We Do Not Inherit The Land From Our Ancestors, We Borrow It From Our Children - Native American Proverb

We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children - Native American Proverb.

Do you own a home, some land, a farm, a forest?  Do you feel you have the right to do anything you want with that land?  Do you feel you have the right to burn it, poison it, pollute it, or do other things to make it worthless for decades or centuries to come?  Will you own that land forever?  Of course you will not. At best, you can only own it while you live, then you have no control over what happens to that land, even if you try to stipulate what happens to that land in your will.  Don't count on the living to respect the wishes of the dead when the wishes of the dead don't benefit or harm the living.

Since you won't own your land for ever, you are borrowing it.  You are the gardener and caretaker of the land.  The future is counting on you not to destroy it and not to take it away from future people.  Are you strong enough, mature enough, and human enough to leave the land better than you found it?

If You Are Not Failing Sometimes, You Are Not Trying Very Hard.

If you are not failing sometimes, you are not trying very hard.

Are you living a timid life, or are you getting the most out of life while you can?  Could you accomplish more than you are currently accomplishing?  How will you know unless you push yourself?  And how will you know if you are close to your peak potential if you don't occasionally push yourself past your limits?  How otherwise, will you know what your limits are?

We Will Be Forever Known By The Tracks We Leave - Native American proverb

"We will be forever known by the tracks we leave" - Native American proverb.

How will you be remembered?  What legacy of actions and deeds will you leave behind?  How will the world be different for your passage?

GE and Westinghouse about to Get Their Way At The Expense of All Americans – Thanks to Trump

A few large companies, notably GE and Westinghouse, are behind the push to reduce energy efficiency in the United States because these businesses still make profits selling outdated technology.  They have successfully tricked Trump into believing that their ability to produce old technology bulbs is better for the country than stable power grids, cost savings for individuals, and reductions in global warming.

How did they convince Trump to do this?  It is easy, like so many people that are anti-liberal, they believe that any government regulations must be bad.  They have been preached to by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for decades that all regulation is evil, and they now accept that as truth.

The results of the rollback of regulations about efficient light bulbs means the following:

• A few large businesses will make a little more profit.  These are billion dollar businesses that often pay no taxes due to tax loopholes.
• Individuals can save some money at the store by buying cheaper light bulbs.
• But those same individuals will pay more money in electricity bills because incandescent bulbs require much more electricity.
• Our power grids are more likely to experience black outs due to increased energy demands.
• Our country must expend more resources, dollars and energy, to produce the increased electricity required to power the inefficient bulbs.
• Global warming will increase more because of the increase in energy consumption.

It is so sad to see the resources of the world squandered so that a few individuals may make a short term profit.

https://appliance-standards.org/sites/default/files/Fact_Sheet_Who_Opposes_DOE_Light_Bulb_Rollback_Final1.pdf

Is Trump The First President To Try To Prevent Americans From Traveling Abroad

I don't recall a previous incident where the President of the United States sought to prevent a citizen, especially a member of Congress, from freely traveling anywhere in the world they would like to go.  Especially when the only reason to prevent this travel was to punish the American for voicing opinions critical of the President.

Surely this is a first.  A Presidential First for Trump.  Does anyone have an instance of a previous President attempting this?

Power Does Not Corrupt. Power Attracts The Corrupt!

Power Does Not Corrupt.  Power Attracts The Corrupt!

I'd Rather Try 100 Things and Fail at 60 of Them, Than Try 20 and Succeed on 20

I'd Rather Try 100 Things and Fail at 60 of Them, Than Try 20 and Succeed on 20

When I look back on my life I cherish the successes.  The failures do not bother me, because I am pleased that I was willing to risk trying.  You can't sail across the ocean if you are afraid of leaving site of the shore.

The Path To Trump's Re-Election: Start a War With Iran

Is that what is going on?  The Trump administration has been bullying and name-calling and insulting and poking at the Iranians quite a bit lately.  Are they trying to goad Iran into a war?  Is this part of a strategy to help Trump win the 2020 election?  The American people have been very reluctant to put a new President in office while we are at war.  Perhaps the Trump 2020 team believes that is their best, or even only chance to keep Trump in power for four more years.

