snow den was killed
by an apple pie that
he through at himself.
I wish I knew if this
was sad.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Myth and Religion
It is hard to escape the simply reality that for most of
what we know of as civilization, myth has been a prevalent part.
What exactly does this mean? Well, ideas and notions that
are bigger that normal experience are ingrained somehow into
mankind's thinking.
Now a question naturally arise is this, how do you distinguish
between religion and myth? This is a really hard question
and obviously a question that is a bit difficult to clear up.
The simple answer might be that myth is in some manner
connected to a “falsehood” of one type or another.
For example, one could easily state that the idea that the
earth was flat was a myth and of course really a very popular one.
Now, as it terms out, most people would readily admit that that
is a “falsehood”, that the earth in fact is round.
It is my opinion that as a requirement of public office a person
should be conversant with the Koran as well as some historical
knowledge of Islam. There are those who might say, well if you
are familiar with Gibbon's the “Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”,
that would be sufficient. I don't know for sure, but anyway,
my point here is that ---- the Koran is a very personal insight
into one person or Person, depending on your point of view –
quest to deal with the issue of myth in his or His time.
Now, here's the really “interesting” or ironic part of that.
In a lot of ways ---- both he or He and his religion – became
the object of mythification ( which may not really be a word )
- but anyway - the idea is that people in general got the wrong
idea of what - Islam was all about – in fact Mohammad actually
expresses this in the Koran. What is clear and for which there
can be no doubt is that His Revelation - resulted in a
tremendous amount of violence and blood shed – which is also
true of Christianity.
This kind of naturally leads of into the subject of and
the insanity of war – but I'll leave that whole issue for
another time. My concern here is for one of the prevalent
and popular myths of our age – which is the myth of Money
( or money )...... Now, here's the sad but true story.
Money, was designed to be a convenience for people – but
the notion has grown up over time - that money and the pursuit
of money and the acquiring of money - especially in large
masses – is the point of life. In fact, it would
be reasonable to say – that many people would argue with my
assertion that this is in fact – not the real purpose of life.
Be that as it may – I would simply like to say that
– the main myth - in this regard has to do with how acquiring
large amounts of money one is assured of happiness. While –
I am sure that are many people who are both wealthy and happy -
there is no assurance - that this will in general be a result.
In my view – it is often the case that the single minded pursuit
of wealth results in a type of insanity – which is not now classified.
I am in no way trying to indicate that – industriousness and
hard work are not virtues – but I think it is fair to say that
they are not the only virtues.
Among the virtues is honesty, understanding, kindness,
and generosity - and so it is simple in my opinion that the single
minded focus on the accumulation of wealth - by which I
mean mostly – money – with out the effort to acquire some of
these other virtues – creates a rather - shallow and in
many instances – pretty meaningless existence.
I am of course willing to be wrong in this matter – but I feel
that when one examines the situation – clearly one will generally
finds that life demands some kind of larger commitment – without
which the experience of life can become somewhat “meaningless”.
what we know of as civilization, myth has been a prevalent part.
What exactly does this mean? Well, ideas and notions that
are bigger that normal experience are ingrained somehow into
mankind's thinking.
Now a question naturally arise is this, how do you distinguish
between religion and myth? This is a really hard question
and obviously a question that is a bit difficult to clear up.
The simple answer might be that myth is in some manner
connected to a “falsehood” of one type or another.
For example, one could easily state that the idea that the
earth was flat was a myth and of course really a very popular one.
Now, as it terms out, most people would readily admit that that
is a “falsehood”, that the earth in fact is round.
It is my opinion that as a requirement of public office a person
should be conversant with the Koran as well as some historical
knowledge of Islam. There are those who might say, well if you
are familiar with Gibbon's the “Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”,
that would be sufficient. I don't know for sure, but anyway,
my point here is that ---- the Koran is a very personal insight
into one person or Person, depending on your point of view –
quest to deal with the issue of myth in his or His time.
Now, here's the really “interesting” or ironic part of that.
