Do consumers have the buying clout to lower oil prices?

INSIDE KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE

IN TINTAGEL, CORNWALL

We have all been at the receiving end of higher oil and gas prices. As consumers, we often feel helpless in the face of rising costs, especially 'lorrie' truck drivers. What we face, in addition to the real shortages arising out of the larger market for fuel, is the effect of speculators on oil prices. Guessing correctly when there will be shortages feeds the processes of financial speculators who have nothing better to contribute than their own designs on making money since they know that the demand for oil is fairly reliable, but they use speculative cash to drive prices to even higher levels so that they can make an excessive profit.

Oil price speculation is capitalism at its worst. What can we, or anybody, do about it? At some point consumers have to say no and, together say that they want a new world energy pricing order based on the need to agressively develop renewable energy sources.

The World Could Alter the Nature of the Oil Industry as an Ecological Necessity

One possibility is for world consumers to influence the use and the distribution of oil products. This may be a necessary feature of our future steps to save the planet in any event, but it makes sense to drive prices up so that real substitutes for oil will come into the market place. This may have to be done artifically, if Saudi Arabia and the leading oil producers cannot agree to facilitate the move by the 'world' away from oil dependence.

One thing consumers can do is to be more specific about who they will buy oil from. For example, consumers could refuse to buy oil from companies that have a low ecological rating as defined by an independent statistical body. This is what consumers do when they refuse to buy diamonds from countries that ship 'blood' diamonds, those diamonds that have a 'record' of unethical operations by sellers or producers involved. Similarly, oil products could be taken off the list of acceptable products by governments raising tariffs to their use. These tariffs would have to last until substitutes for oil fuels were available and the oil industry had reorganized its oil production to higher valued added products, as for building homes and shelters or for use in oil energy-use reduction activities.

Redefine the Uses to Which Oil May be Put

It seems logical that oil could be used as a product of goods and not as a fuel in much the same way that we use wood to build homes. The wood locks up the CO2 and is ecologically friendly unless it burns or rots. Oil can be similarly locked up or left where it is as a lower value resource. A lasting redefinition would require massive investment in the alternative fuels to oil and coal. In the longer term China and India would be the main beneficiaries since because of their large poplations they would reduce the higher death rates arising from continued oil consumption. Yes, the world is dying and we need to have these higher population communities in mind.

The Boycott Approach

Some consumers have the idea that it might be possible to affect oil prices by use of boycotts, such as the one outlined below intended for Canadians that I received in my email box today. I won't say who it was from as they might be targeted, but here goes what was in the email for me to forward on to whoever was interested in their ideas, if only to be knowledgeable about what was going on in the world:

Quote:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy gas on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May! It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $ 2.00 a litre by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy gas.

It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can Really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $1.17 for regular unleaded in my town.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre of gas is CHEAP at $1.14, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting
ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies, ESSO and SHELL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Esso and Shell gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) .. and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am... so trust me on this one.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all in. I suggest that we not buy from Esso and Shell UNTIL 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO BELOW THE $1.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

UNQUOTE

In any event, it is interesting to speculate would could happen as compared with what should happen. The IMf has its latest views which are worth noting. http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2008/042108.htm

Lynne McTaggart's book 'The Intention Experiment'

DO YOU A PLANT HAVE FEELINGS, OR SENSES,

THAT I A HUMAN SHOULD RECOGNISE?

I have just started reading Lynne's book about how your mind and the 'minds' of plants seem not to be as limited as we would normally suppose them to be. Well something has to explain the weirdness of the universe and one might as well start reading McTaggart! I am just about as confused by what goes on around me as anyone could be. And, I don't see anyone giving me any easy answers out of classical physics, if you can call it that. My world has so much surprise in it that I am lost for answers. It may be that looking in conventional cubby holes is not a way to obtain answers. They might just be too cautious!

As human beings, we are very brutal to what is around us. We treat ourselves despicably, and we have received pretty harsh treatment from our so called friends for what we are, we believe, or what we sense is reality. The question is how far are you prepared to explore in the direction of something different from conventional science and religion. Do you begin to think for yourself? Well, in my coffee house, beside Wooooooh's Stream, the idea is that you begin to question the obvious, because things are not so obvious. Give you an example.

Do you know why the square root of 2 is not a fraction of integers? The world is supposed to be granular so you would expect the mathematics of the world to be made up of integers and be derivable with integers or ratios of integers, but it just isn't.

Do two parallel lines an inch apart from earth ever meet in outer space? Obviously not you say! But, where do they go, and do they ever end up where they started? Apparently, they might, but we really don't know for sure. And, if they go on forever, just how close is close enough for them to touch. Is it even feasible to have two parallel lines in outer space?

