100 million people hit by U.S. Storm

Massive winter system spans 2000 miles, threatens Midwest cities

click on "Massive winter system" above to read news article about huge storm. Also, I wrote comments below about the storm as well.

I was listening to the weather Channel about the latest storm that is affecting 100 million people in 33 states from Arizona and New Mexico through Texas and Missouri along to New York and even Washington DC on north up to Illinois to Maine. In some places snow will fall (up to 28 inches in the next 24 to 36 hours). In the lower parts of the freezing part of this storm will be a band of ice that will break powerlines and trees and freeze roads with the very dangerous "Black Ice". Because of the Arctic Air mass this storm is very dangerous because some of the areas that are experiencing temperatures below zero Fahrenheit could also lose power, and especially in "all electric" homes this could cost lives or frostbit hands, fingers or feet if there is no way to build a fire. So, if you feel it to do it please pray for these folks the next 24 to 36 hours (and after if they lose power from the ice buildup on powerlines or nearby trees).

It is my thought that "Superstorms" like this one are caused by a combination of Global Climate Change combined with all the Volcanoes that have gone off in the Northern Hemisphere the last year or two. When the volcanic glass dust particles get above 20,000 feet in altitude they stay up there for around 2 years or more and block the sun to earth wherever they are which reduces temperatures on the ground. In the late 1700s they froze the Mississippi river all the way to New Orleans and might have helped cause the French revolution because crops wouldn't grow in France right. This is my personal opinion from everything I have studied  the last few years.

Many Countries evacuating their citizens from Egypt

The U.S. State Department said it has evacuated more than 1,200 Americans aboard government-chartered planes and expects to fly out roughly 1,400 more in the coming days.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that by the end of Monday six planes will have flown nine flights ferrying U.S. citizens from Cairo to Larnaca, Cyprus; Athens, Greece; and Istanbul, Turkey.
New York-based Pamela Huyser, who had traveled to Egypt for a conference, arrived in Larnaca, late Monday. She described the violent scene she witnessed from her ninth-floor hotel balcony in Cairo.
"You cannot even believe what we saw," she said. "We saw people looting, we saw gunfire, people shooting other people. A lot of people working in our hotel, they came out with sticks and knives and bats and they protected us from getting looted." end quote.

Next quote from same article:
Additional flights were also being arranged in Turkey and neighbor Greece, where authorities announced plans to increase coast guard patrols to deter immigrants from troubled north African countries from reaching the European Union member.
Greek oil worker Markos Loukogiannakis, who arrived in Athens on a flight carrying 181 passengers including 65 U.S. citizens, said confusion reigned at Cairo airport and travelers had to negotiate a string of checkpoints just to get there.
"In a 22-kilometer (14-mile) route from our suburb to the airport we had to get through 19 checkpoints, including nine manned by civilians," he said. "There were lots of people gathering at the airport and it was very difficult to get in."
He said security had deteriorated sharply over the past three days in Cairo after police withdrew from the streets. end quotes.

I saw video showing how police in Cairo now man some streets to direct traffic but they no longer patrol any neighborhoods as policemen because too many of them were killed or wounded  during the demonstrations and the police don't feel supported by the populace enough to stay alive during patrols of neighborhoods so the only police left are neighborhood vigilantes in Cairo. However, the army is protecting Government buildings and museums from looters and if requested by groups of citizens they will descend on hotspots and create order out of too much chaos when many are being killed or maimed in a battle in one of the neighborhoods of the city. A lot of looting because of this has gone on and likely will sporadically until a new government is formed that enough of the people accept. In addition to this all public transportation has ended (at least in Cairo) and maybe other cities as well in including trains and buses. All Banks and ATMs are closed and most stores are closed so food and cash is becoming a problem to purchase food and to stay alive. For poor residents of Cairo this is or could get very grim. Most people who have a passport and enough money are leaving the country at this point if they can.

Egypt Could create fallout for U.S.

 

As Egypt boils, the fallout could echo for U.S., Mideast

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/31/2044288/as-egypt-boils-the-fallout-could.html#ixzz1CgGn1QRK

``The longer the situation wends on, the more dangerous it becomes for American foreign policy,'' said J. Scott Carpenter, who was a State Department official dealing with Muslim democracy issues under former President George W. Bush.
The State Department Monday sent former ambassador Frank Wisner to Cairo to urge Mubarak's government to embrace political overhauls.
``At this point, we clearly recognize what happens in Egypt will have broad ramifications'' in the Middle East, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told McClatchy. But what those ramifications will be aren't clear, he said, because ``we don't know the end of the story.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/31/2044288/as-egypt-boils-the-fallout-could.html#ixzz1CgEzKZF2

end quote from above article click above word button to read full article. 

I'm not a diplomat just a world armchair news watcher for life. I can see how the longer the government of Egypt stays unresolved the more likely for havoc there. I can also see how under some circumstances Egypt could become a Somalia. But I think it is more likely that something good could come from this. I am very impressed at Cairo citizens banding together as vigilantes and protecting their neighborhoods from looters. If something like this is done in an orderly fashion then maybe the people can actually form their own democracy. However, I think it is more likely that the Army will take over until there are democratic elections much like    Pervez Musharraf who was a military leader in Pakistan. However, it remains to be seen which direction this will all go.

Born died 20 buried 60

If you were born any time in human history (or prehistory) before 1900 this might have been your epitaph on your grave and still is for many humans on earth.

There comes a time when one directly or indirectly chooses between (a life that one dreams about) and taking care of one's family and friends. And this difference is usually how family and society judges people as to whether they are adults or permanent children (even if physically adults).

The "died 20" mainly means that your dreams of having the future you wanted doing what you wanted with who you wanted couldn't or didn't happen. So, if such a person chooses to stay alive after this happens for friends and family this "Dead person" lives until 60 or more without their dreams being fulfilled in sort of a state of willing sacrifice for family and friends.

It has always been this way and it makes every one of us cry during our twenties if we survive it.

My 14 year old daughter often will say to me, "Why don't you treat me like an adult?" I reply to her, "One's age has nothing to do with whether I treat someone like an adult. Though I respect all beings I only treat people like adults that actually act like one. So, if a 5 year old acts like an adult he or she deserves my respect. But if a 50 year old acts like a child he or she does not deserve my respect."

So, I judge people by their behavior both towards me and all others. I do this so we all can survive and live together peacefully. And most all other adults do the same thing worldwide. Because if they don't most of them would already be maimed or injured by people pretending to be adults who are just crazy or just plain dangerous to themselves or everyone else.

So, as you can see to some degree "Born died 20 Buried 60" in some ways applies to everyone, even if they live to be 100 or more.

Oil Almost at 2 year high in New York

Oil Near Two-Year High in NY on Concern Egypt Unrest May Disrupt Supply

Oil traded near the highest in more than two years in New York and Brent crude topped $100 a barrel after a seventh day of unrest in Egypt raised concern that supplies may be disrupted. end quote. Click on "Oil Near" above to read full news article.

It might just be (hopefully a gift to the world that all this is going on in the long run). Since we only have about 15 to 40 years left of oil left on planet earth(depending upon how fast it is used worldwide).

 So, I guess what I'm saying is if oil gets too high (as in $150 to $200 a barrel) during this present crisis, maybe we will actually start learning to live without it. (Which is what the survival of the human race will depend on within 50 years).

So, get out your hybrids (cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles) or full electric vehicles of all kinds, because a bicycle, walking, and electric vehicles might be all most people can afford to drive by summer.

(I'm not saying it will happen this way, it's just a big unknown just how far the mideast countries demonstrations and revolutions will go towards democracy or tyranny and what that will do to oil supplies and prices and nations worldwide. 

Welcome to a Brave New World!

Also, electricity in the U.S. won't be affected that much by oil prices because most electrical power plants operate only on natural gas, Coal, or nuclear or are generated by force of water. Since all our natural gas, coal and nuclear and water is from the U.S.  these changes should not affect either electrical generation or electricity prices within the U.S. 

I just realized I left out some electrical generation types like solar, wind, geothermal, and wave generation. There might be others that I'm not thinking about that have also been or are being developed.

