A Local View of Clean Water and Sewers

Personal Analysis of Zone 3 Proposed Sewer Project by Lambton Shores August 2010

From: Roy Merkley, 10341 Maplewood Ave. Southcott Pines
​ Grand Bend, Ontario N0M 1T0

I am a semi-retired special machine tool design consultant with a lifetime experience in automation and special equipment primarily for the auto industry. My knowledge includes many applications of hydraulic and control systems.

The following summarizes my personal opinion on the current status of the above project which has been pursued by the Lambton Shores Municipal Council for the past several years.

1- Are existing septic tank systems in Zone 3 a significant environmental problem?
Since our ground water is not extracted or used for any personal use, the only possible impact that it can have environmentally is leaching into the lake or the old river bed.
To my knowledge there has never been any evidence or proof that this has been an issue with septic systems in Zone 3. During this past summer which has been one of the hottest in many years our beaches have been safe so far with heavy usage and peak occupancy in Zone 3.
In the past the only visible environmental pollution that I have ever witnessed is run off from surrounding fields through the drains and rivers after heavy rains. Also at certain times of the year large flocks of Canada geese leave great amounts of 'goose poop' on our shores.
The dilution factor with such a large body of water in Lake Huron seems to be able to handle this for the most part. Thus any small traces that could ever leach into the lake through the sand base from our septic systems must be insignificant.
The test results from the groundwater study listed in the environmental assessment when properly analyzed , do not indicate any overall environmental problems due to the existing septic systems in zone 3.

I firmly believe that there is not now or ever was or ever will be a reason to condemn septic tank systems in the sandy soil of Zone 3. If properly maintained and upgraded when necessary to the latest technology, they provide the most cost effective and least troublesome form of treating residential waste effluent in this area. In addition new legislation will ensure that septic systems will be even safer for the environment than before. They require no external energy to operate and require no support or liability by the municipality and are 'fail safe'.
In my mind the groundwater test results and Dillon's total lack of including tertiary septic systems as an alternative in zone 3 can not overshadow the above historical observations and basic facts.

2- Is the 'Low Pressure Grinder Pump' collection system proposed by Dillon Consulting a feasible alternative?

Sewer design and construction is not rocket science and has been around since the Roman Empire, thus I cannot understand why Dillon Consulting would ever consider recommending such a high risk collection system using grinder pumps for this project. To make it the first choice is even more astounding for the following reasons.

- no good evidence of any other similar installation of grinder pumps operating successfully in an area as large as Zone 3
- overall installation consists of over a thousand pumps, motors, controllers and valves as well as a multitude of piping, lift stations, inspection stations and warning systems – most of which are potentially troublesome with a possibility of leakage
- system is dependent on hydro and requires hook up to every residence -- outages are a problem
- requires monitoring and maintenance capability
- higher risk for breakdowns due to freezing winter conditions when many homes are unoccupied and not using their system
- unsightly installation if warning systems and access covers are visible
- requires municipal liability for operation and maintenance

This should be a 'no brainer'. Grinder pump systems are not 'user friendly' and have a much higher risk for problems and eventual failure. Since the fall of 2008 it has been apparent that the majority of residents in Zone 3 do not want this solution. Why would a municipality consider forcing a high risk untried system on an electorate that does not want it? This should not even be considered if the costs were nothing. For Dillon to propose this would make one question their credibility and suggest poor judgment.

1- How is Lambton Shores Council presently proceeding with this project?

This council has contracted Dillon Consulting to prepare an Environmental Assessment and Notice of Completion which it has done and sent to the Ministry.
This document considers only two alternatives with a 'low pressure grinder type' collection system in Zone 3 as its first choice with gravity sewers being the only other. Any form of septic bed systems were ruled out early in the study back in 2006 and are not offered as any alternative. It seems that very little if any resources were allocated to investigating up to date 'eco friendly' septic systems.

It is my understanding that if the Ministry approves the request it is then in the hands of the municipality to implement it with the blessing of the province.

2- General Personal Conclusion

From my past experience with projects involving municipal and provincial bureaucracies, it would seem to me that Lambton Shores is well down the road to obtaining formal approval to proceed with what they wanted from the beginning being 'sewers everywhere in our area and a brand new treatment plant'.

It is troubling to me that this vision by whomever were driving this in the beginning of the project seemed to overshadow actual needs of individual areas within the study. The results indicate to me that the 'Environmental Assessment' by Dillon is more tailored to satisfying this vision than to address the real needs for disposal of waste effluent in our area. Remember the classic definition of a consultant's role in a project is 'tell us what you want us to say and we will give it to you'.

To completely ignore any form of septic system as an alternative when our old existing systems have been here for in some cases the better part of 50 years and our beaches are as good as ever with never a health risk in the zone 3 area, is inexcusable. I believe that our septic systems can be improved and with ever improving systems being available there would never be a need to change horses and install sewers in zone 3. The big advantage in this approach is that we take government out of play except to administer environmental standards. This has to be the most cost effective way in the long run and in my opinion has not a chance of happening without scrapping the 'Notice of Completion'.

A major concern that I have is with the municipality being so solidly in bed with Dillon Consulting. There apparently was no consideration at the start of this project to go out to tender for civil engineering services for this study and apparently no fixed price agreed to. The actual cost breakdown to Dillon and Golder Associates for professional services should be disclosed as well as the financial terms of their contracts. Unsubstantiated figures that I have read indicate Dillon's original cost estimate started at $18,000.00 and now exceed $220,000.00. This is like giving them a blank cheque and hoping for the best.
It is my understanding that Dillon was the company that looked after the Pinery Park grinder pump project. It would be interesting to know if they competed for that job and if they received a percentage of the overall cost or had to work to a fixed price.

If Lambton Shores chooses to implement a 'low pressure grinder pump' collection system in Zone 3 it will haunt this council for years. The residents will be left with a poor, costly, inferior system and Dillon Consulting will walk away with our money.

Good fiscal management should include competitive quotes with fixed price terms and negotiation only for changes instituted by the customer.

Finally you should never let fancy studies and reports from experts trump common sense. History will give you more than enough instances of this happening.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Province of Ontario wants to Improve it's Water

• Contact information for the general public
  416-325-4000 
  1-800-565-4923
  
• Lyndsay Miller
  Minister's Office
  416-212-1625
  lyndsay.miller2@ontario.ca

• Kate Jordan
  Communications Branch
  416-314-6666 
  kate.jordan@ontario.ca

Ministry of the Environment
ontario.ca/environment

What is progress?  Is it the application of new technology, or is it a change in people's mental processes that leads to fundamental improvements in their welfare.  I believe it is the latter and I am sure it is very hard to accomplish and not something a government can do!