I hate to think that anyone would push our country into a war just to maintain their grasp on power, but there are a lot of signs that this may be happening.  The Trump administration is certainly putting pressure on the Iranians but not giving them any way to respond.  And they are jumping on any shred of information to sensationalize and publicize any minor disagreement or conflict with Iran.  It appears they are trying to stir up the American anger against a country that has primarily been staying out of American affairs.  It is difficult to see why the U.S. is more antagonistic toward Iran than toward Saudi Arabia, or Russia, or even North Korea.

Let's hope the Republicans don't drag us into another trillion dollar war in the desperate attempt to win an election.  A war with Iran will likely be much more difficult for the U.S. than our war with Iraq because Iran is much better organized, has a more competent military, and the U.S. is unlikely to have much support from any allies because we have been antagonizing all of our allies in the past few years.

Is Trump the Only Bully We Have Had for President?

I don't know much about the personalities of most American presidents from the past, I am only familiar with those from my lifetime, starting with Gerald Ford.  No president from the past has been such an obvious bully as Donald Trump.  I assume he is the first, only, and hopefully the last bully that we elect as president.  Although there are many examples, probably examples every week, I point to this recent tweet as an example:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1135499002626154496

I feel this tweet alone should be enough to disqualify from Trump from being president of any country.  When the person in the most powerful position in the country encourages economic retaliation against businesses within his own country simply because he disagrees with their opinion, you should know he does not have the best interests of the country and the founding principles of this country in mind.

A leader that punishes someone simply for disagreeing with him is no leader.  And our country desperately needs a leader.  In this case, Trump wants to punish CNN because CNN will not propagate his lies.  He tells blatant lies and expect people to accept his lies.  Such terrible character flaws should lead to the termination of his presidency or for any role that was created to serve the people and the general public.




Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/business/media/trump-att-boycott-cnn.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trumps-call-for-a-bad-news-boycott-ignites-first-amendment-worries
https://deadline.com/2019/06/chris-cuomo-cnn-donald-trump-closing-arguments-endangering-livelihoods-spite-1202626588/

Shameful and Blatant Propaganda From Steven Winberg, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy

Steven Winberg will now go down in history as a blatant propagandist advocating for the increased production of energy from fossil fuels long after the world knew the terrible damage these fuels wreak upon humanity by causing climate change.  Everyone needs to drop all the "spin" on their opinions and justifications and just come clean.  We know that Steven Winberg is trying to rebrand Natural Gas as Molecules of Freedom because he is making a lot of money directly by increasing the production of Natural Gas.  This is all about personal profit, and it is a shame that a member of the U.S. government puts personal profit above serving the people.

It is shameful that so many officials in powerful positions oppose science for the sake of profit.

Washington Post article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2019/05/30/the-energy-202-trump-administration-s-molecules-of-u-s-freedom-come-with-a-cost/5ceec6061ad2e52231e8e855/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6bbbd610a998

The direct quotes:
https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-authorizes-additional-lng-exports-freeport-lng

Steven Winberg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Winberg

A Good Short Video Explaining How Climate Change Threatens Our Extinction By 2050

This video provides a good 9 minute explanation of how climate change is having severe consequences and threatens humanity.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-climate-change-report-human-civilization-at-risk-extinction-by-2050-new-australian-climate/

Perhaps now is the time to say, "There are those in this generation who will see these things come to pass."

Free Science-Based Health Tips Delivered to Your Email

You can get free health tips from the Center for Science in the Public Interest by signing up on their site: https://cspinet.org/  The tips provide dietary and exercise guidance based on the best solid science we have.

Why Are Federal And State Governments Suppressing Science?

We've all seen the stories in the news proving that state and federal governments are trying to suppress the use of science in the United States.  We now have a resource online dedicated to tracking the abuses by our government agencies.

The Silencing Science Tracker is a joint initiative of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. It is intended to record reports of federal, state, and local government attempts to “silence science” since the November 2016 election.