In a lot of ways ---- both he or He and his religion – became
the object of mythification ( which may not really be a word )
- but anyway - the idea is that people in general got the wrong
idea of what - Islam was all about – in fact Mohammad actually
expresses this in the Koran. What is clear and for which there
can be no doubt is that His Revelation - resulted in a
tremendous amount of violence and blood shed – which is also
true of Christianity.
This kind of naturally leads of into the subject of and
the insanity of war – but I'll leave that whole issue for
another time. My concern here is for one of the prevalent
and popular myths of our age – which is the myth of Money
( or money )...... Now, here's the sad but true story.
Money, was designed to be a convenience for people – but
the notion has grown up over time - that money and the pursuit
of money and the acquiring of money - especially in large
masses – is the point of life. In fact, it would
be reasonable to say – that many people would argue with my
assertion that this is in fact – not the real purpose of life.
Be that as it may – I would simply like to say that
– the main myth - in this regard has to do with how acquiring
large amounts of money one is assured of happiness. While –
I am sure that are many people who are both wealthy and happy -
there is no assurance - that this will in general be a result.
In my view – it is often the case that the single minded pursuit
of wealth results in a type of insanity – which is not now classified.
I am in no way trying to indicate that – industriousness and
hard work are not virtues – but I think it is fair to say that
they are not the only virtues.
Among the virtues is honesty, understanding, kindness,
and generosity - and so it is simple in my opinion that the single
minded focus on the accumulation of wealth - by which I
mean mostly – money – with out the effort to acquire some of
these other virtues – creates a rather - shallow and in
many instances – pretty meaningless existence.
I am of course willing to be wrong in this matter – but I feel
that when one examines the situation – clearly one will generally
finds that life demands some kind of larger commitment – without
which the experience of life can become somewhat “meaningless”.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Democracy in the US
I think that in the US we are very proud of this idea of
Democracy. It is a focal point for us but I don't think
it's all that well thought out. I think that most people
would say that democracy is just one thing and that
it's what we have. Well, democracy is a kind of an idea.
True it's a system – and a system of government – but
then – it really shouldn't be thought of as something that
is static or fixed – because almost all systems change
over time. So I don't think we could think of it as something
that doesn't need thought and analysis and improvement.
To me one of the really important things about democracy
is that everyone's “voice” should be heard – and that is
an idea that is captured in our system of voting. But I
think that it should be more than that. People's voices
should be heard – even when they don't have that much
to say – because it is a source for new and better ideas
that can improve how we do things and our way of life in
general.
Now – today in our country we have this system that is
mainly based on two parties and people who participate
in these parties can often express their ideas through
this system. The way I see it is there are a few things
wrong with this process. First, these parties have
developed to represent mostly two main groups of
interest which are primarily labor and management.
These are the two big opposing points of view and
our political process has been caught up in these
differing perspectives. One of the problems we have
right now is that with in both of these parties we have
people that are ideologues. What this means is that
they have become so entrenched in their perspectives
of what is right and wrong – that they are very unwilling
to consider other ideas and are very unwilling to compromise.
Quite frequently these ideologues are able to gain everyone's
attention and therefore issues become framed around their
perspectives. And this has become a huge problem, because
it has made finding practical solutions to real problems very
hard. It might be better if these parties were totally random -
so that some issues of these opposing perspectives could
be worked out at a more grass roots level – and not reach
the level to which they interfere with how our government
actually works.
Practically, how can we get around this big problem that we have
now – to a situation in which more people can express
their views in various ways and yet we can easily get
through the problem of ending up with opposition
that can not be resolved?
First, in my opinion this is something that is related to
the issues now facing us in relation to health care. The
reason I say that is that – on a one to one basis the
issue of health care is related to two key processes.
First – the patient needs to be able to express what
is going so that an effective remedy can be found.
Second the health care provider needs to be able
to hear and work with this information in such a
way that the problems will be effectively addressed.
