If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. — E.B. White
The debate has recently surfaced about whether or not grow more corn for the production of ethanol for fuel to replace petroleum.
I have four points to make on this.
1) It is ridiculously short-sighted to grow more of anythin we are already growing on what would be called a “mass” scale, especially when it comes to corn. Why? Well, there are 144,000 edible fruits and vegetables on the planet of which FOURTY FOUR are cultivated and distributed on any kind of “grand” scale. WHY ARE WE BEING SO BORING ABOUT THE FOOD WE CHOOSE TO CULTIVATE TO GROW!!?.
2) The two agricultural products produced in the greatest quantity on planet Earth currently, are:
CORN
and
BANANNAS.
It really ought to be RICE
and
Banannas.
Why is It CORN?
Because most of the corn that is grown for food is made into HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.
Sugar.
This product is jammed into MOST PROCESSED FOODS.
In the quantities that it exists in our food, it is UNHEALTHY for us and we don’t want it in our food, and a large percentage of us are victimized because do not even know we do not wish to have it in our foods!! It is unhealthy and even toxic.
Eliminate this from the food production chain and divert the corn production to ethanol production.
3) We do not have to use corn for fuel production to make fuel, WHY?
BECAUSE- if you make CELLULOSIC ethanol from the HEMP plant, also known as MARIJUANA, (the kind that does not get you high, though. More like the “leafy NO HIGH” version of pot) the fuel to feed ratio is 95% as compared to anything else you could use (ie. petroleum,corn,sugar,switchgrass, whatever…) which are all at about 45-64%. in the range of less than half.
WTF people!!!
TIME TO STEP UP TIME TO STEP UP!!!!
CARPE’ DIEM CARPE’ DIEM CARPE’ DIEM
Lausanne, Switzerland: The use of cannabis is not a contributing causal factor in injuries requiring hospitalization, and may even protect users against the likelihood of sustaining such injuries, according to the results of case-control study published online in the journal BMC Public Health.
Investigators at the Luasanne University Hospital in Switzerland assessed the association between the use of cannabis and/or alcohol and the risk of injury among 486 patients aged 16 and older.
Investigators reported: “Alcohol use in the six hours prior to injury was associated with [an elevated] relative risk compared with no alcohol use. Cannabis use was inversely related to risk of injury.”
Researchers also analyzed subjects’ drug use for the time period exactly one week prior to the patients’ hospitalization. They reported, “More patients reported alcohol use in the six-hour period prior to injury (case period) than in the corresponding six-hour period the previous week (control period). … For cannabis, fewer people reported use prior to injury (case period) than in the control period.”
Despite the study’s relatively small sample size, investigators concluded: “The results for cannabis use were quite surprising. … The present study in fact indicated a ‘protective effect’ of cannabis use in a dose-response relationship.”
Commenting on the study’s results, authors speculated that “cannabis is consumed in relatively safer, low risk environments” (e.g., at home) compared to alcohol, which is often consumed at bars or prior to going out in public.
A prior case-control study conducted by the University of Missouri also reported an inverse relationship between marijuana use and injury risk, finding, “Self-reported marijuana use in the previous seven days was associated … with a substantially decreased risk of injury.”
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Alcohol and cannabis use as risk factors for injury – a case-crossover analysis in a Swiss hospital emergency department,” is available online from BMC Public Health at: www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/40.
Two highly auspicious astronomical events are occurring right now that everyone should be made aware of. We have a highly unusual green comet from deep space in our midst and a second moon for earth.
Historically comets are thought to portent severe change and are often thought of as the grim reaper. The facts that this comet is green, from unknown origin, orbits the sun counter to all the other planets and has a large atmosphere three times the size of Jupiter are significant. Per astronomers, it may also develop twin tails.
A 10km, (6.2 mile) diameter asteroid suddenly captured by earth as a second moon is quite unusual and auspicious. Expected to be with us for over a year is it really an asteroid or something else? With our current knowledge of torsion field energy we may be seeing influences on our emotions and behavior.
Fortunately Comet Lulin will be making its closest approach to earth during the new moon. (On its return to deep space) An observers group will be driving out to the western bluff of the Belen Mesa on Monday evening, (Feb. 23rd) to experience this once in a lifetime event. We will be using telescopes, binoculars, digital cameras and green lasers. In addition to viewing the comet we will be photographing orbs and viewing the very prevalent UFOs and alien spacecraft activity. I hope that you can join us. Below is a copy of the science press release. Enjoy! Gary 🙂
What might be the best naked-eye comet of the year is approaching the Earth and growing brighter every day. It’s Comet Lulin, named for the Chinese observatory where it was discovered in 2007.
The new comet’s formal name is Comet C/2007 N3. The new comet will be the brightest towards the end of the month. The comet will be a magnitude 5 or 6 in brightness. It is rather large in size with an “atmosphere” of emitted particles (called a coma) three times the diameter of Jupiter. The atmosphere consists of cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2), gases that glow green when exposed to the light of the sun.
Comet Lulin currently is in the constellation of Libra, rising about 4 a.m., but as we progress through January and February, the comet will move through the constellations of Virgo and Leo and will rise at the much more reasonable hour of 7 p.m.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Comet Lulin is its unusual orbit around the sun. Although it orbits in nearly the same plane that the Earth does, it does so backwards. Earth and all of the major planets orbit the sun counterclockwise as viewed from above Earth’s North Pole, but Comet Lulin is going against the flow, moving around the sun in a clockwise direction. Because it is moving in the opposite direction that Earth moves, the two will pass each other at the breakneck speed of nearly 40 miles per second, or 140,000 miles per hour.