It's wonderful to hear that Ontario wants to lead the world in clean water, but have they forgotten that they have created a messy environment that humans and technology alone cannot resolve!

Read this first:

http://news.ontario.ca/ene/en/2010/05/leading-the-world-in-water-innovation-and-conservation.html

See what the Ontario province says are it's objectives:

http://news.ontario.ca/mei/en/2010/08/ten-year-infrastructure-plan-will-support-economic-growth.html

There is a disconnect and I was surprised when I opened the Ontario Province's web site for the first time. Obviously, as an old time Ontario and Quebec resident that has been away to other lands, I am like a visitor here from Mars looking at earthly Ontario and wondering what the poor earthlings have done to deceive themselves, or is it all rhetoric for public consumption.  

You do one thing while saying another.  What is this public myth that everyone laps up?  Do they not notice the negative change over the past fifty years?  Or, has it been so gradual that it is not noticed?  Or more likely, there is only so much that you can do as a government department because human nature is not going to change much to really open people's eyes to what they are doing that has a negative impact.  

However, if you give people the feel good about their efforts perhaps you can escape the realization when it eventually arrives that you did not do very much at all because:

1.  You did not know what to do!

2.  You could not change human nature to do the opposite of what you wanted them to do!

Both of the above define limits to your effectiveness.

I read with pride that Ontario preaches and practices clean water, yet when as a stranger from another province, I see horrendous shortcomings, I have to wonder what all the polemic is about.

I wrote the following letter this morning to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment with regard to the Grand Bend Sewer system which I think is about cleaning water: 

  
Dear Cindy!

Thank you for your very informative letter. I do appreciate your answering my message of concerns about how the local project has evolved and that it has a decadent life of it's own that is hitting many surprising extremes from my point of view. I would prefer that the province figure out it's sanitation issues within the provincial park's limits rather than expect a nearby locality to absorb such costs.

The local community should in turn figure out its own sanitation issues within guidelines that are established by the larger community. After all, the population of Grand Bend is very small being under 2,000 and from a map survey it's lagoons are much larger than towns with populations multiples it's size. In summer, the population grows, but the systems for each cottage absorb such expansion very well normally.

By making Grand Bend into a typical polluting town, one is using the popular language of growth and progress. Our reality, however, is that the temporary wealthy drive the price of homes here up so high that local residents cannot survive on the limited numbers of jobs that exist year round. By placing additional costs onto the local people, the province is driving out potential investment and it is not enough to say the province is investing in Grand Bend since government jobs and money here are not the answer to the location's needs. We need more sustainable investment that comes from more people looking after their own environments and taking personal responsibility for their home and local community environments.

Who counts the co2 that is being created from the concrete poured or the tarmac laid? Who weighs the vehicles that pour co2 into the airs above the roads that travel through the village? Are there no long term standards, or are there no effective agencies to examine these issues and participate in discussions around the world? What are you doing?

My overall concern is that there seems an absence of clear design in the environmental approach of the province that continues blindly down paths that are not sustainable over the longer term. No will exists to slow down the deterioration. Bad habits of environmental destruction continue. The consultants retained for the sewerage project seem to take a very partial view of the environment and local economy. The sewer needs to be placed in the wider context of the environment. What is good technology for a small rural community that has absentee residents most of the time?

I am reminded of Schumacher's phrase that small is beautiful. What appropriate technologies are there for the farmers who would drive lawn mowers rather than plant trees. They spend millions on grass fertilizers and weed killers, but don't plant trees. Golf courses abound without lakes and tall trees. Swathes of land are cleared of trees and topsoil, bulldozing is a hobby of local employment for semi-skilled people who should be doing carpentry and working in furniture factories or making and installing affordable hardwood flooring in every home rather than manufacturing with chemicals for artificial fabrics that pollute and cause cancer.

Although we have trees, we need many more spaces for tree planting. We need to restore the forest not take it down, bulldoze and pore yet more concrete and build more second homes for those who drive ever larger vehicles and have a mindset of a oil guzzling era. We need to get farmers to plant trees and create wetlands to restore what was once a balance, but which is dangerously close to being a natural disaster. I am ashamed that the Ontario environment relative to that across the lake in Michigan is so much deteriorated in relative terms over the last century.

We think nothing of the employment in furniture factories that once abounded in the province based on hardwoods that once abounded in the province. Where are those hardwood forests now, where are the many forest jobs that once were. Why were the trees not replanted to give a future to the rural communities.

It's not good enough to plant a few pine trees and claim that we are working on the environment, when we can see the run offs arriving in Grand Bend harbour from farms that prefer grass and lawns to trees. Where is the natural habitat going?

I am disturbed at how much the Ontario environment has deteriorated over the five decades that I have been away. Many of the large trees are gone without being replaced. Towns have put sewerage systems on small lakes that used to be full of natural life tadpoles, frogs and snakes in turn. The water runoff from farms has darkened the rivers and creeks to the point that they smell and remain brown and toxic long enough to kill natural life.

I expect a bit of radicalism from ordinary folk, but when a government institution accepts as normal something that is radical to the extreme, all my alarm bells start ringing and I get excited, full of worry for people nearby who are being taken for a costly ride by organizations that should know better, but apparently don't.

It's fashionable these days to get involved in environmental issues. I am very sure you would agree that the continuing substantive runoff from many farms is an indication that we in Ontario are not yet up to the task ahead.

Yours sincerely, AW Lake

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

> 

--
Posted By RT LAKE to Wooooooh's Stream on 8/11/2010 09:04:00 AM

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends!  May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Time to dance!

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Re: South Grand 'Zone 3' Sanitary Sewage Collection System

Dear Cindy!

Thank you for your very informative letter. I do appreciate your answering my message of concerns about how the local project has evolved and that it has a decadent life of it's own that is hitting many surprising extremes from my point of view. I would prefer that the province figure out it's sanitation issues within the provincial park's limits rather than expect a nearby locality to absorb such costs.

The local community should in turn figure out its own sanitation issues within guidelines that are established by the larger community. After all, the population of Grand Bend is very small being under 2,000 and from a map survey it's lagoons are much larger than towns with populations multiples it's size. In summer, the population grows, but the systems for each cottage absorb such expansion very well normally.

