg)
Hero Mamoudou Gassama above right

The story of Mamoudou Gassama, a Malian migrant who earned French citizenship 👍 through extraordinary courage, raises important questions about the nature of citizenship at a time when there are more refugees and migrants than at any point in recorded history. You can join us by taking action on this issue and the rest of the Global Goals here.

Mamoudou Gassama was on his way to watch a soccer match in Paris a few months ago when he spotted a child dangling from the ledge of an apartment building.

The 22-year old migrant from Mali sprung into action, scaling four stories to rescue the child. People filmed the extraordinary event and the ensuing internet fame catapulted Gassama into a meeting with French President  Emmanuel Macron, where he was awarded citizenship for his daring feat.

Now Gassama has the chance to rescue even more people with the Paris Fire Brigade.


Take Action: Show Your Support for All People No Matter Where They Were Born

Take Action: Tweet Now
2 points

“Spider-Man” started his first day with the force on Sunday, joining 23 other new recruits, according to CNN. He had to pass rigorous physical examinations to get admitted.

In his new role, he’ll be fighting fires, rescuing animals, providing emergency life support, conducting lost persons operations, cleaning up pollution sites, and more, according to the department.

24 nouveaux volontaires service civique dont Mamoudou Gassama ont rejoint cet après midi la brigade de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris. Félicitations à eux 👩‍🚒👏 Pour celles et ceux qui veulent nous rejoindre ➡️https://t.co/j8oOCktHbvpic.twitter.com/bcc6h448nP

— Pompiers de Paris (@PompiersParis) June 28, 2018
Gassama’s remarkable rise comes as France struggles to deal with undocumented migrants and asylum seekers scattered throughout the country.

The country received more than 100,000 requests for asylum in 2017, and this year it’s expected to receive around 200,000 more applications, according to France 24.

Read More: 30,000 Migrants Have Gone Missing in the Sahara Desert

That’s on top of the existing applications from previous years, when migration to Europe began surging.

Not all migrants will be able to win instant citizenship by demonstrating their worth in life-or-death situations.

But all of them are seeking a better life. As Gassama gets adjusted to his new role, his day-to-day work could help show the world how migrants can make valuable contributions to society, if given a chance.

Global Citizen campaigns to help refugees and migrants around the world and you can take action on this issue here.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/france-spider-man-migrant-fire-fighter/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 11, 2018, 08:59:55 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

Chinese Rescue Diver 👍 😇 to Receive IMO Exceptional Bravery At Sea Award

July 10, 2018 by gCaptain

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3kbo302xo3lg2i1rj8450xje.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F07%2FBravery-award-2018_inside-pic.jpg&hash=1bd9d2fba0fd752f3703d66f70c6fe0704be0d57)
The 2018 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery At Sea will be awarded to Mr. Zhong Haifeng, senior diver and deputy of the Engineering Team of Guangzhou SalvagePhoto: International Maritime Organization

A Chinese rescue diver who led a series of dives to help rescue six crew members from a sunken cargo ship will receive the 2018 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery At Sea, the International Maritime Organization has announced.

The rescue started 27 November 2017 when the bulk carrier M/V Jin Ze Lun collided with another ship in Guangzhou Port, China, causing the bulk carrier to sink in the main channel to the port. Of the 14 crew on board, two were immediately rescued but 12 remained missing.

The award recipient, Mr. Zhong Haifeng, was a senior diver and deputy of the Engineering Team at Guangzhou Salvage and put in charge of the desperate search for survivors.

Facing strong currents, Haifeng organized a series dives resulting in the discovery of six missing crew members trapped inside an air pocket of a cabin. After their discovery, the team worked to replenish oxygen and talk to the trapped survivors to calm them.

Haifeng even dove down to deliver scuba diving equipment for those trapped.

The following day, Haifeng made six dives to help teach survivors how to use the scuba gear before helping them to the surface.

He is personally credited with rescuing three of the crew members over the course of just one hour.

Mr. Haifeng was nominated for the award by China.

A Panel of Judges agreed that Mr. Haifeng demonstrated “truly exceptional bravery and human spirit” during the rescue “by personally exerting tireless efforts under highly dangerous circumstances,” making it deserving of the IMO’s highest award for bravery at sea.

The decision was endorsed by the IMO Council last week at its 120th session in London.

Of a total of 22 qualifying nominations for this year’s award, another three will receive Certificates of Commendation and eight will receive Letters of Commendation.

The awards will be presented during an IMO Awards ceremony to be held on 6 December 2018 at IMO Headquarters in London.

http://gcaptain.com/chinese-diver-to-receive-imo-exceptional-bravery-at-sea-award/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 14, 2018, 02:48:13 pm
CleanTechnica
Support CleanTechnica’s work via donations on Patreon or PayPal!

Or just go buy a cool t-shirt, cup, baby outfit, bag, or hoodie. (https://cleantechnica.com/shop/#!/)


Thanos (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) Revives Centuries-Old Debate (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201903.png&hash=f7b1f3e1f363fe16e0e17f9c2d82b60fa83b8731)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201722.png&hash=5299cc10ee42beae76e4d3b7c79dbf5f4c0addac)About Overpopulation

July 14th, 2018 by Guest Contributor

Spoiler Alert: Genocide Is Never The Answer. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)

Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Source: Marvel Studios

Originally published on Nexus Media.

by Phil Newell

SNIPPET:

The debate over how to manage limited resources dates back centuries.

In 1798, economist Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population, which posited that the human population would grow faster than the supply of food, leading to mass starvation among the lower classes. The answer, wrote Malthus, was for people to have fewer children. Challenging Malthus and his acolytes were the cornucopians, who believed that technological progress would allow food production to keep pace with population growth.

This debate raged anew in the late 20th century. In his 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb, Paul Erlich took a decidedly Malthusian stance, warning of mass starvation as population growth outstripped the available resources. He was wrong in thinking a population boom would lead to immediate catastrophe. The global population has roughly doubled since the publication of his book, thanks to fertilizers, pesticides and other technologies that, while damaging to the environment, have supported the planet’s growing population.

However, Erlich was right that population growth would strain resources, namely the ability of the planet to absorb pollution generated by humans. Climate change offers a case in point. A growing population means that more people will consume more fossil fuels, worsening the carbon crisis in the decades to come.

Malthus and Erlich both advocated for reining in population growth through celibacy, sterilization or other draconian means. Those ideas are shortsighted. We now know that same thing can be achieved by making birth control available to those who want it, and by making sure women and girls are able to get an education. Of course, any of the aforementioned approaches are decidedly more humane than what Thanos proposed.

By attempting to “restore balance” to nature and the universe, Thanos has once again brought the Malthusian debate to the fore, leading some conservative writers to cast environmentalists as Thanos wannabes, while prompting others to push back on that characterization. What would it even mean to restore balance to nature?

The balance-of-nature metaphor is just that — a metaphor. In reality, ecosystems are complex webs of interactions between predator and prey. These relationships change slowly, over time through natural selection and evolution. They are always in flux and easily shaped by human activity — sometimes for the better, often for the worse. Technology has allowed humans to consume natural resources at a decidedly unnatural pace, wreaking havoc on the ecosystems on which we depend. Simply eliminating half of all humans won’t repair nature.

Full article: (https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/14/thanos-revives-centuries-old-debate-about-overpopulation/)

Agelbert COMMENT:

Excellent article!👍👍👍

I recently had a heated discussion with an advocate of forced depopulation (Niemand 🦕) of the poorest humans ☠️ because they are "damaging the biosphere" by forest clearing. It began when I challenged another advocate (upvoted by Niemand 🦕)  for murder of the poorest ☠️ among us  (jhande 🐉).     

Here is the gist of it:   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202144.gif&hash=428452d9f67a5253ca122e59a06c9b3c9434e50e)

jhande
The US needs to stabilize and slowly reduce its population.

Other nations overpopulating does not mean the US has to overpopulate.

Other nations need to get responsible about their population.

agelbert  jhande

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260214201233.png&hash=2c784ea86c703de06549ce14091214ff7fc0d461)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-140515152155.png&hash=5f8916507de1fcb05d147e025bd69cc103b6b969)


oldgrowthforest  agelbert
Thank you. The world cannot sustain even 5% of the world's population living the way we want to live. Westerners who blame overpopulation are ignoring all responsibility for what a small portion of the population has done. It's so creepy.

 Things are going to get MUCH worse, like almost everything dying worse. I alienated almost every person I knew about six years ago when I said that we are livin' in the end times, based on science. I had gone off the edge, even those who loved me most believed. I actually didn't speak to my best friend of over 38 years(!) over this for six months, she was so contemptuous of my views. In late 2012 I told her that within three to five years we would see BIG changes in the environment. She lives in Houston, Texas.

This year east Texas had eight inches of rain in 24 hours already. Her area had a one-in-a-1000-years storm three years in a row, culminating in Harvey last year. She doesn't think I'm so out there anymore. Au contraire.

Thanks for posting some reality where there usually is little to none.

CO2 was at 409+ yesterday. This is going to ramp up, to borrow an analogy from the bible, like a woman's labor pains, increasing in frequency, intensity, and duration. We are in it now.

Niemand  oldgrowthforest
Nope, the people in third-world countries who clearcut the forest for farms and housing are driving other species to extinction.

The killer has 2 heads, not one.

Niemand  agelbert
Nobody is going to sign up for subsistence living. Even the majority of those living hand-to-mouth want to start living large like first-worlders do.

So it's either population reduction or pan-extinction.

Niemand  agelbert
It's a 2-factor problem, not a 1-factor problem. The first-worlders, particularly the well-off in the US, are consuming too much energy directly or indirectly, and the third-worlders are consuming too much habitat.

So energy consumption must be sharply reduced in the first world, and fertility must be reduced everywhere to a level consistent with Rawlsian fairness.

agelbert  Niemand
You are establishing a false equivalence. That is a fallacious debating technique. Seriously, Neimand, you do not understand the science here, the thermodynamics of the trophic pyramid or the carbon footprint mechanism. You are only fooling yourself if you think you do.

Niemand  agelbert
Nope. If you think that I am, then you should have no trouble explaining the problem in detail using my words.

agelbert  Niemand
The problem is a moral one, NOT a population overshoot one. Human civilization, if it is to survive, MUST adress the PIGGERY of the top 17% FIRST, because THAT is what is destroying the biosphere, NOT the total amount of humans on the planet.

You can kill off the bottom 75% (about 5 BILLION people) right now and it will not put a DENT in the biosphere destruction making this planet uninhabitable for humans.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240318144053.png&hash=103269aba4a7ae936ff86a180a7a15090190a1a0)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240318143912.png&hash=0c7b550e9d49462e187b3c3bb4de1e960b6185df)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240318144202.png&hash=67d3472635864fab08695b17d484c5e84f3a7457)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120118181944.png&hash=bd1f420590db5a3213f18c2338839318746c937a)


Niemand  agelbert
According to Dr Lovelock, it's that 75% who are going to be killed off by 2100.