Enough of examples, and even you may not be convinced that you are confused. The issue is whether you would read a book such as 'The Intention Experiment.' I would! I would read it because it is well written and I am not scared by what mysterious garden path I might be lead down. Lynne is a very persuasive writer. I have already read her book, 'The Field,' and expect more of the same type of exposition. Namely, that all living things may exchange information in ways that have remained hidden for many centuries. If you think how long ago electricity was discovered and actually used as an energy source, you might understand. Human kind is making amazing discoveries about communication and energy and the nature of matter and the mind. Yes! Yes! Yes! Lynne McTaggart is on the right track. The science that she explains may have a long way to go, but it is opening up the way for us to see our cosmic reality more clearly. In my opinion you might safely read her book and tell us what you think.

Explorations of the Three Realities of the Wuh Lax Worlds

BURT LOVES HIS COFFEE

There are in the words of Roger Penrose, renowned Cambridge physicist and author of 'The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe' three worlds: the Platonic mathematical, the physical and the mental. Penrose is very specific as to the associative relationships between these three worlds such that a small part of the mental world may link directly to the whole of the Platonic mathematical world, of which a small part may link directly to the whole of the physical world, of which a small part may link directly to the whole of the mental world. In other words, the three worlds are associated in a very direct way whereby mind may eventually encompass all of the mathematical reality or world, yet fall within the realms of the physical world.

We do not know how much of the physical world is captured through our present understanding of mathematical laws. It is the beauty of Penrose writing that he helps to bridge the gap between our understandings of the workings of the mind, forms in mathematics, and the physical. The great mystery facing mankind is whether science or religion have even begun to scratch the surface of the physical and the mental worlds despite progress in mathematical understanding.

I personally doubt that much progress has been made, which is why the writing of the Wuh Lax series is so important to me as a personal exploration of the three realities: the physical, the quantum mental, and the mathematical.

The book 'Wuh Lax and the Cosmic Lantern' is not a trivial exercise though it is written in a way that even children of an IQ of ten years can enjoy. My feeling is that if anyone can understand the book, they are definitely very well equiped mentally. This is not arrogance on my part, but it is a statement to the effect that the realities exposed in the Wuh Lax series are not trivial, and that any understanding of the realities takes the reader into realms of understanding the are very far beyond the start of the top octile, if such a thing can be imagined.

The three realities are presented in the Wuh Lax series as I presently see them. Firstly, that the physical reality has evolution as an expression of itself, but what the evolutionists tend to miss is the overlay of multiple evolutions within a single physical world space. Yes, the world is evolving, but the pyschology and physics of evolutions are much closer to the concepts propounded by PD Ouspenski than physicists are yet prepared to acknowledge. This means that evolutionists have somewhat missed the boat in understanding more deeply the multiple processes of evolution thinking it to be a single series of events when in reality it is an overlay of multiple series of events somewhat as would occur in the Mandelbrot series or set, but not confined to that set. This is where the world of mathematics is telling us something significant about the nature of our mental and physical realities, and that we are seeing only a very small part of what it is we are being told.

Secondly, within the reality of the quantum mental world there are layers of activity that we will not understand very well at all when as a civilization of minds we have allowed our foci to be governed by linear or pythagorean conceptualizations of what mind is and are largely ignorant of other mathematical possibilities. We have allowed the minds of dictatorial people such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to poison and destroy the lives of huge numbers of people. If intention were a guide to behaviour, people, who should have know better, missed understanding the implications of the jail house writing of Mein Kampf with all its poisons. Indeed, we have, as civilizations go, been guilty of extreme laziness, if not the curse of sleeping at the wheel, so to speak. Our civilization seems to operate mentally as would a horse with blinkers on!

And lastly, the mathematics that most people use to operate within our physical and mental worlds is disappointingly tiresome if not outright dangerous to any emergent world civilization. In the book by Penrose, he speaks of Euclidean and hyperbolean mathematics. The physical world operates with mathematical laws and precisions that we have not yet discovered. The increased but limited use of non-linear mathematics shows us just how far we have to go. Would that our dwellings were less linear, and we might have more joy.

What the Wuh Lax series imparts are positive ways to view our three realities so as not to underachieve the potential happiness in our everyday living circumstances.

The Summer Olympics, China, and Tibet - I Love China

I love China!

The year 2008 is the year that China can open itself to the world and show us all good manners. Unfortunately, many people have displayed very bad manners to China and the Chinese people. I would apologize for them in the hope that the Chinese people can see that we are very happy for them, and for the many amazing things they have accomplished over the past few decades. Cheers for China!