Therefore, in my opinion not only is our current
difficulties with resolving health care related to health
in the sense of patient – to health care provider – but
I believe it is also related to how we can understand
and explore ways of achieving a better system of
democracy and relating that in fact to improvements
in our system of government in general.
These ideas are very important for our future. Even
if I could express a simple formula – which there in
fact may be, it is very important for everyone involved
- which is everyone - to work on finding this answer
together – and since we are all clearly involved with
this we should all be motivated to finding a reasonable
and effective answer to it.
Democracy. It is a focal point for us but I don't think
it's all that well thought out. I think that most people
would say that democracy is just one thing and that
it's what we have. Well, democracy is a kind of an idea.
True it's a system – and a system of government – but
then – it really shouldn't be thought of as something that
is static or fixed – because almost all systems change
over time. So I don't think we could think of it as something
that doesn't need thought and analysis and improvement.
To me one of the really important things about democracy
is that everyone's “voice” should be heard – and that is
an idea that is captured in our system of voting. But I
think that it should be more than that. People's voices
should be heard – even when they don't have that much
to say – because it is a source for new and better ideas
that can improve how we do things and our way of life in
general.
Now – today in our country we have this system that is
mainly based on two parties and people who participate
in these parties can often express their ideas through
this system. The way I see it is there are a few things
wrong with this process. First, these parties have
developed to represent mostly two main groups of
interest which are primarily labor and management.
These are the two big opposing points of view and
our political process has been caught up in these
differing perspectives. One of the problems we have
right now is that with in both of these parties we have
people that are ideologues. What this means is that
they have become so entrenched in their perspectives
of what is right and wrong – that they are very unwilling
to consider other ideas and are very unwilling to compromise.
Quite frequently these ideologues are able to gain everyone's
attention and therefore issues become framed around their
perspectives. And this has become a huge problem, because
it has made finding practical solutions to real problems very
hard. It might be better if these parties were totally random -
so that some issues of these opposing perspectives could
be worked out at a more grass roots level – and not reach
the level to which they interfere with how our government
actually works.
Practically, how can we get around this big problem that we have
now – to a situation in which more people can express
their views in various ways and yet we can easily get
through the problem of ending up with opposition
that can not be resolved?
First, in my opinion this is something that is related to
the issues now facing us in relation to health care. The
reason I say that is that – on a one to one basis the
issue of health care is related to two key processes.
First – the patient needs to be able to express what
is going so that an effective remedy can be found.
Second the health care provider needs to be able
to hear and work with this information in such a
way that the problems will be effectively addressed.
Therefore, in my opinion not only is our current
difficulties with resolving health care related to health
in the sense of patient – to health care provider – but
I believe it is also related to how we can understand
and explore ways of achieving a better system of
democracy and relating that in fact to improvements
in our system of government in general.
These ideas are very important for our future. Even
if I could express a simple formula – which there in
fact may be, it is very important for everyone involved
- which is everyone - to work on finding this answer
together – and since we are all clearly involved with
this we should all be motivated to finding a reasonable
and effective answer to it.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
The following was submitted to
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/
Health Care, Energy and other Issues:
I suspect that there are very few people who would try
to argue that if we wish to become a culture capable of
traveling to other and distant planets, it would be possible
to do this without well co-ordinated international co-operation.
I, for one, am of the conviction that the near term survival of
our species requires a good deal of international co-operation
both on the issues of the use of energy resources as well
as to the issues relating to health care and health care investment.
Now, it's seems that this issue of health care is a more pressing
issue for people in the U.S. - today because we haven't done a real
good job over the years with this issue and there are many reasons
for this – which could be mentioned – but it is an issue that I believe
no clear thinking – reasonable person can avoid. There are those who
would imagine that it is an entirely economic issue – with whom
I would disagree strongly. Making money and making people healthy
are related – in one very important way. You can't make money unless
you have a healthy work force – so you can not have one without the
other. You might say – well - only certain members of our society
deserve a high quality of health care – because they do work which
is more important or they contribute more to the over all economy.