If we started limiting fertility around the world to 1 child per couple followed by medical sterilization, we'd have a chance to use our farming capacity to keep everyone alive. But if we don't, Earth is going to get rid of the poorest humans in the most horrible way.

Anyone who wants to leave it up to Nature is not someone I could be civil to.

agelbert  Niemand
Anyone, like YOU, who is willing to leave our energy polluting status quo to the hydrocarbon loving Industry, is someone not worthy of being respected, listened to, or being civil with.

The PROBLEM is Greenhouse Gas pollution from the burning of hydrocarbons, PERIOD.

Niemand  agelbert
No, like Lovelock, Hansen, et al., I'm in favor of non-combustion forms of energy generation, and in energy-sparing to reduce the amount we must generate. We won't survive if we keep burning stuff to generate energy, and it doesn't really matter what we burn because the common, inevitable toxic side effect is CO2.


agelbert  Niemand
Being "in favor" of Renewable Energy is a nice statement not supported by your promotion of population reduction of the poorest among us, based on a FALSE EQUIVALENCE between the two factors. The carbon footprint of the the top 17% VASTLY outweighs the carbon footprint of the lower 83%. You are trying to create a flase equivalence between the two. Shame on you. 👎

What you REALLY want to do is depopulate the earth of of the lower 83% so that you don't have to inconvenience your unsustainable hydrocarbon burning reliant standard of living. I explained to you that your plan is, not just  empathy deficit disordered, but doomed to failure.

The biosphere math facts clearly state that less than 17% of the human population, MOSTLY concentrated in wealthy countries, is DOING over 80% of the damage by consuming over 80% of the resources. Only about half (or less) of the MILITARY budgets alone of the wealthy countries could pay for bio-remediating the most impacted areas, stop the exploitation and care for and educate the high population growth poor there so they become good stewards instead of biosphere destroyers.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240915212016.jpeg&hash=47c78d80b3447e15bc4cadf79725cd2b1ad0c926)

The fossil fuel industry, and almost half of the world’s 100 largest companies, want that 'Fragmentation of Agency' pie chart to look like is as follows:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240915212425.png&hash=474f51564604f10ac8a8653c5e6d181e37afbfa8)

How convenient!

You refuse to accept the reality of the situation. 👎

So, it is obvious to an objective observer that your claim to being "in favor" of "non-combustion forms of energy generation, and in energy-sparing to reduce the amount we must generate " is mendacious pro-environment posturing. 👎

We DO NOT NEED TO BURN HYDROCARBONS for energy to have a civilization that guarantees a viable biosphere for future generations. Amory Lovins has made that crystal clear since a peer reviewed study he published over a decade ago titled, "Reinventing Fire". Google it. We need hydrocarbons like a dog needs ticks, PERIOD.

Amory Lovins on Energy Efficency Breakthroughs (real world 90% plus waste reduction) that seem hard to believe:
"Only puny secrets need protection; big discoveries are protected by public incredulity."


https://youtu.be/1zfO3HW6xCw

This conversation by Agelbert with Niemand is over.

For my followers: I recommend you block Neimand because of the unethical recommendations in his posts..

"Capitalist ideology claims that the world is perfectly ordered and everybody is in their place (i.e. everybody gets what they deserve). This self legitmating aspect of Capitalism is Socially Catastrophic. This is the Victorian view of the world." Rob Urie - Author " Zen Economics"

More comments and full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201112.png&hash=679f4583d6861313c256e8762c40929af1ac667e)

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/14/thanos-revives-centuries-old-debate-about-overpopulation/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on July 23, 2018, 01:18:11 pm
Agelbert NOTE: I am posting this 2013 article because it has a timeless value. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcreateawebsiteincome.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F02%2Ftime_for_a_break.jpg&hash=d48cae9eae4b8d08ef0f4a37c6019d9acfeb2aaf)

In Praise of Idleness  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)

By: Kara, selected from Experience LifeMarch 13, 2013

Most of us have been led to believe that the off-task brain is a little like an idling engine — puttering along at rest until given a specific task to accomplish or a problem to focus on. But research involving the use of PET and MRI imaging technologies suggests that, in fact, our brains maintain an almost constant level of activity, even when we appear to be doing nothing.

According to Marcus Raichle, MD, a neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a number of interconnecting brain regions kick into a sort of neurological and metabolic hyperdrive whenever given a break from tasks that require more-directed, highly focused attention.

You can see it on a PET scan: The same areas of the brain that light up when subjects allow their minds to wander from a problem or focused task promptly dim whenever they are asked to actively concentrate on something. And when those mind-wandering areas are active, they gobble glucose at an astonishing rate.

Based on the fact that the brain diverts attention from its demanding “downtime” activities only when called upon to divert blood, oxygen and glucose for more urgent purposes, Raichle and other brain researchers are concluding that whatever the brain is doing while apparently doing nothing may actually be profoundly important.

In a 2001 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Raichle and his colleague Gordon Shulman, PhD, identified the cluster of regions in which this activity occurred, including the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and posterior cingulate, which represent an arch through the midline of the brain. They dubbed these areas the “default network” and have continued to focus research efforts on precisely how the network operates — and for what purpose — ever since.

What’s clear so far is that the default network utilizes strong connections with the parts of our brains that process executive (decision-making) functions, memories, and content we deem to be of emotional significance or significant to our self-interest. And when active, parts of the network devour 30 percent more caloric energy (in the form of glucose) than nearly any other parts of the brain, suggesting that when it’s working, it’s working very hard indeed.

Precisely what it’s working on is the subject of ongoing research. Raichle and many of his fellow researchers hypothesize that the default network is responsible for processing the memories, observations and other random unsorted bits of material we’ve got floating around in our knowledge banks at any given time, potentially for the purposes of linking them or assessing their potential significance to our present and future circumstances
and decisions.

It may be that the default network is burning though glucose, in part, to create the amino acids and neurotransmitters it requires to build and maintain new synaptic circuits.

The act of daydreaming, in particular, seems to send the default network into action, and researchers now suspect this much-maligned activity may be one of the prime tools the brain employs in sorting and making sense of the chaotic bits and bytes we take in daily. In other words, giving your conscious mind a break now and then — not keeping it constantly focused on important matters — may be among the best ways to invite insights, ideas and solutions.

The Eureka Factor

You’ve probably heard plenty of people acknowledge that they get their best ideas in the shower. And you’ve no doubt heard the rumored story of Archimedes, who shouted his now-legendary “Eureka!” when he stepped into the bath, saw his bathwater rise and suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he’d submerged, abruptly intuiting the answer to what had previously been an intractable mathematical problem.

There’s a reason so much genius has occurred in bathrooms, according to cognitive neuroscientist Mark Jung-Beeman, PhD, and it’s the same reason we often get great ideas while puttering in the garden, getting a facial, taking a walk or just waking up from a nap: Because these are precisely the types of circumstances in which we’re not trying to come up with genius ideas, or really any ideas at all. The body is relatively relaxed; the brain is being allowed to do whatever it likes, its circuits freed up for whatever associations and information-shuttling activities it deems worthwhile. And it’s those random associations that seem key both to large-scale breakthroughs and handy “aha!” moments.

Jung-Beeman, a researcher at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., has made a career of mapping the brain circuits involved in moments of spontaneous insight. And he has found that while the brain lays much of the groundwork for insight by expending focused attention on a particular problem, certain parts of the brain must actually relax and be allowed to wander a bit for the necessary connections and associations (most of which are churned up by the more loosely organized right hemisphere) to be made.

In studies of subjects attempting to solve complex puzzles, psychologist Joy Bhattacharya, PhD, a researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, has been able to use electroencephalography (EEG) to successfully predict moments of insight up to eight seconds before the insights occur. He’s found that one key predictive indicator of an upcoming “aha!” is the presence of alpha waves (a brain-wave pattern associated with relaxation) emanating from the right hemisphere of the brain. Such activity makes the mind more receptive to new and unusual ideas, Bhattacharya suggests.

This explains, perhaps, why big-idea guys like Albert Einstein and mathematician Henri Poincaré have credited their best insights to the unconscious work their minds did while they were taking a break from what they ostensibly did best.

The upshot? Beyond a certain point, sitting for hours at your desk and working harder and longer to solve that problem or come up with that big idea may actually work against you. And that “certain point” may be mere minutes from now.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/want-to-work-harder-take-a-break.html#ixzz2NYsBeNfa (http://www.care2.com/greenliving/want-to-work-harder-take-a-break.html#ixzz2NYsBeNfa)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 09, 2018, 11:53:50 am
For Women, by Women: A Sisterhood of Carpenters Builds Tiny Houses for the Homeless (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185039-1655102.gif&hash=1a13ffad2c8451cba6f45b04a1249447d50c3e73)

BY Lornet Turnbull YES! Magazine

PUBLISHED September 8, 2018

SNIPPET:

Whittier Heights Village is a community of 15 colorful tiny houses, each 100 square feet. In July, its new residents began moving in, many from the streets or from shelters around Seattle. The village also has a common building with a kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry.

Located on city-owned land, it is one of nine tiny-house villages in Seattle that serve as emergency shelters for the city’s homeless population. It is operated by the Low Income Housing Institute, which develops and operates housing for low-income and homeless people in Washington state. Each house costs about $2,500 to build, and the labor is mostly provided by volunteers.

Dozens of women—and also some men—from across the state answered Lockridge’s initial call for volunteers. Not all were carpenters; there also were gardeners, plumbers and electricians, and artists. They included tradespeople with years of experience and folks who hadn’t picked up a hammer in years.

“People talked about how different it was from their regular crew in the real world where they worked. … We worked, learned, and taught,” Lockridge says.


READ MORE: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818184310-1635923.gif&hash=5e2530db4748ed6c7163e1d478fdfa3cd1108668)

https://truthout.org/articles/a-sisterhood-of-carpenters-builds-tiny-houses-for-the-homeless/
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 09, 2018, 12:19:09 pm
Despair fills Indonesia's buried village of Petobo as search for bodies draws to an end  :(

By Pichayada Promchertchoo

October 8, 2018

UPDATED October 9, 2018

SNIPPET:

More than 74,000 people were displaced and nearly 2,000 confirmed to have died in the double-disaster, including Talokalo’s brother and his family.

“Maybe it’s his destiny,” said the 28-year-old. Under his feet is a pile of mud and debris that has swallowed Petobo alive. What remains is an apocalyptic scene that stretches around him. Unclaimed bodies in yellow bags swarmed with flies. Crumpled cars. Twisted metal sheets. Children’s toys under crumbling heaps of rubble.

