If I Only Had the Money

So, there's a fantastic international salon group called TED.


They supposedly encourage innovations among the masses by spreading the word about current discoveries and findings in a wide variety of social, economic, and scientific fields.

However, the price to attend one of their seminars is self-limiting; only those in the upper brackets of management or who like living in debt can afford to go.

Perhaps it's just too socialist of me, but you'd think that if a group is really supposed to be FOR the common folk, that the common folk would be able to afford to go.

Silly me.

We Pledge Allegiance To The Corporations Of America

Yeah, this is another bitch about how the government, by the people, for the people, and of the people is not actually representative of the people.

My latest thoughts on this revolve around the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness...particularly during dangerous conditions.

I find it despicable that when the federal government issues a weather advisory to a location, oh, say Minnesota, saying that there are DANGEROUS conditions and that travel should be limited to emergencies, people are still expected to report to work, on time, as usual.

Why?

Because the federal government has no power.

Corporations have power because corporations have money.  Might makes right, after all.

And in this case, corporations can demand that their employees report to work or lose their jobs (that would be the pursuit of life and happiness, right?) during conditions that are, frankly, deadly.

I find this particularly interesting that people just don't seem to feel that the weather has any power over their lives...until it comes with such a destructive force that it kills many at once.  But picking you off one at a time because your car swerves into on-coming traffic during a blizzard- well, that's acceptable and you better get your ass in the office on-time.

Isn't the federal and state government that for matter, supposed to protect the people?  How is it protecting the people in Minnesota during a blizzard?

They could do things like close roads to all but emergency personnel.

They could do things like start charging a safety tax to corporations for putting not only their employee's lives at risk, but also that of the emergency crews that have to come and dig them out of the ditch during hazardous conditions.  And what about the damage to state property?  Road signs and whatnot?  Crashes from commuters ruin the K-rail and who pays to fix it?  The worker.  Is that fair!?Seems that would solve a lot of financial issues for the government and perhaps put the focus back on the safety and well-being of the people.  I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that a state entity made policy based on the weather.

But that would be if the government was actually in control.

It's obviously not.

Big and Small

Why is it that clicking the "enlarge" or "zoom" function on eCommerce sites (like Amazon) opens a pop-up window that has a picture that's SMALLER than the original?

Developers:  HONESTLY!

Don't tell me that you can't require an image of higher resolution or larger dimensions for the enlargement.

Otherwise, disable the function.

Why Facebook Is Evil

Suddenly, I have a ooey, gooey self-satisfied feeling about NOT using Facebook (and removing myself from other social media).

It turns out that social media and modern lifestyle is gradually dumbing down the human population.  There is a lot more 'monkey-see' behavior nowadays and a lot fewer instances of innovation and individual thought.

In other words, the human race is regressing to tribal behavior, where there is a leader appointed by popularity and whatever that leader says, goes.  Blindly.

It's sad when I think about the article in Scientific American this month about whether or not utopias are possible; scientists have determined that the human propensity for lemming behavior is what destroys the possibility for a science-fiction type utopia because the disparity between master and servant (where the master thinks and the servant obeys) cannot allow a lifestyle of free-thought and equality.

So, despite feeling have that warm-cuddly plugged-in-so-I'm-modern-and-advance mind thought, all of you out there that live and die by texting and Facebook are destroying the dream of ever overcoming the human conditions for power because you just reiterated every little stupid fact that you find on the internet and treat it like gospel.

Today

Some days you just don't forget.

No matter how hard you try.

Holidays

You know, it used to be that a federal holiday meant everyone in the national except essential personnel had the day off.

Like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  National holidays.  No one really works.

It used to be that February was the best month in the year because it had a work holiday (Valentine's Day- when everyone was more focused on diabetic levels of candy than making any progress on work and school), and two federal holidays, which were always back to back Mondays.

I think it was Columbus Day that was really the turning point for refusing to accept national holidays.  Some people strongly felt that Columbus Day was a travesty and that is was morally wrong to celebrate a day that resulted in mass extinction of races of people.

To those patriots, I'd like to bring up Memorial Day and the Fourth of July- two national holidays that highlight and promote man-on-man cruelty.

But, back to my point:  refusing to honor a national holiday.

It seems that, once again, the power does not lie with the people.  Nor with the government.  It lies with the owners of oligomonopolies that can decide to refuse federal will.

After all, we all know:  money is power.

It certainly isn't the people.

Wheat: More Toxic Than Good?

As a sufferer Celiac Disease, I avoid wheat and wheat-like (analog) grains, like barley, oats, and rye.  But studies are now showing that wheat may contain other substances (molecules) that are harmful to consume.

The studies show that a larger group of people have been diagnosed with "gluten sensitivity", which, it turns out, is completely different than Celiac Disease.  These have shown that people with gluten sensitivity suffer most of the same ill effects as those with Celiac Disease (gassy, bloated, headaches, irritability, diarrhea, etc), but without the immunological response.  In other words, they get all the symptoms without body reacting to gluten as if it were foreign, as Celiac Disease suffers do.  When those with gluten sensitivity go in for the now standard blood test for Celiac Disease, they show no antibodies against gluten, so they're told that they don't have problems with eating wheat.

But these studies are showing that's often not true.  

People who go in with these symptoms are actually suffers of gluten sensitivity- a disease which remains largely undiagnosed and unstudied.  The general advice from medical scientists for those with gluten sensitivity is to avoid wheat, just like those with Celiac Disease.

Now, what I find interesting is that wheat has been cultivated for 10,000 or more years and NOW we're having problems.

It sounds to me like we've either done something to poison the grain or some other substance or organism has taken over either the wheat or modern humans to make the relationship we used to have with our food, well, pointless.

Long live food processing, right?

Pretty soon, we'll only be able to digest pills.