Then, people who make this argument must be able to support it
with at least a reasonable description of the value of individual work.
It is a system very hard to support because everyone's effort in
any particular area of endeavor is important – and although some
may be rewarded more highly for their labor – often the most
important contributions are made by individuals who actually earn
less.
But, we need to face, as a nation that this effort to achieve and maintain
a good quality of health is important to us as a nation.
Now my opinion is that this concept needs to be described and incorporated
into our constitution, because it is important. And I also believe that
this effort should be done by a national body – a constitutional committee
or congress – of individuals from our entire nation to meet and openly
discuss these issues so a proper documents may be created to reflect these
concerns in detail. To do so would take a great deal of effort – but to
not do it will cost us in the long run. And a meeting of this type
should be done separately from our existing government institutions
mostly so that everyone can feel that their inputs and concerns are
recognized. There are many reasonable arguments for this.
Today, in the U.S. - we have institutions at 4 levels of government which are as
follows:
1. National
2. State
3. County
4. Municipal
My feeling is that this should be expanded to 5 – one of which the primary
responsibility would be to focus on the issues of health and health care.
My opinion is that these institutions should be on a regional level and
also there should be contributions from existing taxes which would help
support them as well as consideration made for additional revenues to
be considered to help support them. In addition, I believe that the leadership
of these bodies should consult with the president – either with his cabinet
or separately especially when the president is considering issues of war.
There are many other details and thoughts and arguments relating to
this and that is exactly why a national meeting of this type can be of
such a great value – so that a lot of different ideas and so forth may
be openly and freely discussed – before a final document is to be
reviewed and agreed upon.
Now, just a brief example of how these issues affect us daily. Huge
amounts are invested and spent on lawyers – endlessly discussing these
things... Now, if these lawyers know so much about medicine – then why
are they not working in the health care industry rather than standing around
in public places – discussing it ????? It would seem that spending so much
time talking about it would indicate that they probably knew more than
the doctors who are actually being paid to do the work. If that were to happen
then we could pay the doctor-doctors ½ as much and the lawyer-doctors ¼
as much and we'd have twice the labor force and still spend less.
Energy
But on to a different area of concern and that would be energy and the
long term investments we much make to insure that we'll survive what
appears to be a potentially large scale environment catastrophe. Now
lately people talk about the carbon dioxide issue, but we much surely
think clearly on these issues. What cannot be denied – except by those
who have not clearly and impartially examined the facts in this case -
is that our energy transmission system is hopelessly out of date --- almost
all of this technology having been designed and developed in the 1920's
and 1930's. I personally believe we have learned a great deal more on
this subject – but there are some very clear issues that should be examined
which is that we have so far progressed in our use of electricity – that to
call it simply electricity is not giving a clear view of this subject, because
we use in in such a variety of ways – for example: in communication, in
entertainment, in pumping, in manufacturing, in health care, in transportation,
and the list is much longer. It is clear that any attempt at modernizing this
arena should be done with that in mind so that rather than transmitting some
of these different type of energies long distances – the power was more local -
for some of these things the power can be most easily derived from more
renewable resources – for example – cell phones can be recharged by solar
or wind – easily – and even some transportation power can be easily created
in this way .....
But now – another important issue is how high can the transmission voltages
be ???? It seems that 500 kv to 5,000 kv is not an unreasonable way to do
that ---- although I am not currently aware that higher voltages are being used.
But it is my belief that these projects should be integrated into other infra-structure
projects – with the call of enhancing both --- So for example consider – that
public transportation in the form of fast, efficient, reliable and energy conscious
systems are the exceptions rather than the norm.... Our rail system in this
country is totally sub standard in all ways and even within cities – public
transit systems are often not well thought out in such a way that the public
is really benefiting sufficiently from it.
So, for example, consider that safe forms of transit may be developed using
strong magnetic fields in opposition to the gravitation pull –
so that – very little energy is then required to move it because the frictional forces have been so much reduced. If, in addition, solar or wind systems were developed with these systems then – they might end up as energy producers. At the very least it should be considered to incorporate some of the transmission systems
as well – so that both of these systems may be maintained together.