So, the biggest concern regarding oil prices would be trucking of food and air cargo and passenger air travel and buses and trains. So, likely people might tend to buy more local produce which might be less expensive than flown in or trucked in produce. Starting an indoor or outdoor organic garden might be useful if oil goes above $125 a barrel worldwide in the near future.

 

The Traumas of Everyday Life

There is a saying, "No one gets out of here alive!" and this may be true. I say "May be true" because I have found that anytime anyone has said in my life that something was absolute I have noticed almost always that there usually is an exception to any absolute thing anyone says. So, as a result of that I've learned to be open to exceptions.

I have been retired because of a near fatal illness now about 12 years. So, I retired at 50 because my wife said, "I need you alive. We have  2 1/2 year old and I need you alive more than I need to you work yourself to death literally." So I retired so my daughter would have a father growing up. She is now 14   years old.

However, I'm really tired of being retired and I'm ready now to do something else. However, I'm not really sure what that something else should be. But I'll figure it out just like I always have before.

The hardest traumatic events for me haven't always been my own (as in near death) they have been watching friends and relatives die (quicker and quicker since 1985). It all started when I was 37 and my dad died. Since he was larger than life (in some ways like a John Wayne figure to my Mom and I), it was impossible to replace him or even do without him in any useful way. I watched my mother become like a ship without a rudder as she moved from my father's home that he built with his own two hands in the desert above Palm Springs called Yucca Mesa above Yucca Valley, California. He built that house starting (just on weekends) from 1968 until 1980 when he retired and they finally moved into it full time. But by 1985 he was gone. And Mom didn't want to live there anymore without him. So she moved to Palm Springs and then to Ashland, Oregon and then Seattle, and then San Marcos (near San Diego) and then Hawaii and then San Marcos and then Seattle and then finally she moved near where I live near the San Francisco Bay area.

So, for me, when I lost my father in a sense I lost my mother too because she wasn't the same person anymore. She was still very emotionally supportive to me but made generally very bad financial decisions and usually did the opposite of what I thought she should do. This sequence of events contributed to my eventual divorce and remarriage. But a few years later I got a heart virus and almost died. Blaming my Dad because he died is sort of ridiculous because I was 37. But I can say I was competely unprepared for this event and my house of cards life began collapsing with his death and never really completely came back together for me until I had almost died myself.

Then I could realize fully that EACH DAY is GRACE. So, I now look at life as "Every moment you have over age 40 is GRACE" because very few people until the last 100 years made it past 40 years of age with any health left at all and living past 60 was always only for a minority of very lucky people down through history.

So, this is what I have to say about the traumas of life: I find my own personal traumas are nothing compared to the pain I have experienced losing my father, now my mother, all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, 2 of my 3 closest friends, and 4 of my cousins. Yes. I would have to say losing all one's friends and relatives (for me at least) is the most traumatic thing that life has brought to me so far. My own illnesses are nothing compared to the loss of so many so dearly loved by me. I see one of my cousins turning to his grandchildren for solace and renewal but I haven't had any grandchildren yet, so I don't know this experience. So, in the end if you want to stay sane through all the eventual deaths you will witness of everyone you love if you live long enough, you have to look for the miracles of Grace and of God in you life.

If you don't look for Miracles and for Grace through all this, how can you expect to maintain your sanity through it all and still keep going on for your spouse, or significant other and your children?

Egypt's unrest unsettles Global Markets

And stock market might get rattled 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unrest-in-Egypt-Unsettles-nytimes-4027218866.html

You can click on "And Stock" or paste the 2nd above item to read yahoo business article above. See quotes below.

“A one-dollar, one-day increase in a barrel of oil takes $12 million out of the U.S. economy,” said Jason S. Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington research group. “If tensions in the Mideast cause oil prices to rise by $5 for even just three months, over $5 billion dollars will leave the U.S. economy. Obviously, this is not a strategy for creating new jobs.”

In early electronic trading on the Nymex oil futures market Monday afternoon in Asia, prices edged higher to $89.45 a barrel. next quote.

While Egypt’s banks and stock market were closed because of the protests there, other Middle Eastern markets declined in trading Sunday, with shares falling by 4.3 percent in Dubai, 3.7 percent in Abu Dhabi and 2.9 percent in Qatar. The markets rebounded slightly in early Monday trading.
By Monday afternoon, Asian markets were also trending lower, with the Nikkei 225 index in Japan falling 1.2 percent, while the Kospi in Seoul slid 1.8 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 0.7 percent. end quotes.

It makes sense that worldwide markets would be unsettled because of this present uncertainty. It is obvious to most people that there either will be chaos there (if the government falls and some violent group manipulates the people, or there will be a democracy like Iraq come into Egypt which would be like a high wire balancing act that would take several years to accomplish, or third Mubarak or someone he appoints will continue the present government until elections can take place). I would say that of the three above options the most likely would be one or three, even though the second one would be best in the long run for the Egyptian people. But, like I said, a democratic government like Iraq has now is not an easy thing to accomplish. Look how hard it was for even the U.S. to accomplish this with Billions and Billions of dollars along with thousands of American and European lives as well as about 100,000 or more Iraq deaths. A real and useful democracy doesn't come easily to any culture.

Outdoor Hot tub Spa phone techniques during snow or rainstorms

 Even though during most of the year here in Northern California this isn't necessary because we, at most, usually only get 3 months of rainy weather spread out through the year, when it does rain or hail here on the coast it is a good idea to protect your phone or cell (or both) while hot tubbing in your spa during a storm. So what I do is to get a zip lock bag (the size your choice) and put into it my remote for my land line and also my cell phone in it. That way I have both lines available to me to answer even if I'm in the hot tub in the rain or hail outside in my back yard. I also wear an old baseball cap to keep the rain out of my eyes and off my forehead. Also, because of how the nature of sound works it travels through the plastic bag without opening it during a rain storm. So one can speak and hear from either remote without exposing the phone remote or the cell to water damage of any kind. However, if you live where there is a lot of lightning you might not want to be hot tubbing when the lightning and thunder is going off unless you want to be crispy fried by the lightning bolts. But then, to each his or her own.

I can also remember back to the late 1970s when I learned first hand how much hot tub therapy could take away muscle pain from a strenuous day of skiing, biking, hiking, or sledding or swimming (or any strenuous physical activity). Back then, I lived in Mt. Shasta and a friend of mine owned Morning Star on the mountain at about 5000 feet. He and his wife and kids had a fire wood  stoked hot tub and after a day of skiing (cross country usually) both our families would pile into his  fire wood stoked hut tub out under the stars and heal our muscles from the strenuous activity and look up at the stars with all the snow 3 to 5 feet high all around us. I started to be amazed then how one could be in 15 to 30 degree temperatures Fahrenheit outside in a hot tub(the hot tub was at 102 to 105 degrees to compensate for the low air temperatures outside) and be warm or even hot and happy in those circumstances. One only needed to remember not to get one's hair wet or there would be ice on it when one got out sometimes and with ice on your hair you might get a stiff neck later. Also, if the hot tub was hot enough sometimes we would get out and jump around in the snow or roll in it for fun and then jump back into the hot tub. This seemed to invigorate us and to strengthen our hearts because we were all mostly in our late 20s or early 30s then.

So, when we purchased our latest house in the late 1990s we made sure it had an outside hot tub as well. And this Christmas my wife and I gave ourselves a new one as the old one wasn't working right anymore. So, I hope this article is useful to you in enjoying the stars at night while relaxing sore muscles and talking with friends either together in the hot tub or on the phone. However, to be safe you only want remote phone devices that are not plugged into AC voltage right where the Hot tub is located.

Also, I haven't found a way to have a safe use of laptops in the rain. However, a large plastic ziplock bag might encompass an IPad type of device as long as you are holding it outside the tub while you are using it. (However,  over the years I have lost two cell phones during the last 10 years into the tub accidentally. But, even though you lose the cell permanently when this happens there is no real danger to you or to the people in the hot tub as long as you fish it out and don't just leave it in there. Once it is in the hot tub it is dead but you don't want to leave it in the hot tub just because it is dead. It's not a pool toy. Good luck out under the stars.