We do China a big disservice by interrupting the passage of the Olympic flame from community to community. That is not now a way to build understanding between China and the rest of the world. Put down your protest cards, and you will see that China can be magnanimous in its strength of character and joy at putting forward the Olympic ideal.

Here, we love China and congratulate it for all the wonderful things that it has accomplished.

The Olympics stands for peace and good will. We should all support this ideal and avoid displays of a political nature at this time. There is no country on the globe that does not have a territorial dispute, and to focus on that instead of the Olympic ideal is petty and in most cases hypocritical both of individuals, of communities and countries.

So let us say hurrah to China and to the Chinese people for putting up as well as they have with the bad manners of people who would promote conflict and would try to do so at a time of reconciliation and knowledgeable understanding. Saying angry things to China about Tibet at this time is not very smart, nor very likely to be helpful!

We love you China, and wish you well. Would that we were as blameless as you historically!

How Many Bird's Can you Find in My Image? Say No to Killing Birds!

BIRDS ON THE LINE

NO WE ARE NOT LIKE THOSE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

AND AMERICA WHO SHOOT THEM OFF!

I once knew an American whose wife decided to divorce him because he would sit at the window with a pellet gun and shoot at birds on the electricity line. Enough already!

SEED Magazine and Architectural Design - Paola Antonelli

COUNT THE COWS - THERE WERE 17 AT THE TIME

THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN

Farmers have made a living raising cattle for more that 5 millenia. That's long time. My very own ancestors raised cattle for over one thousand years in the hills of Devonshire, England. Many of my cousins are raising cattle now. So raising cattle is not essentially wrong, but raising a vastly scaled up number of cattle in an unsuitable environment just may be.

The same is true of architecture and designs of human habitats. I enjoy visits to Prince Charle's project in Poundbury in Dorset, near where Thomas Hardy wrote situated his Mayor of Casterbridge, the world's most depressing book. Don't read it. You will be depressed for years, if you don't commit suicide earlier! Nevertheless, there is something very positive about Poundbury and the wonderful variety of homes to be found there.

However, when I looked more closely at the building of the homes, I was somewhat disappointed. You have to go and look for yourself. Architects can get away with inferior work if they are not kept on their toes, even at the Royal Dutchy.

Paola Antonelli, featured in SEED magazine's April 2008, edition, is a reader of fractal architecture. Wow! An observation of Mandelbrot, also featured in the magazine, is that most of modern architecture is cheap with buildings that are absolutely abominable. Hear! Hear!

In fact, my observation, be it very humble, is that the addiction of much architecture to Roman design is at the source of Western Civilizations direction towards total annihilation of the human race. Yes, the Romans planted seed in the Western mind that are leading it to self destruct and carry the world down with it. OK! Enough! My mind is built to see long term trends and tendencies in history, and my emotions sense something is very wrong with linear architecture. That is why I think fresh minds such as those of Paola Antonelli are a wonderful gift to global creation of a better environment. Is she the Buckminster Fuller of the modern age? I don't know. But, she is very refreshing. Now if she and Charles Windsor could get together and help old Poundbury out, what a wonderful range of possibilities could follow!

If you want to see a real village as it could be then visit Maiden Castle nearby and study the local hill forts and round home non-linear communities that existed in 50 AD, the period of my Wuh Lax book series. We still have a lot to learn from my early British ancestors who lived before the arrival of those damn Roman conquerors.

Its a Mandelbrot Universe - Or is it?

IS OUR UNIVERSE DESIGNED LIKE NATURE?

Those that have heard of Benoit Mandelbrot know that he is a creative mathematician that has contributed great things to the science of non-linear mathematics and in particular the world of fractals.

When I look at a flower like the one in the image above, it occurs to me that our universe may be constructed in a dynamic way similar to the way that nature grows a flower. Add scale and the ability to read other waves in the universe to our demensional capacity, and a fifth demensional human might look down upon the universe as a vast garden of flowers.

That we now don't see it, doesn't mean it ain't so, and, maybe, the sentient creatures of this enlarged world wonder where God is?

Reviews Of Blogs on Science - SEED scienceblogs.com

NONE OF THESE GUYS ARE PRESENTLY ALIVE

RIBS! OR IS IT 'RIP'S

I am in love, and not only with the creatures of nature. I am in love with good science and good commentary on science. That being, I will occasionally review good science blogs, or places to find good science blogs.

I must say that I am very impressed with the publication SEED as it emerges in issue 15 for April 2008. This is a magazine worth buying and putting on your bookshelf.

It has wonderful imagery, which appeals to me as an artist.

Its ink does not come off onto fingers, which is good for me as I am allergic to inks. In the past, I could not read the Economist magazine because of the lethal inks, for me at least, in the front cover. I have some problem reading the glossy pages because of the reflected light. In this respect The New Sceintist magazine, which also has great imagery, is less aggravating on the eyes. Gloss means reflecting light and is great for a front page, but harder to read over long periods, and I am a voracious reader of science and design.