By making Grand Bend into a typical polluting town, one is using the popular language of growth and progress. Our reality, however, is that the temporary wealthy drive the price of homes here up so high that local residents cannot survive on the limited numbers of jobs that exist year round. By placing additional costs onto the local people, the province is driving out potential investment and it is not enough to say the province is investing in Grand Bend since government jobs and money here are not the answer to the location's needs. We need more sustainable investment that comes from more people looking after their own environments and taking personal responsibility for their home and local community environments.

Who counts the co2 that is being created from the concrete poured or the tarmac laid? Who weighs the vehicles that pour co2 into the airs above the roads that travel through the village? Are there no long term standards, or are there no effective agencies to examine these issues and participate in discussions around the world? What are you doing?

My overall concern is that there seems an absence of clear design in the environmental approach of the province that continues blindly down paths that are not sustainable over the longer term. No will exists to slow down the deterioration. Bad habits of environmental destruction continue. The consultants retained for the sewerage project seem to take a very partial view of the environment and local economy. The sewer needs to be placed in the wider context of the environment. What is good technology for a small rural community that has absentee residents most of the time?

I am reminded of Schumacher's phrase that small is beautiful. What appropriate technologies are there for the farmers who would drive lawn mowers rather than plant trees. They spend millions on grass fertilizers and weed killers, but don't plant trees. Golf courses abound without lakes and tall trees. Swathes of land are cleared of trees and topsoil, bulldozing is a hobby of local employment for semi-skilled people who should be doing carpentry and working in furniture factories or making and installing affordable hardwood flooring in every home rather than manufacturing with chemicals for artificial fabrics that pollute and cause cancer.

Although we have trees, we need many more spaces for tree planting. We need to restore the forest not take it down, bulldoze and pore yet more concrete and build more second homes for those who drive ever larger vehicles and have a mindset of a oil guzzling era. We need to get farmers to plant trees and create wetlands to restore what was once a balance, but which is dangerously close to being a natural disaster. I am ashamed that the Ontario environment relative to that across the lake in Michigan is so much deteriorated in relative terms over the last century.

We think nothing of the employment in furniture factories that once abounded in the province based on hardwoods that once abounded in the province. Where are those hardwood forests now, where are the many forest jobs that once were. Why were the trees not replanted to give a future to the rural communities.

It's not good enough to plant a few pine trees and claim that we are working on the environment, when we can see the run offs arriving in Grand Bend harbour from farms that prefer grass and lawns to trees. Where is the natural habitat going?

I am disturbed at how much the Ontario environment has deteriorated over the five decades that I have been away. Many of the large trees are gone without being replaced. Towns have put sewerage systems on small lakes that used to be full of natural life tadpoles, frogs and snakes in turn. The water runoff from farms has darkened the rivers and creeks to the point that they smell and remain brown and toxic long enough to kill natural life.

I expect a bit of radicalism from ordinary folk, but when a government institution accepts as normal something that is radical to the extreme, all my alarm bells start ringing and I get excited, full of worry for people nearby who are being taken for a costly ride by organizations that should know better, but apparently don't.

It's fashionable these days to get involved in environmental issues. I am very sure you would agree that the continuing substantive runoff from many farms is an indication that we in Ontario are not yet up to the task ahead.

Yours sincerely, AW Lake

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

>

What is wisdom?

For Every Wise Sentence Written There Are Ten Less Wise Sentences Read

Surely, you don't believe that!

There could be no such relationship with any such exactitude.

The reality is that humans are not really very wise at all, nevertheless, we do have instincts that have enabled us to survive until now. Neanderthals had bigger brains and were more intelligent, but had inferior instincts which led to absorption.

We, the survivors of evolution persist, however, that is all about to change because these very instincts, that of habit persistence and copy catting could very easily make us extinct.

Our conundrum is that our wisdom is not wisdom at all. The fact is that our brains and bodies prevent us from being wise.

Whether humans survive is not up to humans at all.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Speed and the Domain of Awareness

R2D2

An aluminium vehicle being lighter with the same energy use may travel further faster. A plastic vehicle lighter and stronger than aluminium with an equivalent engine and energy use may travel even further and faster. Macroeconomics with it's focus on the speed of economic growth should consider the weight of vehicles. That it does not says a lot about how wild and off the mark macroeconomics is in a world trying to do things quickly and with less energy.

When Libyan people discovered in 1967 that a 28 percent uplift in the rate of consumption of it's prime grade oil in the late 1960's produced an uplift of 6 percent growth in the European economy, but such off loading would lead to a depletion of it's reserves without giving a future to it's people, alarm bells rang and the oil cartel took shape. The lesson learned was that growth as western economies saw it was not in the interests of the Libyan people.

The European addiction to oil consumption was not stopped by the oil cartel. It continues unabated, but notice that European growth rates slip well below 6 percent real growth and Libya still has some oil reserves, but where these are only BP probably knows!Being hostage to growth based on energy use is bad macroeconomics, yet that is precisely what factorial analyses suggest is the case.

Project energy use and you project real growth. Raise the price/cost of energy use and your real growth slips away!

How then does the world rid itself of the addiction to energy use? The answer has a lot to do with speed, the domain of awareness, and energy use reduction.It has been established that the less you know, the less knowledge you have the faster you can make judgements concerning your future prospects. You have less to think about and consider, so you make decisions faster and they are invariably wrong. Thus, it was with the free markets of the past.

Full of confidence and led by unthinking individuals who valued motion in any money making direction more than motion in the direction that was best for most people, the world grew rapidly without thinking much about consequences and the fact it has to provide a support for the future containing many more billions, perhaps trillions, of people.If you weighed every car, counted the average occupancy and taxed accordingly, you might get closer to the real energy cyst of the vehicles on our roads. Let the energy wasters pay. Notice that I said wasters.

Currently, energy is still relatively inexpensive so the ratios in America are alarmingly higher than they are in Europe. By not opening up to information, the decision makers lead us on carelessly forward into a world of higher and higher risk in which we will probably mess things up for our children. By not entertaining the wider world of knowledge it is possible to make foolish decisions that are disastrous to our climate, our health, and the survival of people in general. What is critical is that our domain of awareness of alternative technologies to those presently in use be expanded continuously. It is like continuous education.

We need to entertain more knowledge and weigh choices with greater awareness of the many types of consequences. Our Karma is upon us! How many cycled today or walked more than two miles? It's not speed that matters, it's our domain of awareness!

