Defining Half lives of radioactive isotopes

I had thought when the half life of an isotope was reached it would stop being radioactive. This is not the case. So, if an isotope like radioactive iodine that causes thyroid cancer has a half life of 8 days it means it takes 8 days for it to get from 1 full dose to 1/2 full dose of whatever radiation it was. Then 8 days later it will be 1/2 of the 1/2 or 1/4 of its orginal dose. Then 8 days later it will be 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 which would be 1/8 of the original dose.

So, when someone says Cesium or Caesium has a half life of 70 days that means in another 70 days after that it will be 1/2 of the previous 70 days in radiation strength and the same down to 1/4 of the original strength 70 days later etc.

Whereas when you are talking about Plutonium 239 at reactor number 3 it's half life is 25,000 years. But on a certain level all of us likely will be dead then when 25,000 years occurs. However, plutonium will still be at the same strength it is today until then and killing things all along the way wherever it blows to on the wind or water or land or vegetables or animals or humans and likely all of the above more than once during that time of 25,000 years, 50,000 years, 75,000 years and beyond.

One of the reasons plutonium is 2 million times more toxic to life on earth than uranium is because it is the "Gift that keeps on killing"-25,000 years, 50,000 years, 75,000 years and beyond.

Cancer rates from 1950 to 2000: To see the radiation influence

Cancer rates 1900 to 2000 and beyond
 begin quote from above article quotes:
1950: From now to the year 2000, the overall cancer rate
will go up 55%. (Lung cancer due to smoking is only 1/4 of
that.) Breast and colon cancer will go up 60%, brain
cancer 80% and childhood cancer will increase 20%.end quote.

One of the statistics that I found that Might show an influence of Radiation and other pollution is this incredible uptick in Cancers from 1950 until 2000. For example it says, "1950: From now to the year 2000, the overall rate will go up 55%.(Lung cancer due to smoking is only 1/4 of that.) end quote.

This could be an indication of radiation in the atmosphere and water and food and ground. In addition to this breast and colon cancer up by 60%,  brain cancer up 80% and childhood cancer up 20%.

All these statistics could be related to increased radiation of many kinds, poluttants like Dioxin for which there is no safe level for humans or anything living and various other things that did not exist before in addition to plutonium which has a half life of 25,000 years. They could also be related to increased use of x-rays for teeth and broken bones and also could be related to cat scans etc.

Cancer rates 1900 to 2000 and beyond

I was interested in cancer rates from 1900 until the present and this is part of what I found. I was trying to see if radiation from nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants increased cancer rates but if I am to believe the following rates it had more to do with two other factors. First when people lived longer (past 40 to 60) they got more cancer from living longer. For example, many less people died from senile dementia or Alzheimers before 1950 because most people died before age 60. 2nd it appears increased cancer rates appear to be caused more by processed foods than any other single cause. If I follow this logic fast foods should greatly increase cancers over the next 20 to 50 years as people who have eaten it all their lives get into their 70s to 90s and above. Begin quotes: http://www.gotapex.com/cooking-and-food-subforum/167290-100-years-of-cancer-history.html   100 years of cancer history from an email I received: I just read that scientists worldwide will be looking for genetic mutations (i.e.: DNA "mistakes") associated with cancer. What a waste of time and money. We already have the answer to 99% of cancer. It's all in what we put in our mouths, which creates a toxic environment for cancer to grow and thrive. Simple. If you doubt what I'm saying, take a quick look at the last 100 years of US history: The year 1900: Cancer caused only 3 out 100 deaths in the US. Breast cancer was basically unheard of. - Food manufacturers began developing "better living through chemistry" products like artificial sweeteners (saccharin), taste additives (MSG), partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening and margarine. - Refined white sugar (acid and fat on a spoon) replaced molasses as the leading sweetener in the American diet. 1911: A grain-milling process was discovered that strips away the germ and outer layers of wheat grain (where the nutrients are). The result: Nutrient-poor, acid-creating white bread and refined white flour. 1921: General Mills invented a character named Betty Crocker to convince Americans to eat more processed foods (and increase the company's stock value). 1935: Only one case of cancer had been reported in the last 50 years by the Inuit (Eskimo) people of Alaska and Canada. After they began eating processed foods, their cancer rate exploded until it equaled that of the US by the 1970's. 1938: From now until 1990, the avera ge male sperm count will drop by nearly half, and testicular cancer will triple. 1949: After being unheard of 49 years ago, the breast cancer rate is now 58 out of every 100,000 women. 1950: From now to the year 2000, the overall cancer rate will go up 55%. (Lung cancer due to smoking is only 1/4 of that.) Breast and colon cancer will go up 60%, brain cancer 80% and childhood cancer will increase 20%. 1970: Americans spend $6 billion on fast food. By 2001, that will skyrocket to $110 billion. 1971: The US Congress declares its "War on Cancer" which has done virtually nothing to stop the growing rates of cancer in the US in the next 30+ years. - The US Department of Agriculture wrote "An Evaluation of Research in the US on Human Nutrition; Report No. 2, Benefits From Nutrition Research" which blamed the lack of nutrients in the American diet for most major health problems. That report was banned from public view for 21 years, reportedly at the insistence of the processed food industry. 1973: From now to 1991, prostate cancer will go up 126%. 1982: Teenage boys drink twice as much milk as soda. By 2002, they will be drinking twice as much soda as milk. 1990: From now to 2005, over 120,000 new processed foods will be developed to join the 320,000 processed foods already on the store shelves. 2000: Cancer is now the cause of 20 out of 100 of all deaths in the US, compared to just 3 out of 100 in 1900. 2001: Americans spend $110 billion a year on fast food. Every single day, 1 out of 4 Americans eats at least one meal in a fast food restaurant. 2005: Breast cancer, which was extremely rare back in 1900 and only affected 58 out of 100,000 women in 1949, now strikes 1 in 3 women in the US. That means that in just 55 short years, it has gone up 568 times what it was. Scary. Must be a virus, huh? Or our DNA has changed a lot, huh? Momma Mia... History speaks for itself. If you want to be alive into your golden years and stay pain and disease-free, stay the hell away from processed foods of any kind. That includes boxed, bagged, canned or jarred foods, fast food, soda and bottled sweetened drinks. Jack La Lanne (who is 93, but looks about 70) has an easy rule. Here it is: "If man made it, don't eat it."

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05-01-2008, 05:25 PM

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zippyjuan Picture of the Day Guru Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sunny San Diego Posts: 8,756

