Why not permanent wildfire breaks?

Areas that have experienced wildfires > 250 acres – Source: nasa.gov

While traveling through wildfire  country of Northern California and Southern Oregon, including being re-routed 80 miles because of a fire in Lassen Volcanic National Park, I had a thought. Instead of a hell-bent chaotic rush to build temporary wildfire breaks during a fire emergency, why not just construct permanent wildfire breaks to protect populated areas and other important features?

Current wildfire locations – Source: http://www.smokeybear.com/wildfire-map.asp

Considering wildfires are a natural event that are necessary for the healthy regeneration of Western forests, it seems to me that permanent wildfire breaks would allow precious resources to be used more efficiently and effectively.  Those areas outside the firebreaks would be allowed to burn as long as they do not jump the pre-constructed breaks.

Am I missing something with this suggestion? It seems being proactive would be much less costly than having to react to each outbreak of wildfires in remote areas that don’t pose a danger to populated areas.

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An assault on our intelligence

Other than to kill, injure, and/or maim other living creatures, what could possibly be the purpose of owning an assault rifle?

• To join the French Foreign Legion?
• Start an army?
• Run an illegal cartel?
• Perform in the circus?
• Make Swiss cheese in a weird new way?

Given the unlikelihood of those thoughts listed above, then why sell assault rifles to anyone when there is a better than even chance the weapon will be used to do evil and harm?

Source: information2share.wordpress.com

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Before I go any further, let me make this perfectly clear – I have no problem with someone legally owning a rifle for legitimate hunting purposes, someone who legally collects handguns or hunting rifles as a hobby, or someone who legally owns a handgun for personal safety and who has taken the proper safety and instructional courses. What I do have a problem with are individuals owning what are essentially “military” guns and large arsenals of guns and related gear that have no credible purpose other than to do harm.

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Even more asinine is the idea of selling full body armor. Is that something that is necessary to defend oneself from a counter attack by deer, elk, or bear? Is it because they are planning to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel? C’mon folks, let’s get realistic.

The only plausible reasons that someone would need full body armor are all bad and the merchants of death (gun lobby) know that – just like they know that the principal purpose of assault rifles is not for hunting.  The least they could do is to be honest about it.

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It is awful enough to know there are people running about this nation with arsenals larger than some small nations, but please do not assault our intelligence on top of that by saying there are genuine reasons for selling assault rifles and full body armor. It is not only disgusting and degrading, but unethical and immoral.

Finally, I would sure like to know how sellers of assault rifles and body armor (most recently those in Colorado) can possibly live with themselves and sleep at night?

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An epidemic whose cure cannot “weight”

According to a recent article in Live Science which was summarized in the National Center for Bicycling and Walking’s online publication, Centerlines, humanity is 17 million tons overweight. That is the equivalent to 34,000,000,000 pounds or another 242 million people!

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the United States is the most overweight nation on the planet. With all our fast food, fried food, super-sized sodas, lack of exercise, and over all couch-potato attitudes, we deserve to be at the top of the heap.  The research shows that while North America accounts for just six percent of the world’s population, but 34 percent of its human body mass due to obesity. that is a very sorry statistic.

Here are the lists of the top ten heaviest and lightest nations on the planet. It is noteworthy that half of the top 10 heaviest nation are located in the Middle East, while all ten of the lightest nations are from Asia or Africa. It should also be pointed out that for several of the nations included on the lightest 10 list, the opposite problem from obesity is occurring - instead of too much food (or calories) being consumed, they have too little, which is leading to risks associated with starvation.

Heaviest 10 (for nations with more than 100,000 people):

1. United States
2. Kuwait
3. Croatia
4. Qatar
5. Egypt
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Trinidad and Tobago
8. Argentina
9. Greece
10. Bahrain

Lightest 10:

1. North Korea
2. Cambodia
3. Burundi
4. Nepal
5. Democratic Republic of the Congo
6. Bangladesh
7. Sri Lanka
8. Ethiopia
9. Vietnam
10. Eritrea

The research was detailed online Sunday (June 17) in the journal BMC Public Health.

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Scenes from Michigan’s vagina support rally

Here are some of my photos taken last night at the Michigan rally in support of vaginas held at the steps of the State Capitol in downtown Lansing. At least 5,000 people attended in support of Women’s Rights.

Sheroes of the day – Rep. Barbara Byrum and Rep. Lisa Brown

“Vagina Monologues” being presented

Under a beautiful June evening sky.

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Michigan vagina rally

I am currently attending the Rally for Vaginas at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. This is easily the largest crowd I have seen at a capitol rally with at least 5,000 women and men of all ages attending.

The rally is in response to the overtly prudish and arrogant actions of the conservative, male dominated state house of representatives where the leader censured two female representatives last week. More will be posted tomorrow.

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Diploma versus dunce cap states

The 2010 data below shows the ten states with the highest percentage of residents who have a bachelor degree or higher, followed by the ten states who have lowest percentage of residents with at least a bachelor’s degree. With the exception of Colorado, all of the states with the best percentages are located in the Northeast, while eight of the 10 states with the lowest percentage are situated in the South.

Source: AARP Bulletin, June 2012.