What happened at Petobo is soil liquefaction – a phenomenon where soil loses its strength and stiffness as the earthquake shakes, turning it into liquid. The result, as witnessed in Palu, is comprehensive devastation that makes it almost impossible for search and rescue workers to retrieve all the bodies from the 3-metre-deep mud.

https://youtu.be/pwcqmMu-96s

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-palu-earthquake-tsunami-bodies-search-end-petobo-10806430
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on October 20, 2018, 11:57:20 am
Truthout

October 15, 2018

SNIPPET:

On September 13, Senate leadership released a budget bill without the billion dollars ICE had requested. That is $1 billion that won’t go toward caging our communities. Even in a deeply reactionary political climate, with an administration intent on punishing and oppressing the most vulnerable, grassroots organizing worked. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818180844.png&hash=d74cfbba22967e53f7eb6202dffdd50b3e520fe2) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201112.png&hash=679f4583d6861313c256e8762c40929af1ac667e)


But this is only a partial victory. The bigger struggle will be over the funding for 2019 and for the years to come. It is up to us to build on this momentum, and to demand that Congress not only refuse to increase funding, but begin to defund ICE👹🦍 altogether. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818180835-1624479.gif&hash=92c92575625c10582f9c1c6f9db969ad24bf62a8)

Full article:  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://truthout.org/articles/we-stopped-ice-getting-an-extra-billion-now-lets-defund-it-totally/




Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 02, 2018, 03:03:24 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163123-1664600.png&hash=d609f7e4847e25e034ca7c7b11e75234ba2a0afd) Immigration as a Refugee IS NOT A CHOICE. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

https://youtu.be/JwkVk16xecw


Jan 15, 2014 | 60,781 views | by TEDx Talks

Refugees are often marginalised, their humanity ignored as their stories go untold. In this remarkable and emotional talk, however, author and former refugee ...
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 02, 2018, 06:03:32 pm
Agelbert NOTE: If the Republicans get their FASCIST way, everything Abraham Lincoln accomplished for wildlife, which Quinn Brett has dedicated her life to defend, will be destroyed by Corporate privatized pillaging of our National Park wilderness. A vote for Republicans is a vote to destroy our National Parks.

Quote
“When we left the ground, it didn’t feel right. I was climbing well and the pitches flew by, and still—I wasn’t there.”

(https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ptacek_n_0014_1500TCL-1404x936.jpg)
An autumn portrait of El Capitan, the stone that twice changed the course of her life. Photo: Nate Ptacek

The Cleanest Line

Letting Go

Quinn Brett   |   Oct 8, 2018

A climber describes her passion for the wildness of the world.

SNIPPET 1:


In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln first protected the place we now call Yosemite National Park, which had come under increasing threat of commercial exploitation from miners and settlers. Lincoln’s deed acted as an antecedent to the national park system and a milestone for public land preservation. I was unaware of the history, but to me El Capitan’s sheer impossibility represented infinite opportunity, not only in climbing but also in all of life. Even at age 4, I’d sprint up hills as fast as I could, practice piano pieces to perfection, beat my P.R. on my bicycle route around the neighborhood. But El Cap blew open my imagination.

Ten years after that first family trip to Yosemite, with my legs dangling in the icy Merced River, I excitedly called my dad to tell him of my successful El Capitan climb, the first of more than a dozen to follow. Those childhood road trips had metamorphosed into a passion for climbing. I fell in love with my backyard cliffs of Colorado, the towering granite of Yosemite, the magical red rock desert of Indian Creek, and the unfathomable gorges and walls of Zion.

(https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/brett_q_0002_640TCL-638x850.jpg)
Quinn on the south face of Yosemite’s Mount Watkins. She recalls it as a healing climb for herself and her friends Jens and Josh, as they’d all recently lost a loved one. Courtesy Quinn Brett

SNIPPET 2:

In spring 2017, I joined 12 other climbers in Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress. I spoke to them individually. I tried to crack their cover and see the true person beneath. I offered to take them hiking or even climbing. I followed up with emails, letting them know that the offer still stood. I believed if I could just share a little time with them in the outdoors, they would understand. They’d be moved to protect wild places. I spoke and acted as an avid user as well as a public servant: I worked as a climbing ranger for the National Park Service, interacting with thousands of visitors each year and providing technical search, rescue and medical assistance. At least, I did.


On October 11, 2017, while climbing the Boot Flake on The Nose on El Capitan, in a moment of inattention, I fell 120 feet and struck a ledge. I don’t remember the fall. I do remember the morning before my accident, though. I’d driven to Yosemite low on psych, exhausted at the end of the climbing ranger season. My relationship was on the rocks, and I had come to even question my love for climbing. I wanted to be a homebody, train for some upcoming trail running endeavors. But I felt obligated. I’d made plans, I had campground reservations, and Josie McKee, my climbing partner, and I felt like we should climb because we said we would. We’d planned for a speed lap on The Nose—it should have taken us less than six hours.

I wish I would have listened to myself.

When we left the ground, it didn’t feel right. I was climbing well and the pitches flew by, and still—I wasn’t there, wasn’t present. I’m usually extremely diligent with placing gear, but eager to finish my block, I ran it out to the top of the Boot Flake because I was lazy or dumb or just f u c k i n g stupid. My last memory was of a hand jam and the terrain steepening slightly.

(https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/evans_t_0014_1500TCL-1404x1056.jpg)
Following Quinn’s accident, she and Yosemite National Park Ranger Brandon Latham were short-hauled via helicopter to the valley floor. Photo: Tom Evans

SNIPPET 3:

My accident rerouted my life, but I’m still alive. I can still act. The therapists have a machine that supports my legs so I can stand, and although I can’t feel my legs, standing tall feels good in ways that I cannot describe. When my friends help wheel me onto gravel and gentle dirt trails, my heart sings. I still love wild places so much. So I will go again to D.C., to press the issue of protecting our public lands. I’ll go as many times as I can, as many times as it takes.

(https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SEPT18_020A_davis_t_2432_1600TCL-1600x883-c-default.jpg)
Quinn on January 14, 2018. Estes Park, Colorado. Photo: Tim Davis

I wish I could still take one of our lawmakers climbing, but if any of them are willing to join me for a simple outing on a beautiful trail somewhere, my offer still stands.

(https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/gosling_s_0002_1500TCL-1404x936.jpg)
Climbers Libby Sauter, Sasha DiGiulian, Katie Boué, Caroline Gleich, Maricela Rosales and Quinn Brett hit Capitol Hill on May 10, 2018, to advocate for public lands. Photo: Stephen Gosling
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185038-16442135.gif&hash=52927992b43007fa5c5eb6ffcb453ae29948c356)


Full Inspiring Story: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://www.patagonia.com/blog/2018/10/letting-go/

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132400-1685431.gif&hash=770de9d7a4fd6b31ea7d9b45e544cc00777d8029)

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQdKuUqfc53cmOQqbC61J5KDMnmE3Hwin9n64LiRTNcZHlZnzNz)(https://d2omw6a1nm6pnh.cloudfront.net/images/stop-attack-on-national-parks-1200.png)(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWet57qgki2RzG9cTxjEH92cM7sQmrR3QTrSZNZDYG4ksSW0a6-w)
🔊 VOTE DEMOCRATIC (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132422-1693180.gif&hash=8bc43ce7ebff6fb3a70224434834524068d3583c)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 11, 2018, 05:15:59 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/rW7WPrPa3zSfhgU4F3Y4FPePTFSe6YeeWeUXnsP96uDW-_O8Zefc1SOsDEkZoLxiHigUzNwQorUWxPWWUuVy3kVVUyw9D9oKzP6C2Ypxcl-btkxc_vr287UIl08RR4Gc7bql7Q2AM4YOZrSrtlvfspnMYie1fg7wyKi9wq0gEMM=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444/_compresseds/98fbe3c9-9353-467b-a6ae-4a34a6ebe079.jpg)

https://shop.survivalinternational.org/
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818221610-1607296.jpeg&hash=372bed297059a182447c4cb001615d5e8346adcc)

Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 08, 2019, 09:59:48 pm
Sea rescue 🌊 👀 (full documentary)
696,817 views

https://youtu.be/Wa1NrfNQxWM

Best Documentary

Published on Apr 9, 2018

The Ouessant « rail », off Bretagne, in France, famous for its dangerosity, is a real maritime highway. More than 150 boats take it each day, making of this part of the Iroise sea the most dangerous navigation area in the world. To monitor and protect the ships as well as the littoral, an alarm operation watch continuously on this area. For this documentary, we followed the crew of the open sea tug « Abeille Bourbon » during several rescue operations.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on January 25, 2019, 09:39:54 pm
Agelbert NOTE: These social scientists have empirically discovered what Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, made clear over two thousand years ago about the importance of equality in human society. ✨ (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Quote
Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack. -- 2 Corinthians 8:11-15 King James Version (KJV)
 
(https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/prh/books/188/188607/9781846147418.jpg.transform/PRHDesktopWide_small/image.jpg)
Imprint: Allen Lane
Published: 07/06/2018
ISBN: 9781846147418
Length: 352  Pages
Dimensions: 222mm x 33mm x 144mm
Weight: 468g
RRP: £20.00

Why is the incidence of mental illness in the UK twice that in Germany? Why are Americans three times more likely than the Dutch to develop gambling problems? Why is child well-being so much worse in New Zealand than Japan? As this groundbreaking study demonstrates, the answer to all these hinges on inequality.

InThe Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett put inequality at the centre of public debate by showing conclusively that less-equal societies fare worse than more equal ones across everything from education to life expectancy. The Inner Level now explains how inequality affects us individually, how it alters how we think, feel and behave. It sets out the overwhelming evidence that material inequalities have powerful psychological effects: when the gap between rich and poor increases, so does the tendency to defi ne and value ourselves and others in terms of superiority and inferiority. A deep well of data and analysis is drawn upon to empirically show, for example, that low social status is associated with elevated levels of stress, and how rates of anxiety and depression are intimately related to the inequality which makes that status paramount.

Wilkinson and Pickett describe how these responses to hierarchies evolved, and why the impacts of inequality on us are so severe. In doing so, they challenge the conception that humans are innately competitive and self-interested. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) They undermine, too, the idea that inequality is the product of 'natural' differences in individual ability.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

This book sheds new light on many of the most urgent problems facing societies today, but it is not just an index of our ills. It demonstrates that societies based on fundamental equalities, sharing and reciprocity generate much higher levels of well-being, and lays out the path towards them.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/188/188607/the-inner-level/9781846147418.html
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on June 25, 2019, 01:24:48 pm
Quote
Hazel
There's a really nice drone medical supply delivery system in Rwanda, using fixed wing drones for their much higher speed. It's been running for a couple of years with great results. Real Engineering has a really nice review of the design considerations, technology, and economics:

https://youtu.be/jEbRVNxL44c
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-010519192318-2207382.gif&hash=18dfe7eda21bed3d071733a5f8386f3f2bede995)

Related Article:

How Do You Get Medical Supplies Delivered To Remote African Communities? Two Words: Women & Drones (https://disqus.com/home/discussion/im-cleantechnica/how_do_you_get_medical_supplies_delivered_to_remote_african_communities_two_words_women_drones/#edit-4515672142)

Agelbert NOTE: As usual when when the welfare of people in Africa is defended, an alleged defender of the biosphere rants about overpopulation there killing off the fauna and flora. As usual when I spot these biosphere math challenged cretins, I weigh in with some facts:


Damien
Ok I think we got humans covered, over 9 billion of them left should be enough,., but what about all the species going extinct with no habitat and no water? To they not deserve to live? Why do we attach more value to human life? Surely this planet belongs to animals just as much as humans...

