The Black Hole...
It's scary what the actual US debt is...
Girl has catchy dance...
Earth from above...
A step closer to bootless computer...
Change your perception of reality...
How the dollar will die...
The most inspirational fisherman ever...
Big Brother will be watching your pills...
Google Earth tackles the universe...
Extreme walking...
13 of the ugliest animals...
Island made of plastic bottles...
Man-boy strikes again...
Space the final frontier...
Just Tweet It...or maybe not...
We have been pharmed out...
Homemade spacecraft... (props to Ernie)
10 facts about China you won't believe...
Baby deer wants Fido's toy...
19 facts about the US you won't believe...
Impossible shot...
Don't do drugs...or maybe do some after these PSAs...
The mainstream media is now obsolete...
Banks continue to steal our money...
Impossible predictions...
Hand feed the hummers...
Quantative easing 2 explained...
Is the video genius or gross? Remember no pressure...
Is Diet the Key to Living Long? Find out from World’s Oldest Living Man...
Knowledge
The Wonder of It All
"Do you ever wonder at the wonder of it all?" Today's feature is somewhat different form the usual Sites of the Day. The Wonder of It All, created by personal development specialist Ralph Marston, is a beautiful, positive audio and music presentation that provides food for thought. Leave the rat race for a few minutes of meditation, guaranteed to relieve the everyday stress placed by the demands of a hectic lifestyle. Take this opportunity to center yourself, to 'let go and let yourself feel the wonder of it all.'
Ancient China
The British Museum has developed an excellent interactive site on ancient China. There are five different areas to browse, Crafts and Artisans, Geography, Time, Tombs and Ancestors and Writing. Each area has basic historical information and a Story, a section that encourages you to Explore; last but not least is the interactive Challenge. Here's an interesting way to learn about ancient China and even test yourself to make sure you get the facts correct!
NOVA, scienceNOW
The PBS series, scienceNOW features the NOVA 'award-winning producers [who] have teamed up with Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, author, and host, to present multiple stories in a magazine format show. Each hour-long episode of NOVA scienceNOW features Tyson's "Cosmic Perspective" and four fast-paced, timely science and technology stories, including a profile piece on an intriguing personality in the field.' .Here's an original, unpredictable, and entertaining hour of science exploration. Now, you can revisit the programs at your leisure, having much more than a mere hour to digest the content, get educated as well as entertained, the supporting pages taking you far beyond the television series!
Posted By Dr. Mercola
As listed on CNN Health, here is a list of symptoms that might be a little freaky, but there's no reason to be scared of. It's OK to breathe easy when you have those skin tags, red spots, tremors, floaters, popping joints and palpitations.
And what if there is a reason to be concerned?
Certain clues, like unusual swelling or pain, can be reasons to see your physician.
Sources:
| Dr. Mercola's Comments: |
Insight
EXPECTATIONSEvery one expects to go further than his father went; every one expects to be better than he was born, and every generation has one big impulse in its heart--to exceed all the other generations of the past in all things that make life worth living.
William Allen White
No one rises to low expectations.
Les Brown
TRUTH
One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
--African Proverb
Some people handle the truth carelessly;
Others never touch it at all.
--Anonymous
Know Your State's Motto...
Alabama - Heck Yes, We Have Electricity.
Alaska - 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!
Arizona - But Its A Dry Heat.
Arkansas - Literacy Aint Everything.
California - By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda.
Colorado - If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother.
Connecticut - Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It Yet.
Delaware - We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water.
Florida - Ask Us About Our Grandkids, and Home Of The Early Bird Special
Georgia - We Put The Fun In Fundamentalist Extremism.
Hawaii - Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money)
Idaho - More Than Just Potatoes... Well, Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure Are Real Good
Illinois - Please, Dont Pronounce the "S"
Indiana - 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free
Iowa - We Do Amazing Things With Corn
Kansas - First Of The Rectangle States
Kentucky - Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names
Louisiana - Were Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign.