My suggestion is that we dump the addiction to macroeconomic growth which is a manifestation of narrow thinking and decision making. Instead, we should give everyone more information and help create the breadth of knowledge that will carry us forward more efficiently. Economists preach about efficiency without taking into account the spread of knowledge and information and inclusiveness in an economy. Our economies have grown exclusively.

We need them to grow inclusively. The world was not generated for a few people, it was generated for everyone.Include people and new ideas rather than exclude!

Broaden your domain of awareness and brighten the lives of those around you! Think lighter vehicle with less unused seats.

Bike! Walk! Hike!

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Sunset over Lake Huron

NYU Journalism's Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade

If you value journalism, you will appreciate that good investigators don't fall off trees.  They are inducted into writing through personal experience, much of it unpleasant.  It takes one to know one is a good adage, because to journalise you need to visualise.  

One hopes American writers are not directed towards topics or subject matter.  The freedom of journalists to write about what they see using the slant of personal vision and experience is extraordinarily valuable.  Our world is made of myths that critical thinking exposes.  Try telling a story you know is untrue to see how gullible the average person is.  Perhaps, if you are known for stretching the truth people develop a sense for the truth by reexamining their most cherished beliefs.  Remember the satirist who proposed the Irish eat their children at the time of the Irish famine! 

NYU Journalism's Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade
http://journalism.nyu.edu/decade/

(via Instapaper)

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends!  May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

BBC: House prices fall say surveyors

Any doubts about the likely future trend of house prices in the UK? Buyers are sitting on depreciating assets in America and the UK. The jury is still out for Canada. Should commodity prices driven by wheat shortages lead to crazed speculative buying of commodities this autumn this could lead to relief for some home owners deluged by depressed valuations. Spill over effects of too much money in the system might start off an inflationary spiral, but the real growth would come from Asian demand as their economies accelerate.

House prices in the UK are starting to fall, says the latest survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10915210 >

Reading as a Pastime within a Canopy of a Forest complete with Wild Animals

In a world, in which movies and animation abound, in which ever increasing storage space is mounted onto disks, and in which it is increasingly difficult to be on your own, left in quiet, the habit of reading is still a most pleasurable pastime.   

What is there to read?  I find that I would not miss the massive paper-oriented newspapers of an inch in thickness.  Such use of paper has a real cost in lost forest space that could be devoted to growing hard woods that could lock up CO2 for centuries.  If your nearest forest is not a canopy then it probably could be if forest science were dedicated to a natural greening of our habitat.  Replacing slow growing deciduous forest with short fast growing evergreens is not the best solution.  

It would be better for each farm to have massively high oaks and cedars alongside rivers and streams flowing through them.  Providing a barrier to destructive runoffs and slowing the departure of rains into lakes giving nature's filtration systems a chance, large hardwood tree forests interlaced with tall cedars and redwoods seem idyllic.

That growing hard woods helps in sorting out our environment and in creating venues for living that surpass the congestion of cities should not be a surprise.  In a world of over production, it seems strange that we cram more and more people into unpleasant concrete avenues.  Returning to dirt roads would even seem stranger, but a strangeness of a different quality.

If you like to read glance at this Internet source:        

The Best Magazine Articles Ever
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/the-best-magazi.php

(via Instapaper)

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends!  May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Internet remembers everything

There is nothing quite so scary as the thought that one might be called to task about something one has written that has acquired a new life on the Internet.   I'm not so frightened about my own words or whether I appear silly.  I both write and paint.  My fears often get translated into images that are difficult to interpret.  My handwriting tells me how I am doing psychologically so a few sentences in longhand allow me to interpret stuff that is very deep.  I can also review my colour preferences to see where my health issues are going.  Hair analysis tells me what new allergies are appearing in my system.  A walk tells me whether I am healthy, and a visit to the dentist says a lot about my gums.  So why not write a lot and get feedback from the Internet which will tell me how I fit into this new world of communicating ideas and feelings and interpreting many of the information streams coming at us.  Well, the following article might illuminate some of the pitfalls for the unwary writer, blogger, Twitter, or Facebook contributor!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print

(via Instapaper)

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends!  May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Summer of 2010 Is Wrecking Golf Courses | Golf Journal by John Paul Newport - WSJ.com

Golfers get concerned when they see their grass browned off. It's strange that in the UK, I walked across a coastal golf course and could see the original turf drying up, browning off, and splitting apart. That does not seem to be the case in Ontario, and I recently found five balls at the Kincardine course before I had reached the club house! Mind you my shoes collected a chunk of muck from the creek and my legs hard to work hard to climb the banks of the ravine. In the end, I surprised a local player with a handful of balls properly cleaned. I had tried to hand them out to some lady players only to hear the words, "Eeek, they look yucky!" This started me thinking why some were better a business. They don't mind the free yuck on occasion.

If you think your course is drying up read this blurb:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575409411501359450.html

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Comments on Peggy Noonan: America Is at Risk of Boiling Over - WSJ.com

We all have a sense that unpleasant surprises are on the increase. In the case of America, being an outsider and yet understanding the people very well, I am not so panicked as I was as a youth when it seemed the orientation of American young was to flee their home country.

Tolerance worldwide has I believe grown net, but first read this article and see what you can make of the recent changes in the American psyche:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703748904575411713335505250.html?mod=WSJ_hp_us_mostpop_read

Lately, the fears of a major shortage of food have emerged again. The fires in Russia and the potential for plague in Australia. whatever happened to the concerns over the weakness in the strains of wheat. In any event, it is very possible that the price of wheat could trigger a bounce in the world economy if only because of the huge amount of unsatisfied liquidity looking for speculative outlet. Previous American war economies have spawned tremendous inflationary forces sparked by commodity price accelerations from items such as coffee, cocoa, and oil. It looks like a calm before a storm and it does not have anything to do with the excess of houses.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Issues and Concerns Surrounding the Economics of Sewer Systems and Proposals for Zone 3 in Grand Bend Ontario

Hello Minister of the Environment, the Honourable John Gerretsen,

FYI, my contribution today to http://www.woohs.blogspot.com

This note sets down my present thoughts a few of the main issues and concerns that I have gathered from discussions, reading, and personal experiences related to the updating of sewer systems in Zone 3. I include a commentary where appropriate on the economics as I see it.

Many do not see the proposed system as an improvement over what is already in place. The existing individual units can easily be replaced at a lower cost if they mature or become defective. This process works best because it is easily performed and carries minimum risk to the environment and overall economics. It does not rely on centralised decision making other than a review periodically to ensure people are aware of the strength of their existing units. Weak units can be replaced and information shared as to the optimal methods for doing this both economically and environmentally. People are more willing to participate because they can see and understand the consequences. This process is sustainable as properties are bought and sold. New buyers can insist on quality units and sellers can insure units are inspected before properties are sold. Potentially everyone gains.