The articles are decidedly uplifting and enlightening with good coverage.

Lots of liquour ads for those that have this addiction, and cars.

Middle advertising bits that fall out have to be tossed.

To get the best of it on a level table, you need to fold the pages down, which is work, but then you might want to tear the pages out because they are gorgeously coloured and strikingly presented.

If you like a good read of recent developments in science, this magazine should be on your coffee table, for sure. Good work guys. I'm impressed, and the price is very reasonable!

Wooooooh's Stream Comments on Issues in Three Countries

TRACTOR HAS SEEN BETTER DAYS

Some of you have noticed that the scope of my frequent blogs has been fairly international. I am familiar with Canada, United States, and the United Kingdom, and I am a citizen of the whole European Union, as well. Wow what a wonderful combination. My attitude towards different cultures, nationalities, languages, and religions is pluralistic. I prefer curves over straight lines and believe that the early British cultures were enslaved and subdued, which is why they are not so today.

I believe in variety, combination, and hybrids, as well as creativity, and innovation. Learning and continuing education are important to me, as well as learning from trying and doing and thinking. Without thought there is little learning. The faith world should not be a closed book, and there is considerable scope for improvement in all things, scientific, religious, spiritual, evolutionary, physical and secular.

If you have a concern or issue that you would like to see considered, just say so in a comment below!

Time to Cut the Life Boats Adrift or Insanity! Taxes or Savings?

If a government seems to be doing something insane, such as cutting the funding to high technology projects that are critical long term investments in knowledge creation, you may think that they are entirely insane. But, obviously, they are doing something that is entirely sane, or at least in their logic. So what is this logic?

Is it a long term view of what can be financed over the long term. And, if it is, what does that mean? Sure, its one thing to cut taxes as George Bush has had the US government doing, but this is because he is thinking of getting more taxes not less! His logic is that the economy is running slower because the tax rate is too high. Its not because he thinks that the government has too much money to spend. No! George Bush and other leaders by cutting taxes want really to increase tax revenues when people feel things are better because their tax rate is lower. Psychological tinkering with the economy!

They don't want to come out and say honestly that the government needs more money to fight in Iraq or build new weapons of mass destruction, but they do want more money from the economy and they believe that lowering tax rates on the very wealthy is one way to achieve this. It may be, but it is very short term thinking. Its dishonest because they population is not told that the real purpose of tax cuts is more government revenue, coming incidentally from the middle income brackets or lower income people.

What the Stock Market Doesn't Tell You About the Sad State of the US Economy

THE WORLD OF WAVES

Deception by the stock market! Who would have thought that the barometer that most American's look toward for clues and information about how well the US economy is doing, doesn't reflect that at all, or at least not very reliably. The stock market is a fools game whereby those who know how to play, strip fools of their awareness of economic problems behind the scenes. What you see on the stock exchange is the result of what others want you to see and not the true situation. Believing in the stock market is akin to an addiction to a quick fix of adrenalin, whenever the numbers goes this way or that. Your senses are aroused when, and for whatever reason, someone with financial clout wants you to believe in a direction that things are moving.

For one thing, do you imagine that the US companies listed are operating solely in the United States. Think again! If this were so then do you think that revenues, or profits would be as high as they are. Think again. If the US dollar is weak and you make profits in Europe and convert the value of those profits back to US dollars, does this mean that you are doing well because the US dollar amount is much higher than when the US dollar was stronger. Think again. The US dollar value is only a numeraire. It is the Euro that is stronger.

The problem with using the stock market as your economic guide is that it is influenced by changes in valuation going on day to day stimulated by reevaluation of the US economy by domestic and foreign investors. Americans have the wrong idea that their economy is strong. It is the world economy that is relatively strong, and some of the world economy just happens to be investing in the United States and lending the US and its government money. The war in Iraq is being financed by China, Japan, Europe and the Arab oil producers reinvesting back in the US. Yes, international companies are not always very loyal to US interests.

Why is the automobile industry so bad in the United States? Think about who owns the international companies that go by American names Ford, General Motors, American Motors! No! The US is undergoing the British disease whereby its losing its industries and economy strength, and ownership. Before long the US automobile industry will belong to Indian or Chinese owners. So don't be deceived by the New York ticker tapes. The US economy is in very sad shape!

Creating a Nurturing and Natural Environment for Health and Self Esteem

YOU KNOW THAT IS GOT TO BE BETTER FOR YOU

A RURAL DEVON VIEW NEAR HONITON

My hat is raised this morning to Jules Petty, the environmental scientist, for the article, "The greening of healthcare" to be found in the December 22nd, 2007 issue of The New Scientist ... I am just catching up with my science reading!