Maine - Were Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster
Maryland - If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It
Massachusetts - Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's
Michigan - First Line Of Defense From The Canadians
Minnesota - 10,000 Lakes...And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes
Mississippi - Come And Feel Better About Your Own State
Missouri - Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work
Montana - Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Very Little Else.
Nebraska - Ask About Our State Motto Contest
Nevada - Prostitutes and Poker!
New Hampshire - Go Away And Leave Us Alone
New Jersey - You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right here!
New Mexico - Lizards Make Excellent Pets
New York - You Have The Right To Remain Silent; You Have The Right To An Attorney...
North Carolina - Tobacco Is A Vegetable
North Dakota - We Really Are One Of The 50 States!
Ohio - At Least We're Not Michigan
Oklahoma - Like The Play, But No Singing
Oregon - Spotted Owl...It's What's For Dinner
Pennsylvania - Cook With Coal
Rhode Island - Were Not REALLY An Island
South Carolina - Remember The Civil War? Well, We Didn't Actually Surrender Yet
South Dakota - Closer Than North Dakota
Tennessee - The Edyoocashun State
Texas - Se Hablo Ingles
Utah - Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus
Vermont - Ay, Yep
Virginia - Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?
Washington - We Have More Rain Than You Do
West Virginia - One Big Happy Family...Really!
Wisconsin - Come Cut The Cheese!
Wyoming - Where Men Are Men... And The Sheep Are Scared
Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Henry Daniels
September 3, 2010
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Find Your Spiritual Center
Because You May Be Dead Soon
“Must Do” #4: Find Your Spiritual Center.
You must accept that you might be Plain Out Of Luck — that you might not make it. The Navy has a word for it: FUBAR.
Once upon a time I was working for Baird Atomic in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company did high tech (for the late 60s) electronics for NASA and the medical industry. As mentioned it was the late 60s, the summer of love and I ended up being the firm’s token hippie. One day me and another worker were taken aside and assigned a special task. We were walked over to a separate building and shown the schematics and parts for what eventually evolved into the MRI machine. We were told to build it and time each step so that Baird Atomic could figure out the costs involved in manufacturing it. Naturally, we wanted to help our company maximize their profits so we put the whole thing together in about four hours, then spent the next four hours disassembling most of it. The next day we finished it off around noon after taking a break for most of the morning. Total billable hours to assemble: 12. Total actual hours to assemble: 2. But that’s not the point of this anecdote. Rather it is to introduce you to my boss at the time, Lenny, an old navy salt with the most colorful language I’d ever heard. The only example of his use of the English language that is remotely repeatable in polite company is FUBAR. As in “you are FUBARed.” For those of you who don’t know what this acronym stands for, Wikipedia gives as good a definition as any, although they attribute it to the Army. All I know is I heard it from a Navy guy, so maybe it’s just a military thing.
And that relates to the topic of this article. If you accept that things are FUBAR, and therefore mostly out of your control, you allow yourself to find your spiritual center. I’m not talking religion, at least not necessarily. Spirituality can be personal as well. Again, we’ll cite Wikipedia for our definition of spirituality: “An inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being.”
By being centered, or spiritual, life becomes a lot easier. The journey to discover the essence of your being is not always easy, but it is always beneficial. You start relying on your own judgment, not the angry voices of the left and right. You tune out the media and start looking at life. You stop blaming external forces and accept responsibility for where you find yourself. As I listen to the vile rhetoric being spouted daily from all sides I wonder where all the hate and fear are coming from. It reminds me of the 60s when our country was far closer to revolution than it is today. Then as now, we had plenty of people screaming at those who chose to listen what was wrong with our country. Then as now, there was nobody offering viable solutions, just condemnations of things they opposed. Ever heard of constructive criticism? It seems a lost art. It’s easy to cast blame, it’s far harder to accept responsibility.
My advice is to go back to basics. One would be the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Far too few of us practice this concept today. If you do, you will find that life has an upside. If you don’t, you will wallow in the abyss of hypocrisy — “Do as I say, not as I do.” The other is that no matter how much you may believe your freedoms are being trampled, nobody can take away your right to freedom of choice. My parents really had only one rule for me growing up. It was admirable in its simplicity; it was astonishing in its deeper meaning. I was told that they would love and support me, no matter what I did “AS LONG AS I HAD THOUGHT THINGS THROUGH AND WAS WILLING TO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES FOR MY ACTIONS.” In simplistic terms: look before you leap.