However, if it is raining and the zip lock clear plastic bag is sealed and you then accidentally drop your cell phone into the water, if you are really lucky there will be no damage to the phone.

Black Holes Not affected by Dark Matter

Blog - Black Holes Not Affected by Dark Matter, Say Astrophysicists


This completely agrees with my own theory which is that Dark Matter is actually Matter and antimatter combined in its natural form. So this would agree with my experience which is that matter and antimatter are like two electrical poles, whereas dark matter is the combination of the two. So, an example of of what I'm talking about would be that dark matter would be like the positive and negative poles of electricity in alternating current before you turned the electrical generator on. And once you turned the generator on Matter would be one pole and antimatter would be the other.

Though I can see this clearly as an intuitive and because of this it is very common sense to me I find it very difficult to usefully describe this in intellectual or scientific terms. It would be like trying to explain a gasoline engine to someone who has never seen one or even seen a car. Very difficult.

I find it very frustrating at times to know things before most other people do and not be able to explain it scientifically "Why" I know these things. But, fortunately or unfortunately (depending upon your point of view) I often do know things before they happen all the time.

A more Complete Understanding of the Universe

Plasma Echoes

I wrote the above Blog I called Plasma echoes in trying to scientifically explain some of the experiences of my life in a scientific context.

Last night angels came to me while I slept. And this is what they conveyed. I use the word conveyed rather than said because they do much more than talk to people so a more complete understanding can be understood than can come from just talking or speech.

They said that when I said that "Angels are Plasma echoes or beings who are generated from the plasma from stars they said that, "Even though saying this is essentially a disservice it will lead to a complete understanding of the universe and how it operates".

So their point of view was that what I said about Angels being immortal beings who live in both time and space as well as outside of it is sort of like Isaac Newton's "For every action there is an opposite but equal reaction". In other words though Newton's equation only completely works on earth and to a lesser degree in space and not at all in particle physics, still it leads scientists to where they needed to go to better understand the universe and what it is and what we are in it.

So, once again what the angels conveyed last night is that "Saying that angels are plasma echoes or beings who are generated from plasma from stars is essentially a disservice, still it will still lead intelligent people to a complete understanding of the universe and how it operates in both a scientific and spiritual way and an understanding of what human souls and Angels Souls are in the totality of the universe.

Is Everything a Miracle?

I think it might have been Einstein who said, "Either everything in life is Miracle or nothing is."

I think I prefer "Everything in life being a Miracle".

Because if nothing in life is a miracle can suicide be far behind?

Though sometimes it is useful to be cynical to protect yourself or others from mind destroying pain, most of the time seeing everything in the universe especially your life and all lives around you as miracles seems to be the most useful if one would live a happy, healthy life as long as possible.

IPhone 4

2 years ago I got a touchscreen phone but didn't get a smart phone because I couldn't rationalize it because I didn't see that I would really need one that much. But I learned and got used to a touch screen which is a completely different experience from a flip phone if you have ever had a touch phone. My wife likes Blackberrys so that is her choice because her friend when we visited Boston a couple of years ago had one.

So, I recently got an Iphone 4. At first I was just going to get a 3G Iphone instead until I realized it costs the same per month in the service for one or the other, so the only difference is the cost of the two phones. Since that is only a one time thing I decided to go for the IPhone4. Then I got a rubber cover so if you drop the phone is bounces and doesn't harm the phone. Also, one doesn't compromise the aerial and harm transmissions or reception. So having a good cover will make the phone work better in case you forget and hold the phone wrong and lose reception (if you don't have a cover covering the aerial).

Since I have spent many hours playing with my sons IPad I soon realized that an Iphone is basically a miniature IPad that makes phone calls. Besides my son tells me he is going to give me his IPad when he gets a newer model. He is much more techy than I am at this point.

Whether you get an Iphone from Verizon or ATT should depend on the reception one gets in your area. In some areas one is better and in other areas the other is better. So, remember to ask people (if you don't know) which carrier works the best where you live and work if you want to get an IPhone.

Another thing I learned is that even though you can buy a used IPhone over EBay, be sure before you do this to check whether your service provider will let you use the used Iphone with them before you buy a used one over EBay. They may not let you use a used one(in other words you might need to use one they sell you).

Reality by Vote?

There was an incident tonight that triggered me meditating on what I and anyone believes and why we do.

First of all, there was no Wikipedia to answer every question when I was growing up in the 1950s. And so my wife and I had an argument that goes round and round that never ends regarding our dogs. Our 70 pound German Shepard and Australian Shepard mix dog who is now about 10 years old loves pizza. In fact, when I first got him at about 17 months he was so smart he was trying to compete with me for alpha dog in the house. So I hoped even though he was fixed that he wasn't going to be too much dog for me and the family. So one night he got aggressive and stole a whole cooked pizza off the stove. I had to rough him up a little and take the pizza back from him. Ever since then he has accepted me as alpha dog and we have been just fine and he has been the smartest and best dog I have ever seen anywhere. He had been trained to know 300 English words before I met him and he has that sheep dog quality of staring anyone or anything down like he was bred to when they stare sheep down to control them. So he does that with people too. So, my wife always gets upset with me when I give him pizza crusts and got angry again when she saw me to this.  My 14 year old daughter joined in and I decided not to make a bigger thing than necessary about it. But I decided this time to think the whole thing through to create a better outcome for my family and dogs.

When I grew up there just seemed to be a lot more unstable people everywhere. So you couldn't just believe what anyone said about anything. This was the world I grew up in. So, when you cannot trust people, especially adults to tell you the truth it makes a child more fearful for their survival. Today, because I have become educated not only by the streets and public school through high school, but in addition to that many years of college I look at things much differently than I used to. But the one thing that remains the same is what the men of my family always said to me, "Don't trust anyone." Now, on the surface this might seem kind of paranoid. But underneath it speaks to the human experience. And also I'm not completely advocating this point of view. But at least when I first meet someone I'm usually very reserved until I have completely figured them out (which usually takes about 5 minutes) before I decide whether this person is a loon, can be trusted, cannot be trusted, is a potential friend, or is just dangerous. Sometimes, all you have to do it look at someone and know you likely don't want to know them.

So, 62 years later I still "Don't trust anyone" initially. But I will warm up to people if I see it useful eventually. This way of functioning has saved my life countless times over the years internationally. Because in foreign countries even more than this one you may have no idea what is going on unless you are in Europe because of the similarities of Europe to the U.S. But in other parts of the world you might have no idea what is going on in many situations. So being careful will save your life in these situations.

So, in regard to feeding the dog pizza crust I said to my wife. "There are some things every being needs and without those things you might as well just shoot them in the head because they just won't survive very well without those things". I went on to describe the things her father would not want to live without, what she wouldn't want to live without and what I wouldn't want to live without and what my dog wouldn't want to live without.

So without personally offending her ethics and values I told all this to her.  However, I didn't like the response I got. But at least she began to understand my point of view.  In the world I grew up in and also have seen traveling around the world, dogs eat almost anything. Only goats eat weirder stuff than dogs do as far as I'm concerned. Dogs and cats will even eat their masters when they die in a home if there is no other food there. Dogs eat some pretty weird stuff.

So feeding pizza to my dog if he loves it is about like a man having a beer once in a great while. I don't see the difference. I'm not really a drinker but I don't think my dog would be happy at all if we didn't give him some pizza crusts when we have pizza.

Also, I realized that a place like Wikipedia as wonderful as it is is basically reality by vote. What I mean by this is that it is sort of like if you had a room full of people and you held up an apple and 1 person said it was an apple and the rest said it was a grape then even if the one who said it was an apple would be drowned out by the rest who said it was a grape and tasted like a grape. So, in a way this creates reality by vote or maybe a better way to say it would be reality by those who are persistent enough to have their views maintained.