Essentially, by exercising, we improve our self esteem and mood, and by relating to nature we improve our self esteem and mood. If we place ourselves near urban environments or remind ourselves of city things, we lose out on our self esteem and mood. Since self esteem and mood are essential for our health, we kill slowly ourselves if we live in urban environments. That's it in a nutshell. So what do we do about it? Perhaps, something like honeycomb housing design would be better than the straight boring roman road designs we now have.

We can design our human habitats much better. Tessellar design is one option. But, the main thing is that we recreate our urban environments in a way that brings nature to us rather than living a slow death of despair and low self esteem.

Starvation in North America Because of Rising Food Prices!

WE HAVE SEEN BETTER TIMES OURSELVES

Haiti is on no body's favourite list. When asked to help Haiti, almost all governments look to others to help out. France says Haiti is closer to United States so why does the United States not do more? Canada says France could do more. Canadians find Haiti a little too political, too hot a potato. So is the UK going to help Haiti or the European Union, Spain, Portugal?

Without help to feed themselves the Haitians are forced onto the streets. Would you not go out into the street and storm the palace if your children were hungry and you knew not where their next meal was coming from. Shades of the French revolution!

Remember that its not just wheat prices that are high. Its also corn and rice. So what are we going to do. Are we just going to watch like we watched the utter violence on our sensibilities of the recent Canadian seal hunt?

Starvation in Haiti may be just the next step in a much bigger trend. Think of what is happening around the world as food prices soar beyond the reach of many poor.

China has revealed that the human to human transmission of bird flu, the pandemic variety occurred at the end of 2007. Do you think this is the last you will hear of this flu. Think again, and think of what I wrote earlier about the perfect storm. The rice people think the perfect storm has already occurred in the rice industry, but it is only a beginning. We need to act before the other storms collide together. Whew! Or, should I say Wooh!

Are You Missing Issues of Wooooooh's Stream?

WE ARE CREATIVE EVEN IN OUR ERRORS

Wooooooh's Stream is a constant flow of articles from my different desks in America, Britain, Canada, or wherever my laptop comes to rest. Yes! Its that sort of world! Isn't it! I am Arthur Lake, an observer of life and technology. Each article that I compose is about one page in length, occasionally longer, and occasionally shorter! If you just show up on my blog page you will see one article and have to find another.

That's why you should subscribe! Do it now so as not to forget. It helps you, and it gives me motivation to be more creative and more substantive in my blogs to you.

I was a student of computer programming at one stage of my life and was taught to give each module a single purpose, not to overload it. This I try to do, but sometimes don't. I am far from perfect.

I make many mistakes and I sometimes make them intentionally just to make myself think. That's the sufi in me, the Gurdieffian trace that emerges to enlighten. The world is not trying to be perfect.

Have you ever noticed how messed up our world really is? Do you take in the confusion or does your mind shut it out and target those regions that look orderly? I hate confusion, but my mind is capable of tracking many things reasonably intelligently. This is why, I focus on being creative.

Artistic creativity involves messing things up a bit in order to extract something relevant to the focus of the artist. Creativity requires capability, which requires learning new things that you can mix up. Mixing things up means that you make errors, and making errors is part of learning and creativity. Why do you think the world is so mixed up? Whatever intelligence is operating in our universe does not avoid mixing things up, experimenting and getting creative with all sorts of things.

This is why, I sense that we are part of an ongoing creation process. We see the errors, and some of us are living the errors. Errors may be an integral part of our being, or they may overcome us and be our being. In the end, we are a messy bunch of errors. All of us are just a messy messy collection of errors. But, that's ok. We are not forgotten. The universe cannot forget us because the energy required to create even one of the most humble of entities is absolutely enormous, more enormous than we can ever realize and that is because we are Mandelbrot kids.

We are destined for reproduction, errors and all. And, that's the beauty of it. We are loved for our errors and perpetuated despite them.

We are loved. We are loved. Yes! Yes!

We will come back! We will come back!

We love you! We hope that you will return, or at least subscribe.

Frozen Time But Not Frozen in Time

We have a world in which matter can assume the different states of gas, liquid, or solid depending on temperature. We could possibly 'exist' in a universe that evolves through the three states of matter in a macro sense, see Zeeya Merali's article, Faster, faster, time is running out! in the December 22nd, 2007 issue of New Scientist. What we don't know is our key relationships.

We cannot be sure that we are fixed already for all time. As slowly moving or rapidly exploding sentient beings, we cannot know the relative speeds of light and matter in the sense of some containing framework. A notion that may be difficult to comprehend.