Some cancers take many years to develop and people in 1900 did not live long enough for some of them to develop. Also cancer was not as easy to diagnose as it is today so many "natural causes" deaths may have in fact been due to cancers. It is true that we are exposed to many more chemicals which have been linked to cancer than were around in 1900. Life expectancy in 1900 was 50 years. Now it is into the 70's and 80's with many more living to 90's or even 100's. You should still try to eat as fresh and varied a diet as you can and avoid sodas, coffee, simple sugars, etc and get fresh air and exercise. Despite the report on cancer, people are living longer. http://www.efmoody.com/estate/lifeexpectancy.html Quote: LIFE EXPECTANCY: (1999) In 1900, the life expectancy was 47 years of age. Only one person in 25 had then survived to age 60. Women lived shorter lives due to childbirth. In the 1990s, the population growth rate for senior males is outstripping that of senior females, according to Census Bureau data. The male population over the age of 65 increased 11% between 1990 and 1996, while the female population increased 7.5%. During the same time period, the number of men in the age group over 85 rose 27 %, compared with 24 % for women. The ratio of women to men in the age group over 85 narrowed from 3.1:1.9 to 3.1:1.95. Women still dominate the population over 65, but the gap is beginning to narrow. In 1990, women accounted for 60 % of the population over 65; by 1996 that share had declined to 59 %, a notable change in a population of this size over this short period. The increasing number of men in the seniors' housing market could affect developers significantly, particularly in the amenities sought. An increased availability of health care for older Americans through the emergence of Medicare is cited as one factor in the increasing longevity of men, as is a decline in cigarette smoking among older males. (Housing the Elderly Report, April 1998) OLD- AND GETTING OLDER: (1999) World Population: The global average for life expectancy had increased from 45 to 63 years from the1950's. However, 10% of the population is elderly- over 60 years of age. By 2050, it will increase to 20%. The majority of people 60 and older, 55%, are women. Among those 80 or older, 65 percent are women. Japanese women now have a life expectancy of 83, highest in the world. Nine million of the 43 million Americans 60 and older live alone and 80% are women. Striking differences exist between regions with the elderly: one of five Europeans, for example, is 60 or older, compared to one of 20 Africans. By 2020, 46 percent of women 80 and older will live in Asia. The American Association for Retired Persons said the Internet has been a boon to the elderly, with 47 percent of all online consumers over 50 and seniors more likely to contact family and others in the cyberspace community, thus reducing any feelings of isolation. WOMEN AND LIFETIME: (1999) Why women live longer: a doctor at Ball State University indicated that "flexibility, resiliency and connections protect women against early death while men are more often wiped out by their own rigidity, aggression and denial of feelings." The life expectancy for men is now 72 years of age while women live in average of 78.8 years. Men smoke more cigarettes and consume more alcohol. They are three times is likely as women to die from accidents and four times more likely to be homicide victims. And as I a stated previously, white men have the higher suicide rates in the country once they get older than age 65. Many of these men have been insulated from the real world due to their positions of power in a corporation. However, once they retire, there entire powerbase may be gone (if there really ever was one). And they cannot boss their wives around since they have tended to develop more independency as they have gotten older. In 1900, life expectancy for men was 49.7 years and for women 50.9 years. But by the middle of the century, men could now be expected to live to 65.6 years of age and 71.7 years for women. The increase for women, according to Dr. Crose, was due to women getting into holistic health and balancing their lives while men stayed in the "same old macho" roles. She also noted that while women do suffer more ailments and depression earlier in life, they use such adversity's to build into strength that they use later in life. A most interesting comment was the fact that women tend to be interested in more things and have a variety of emotions where men tend to express only two emotions: they are either fine or mad. Gail Sheehy also commented about the difficulties of men as they get older. While men chuckle about menopause for women, it appears that men are "much more uncertain about the threat of aging than women. And the basis seems to be the threat of losing their potency in all the areas of their lives." She noted that men should take a long vacation to review their lives and what they would like to change in the second half of life. LONGEVITY: (Met Life 1999) "In 1997 life expectancy for all persons combined rose to a new record high of 76.4 years. Additionally, average future lifetime for newborn girls and boys also established new peaks-79.3 years and 73.4 years, respectively. For girls the 1997 value surpassed the previous high of 79.1 years recorded in 1992 and 1996 while for boys new peaks have been consecutively recorded since 1994. Last year's longevity enhancements among men were larger than those for women-continuing the trend of the past few years. Newborn girls could still anticipate living 5.9 years longer than boys-the gap was 6.0 years in 1996 and 7.0 years in 1989-91. Current projections indicate that the disparity between the genders in average future lifetime may decline to 4.6 years by the year 2050. Also worthy of note is the apparent narrowing of the gap in longevity by race. In 1996 newborn white boys could expect to outlive nonwhite newborn boys by 5.0 years compared with 5.7 years in 1989-91; among girls the disparity diminished from 4.1 years in 1989-91 to 3.6 years in 1996." LIVING LONGER- (1999) In ancient Greece, for example, life expectancy at birth was 20. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, life expectancy was still just 23; the median age was 16. Even as recently as 1900, most Americans died by age 47. In 1870, only 2.5% of all Americans made it to age 65. By 1990, that percentage had increased five-fold to 12.7%. Today, 31 million people are over 65 -- and the figures continue to grow, bolstered by advances in medicine and

Qaddhafi has 144 tons of gold

David Letterman mentioned that Qaddhafi has 144 tons of gold.

So, if this is true using U.S. short tons this is equal to 144 tons=288,000 pounds=4,608,000 ounces
 The U.S. price of gold today is:
$1432.51
So, to get the value of 144 tons of gold we multiply 1432.51 times 4,608,000 which equals=
$6,601,006,080.00 or six billion six hundred and one million six thousand and 80 dollars.

Though you can certainly buy a lot with this, he likely is buying mercenaries and weapons on the black market right now which won't be good for anyone even him.

Adaptability to Nuclear Radiation

 
The Trinity explosion, 0.016 second after detonation. The fireball is about 600 feet (200 m) wide. Trees may be seen as black objects in the foreground for comparison.

Trinity was the code name of the first nuclear weapons test of an atomic bomb. This test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945,^[4][5][6][7] at a location about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the White Sands Proving Ground, now the White Sands Missile Range.^[8][9] Trinity was a test of an implosion-design plutonium device. The weapon's informal nickname was "The Gadget".^[10] Using the same conceptual design, the Fat Man device was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The Trinity detonation produced an explosive power equivalent to the explosion of about 20 kilotons of TNT. This date is usually considered to be the beginning of the Atomic Age.  end quote from wikipedia under the heading "trinity" which is the first nuclear bomb test in the U.S. in New Mexico.






Ever since the first nuclear bomb test on July 16th 1945 at White Sands in New Mexico life on earth has been adapting to nuclear radiation or dieing or going extinct from the exposure. I think if you were to do a study of Japanese genetics since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you would find that those who survived survived because they had adapted in all the necessary ways to the extreme radiation of the Atom Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

So, possibly more than any single people on earth, the Japanese (as well as all living things in Japan) have adapted possibly more than any other group of beings on earth along with those who live near Chernobyl or who were downwide from White Sands or the Nevada Nuclear testing ground since 1945.

So, it could be said that there are already new genetic adaptations all over the earth from nuclear testing since 1945 already. It could be said that your genetics have also been adapted if you actually live within 30 to 50 miles of any nuclear power plant on earth as well.


So, this large dose of radiation now hitting Japan and circling the globe will only make all of us adapt even more. Those who can psychologically and physically adapt to increased radiation will and those who can't will simply be no more. Once again it is adapt or die. 

The picture above at top is the same type of  implosion device as the one dropped on Nagasaki.

As an intuitive I remember most of my past lives and I remember being up in this fireball when I died in Nagasaki as a 12 year old in 1945. There were so many of us blown out of our bodies at once that we didn't know what had hit us. So it took us some time to understand what had happened to us. I remember being up inside the fireball. It was like being inside the sun with many many souls. There was no pain just a lot of confusion about what exactly was happening. So, I remember just an extreme amount of fear and confusion without having a body for protection from so many people's emotions.

Some Japanese Nuclear Workers may die within weeks

Japan's Nuclear Rescuers: 'Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks'

begin quote:

Workers at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan say they expect to die from radiation sickness as a result of their efforts to bring the reactors under control, the mother of one of the men tells Fox News.