But this doesn't necessarily lead to the truth about anything (or maybe it does)

How about if there was a group of people and a person stood up before them and asked them "Am I alive or am I dead?" If the majority of those people said that person was dead either people would think person  was dead or maybe they would kill that person and then that person really would be dead. This is the real problem with reality by vote. So, as good as wikipedia is it can never be just one person's experience or opinion because everyone has to be involved that wants to be.

What do you think?

No Strings attached

I saw the movie tonight with my wife and enjoyed it a lot. Both Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman are excellent actors and pulled this movie off. I found it very entertaining. However, it seemed a little bit of a stretch for Natalie Portman to be a doctor. She made the case for a well educated professional woman. However, she seemed to have the wrong psychology in a person to become a doctor. However, maybe that's just me. However, the movie was less focused upon her professionalism as a doctor and more focused on her issues and her attempt at  a "Friends with Benefits" relationship with Ashton Kutcher, that made for some really steamy scenes between those two. However, just like anyone who has lived very long knows from experience, there are only two outcomes, they eventually live together, or they break up and don't speak to each other anymore. I suppose there is a third outcome, they get married.

Plasma Echoes

Ever since my life was saved from whooping cough by Archangel Michael and his band of Archangels I have been trying to explain this experience in a scientific way at age 2. At the time I was dying of whooping cough and was lying on my grandmother's lap in a stuffed rocking chair while she rocked me around Christmas 1950. She was singing in her thick Scottish Brogue in English, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". So I guess by singing this with great passion and prayerfulness she actually invoked the angels into the room with us. It was only the last two weeks that I realized that their presence had healed me of whooping cough. At the time my experience was that they were so bright that the light of them enveloped me and took away all pain both psychological pain of terror and the physical pain of whooping cough permanently. They looked at me and seemed to say with their eyes that I was one of them. I don't remember them leaving. I just remember the light getting brighter and brighter in the room and then seeing them and then the light enveloped me both inside and out and I was changed by it permanently.

So, as I grew up I remember this experience vividly and I often have said it is my first memory of life on earth. However, since then I have remembered being a baby nursing my mother at under 9 months of age but in that state one is more animal than human in perception because it is just so very primal. At that point nursing my mother her breast was as big to me as either ten other babies or a house in size. Her head to me (at that size) was huge and my point of view as a little animal was that I would do anything this being wanted as long as she didn't take away my food(nursing at the breast). So I would do anything to keep the breast and the milk so I wouldn't die. I wasn't aware of death I just knew I would do anything to keep the breast and the milk. It was the most extreme emotion I can remember in my life.

So, here are two real experiences that I remember that are previous to almost anyone I know can remember. Why I can remember I'm not sure other then possibly there has been more continuity in my life than other people's in that I was not forced to give up my higher senses and spiritual gifts like many children are by torturing and badgering siblings, parents and other caretakers because in the Scottish Celtic tradition being able to see angels and spirits is normal so it is not discouraged at any age. In fact, these gifts are considered very useful to one's family past, present and future. Though one might be very Clannish and close mouthed about it to outsiders it is considered Normal within a Scottish Celtic family. Also, I was an only male child and raised primarily by my grandmother and mother. Though my father was present, he was mostly working most of the time except for nights when he came home.

So, as my life continued and my capacity to see angels faces slowly faded out with growing up I could still feel their presence in a room or local and often be aware of their communications to me through little flashes of colored light in the room or in very serious situations they often would appear as ovals of light in the room or local, especially when people were very sick or injured or if they were going to save my life again.

So, always I have wanted (since about 8 or 10 years of age) to explain what angels were in scientific words. I think I'm on the beginning of this to explain them as "Plasma Echoes" from a star or sun like our own sun. However, as I think about it here maybe a better name would be Plasma generated souls or spirits. But since that may not be scientific enough maybe "a life form impervious to death generated by the plasma in a sun or star and capable of traveling both inside and outside of both time and space". The primary difference between a human soul and an angel would be compassion and wisdom. The angels tend to be about 100 times or more compassionate and wise than the average human is.

In an another blog article I wrote how I consciously began to soul Travel around age 20 after praying to God to allow me to do this. However, over 40 years later I can truthfully say that soul travel is not really travel in the end. Starting after my first 10 years of conscious soul travel I began to realize that I was already everywhere everywhen. Now, imagine yourself as me putting a lot of effort to travel around the galaxy (for about 10 years) and then realizing one day that I was already everywhere and everywhen I wanted to be and that it was actually effortless to be anywhere anywhen because of this. Now, I know to the inexperienced of this conscious paradigm shift this might make no sense. Because in order to fully realize this one would have to believe that both time and space aren't what we tend to think of them as. So, I guess I'm saying to you "Time and Space are not at all what the average person thinks". What you do with that is your own business. But just as a warning and as a precaution "Even I pretend time and space is real most of the time to avoid the nausea that comes if I believe otherwise". So, even though I know what time and space really are, since I'm around people most of the time who don't know what it is I pretend that time and space are real so as to not upset other people.(Even though I know the truth now).

So, if I were to describe the universe "It is varying states of consciousness" and we are some of the states of consciousness that exist in this varying state of consciousness. Are we all God just playing games? Maybe. However, I think it might even BE simpler than that in the end. Does this make sense to you? Should this make sense to you? I think each person should be kind to all other beings because they all are you in actuality.

Amazon now sells more Kindle E-books than paperbacks

Amazon sales pop as Kindle books overtake paperbacks

To read full news article click on "Amazon sales pop" above. See quotes below.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- OK, bookworms, now you can declare Armageddon: Kindle e-books have overtaken paperback books as the bestselling type of content in Amazon's bookstore.


2nd quote from same article:

In fact, for every 100 paperback books sold, Amazon has sold 115 Kindle books since the beginning of the year, the company said.

end quote from:
Amazon sales pop as Kindle books overtake paperbacks

Also, on a Kindle 2 you can store about 1500 non-illustrated books on its 1.5 Gigabyte memory.

I bought my son one and my god-daughter got herself one and when I told my wife about Amazon selling more Kindle books at  115 e-books per 100 paperbacks since the new year(2011) she decided she wanted one too.  However, since she buys a lot of romance, adventure and fantasy paperbacks and then gives them to friends who can't afford to buy them after she reads the books, I mentioned that she still needed to do that some as well because she can't loan or give away an E-book because the Kindle Reader would stay with us. However, for reading at the beach or indoors with a light or a lantern or even by candlelight or in direct sunlight anywhere, the non-backlit Kindle is readable in full sunlight because of the way it is designed whereas many flat screens of any size are not so much easily readable in direct sunlight.


What happened in our area was this. First Borders came in an put all new book stores out of business in the area where I live. Then Borders went out of business so there is literally no place to go and buy new books or paperbacks. This really upset my wife who reads a lot. So, anytime we visit someplace like San Francisco or Portland Oregon or wherever she visits bookstores and buys paperbacks because she prefers  to read that way. However, for me, since I started to wear glasses in my mid 40s the print is too small on paperbacks for me to read more than an hour without headaches. However, I just bought a Kindle and found when I slightly enlarge the print I don't get headaches. So, I'm very happy about this because I can now read more. The computer print I can also make a size that doesn't give me a headache either. So, all's well that ends well. (for me at least).

In the context of litigation anyone's facebook privacy settings are overcome

In U.S. courts, Facebook posts become less private

To read full article click "In U.S. courts" above. See quote below.

"This is beginning to catch on across the country," said Jim Dempsey, vice president of public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a liberal think tank. "You do have a right of privacy in your private Facebook postings. But in the context of litigation, that right can be overcome." end quote.

My daughter is 14 and so all of her friends are also around this age mostly. So, since the average teenager now sends about 1700 phone texts and facebook and other social media entries a month, I could see how this might be a problem for them once they reach 18 and over because everything even if it is deleted  on their private devices isn't necessarily deleted on Computer servers which transfer the information from one device to another worldwide. And these computer servers could theoretically be accessed by any court in the nation or the  world at any present or future time as long as the memory storage of those servers remained intact.