We define “silencing science” to include any action that has the effect of restricting or prohibiting scientific research, education, or discussion, or the publication or use of scientific information.

http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/silencing-science-tracker/about/

Why I believe Trump has never told a lie

I once told a friend that Shanghai, China was the largest city in the world.  I was wrong, but I didn't know that.  Tokyo was the largest city at the time.  I was not telling a lie.  And I was not providing "alternate facts".  I was simply wrong.  I admit I made a mistake.

What about Donald Trump?  He lies all the time, right?

Well, I'm not so sure.  Just like I wasn't lying when I said Shanghai was the largest city, I don't think Trump is lying when he says things we know to be incorrect.  And the reason I say this is because I don't think Trump treats sentences and statements the way most people do.  Trump speaks to try to convince others to like him and to persuade them to do what he wants them to do.  Toward that end, the truth of the words he speaks is irrelevant.  For Trump, the goal of speech is not to learn, educate, or even to seek common ground.  The only purpose of speech is persuasion.  What do you want to be true?  What do you think those you are trying to persuade want to be true?  Say those things.  Give no thought to whether or not the words you speak are actually true or not.  Persuade!  Get those people on your side.  Get them to believe in you.  Say the things they want to hear so they will put their trust in you.

You might think a strategy like that would not work today, in the Age of the Internet.  But obviously it is working for him, largely due to the Industry of Republicans desperate to keep Republicans in power at all costs.  They will spread disinformation attempting to dilute Trump's lies and change the topic by creating a new crisis to turn national attention away from other lies.  Given that the Industry of Republicans have been working since the Reagan Era to instill blind loyalty in Republicans to their leader, the strategy is working well enough to keep Trump in power.

So, is Trump telling lies?  By the definition of most people, "YES!".  But by his own definition, "no".

Science Explains How Re-Introducing Bald Eagles to Santa Cantalina is Saving the Island Foxes

I love hearing the stories that explain how species affect one another, even when they don't directly interact. 

Bald Eagles are being re-introduced to the Santa Cantalina islands and this is having a positive affect on the local population of Island Foxes, possibly the smallest breed of foxes in North America, and until recently, an endangered species.

My first thought was that this seemed backwards.  I assumed Bald Eagles might be a danger to the small foxes because the Bald Eagles could prey upon them.  But they don't.  In the 1950s, our use of DDT devastated the Bald Eagle population on the islands.  With few Bald Eagles to compete with, the Golden Eagles moved in to the islands.  The Golden Eagles preyed upon the large population of feral pigs, the young feral pigs, that humans had introduced in a failed attempt to use the islands to host the livestock.  Decades later when humans began removing the feral pigs from the islands, the Golden Eagles turned to the Island Foxes as a primary source of food.

A few decades ago, scientists started re-introducing Bald Eagles to the islands to reclaim their former habitat and the Bald Eagles are driving away the Golden Eagles, thus allow the Island Foxes to flourish again.

The Circle of Life.

See pictures of these adorable foxes and learn all about this from these sources:
https://www.islandconservation.org/island-foxes-shed-endangered-status/
http://www1.islandfox.org/p/about-island-fox.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_fox

Capitalism rewards those not that contribute to society, but those that prevail over others, regardless of the consequences to humanity.

Wikileaks: Is it Good or Bad for Society?

Should a person that reveals State secrets be charged with a crime, even when those State secrets reveal that the State has been lying to its own people?

Internet news leads me to believe that many Americans think government whistle-blowers should be prosecuted, even sentenced to a death penalty, for disobeying orders and revealing government secrets.  But I think the punishment and the degree of punishment is not so simple to determine.  Each incident needs to be based on its own factors, not on an overly generic precedent.

I do believe that conservatives are quick to recommend harsh punishment for information exposed that shows conservative government officials behaving badly.  But liberals are equally perturbed when leaks expose liberal officials breaking the rules.

I believe that most people understand that most of these leaks have both good and bad elements to them.  So many of the stories we hear represent the extreme positions, suggesting the leak is either something 100% good or something 100% evil.  But I suspect, and truly hope, that many Americans understand that it is not all or nothing. 