On the night of closest approach to Earth, Feb. 24, Comet Lulin will be moving at an astounding 5 degrees per day across our line of sight. Its motion against the background stars will be evident through a small telescope or even binoculars.
Another fascinating aspect of Comet Lulin’s orbit is that it is parabolic rather than elliptical. That means that Comet Lulin doesn’t make regular, periodic visits to the inner solar system, but it is in an orbit so large that this might be the very first time it has passed through the inner solar system and felt the warmth of the sun on its solidly frozen ices. Consequently, predicting the behavior of this newcomer is speculative at best. So far, it has been at or slightly ahead of its theoretical brightness curve. If this trend continues, Comet Lulin is expected to reach fourth magnitude at its peak. That’s bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye from dark, rural locations.
A pair of ordinary binoculars always enhances your view of a comet, and on the night of closest approach, Feb. 24, Comet Lulin and the bright planet Saturn will be in the same binocular field of view, providing an unforgettable sight.
For regular updates on Comet Lulin, check out the NASA Web site www.SpaceWeather.com
But comet Lulin isn’t the only visitor from space.
Barely two weeks ago a 10km wide asteroid came within twice the distance to the moon. This asteroid called 20091313, will follow the Earth for at least a year and will then again disappear into space.
So for a short while the Earth has actually two moons, although one is very small. Had this asteroid hit the Earth it would have impacted with the same force as the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima. To make sure this does not happen astronomers constantly survey the sky for Near Earth Objects (NEOs).
WASHINGTON – February 16 –
HARVEY WASSERMAN
Author of “Harvey Wasserman’s History of the United States,” Wasserman said today: “Washington inherited substantial riches from his wife Martha, the widow of Daniel Custis, a wealthy plantation owner who died when she was 26. She married George soon thereafter. He was (and is) often referred to as “the richest man in America,” but this title is in dispute. He was an aggressive land speculator who, as a British and then an American officer, did not hesitate to personally profit from the conquests of Indian land. Tax records show he owned more than a hundred slaves in his most prosperous years. Though he began to reject the ‘peculiar institution,’ and stopped buying more in his later years, he was also capable of selling off slaves he didn’t like or trust. At least two personal servants, Hercules and Oney Judge, ran away from his household. He freed a number of slaves when he died in 1799, pending Martha’s death. She died in 1802 after burning the personal letters in her possession (though some survived, including one complaining that their marriage lacked ‘fire between the sheets’).”
Wasserman recently wrote the piece “Was George Washington a gay pot smoker?” He added: “The evidence is also clear that Washington, like many other American farmers, grew significant quantities of hemp. It was (and is) a profitable and reliable cash crop, easy to grow, with no extraordinary demands for cultivation, watering or fertilizing. As a hardy perennial, it needs no year-after-year replanting, pesticides or herbicides. In one of his meticulous agricultural journals, dated 1765, Washington notes his being late in separating the male hemp plants from the female. There is little reason to do that except to make the females ripe for smoking. As a hard-working farmer, Washington would certainly be stunned to hear that hemp is today illegal in the nation he helped found.
“As an exceedingly complex and contradictory character, the Father of Our Country remains a topic of endless controversy and fascination. The last word on his attitudes toward slavery, his farming techniques and the details of his marriage will certainly be debated for centuries to come.”
More Information
Washington Post – Louie Bellson, 84, widely considered one of the world’s greatest drummers, who played with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie, died in California of complications from a hip fracture he suffered in November.
A six-time Grammy nominee who performed on more than 200 albums and wrote more than 1,000 compositions and arrangements and a dozen books on percussion, Mr. Bellson was the last of the triumvirate of great percussionists who came out of the big-band era. He was a member of Ellington’s band from 1951 to 1953 and was often the only white musician who performed with it before segregated audiences in the South.
In 1938, while still in high school, he came up with the idea of using two bass drums in his drum set, an addition that became his signature. Two years later, he beat 40,000 others to win a nationwide drumming contest. He joined Benny Goodman’s band before he was 20 years old.
He married singer Pearl Bailey and left Ellington’s band to be her musical director. Over the years, Mr. Bellson performed with such greats as Harry James, Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Mel Torme and Joe Williams. Just a year ago, he issued what would be his final CD, “Louie & Clark Expedition 2,” and he was still touring last fall.
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California ,
was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that
Harry Reid’s great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing
and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Congressman Harry Reid
share this common ancestor.
Congressman Harry Reid
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in
Montana territory.
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this
inscription: ‘Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison
1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton
detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.’
So Judy recently e-mailed Congressman Harry Reid for information about
their great-great uncle.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid’s staff sent back the following biographical
sketch for her genealogy research:
‘Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business
empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and
intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he
devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking
leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key
player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective
Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held
in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.’
NOW THAT is how it’s done in politics folks! That’s real SPIN.
February 10th, 2009
How will the private prison companies manage?
Via: Reuters:
Federal judges on Monday tentatively ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates, up to a third of all prisoners, in the next three years to stop dangerous overcrowding.
As many as 57,000 could be let go if the current population were cut by the maximum percentage considered by a three-judge panel. Judges said the move could be done without threatening public safety — and might improve a public safety hazard.
The state immediately said it would appeal the final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trend-setting California, the Golden State, has an immense prison system responsible for nearly 170,000 inmates, and their care has become a major political and budget issue as officials weigh multibillion costs of improved facilities against death and illness behind bars.