Lorenz Hansen >  Damien
Every species cares mostly about their own, a lot just about them self. Same with most humans. Otherwise we would never eat meat, have pets or milk slaves. Caring about humans isn't wrong. Saving everybody born is the best way we know to reduce birth rates, and with it population. Developed countries have a unsustainable birthrate (below 2 kids per woman). Have a look at japan. Population is already decreasing. Same will happen all over the western world. Just Asia and Africa are still growing.

Damien > Lorenz Hansen
That’s such an uneducated view, clearly you don’t understand eco systems and linkages. with that logic let’s just wipe the whole planet of all non-human species? Population is out of control, we’ve taken other species habitat, everything has consequences and it’s already hitting humans hard. No one talks about those communities’ horrible habit of having 15 kids instead of 2. Everything is connected, we destroy the eco system or kill one species it’ll destabilize everything and affect us as well.

Plus you’re talking about countries that are not the issue here. Undeveloped countries are the problem with uncontrolled populations and no jobs to give them.

agelbert (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202829.png&hash=a4ec201b97ad269ff59a6a1c0f1c19a04b57803a)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-240718213433-14592370.png&hash=303e851c5feb196224d3a901ee609fed6437375d) > Damien

What you are ERRONEOUSLY doing is ASSUMING the SAME AGENCY (i.e. biosphere damaging ability) to each and every human that is alive. That is TYPICAL broad brush fragmentation of agency (i.e. share of responsibility for the damage) that absolves the major polluters of the massive pollution they are responsible for.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

The biosphere math facts clearly state that less than 17% of the human population, MOSTLY concentrated in wealthy countries, is DOING over 80% of the damage by consuming over 80% of the resources. Only about half (or less) of the MILITARY budgets alone of the wealthy countries could pay for bio-remediating the most impacted areas, stop the exploitation and care for and educate the high population growth poor there so they become good stewards instead of biosphere destroyers.

Since, according to the U.N., the richest 20% of the world's population uses 80% of the resources, the 'Fragmentation of Agency' pie chart for the damage done to the biosphere should look like this:
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240915212016.jpeg&hash=47c78d80b3447e15bc4cadf79725cd2b1ad0c926)

The fossil fuel industry, and almost half of the world’s 100 largest companies, want that 'Fragmentation of Agency' pie chart to look like this:
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-240915212425.png&hash=474f51564604f10ac8a8653c5e6d181e37afbfa8)

The REAL bottom line is that less than 17% of the human population is an existential threat to the ALL of the human population AND a large part of macroscopic species in the biosphere.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-140515152155.png&hash=5f8916507de1fcb05d147e025bd69cc103b6b969)

Quote
"Capitalist ideology claims that the world is perfectly ordered and everybody is in their place (i..e. everybody gets what they deserve). This self legitmating aspect of Capitalism is Socially Catastrophic. This is the Victorian view of the world." Rob Urie - Author " Zen Economics"

Damien > agelbert
What does your theory that rests on shaky grounds (assumes people in developing countries don’t have TVs, fridges, bikes, phones etc.) help resolve? So every should pollute as much as the 1%? Let’s have +15 degrees temperature increase and see what happens... how stupid and short sighted.
 
agelbert > Damien
It's not a theory. For a fellow who is quite ready to scold polite educated people like Lorenz Hansen for their "uneducated" view of pollution cause and effect, you appear amazingly uninformed.

Here is the key senence in what I wrote. Please ponder it.

Only about half (or less) of the MILITARY budgets alone of the wealthy countries could pay for bio-remediating the most impacted areas, stop the exploitation and care for and educate the high population growth poor there so they become good stewards instead of biosphere destroyers.

Damien, I agree with you that the biosphere is being destroyed by the stupidity and greed of the human species.

However, your purported solution will not work. WHY IS THAT? Well, if every high population growth country's population all disappeared within a decade from a plague (or something similar, whether accidental or intentioned), that 17% of we PLANETARY PARASITES would still be there doing 80% of the BIOSPHERE DESTRUCTION.

To believe otherwise is wishful thinking. We need to get our house in order and get OFF of hydrocarbons, stop polluting mining, energy, manufacturing, wars, pesticide use, etc. and start a massive emergency campaign to get back to 350 PPM of CO2.

If we don't, we only have "DEVELOPED" countries to blame, NOT the "underdeveloped" countries.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818213436-15401143.jpeg&hash=ed6871fae2f3d2b8f00c6807f8df41f1d90906ce)


Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 03, 2019, 01:03:32 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

By Reuters on Aug 02, 2019 04:58 pm

Spanish 🕊 NGO Seeks Safe Port For 124 People Rescued in Mediterranean (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/NwUnqt3WjOkKTp0y6g_X2AryCOCeacDeougyFfrNHsJ8A5HxjlUFgQNFfXcJdoVdBhfzZheKpmA8VlxLPeNKkzHzADNvQzZxBjI=s0-d-e1-ft#http://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/r-1.jpeg)
NGO Proactiva 🕊 Open Arms rescue boat (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac) is seen at the port of Motril, southern Spain October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Juan Medina/File Photo

NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue boatby Sam Edwards (Reuters) A Spanish charity rescue boat sought safe port on Friday after Italy rejected its request to disembark 124 people saved from two migrant rafts in the Mediterranean, the organization said. Non-governmental organization (NGO) rescue boats have largely disappeared from the Mediterranean over the last year as governments have tightened controls. Charity […] 

Read full story... (https://gcaptain.com/spanish-ngo-seeks-safe-port-for-124-people-rescued-in-mediterranean/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gcaptain+%28gCaptain.com%29&goal=0_f50174ef03-7e89553785-169600093&mc_cid=7e89553785&mc_eid=1855a0727e)
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on August 17, 2019, 10:40:05 pm
Did military people think it was funny or clever when Trump 🦀 said he prefers people who don’t get captured when asked about Senator John McCain?

Ron Wagner, Former USAF pilot in the Presidential Wing at Andrews AFB. Former airline pilot.
Updated Jan 6 · Upvoted by Steve Traugott, Former Staff Sergeant, Crew Chief, USAF and Don Harper, former US Military Combat Veteran-5 Tour at The United States of America (1978-2005)

Here is my “two cents worth,” although my personal stories about John McCain and other POWs might be worth a nickel or a dime.

I FLEW WITH McCAIN AND A LOT OF VIETNAM POWs

When the Vietnam POWs were released they were given huge priority in selecting their next assignments. That was a superb idea considering that their previous military duties over the past six to eight years had been as bad as it gets.

Many of them chose to fly in the Presidential Wing at Andrews AFB, so I got to train and fly with a lot of them. They survived inhumane, unbelievable torture. Not one of them was, nor will they ever be, perfectly all right.

And yet, I don’t know much about what they experienced because they rarely talked about it. I mostly picked up on symptoms. Let me give two examples.

THE SHARP-DRESSED MAJOR

One POW pilot in my squadron was a Major who had his uniforms tailor made and kept them crisp and perfect. You might think a tailor-made USAF uniform wouldn’t look different, but he was one sharp-dressed man. He looked perfect all the time because he would never again wear sloppy, ill-fitting clothing.

And when it came time to find a restaurant when we were out on an overnight mission, he had only one criterion for choosing one: it had to have carpeting. It was a little quirk of his that he had experienced enough meals on concrete floors that he wanted to dine on carpeting for the rest of his life.

THE CAPTAIN AND COLD SHOWERS

And then there’s the Captain, whom I think about most times that I turn on the shower water to let it warm up. It’s pretty strange, but it’s the truth: in 40 years, I have taken few showers without thinking about the story I’m going to relate.

The Captain told me showers were mandatory every couple of days—under pain of torture if they refused—until the temperature got down to 5 degrees C, which is 41 degrees F. Next time you take a shower, turn on the “cold” water and let it run for two minutes so that the warm 72-degree water in your pipes is gone and you get the 56-degree cold water that comes into your home. Now step under it and see how long you last. Your bathroom is 72 degrees and the “cold” water is around 56 degrees. Trust me, you will think it hurts. Try to imagine being outdoors at 42 degrees, with 42 degree water, and possibly some wind blowing.

Now choose: take that shower, or take a severe beating—whichever one you prefer.

When the POWs landed in Hawaii on their way back, they all took long hot showers, some stood in the shower for up to two hours. Think about that.

THREE DAYS VERSUS SEVEN YEARS

I hope this next thing comes across as the profound compliment I intend it to be.

At the end of my USAF pilot training, we went through two weeks of ground survival training. Three days of it was being locked up in a mock POW camp. And when I say “mock” you cannot imagine how mock it was. It was on an active USAF base, so we were safe. The “guards” were active duty enlisted airmen who were in no way going to truly harm an officer. They were given permission to make us hurt, but they had special techniques that did no harm. In other words, suffering was not even a remote possibility for us.

And the really big deal about it was that it lasted just three days, then they’d open the gates and we’d go for a big, hot meal. Then back to our rooms for hot showers and fresh clothes.

And yet, I will tell you I was terrified. It was horrible. It was demeaning.

And we never had to take a shower outdoors on a cold day with cold water.

My conclusion from that experience is that I truly cannot imagine enduring a real POW camp for a totally unknown length of time—never knowing when you would get out—and having real guards, and enduring torture that would leave you scarred for life. My little taste of it gave me enormous respect for the men who I would soon be training and flying with at Andrews.

FLYING WITH McCAIN

McCain returned to take command of a Naval flight training squadron, so as a USAF pilot I would normally have never flown with him. But within about two years he became the Navy’s liaison to the US Senate. He worked directly with Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. In about 1977–78 I flew out to Phoenix to pick up Goldwater and bring him home to Andrews. McCain was at his side.

About halfway across the country, I sent my copilot back to the passenger seats and put McCain in the right seat and let him fly, including a night landing at Andrews. He did great and Goldwater gave him a “thumbs up.”

McCain had been famous as a POW, for reasons made clear in many other answers here, so I knew about him. He suffered more than most of them due to his father being an Admiral in the Navy. We never discussed it.

NOTHING FUNNY OR CLEVER ABOUT TRUMP

And Donald Pu**y-Grabbing Trump had the classless gall to say McCain wasn't a hero. I’d love to make Trump choose between taking a shower outdoors on a windy, 42-degree day, with 42-degree water, and a severe beating. Can I get a volunteer in case he refused to take the shower?!?! 👍👍👍 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163123-16601910.gif&hash=36722ff3a7234165f97ec96e71c28afb6c8bcc91)

I can’t believe you (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419235756.png&hash=ddd7a71acf6ff0420a63e797c27fdcad27734e3e) even wrote “funny or clever” in your question.