I think it is good when the people learn that their government have been violating their own laws and blatantly lying about it.  The people need to be reminded that every person and every organization, including the government, needs a watchdog.

From an article in the May 2, 1833 edition of The Virginia Free Press and Farmers' Repository:

“... ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ Let the sentinels on the watch-tower sleep not, and slumber not.”

So what do we do with those who leak the secrets?  The answer is, "It depends".  Consider two extreme examples,
1) If a leak revealed the location an hour of the assaults upon Adolf Hitler just days before they were launched, the person leaking the information should face the harshest punishment
2) If a leak revealed that the President was selling military technology to the enemy for personal gain, I think the person leaking the information should face only a minor fine, perhaps of one dollar, to show that the disobedience and revealing secrets is not generally condoned, especially when that person has taken an oath to not reveal secrets.

Wikileaks is not wholly bad.  I believe the site should continue to exist to help facilitate the exposure of politicians that scam their own people.  The information revealed on the site to the public may have damaging consequences for the governments exposed, but those governments should understand the risks of those exposures when they engage in illegal activities.

More Than Two Years In Office And Trump Hasn't Negotiated Anything

Trump claimed he was a great negotiator, and he still makes that claim, yet during his time in office I can't think of a single situation where he demonstrated any negotiation skills.  What Trump calls negotiating are tactics that the rest of the world calls bullying.  If he doesn't like an agreement he will renege on the agreement, then threaten no agreement until the other party gives him what he wants while Trump offers to concede nothing.

Negotiating is something you do with partners.  With those you want to have good relationships with.

Bullying is what you do when you have power and don't want to share.  It is also the tactic used by less intelligent people that don't realize that by creating bad will with their trading partner they are harming their future relationship with that partner.  In the case of Trump and the USA that means many of the USA partners that Trump negotiates with and forces a Trumpian deal upon will, in the future, be more open to considering China or Russia for that partnership.  Also these partners will be less likely to trust the USA to honor their agreements, and obviously Trump has proven that we can't be trusted to honor those agreements.  Finally, they will be more likely to try to subvert deals and cheat on deals that they were forced into.  This is not speculation, but based on decades of studies in sociology on human behavior.

I am not alone in my opinion.  Better writers have expressed similar opinions about Trump's inability to negotiate: http://fortune.com/2016/07/19/donald-trump-negotiating-the-art-of-the-deal/

Green Tip: Take Your Own Plastic Containers (Tupperware) to the Restaurant for Your Leftovers #GREEN

My wife and I are light eaters and we know that many of our favorite restaurants will provide us more food than we desire to eat in a single sitting.  Therefore we take our own plastic containers in to the restaurant and put the meal leftovers into them.  This offers several advantages:

1. It is green!  We are helping the environment by reducing the creation of Styrofoam containers (as usually supplied by the restaurants for left overs).
2. It saves us time.  Often, when we get home we want to put the leftovers in our own containers anyway then put the food in the freezer for a week or two.  If we already have it in those same containers, we are saving time.
3. We can bring small containers to separate foods or sauces into something ideal for storing instead of placing several types of foods and sauces into the same Styrofoam container.
4. We don't have to wait for the waiter to bring us a take home container.
5. We hopefully set a good example for others that see us doing this, and maybe over time it will become less eccentric, more acceptable, and maybe even required if a customer wants to take leftovers home.

If an electron interacts with a magnetic field, and an Everettian is not around to observe it, does it still create many worlds?

If an electron interacts with a magnetic field, and an Everettian is not around to observe it, does it still create many worlds?

Sean Carroll (https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/) was kind enough to provide this answer to my question in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode of his podcast:

'The answer is that many worlds are created whenever a quantum system in a superposition becomes entangled with its environment. That certainly doesn't require "an observer."'


Most Everettian physicists agree with Mr. Carroll's position, though a few apparently believe that a "conscious observer" needs to perform the observation in order for 'many worlds' to be created.