Note: Servers are specialized computers built to run the internet and usually located (by the thousands) in places like Silicon Valley and other places around the world that make the internet work. When anyone clicks on a word button on any web page these servers act on the command of your word button that you just clicked at the speed of your bandwidth that is presently available to you in that moment of time. However, they also store information regarding what you clicked, wrote, texted etc. because that is a part of the process of what they do. The design isn't necessarily to access what you are doing. Rather the design is to ensure accuracy of any transmissions through the server to protect against lost bits of information during problems which can be software or hardware or power outages. And of course, the biggest problem that storing bits of information is necessary for is when something cannot be accessed immediately because of an internet traffic jam. Since the internet is designed to run instantaneously through flowing traffic over electrons which tend to move toward the speed of light, traffic jams are notorious for losing information. So servers protect the internet in this way by storing any request or any information moving or trying to move, until it can move. However, unless it fills completely up with information and automatically or manually is deleted, then that information will be there until that server is non-functional, removed, or just replaced with something newer or better. Also, unless the devices at that home or office only access the same server each time (knowing that there are thousands of servers likely just in Silicon Valley alone) finding where the server storage memory that that information is located on might be impossible.

Plasma As a Basis of Life?

Every since I saw

Carl Sagan

create life on PBS on TV by taking all the air out of a large glass vacuum bottle while first having put denatured earth (dirt) inside and then shooting it with plasma from a Tesla coil while vacuum was maintained I wondered about how life was created without any oxygen, without any life and without any water by just shooting plasma through a vacuum bottle with denatured earth inside. But after the experiment he showed that indeed life was created by this experiment even though no life at all was present before the plasma (artificial lightning) shot through the jar.

That was in the late 1970s or early 1980s. So, I have had at least 30 years to let these thoughts percolate through my mind and brain. So, I'm now in the position of believing that Plasma is one of the bases of life along with oxygen, earth and water and other things.

Also, since life could be created here on earth with no oxygen or water present, it is quite possible that plasma caused by static discharge in any environment in the universe might also create life (though different than we know it) to exist millions or even trillions of places that we might not expect even without water or oxygen present.

For me, this is a scientific revelation, and takes me in a different direction than I have heard postulated before except by Carl Sagan on TV. Though this might also be a scientific theory with papers present by graduate students or beyond, I think this theory deserves a lot more research, as I presently believe that all life including humans might have originated either here or anywhere else in the galaxy just from plasma discharges and matter combining in various ways. Also, if plasma is the true basis of water and solid based life as we know it on earth, is plasma life itself? Is plasma a form that relates originally to the concept of the Greek and Norse Gods of ancient history? Are humans related to plasma beings composed entirely of plasma that might live in Stars, Constellations, Nebulas, Galaxies?

Since all life on earth exists because of photons generated by plasma in the sun it makes me think that the answer may be "Yes" to some or even all these questions.

Note: I couldn't remember Carl Sagan's name at first but knew he taught at Cornell University. So, I looked up Cornell University on Wikipedia. At first I couldn't find Carl Sagan as one of the luminaries (alumni) of Cornell but eventually found Carl Sagan under the heading "Astronomy". For some reason I was thinking that his specialty had been "Physics" but I guess he was first known as an Astronomer and second as a physicist(He was an Professor of Astronomy and the Space Sciences) which I believe was how he eventually wound up on television as he was a very very engaging lecturer and popularizer of Space possibilities in regard to NASA and a champion of scientific thinking and exactly the kind of research and development the U.S. needs right now to get its feeling of self worth and confidence back after the last decade of uncertainty, financial and otherwise.

2008 Financial Crisis Avoidable

Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds

To read full New York Times Article click "Financial Crisis Was" above. See quote below.

WASHINGTON — The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.

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The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.
end quote.

Most people who understand financial regulation and who watched most useful financial regulation get knocked down in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s realized that we were in for it eventually because of the "knocking down" of most of the useful financial regulation that came out of "The Great Depression".

I personally think blaming Greenspan and Bernanke isn't very useful. I don't think any one person was prescient enough except those who understood financial deregulation was sort of like outlawing seat belts, outlawing windshields and outlawing doors and crash air bags in all vehicles. Since this is what was done in the financial world between the Reagan Administration and the Bush Administration, fatalities and injuries of all kinds could be the only actual result in both the short and long run.

Spiritually Perplexed

I had never read these two words used before together or heard them spoken in this way before so since my wife and I were reading two books next to each other I asked her if "Spiritually perplexed" might mean the same thing as "Agnostic". She said "No. This is something different." After I thought about it for a moment I thought maybe "spiritually perplexed" might be sort of like "I wish I knew what it all meant but I don't". So, this said to me, someone who wasn't sure of the meaning of life and possibly wished that they did.

I found these words in "A Note to the Reader" as I began to read "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert who also wrote "Eat Pray Love".

So, you can read all this in context I will quote a part of the paragraph it is in. In this paragraph the author is telling us the 27 women for whom she wrote this book for intentionally. She mentioned that she didn't know how to write a best seller and had accidentally written "Eat Pray Love" and at the time hoped her readers would forgive her writing an autobiography in "Eat Pray Love".

Here is the quote from  page xv and xvi:

-----One is freshly married; another two or so sorely wish to be married; a few have recently remarried; one in particular is unspeakably grateful never to have married at all; another just ended a nearly decade-long relationship with a woman. Seven are mothers; two (as of this writing) are pregnant; the rest-- for a variety of reasons and a wide range of feelings about it are childless. Some are homemakers; others are professionals; a couple of them, bless their hearts, are homemakers and professionals. Most are white; a few are black; two were born in the middle east; one is Scandinavian; two are Australian, one is South American; another is Cajun. Three are devoutly religious; five are utterly uninterested in all questions of divinity; most are somewhat spiritually perplexed; the others have somehow, over the years, brokered their own private agreements with God. All these women have an above average sense of humor. All of them at some point in their lives, have experienced heartbreaking loss." end quote from page xvi of Committed.

I found this paragraph remarkable on many levels because it describes a well rounded person who tolerates both spirituality, religious beliefs as well as agnosticism in her life. Her friends are international in scope which means a higher than average degree of tolerance,  education and finances, and makes her the kind of person that many people would like to know and to have as a friend worldwide.

So it is no surprise to anyone why her books are so popular the past 10 to 20 years all around the world.

So, if I were to analyze if I was ever "Spiritually perplexed" in my life it would have had to be between about 10 or 11 and 14 or 15. However, by that time my commitment to a supreme being or a supreme intelligence in the universe was accepted by me by ages 14 and 15. It wasn't that I specifically believed in any one religion completely, it was that I had a direct covenant and ongoing experiences with God and respected all compassionate religions on earth as some of his vehicles. And I expect to find thousands to millions of other religions and vehicles (or more) as we explore our galaxy and other galaxies. However, this has no direct affect on my direct experience with God 24 hours a day since I was about 14 or 15, other than to be amazed at just how many forms (both intellectually, physically and spiritually) that God can manifest through and into all beings in the universe.

Marriage

I was reading the inside flap of Elizabeth Gilbert's "Committed". I had read "Eat Pray Love" and found it to possibly be the most honest and well written book I'd seen in a very long time. The main reasons you don't see many books this honest is that it is hard to survive writing such a book both emotionally, financially and mentally. So, Kudos to Elizabeth Gilbert in her innovative way that she communicates with all of us who can stand that level of honesty in our lives.

However, marriage is another thing and thinking about it as an institution might be confusing to some, simply because it is to one degree or another a completely different experience for any couple that actually gets and lives together married. So, it can be the best, the worst, the middle and everything in between and usually is for most of us.

When I married my third wife at age 47 some might say, "especially George Clooney" that I was a glutton for punishment. However, my point of view has always been since the 1960s and 1970s that the only reason(for me at least) to be married at all would be to have and raise children. So, for me, marriage was always for the children first and less for me and the wife. So, if you have a really good marriage (which I do now) (third time is the charm) so much the better. But that hasn't been and isn't usually the case.

Marriage has always been (since it was invented) as a way to keep Mother, father, and children all together and taking care of each other until they die, and even then carrying on the memories (hopefully mostly good ones) of ones parents and brothers and sister until they die and hopefully all their kids will keep what is best alive always forever on into the future of mankind on this planet and others.