Trump has no clue at all what it’s like to serve one’s country. McCain has served far, far more than almost anyone who hasn’t died in the line of service.

And we know how Trump treats the Gold Star families. Amazingly, more than 80% of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing. What would it take for them to disapprove?

There is nothing “funny or clever” about Trump, and his moronic comments about John McCain are just one small example.

386.3k views  You upvoted this Anthony G. Gelbert

Chris Skuller
Oct 30, 2017 · 1,543 upvotes including Ron Wagner
Yeah. Although I can create a list 10 pages long condemning the current Republican party, it’s their approval of Trump despite his disrespect of McCain and Gold Star Families that really shows their true colors. I find it especially telling when they (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-170819224442.png) about NFL players kneeling during the Anthem being (somehow) disrespectful to the flag and enlisted soldiers, all the while approving of a President (currently 80% approval rating from Republicans) who has said such awful things. It disgusts me. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817134648.gif&hash=d24c66a26329a19150a175d576b631d10f631ee8)

Edit: Since I wrote this back in October of 2017, I have seen a bunch more “true colors” moments from the (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) current administration.

https://www.quora.com/Did-military-people-think-it-was-funny-or-clever-when-Trump-said-he-prefers-people-who-don%E2%80%99t-get-captured-when-asked-about-Senator-John-McCain

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301216142007.png&hash=84ef2c6fc002fc0b4bc9940ee16d0728d50cc9b5)
Title: 🍁 Autumn is in the Air 🍂
Post by: AGelbert on September 18, 2019, 12:40:34 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-151018174749-1701319.jpeg&hash=e2057a46b5496e48daf29bc8728a693bd4d6ad3c)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.picgifs.com%2Fgraphics%2Fs%2Fsmilies%2Fgraphics-smilies-166731.gif&hash=cf4f7a2d2add1f18f6a919b2cdd3e4c2cb64d655)
Title: This year’s stunning ✨ calendar features the winning 💫 entries from our annual photo competition
Post by: AGelbert on November 28, 2019, 12:22:36 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/m5xHM2ys6_QfCqswF5JNDHCEJgLmkU0H_bGPFhZBmLX96Qt-5mZP8HEJzgfEIt-tLCeID4XhI5-loDGexxncOgFX_Gp5wyvf-6jGwcAy1wDceTCWFJBSPw8ILd2oOFkQ0aErXXdubfdoDRLlnEuNcUUDC4_pBdMWieO9c5cJ9BlgiWW2dt_m=s0-d-e1-ft#http://image.email.survivalinternational.org/lib/fe3a117075640475701473/m/1/239bba48-21cb-4751-863f-61f344f9ae2c.jpg)

Discover a new tribal portrait each month with Survival's much-anticipated “We, the people” 2020 calendar.

This year’s stunning calendar features the winning entries from our annual photo competition including some amazing indigenous photographers Melody Charlie, Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá, Kiliii Yuyan, and Wayne Quilliam.

Tribal societies are extraordinarily diverse and mostly self-sufficient. The images featured in this unique calendar capture intimate scenes of everyday life in indigenous communities around the world.

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/HEi_6mKHuKTbJBevdcu9ppWnWqhODfsA1qKM9HSqDmQqCii62ozLh_HMXRXmWnV8XmCz8gTifnt8uX73cijhwaZ5eS6dev-K2qSSdPPCWUcvKbhlF9rPlfcCX3VxEe7BpsIY6EPc__hPx_4ncJwgy8xlhUl4S5eSXCoVdWoqAHKPBPW_kESk=s0-d-e1-ft#http://image.email.survivalinternational.org/lib/fe3a117075640475701473/m/1/ac0ad254-25fb-4893-8202-ee9bd3c570ae.jpg)

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/50iKWfePPN0fowR9grcnDdM8QAiJ3mCr6OrW_3E5x_UyrEkVNp2DH6ChDUJJvzKWB2S86czzXmGR87Yld40eYPRc0mEYN7f1dlS6AijVRzSDwFMVHvUktw29UJtcJk7uqv3RhQhA08XgdeP68UChasxv17hgGyVGh-TAmMCy8c4A0oWc7pce=s0-d-e1-ft#http://image.email.survivalinternational.org/lib/fe3a117075640475701473/m/1/c79c7ea8-586d-4960-b9fa-c1ce23ddcfdf.jpg)

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/RZVEKV7RlW_h-6d67sxpOrPzA8ldpE2QDZxm5rMdIP0SWxEGNjW-xTe4-dEqglqcfxtIjDXlSAjT_CeYdTfD9CKy2AHp-aOkO1bgiPxRTGrG2vBI1t82vhx-XdFC7LWYW9yiOMHIAMnGVgkxlpDvhRmM6YHJKqr1zMFY4HxGLYVjjWcrIYIW=s0-d-e1-ft#http://image.email.survivalinternational.org/lib/fe3a117075640475701473/m/1/2b5a9670-66b9-4866-811f-3145fcf311d3.jpg)

(https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/iUfZtEfMEEz26uBt6aTaF75DVOyegsPAoGf9o-A0X77tql_OjXODKSeyeYpPxy6aOvKWesoutTpmF_9m7qtsvAlmt1UFIL595a2hfnRdjvIyvQwqPrzdXGuUEigRmL3mwP3YFxtfV0LKxAI68Po1vK0VcqQlwx0HJdnRGoS3ERD4Kflcwll8=s0-d-e1-ft#http://image.email.survivalinternational.org/lib/fe3a117075640475701473/m/1/7396c09f-1abd-4511-bfa2-c36501ae644a.jpg)

"We, the people" is the perfect gift to support our vital campaigns alongside tribal peoples.

Only £13.99 per calendar or take advantage of our offer and buy two for £21.99.

Orders can be shipped anywhere in the world. To guarantee delivery outside of the UK for 25 Dec order before 3 Dec.

100% of the profits from your order goes towards
Survival International's urgent work.

Shop Now (http://click.email.survivalinternational.org/?qs=5a20d364c0e0b7580168ce598cda1c32a3a9313f06c710570335ec62117aa1d32ed23b2b4f09fa4c162ddf05c1f561c9923f2a320c41a22f)

Survival International Trading Ltd, 6 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7ET, UK. Registered company 2844785.

Customer Service +44(0)207 687 8700. Monday - Friday, 10am-6pm (UK time).


Title: Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism
Post by: Surly1 on December 04, 2019, 06:24:47 am
Literal Vampire Capitalism.

Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism (https://www.mintpressnews.com/harvesting-blood-americas-poor-late-stage-capitalism/263175/)
Blood has become big business in the United States and there is no shortage of corporations ready to exploit America’s most vulnerable populations in order to get a piece of the pie.


(https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/shutterstock_1251571057_edited-e1575401863360.jpg)

by Alan Macleod

For much of the world, donating blood is purely an act of solidarity; a civic duty that the healthy perform to aid others in need. The idea of being paid for such an action would be considered bizarre. But in the United States, it is big business. Indeed, in today’s wretched economy, where around 130 million Americans admit an inability to pay for basic needs like food, housing or healthcare, buying and selling blood is of the few booming industries America has left. 

The number of collection centers in the United States has more than doubled since 2005 and blood now makes up well over 2 percent of total U.S. exports by value. To put that in perspective, Americans’ blood is now worth more than all exported corn or soy products that cover vast areas of the country’s heartland. The U.S. supplies fully 70 percent of the world’s plasma, mainly because most other countries have banned the practice on ethical and medical grounds. Exports increased by over 13 percent, to $28.6 billion, between 2016 and 2017, and the plasma market is projected to “grow radiantly,” according to one industry report. The majority goes to wealthy European countries; Germany, for example, buys 15 percent of all U.S. blood exports. China and Japan are also key customers.

It is primarily the plasma– a golden liquid that transports proteins and red and white blood cells around the body– that makes it so sought after. Donated blood is crucial in treating medical conditions such as anemia and cancer and is commonly required to perform surgeries. Pregnant women also frequently need transfusions to treat blood loss during childbirth. Like all maturing industries, a few enormous bloodthirsty companies, such as Grifols and CSL, have come to dominate the American market.

But in order to generate such enormous profits, these vampiric corporations consciously target the poorest and most desperate Americans. One study found that the majority of donors in Cleveland generate more than a third of their income from “donating” blood. The money they receive, notes Professor Kathryn Edin of Princeton University, is literally “the lifeblood of the $2 a day poor.” Professor H. Luke Schaefer of the University of Michigan, Edin’s co-author of $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, told MintPress News:

The massive increase in blood plasma sales is a result of an inadequate and in many places non-existent cash safety net, combined with an unstable labor market. Our experience is people need the money, that’s the primary reason people show up at plasma centers.”

Almost half of America is broke, and 58 percent of the country is living paycheck to paycheck, with savings of less than $1000. 37 million Americans go to bed hungry, including one-sixth of New Yorkers and almost half of South Bronx residents. And over half a million sleep on the streets on any given night, with many millions more in vehicles or relying on friends or family. It is in this context that millions in the red have turned to selling blood to make ends meet. In a very real sense then, these corporations are harvesting the blood of the poor, literally sucking the life out of them.

MintPress News spoke to a number of Americans who consistently donated plasma. Some of them did not want to be fully identified. But none were under any illusions about the system and how they were being exploited.

“The centers are never in a good part of town, always somewhere they can get a never ending supply of poor people desperate for that hundred bucks a week,” noted Andrew Watkins, who sold his blood in Pittsburgh, PA for around 18 months.

 The people who show up are a mix of disabled, working poor, homeless, single parents, and college students. With the exception of the college students who are looking for booze money, this is probably the easiest and most reliable income they have. Your job may fire you at any time when you’re on this level of society, but you always have blood. And selling your blood doesn’t count as a job or income when it comes to determining disability benefits, food stamps, or unemployment eligibility so it’s a source of money for the people who have absolutely nothing else.”

Rachel from Wisconsin, who donated hundreds of times over a seven-year period, also commented on the obvious socio-economic makeup of donors.

We were poor, all of us in there you could easily tell that we were on the lower ends of the income bracket. They incentivize you with bonuses and the more you donate in a month the more you’ll get paid, recruiting friends bonuses, holiday bonuses, etc.”

Keita Currier from Washington, D.C., noted how she and her husband had little choice but to continue visiting clinics in Maryland for years but resented their payment methods.

 They’re predatory, the price set for your plasma is based on a whim. For example, one place I donated the first five times you get $75, then you get 20, 20, 30, 50, 25. It’s random, it doesn’t matter, but they know you are desperate and if you don’t do your $30 donation you won’t get your 50 next time. Apparently, the plasma is worth something in the hundreds, so it is not surprising that you’re screwed over.”