We have operational concepts that suggest that we have freedom to choose, which is what we seem to be doing all the time. We don't see ourselves as single dimensional entities, but at least three dimensional even though we know of more dimensions that we cannot observe from where we are and because of who and what we are.

We are aware that to be what we are has taken a very long time, and that we were not just a creation of seven days, no matter how that may be measured, but we were programmed by our gaia over many many millions of years. Each word of the language that makes us up went through the filter of many millions of years of whittling our being out of the fabric of our universe.

We do know that time is something that reaches infinitely in all directions and spaces, and that we are presently helpless in attempting to reach into those directions and spaces, but that we hope that we shall oversome our inability.

We sense that we have self awareness, that we have some mastery over a simple range of senses that arise from waves of different forms passing over instruments within our bodies. We are aware that we are made up of solids, liquids, and gases. We are aware that should we be all solid, we would not have life, or if we were all liquid we would not have life, or if we were all gas, we would not have life. We are aware, thus that our existence is within a framework of solid, liquid, and gas. We are also aware that the solids in our being provide structure, but seem to be created out of inspirations that arise from our tapping into an energy seemingly driven by light.

We don't really understand our relationship to light. We know that light seems to be released from matter, but we do not know whether this is because matter engulfs light as it travels through spacetime, or whether light joins to itself in a way that matter does not. We assume light has a single source, omitting the possibility that light is unseen matter.

We forget that light itself is dark matter and dark energy. We turn the world inside out and expect to understand it. What we fail to realize is that we are the past, the present, and the future. All time is frozen, period. We are light within time. We experience gas, liquid, solid, but we are none of these. We are light that shines on these states of form. We are constant light.

A Pending Disaster That Our Addiction to Petroleum Has Caused!

WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT TWO FRIENDS

WORM FISHING IN KINCARDINE, ONTARIO!

"The solution to a problem often has to be simple, but not stupid."

Do you want your taxes to go through the roof? Do you want a world war from a big fight over oil? You and I, we, need to think about reducing your/my, our, current addiction to petroleum. We need to make it history!

The new addiction that kills people is addiction to the use of motor vehicles and petroleum fuels. It is even more deadly than cigarettes. How can we stop using petroleum as a fuel and thereby save lives maybe our own, or those of our children? The New Scientist has articles that you should read.

We need to move away from what is killing us. The sooner the better! Our politicians are indirectly or even perhaps directly being paid to slow down the process of saving lives by speeding up the process of moving away from fossil fuels. We need to be creative and find solutions that the oil and the majority of automobile companies are not focusing on.

Make no mistake, car emissions are far more dangerous than cigarettes. Cars are much much more addictive than nicotine. We are addicted to motor vehicles and this addiction is a killer just as certainly as cigarette are a killer. Its time we started to wake up to our addiction and weaned ourselves away from petroleum. This will most certainly save many millions of lives and perhaps our planet. Petroleum companies want us to continue our addiction to fossil fuels, but we know better. Don't we!!!!

What comes out of our motor vehicle's tailpipe when we drive? Some vehicles emit more bad stuff than others.

1. Carbon dioxide CO2 ... whew this is really bad because it destroys everything we treasure on earth, our species, our comforts, and our lives.
2. Carbon monoxide CO ... is a silent deadly killer.
3. Nitrogen oxides
4. Bad particles that worsen our breathing and can kill, especially our children as in the case of lead poisoning.
5. Hydrocarbons of various forms of which some can cause cancer.

What we need to deal with CO2 emissions is a device that sits within a motor vehicle and uses the CO2 or converts it in some way as you are driving, or as your vehicle is sitting in the sun.

The first possibility is by conversion of CO2 to something else while the vehicle is moving.

1. Perhaps it could be one that converts CO2 to CO and O, (by means of passing it over heated carbon) and recycles that CO back into the methane fuel and uses or releases the oxygen. The methane fuel is recycled through again and burned to produce CO2, which is converted to CO, which is recycled back again and so on.

Problem:

CO is odorless and extremely toxic. It will kill if inhaled by humans.

2. Perhaps, the CO and O created from CO2 could be used in an industrial process being compressed and stored in your vehicle as you are driving, then sold back at a
retrieval unit.

3. Perhaps, the meat industry wants the CO to make your meat look more palatable. Joking! This is not what most people want to happen. People want fresh meat.

4. Perhaps the CO could be burned with either hydrogen or nitrogen as a fuel. This would require addition technologies and devices on your vehicle.

5. Perhaps some small business could use the CO.

Maybe, we could create a device that sits within a motor vehicle and collects the CO2. Can the CO2 then be used industrially in some way.