However, being "in Love" and married is a relatively new invention. Until about 1300 to 1500 at the earliest being "in love" wasn't considered practical beyond a one night stand (at most a month). So, even trying to stay in love for a lifetime wasn't ever seen as very practical until about the last 500 years.

Hopefully, your parents married you to someone nice enough for you to stand being alive and raising your kids together with. But love, (at least at first was never the plan). The plan was to find a way for the kids to survive and inherit any wealth you had accumulated and to carry on your traditions etc. That was about it.

So, then we move to today where I would say we have two basic kinds of people who consider getting married. Since most people fall into the first category I will mention it first. These are the impulsive, "Let's get married!","Let's elope to Las Vegas!"," Let's live together!" and so they do and most of the time it doesn't work out for the couple or the kids. But this is the average marriage right here.

Second, we have the "I won't marry until I have enough money to take care of everyone" kind of person. Now, what often happens to this person is that they miss the boat entirely because they are so busy having everything financially perfect that they are usually 35 or 40 or more before they want to be married and often by then all the good ones are taken and they die alone or just have multiple relatively unhappy relationships. However, there are some good marriages that also come from these types of people and usually this is more likely in middle class to rich environments and people.

There is a saying, "Money doesn't make you happy." I agree with this. But it is also a statistical fact that what happens with money in a relationship and not love is what ends a relationship first.

This might not make sense to some of you who haven't lived very long yet. But it isn't a lack of love or even unfaithfulness that ends most marriages, it is money. You might ask "Why?" and this is a very very good question.

The answer goes something like this. If one partner has all the money then it compromises the relationship. The one who doesn't control the money is more likely to be jealous of the one who does. However, if the wealthy one shares in a good and efficient way with the other partner this can work out, if not people tend to drift apart or form new relationships while married or just get divorced or have affairs. So, it is usually the one who doesn't have money that feels harmed and who wants revenge in this type of relationship.

Then there is the relationship where both people make a lot of money. However, what they each want to do with this money is different. Where they want to live is different. Where they want to vacation is different and so they drift apart.

Then there is the couple that started dating at age 12 and got pregnant somewhere between 14 and 16 and never went to college and never had anything not even a car or a home that they owned. Sometimes people can live a whole lifetime like this and be incredibly happy. For others (usually one of the partners) just love and nothing else just isn't enough somewhere along the way and leaves for something better or someone better or some place better.

There are many other scenarios that you and I have both seen or lived in our lives but it is only people who really like each other and who are mature enough to sacrifice for their best friend and their kids together that actually do stay together and who stay happy enough to say of their marriage, "Getting married was the best thing I ever did!" 

6% Unemployment by 2017 as a nationwide average

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-Key-Predictions-2011-Budget-atlantic-1159725107.html

Above you can paste the source article that I'm talking about or the previous Blog I wrote concerning quotes from this article at:

2011 Budget Key Predictions from Budget Report

As I thought more about this Budget Prediction report from the Government regarding where this likely is all heading it made me think a lot more about what my parents and grandparents said about the Great Depression. Since I wasn't born until 1948 I did not live through it or World War II. And I would say from what my relatives have said that "You can't really make sense of the Great Depression or World War II separately. They both were a part of the same thing worldwide.

By 2017 we will have been having economic problems continuously since about 2007 (ten years). Longer if you start the problems with 9-11-2001. Then you would have to say 16 years of economic problems.

However, to be realistic if you study other recessions, no other recession comes close to this one since the Great Depression. So, in history books 20 to 30 years from now I think this Great Recession will more than likely be come to be known either "The Second Great Depression" or "The Worldwide Great Depression" and the 1930s Depression might be called, "The U.S. Great Depression". However, since World War I directly led to the Great Depression and World War II in almost every way it is important to think about all that as well.

I don't think any one person is to blame for this Great Recession we are now in Globally. I think the blame has to be spread amongst all educated people worldwide and what I would call "Shortcuts to Wealth". Whenever too many people take a shortcut to wealth through what I might call legal Gambling worldwide, someone is going to have to pay for it sooner or later. So, now I would say over 90% of the people on earth are now paying for the last 60 to 70 years of worldwide actions of the top 10% wealthy people worldwide. However, it is important to note that all adults either directly or indirectly since World War II are equally responsible for this Great Recession here on earth whether they fully realize it or not. 

2011 Budget Key Predictions from Budget Report

When I look at the graphs quoted below the most interesting thing is just how long it takes to get back to 6 % unemployment nationwide on the second projection graph below. If I'm reading the projection graph correctly, a 6% national average of unemployment is reached somewhere between 2015 and 2017. Also, where I live in California it is not 9+% unemployment at present, it is about 12.5% unemployment average statewide right now and much higher than that in some counties. So when California will get to 6% and somewhat "normal" unemployment is anyone's guess.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-Key-Predictions-2011-Budget-atlantic-1159725107.html

To read full article please paste address above. see quotes with Graphs below

 

4 Key Predictions from the 2011 Budget Report

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contributors@theatlantic.com (Derek Thompson), On Wednesday January 26, 2011, 11:37 am EST

By the end of this year, unemployment will fall to 9.2 percent, the economy will be expanding healthily and we will boast the highest nominal federal deficit in U.S. history. Those are three of the many predictions made by the Congressional Budget Office in its latest outlook of the economy, released just this morning. Read the executive summary here.

Here are 4 key conclusions:

1. Short term deficits. Even with optimistic growth figures, this year's nominal deficit could be the highest in U.S. history at $1.5 trillion. The deficit will stay over $1 trillion again in 2012, for the fourth consecutive year, before falling sharply in the middle of the decade as the economy picks up and tax revenues recover.

2. Medium term debt: Public debt as a percentage of GDP (a key statistic for budget wonks) is expected to stabilize around 75 percent, which is historically high but not high enough to be considered dangerous by most experts. However, that's only if Congress agrees to revert to 1999-era tax rates when the 2010 tax compromise expires next year -- which is highly unlikely. So the CBO also calculated an alternative projection that makes realistic assumptions about Congressional votes in the next few years. Under this less rosy scenario, U.S. debt would equal GDP by 2020. A 100% debt-to-GDP ratio is, in a word, troubling. In a graph:


3. Jobs. CBO projects the unemployment rate will fall to 8.4 percent by the time we hold the presidential election in the fourth quarter of 2012. The economy is not projected to return to full employment until 2017. In other words, if Obama wins that reelection, the economy would not return to full employment until the first year of our 45th president. In a graph:

The Communication Device

When I grew up there was the telephone, the radio, the TV, the Newspaper, the magazine, the book and the two way radio. However, only the telephone and the two way radio allowed 2 way communication beyond someone screaming a message out loud or with sign language, telegraph or other symbols long distance (beyond shouting distance). That was it. since I was born in the late 1940s this was the world I was born into just after World War II and before the Korean War.

I remember reading Dick Tracy in the Sunday Comics in the newspaper even before we got our very first 17 inch black and white portable TV in 1954 when I was 6. Dick Tracy was a futuristic cop who had a watch that had a little two way radio with a TV picture of the person you were talking to. Everyone thought this was the bees knees(thirties and forties slang). Then the next communication device that everyone wanted was the "Communicator" from the 1960s TV program Star Trek with William Shatner. The Communicator was a small 2 inch by 2 inch piece of metal that allowed them to talk to the ship or to other locations on or under a planet or other ship to each other. One simply "after hearing a couple of clicks or chirps (like a telephone ringing) touched the "communicator" to activate it. To see pictures of the at least 3 types of Star Trek Communicators over the years here is the wikipedia article with pictures of 3 types:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_%28Star_Trek%29

Now cell phone seem to be trying to become like IPads or something with keyboard and flat touch screens. I think someday it might be "retro" or vogue to have a Dick Tracy watch connected wifi to an ear bud and go about it that way as well. Literally, the sky is the limit with communication devices now.