 

Zombifying America’s poor

Respondents all agreed that they were indeed being exploited, but in more ways than one. Desperate Americans are allowed to donate twice per week (104 times per year). But losing that much plasma could have serious health consequences, most of which have not been studied Professor Schaefer warns, stressing that more research is necessary. Around 70 percent of donors experience health complications. Donors have a lower protein count in their blood, putting them at greater risk of infections and liver and kidney disorders. Many regulars suffer from near-permanent fatigue and are borderline anemic. All this for an average of $30 per visit. Rachel described the terrible Catch-22 many of the working poor find themselves in:

 I got turned away twice – once for being too dehydrated and once for being anemic. Being poor created a shitty paradox where I couldn’t eat, and because I couldn’t eat my iron levels weren’t high enough to allow me to donate. That was a week of a pay cut, money I desperately needed for rent and bills and meds.”

A common method of cheating in endurance sports is to inject extra blood into your system before a race, giving you a huge performance boost. But extracting it has the opposite effect, making you sluggish and tired for days. Thus, this debilitating practice is zombifying America’s poor.

Plasma donation

A Maryland plasma center is shown in a promotional image for CSL Plasma, one of the largest corporations dominating the market

The process of giving blood is not a pleasurable one. Currier noted that after constantly donating, “the bruising gets terrible…Sometimes they can’t find the vain ‘n’ **** or they insert it wrong and they have to adjust the needle underneath your skin” she said, claiming that just thinking about it freaks her out, and revealed that her husband had to temporarily stop donating as his bosses thought he was on heroin due to the track marks on his arms.

Watkins agreed. “You could always tell how long someone had been doing the job by that needle,” he recalls. “Once they’d been there a year or so, they’d have stabbed literally thousands of people and could just tap your elbow once and slide the needle into the vein with no problems. New guys would miss the vein, punch through the vein, or try to hunt for it with the needle tip, which would leave terrible bruises.”

There is also little thought for the comfort of the patients. As Watkins explained, the thermostats are always turned down to around 50-60ºF for the plasma’s sake. Once the amber-colored plasma has been extracted, your cooled blood is re-injected in a painful process that feels as if ice is being inserted into the body. “Combined with the already cold air temperatures, this was maddening,” he notes.

Thus, America’s zombie poor are left almost permanently mentally drained like heroin addicts, and with similarly bruised and punctured arms, except they are being paid for the inconvenience. But perhaps the worst thing about the experience, according to those interviewed, is the dehumanization of the process. 

Donors are publicly weighed to make sure they are heavy enough. Obese people are worth more to the bloodthirsty companies as they can safely extract more plasma from them each session (while paying out the same compensation). “They definitely turn you into a product in a very literal sense,” Watkins says; “It’s deeply exploitative and a symptom of just how far gone capitalism is.”

Many centers are enormous, with multiple rows of dozens of machines working in an attempt to appease the insatiable appetite of the vampiric corporation. And there is, according to Watkins, no lack of human “victims” willing to be treated like animals in battery farms, in exchange for a few dollars: “It was an assembly line to extract liquid gold from human mines,” he notes. 

Currier also highlighted the treatment of the staff and the cost-cutting measures of clinics in Maryland she visited would enact:

 Usually the places are hugely understaffed which means they frequently don’t change gloves, the people are overworked, and at the minimum you’re staying there for 2-3 hours which means you have to plan a whole day around this **** only to get 20 bucks in your pocket to make it through the next few days. It’s depressing, disheartening and frankly embarrassing to have to hustle like this. I feel like **** after I donate.”

 

Exploitation reaches new levels

But the exploitation of humans has reached new levels in clinics on the U.S.-Mexico border. Every week, thousands of Mexicans enter the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood to for-profit pharmaceutical corporations. The practice is banned on health grounds in Mexico but is completely legal north of the border. According to ProPublica, there are at least 43 blood donation centers along the border that prey primarily on Mexican nationals in a legally ambiguous practice.

According to a Swiss documentary on the subject, there are precious few checks on the cleanliness of the blood these companies accept, with some donors interviewed admitting they were drug addicts. But all is sacrificed in the pursuit of dazzling profits, something donors were well aware of. Rachel from Wisconsin admitted,

 I did it for the money, I think we all do it for the money, but it’s not really something you out and out say because there’s a veneer of “helping the sick” slathered over it. But I caught glimpses of what kind of industry it was on occasion through innocuous questioning. The amount of plasma drawn from one person per donation was worth upwards of $600, I never really got a clear answer on that.

Andrew from Pennsylvania agreed, noting wryly,

 I know my plasma was worth thousands of dollars per donation [to others], because I’ve seen what a hospital in my city charged a hemophiliac for platelets, so the pittance that they pay is ridiculous, but there is only one buyer making offers at the human level. If you’re poor and out of other options, you’ll take $40 however you can get it. Any port in a storm.”

Michael, a social worker from Georgia who sold his blood for extra cash, was deeply scornful of the entire situation. “I’ve known quite a number of people who rely on money made by selling plasma. A lot of times it’s to cover childcare or prescriptions or something along those lines,” he said. “It’s absolutely deplorable to leverage literal blood money from people who have so few options.”

Blood donation sign

A sign encouraging students to sell blood to fund their education. Twitter | @tjulrich

Big pharma is particularly interested in the blood of the young. One billboard campaign from Grifols intentionally targeted working-class students. “Need books? No worries. Donate Plasma” reads the headline. Teenager blood is in high demand in, of all places, Silicon Valley, where anti-aging technologies are the latest trend. One company, Ambrosia, charges $8,000 per treatment to aging tech executives, infusing them with the blood of the young, turning these individuals into bloodsuckers in more ways than one. Despite the fact that there is no clinical evidence that the practice has any beneficial effects, business is booming. One committed customer is PayPal co-founder turned Trump surrogate Peter Thiel, who is reportedly spending vast sums of money on funding anti-aging startups. Thiel claims that we have been conned by “the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual” and believes that his own immortality may be just around the corner, a notion that has deeply concerned academics andcommentators alike.

The new and booming blood market is the perfect embodiment of the late capitalist dystopia modern America has become. The dehumanizing process of harvesting the blood of the poor to fund the quixotic immortality dreams of the super-wealthy turns the former into walking, living zombies and the latter into vampires, feasting on the blood of the young; a true American horror story worthy of Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft. As Rachel from Wisconsin said:

It really is an industry where ‘squeezing blood from stones’ is about as literal as you can get.”

Feature photo | A man is shown selling plasma at an unidentified plasma center. lightpoet | Shutterstock

Alan MacLeod is a MintPress Staff Writer as well as an academic and writer for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. His book, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting was published in April.

Title: Being out of a job can do that to a person.
Post by: AGelbert on December 04, 2019, 05:22:00 pm
Literal Vampire Capitalism.

Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism (https://www.mintpressnews.com/harvesting-blood-americas-poor-late-stage-capitalism/263175/)

Blood has become big business in the United States and there is no shortage of corporations ready to exploit America’s most vulnerable populations in order to get a piece of the pie.

Yep. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-310119164317.gif&hash=870c66e6ad21133a740ba1583280577f05ccb4ac)

During a brief period in my youth (1970-1972), I knew some people that made some extra money selling their blood. I think they could get as much as $25 for a pint. That was a nice amount of cash back then. I could never do it because my dad was a carrier of Hepatitis (brought back from his Korean War experience before Hepatitis had any different letter versions), which my younger sister and myself both contracted around 1952.

She had a mild case. I was hospitalized for a week where they fed me almost pure sugar everything for the whole time. You would think that a 6 year old kid would enjoy the experience of lots of sweets to eat, but when you have Hepatitis (I guess it was Hepatitis A), you feel dizzy and nauseous most of the time. I had no appetite and I had to be "supervised" by a nurse who made sure I would eat the pudding stuff they wanted me to eat frequently.

The only good part is that, since my week or so in the Hospital was in December, I got a lot of toys for Christmas ;D.

I was told later on that I could never donate (or sell) my blood, so that was that. These people selling their blood had a system of going to different blood banks so they could sell more often (Blood banks didn't allow you to sell blood more often than some period of days or weeks I don't remember right now). The universal blood type people (Type O) were always in demand; A+ blood types like mine, not so much.

As you know, I got fired from the Air Taxi Pilot job I had for trying to organize a union. In 1970, Unemployment Compensation was $92 a month in Puerto Rico. I had to go to a government office twice a month to collect a $46 check. Since I didn't have a bank account, I had to pay some check cashing con artist outside the office a dollar (He would take my check and give me $45).

As a pilot I had been making $550 a month, and had even gotten up to $800 a month during my brief time as Chief Pilot. For a newly married couple, $92 a month was not enough to live on. We had to eat at my wife's parents' house. Within two or three months we had to move out of our rented apartment to my parents' house. 👎

I actually envied those who could sell blood back then. Being out of a job can do that to a person. I know exactly where those poor folks mentioned in the article are coming from. I don't know if you considered selling blood when you lived in that boat you wrote about a long time ago, but I would certainly understand if you did. We all have to do what we can to survive.

Title: 🎯 MacGelbert 😉
Post by: AGelbert on December 30, 2019, 07:02:33 pm
Two good things that happened in 2019 ...            ... I'm thinking! Don't rush me! ...            🕯️🕯️... Got it! ➡️ (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160023-2284203.png) Surly  and (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160023-2284203.png) Agelbert  stayed out of (https://images.dailykos.com/images/604450/story_image/NO45-1024x1024.jpg?1540657700) Gestapo "custody" ((https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smiley-lol.com%2Fsmiley%2Fexagerent%2Fpolice%2Fenprison.gif&hash=4912c6e4685052e7a6084b2d6740020437d7dae4)).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191017143841.jpeg&hash=21f142befe4ed82f10ef0bdba11c22bbd3051289) As the money grubbers say, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. May all people of good will be blessed with God's Protection and good luck in 2020 and beyond. We are going to need all the help we can get.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-251218182748-2076477.jpeg&hash=2adac622be0d017fb27b31aa3f5eb7982a30b814) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300714025456.bmp&hash=f4e4a260bd60d3f34ca86fed93c47d5fb4117cfd)
[NOT Macbeth ;D] Come wind, come wrack, at least we'll die with the yoke OFF our back. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

On the other hand, if Shakespeare, in Macbeth, had been implying that the "harness", instead of body armor, was a fearless life long commitment to invariably doing the right thing, the words of Macbeth would be applicable to all people of good will, tired of the tsunami of evil in this valley of tears, who remain true to their ethical standards.

Quote
Macbeth: "I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.—Ring the alarum-bell!—Blow, wind! Come, wrack! At least we’ll die with harness on our back."