Other green steps could be attached to individual properties by implementing the European system of grading and surveying properties for energy efficiency and green technologies. A gradual greening of the community can be financed by Retirees and non-Retirees alike.

Retirees, in particular, simply cannot afford to waste money on a useless project with no net economic or green benefit for them.

This is a very serious concern for everyone at all levels. In the present economics, it is improper to take enormous risks with money even though interest rates are low. To gamble or plunge into a high risk project with dubious benefits and what is more alarming net costs or red ink and possible bankruptcy associated with it would be foolhardy to say the least. Yet, that indeed is what people feel very strongly is the case with the overall proposals.

At the very least, an insurance policy for those who might go bankrupt would be prudent. Many residents are retired and don't wish to gamble when interest rates are not giving a decent return and the stock markets are extraordinarily volatile. The uncertainties for savers continues into the long term so careful people will be reluctant to risk savings on something that has a rather checkered history.

The mix of retired and employed persons favours younger employed persons paying for improvements with a freeze on rates for Retirees and perhaps a reduction in overall services to make way for something that is rather marginal for them. Indeed, the economics is against Retirees having to contribute to a centralised type of upgrade as the horizon of benefits ultimately means they lose huge amounts of money at a time when savings are stretched.

The negative costs associated with something that does not bring about a benefit in economic or green terms suggests that the project should be stopped. It is a monumental waste of hard earned savings being spent at a time of severe economic stress.

There does not seem to be any economic justification for a new sewer system in zone 3 which has a very workable system already. In short it is a project that has not been properly assessed in economic and technical terms and local people quite rightly are strongly against it despite consultants reports that may support it's implementation.

Sincerely, RT Lake

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The World of Matter

Horava's Theory of Matter, Einstein, the Fifth Force, Chameleon matter and the Physics of the Wuh Lax World

When you have a moment and time to puzzle over the idea that what appears around you is not what it appears at all, then consider where in the scheme of things does one's past go, and where can one find the future. In general and special relativity Einstein had an explanation that was puzzling because it implied that in some strange way the past, present, and future co-exist.

We don't seem to have a place to put all the matter if past matter and present matter and future matter all occupy space and time. Well, we have the puzzle of dark energy and that of dark matter. These imply that our methods of totalling up matter, the size and scales of the universe are in an early phase to say the least. However, if we assume that our present universe, which we can only guess at because we can never see it, is somehow wrapped up and the wrapping up involves energy and mass in some way, might not we expect that our measures of the present universe of matter be a tad understated. Well, I leave that with you because now we have a theory of Chameleon matter, a fifth force, to explain dark energy and dark matter.

See:

http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/mg20727711.100-is-a-cosmic-chameleon-driving-galaxies-apart.html

So what might this mean for the fact of light having no speed? If you are interested in the New Scientist articles on the nature of matter go to:

http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/mg20727721.200-rethinking-einstein-the-end-of-spacetime.html

For more general discussions, if you are interested in dark matter have a look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

Similarly, if you are interested in dark energy consult:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy

Also, see some of the controversies about dark energy and dark matter:

http://www.physorg.com/news77190620.html

What does Wuh Lax physics have to offer to this discussion? Stay tuned! At the very least, we can postulate that the bodies of past matter certainly do influence the bodies of present and further matters. And, the influence will depend on location? Think about that!

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Development of Our World Economic Systems

The macroeconomic strategy for anything is almost invariably growth and development. It is a mantra of economists trained outside the school of history and environmental studies. It is the old way of thinking that brought us to our present state of unreadiness. For indeed, we are NOT ready for what is coming next.

They say that a rise in per capita real income results in the reduction in family size. A wonderful TED presentation ( see http://www.Ted.com ) by Hans Rosling describes in a powerful power point format how the distribution of wealth may materialize over future years as the slow growth richer economies give way to the fast growth poorer economies. What happens is that as we grow economies with higher per capita real incomes, we slow down world population growth rates and the earth's chances of survival improve.

The landscape of technology at the present time is poised for transformation from a long period of development into a rush of innovation. Growth in wealth terms worldwide could be spectacular. There are a few downsides to this, but the most interesting aspect is that we could save fragile systems that enrich our habitat while we grow richer, or we could create a boring plane of junk that leads everyone to higher and higher planes of frustration and boredom.

This issue is whether we go for stimulation or relaxation as our mode of living. We have a choice overall as to which direction the curve is biased.

We can go on as mainly permanent ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder, people, or as REAL, Relaxed Easy Artistic Living people. In the ADD world, people are seriously replaced and removed as so much machinery, but in the REAL world people continue as people, but they focus on the arts and the quality of life.

Most macro economic experts see development as desirable because they envisage a slow down in overall economic or macro growth as a consequence of underdevelopment. In reality, however, we have seen that the rapid development of financial markets in the wrong directions has been destructive of overall growth. Thus it matters what the direction of development has been.

We see that the development of the automobile and the combustion engine has brought with it the development of oil wells, refineries and a host of industrial artifacts and products from plastics to synthetic materials. It also has brought with it a host of issues associated with killing and death, wars, pain, and suffering on scales never before experienced. Most of all, it has shielded one part of the world from the problems of the other, so that a few countries did very well Jack, while many countries suffered terribly. This has happened within a century.

Perhaps, the development of the combustion engine was a bit lopped sided in the favor of interests that controlled oil production, refining, and distribution. We see that now! Some see it very clearly and we call them terrorists. As China uses more oil, it will increasingly fight these terrorists for the rest of the world until they are eliminated. The truth is, however, that technological innovation gets lopsided because free market economies are lazy in the innovation of alternatives.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Socks and stuff

My advice is to relax with a good book and put on your Marks and
Sparks socks with the pink toes!

RT

Concerns About Proposed Sewer System for Grand Bend and Zone 3 in Particular

Dear Minister of the Environment, Honorable John

I am a retired Civil Servant who has worked at the Federal and International levels dealing with a budget much larger than you could dream of.

This email is to tell you openly of my concerns about the proposed introduction of a new sewer drainage or pump system within the Zone 3 catchment locate at Southcott Pines in Grand Bend.

I realize that your office is keen to get the message across that you will protect the environment with resources that have been assigned jointly by Federal, Provincial and Municipal authorities.