Some day like in my "Memories" series of books and short story sequels I think they might have "Biocom" like devices which are miniature video cams with built in microphones the size of a mole on a face. With an ear bud hidden inside the ear we are likely describing present day secret agent stuff. And usually the public gets this stuff 10 to 50 years later to buy and to play with. So, expect this kind of stuff to be marketed eventually.

So, for someone in their 60s or above, we have witnessed amazing changes here on earth, some good and some bad and many both. But I have a feeling that many different forms of communication devices will persist as long as electrical technology exists on this planet or when we move through space to colonize and live on other worlds beyond earth.

The Biocom, I believe first shows up  in "memories' part 9 at:

dragonofcompassion - Home

At the top of the page look for "Memories part 8 and 9" and scroll down to part 9 to learn more about "Biocom" which means 'Biological Sentient Computer' which is installed in Arcane, the man who is born on the planet New Deva and then travels about 1 million years into the past to 1987 Earth as a member of the Galactic Time Guard. As a member of the Time Guard he wears a "Biocom" within his body to keep him company and do research for him. All Galactic Archives on every planet "Biocom" has access to and can speak or write any language in the Galaxy and therefore translate for ARcane when necessary. If Arcane is rendered unconscious, Biocom moves Arcane's body to another time and place to be resuscitated.

Stimulate U.S. Job Market?

What Will Stimulate America's Job Market?

To read full article click on "What Will Stimulate America's" above. See quotes below.

Recommendation #1: Encourage Start-Ups.

Recommendation #2: Tax Incentives for Training and Tuition Assistance Programs.

Recommendation #3: Support Regional Business Clusters.

Recommendation #4: Invest in the Skilled Trades. end quotes

Since my father was both an electrician and an Electrical Contractor and my Grandfather and one  uncle were also Electrical Contractors and even I myself was taught the trade every summer from age 12 to 17 I'd like to share the following things from the above article.

Begin quotes.

Closing America's Job Gap reports that the United States government lags far behind other developed nations in development and funding support for skilled laborers like electricians, carpenters, plumbers, and welders.

The Reality: While there is not a comprehensive plan in place at the federal level strictly supporting skilled laborers, Robert Lerman and Stefanie Schmidt of the The Urban Institute see the issue related as much to education as it is funding. In a detailed analysis on the topic, they said "the K-12 education system needs reform if more high-school graduates are to obtain the basic math, reading, and communication skills required by most employers. Given that government training programs have limited success in increasing basic skills, public policy for adults older than age 25 should focus on making work pay through wage subsidies or decreases in employment taxes."


But the skilled-labor market faces another challenge: a shortage of people -- and public relations. The Alabama Construction Recruitment Institute (ACRI) reports that "for every person who becomes a trade worker, three or four are retiring." According to ACRI Executive Director Tim Alford, the skilled labor workforce is also riddled with misconceptions. False perceptions include that the jobs pay minimum wage, offer no growth opportunity, or involve danger. "These jobs we're talking about pay higher salaries than four-year-degree people make, and have even better benefits. We've got to get that word out," said Alford.

The Reality: While there is not a comprehensive plan in place at the federal level strictly supporting skilled laborers, Robert Lerman and Stefanie Schmidt of the The Urban Institute see the issue related as much to education as it is funding. In a detailed analysis on the topic, they said "the K-12 education system needs reform if more high-school graduates are to obtain the basic math, reading, and communication skills required by most employers. Given that government training programs have limited success in increasing basic skills, public policy for adults older than age 25 should focus on making work pay through wage subsidies or decreases in employment taxes."


But the skilled-labor market faces another challenge: a shortage of people -- and public relations. The Alabama Construction Recruitment Institute (ACRI) reports that "for every person who becomes a trade worker, three or four are retiring." According to ACRI Executive Director Tim Alford, the skilled labor workforce is also riddled with misconceptions. False perceptions include that the jobs pay minimum wage, offer no growth opportunity, or involve danger. "These jobs we're talking about pay higher salaries than four-year-degree people make, and have even better benefits. We've got to get that word out," said Alford. end quote.

Yes. My father in 1980 when he retired was making about $30 an hour IBEW  (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) union wage in San Diego. And that was 1980. $30 really went a long way then. And union plumbers then were making closer to $50 per hour.  One has to be much more skilled in many ways both mentally and physically to be a tradesman than almost any other job because if you aren't both mentally and physically competent you will endanger both yourself, your fellow tradesmen or even the people who eventually live in the house or work in the office building or warehouse. One has a lot of responsibility being a tradesman or tradeswoman and even after working a full day as an apprentice one still has to go to night school to learn all the technical and engineering things one needs to know (usually for 4 years) to become a journeyman electrician, plumber, carpenters,  welders, sheet metal workers and many others. However, to be realistic, one of the reasons I did not choose to be an Electrician and Electrical Contractor for life is that my fingers swelled up from being injured constantly by wire tips and the sharp edges of electrical boxes (they were all metal then in Los Angeles county) and from being banged by 1 inch auger drills of 1 horsepower or more that would bang you against the wall if you accidentally hit a nail when doing a remodel of a house. This was less of a problem in a brand new house because you could actually see most of the nail heads before the plasterboard was put on then. So, small injuries were a constant thing and one usually got at least one new cut or bruise every day from one thing or another. Small injuries are a constant thing in the building trades whether it is dropping something on your foot, stepping on a nail(you need thick enough boot soles so this doesn't happen) or falling off a roof while installing a roof or refrigeration system or ladders malfunctioning and falling through a set of t-bars into a pile of lumber while trying to install false ceiling wiring in an office or other industrial facility, or getting shocked when you have to work with 110, 220, 440, or higher because you can't turn the electricity off because someone needs it to do their job in their office or TV station. (All these things I experienced or saw this happen to someone while I was working). So, because I played piano and keyboards my fingers became too swollen to play (my fingers got bigger around than the keys) so I didn't want to become an Electrician or Electrical Contractor because of all these things. However, when I needed a job paying a decent wage in my 20s I already had a trade and could work (at least in California) where there are right to work laws. It's a good idea to have multiple trades in any economic situation so you always have a job and a potential backup job available. Even though I started owning my own businesses in my late 20s, in my early 20s knowing how to build things (carpentry) and knowing how to wire things (Electrician) allowed me to live in some very very beautiful places building things that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. So, if you like to Ski or Surf or live remotely, people who build things are almost always needed in beautiful areas.

Even today if I multiply $30 an hour (my Dad's retirement wage) times 40 times 4 ( a four week month) which is $4800 a month which is still nothing to sneeze at even  today 30 years later. Even during the Great Depression when my grandfather, (the first Electrical Contractor in the family took  $25,000 cash and buried it in the ground in his front yard because the banks couldn't be trusted then (no FDIC yet), still he actually had $25,000 in cash because even then it paid to be an Electrical Contractor during the Depression. Tradesmen and contractors were always needed to keep all homes and buildings operating electrically, water wise and in all ways even then. They always had jobs even when 25% of the  people had none. 
 

retail Food likely up 3% to 4.5% this year after only 1.5% in 2010

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111906/commodities-prices-are-hitting-your-wallet

To read whole Yahoo Finance Article paste above article above. begin quotes below from article

Mr. Swanson expects retail food prices to rise between 3% and 4.5% this year, compared with 1.5% in 2010. And some products will be hit particularly hard.

next quote.

Pork is up about 12% from a year ago, beef 6% and poultry 2%, Mr. Swanson says. And poultry is expected to increase further, he says.

next quote.

Jack Brown, chief executive of Stater Bros. Markets, a 167-store grocery chain in southern California, says cereal prices rose 6% in increments last year and the retailer has passed along half of that increase to consumers — and will continue to do so in 2011.
The supermarket chain also has raised the price of packages and cans of coffee by 4% in response to an 8% rise in wholesale prices about three months ago, Mr. Brown says. Coffee-bean prices surged 77% in 2010. end quote.

These prices will directly affect all food in the U.S. and indirectly affect all food worldwide. So, if you spent a dollar on food last year expect to at least pay another 3 to 5 cents for the same food you bought that year per dollar of food this year.

The Next 50 Years

Most of what I'm going to say is just logical and has nothing to do with Seeing the future but some of it does.