MODERN ENGLISH Macbeth: I’m starting to grow tired of living, and I’d like to see the world plunged into chaos. Ring the alarms! Blow, wind! Come, ruin! At least we’ll die with our armor on.
Title: Cesar's Story | Save the Children
Post by: AGelbert on January 09, 2020, 07:16:04 pm
Cesar's Story | Save the Children
23 views•Jan 9, 2020

https://youtu.be/yP6iq9A0Qlc

Save the Children USA
17.1K subscribers

Venezuela’s economic collapse and internal conflict is driving millions of Venezuelans to seek better lives across the region, including Cesar and his family. Cesar is a Venezuelan boy who came to Peru with his parents and younger brother. He found a way to fit in Peru through Save the Children's school tutoring program for Venezuelan children. With 3 million people displaced outside the country, the flow of migrants is greater than the number who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe during that migration’s peak in 2015. Learn more about our work to change the lives of the children of Venezuela at https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/emergency-response/venezuela-crisis-facts


➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savethechildren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethechildren
Instagram: https://instagram.com/savethechildren
 
For more about Save the Children’s work, visit: https://www.savethechildren.org
Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: Without citing a valid reason to deny the Congress-approved aid, Trump has delayed upgrades that wou
Post by: AGelbert on January 27, 2020, 03:10:44 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/WJp7ylNARVLzcoHbdkDoA8_P7gvrRZUjVdaxtn8wHHycJ6KDloSJpfWDPfSTVeOhoN7zavGcec4Tm6YlgTu4TeLyM7HWPeyIsNUZIGQfpaST44GSk9azGqL9WPYakCtsUETiw9bzZ8DzwjGcedTV9vG9niMN-lFlzFLSAczME3_sYNbIhw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/01/puerto-rico-demo-in-philly-385x509-150x150.jpeg) Philadelphia: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132401-16881856.gif&hash=ef5bd30cec7a50a81f3507f9bd328189dead7aa2) Stop Denying Disaster Relief To Puerto Rico!

By Joe Piette, Workers.org. Demonstrators gathered in Philadelphia on Jan. 15 in front of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mid-Atlantic Region, with signs and Puerto Rican flags. Speaker after speaker criticized the Trump administration for refusing to allow $18 billion in post-hurricane aid to be sent to the U.S. island colony. Without citing a valid reason to deny the Congress-approved aid...

Full article (https://popularresistance.org/philadelphia-stop-denying-disaster-relief-to-puerto-rico/) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/jxPJbu9CahbU6mcdbQHNIx1s1FzX8ri43wOb_ZJM886XWvlhdT_BJmM6oamIcYfxK3D5baUTyMVMQKNBISgUX75L7T16gIwSia-K9sQW6QP4sS9Wx1COcs9eJ3Ac-E41NW85mltZ3ISlzvmvr449wvzrb3AkvsJMrU8=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413/images/f260564e-f3f0-4aab-b2fb-d493660f80fd.png) (https://popularresistance.org/store/)
Title: Life in Our Country – El Salvador | Save the Children
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2020, 02:37:10 pm
Life in Our Country – El Salvador | Save the Children
11 views•Jan 29, 2020

https://youtu.be/DLrHC7ay5X8

Save the Children USA
17.2K subscribers

Explore life in El Salvador!

➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
Title: A Day at School in Egypt | Save the Children
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2020, 02:45:00 pm
A Day at School in Egypt | Save the Children
260 views•Jan 29, 2020

https://youtu.be/3kH2OrPPCgw

Save the Children USA
17.2K subscribers

See what a typical day at school is like for the children you help support in Egypt through your sponsorship with Save the Children.

Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on February 06, 2020, 09:34:52 pm
Baltimore Explores Safe Consumption Sites (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163127-1680962.png&hash=405119a0c023346043f1dae6ab993a831a8cbb5d)
1,057 views•Feb 6, 2020

https://youtu.be/hjfUnhdV5Vc

The Real News Network
384K subscribers

Safe consumption sites have been used around the world for decades, and advocates hope they could help Baltimore decrease its overdose death rate--one of the highest in the nation.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category News & Politics
Title: Deadly Winter Weather Conditions are Threatening Displaced Families in Idlib | Save the Children
Post by: AGelbert on February 14, 2020, 06:47:29 pm
Deadly Winter Weather Conditions  are Threatening Displaced Families 😟 in Idlib | Save the Children
36 views•Feb 14, 2020

https://youtu.be/Zgb71MKb6hA

Save the Children USA
17.2K subscribers

The conditions for children and families forced to flee their homes in Idlib, Syria are deteriorating at an alarming speed in severe winter weather. The cold weather is having a devastating affect on children. Some are dying because of the cold. Boys and girls are living in fear, and are being deprived of food, shelter and their education. To learn more about Save the Children's work in Syria, visit https://www.savethechildren.org/syria.

➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savethechildren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethechildren
Instagram: https://instagram.com/savethechildren
 
For more about Save the Children’s work, visit: https://www.savethechildren.org
Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: Classrooms without Walls - Roman's Story | Save the Children
Post by: AGelbert on February 24, 2020, 04:26:25 pm
Classrooms without Walls  - Roman's Story | Save the Children
16 views•Feb 24, 2020

https://youtu.be/fqbUJC51Qdo

Save the Children USA
17.3K subscribers

16-year-old Roman dropped out of school last year because her classroom lacked proper infrastructure and space for her to learn. The classrooms are made of thorny branches, dried grass and metal scraps. Children like Roman walk long distances, anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour, to come to school to sit in a open classroom with no shade or desks. This is one of the most basic elements necessary to ensure access to education. Girls like Roman aren't getting the education they deserve. Sponsor a girls education today: https://bit.ly/2BBCg1d



➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savethechildren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethechildren
Instagram: https://instagram.com/savethechildren
 
For more about Save the Children’s work, visit: https://www.savethechildren.org
Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: Rebecca Cokley ✨: Disability Life Under #COVID19
Post by: AGelbert on April 05, 2020, 01:33:48 am
Rebecca Cokley ✨: Disability Life Under #COVID19
778 views•Apr 4, 2020

https://youtu.be/cCME2a4t4pQ

The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow
31.4K subscribers

#Disability #COVID19 #TZHLockdown

Subscribe to The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow for more: https://www.patreon.com/thezerohour

If you liked this clip of The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, please share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!

Some of the music bumpers featuring Lettuce, http://lettucefunk.com.
Category News & Politics
Title: the problem of abandoned babies, some of whom were being left in trash bins or suffering other ghast
Post by: AGelbert on April 27, 2020, 02:40:17 pm
How Are Newborns Who Are Relinquished at Birth Kept Safe?

In 1999, Texas became the first U.S. state to tackle the problem of abandoned babies, some of whom were being left in trash bins or suffering other ghastly fates after being born outside the hospital system. The state enacted what was known as a Baby Moses Law, a safe-haven law designed to save lives by encouraging parents to surrender infants safely. In 2016, activist Monica Kelsey took that idea a step further when she convinced Indiana to install Safe Haven Baby Boxes at fire stations. A mother who wants to surrender her baby safely and anonymously can now simply place the infant in a baby hatch, which typically resembles a bank’s night deposit box.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040716230142.jpeg&hash=e3e3e3018263d5b26d55382ceaec3f28aac961b9) A safe place for abandoned infants:

🕊 Here’s how the system typically works: When a person opens the baby box, a call is immediately placed to 911, and fire and medical personnel are dispatched. When closed, the box locks automatically.

(https://christiannews.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Safe-Haven-Baby-Box-compressed.jpg)

🕊 The box is padded and climate controlled to keep the baby warm while still allowing air circulation. The baby gets immediate attention, and typically becomes a candidate for adoption later on.

(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/05/04/10/33D0ECBB00000578-0-image-a-8_1462354369384.jpg)


Supporters say safe-haven laws provide an alternative to abortion, infanticide or unsafe child abandonment (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121424.gif&hash=384c17a4d2be4831084933b91808f8a60f73f7f5). Detractors argue that the laws, now in force nationwide, favor mothers and sometimes violate a father’s rights.

https://www.wisegeek.com/how-are-newborns-who-are-relinquished-at-birth-kept-safe.htm

Agelbert NOTE: I am certain that medical "ethicist" (SEE: Orwell) 😈 Ezekiel Emanuel would argue that the Baby Moses Law is "not justified", and it would be "better" for all these unwanted babies to have been aborted or, if they made it to being born, "efficiently" used as food for lions in a zoo, or some other "profitable" use. To a Social Darwinist like Ezekiel Emanuel, unwanted babies are a "burden on society" that, if society acted "rationally and reasonably", could  be "profitably repurposed" by recognizing the fact that, after all, they are just tender, nutritious protein packages a carnivore could gain healthy caloric intake from (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040417131033.jpeg&hash=c3c9e3cced8af544267cb6a5b9ee696a653e31a7) eating, "nothing more". Medical Doctors of the idiological persuasion of Ezekiel Emanuel (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/who-can-you-trust/mechanisms-of-prejudice-hidden-and-not-hidden/msg16477/#msg16477) are quite willing to make the, uh, "hard choices"  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) that those of us who labor under the "quaint, unrealistic and inefficient" view that we have a moral imperative to treat others as we want others to treat us are too "silly and superstitious" to make.

Message to the Social Darwinists: What goes around, comes around.


And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
-- Romans 1:28-32

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-221218215318-19971872.jpeg&hash=78edd1552d1a7812c56cb17ef2c2dffa621fd659)
Title: Meet Sandra, a Child Refugee in Uganda | Save the Children 🌞
Post by: AGelbert on May 06, 2020, 11:22:39 pm
Meet Sandra, a Child Refugee in Uganda | Save the Children 🌞
26 views•May 6, 2020

https://youtu.be/WGSzluQp5bU

Save the Children USA
17.8K subscribers

Sandra’s life was turned upside down when she and her mother fled violence in the Congo. Check out this video to see how sponsorship programs in Uganda are helping refugees like Sandra receive the education they need and ability to dream of a better future.



➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savethechildren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethechildren
Instagram: https://instagram.com/savethechildren
 
For more about Save the Children’s work, visit: https://www.savethechildren.org
Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on September 22, 2021, 04:38:45 pm
Agelbert COMMENT: Pastor Mike Winger is right.
Abortion is murder. I believe that disingenuously convincing people to commit (and justify) this act is a Satanic strategy to bind the parents who supported the abortion in sin in order to alienate them from the path to Salvation through Christ. It is tantamount to the ancient barbarous pagan practice of child sacrifice.
 