The efforts of all three representative bodies will work in that direction only if they are properly coordinated with another representative body which is the consumer, and in this case the voter, who should have a significant say in what is done.

What I have seen is very destructive of the process of getting people to work towards a responsible solutions to very serious environmental issues. The end users, the people, the voters, are asking that you follow not only the law, but the best courses of action to get the job done in ways that the progress made is sustainable. What is currently in the pipeline for my locality will ultimately be unsustainable and have to be reversed by a wiser more coordinated and responsive collection of individuals. That is my concern. I do not wish to see projects that will be torn up and thrown away within a short space of time, especially as resources to protect the environment are extraordinarily scarce.

Realistically, to accomplish a sustainable system for removing human waste, you need to talk to the people who produce it. There is no other way to have them on board. The idea that you can mandate a solution by labeling it the best is a false and dangerous path to take as it precludes the many difficult steps that are needed to produce a sustainable solution, one that will last, do the job, and be supported financially by all levels of participate over the long haul.

I think the steps to introduce the proposed sewer systems for this area are greatly misguided, misfitting to the job, and unsustainable at almost every level of participation. This is why you will hear so many frustrated people taking on positions as equally misfitting to the task. In short, you, the Federal Government, the Regional people, and the local people have not yet finished your homework. It is not good enough to say that you are eager to go ahead and have the money, when their is no brains behind the application of the technologies proposed and they do not fit the task, are ill suited to the job, do not engender support from the end user and will damage relations at all levels of participation.

So, please, I know you want to look good on this and I know you want to do a good job, and I know you are keen that the environment be protected, but THINK more about the process, get all the soldiers in a row, get technologies that are fitting to the task and then go about getting support in the proper way with everyone on board because that is what it takes for a sustainable solution.

Personally, I don't know you, but what I have seen thus far suggests that the people with the money are not doing their proper job of seeing the i's dotted and the t's crossed and there may be some strange illegalities going on. We don't know. I don't know, but the present process of proposal, selection, review, consultation, and implementation is not good. It smells more than the pollution we are seeking to avoid.

You are the man! You need to get your head around this or you will cross a threshold of discontent and wasted time that nothing you propose in the future will be sustainable. Get your act together and participate appropriately as you should. Get better people on the job. Get them to focus more on the tasks that will get us a sustainable effort of which we can all be proud. That you have gone down the wrong tracks so far is no shame. Everyone makes mistakes, but don't continue in the misfitting directions you are heading with this.

Arthur Lake,

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine on your thoughts, today!

Residents want to charge city for their shit

In this imaginary environmentally friendly community, the residents put in a claim for their recycled excrement. They say the nutrients provided to the city are not so different from cow and pig manure which save farmers millions in costs for imported fertilizer.

When interviewed, the citizens claim that cities are secretly stealing their shit and companies and farm corporations they sell it to are dumping it on fields to grow energy crops such as corn.

Given the high cost of energy, one's shit can fetch a high price if properly accounted for and treated as a recyclable for energy production.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine on your thoughts, today!

Environment Ministries of Ontario and Canada Want to Shit All Over Rare Carolingian Forest

I won't mention the communities involved, but this story is unusual in that it defies what common sense environment ministries are supposed to exercise when spending tax money. It's a story of a beautiful Canadian community and rare Ontario Carolingian forest area that is being used as a sewer for human waste. It's a story about what can go wrong when bureaucrats in far off places don't have enough control over where and how precious tax savings are spent.

It's a story of loss of control when power is in the hands of people with the purse rather than devolved to the local community, and how it can devastate small communities financially, while looking good in the books of agglomerated communities defined by the economies of scale. It's a story about why large and efficient is not best.

It's an example for every concerned world community wishing to avoid the environmental degradation brought on by large scale thinking and projects. It's a story of the extraordinary mismatch between short term thinking and long term financial reality. It's a story about extraordinary waste of precious savings that should go to protect the environment redirected towards projects that destroy the environment.

Stay tuned for reevaluations and details you will not believe about how people feel comfortable when used as a flow point for human excrement! Be concerned because this could be your community in Ontario, Canada that is be used as a dump for human shit in a large scale so-called environmental project.

Posted on google.com by AW Lake.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine on your thoughts, today!

Thank you for Stopping by!

Hi Wally!

My wife and I appreciate all the work you have been doing for your neighbours. We will try to wag our tongues a bit to help out where possible.

My mantra is that we here should maintain the lowest energy use and lowest net pollution sewer system out of our present residential areas. The existing system is best for minimizing energy use and pollution in a residential low environmental impact community. Our woods, wetlands and ponds provide a modern optimal long term solution. We provide access to nature and share our property with nature in a balanced environmentally friendly way.

This may mean a permanent delay to the authorities proposal for an energy using sewer system here as it's energy and pollution costs are much too high under present world and national targets to cut pollution creation and total energy use.

We will give moral support to farmers efforts to cut energy costs and net pollution out of the farms.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine on your thoughts, today!

Understanding the American Financial Industry Mindset ... summary comment.

Despite all that's happened in the financial world over the last several years, the mindset of the firms and banks making up the industry may not have changed appreciably. This means that the people worldwide will have to adjust to a permanent phenomenon of game playing. The mindset is focused on me, or I, or the self as a financial enterprise playing a game within what is considered a willing group. That group is the worldwide population.

The group set is that everyone wins because there is a payout and the losers are not willing to end the games. Payouts give advantages to winners that puts losers into the background of the rule changing of the games played. Losers don't end the game playing, but they do drop out of games. Players may even get caught cheating or put the playing field at risk. Nevertheless, the games continue and the losers pay handsomely whether they like it or not.

The sad thing about the games is that they change income and wealth distribution increasingly towards biological responses that increase the actual numbers of losers. This too favors those changing game rules and means larger payouts and easier pickings over lots and lots of games and over shorter and shorter financial industry product cycles.

Rather than having a world view of people as people, the financial game players, and especially those living in America, don't see the results of their game playing. They see no morality codes that need to be adhered to other than cheating at the games and changing e rules of the games in their favor. Their existence is focused on winning more and more games with bigger and bigger payouts. They care nothing, nothing, about the progress of other players other than that they are competing with them for larger and larger payouts.

Most other people see people as people and not as not financial "John's" to be screwed. Most people live in an interactive world of human beings and have normal emotional responses, but the game players have lost that sensitivity. For them, any game goes as long as the payout is better. That is their mindset and it is what and who they are. They can even be machines. Yes, the new game players can behave like machines or they can actually be the machines themselves. Game players can control machines that play the games for them, or play some of the games for them. Machines can control machines to play games.