The so-called Fukushima 50, the team of brave plant workers struggling to prevent a meltdown to four reactors critically damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, are being repeatedly exposed to dangerously high radioactive levels as they attempt to bring vital cooling systems back online.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/31/japans-nuclear-rescuers-inevitable-die-weeks/#ixzz1IC5Olvm0

The inevitable is now coming of the first deaths attributed directly to the Nuclear crisis caused directly by the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami and the automatic shutdown of all nuclear power plants (all 55) in Japan.  All these men are heroes who volunteered in time of their country's need.

Unfortunately, those not working on the plant who die from radiation likely won't know what actually killed them for sure over the coming weeks, months and years. And such a thing would be very difficult to prove in court. So even though the people might know for sure there might not be any way to prove it to anyone.

 

Radioactive isotopes found in conjuction with Nuclear plant accidents

The 1962 Sedan nuclear test formed a crater 100 m (330 ft) deep with a diameter of about 390 m (1,300 ft), as a means of investigating the possibilities of using peaceful nuclear explosions for large-scale earth moving.

Apart from their use as weapons, nuclear explosives have been tested and used for various non-military uses, and proposed, but not used for large-scale earth moving. When long term health and clean-up costs were included, there was no economic advantage over conventional explosives.^[29]
Synthetic elements, such as einsteinium and fermium, created by neutron bombardment of uranium and plutonium during thermonuclear explosions, were discovered in the aftermath of the first thermonuclear bomb test. In 2008 the worldwide presence of new isotopes from atmospheric testing beginning in the 1950s was developed into a reliable way of detecting art forgeries, as all paintings created after that period may contain traces of cesium-137 and strontium-90, isotopes that did not exist in nature before 1945.<sup>[30]
end quote from wikipedia.

In the process of trying to find out more about plutonium I discovered this section on peaceful uses of 
nuclear weapons or energy. For example, one of the ways art forgeries are detected is by finding traces of cesium-137 and strontium-90 isotopes in the paint. What this means in real time is that everyone and everything now has cesium-137 and strontium-90 in them as well as everything now on the surface of the earth.

And now there are new elements like einsteinium and fermium that are bi-products of nuclear explosions.

next quote under the heading "plutonium" from wikipedia:</sup>
Plutonium is the heaviest primordial element, by virtue of its most stable isotope, plutonium-244, whose half-life of about 80 million years is just long enough for the element to be found in trace quantities in nature.^[3] But plutonium is a regular byproduct of a reactor’s splitting uranium atoms in two. Some of the speeding subatomic particles of the fission process turn uranium into plutonium. ^[4]
The most important isotope of plutonium is plutonium-239, with a half-life of 24,100 years. Plutonium-239 is the isotope most useful for nuclear weapons. Plutonium-239 and 241 are fissile, meaning the nuclei of their atoms can break apart by being bombarded by slow moving thermal neutrons, releasing energy, gamma radiation and more neutrons. These can therefore sustain a nuclear chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. end quote.

So, what is in reactor number 3 is therefore plutonium-239 with a half life of 24,100 years.

Since this is the biggest long term problem that humanity (and all life will experience the next almost 25,000 years from the Fukushima Nuclear plant partial or complete meltdowns) this might be something that warrants further study.
next quote under the heading radioactive iodine from wikipedia:
Iodine-131 (¹³¹I), also called radioiodine (though many other radioactive isotopes of this element are known), is an important radioisotope of iodine. It has a radioactive decay half life of about eight days. Its uses are mostly medical and pharmaceutical. It also plays a role as a major radioactive hazard present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health effects from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being a threatening presence today in the Japanese nuclear crisis. This is because I-131 is a major uranium, plutonium and indirectly thorium fission product, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission (by weight).
end quote.

Even though thyroid, some types of breast cancer and some types of cancers occurring in the sexual organs can be prevented from taking potassium iodide pills, the half life of Iodine 131 or "Radioactive Iodine which can travel in the air only has an 8 day half life (which means that it is only active for 8 days.

Also, when I first went and looked at the areas near Area 51 in the Nevada Desert on Google Earth I found hundreds of nuclear bomb test craters still visible by satellite pockmarking that section of Nevada. From these tests einsteinium and fermium were found caused by thermonuclear explosions.

Begin quote from "radioactive cesium" in wikipedia subheading

"Health risk of radioactive caesium"

Caesium-137 is water-soluble, and the biological behavior of caesium is similar to that of potassium and rubidium. After entering the body, caesium gets more or less uniformly distributed throughout the body, with higher concentration in muscle tissues and lower in bones. The biological half-life of caesium is rather short at about 70 days.^[6] Experiments with dogs showed that a single dose of 3800 μCi/kg (approx. 44 μg/kg of caesium-137) is lethal within three weeks.<sup>[7]
end quote.

A Nuclear expert on CNN TV said that radioactive cesium in Shellfish and fish in the area of Fukushima could be very serious if people tried to eat them because of radioactive cesium.
next quote on Caesium-137</sup>

Accidental ingestion of caesium-137 can be treated with Prussian blue, which binds to it chemically and then speeds its expulsion from the body.^[8]
The improper handling of caesium-137 gamma ray sources can lead to release of this radio-isotope and radiation injuries. Perhaps the best-known case is the Goiânia accident, in which an improperly-disposed-of radiation therapy system from an abandoned clinic in the city of Goiânia, Brazil, was scavenged from a junkyard, and the glowing caesium salt sold to curious, uneducated buyers. This led to multiple serious injuries from radiation exposure.
Caesium gamma-ray sources that have been encased in metallic housings can be mixed-in with scrap metal on its way to smelters, resulting in production of steel contaminated with radioactivity.<sup>[9]
 end quote:

For many years likely into the present many people were cautioned for example of buying silverware or stainless steel cooking utensils from China because often they contained disposed of radiation which might harm unsuspecting buyers.


So, to sum up, radioactive iodine has a half life of only 8 days. So, one would have to be exposed to it through the air, water, dust within 8 days to have it give a person thyroid or other types of potentially fatal cancers.

However, radioactive Cesium has 70 Days to give a person a fatal dose. And the worst doses are like radioactive iodine from breathing it into ones lungs or eating it or accidentally having the dust in one's mouth. However, far more serious long term is the radioactive plutonium-239 which is actually 7% or more of the mox fuel mix at Reactor number 3 which will kill  creatures or make them sick or genetically alter them for 25,000 years wherever those particles go on earth in any form of air, water or earth. So, even one radioactive particle of plutonium-239 could kill or injure or maim many many creatures and humans over those 25,000 years since it doesn't degrade during that time no matter what is going on.</sup>

Radiation in Milk and Meat in the U.S. and Elsewhere

If you actually care about your health and the health of your children longterm it is probably time to stop buying milk, all dairy products, all meat products and all fish and poultry products at least until Fukushima Nuclear plant is completely cemented in for awhile.

During Chernobyl people were much more responsible about all this than now. Part of it was because we had never suffered a complete meltdown before. and part of it was that Chernobyl because of the way the rest of the world handled it then in 1986 helped cause the collapse of the Soviet Union. And because it was very spectacular when the nuclear part of Chernobyl blew up high into the sky and
didn' t just melt down. So it scattered radiation when the nuclear rods blew up way up high into the atmosphere and it then went all around the world. So it was very clear then that people shouldn't drink milk or eat meat or any dairy products or poultry or fish until it was cemented in.

People are less responsible now because most of the world is in a semi depression state and can't afford any more economic problems. So, this time expect a whole lot less truth out of governments regarding radiation.