I suspect that the demonic purpose of influencing humans to commit these heinous acts against the innocent has always been to convince people that, once the murder is carried out, they must justify their act through whatever rationalizations, no matter how illogical, threadbare or blatantly contradictory. Thus, though they may experience worldly grief from aborting their unborn child, the demonic plan is to keep them from ever experiencing Godly grief.
II Corintians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
God is merciful. Don't let the Devil or his pagan followers convince you that you cannot be forgiven if you genuinely repent through Godly grief.
Repent with Godly grief and come to Christ. 🌞

92,827 views (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185039-1655102.gif&hash=1a13ffad2c8451cba6f45b04a1249447d50c3e73) Streamed live on Sep 20, 2021

This note on my car showed me just how HORRIFYING pro-choice logic is

https://youtu.be/7_tYObxgIj0

Mike Winger  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818221610-1607296.jpeg&hash=372bed297059a182447c4cb001615d5e8346adcc)  327K subscribers

I have a bumper sticker on my car that occasionally causes pro-choice people to want to interact with me.   In this case, someone left a note on my windshield explaining why she thinks I wasn't aborted and thinks it's not only allowable to kill babies in the womb but that it is morally required! I'm going to walk through the logic of this note and try to show why I think it demonstrates the same thinking in pro-choice people that was present in almost every genocide in history. Yes, it's that bad. And until we all see it as being that bad we will be likely to fall into the continual moral compromise of our worldly culture.

Make your own bumper sticker (I haven't used this service and am not sponsored by them but their reviews look good). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014JQ43RQ/

Samaritan's Purse effort to help the Democratic Republic of Congo https://www.samaritanspurse.org/donation-items/drc-relief/

Thank you to Liveaction.org for giving me permission to use their invaluable videos.

My website https://BibleThinker.org

WARNING: If you see some disgusting and offensive language below this warning, in this video description, it is not placed there by me. Someone is manipulating YouTube’s copyright features to place offensive content on my video. I’ve already appealed the claim and am seeking to have it removed. I may pursue legal action against them as well.
Title: "A researcher on attending a village that had cannibals in it found a curious thing when observing a feast."
Post by: AGelbert on September 23, 2021, 03:37:49 pm
Agelbert COMMENT: Pastor Mike Winger is right.
Abortion is murder. I believe that disingenuously convincing people to commit (and justify) this act is a Satanic strategy to bind the parents who supported the abortion in sin in order to alienate them from the path to Salvation through Christ. It is tantamount to the ancient barbarous pagan practice of child sacrifice.
 
I suspect that the demonic purpose of influencing humans to commit these heinous acts against the innocent has always been to convince people that, once the murder is carried out, they must justify their act through whatever rationalizations, no matter how illogical, threadbare or blatantly contradictory. Thus, though they may experience worldly grief from aborting their unborn child, the demonic plan is to keep them from ever experiencing Godly grief.
II Corintians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
God is merciful. Don't let the Devil or his pagan followers convince you that you cannot be forgiven if you genuinely repent through Godly grief.
Repent with Godly grief and come to Christ. 🌞

92,827 views (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185039-1655102.gif&hash=1a13ffad2c8451cba6f45b04a1249447d50c3e73) Streamed live on Sep 20, 2021

This note on my car showed me just how HORRIFYING pro-choice logic is

https://youtu.be/7_tYObxgIj0

Mike Winger  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818221610-1607296.jpeg&hash=372bed297059a182447c4cb001615d5e8346adcc)  327K subscribers

I have a bumper sticker on my car that occasionally causes pro-choice people to want to interact with me.   In this case, someone left a note on my windshield explaining why she thinks I wasn't aborted and thinks it's not only allowable to kill babies in the womb but that it is morally required! I'm going to walk through the logic of this note and try to show why I think it demonstrates the same thinking in pro-choice people that was present in almost every genocide in history. Yes, it's that bad. And until we all see it as being that bad we will be likely to fall into the continual moral compromise of our worldly culture.

Make your own bumper sticker (I haven't used this service and am not sponsored by them but their reviews look good). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014JQ43RQ/

Samaritan's Purse effort to help the Democratic Republic of Congo https://www.samaritanspurse.org/donation-items/drc-relief/

Thank you to Liveaction.org for giving me permission to use their invaluable videos.

My website https://BibleThinker.org

WARNING: If you see some disgusting and offensive language below this warning, in this video description, it is not placed there by me. Someone is manipulating YouTube’s copyright features to place offensive content on my video. I’ve already appealed the claim and am seeking to have it removed. I may pursue legal action against them as well.

Worthy Comments: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121424.gif&hash=384c17a4d2be4831084933b91808f8a60f73f7f5)

Quote
Jeremiah Lewis 2 days ago
My mother is/was a type 1 diabetic in the late 70s when I was born. My grandmother begged my mom to abort me because being pregnant was literally killing her and putting me at risk as well. My mom said she couldn’t do it, she wouldn’t go against god even it meant me living and her dying. Needless to say I was their only child...but!

43 years later she has 2 wonderful grandchildren that love her dearly and I’m thankful she chose obedience to Christ and to life! Thanks mom!!

Quote
Erica R.C. 2 days ago
The video enactment of what a Dr does during all 3 trimesters of an abortion was unbelievably frightening. I didn’t really educate myself on the process just always felt it morally wrong and is a legal act of murder. I wasn’t prepared to see what is actually done from an abortion. My heart hurts. I had a pregnancy at 20 years old out of wedlock. I had a a “friend” who encouraged an abortion. I am sickened that I actually gave it a thought. But I knew it was wrong. It absolutely felt wrong. A couple of weeks later I went to the Dr to have an ultrasound…. Twins! God blessed my body to carry 2 healthy babies to full term. I made a hard decision but the right decision to place my twins with a family who couldn’t have children. I went through the adoption process, picked a family and let me tell y’all… the twins (I’m going to leave their names out of it) had an amazing life. We reunited when they were 16 years old. And have stayed in touch since. Baby girl is in the marines and baby boy is in college hoping to work at the UN.
I am pro life, always will be. Men need to feel comfortable standing against it too w/o the fear of “it’s a woman’s body. Her body, her choice” nonsense.
Thanks for this Mike. Grace, Peace and a truth.

Quote
Ken Peabody 2 days ago
Perhaps this has been said before...

A researcher on attending a village that had cannibals in it found a curious thing when observing a feast. The village held a ceremony to remove the humanity from the intended victims. The victims thereafter were no longer people, but simply animals. Then and only then could they have their feast.

Strikes the same chords as the pro-choice folks out there. The pro-choice people have to remove the humanity from the child in order to allow the children to be killed. By calling them embryos, parasites, "clump of cells", they are then able to do the deed without thinking of themselves as killers of children.

Quote
Jennifer 2 days ago
It honestly still blows my mind that the completed initial development of a human being takes only 9 months (even younger than that and they are still developed enough to live). And yet full development takes about 25 years. A young child who cannot speak or walk yet isn't less of a human because they haven't developed those skills. The pre-frontal cortex of the brain doesn't fully develop until your mid-twenties. Are they less valuable because they're "underdeveloped"? Should babies with dwarfism and a small stature be considered less human too? I can't believe what people think.
Title: Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
Post by: AGelbert on November 22, 2021, 01:03:34 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/zAE24oQErXOpoVTSHpmisw_f_aV-XbV8d0r2vhgQLFvryr-JhLIvIYRZf81gD29sNxZEkblO02smodIiFI3qIuYKveRJ=s0-d-e1-ft#http://vtdigger.org/emailtemplate/vtd-fulllogo.png)

Nov 21 2021 By Kevin O'Connor

(https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/VTD-Homelessness-5-768x576.jpg)

Vermont has a plan to end homelessness. So why is there still a problem?

SNIPPETS:

“Homelessness has been a challenge in Vermont for years,” Angus Chaney, one of the report’s authors, said recently. “It’s usually an indicator of some other system — economics, mental health, substance use — that’s broken or overwhelmed.” ... ...

If we can house so many people to keep them from getting or making others sick during a public health crisis, then we should be able to house them for their permanent well-being and dignity,” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee) the Rev. Debbie Ingram, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, said at a press conference this month. ... ...

“There has been an unusual fixation on what’s going to make somebody eligible for the state’s general assistance program,” Chaney said. “But unless there is a medium- and a long-term strategy, we’ll be dealing with the same crisis in another year.”

(https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/VTD-Homelessness-2-768x576.jpg)

“Homelessness,” the council went on to write, “can be encountered across all age and demographic groups, and, like poverty, can impact veterans, workers in low-wage jobs, persons struggling with substance abuse or mental health crises, victims of domestic violence, and almost any other vulnerable population.” ... ...

... the state’s first problem: Although Vermont social service agencies annually count clients facing homelessness — 2,591 this past winter, up from 1,160 in 2012 — they stress that the federally required one-day survey misses many who are “couch surfing” or unseen on the streets.

Whatever the full number — advocates estimate it to be consistently closer to 3,000 — they know shelters can’t host everyone. That’s why the council has called for more prevention measures, economic and social support and, most importantly, long-term places to live.

“The state should reduce reliance on hotels and motels,” its 2012 plan said, “and move towards affordable permanent housing.”

But only months after the report’s release, the state ended its 2012-13 fiscal year with a $4 million bill for temporary lodging — eight times the $500,000 tab of five years earlier, when it relaxed its rules that once limited aid to those fleeing a fire, natural disaster or domestic violence.

State leaders, seeing temporary lodging applicants rise from 548 households in 2008 to 2,851 in 2013, have tried to curb the figure ever since. They argue motel rooms don’t offer incentive to find shelter with friends or relatives or a path toward permanent housing, but instead divert money from rental subsidies and support services to help with education, employment and health care.

Local social service workers, for their part, counter that without temporary lodging, they often can offer little more than tents and sleeping bags.

It’s a very hard job — we’re balancing limited resources and seemingly unlimited needs,” Dave Yacovone, former head of the state Department for Children and Families, said in 2013 at the start of the ongoing and often diversionary debate. “Wherever you draw a line, there are people who won’t be served.” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-310119164317.gif&hash=870c66e6ad21133a740ba1583280577f05ccb4ac) ... ...

The pandemic has compounded the problem. Many people lack shelter not only because of economic pressures, experts say, but also because some can’t stay with family or friends or were released from prison early because of physical distancing concerns.

“We have some really good programs — financial assistance for security deposits, rental subsidies, case management — to help people move in and get started,” Chaney said. “But the immediate challenge for us right now is the supply of housing. There isn’t anything vacant to rent.” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-310119164317.gif&hash=870c66e6ad21133a740ba1583280577f05ccb4ac) ... ...

What the pandemic has brought to light is the degree to which we have negligently underinvested in our housing system,” the Vermont Interfaith 🕊️ Action coalition of more than 70 spiritual communities wrote in a recent report. “We are now blessed with the opportunity to correct that deficiency. Not only is it the morally right thing to do, but it is also the economically right thing to do.”

Faith leaders argue that allocating money for permanent housing would cost significantly less than continuing the status quo.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee)

Providing stable housing reduces the downstream costs of poor physical and mental health, substance use disorders, educational support for students whose primary challenge is chaos and trauma, and ultimately, the costs in our criminal justice and corrections systems,” they wrote in their report. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee)

Full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
https://vtdigger.org/2021/11/21/vermont-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-why-is-there-still-a-problem/


“This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” Titus 3:8