The single most important things if you want to survive and be okay 50 years from now would simply be good physical and mental health. Though this is completely logical that these are the single most important things that everyone needs, you would be absolutely amazed how few people actually think this way in their everyday lives.

Likewise, though many might be attached to careers, wealth, land and all other kinds of things that one can have and own, it might be important to cultivate ways of thinking that would allow you more easily to live without all these things. The problem with having everything is that everything can be taken away in an instant. So, if one can concentrate on what is important: Staying healthy in all ways, for example is the single most important thing you can do if you still want to be here in ANY form 50 years from now.

Everything else is sort of like having gravy to go with your mashed potatoes because they can be just fine with just butter or sour cream too. So, thinking in a way that keeps you healthy and alive are really the most important things along with people you love like friends and family. Career and possessions are nothing in comparison to health, friends and family. If you can have everything at once then good for you. But even then try not to get to attached to things, money and career because they might not be there one day.

If you have been watching the weather worldwide the last 20 years or so you have seen every manner of calamity worldwide, and likely all this will only get worse in all directions (hotter, colder, wetter, drier, windier) over the next few centuries and more. So, the likelihood that more and more and more people will simply not make it through the increasing intensities of all kinds of weather worldwide is a given, worldwide.

So, what then is important to you now and in the future? This is something that one should begin thinking about because whatever is going on in your life is sure to change over time, so one needs to at the very least prepare mentally for anything if possible.

When I was young I used to always embrace change pretty easily. But now even though I'm still in love with the idea of embracing change, at 62 the idea and the reality are not the same anymore. So, as you age be aware of how you are changing. What might work for you at 15 or 20 might not work at 30 or 40. I know this seems like anyone should know this but the sad thing is many people can't get past thinking that they are about 25 (yours truly included sometimes). So, trying to find a way to age gracefully is kind of important to your long term survival.

Also, if you are an adrenaline junky in that you live for extreme events just remember that extreme events don't usually happen every day. (And for people who always live that way most don't ever see 30 or 40 or 50 years of age). So this is something to consider as well in your decision making.

For example, I stopped riding off road motorcycles (dualsports) when I turned around 40 thinking that I was too old for such things. However, after getting divorced at 44 and remarried again by 45 and a new daughter now  14 with me at 62, around 60 I realized with a new bursa in my foot that made it feel like my foot was literally on fire anytime I walked on it, that I needed to buy another dualsport Motorcycle just so I didn't start thinking I was a cripple and permanently collapse in on myself. (Because I've just been too physically active all my life to continue to stay alive not being able to walk, ride, swim, snorkel, fly, glide etc. like I have all my life). So buying a motorcycle basically saved my life and I know this for sure about myself. Luckily, my mental trick on myself worked. Within about one year my "foot on fire every time I walked" started going numb instead of being on fire. Whether this was because the nerves just wore out feeling like they were on fire I don't know. However, now I can walk about 6 miles before the numbness moves up into my ankle and then I might sprain my ankle. So, I try to walk less than that in one walk or hike.

Yesterday for example, I rode down Highway one about 25 miles into some great redwoods and streams and felt renewed on my Kawasaki klr 650. It was good to be alive in the 70s Fahrenheit riding along the northern California coast in January.

70s in January??
Yep! But that's another Global Climate Change story.

For All Natural Precognitive Psychics

Growing up gifted in this way is always both a good and a bad thing at once like many gifts one can be born with. So, the first thing one must do is to survive to about 30 years old while still being a natural precognitive psychic.

The good things about it is that you can often save your own life or others (if they will listen to you). The bad thing about it is you can often sense coming disasters or injuries or deaths of people. And sometimes you can do nothing to stop those injuries or deaths and there is nothing you can do about it but pray if that is your inclination.

My particular experience for the last 62 years of my life is that it is often like I have a book that God Wrote of the future. But there is only every 10th page for me to read. So I know a lot about what is coming but not the full details, just bits and pieces that don't always make a lot of sense to me until the moment of truth when things actually start happening. So, if you are a kind and good person like myself you help save all the lives you can of those who will listen to you as well as your life and the lives of family and friends who are most used to you knowing things before they happen because they have 1st hand knowledge of what you have already foreseen in their lives. So, this also is both good and bad because sometimes it might make them or you uncomfortable that you know these things before they happen.

Then there are others who have to rationalize away by one means or another that you know anything before it happens and it is good just to let them. Because your abilities don't fit within their belief system whether that belief includes God or not. So, mostly just let people believe what they need to. Scaring people unnecessarily with the truth unless it might save their life isn't useful at all.

So, the hardest part of growing up a natural precognitive psychic is just learning to live with it. And it usually takes until one is in their late 20s to early 30s before there is anything that makes a lot of sense regarding it.

For me in my own personal life my worst decades (that I also foresaw before they happened) were my 20s and my 40s. If you have studied Tibetan Buddhism like I have Lamas often say many people die around 49 because this appears to be a very difficult year to survive. I, also almost died for about 8 months just after I turned 50 and this forced me to retire during and after this event.

So, just like many things in life one has to learn to survive one's abilities and the most useful thing I can say is be very patient with yourself because people like us enabled the human race to survive when we were all tribal to get to the point where we built cities and so on. Without people like us around always there would be no human race now at all because we would already be extinct. So this ability is one of the abilities that allows the human race to survive anything as long as some of us can see the future before it happens and because of this save the human race from extinction. It is my belief that this is what God intended for us to do always.

Pioneer Days in California by John Carr

quote from page 293 of the above historical book. They are speaking of a dam near Weaverville over the Trinity River in Northern California. They year I believe is 1862, the year of California's worst floods in history:
Begin quote: "The water in the river had been rising all night, and men were stationed on the bridge with poles to keep logs from striking the piers.  At about 4 o'clock in the morning a large spruce tree came down the river with roots, branches and all. The men seeing it come, and knowing the bridge was doomed, escaped from the bridge before the roots of the tree struck it. It was well that they did, for one of the men who were on the bridge told me the next morning that as soon as the tree sturck the bridge it went through it as if nothing had been in its  way, cutting it completely in two, and the whole structure fell into the river and was soon out of sight." end quote from page 293 from Pioneer Days in California which I believe is now a Google Book online.

New Quote Bottom of 293 and top of 294:
"As soon as daylight came Uncle Joe and I went to the ruins. Not a plank of the bridge was left. The rain was pouring down. The snow was nearly all gone. Everything around the place looked desolate. On the flat where the house was built they had the finest bearing orchard in Northern California. If the river rose but a little more, the trees would be swept away, and the house with them. All the forenoon the river continued to rise, and at last it began to spread over the orchard and wash the black loam away. Finally, as the current became stronger amongst the trees, one after another began to fall, some floating off with the water, and others hanging by the roots. Trinity that morning was playing havoc with the settlers on its banks. It was dreadful to look upon. Standing on high ground, one could see property of all kinds on its way to the ocean. The river itself seemed like some mighty uncontrollable monster of destruction broken away from its bonds, rushing uncontrollably on, and everywhere carrying ruin and destruction in its course.---" end quote.
next quote a few sentences later.
"When the river was at or near its highest, one could see floating down parts of mills, sluice-boxes, miner's cabins, water-wheels, hen-coops, parts of bridges, bales of hay, household furniture, sawed lumber, old logs, huge spruce and pine trees that had withstood former storms for hundreds of years--all rushing donw that mad stream on their way to the boundless ocean. From the head settlement to the mouth of the Trinity River, for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, everything was swept to destruction. Not a bridge was left, or a mining-wheel or a sluce-box. Parts of ranches and miners' cabins met the same fate. The labor of hundreds of men, and their savings of years, invested in bridges, mines and ranches, were all swept away. In forty-eight hours the valley of Trinity was left desolate. The county never recovered from that disastrous flood."

http://books.google.com/books
Pioneer Days in California by John Carr

If you go to the above web address and then go to the Book name and then the right chapter you can read more for free it appears online. I found it fascinating to find such an apt description of eyewitness accounts of the 1862 Historical Flood in California in this historical book.