But it would be incorrect to assume that such a plan could be implemented
in a very quick way – without significant planning and engineering. The result
of that type of approach would be potentially disastrous. However, with the right
materials and forethought this could become a very practical and well utilized mode
of transportation.
One speculative thought on this subject would be investigations into some method
by which the natural magnetic field of the earth could be used to advantage.
In these ways I do not think that it is unreasonable to consider that major
hubs of the system would be able to add energy to the system – thus increasing
the energy available to the entire system.
It seems clear to me that any long range plans on this subject need to
consider many factors together – these being – particularly energy,
transportation, manufacturing, and city and community planning.
In this way we can look forward to progressing to a system which
will be good for people and good for the environment.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/
Health Care, Energy and other Issues:
I suspect that there are very few people who would try
to argue that if we wish to become a culture capable of
traveling to other and distant planets, it would be possible
to do this without well co-ordinated international co-operation.
I, for one, am of the conviction that the near term survival of
our species requires a good deal of international co-operation
both on the issues of the use of energy resources as well
as to the issues relating to health care and health care investment.
Now, it's seems that this issue of health care is a more pressing
issue for people in the U.S. - today because we haven't done a real
good job over the years with this issue and there are many reasons
for this – which could be mentioned – but it is an issue that I believe
no clear thinking – reasonable person can avoid. There are those who
would imagine that it is an entirely economic issue – with whom
I would disagree strongly. Making money and making people healthy
are related – in one very important way. You can't make money unless
you have a healthy work force – so you can not have one without the
other. You might say – well - only certain members of our society
deserve a high quality of health care – because they do work which
is more important or they contribute more to the over all economy.
Then, people who make this argument must be able to support it
with at least a reasonable description of the value of individual work.
It is a system very hard to support because everyone's effort in
any particular area of endeavor is important – and although some
may be rewarded more highly for their labor – often the most
important contributions are made by individuals who actually earn
less.
But, we need to face, as a nation that this effort to achieve and maintain
a good quality of health is important to us as a nation.
Now my opinion is that this concept needs to be described and incorporated
into our constitution, because it is important. And I also believe that
this effort should be done by a national body – a constitutional committee
or congress – of individuals from our entire nation to meet and openly
discuss these issues so a proper documents may be created to reflect these
concerns in detail. To do so would take a great deal of effort – but to
not do it will cost us in the long run. And a meeting of this type
should be done separately from our existing government institutions
mostly so that everyone can feel that their inputs and concerns are
recognized. There are many reasonable arguments for this.
Today, in the U.S. - we have institutions at 4 levels of government which are as
follows:
1. National
2. State
3. County
4. Municipal
My feeling is that this should be expanded to 5 – one of which the primary
responsibility would be to focus on the issues of health and health care.
My opinion is that these institutions should be on a regional level and
also there should be contributions from existing taxes which would help
support them as well as consideration made for additional revenues to
be considered to help support them. In addition, I believe that the leadership
of these bodies should consult with the president – either with his cabinet
or separately especially when the president is considering issues of war.
There are many other details and thoughts and arguments relating to
this and that is exactly why a national meeting of this type can be of
such a great value – so that a lot of different ideas and so forth may
be openly and freely discussed – before a final document is to be
reviewed and agreed upon.
Now, just a brief example of how these issues affect us daily. Huge
amounts are invested and spent on lawyers – endlessly discussing these
things... Now, if these lawyers know so much about medicine – then why
are they not working in the health care industry rather than standing around
in public places – discussing it ????? It would seem that spending so much
time talking about it would indicate that they probably knew more than
the doctors who are actually being paid to do the work. If that were to happen
then we could pay the doctor-doctors ½ as much and the lawyer-doctors ¼
as much and we'd have twice the labor force and still spend less.