So, now it is up to us to protect ourselves, our families and our children. Because we can't expect a lot of honesty from any government because of the economic downturn worldwide. In other words most governments are willing for thousands to millions of people to die over the next 10 to 20 years from cancer from radiation poisoning rather than to tell the people on earth the truth about all this. This is a given. And I fully understand all this. Also, no one will be able to prove necessarily in a court of law that they are dying from radiation causes. So this lets governments off the hook legally at least. So, you will hear from them things like. "People are telling us this but there is no evidence." So, they have probable deniability except for Fukushima nuclear workers many of which likely will die over the next 5 years from too much raidiation exposure or over the next 20 years from too much exposure. And they likely will be remembered as heroes by people not only in Japan but also all around the world.

But what you need to know is this from when we all went through Chernobyl in 1986. First of all, radiation collects on grains that poultry and cows and sheep and pigs then eat. Then the radiation on the grain they eat from the air circulation concentrates in their flesh. So if you ate the grains yourself you wouldn't get a very big radiation dose and probably would be okay. However, if you drink or eat dairy products (milk, cheese, cottage cheese kefer0 or eat anything that walks swims or flies it is just so extremely concentrated by their ingesting small amounts of radiation that you might get 100 to 1000 times the dose of just eating the grains yourselves rather than eating dairy or flesh.

And eating fish isn't any better. Because even if you manage to find non-radiated fish you still have to deal with the high mercury concentrations in fish. Because of this many people have had to resort to medical chelation treatments to clean their blood of mercury after eating too much fish from the ocean.

Now some people's diets are just so very bad anyway that they won't care at all. And maybe they will be okay and maybe they won't be okay 1, 5 , 10 or 20 years from now. But if you can afford to buy organic foods and stop dairy and meats and fish and poultry, it is a very very good idea over the next few months until after this Fukushima nuclear plant has been sealed into a cement coffin for at least 10 days to 6 weeks and the air coming from there has cleared. This doesn't mean that radiation won't affect all life on earth for thousands of years, especially from the plutonium that has a half life of 24,100 years. But there isn't much we can do about that is there?

The Gopher People

  from wikipedia.

Pocket gopher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

note: to learn more about pocket gophers click (Pocket gopher-Wikipedia button above)

 Authors note: I first thought of this idea while taking a shower tonight. I had the idea to write something called "The Gopher People" to illustrate humans on earth as being the gopher people and Ferd being a a metaphorical but human spiritual soul traveler. However, as I began to write this I started to see children reading this in my mind and learning about gophers and cats and hawks and birds and their interactions in the process. So then I wasn't sure how I was going to write about all this. But then my wife talked to me about Native American Creation stories and about how when there was no food often children were left alone without food to die often and how creation and spiritual stories in this context reminded people of Japanese or Chinese stories where if two young lovers couldn't live together as man and wife because of wars or parents they turned into storks and flew off together which is a metaphor for a "Romeo and Juliet" type of ending to a story in them turning into storks in some dream sequence so they can be together. So, how will all this progress? I'll just have to see how I'm inspired  to write this. end note.

Ferd was a young gopher. He was being trained by his father and mother to dig gopher holes to escape predators. Ferd didn't like digging holes. His eyes were much better than his father and mother but because he could see much better he also got more dirt in his eyes when he dug. So, his eyes were always having to water a lot to wash the dirt out. So, he tried to make excuses so he didn't have to dig so much. He didn't want to go blind or something by getting too much dirt in his eyes and scratching them so they didn't work right anymore. Since his Mom and Dad didn't see as well as him they could care less. They mostly only knew him by smell anyway. One day while digging he heard another gopher scream so he popped his head above the ground in time to see another gopher fighting and screaming as  hawk took the gopher away in his talons. Since this was a distant relative of his he knew this gopher and was mad at the hawk for eating a relative  of his. "How dare that hawk eat one of my relatives?" That was really rude. He went back and told his mother and she screamed as that was one of her litter mates. It was her sister Maude. So his mother cried and cried and would not be consoled.

This got Ferd to thinking. If he went up at night maybe no hawks could see either and then he could explore the surface. He didn't have much resistence to this because now his father had to console his now irreconcilable mother. So since Ferd was kind of an adventurer and unique kind of gopher anyway, he went up to the surface and climbed a small tree. But then he heard something in the dark. Slowly his eyes adjusted and he noticed that this was a cat. "What is  cat?" he thought. then he saw the cat jump and catch a wood rat. He heard the wood rat scream a lot like his Aunt Maude had. So he knew from this he could be eaten too. But at least now he knew that there were creatures that hunted at night as well. So, Ferd tried to find a way to move faster on top of the ground as he wasn't really built for fast movement over the ground even though he could dig or move through an underground tunnel really fast.

Then he heard a Mockingbird singing and he thought it was the most beautiful sounds that he had ever heard anything make. He was entranced by the mockingbird singing until another cat pounced upon the mocking bird. Ferd thought, "Boy. That could have been me. So as the cat took his prey away, Ferd scampered down the tree and into his hole.

This gave Ferd a lot to think about. No one of his species that he knew of knew much about cats or hawks. So he took it upon himself to become an expert on predators that hunted his kind that lived above the surface.

The next night just before morning he scampered up his hole after checking for cats and hawks and once again scampered up a tree and into a hole in the tree that squirrels had used to raise their babies earlier in the year. Because now it was summer. So, Ferd sort of hid himself in amongst the leaves and nutshells and sort of sneaked a look out in a way that nothing much might see him. Besides, he was a Gopher and no animal or bird would expect him up in this tree in a squirrel nest that wasn't being used. And If they saw him they would think he was a squirrel which is very hard for anything to catch because a squirrel is just so unpredictable.

But then, he noticed that there was a big square thing next door and then the biggest creature he had ever seen came out and set a trap. He knew right away that this was a trap to catch one of his relatives. So, that night he went home to warn the other gophers of the  trap. When he got back home his Dad said to him, "Where were you all day? I needed you to help me console your mother since she lost her sister Maude. Ferd said, "There is a trap being set for our cousins about 30 to 40 feet that direction."
Ferd's father got really mad and said, "You mean you were outside? That is death to gophers because we can't see the enemies." Ferd said, "I can see real good." His Dad said, "Well. I don't know if that is a good thing or not, Ferd". Then Ferd had a great idea. "I want to be a lookout for our gopher clan of families here, okay Dad?"

Even though Dad was upset about this he said, "Even though I hate the idea if you can save lives so I don't have to console your mother every time a gopher gets eaten by a hawk or a cat." "A cat?" said Ferd. Dad said, "Oh Yes. A cat hunts mostly at night after the sun goes down." Ferd said, "I saw a cat eat both a wood rat and another cat eat a mockingbird. Did you ever hear a mockingbird, Dad?" Dad said, "No. And you shouldn't have been there either." However, keeping the gopher clan alive was probably more important than how Dad was thinking. So Dad said, "I guess I have to let you protect the gopher clan by being our lookout because you have such good eyes. Most of us can't see very well at all and so would make poor lookouts."
Ferd said, "Thanks. Dad."