The New Scientist of March 11, 2008 has an article on better use of CO2.

Saving Energy and Using LED Light Bulbs

My thanks to Joseph, who points out that a very reasonable possible source of LED light bulbs is Don's Green Store, who ship. Don's place tells us that one should be also aware that fluorescent bulbs may contain mercury, and as a consequence they may need greater care when disposing.

LED bulbs on the market are not yet displacing fluorescent, but the writing on the wall is for that to happen eventually for directional lighting as the gradually improving technology makes them preferable on many counts.

Similarly, when disposing of ordinary batteries, don't put them in the regular waste as they may also contain toxic substances. Its best to ask your local experts where to dispose of batteries even the ordinary ones. I now have a separate trash container for batteries of all kinds, fluorescent bulbs and printer inks. Think about it?

Wheat Rust and World Famine! Are We Heading for A 1930's Style Depression

CANADIAN SUNSET

Every so often the world is dealt a hugely negative blow right out of the blue. On some occasions, several negative blows are struck, and on rare occasions as many as three or four hit coincidentally.

It's very possible that we will see three tragic systems colliding in a very negative way over the next few years which could bring about a thirties style depression or a 'perfect storm scenario' that we should prepare for, even if we doubt that it will happen. What are the risk areas?

I have five major concerns......

Problem One: Wheat Rust and Major Wheat Shortages for an Extended Period as Long as the Great Depression ... Many Years

The first blow could hit the wheat bread-flour food supply chain and result in unexpected starvation around the globe. The risks are that an Irish potato style famine could travel the globe because of over specialization and vulnerability of wheat to a new wheat rust that recently originated in Uganda and could hit Asian wheat producing areas this summer. China is frantically researching new rust resistant strains, but seems to be fighting a losing battle as the rust may mutate to overtake new strains, which in any event could take five or more years to develop.

Problem Two: World Financial Insolvency and Deflationary Pressures Arising from Major Weakness of the US economy and the US Dollar

Few economists these days think that the world financial crisis will be short lived. We are in for a major shock that could see policy makers struggling to avoid inflationary and deflationary nightmares.

Problem Three: A Flu Pandemic Arising as Starving People seek to Survive Inflation and Wheat Shortages.

A flu pandemic will happen, but we don't know when, perhaps sooner rather than later. The wheat shortage and a major slump in world economy could make the risk situation much worse and increase the likelihood of a pandemic. The problem is one of farmers feeding chickens when their communities don't have wheat and grain because of a major world wheat shortage after the rust has reduced harvests. People could be forced to eat sick birds, or hide the fact they are eating chicken that has the virus, which could cause a pandemic. The rust could increase the likelihood of specific longer term disease threats.

Problem Four: More News of Major Climate Change and New Disasters Arising from Global Warming

The world does not have the will to change its patterns of consumption of oil and the major oil producers will have a glut unless they can keep the price of oil artificially high. A high price of oil gets us to adopt new methods of producing energy. There is so much speculation in oil that the true energy situation is distorted out of recognition. We do not know whether the price incentives to alternative energy sources will work, but the effects of climate change will worsen as the world economy is hit by greater ferocity and changeability of weather patterns.

Problem Five: Increased Risk that the International Wars on Terrorism Have to Be Shelved On Account of Insolvency

The world economy may not be able to afford a continuing war on terror even though it will continue. Expect more successful terrorist attacks, and one on the United States that could be destabilizing with a new American president unprepared for the worst decade of terror yet to come. If you are starving, you may be tempted to join the terrorist camp, if someone tells you that the problem is the United States. Even worse, the US may be tempted to take action on Iran, which would have disastrous consequences.

The Myth of a Democratic Victory in November's Presidential Election

LAKE HURON ICE

Put very simply, history tends to repeat itself, and the Democrats will very likely lose the upcoming Presidential election in November. I speak as a Canadian or Brit, but not as an American, who I am sure will have a non-historical perspective.

In any event, it seems to me that I have watched the Democrats do the say thing before, as they are doing now, namely, tearing each other apart. It makes me think that it is increasingly likely that McCain will be the next President of the United States. Why?

Irony, pathos, deep regret, I don't know. My logic is very simple and has to do with an assessment of subconscious thought processes that will govern the actions of millions of undecided voters in November as compared with their conscious thoughts to the contrary. The undecided voters are the voters that act with emotions that they do not consciously assess.

First, candidate Obama is likely to be the serious target of assassination, if he is elected. Most people would rather see Obama living and vote to save his life by not voting for him. Americans are really good people at heart, but they suffer from a gun-toting small minority that is extremely reluctant to see a black president. These are the guys with white hoods that tote guns, don't really think very deeply about love. They have business based on guns and keep Americans shooting at each other. The more people see Obama as a future president, the more inclined they will be not to vote for him, even the black voter.