Energy
But on to a different area of concern and that would be energy and the
long term investments we much make to insure that we'll survive what
appears to be a potentially large scale environment catastrophe. Now
lately people talk about the carbon dioxide issue, but we much surely
think clearly on these issues. What cannot be denied – except by those
who have not clearly and impartially examined the facts in this case -
is that our energy transmission system is hopelessly out of date --- almost
all of this technology having been designed and developed in the 1920's
and 1930's. I personally believe we have learned a great deal more on
this subject – but there are some very clear issues that should be examined
which is that we have so far progressed in our use of electricity – that to
call it simply electricity is not giving a clear view of this subject, because
we use in in such a variety of ways – for example: in communication, in
entertainment, in pumping, in manufacturing, in health care, in transportation,
and the list is much longer. It is clear that any attempt at modernizing this
arena should be done with that in mind so that rather than transmitting some
of these different type of energies long distances – the power was more local -
for some of these things the power can be most easily derived from more
renewable resources – for example – cell phones can be recharged by solar
or wind – easily – and even some transportation power can be easily created
in this way .....
But now – another important issue is how high can the transmission voltages
be ???? It seems that 500 kv to 5,000 kv is not an unreasonable way to do
that ---- although I am not currently aware that higher voltages are being used.
But it is my belief that these projects should be integrated into other infra-structure
projects – with the call of enhancing both --- So for example consider – that
public transportation in the form of fast, efficient, reliable and energy conscious
systems are the exceptions rather than the norm.... Our rail system in this
country is totally sub standard in all ways and even within cities – public
transit systems are often not well thought out in such a way that the public
is really benefiting sufficiently from it.
So, for example, consider that safe forms of transit may be developed using
strong magnetic fields in opposition to the gravitation pull –
so that – very little energy is then required to move it because the frictional forces have been so much reduced. If, in addition, solar or wind systems were developed with these systems then – they might end up as energy producers. At the very least it should be considered to incorporate some of the transmission systems
as well – so that both of these systems may be maintained together.
But it would be incorrect to assume that such a plan could be implemented
in a very quick way – without significant planning and engineering. The result
of that type of approach would be potentially disastrous. However, with the right
materials and forethought this could become a very practical and well utilized mode
of transportation.
One speculative thought on this subject would be investigations into some method
by which the natural magnetic field of the earth could be used to advantage.
In these ways I do not think that it is unreasonable to consider that major
hubs of the system would be able to add energy to the system – thus increasing
the energy available to the entire system.
It seems clear to me that any long range plans on this subject need to
consider many factors together – these being – particularly energy,
transportation, manufacturing, and city and community planning.
In this way we can look forward to progressing to a system which
will be good for people and good for the environment.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
World Wide Economic Meltdown - blah - blah
Yes, indeed - we're having a WORLD WIDE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN -
and it's so nice of you to come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you are all enjoying this ..................
It has become a global obsession ..................
And really there's nothing wrong with a healthy, little
global obsession now and then, only ...............
Here's the problem --------
People are really not thinking very clearly and that
will eventually lead to some problems, I'm afraid ....
So we need to examine some of what is going on clearly....
First there is the issue of wealth.....
Now of course wealth is a term that is often used in an
economic sense ---- but I don't think many economists would
be willing to define it clearly --- much like Dr.s who
though they are members of the healing arts, are often
unable to clearly describe or explain in any clear way
what healing is.....
There's really nothing wrong with that .... but .....
Now during this "economic meltdown", many people would
say that ---- a great deal of " wealth " has been lost.
In fact, they may be more willing to say that wealth
has been lost than to say " money " has been lost ....
because, it's so hard to explain what "money" .....
So we need a bit of a thought experiment, now .....
Let us suppose there are two individual ( A and B ) and
that one has $100.00 and invests it at 9:00 am and the
other has $75,000.00 at 9:00 am which is already invested
and at 10:00 am the one who invested the 100.00 now has
$75,000.00 and the one who had $75,000.00 now has $100.00.