So, once again before daybreak when it was pretty cold (but remember this is summer so not that bad) Ferd climbed up his tree and into his abandoned squirrel nest and heard a tap-tap-tap which was a knocking sound on the tree. Ferd said, "Stop that infernal racket whoever you are. So the red headed woodpecker looked in the abandoned squirrel nest and said to Ferd, "You aren't a squirrel what are you doing here. I didn't give you permission to be in here. I cut this nest out of the tree while pecking for worms and bugs in this tree. What are YOU doing here in my nest?"
Ferd felt kind of out of place now and said, "I'm a lookout for my gopher people. I was sent here to watch for things that might eat us." The red headed woodpecker eyed Ferd suspiciously and said, "How come you can see? Most gophers can't see as well as you."
Ferd was happy about this and said, "I can see the best of all my relatives and friends. But when I dig tunnels in the ground the dirt hurts my eyes because they are good more like yours."
The red headed woodpecker said, "No one has eyes as good as a bird not even a human."
Ferd said, "What's a human?"
Woodpecker said, "They live in those box like things like that one there. I park my acorns into the edges of their roofs before winter. They rot less around the edges of roofs than they do if I put them in the ground. So they are better to eat for me and my family during the winter months. What do you eat, Ferd?"
Ferd said, "Well. We eat roots of trees and plants on the land below this tree."
Woodpecker said, "Does that kill this tree?"
Ferd said, "Not usually. We don't eat the tree roots that much because they are too tough. We like tender roots of other things better usually. So we just eat the tree roots when all the good stuff is gone."
Woodpecker seemed relieved because he liked to eat bugs out of this tree a lot and if the Gopher people
ate too many tree roots on this tree then the tree might die and so might the bugs he liked to eat.

Ferd, the young Gopher becoming and adult smiled at the Woodpecker. But then he realized a woodpecker can't smile. He just has a beak for pecking and eating with.

The woodpecker cocked his head sideways and said, "I give you permission to use this nest to protect your people. But you have to give it back to one of the squirrels that I gave permission to stay in my tree hole that I made by next winter, okay?"
Ferd agreed to the deal. He hoped this would work okay for his new job. Ferd felt really happy somehow now. He had made a new friend and bragged about how well he could see. This woodpecker seemed like a nice sort of being--orderly but still nice and just.

Ferd found he went to sleep through the rest of the day. He found an ant biting him and it woke him so he brushed it off him and looked outside. he saw the moon outside and listened to a hoot owl. This made him nervous because his Dad had said hoot owls ate gophers when they could catch them too.

But then he saw the hoot owl fly after he hooted a whole bunch of times. The form of the hoot owl stood out on the light of the moon. It took Ferd's breath away as he realized this beautiful hoot owl might eat him too. But he sure was amazing looking!

After the hoot owl was gone Ferd started to climb down from the tree but he slipped and grabbed a vine hanging on the tree. the force of him falling arched him out in and arc and then he came back and banged into the tree and then he fell into a pile of leaves. This was just too much noise so after he regained his breath from falling he scampered down the nearest gopher hole and saw his Dad.

His Dad said, "Well. What did you learn for us gophers today?"
Ferd said as he ate the roots his Dad had gathered for him to eat, "Well. I met a woodpecker that eats bugs and worms in the big tree we sometimes eat the roots of." Dad said, "What did he say?"
Ferd said, "He said I could use the squirrels nest until the next winter until the next squirrel couple needs it to raise their babies."
Dad said, "Well. That was very nice of him. The next time you see him be sure to tell him thank you from me."
Ferd said, "Thanks Dad, I will." But then Ferd fell asleep from falling off the vine. His back hurt a little but because he was still young he suspected it would heal by morning.

The next morning Ferd woke up to his back pain from falling off the vine and into the pile of leaves at the base of the tree. However, he was young and full of inthusiasm like many young people are and decided to forget about his aches and pains and get up and to to his squirrels nest to be a lookout and knowledge gatherer for his people, his kind.

The woodpecker said, "Good Morning" as he climbed the tree. He said, "What happened to you that you are limping. Ferd told his story and the woodpecker said, "You are having quite and adventure for a gopher." Ferd liked the idea of being an adventurer. Gophers weren't normally adventurers so this made him unique among gophers. So as he spied out his squirrels nest into the greater world he went to sleep dreaming about the woodpecker. He found himself flying along with the woodpecker in his dreams. When Ferd woke up he found the woodpecker staring at him. The woodpecker said, "You are a very remarkable gopher, Ferd. You can fly in your dreams with me. And I can see you as you fly with me like a ghost." Ferd said, "You actually experienced me flying next to you like a ghost?"
Woodpecker said, "Yes. Why did you fly with me like that?"
Ferd said, "I guess because I could I did!"
Woodpecker said, "Well. Let's fly some more sometime!"
Ferd said, "I'd like that if it happens.
Woodpecker said, "I've got to go gather some more food."
Ferd said, "Okay." and off the woodpecker went.

This gave Ferd a lot to think about. If creatures actually could experience him flying in his dreams maybe his father could experience him this way too. So, Ferd went back to sleep to see if he could dream and contact his father. But all he did was sleep and heal his hurting back. But then his dream changed and he saw his father stick his nose out of the ground for a moment and saw that his father was in danger of the hawk in his dreams. So Ferd Yelled in his dreams, "Dad. Watch out the hawk sees you push dirt at the surface. IN horror he watched the hawk try to attack his Dad. But Ferd's Dad somehow heard Ferd and got away just in time.

So, later when he hobbled back home from his squirrel's nest his father said, "Boy. You sure saved me today!" Ferd said, "Did you hear me, Dad?" Dad said, "Yes. You came to me as a ghost and said, 'watch out the hawk is attacking! I barely survived that son. If you hadn't come as a ghost I would have died."
Ferd smiled and wondered what all this meant. After all he was only a young gopher in the end, not some magical creature. Ferd started to think about all this as he ate the roots his father had gathered for him. Dad had even brought his own favorite roots to eat for Ferd as Ferd had just saved his life.

Ferd decided that The Great Gopher in the Sky (Gopher God) had made him special in order to better protect the Gopher people in his family and all around. So Ferd decided to honor the Gopher God by praying to him. He said, "Oh. Great Gopher God I really want to be a good gopher and help my gopher people so they can better survive and have a lot of babies and our gopher clan can grow. Will you help me Gopher God?" He felt like Gopher God had sent him as an answer to his prayers and the prayers of other gophers.

The next morning after praying to the Gopher God in the Sky Ferd set out before sunlight once again up into his Squirrel's nest. But the cry of a hawk startled him and he fell all the way from the squirrels nest entrance to the ground. He heard a sickening "Crunch" as his body hit the ground. However, he didn't feel any pain at all. Instead he got up but then noticed his physical body was there next to him. He looked onto his back and there were wings. Then he noticed that Woodpecker was watching him.
Woodpecker said, "I'm Angel Woodpecker. When you prayed to Gopher God in the Sky he decided to make you a special Angel Gopher. I'm Angel Woodpecker. I'm like you. I only appear to be alive as a woodpecker. You asked to help all your gopher people stay alive. Now you can. Go to your father and tell him you are now Angel Gopher and that you will always protect your Gopher People."

Ferd should have been upset about his body dying, but he wasn't. Because his prayer had been answered and now he could protect his people all the time and no hawk or cat could eat him or stop him anymore. Ferd was now Angel Gopher or I suppose Angel Ferd and now could always protect his people from harm. His prayer had been granted. He could help save his people now.

He went to his father and said, "Dad, I'm angel gopher now. I can always protect you and Mom and all our people. Maybe I could have prevented Aunt Maude from Dying if I was Angel Gopher before. But now I can help all our people. His father cried because he would miss taking care of his son. Dad's son had been not only his son but also his best friend. Dad said, "Will you come when I eat my roots and talk to me at least once every day?" Angel Ferd said, "Of Course, Dad. I'm an angel now. I can help all of you all the time." Then he went to his mother and she cried and said, "Though I will miss you my son. Maybe you can help us not get eaten by Hawks and cats and dogs and other things that eat us and kill us. So maybe Gopher God made you an angel so you could help us vulnerable Gophers.