Second, lving with candidate Clinton is like living with a divorcee that never went for the divorce. She won't be elected because most Americans are divorced, or, on the way to divorce. Americans believe in divorce at a very subconscious level, and think people who don't are somewhat strange. They will, in effect divorce themselves away from Hilary, because they feel subconsciously that she should be divorced, and they can't understand why she is still married to Bill. The more she reminds them of a bitch, the more they will dis-associate away from her.

Third, candidate McCain reminds Americans of the very popular former president Ronald Reagan. McCain is a winner and Americans right now want a winner more than anything else!

Real Serious Thinking is Productive and Time saving

Teaching People How to Think
The tragedy of many educational systems is that they don't teach children how to think for themselves.The sign of a good teacher is that the students walk away with what education is all about. I would go even further to say that life is all about thinking for oneself. If you don't learn how to think and as a consequence don't understand why and who you are what you are, then you really miss the boat.
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Golf, Art and the Role of Exploration
You might not think first hand that artists and explorers have much in common. That would be grossly wrong. The creative side of art is all about exploration. When an artist loses an interest in exploring, the creative side of his or her art suffers. I have found that many artists explore several realms at once, not only the product of their immediate medium, but other worlds.
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Competitive Dissonance
Having spent four hours sorting out a software incompatibility between Norton and Microsoft firewall systems, I should be forgiven for being a little dissonant. The solution was to forget trying to figure what was wrong between these great systems. I uninstalled Norton and then reinstalled it. Now I have my internet back.
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Speed, Trust, Traps, Maps, Pubs and Churches
It is my own challenge that I am interested in maps. I have a particular interest at present in maps that can show me the roads that existed in 50AD and the time of Wim and Wuh, the time of the early Roman occupation of Britain. What I am finding is that maps don't normally tell you when or if things existed, but rather that they currently exist or that there is some evidence now that they exist.
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Wuh Lax and Non-Linear Thought
The polarity of one's thought is not often regarded as something one takes into account on a moment by moment basis let alone day to day. We have terms such as positive and negative thinking. We know that positive thinking tends to be healthier than negative thinking, but what do we mean when we use these terms?Here are some ideas taken from the time and world of Wuh Lax. Our cosmos is a mixture of dark and light energy. It is the dark energy that gives our ever increasing rate of explosion its umph. If you are joining my blog for the first time you will need to refer to my earlier descriptions of the non-linear inside-out cosmos that we occupy.
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Obama and Snow
I am not American and don't get to vote. My political suppositions and views come from north of the border (Canada) and across the Atlantic (UK), even though I lived in America for over 25 years.
Snowflakes
If you are American and live in an area of the country that has recently had a significant snowfall, you may notice, after I have twigged your interest in the phenomenon, that snow can pile only so high on a branch. How high it builds up depends on the width of the branch. Take any point and land snowflakes on that point and what determines the height that the snowflakes build up is the size of the area under the snowflakes. If you want height and mass in terms of snow you have to have significant area on which to drop your snowflakes. What does this have to do with Obama, apart from the fact that he is black and snow usually is white?
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Believing Science or Religion is not so Easy!
The Gillian Gibbons teddy bear story is a lesson for us all. Her experience is much like those of Larry David in his comedy presentations where he forces us to think and see the absurd in much of what we experience. In particular he shows in a humorous way what it is to think about religion . Often, religious leaders and layity go to extreme measures and derive absurd results. Its often painful to see what extreme belief based on fear can do to those around us.
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Eligibility for Discovery
I have often wondered what the ordinary person thought during the strange epoch when people thought the sun was revolving around the earth. Indeed, in my mind, I associate the idea of an earth centered universe as being particularly Roman in character.This is because in Roman times there were human beings who seriously thought that they were a god and at the center of the universe. My hero is Emperor Vespasian because I understand that he was not carried away with such vanity. He probably held a very dim view of people who thought that he was like a Caesar, and as a Caesar, was a god. In his history of Appolonius, Philostratus gives us some insight into the nature of Vespasian as seen by someone close to his time. In many respects, the history of Appolonius and Jesus of Nazareth are connected. We see that there may have been wisdom of such Masters/Prophets/God passed on to Vespasian.
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Does Your View Point Matter if it is Not Humourous?
My blog earlier this week discussed the Wuh Lax discovery that the universe was an inside out universe and that light was not moving and there was something to the idea of a cosmic lantern. The main point behind the blog was to get the reader to think, but at the same time there is an element of humour involved. The notion that all the many millions of scientific hours spent researching the movement of light when it is in fact standing still has to be funny.
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