Clearly, the you might say that the one who lost the money
was a bit poorer - although - from the information given
that would be hard to say for sure and you might say
that the one who had gained was a bit richer - but
is it really possible to say that after 1 hr - either
one of these two folks was more or less " wealthy " ?????
I don't think you can .....
And the reason is that most people understand that there
is more to wealth than some particular amount of money....
So for example it is often mentioned that there is no
direct connection between the amount of money a person
has and how happy they are .... I don't know this for
certain but I do believe studies of this kind have
been done, regardless - I think the point is clear ---
but to make it more clear people who live in the US -
often called Americans often say ---- we live in a
wealthy country and I don't think that they say this
because everybody has a lot of "money" but because -
of the resources of the country, the " intellectual "
capital - and many other " virtues " which all go into
making this a " wealthy " nation .....
So, and I think many people would agree that ---- wealth
is more than just money and even agree on this on an
individual basis ....
I will make a stab at a definition which everybody does
not have to agree with - but at least gives an idea of
wealth which many people would agree with as follows:
A person who consistently uses their time " wisely " would
be considered to be a " wealthy " person ....
Of course now we would have to know what is meant by -----
" wisely " --- but I think you get the idea ......
But back to the meltdown - where did that wealth go ????????
I think that we might have to consider that the wealth was
never there in the first place - so in fact what we actually
did lose was the " illusion " of wealth - which in fact
never really existed at all ......
So what we actually did lose - was not a bad thing but
a good thing ------
I really don't think that I'll get everyone to just
forget this " economic " meltdown - but I do hope someone
will get the idea - that there are indeed - " bigger "
fish to fry and ---- move on ......
=====================================================================
and it's so nice of you to come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you are all enjoying this ..................
It has become a global obsession ..................
And really there's nothing wrong with a healthy, little
global obsession now and then, only ...............
Here's the problem --------
People are really not thinking very clearly and that
will eventually lead to some problems, I'm afraid ....
So we need to examine some of what is going on clearly....
First there is the issue of wealth.....
Now of course wealth is a term that is often used in an
economic sense ---- but I don't think many economists would
be willing to define it clearly --- much like Dr.s who
though they are members of the healing arts, are often
unable to clearly describe or explain in any clear way
what healing is.....
There's really nothing wrong with that .... but .....
Now during this "economic meltdown", many people would
say that ---- a great deal of " wealth " has been lost.
In fact, they may be more willing to say that wealth
has been lost than to say " money " has been lost ....
because, it's so hard to explain what "money" .....
So we need a bit of a thought experiment, now .....
Let us suppose there are two individual ( A and B ) and
that one has $100.00 and invests it at 9:00 am and the
other has $75,000.00 at 9:00 am which is already invested
and at 10:00 am the one who invested the 100.00 now has
$75,000.00 and the one who had $75,000.00 now has $100.00.
Clearly, the you might say that the one who lost the money
was a bit poorer - although - from the information given
that would be hard to say for sure and you might say
that the one who had gained was a bit richer - but
is it really possible to say that after 1 hr - either
one of these two folks was more or less " wealthy " ?????
I don't think you can .....
And the reason is that most people understand that there
is more to wealth than some particular amount of money....
So for example it is often mentioned that there is no
direct connection between the amount of money a person
has and how happy they are .... I don't know this for
certain but I do believe studies of this kind have
been done, regardless - I think the point is clear ---
but to make it more clear people who live in the US -
often called Americans often say ---- we live in a
wealthy country and I don't think that they say this
because everybody has a lot of "money" but because -
of the resources of the country, the " intellectual "
capital - and many other " virtues " which all go into
making this a " wealthy " nation .....
So, and I think many people would agree that ---- wealth
is more than just money and even agree on this on an
individual basis ....
I will make a stab at a definition which everybody does
not have to agree with - but at least gives an idea of
wealth which many people would agree with as follows:
A person who consistently uses their time " wisely " would
be considered to be a " wealthy " person ....
Of course now we would have to know what is meant by -----
" wisely " --- but I think you get the idea ......