Angel Ferd said, "I'm your protector now and the protector of every gopher in our family and beyond. And he was.

Manifesting Prayers

There is a quote that I liked from a preview of a new movie called Thor. Thor says something like, "In my world magic and science are the same thing.

And I could also say in my own life's experience "Science and Prayer and Magic" are all the same thing.

Now this might scare a lot of people but in the end even though the statement is true the actuality is quite subtle. So there is thinking about something and then there is the actually making things happen or manifest.

What allows prayers to manifest usually is trust. What I mean by trust is it is sort of the same thing like you don't just elect any fool to be president. He has to be someone enough people trust to vote for him.

Well. In regard to manifesting prayers people have to have been tested all their lives by God and Life to see if all life can trust them. When enough life trusts a person then they are sometimes allowed to manifest the prayers of those around them including their own.

People who pray every day might not understand this principle. For example, it must be said that those who try to usurp and misdirect prayers often go insane or die. But those trained by God and all Life and trusted by God and all life are often, especially in emergencies used by God to assist in manifesting the prayers of those around them into reality.

This is why I often say to people: "In an emergency there is no limit to what God can do through anyone or any group of people with enough faith and correct motivation and heart."

In times when the prayers of thousands to millions manifest one or more people have to be willing to potentially die to manifest those prayers. It is not that they will die it's just that they need to not only be trusted by all life but also supported by all life for the prayers to manifest into the physical. So, someone has to stand up and lead even if they know they might die to save their people. So, whether it is a political leader or spiritual leader or both, someone has to be ready to die to make things happen. That's just the way things work in this Universe. They don't have to die usually, they just have to be ready to sacrifice themselves if necessary for the greater good.

Pray for the dead and the missing in Japan

The total is now 27,652 both dead and missing. 11,362 confirmed dead and 16,290 missing in Japanese disaster so far.

The old familiar funeral dirge comes to mind, "Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you."

This has been my experience all my adult life.

Prayer for the radiated Water

I received this from my daughter who received this by email. I felt it important enough to relay it here to you. I have my own relationship with the water spirits of the world and understand first hand how very important it is to maintain a positive relationship with water spirits or (water protectors) here on earth. I know for western minds this is a different way of thinking. However, there is a saying, "when in Rome do as the Romans" and I have found this to be useful wherever I have traveled upon the earth. It keeps one generally safe and secure wherever one might be at that time on earth. So, this prayer in a Japanese form will help the situation if you believe it will.Begin quote of email:

To All People Around the World

Please send your prayers of love and gratitude to water at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan!

By the massive earthquakes of Magnitude 9 and surreal massive tsunamis, more than 10,000 people are still missing…even now… It has been 16 days already since the disaster happened. What makes it worse is that water at the reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Plants started to leak, and it’s contaminating the ocean, air and water molecule of surrounding areas. 

Human wisdom has not been able to do much to solve the problem, but we are only trying to cool down the anger of radioactive materials in the reactors by discharging water to them.

Is there really nothing else to do?

I think there is. During over twenty year research of hado measuring and water crystal photographic technology, I have been witnessing that water can turn positive when it receives pure vibration of human prayer no matter how far away it is.

Energy formula of Albert Einstein, E=MC2 really means that Energy = number of people and the square of people’s consciousness.

Now is the time to understand the true meaning. Let us all join the prayer ceremony as fellow citizens of the planet earth.   I would like to ask all people, not just in Japan, but all around the world to please help us to find a way out the crisis of this planet!!

The prayer procedure is as follows.

Name of ceremony:

“Let’s send our thoughts of love and gratitude to all water in the nuclear plants in Fukushima”

Day and Time:

March 31^st, 2011 (Thursday)

12:00 noon in each time zone

Please say the following phrase:

“The water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer.  Please forgive us.  We thank you, and we love you.” 

Please say it aloud or in your mind. Repeat it three times as you put your hands together in a prayer position.

Please offer your sincere prayer.  

Thank you very much from my heart.

With love and gratitude,

Masaru Emoto

Messenger of Water

Many sensitive organisms will die from radiation

I was thinking today about how much this nuclear problem is going to affect life on earth here in the future. Because there is at least 7% plutonium in the Mox fuel mix at reactor number 3 and because plutonium is 2 million times more toxic to life than any other reactor's radioactive fuels and since Plutonium has a half life of hundreds of thousands of years, you can bet many sensitive organisms around the world are going to go extinct from it's presence in the environment in Japan, the air, the ocean and around the world. And this could greatly alter how life generally functions upon earth. In some ways I'm less concerned about Japan in this respect because there was already Hiroshima and Nagasaki which already altered all life forms in Japan. So already from those two blasts there are probably already extreme adaptations of all organisms on Japan and around Japan including human genetics. So, this drastic genetic change likely has already occurred in all organisms in Japan. However, I don't know if plutonium was a part of the first A-Bombs or not.

I found the following quote from Wikipedia under the heading "plutonium":
The most important isotope of plutonium is plutonium-239, with a half-life of 24,100 years. Plutonium-239 is the isotope most useful for nuclear weapons.end quote

So, the likely plutonium that is 7% of reactor number 3's fuel is plutonium-239 with a half life of 24,100 years. So, that means the radiation will be here full force for almost 25,000 years now and this will greatly affect the genetics of all life on earth and likely cause many extinctions of more sensitive organisms worldwide.

Humans that get cancer and die from it over the next thousands of years likely will not be able to trace that that is what killed them either since only one particle in a human body will kill that body if it stays for 20 or more years inside that human body in the lungs or tissue.

Geotagging:Watch out

If you buy a smartphone it usually has automatic Geotagging. Now if you don't know about this you might think "Oh. It's a game tag!" But that isn't what it is.   Automatic Geotagging is telling any hacker or government where and when exactly upon the earth you took and picture or movie that you take with your smartphone. So, if you are out somewhere and in the woods or Yosemite or Yellowstone  you might like this feature (then). To be able to go to a google map or other and find the exact (within 3 feet) of your lattitude and longitude and time of day of your photo or movie that you take on a smartphone or other geotagging enabled camera or movie camera.

So, if you have absolutely no use for this feature at all (like me) you just have the feature disabled when you buy your smart phone. It is bad enough to have your GPS in your phone monitoring you all the time if you don't want that feature. But like the guy from Mythbusters on TV, he posted a photo he just took of his 4 wheel drive vehicle outside his home and a hacker traced the geotag and burgled his house just from the information of his Geotag on the photo he posted online.

So, this is why you don't want geotagging enabled on your smartphone or camera or video camera if you are going to post ANY photos on line at all.

Because this could not only be used to burgle your home, but also to murder you or your wife or child or a relative of yours. So, personally I don't have any personal use for Geotagging at all and likely you don't either. When only criminals and big brother governments can benefit from a smart phone feature you have to wonder why automatic Geotagging is there in the first place. I think if people want it they should be able to turn in on. And Not to have to know about the existence of  it so they can turn it off!

Stand By Me: The Movie

Stand by Me (1986) - IMDb

There was a movie made in 1986 that reminds me the most of my life during the summers of my life from about 1953 until 1960 when I turned 12. Though I had guns in my life (I was given my Dad's Remington pump .22 rifle by my Grandma by age 8) (Dad had first gone hunting with his two brothers alone when his youngest brother was 4, he was 6 and the oldest was 9. The four year old had a .22 pistol. the 6 year old had a .22 rifle and the 9 year old had a small gauge shotgun while they hunted for quail for food to eat. They came home with a robin so their mother cooked it because they were so proud but didn't know it wasn't a quail at that point.

