TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50's

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50's, 60's and 70's!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms...WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL.

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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This I love!

How to Escape the Oil Trap

If I could change one thing about American foreign policy, what would it be? The answer is easy, but it's not something most of us think of as foreign policy. I would adopt a serious national program geared toward energy efficiency and independence. Reducing our dependence on oil would be the single greatest multiplier of American power in the world. I leave it to economists to sort out what expensive oil does to America's growth and inflation prospects. What is less often noticed is how crippling this situation is for American foreign policy. "Everything we're trying to do in the world is made much more difficult in the current environment of rising oil prices," says Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas That Conquered the World." Consider:

Terror. Over the last three decades, Islamic extremism and violence have been funded from two countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran, not coincidentally the world's first and second largest oil exporters. Both countries are now awash in money and, no matter what the controls, some of this cash is surely getting to unsavory groups and individuals.
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But America remains the 800-pound gorilla of petroleum demand. In 2004, China consumed 6.5 million barrels of oil per day. The United States consumed 20.4 million barrels, and demand is rising. That is because of strong growth, but also because American cars—which guzzle the bulk of oil imports—are much less efficient than they used to be. This is the only area of the American economy in which we have become less energy-efficient than we were 20 years ago, and we are the only industrialized country to have slid backward in this way. There's one reason: SUVs. They made up 5 percent of the American fleet in 1990. They make up almost 54 percent today.

It's true that there is no silver bullet that will entirely solve America's energy problem, but there is one that goes a long way: more-efficient cars. If American cars averaged 40 miles per gallon, we would soon reduce consumption by 2 million to 3 million barrels of oil a day. That could translate into a sustained price drop of more than $20 a barrel. And getting cars to be that efficient is easy. For the most powerful study that explains how, read "Winning the Oil Endgame" by energy expert Amory Lovins (or go to oilendgame.com). I would start by raising fuel-efficiency standards, providing incentives for hybrids and making gasoline somewhat more expensive (yes, that means raising taxes). Of course, the energy bill recently passed by Congress does none of these things.

We don't need a Manhattan Project to find our way out of our current energy trap. The technologies already exist. But what we're searching for is perhaps even harder—political leadership and vision.
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Good article by Fareed Zakaria. Spot on man! I hope you don't get mesothelioma!

Hope you are all well! I'm off to Buenos Aires again next week. Anyone want anything?

Charlie

So who wants to do this with me?!!!

... the new canopy tour eco-adventure near Lake Travis that allows visitors to soar from tree to tree on zip lines 40 feet high.
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Oh this has got to be a blast!!! And it's in AUSTIN! Who is up for going while my wife is in Buenos Aires?! 8-)
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New to Peak Oil?

If this is the first time hearing about Peak Oil, you are among 98% of the population. Peak Oil means not 'running out of oil', but 'running out of cheap oil'. Cheap Oil supports our very way of life as we know it. It is crucial for our transportation, food production, economy and basically everything that we use on a daily basis. You owe it to yourself and future generations to learn more.

Within ten years there will not be enough crude oil to meet the World's needs even though half the World's original supply of crude oil will still be in the ground. Every year the World's demand for crude oil has been increasing along with the population that is only sustainable through our dependency on cheap oil. Once World production reaches it's peak, that demand can no longer be met and the price of crude oil will begin to increase rapidly. Since oil plays such a vital role in our very existence the problem is much deeper than the price of gas that we pay at the pump. Crude oil is the source of gasoline, plastics, fertilizer, pesticides and many other products we use and depend on every day.

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You probably never heard of Don Young. But Don Young is mighty thankful for your tax dollars. He just took hundreds of millions of them home to Alaska.

He’ll build two bridges derided by critics as “bridges to nowhere.” One will be named, by law, “Don Young’s Way.” Plus, the state ranked 47th in population will get miles and miles of new roads.

Oh, by the way, the law itself is named after Young’s wife, Lu.

So: Who is Don Young, and how does he get away with it?
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Fuck Don Young and fuck us for letting him get away with it.
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In the world as Bunnatine Greenhouse sees it, people do the right thing. They stand up for the greater good and they speak up when things go wrong. She believes God has a purpose for each life and she prays every day for that purpose to be made evident. These days she is praying her heart out, because she is in a great deal of trouble.
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Bless Mrs. Greenhouse and more power to her. Anybody know of a defense fund for her?

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Have a brilliant day!

Interesting bits...

World turning its back on Brand America
"The US is still recognised as a leading place to do business, the home of desirable brands and popular culture," said Simon Anholt, author of the survey. "But its governance, its cultural heritage and its people are no longer widely respected or admired by the world."
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Men whose masculinity is challenged become more inclined to support war or buy an SUV, a new study finds.

Their attitudes against gays change, too.

Cornell University researcher Robb Willer used a survey to sample undergraduates. Participants were randomly assigned feedback that indicated their responses were either masculine of feminine.

The women had no discernable reaction to either type of feedback in a follow-up survey.

But the guys' reactions were "strongly affected," Willer said today.

"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq war more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Willer said. "There were no increases [in desire] for other types of cars."

Those who had their masculinity threatened also said they felt more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than those whose masculinity was confirmed, he said.
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So now we know, all you big truck/SUV owners out there... sorry to make you feel challenged. 8-)

Has anyone seen Murderball? Not the best name, but looks like a good movie...
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Misc Amusing Links

Very interesting examples of color perception... pretty amazing.

Okay, this doesn't sound like real math, but I guess it is.

Other stuff:
Finally got a lawn mower this weekend, and cut my grass with my own mower... sorta felt good. The first business I started was a lawn mowing biz, "All Star Lawn Care" down in Crystal River, Florida. I'm not even sure how old I was, but I did get a good amount of business, at $10 per lawn for mowing and edging. I'm such an entrepreneur! Heh.

Got a bbq'er too, a nice 2 sided charcoal thing with temp sensors on each side... nice! Marcela, our family's Master Chef, grilled some ribs, corn, potatoes and THE BEST Garlic Ribeye steak EVER! She sliced up some fresh garlic, put little slices in the meat and put the garlic in the slices... so it cooked with the garlic pieces inside, a little pepper, etc. Damn, it was good. Just one of the many reasons I'm glad I married that woman... 8-)

Marcela will be heading down to Buenos Aires in the next month, so if anyone wants something from there, let me know! Good deals on clothes and leather jackets, etc.

More soon...