But back to the meltdown - where did that wealth go ????????
I think that we might have to consider that the wealth was
never there in the first place - so in fact what we actually
did lose was the " illusion " of wealth - which in fact
never really existed at all ......
So what we actually did lose - was not a bad thing but
a good thing ------
I really don't think that I'll get everyone to just
forget this " economic " meltdown - but I do hope someone
will get the idea - that there are indeed - " bigger "
fish to fry and ---- move on ......
=====================================================================
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Petabyte - 10**15
Petabytes in use
* The Internet Archive contains almost 2 petabytes of data. [1]
* Google processes about 20 petabytes of data a day. [2]
* The 4 experiments in the Large Hadron Collider will produce about 15 petabytes of data per year, which will be distributed over the LHC Computing Grid.
etc ....
* 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes — 10005, or 1015, or
* 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes — 10245, or 250.
> > Huge amounts of data will pour in — so big that the lab's computers
> > can't sift through it all. So scientists, who will monitor the
> > experiment at above-ground control centers, have devised a way to
> > share the load among dozens of leading computing centers worldwide.
> > The result is the "LHC Grid," a network of 60,000 computers to
> > analyze what happens when protons are hurled at each other. That
> > computing power is needed if scientists are to find what they are
> > looking for among the mountains of data.
> > "You can think of each experiment as a giant digital camera with
> > around 150 million pixels taking snapshots 600 million times a
> > second," said CERN's Ian Bird, who leads the grid project.
> > Sophisticated filters discard all but the most interesting data,
> > still leaving some 15 petabytes to be analyzed. That's enough to
> > fill 2 million DVDs.
====================================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petabyte
=========================================
* The Internet Archive contains almost 2 petabytes of data. [1]
* Google processes about 20 petabytes of data a day. [2]
* The 4 experiments in the Large Hadron Collider will produce about 15 petabytes of data per year, which will be distributed over the LHC Computing Grid.
etc ....
* 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes — 10005, or 1015, or
* 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes — 10245, or 250.
> > Huge amounts of data will pour in — so big that the lab's computers
> > can't sift through it all. So scientists, who will monitor the
> > experiment at above-ground control centers, have devised a way to
> > share the load among dozens of leading computing centers worldwide.
> > The result is the "LHC Grid," a network of 60,000 computers to
> > analyze what happens when protons are hurled at each other. That
> > computing power is needed if scientists are to find what they are
> > looking for among the mountains of data.
> > "You can think of each experiment as a giant digital camera with
> > around 150 million pixels taking snapshots 600 million times a
> > second," said CERN's Ian Bird, who leads the grid project.
> > Sophisticated filters discard all but the most interesting data,
> > still leaving some 15 petabytes to be analyzed. That's enough to
> > fill 2 million DVDs.
====================================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petabyte
=========================================
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Yes, It could be okay, but ...
They stumbled into the Garden of Eden,
They stumbled out again ...
They destroyed, they created ...
They thought it would be so easy to start again ...
But, somehow, being brothers & being sisters ...
They got lost in their tangling of complexity ...
The mind somehow begins to tear --- and reality
becomes - a difficult issue -
So, they have to try ...
They have to let, just let go ...
and try to see it all new again ...
all fresh again - without - any ...
preconceptions - any prejudice - or superstition -
and that seems so hard - but really -
it can be done.
But you have to believe - really believe -
because there's nothing there - it's all
just fresh - made again - & new ...
You know ?????
They stumbled out again ...
They destroyed, they created ...
They thought it would be so easy to start again ...
But, somehow, being brothers & being sisters ...
They got lost in their tangling of complexity ...
The mind somehow begins to tear --- and reality
becomes - a difficult issue -
So, they have to try ...
They have to let, just let go ...
and try to see it all new again ...
all fresh again - without - any ...
preconceptions - any prejudice - or superstition -
and that seems so hard - but really -
it can be done.
But you have to believe - really believe -
because there's nothing there - it's all
just fresh - made again - & new ...
You know ?????
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