This movie so much reminds me of what people were like back then, the crazy friends, people threatening you with knives and guns and death and all the mayhem and adventure of being out in the country walking on railroad tracks and having wonderful adventures that you barely survived all the time. I miss those days sometimes quite a lot. This movie was in so many ways just like my life then.

Only my time then was spent a lot during the summers walking the railroad tracks from Shasta Springs down the rivers and trails to the railroad tracks next to the pristine (at that point) Sacramento river with forests all around to Moss Spray Falls. We used to climb the railroad tressell to the top and stand up 200 feet above the river as the train went under the bridge and shook it. Crazy days. But I still miss those days and my old friends.

Angels

I woke up this morning to angels talking to me. And this is what they said, "We will continue to be here for you as long as you are working through your writing to help others in all the ways that you can. We will lengthen your life as well so you can continue your work helping mankind in whatever ways you can."

When angels talk they sound a lot in tone of voice like a devoted mother or father with infinite patience and concern for their children. Though I am always aware of their presence(They say, "Almost always")
I seldom hear them directly speak to me like they did today. I felt like I was a little child and being taken care of once again by my parents. I greatly miss that "safe" feeling of being young and feeling safe and taken care of. I think in my 20s the biggest single shock for me as a man was finding out first hand just how dangerous and scary the real world actually was. I watched many friends go crazy or die or just commit suicide because they just couldn't handle adulthood. I almost didn't survive my 20s myself so I understand just how bad it can get. So, to have contact with angels and actually have them talk to me is, like I said like becoming a child again and being taken care of and feeling safe. In this world if you even feel safe as a child like I did it is a miracle. And like that, Angels are living miracles too. So, in every way that you can make friends with angels. It is a matter of life and death in these times we now live in.

12 U.S. States report Radiation found

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371236/Japan-nuclear-crisis-Fukushima-radiation-leak-reaches-AT-LEAST-12-US-states.html?ITO=1490

Alert: Number of states affected by radiation is growing every day and the number now stands at 12 with more expected over the coming days

Higher than usual levels of radiation were detected by monitoring stations in Alaska, Alabama, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, and Washington State over the past week and sent to Environmental Protection Agency scientists for detailed laboratory analysis, the agency said in a release on Monday.

Unusual, yet still very low trace amounts of radiation were also reported in Massachusetts rain water and by state officials and nuclear power plant radiation sensors in Colorado, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania.
Levels have also been detected on the coast of British Columbia.
The EPA said in their statement: 'Some of the filter results show levels slightly higher than those found by our monitors last week and a Department of Energy monitor the week before.
'These types of findings are to be expected in the coming days and are still far below levels of public health concern.'
The Center for Disease Control said: 'The levels being seen now are 25 times below the level that would be of concern for use as a sole source of water over a short period of time, even for infants, pregnant women or breastfeeding women, who are the most sensitive to radiation.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371236/Japan-nuclear-crisis-Fukushima-radiation-leak-reaches-AT-LEAST-12-US-states.html#ixzz1I4Mrww9Z

end quote.

It appears there is radioactive Iodine in all these locations in 12 states. A U.S. Congressman is asking for the government to pass out Potassium Iodide tablets to the general population.

Potassium Iodide tablets help fill up your body's capacity for iodine. A human body uses iodine to fight infections in the thyroid glands and in the aureola and in the sexual organs. But 90% of the capacity for iodine is in the thyroid glands. If you fill your iodine quota with Potassium Iodide tablets then radioactive Iodine out of the air cannot fill that vacancy and start to give you thyroid cancer or other problems because you have already filled its capacity for iodine with the potassium iodide tablets. If you can't get the tablets seaweed is usually about 70% iodine. Japanese people who eat a lot of seaweed in their diet in sushi for example might be better prepared than other nations who don't usually eat much seaweed or generally take potassium iodide tablets.

An Intuitive's Perspective March 30th 2011

I was thinking tonight that an intuitive's perspective on what is happening on earth in regard to Japan but also in regard to the middle east and the rest might be useful.

Well. I have noticed that there are two different things greatly affecting normal reality to the point where it is more like what I like to call "transitional reality". We all at different times enter into and out of "transitional reality". There are the good times like when  new baby is born and this is usually a happy "transitional reality" and then there are bad times when a relative or friend dies and then we might call this a bad "transitional reality". However, from a purely pragmatic point of view and a more objective non-emotional point of view all these supposedly good or bad transitional realities are in the end only "transitional realities".

So, now we move into large group transitional realities. Something like has happened and is now happening in Japan is horrific (for the Japanese) like World War II was for almost everyone alive then on earth. However, it is also horrific for all the adults, young adults and children world wide who are aware of it or are experiencing it either directly or indirectly in any, way, shape or form. This is greatly destabilizing normal reality over most of earth. Since the veneer of civilization has been getting thinner and thinner during the last decade all over the earth for a variety of reasons, it seems sometimes like more and more people are sort of living in a dream or even an ongoing nightmare in regard to all the changes on earth. So, this is affecting everyone. Often making a joke about it helps.

My neighbor a few days after the tsunami told me jokingly that he was going to park his sailboat there in his yard so he could be ready for anything the way things were going then. Much of the Santa Cruz and Crescent City Harbors here in California had sustained about 40 million dollars in damage or more during the tsunami. So the idea of his parking his sailboat in his yard was funny to us both in response to the craziness of everything that was going on then. However, now about 9 or 10 days later everything because of both the partial nuclear meltdowns and people suffering in Japan in a multiplicity of ways I think most people all over the world are stunned from Japan and stunned about the middle east and no one appears to be functioning that well anywhere.

Even when I drove to Mt. Shasta to visit my daughter it took us both about 24 hours visiting to realize that to some degree we were in a state of emotional shock from everything that had happened in Japan and the middle east and just realizing that we were reacting like most people on earth was a very healthy response.

So, in this kind of "Everyone"  "transitional reality response" we have a whole lot of people not functioning completely right and if they don't realize just how off they are from normal then we get many many problems if people aren't compensating correctly for just how off into a minor state of group post traumatic stress disorder that almost everyone is experiencing to a greater or lesser degree.

The most recent examples of this would be 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. These two traumatic events seriously psychologically altered not only people in the U.S. but also around the world. I would say these two events are similar to what has happened in Japan. However, there will be no end to this nuclear disaster in Japan in any of our lifetimes. This makes it more like Chernobyl. But I think this is much worse than Chernobyl because 100 years from now the Japanese people likely will still be dealing with many of the present and after effects of these problems, both as a result of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami and also in regard to problems in Japan and worldwide associated with the nuclear partial or by then full meltdowns. So, as an intuitive the strangest thing about all this is that the world seems like a dream more than a reality. This is the biggest difference that I notice. It's like everyone on earth has just been kicked in the stomach more than once and we are all trying to catch our breaths before we get kicked again.

And as we all know dreams are much more forgiving than reality is. So when you act like you are in a dream but are actually in a real physical world really bad things can happen sometimes. So, even if you feel like you are in a dream, when you get into your car and drive yourself or someone else somewhere, remember it's real even if it doesn't seem like it is. Even if we all are traumatized by events, life is real and in that sense unforgiving in its consequences.