So the financing world has changed, or seemingly so. There is less morality in the finical world because the machine has already taken over and its goal is larger and larger payouts to game players, human and machine compositions, that play more and more games with larger and larger payouts from winning.

Yes, as a human being, you have already lost to the machine, an amoral machine at that, who is controlling your time and money-making activities more and more. There are no rules in games played by the machine game player that cannot be re-written in it's favor.

My friend, the battle against an amoral machine has already been lost.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine on your thoughts, today!

Check out The Adventures of the Little Woman and lose your money to a con artist.

Check out this application on the App Store if you think you are non vulnerable to cons!

The Adventures of the Little Woman Anton Sinelnikov Category: Lifestyle Updated: 25 Jun 2010

iTunes for Mac and Windows

Please note that you have not been added to any email lists. Copyright © 2010 iTunes S.à r.l. All rights reserved

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No 'preordained path' for interest rate increases or do you like to gamble your savings away?

Canadian interest rate policy is changing!  The UK also has a split in it's voting.  When the crack appears deminishing returns for fighting inflation already built into peoples debt burden will accelerate extremely rapidly.  The idea of avoiding a second dip is pretty silly in face of the existing debt overhang and war economics.

Do you believe the conventional wisdom?

No 'preordained path' for interest rate increases

Sent from my iPad with a grain of salt and a peppering of truth.  

Visit http://woohs.blogspot.com

The problems continue from borrowing short and lending long. What Is inflation?

Just thinking about the debt overhang should send shivers through your spine. We all have read about how the reparations exacted from Germany by France led to militarisation and the holocaust. Don't be fooled that it can't happen again. The governments of the war economies of Britain, Canada, and United States continue to support debt growth well into the future.

In contrast, we know that people should not be drawn into gambling their future away on the stock markets of hell economies. We know people shoukd earn a decent real interest rate from their savings so that they can plan for future retirements and safe pensions free of inflation.

The disguised inflation of property asset inflation fools everyone into thinking we have low inflation, but our realities are very different. The watchdogs of the UN organizations have failed us while the US, Canada, and Britain were nation building in the Middle East under the guise of protecting Jewish interests for stability in the Middle East.

The war on terror is now about to become a war on debt. The price of waging war on terrorism is too expensive to think the world won't be drawn into much worse. Terrorists can't possibly help the interests of terrorists because the footing of their cause is undermined by the interconnectedness of humanity. We all go down as one as long as the wars continue. No one wins, everyone loses in wars.

What we have is war and the consequences of wars:

- disguised inflation in the form of property appreciation that cannot be sustained,

- people with debt so high they are owned by lenders in a new form of interest paying debt slavery,

- a resurgence of neo-nazist thinking and grouping,

- the US National Rifleman's Association saying they are bored having won the crazy policy of arming everyone to the hilt with weaponry that is caustic to think about,

- a dissipation of tolerance and trust, interest rates so low that it is impossible to save in a bank deposit without losing real assets because inflation has been enormously higher in return, especially in wasteful speculation in property,

- the return of the fallacy of the notion that inflation could be good to wipe out debt,

- Isreal now increasingly hated by moderates because of Isreal's own forms of extremism,

- the real possibility of a renewal of hostilities in Northern Ireland,

- the destruction of the environment of the Caribbean,

- the loss of initiative to fight a dying planet overheating with too many engines of economic growth firing on all pistons to out compete each other.

There is an strangeness of our world as it's future has streams of hate and love in conflict. The majority want poverty to end but it is growing and people are suffering from the excesses of the rich and powerful.

Quite a turn for the books!

We have a respite from the swine and bird flu only to find there are other more serious threats to manage.

Review the mismatch once again:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=borrow%20short%20lend%20long%20inflation&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Sent from my iPad with a grain of salt and a peppering of truth.

When stealing is OK!

Stealing is rampant and you need to know all the games people use to steal from you. The poor do become poorer through thievery. Theft is the game of the rich and powerful. It has become the game of the ordinary church going, mosque attending, average hypocrite that one wants to trust, yet it is naive in this modern age if one blindly does trust others. There are too many thieves around to be safe, too many pick pockets after your hard earned assets, so be wary.

When and if one treads through history, one finds that most of the financial and economic misery of the post war period arises from excesses associated with the misuse of the US dollar and the lack of sincerity in financial reforms through time that sought to make a more honest or fair world. Sure the IMF has come up with ways to mitigate excesses, but historically the pain that is felt by the small scale operator and by ordinary families, the weak, vulnerable and poor, is disproportionately high. You will experience loss yourself through theft.

Poor people bear too much of the brunt of the results of excess and abuse by large concerns, particularly banks that claim the moral high ground yet fleece the poor. The latest financial reforms in the US are a cop out to the larger issues of legalised theft, and a way to expand thievery. Read the following article on Volker's approach and see if you don't agree with me!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/26/100726fa_fact_cassidy?currentPage=all

My concern is that we put people through unnecessary misery because we neglect to curtail the financial excesses of those with capital. We assume a general morality in finance that does not exist in reality. We turn a blind eye to what is essentially creative thievery. In our self created amoral society, people steal small things most of the time. Where people can keep secrets they do and they really exploit opportunities for legal theft whether they work in government or business. They do it with a warped sense of morality based on the notion that consequences are limited and it's smart to steal and deceive. The young being astute game players are increasingly adept at amoral theft. Steal a bit here, loot a bit there. It's part of the historical background.

Well then the next step is to steal by force when necessary. We are naive to think that this won't happen to our kids and to ourselves as we will experience the effect of laws that make it easier to steal and we become increasingly vulnerable to thieves. The legal systems and electronic technologies that make it easier to steal are with us and unfortunately expanding at an alarming rate.

Daily, we hear about Internet theft. Any casual conversation will lead to a discussion of who has lost what from a group on the Internet. Meet anyone and they will have experienced loss from theft.

Obviously, there is rampant thievery behind the scenes, and most worrying is when trusted people engage in it wholesale, the British MPs steal by false expenses, the villages wanting revenues do it legally by the science of the placement of speeding cameras, banks do it by the timing of the debit of interest, governments do it by keeping interest rates low so they can acquire more tax assets and finance takeovers of the private economy, firms do it by loans from banks to acquire competitors or plum operations others have spent their lives developing.

Theft has been legalised and you need to know the basic rule that it's very ok.