Top 10 diploma states

1. District of Columbia – 50.1
2. Massachusetts – 39.0
3. Colorado – 36.5
4. Maryland – 36.1
5. Connecticut – 35.5
6. New Jersey – 35.4
7. Virginia – 34.2
8. Vermont – 33.6
9. New Hampshire – 32.8
10. New York – 32.5

Top 10 dunce cap states

1. West Virginia – 17.5
2. Arkansas – 19.5
3. Mississippi – 19.5
4. Kentucky – 20.5
5. Louisiana – 21.4
6. Nevada – 21.7
7. Alabama – 21.9
8. Indiana – 22.7
9. Oklahoma – 22.9
10. Tennessee – 23.1

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Wasting money on superfluous shit

In these tough times of school funding crises, budget cuts, and program elimination, one local elementary school went the extra mile to improve education. they installed a digital changing message sign on the outside wall of the facility. Are you freakin’ kidding me?

Who cares if the money came from the Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), the use of those funds for such a frivolous device is patently offensive. In my opinion it should have been used to provide meals to less fortunate children, provide pay raises for underpaid staff, or used to buy books and other “educational materials.” And why did they install this ridiculous electronic toy?

Because so many parents drive their kids to school, it was a way to communicate upcoming events and notices to them. Say what? Anyone ever heard of handouts or fliers?

Not only was money (approx. $10,000) wasted on silly signage instead of true education, but gasoline continues to be guzzled in an inefficient manner and kids are being chauffeured to school instead of walking/biking/or riding the bus, creating twice-daily mini-gridlock outside of the school building. There’s logic for you. NOT!

Personally, I would have preferred them use the money to develop a Safe Routes to School program that would lessen the need for chauffeuring, improve health and fitness,  and teach the children about environmental sustainability and stewardship.

What is the educational benefit in this sign? As far as I can see, there is none, other than to tell the kids that their education is secondary to “superfluous shit” t0 make their particular elementary school more “elite” than its counterparts in the district.  Wow – there’s a lesson plan that could be tossed in the landfill of stupid ideas.

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The world’s most boring sport

Consider this an early warning to all current and future parents. Unless want to be driven to complete and utter boredom, make sure you do not sign your kids up for….Tee Ball (or T-Ball). Oh my goodness, if there was ever a remedy for sleeplessness, this sport is it. This game is probably the worst introductory activity or goodwill ambassador for a sport ever invented. If baseball ever wanted to self-destruct and disappear from the planet, it made great progress with the invention of T-Ball. If coaches are wondering why so many kids play lacrosse or soccer instead of baseball/softball anymore, they might want to look the dull foundation the sport is built upon.

All three of my sons played T-Ball when they were young, but at times I thought they could have learned more watching a test pattern on TV or the grass grow in winter. I will grant that the sport may help those children who are shy develop better social skills and the basics of teamwork, but that could be accomplished with some other group activity that has more “fun” associated with it.

Since when is it teaching a child a new sport when you give them as many as 20 missed swings at the ball sitting on a post without the umpire ever declaring that they have struck out? And on top of that, they are still allowed to run the bases as if they had achieved a base hit. While the lack of “action” can be tedious for the parents, it has to be worse for the kids as they stand in the field under a hot summer sun waiting for someone to actually hit the ball.

From my unscientific observations, not only does this sport quickly turn the parents in to blank, mind-numbing, zombies, but it appears to teach the our kids precious little…except perhaps how to survive through incredible boredom. Frankly, our children grow up so incredibly fast, I feel there are many more rewarding family activities that could be found than playing T-Ball.

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Cherishing, not criticizing diversity

Every now and then I hear (or overhear) an offensive comment from someone that irritates the daylights out of me. Late Monday afternoon this happened when a person make the following obnoxious comment:

“It’s getting to be like the intersection of Singapore Street and Calcutta Boulevard around here.”

Really? How very 17th Century of you. Just because people are different, may do things differently than you, or have different opinions, doesn’t mean they are wrong. Nor does that give you any right to be derogatory.

Live and let live. It is the beautifully vast diversity of cultures, people, ideas, art, and beliefs that make living in the college town (and on this planet) so very wonderful.

Sadly, far too many people are trapped in their xenophobic attitudes and have no idea of all the wonderful things they are missing out on. If they would just take a moment, step back, and absorb the amazing wealth of diversity around us, they might learn to cherish all the blessings found on the lovely sphere that we all inhabit.

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Using one’s imagination for good vs evil

After I arrived home last night from moving my son out of his dorm room, I was listening to a later broadcast of PBS NewsHour before going to bed. There was a disquieting feature story last night about boutique bioterror that I just had to write a post about.

In the story, it was indicated that as more and more items become wireless, the chance of them being hacked or affected by a virus at some point increases. The scary example cited was pacemakers. Apparently, newer versions receive wireless input and updates on nearly a daily basis. If a hacker was to break into one of these links and begin adjusting the signals, one can only imagine the potential for a tragedy, whether it was intended or not.

Think this is a silly notion? Well, think again my friends. Recently, someone actually had the audacity to hack into the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and create a strobing effect on the webpage. The result could have been catastrophic for those suffering from epilepsy as strobing lights can cause seizures. Even sadder was the reason suspected for doing such a dastardly thing -for the jollies. That’s right, simply for laughs. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be immature, sick, and rather twisted.

Torture people from afar by impacting their health??? Is that what this world is coming to? Why is it that some people with such obvious and marketable talent, choose to use it in such unproductive ways? I wish I knew the answer to that question. To think what great things might be accomplished – cure cancer, solve the energy crisis, bring vision to the blind, save an endangered species. The whole thing only makes me want to shake my head in dismay at the sheer waste of it all.

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