Dad's Stories

My father lived from 1916 until 1985. I was born in 1948. Most of my grandparents were born in the 1880s and I knew them all before they passed away. My first grandparent passed away in 1960 and my last in 1978 and she was born in 1888. The last to pass away was Nana who had a stroke in 1946 and my mother told me that she became a new person. Mom thought Nana was a walk-in who raised me mostly.
Nana spent most of her time reading her Bible and praying and telling me I had to grow up to become a gentleman. So when I was 4 when people asked me what I want to become I would tell them in 1952, "I want to be a gentleman." Nana was born in the U.S. in Philadelphia and then raised in Scotland when the family home burned down when she was about 12. However, her whole family was from Scotland originally. She came back to the U.S. with her Scottish husband and raised her family in Omaha, Nebraska and Seattle, Washington. I was born in Seattle and lived there until I was 4 and then Dad moved my mother, and Nana and I to San Diego. What  difference that was!

My Dad was born in 1916 in Morenci, Arizona. Dad's name was Fred like me. His Dad (Grandpa) was an Electrical Contractor and was wiring up the miner's residences which the copper mining company was providing. Grandpa often took interesting Electrical Contracting Jobs throughout the Western States until around 1927 to 1930 when he bought a home in Seattle. Dad would have been 11 in 1927.

So, there are many amazing stories my Dad told me of this wild and wooly era in the western states mostly out in the country where Grandpa preferred to live.

One of Dad's favorite stories was about Dynamite. Grandpa had shown Dad's(Fred's) older Brother Bob how to Blow UP Stumps for people on weekends with Dynamite to make extra money (a stump is what remains after a tree is cut down). So there was a whole lot of money made then in blowing up stumps (especially for farmers) and others who wanted to get rid of the stumps. Bob was about 17 or 18 and Dad would have been about 14 or 15 at that time. Bob decided he wanted to impress his girlfriend and his younger brother and all their friends. He got a hold of 50 dynamite sticks and put them on top of a 6 foot old growth stump(not to blow the stump up but only to see a several hundred foot flame and explosion). So then he put a 30 minute fuse and connected it to the dynamite and then lit it and then took his friends to a nearby hill to watch the explosion. So, when the explosion went off everyone loved it there. But then the noise of the blast it was heard for about 50 to 75 miles. Since this was on a Friday or Saturday night no one (except my Dad, his brother and his friends were near this stump. So if you didn't see the flash you wouldn't know what it was. So, for the next two weeks the headlines of the local newspapers were, "Mysterious Blast still Mysterious". After the blast because it was just so much louder than anyone expected they all separated and went home in 2s and 3s and no one ever found out. They were very relieved. They hadn't wanted to hurt anyone. They were just having fun. But it killed chicks in their eggs(baby chickens in eggs) for about 25 miles around.

The next story was about their younger brother Tommy. Tommy was a blue eyed blonde haired boy who looked a lot like Michaelangelo's David as an adult only he was about 6 foot 3 inches tall. Anyway Tommy was 4 and Grandpa had broken one of the wooden wheels on his automobile in a rut in the road. So he was putting on a spare. There were no paved roads then outside of cities in the western states. So, people tended to travel more when the weather was good otherwise they were always getting stuck in the mud and snow with their old cars and trucks. This would have been about 1922 in Arizona. Tommy did not know what big red ants were so he at age 4 stood on the top of a red ant hill (the big ones). Soon he was screaming as they crawled up his legs and onto his whole mostly naked body and started to bite him all over. All the family members came running.

Because I lived in Seattle until I was 4 I wound up having the same kind of experience in El Cajon near San Diego. I stood on a red ant hill until they crawled up my legs and started biting me and leaving welts all over. They didn't have these kinds of mean big red ants where I lived before in Seattle.

Since other species of ants have started to take over and kill all California ants from Mexico and further south in the last 10 years or so I don't if these same red ants still exist or whether they have been rendered extinct along with all the other local species.

Another story took place I believe now in Morenci, Arizona. My Dad was 2 years old and his brother Bob was 6. The other kids hadn't been born yet (total of 5). So, anyway, Bob at 6 was trying to raise in a cage either a coyote or a desert fox. One day it got loose and bit my Dad at age 2. Bob and Dad got bit up pretty good. The fox or coyote took a chunk out of Dad's side. Later the doctor from 50 miles away said, "If it had been 1/100 of an inch further in that Fred(My Dad would have died) because it would have bitten into his kidney. Also, Bob was injured and bitten many times on the legs trying to protect his baby brother as well as the family dog fought the critter as well. The now full grown fox or Coyote got away. Though if I know my Grandpa he likely hunted it down and shot it to make sure it didn't have rabies. But in the end Bob, Dad (Fred) and the family dog all survived this incident.

Dad said without paved roads it was really awful. He said only his Dad had the Goggles and cars then were not fully sealed from the weather except on the roof and windshield. They still were more like motorized covered wagons with wooden spoke wheels and no car then in the country ever went more than 25 to 40 miles per hour because of the really bad roads everywhere except in big cities. And breaking a wooden spoke wheel was always a problem because of chuckholes and rocks on the roads. So everyone took tube patching and tire pumps everywhere they went as well as an extra wooden spoke wheel on the back or in the trunk. They tied the dogs to the running boards so they wouldn't pee or poo inside the car. If you look at really old cars and trucks they had boards outside the doors of the vehicle that people could stand on at lower speeds. Back then it was an easy way to open and close gates between farms or ranches. This way you didn't let the cattle or horses out along the way. So one person would stand on the running boards to wait for the gate then get off and open the gate and let the car or cars or trucks pass. Then he or (she) would get back on the running board if there were anymore gates to go through. Sometimes, many men would get on the running boards to go somewhere to repair something as well. This way more people could be carried in emergencies to  all kinds or situations (at slower speeds). It was a totally different experience than now under those conditions.

Dad said on the Alkali roads in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and I think the California deserts was awful because the alkali dust would get in your eyes if you didn't have goggles along with all the regular dust and make your eyes burn and it would get into your mouth and nose and create sores there from from the alkali dust. So, now that we have paved roads of asphalt and/or cement we are very lucky indeed. This removed a whole lot of pain, trouble and wasted time from our lives. However, though our lives are much more streamlined now there is something to be said for our more adventurous and much more dangerous past.

I, myself can remember during the 1950s traveling through 115 degrees Fahrenheit through the deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico with my parents before most cars including ours had air conditioning. And I would say,"Daddy my head hurts and I think I want to throw up." and he would give me a wash cloth and wet it with water and tell me to stick my head out the window and cool down. I was about 8 years old then but the trouble with this was that though you got very cool and even cold doing this your face would get chapped from the extreme evaporation at 60 or 70 miles per hour. Also, in the 1950s we tied a desert canvas water bag to the front grill whenever we went through the desert so we always had water in case we boiled over and we also had cool water to drink from evaporation through the canvas bag. There was no antifreeze in cars yet then. Also, there were only shoe brakes and no radial tires. Shoe brakes often failed on long hills and many truckers and some people carrying loads in their trucks and cars down hill many times died or crashed when their brakes failed. So, with air conditioners in cars, disc brakes and radial tires we have come a long way even from the 1950s. Also, there were no seat belts or seat belt laws then. The first seat belt laws were in New York in 1984. So, my friend and I would lie in the back of my Dad's stationwagon in the late 1950s with all the seats down singing songs like, "It was an Itsi bitsi teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini." while my Dad drove about 60 or 70 on a long trip. He just made us put our feet towards the front of the car so if he stopped fast it was like jumping off the porch when we hit the front seats with our feet. This was all pretty normal for the times.