In fact, in the modern world if you don't steal, cheat, swindle, con, deceive, you are a mug of the highest order.

The game as it is now played has no rules except those passed by the thieves to steal legally. You might as well pass laws so that you can steal, as well.

Sent from my iPad with a grain of salt and a peppering of truth.

David Cameron's Initiative to Slash Government Excesses

As an observer of what is happening as a consequence of the extraordinary excesses of the series of governments in Britain, Canada and the US, which have been on a war financial footing for almost a decade, the appearance of a Mr. Cameron budget slasher is welcome.

The greatest challenge to these three countries is the reduction of debt. Canada to be sure has had an Alberta oil cushion to lean on, but that era is closing rapidly as the costs of pollution mount up. So much pollution has built up during the last decade in Britain, USA, and Canada that the environments are scarcely recognisable, so much deterioration in the quality of the environment! Pollution in these three countries on ever increasing scales and explosion of debt are the consequence of nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, an enormous cost of spend spend spend governments. Well, it seems trite to say that the bill has arrived and it is spectacularly large. Irresponsible is the word that describes the war spending mentality of Britain, Canada, and United States, placing the stability of the world at enormous risk!

There is so much debt around that one's head spins! David Cameron obviously a man of vision and David Clegg an astute opposition leader realise that the absolutely wasteful excesses of the Blair and Brown years have possibly destroyed the future of the country. So little is the domestic economy that one hardly thinks that Britain is a home for the British. Everyone in the middle ground of the economy is in debt up to the eyeballs, loans are too many multiples of income streams, or beholden to government handouts, or corrupted by property speculation and stock market gambling. Ownership has shifted by a stupendous amount to outside financiers who pillage the country looking for spoils like the Manchester United football team or Harrods. The real question is whether or not it is too late and whether or not the leadership of Cameron and Clegg is sufficient.

Opposition to the cost cutting in Britain comes from those who will benefit most in the long term, the ordinary people who have been led down the Gordon path of waste for over a decade. They are so addicted to waste that frugality is going to appear as extreme withdrawal and headaches will be a daily event.

Here is a review from a New York paper.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/world/europe/21cameron.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

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William Li's idea that we can potentially eat to starve cancer? Below is a link to his Video on TED.com

Hi! Occasionally, you are in my thoughts and that is why you are receiving this email.

Thought you might find this interesting if you had not already come across it.

We are what we eat. Such is the logic of a novel idea, which seems to be not so novel and yet is revolutionary in concept. It has to do with blood vessels and how our body produces and destroys them. William Li presents the idea on TED that we potential have the means to avoid many diseases and fight disease issues within our bodies by understanding more about how the body heals itself naturally. When our bodies are in balance they cope with the many potential disease issues we see rampant in the total population. Surprise, surprise, our health depends enormously on our diet and exercise!

The kicker is that most diets require an overall balance to be effective but don't deal effectively with overall balance. Most diets are partial rather than general equilibrium in nature. Thus, one goes on a popular diet loses weight temporarily and regains the weight subsequently. Or, one has a diet to fight something and dies from that that something anyways. This is particularly the problem of diets designed to fight cancer.

We know cancer is potentially going to kill any one of us. What we don't often realize is that the health issues that lead to cancer have long tails, such as breathing in a small particle of asbestos that thirty years later has cancer cells growing around it that lead to the full blown disease. Our bodies, nevertheless, can cope with a host of potential cancers by being in equilibrium with regard to blood vessel creation and destruction. This is what Dr Li focuses on! How do we ensure that our bodies cope with most destructive factors that would lead to premature death or a health disequilibrium such as characteristic of obesity? Many diseases have very long tails and so we can be surprised by unexpected disease more often as we grow older.

Our bodies are extraordinarily complex and there are no easy answers. Dr Li does however present an enormous set of possibilities for reducing the likelihood of any one of an enormous set of diseases appearing out of nowhere. The method hinges on the bodies ability to create and destroy blood vessels. We may find that we can proactively increase the chances that our bodies will be in equilibrium as regards having the natural weaponry and supplies of what is needed from the chemistry of our food to fight an enormous list of potential diseases. And, win!

The corollary is that we animals have evolved in equilibrium but that balance is destroyed by what we are attracted to by those selling food. Rather that being hunters and gatherers, we have become cavities in which an enormous list of toxins are dumped daily. We are lulled into putting the toxins into our bodies because we do not proactively try to determine what is good for us and verify the actual effects of what we encouraged to put onto or into our bodies. We have become lazy in our surveillance of potential hazards, such as sugar, wheat, salt, omega 6 fat, nicotine, food colorings, proteins, and so on.

Review Dr Li's talk and let us know what you really think?

http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html

Sent from AW Lake

Pessimism built into technology

Hi Readers!

Thank you for your replies.  You are absolutely right in all you write even though you do it off the cuff.  

The old issues of letting things be governed by the price mechanism produce my skepticism about recycling, which is that it will worsen the environment because of economic forces.  I just use the examples to start thoughts without firing any real argumental guns.  

The difficulty is not from the intent of policy makers which is to protect the environment, but rather that we are designed by the logic of efficiency and competition to bring the technology bull into the china world we occupy.  Technology drives economics through economies that produce the effect of profit.  Because people will choose inappropriate technologies for the environment being profit oriented, there is no hope for the environment.  The point is that the technologies we have innovated are diametrically in opposition to protecting the environment.  This means that as we use the business approach to social exchange, we will surely kill the golden goose just as certainly as if we were to release a bull into a china shop and it would break the china.  Politics must rule the economic choices, but politics is not smooth and can lead to it's own destructive goals.

Recycling is a silly construct to make people feel good!

The fact is that we are on an economic technology path to kill all that is beautiful in the world because we worship economies of scale as these provide the greatest profit.  All social arrangements of exchange based on the profit motive are designed technologically to destroy the environment.  Bigger is destructive of family and healthy social arrangements, and yet it is what gives us a rising standard of living and makes our destructive system work in the short term.  It leads however to higher and higher environment costs that are not priced by present market mechanisms.  

My assessment is very Hawking that the generating functions of our physics and the biology of our nature and tools produces a bad series of physical events.  We need to find a better series that will create the world habitat structure which is optimal.  Our economies of scale dilemma lurks in the background to destroy all our efforts.  The BPs of this world are driving it to destruction.  

The banking orientation of the IMF is driving the world to destruction.  There is so much destructive power in the money and debt out there that we will be lucky to avoid a major third war.

 

Can you see a way out?

 

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