As we head into election season, the spin masters, propagandists and rabble rousers will be bombarding us with rhetoric, lies and clever disinformation. It’s easy to succumb and be afraid. It’s harder to seek the truth and make tough choices. To survive the politic-economic disasters facing us we need to be informed, act intelligently and most of all listen to our inner selves. I encourage everyone to fact check the statements you hear in the coming months. It’s astonishing to me how often lies become “the new facts” in today’s society. How a lie, told often enough, becomes the accepted truth. As a nation we should be better than this, though that probably asks too much. As an individual, we need to be better than this, and if you accept responsibility, look deep inside you, and make up your own mind, based on facts you have determined on your own to be true, then you have put yourself in a better place. Otherwise, in the words of another 60s icon, Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
| The Daily Reckoning Presents | ||
| Gold vs. The Fed: The Record Is Clear | ||
When it last met, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) signaled its desire to increase the rate of inflation by providing additional monetary stimulus. This policy is based on a false – and dangerous – premise: that manipulating the dollar’s buying power will lead to higher employment and economic growth. But the experience of the past 40 years points to the opposite conclusion: that guaranteeing a stable value for the dollar by restoring dollar-gold convertibility would be the surest way for the Federal Reserve to achieve its dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. From 1947 through 1967, the year before the US began to weasel out of its commitment to dollar-gold convertibility, unemployment averaged only 4.7% and never rose above 7%. Real growth averaged 4% a year. Low unemployment and high growth coincided with low inflation. During the 21 years ending in 1967, consumer-price inflation averaged just 1.9% a year. Interest rates, too, were low and stable – the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaged less than 4% and never rose above 6%. What’s happened since 1971, when President Nixon formally broke the link between the dollar and gold? Higher average unemployment, slower growth, greater instability and a decline in the economy’s resilience. For the period 1971 through 2009, unemployment averaged 6.2%, a full 1.5 percentage points above the 1947-67 average, and real growth rates averaged less than 3%. We have since experienced the three worst recessions since the end of World War II, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.5% in 1975, 9.7% in 1982, and above 9.5% for the past 14 months. During these 39 years in which the Fed was free to manipulate the value of the dollar, the consumer-price index rose, on average, 4.4% a year. That means that a dollar today buys only about one-sixth of the consumer goods it purchased in 1971. Interest rates, too, have been high and highly volatile, with the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaging more than 8% and, until 2003, never falling below 6%. High and highly volatile interest rates are symptomatic of the monetary uncertainty that has reduced the economy’s ability to recover from external shocks and led directly to one financial crisis after another. During these four decades of discretionary monetary policies, the world suffered no fewer than 10 major financial crises, beginning with the oil crisis of 1973 and culminating in the financial crisis of 2008-09, and now the sovereign debt crisis and potential currency war of 2010. There were no world-wide financial crises of similar magnitude between 1947 and 1971. At the center of each of these crises were gyrating currency values – either on foreign-exchange markets or in terms of real goods and services. As the dollar’s value gyrates it produces windfall profits and losses, feeding speculation and poor judgment. The housing bubble was fed in part by 40 years of experience with a dollar that lost purchasing power every year. Today, individual investors are piling into gold and other commodities in hopes of finding a safe haven from the FOMC’s intention to decrease the buying power of the dollar and reduce the value of our savings. And what of the seductive promise that a floating dollar would make American labor more competitive and improve the nation’s trade balance? In 1967, one dollar could buy the equivalent of approximately 2.4 euros (based on the pre-euro German mark) and 362 yen. Over the succeeding 42 years, the dollar has been devalued by 72% against the euro and 75% against the yen. Yet net exports have fallen from a modest surplus in 1967 to a $390 billion deficit equivalent to 2.7% of GDP today. The members of the FOMC, like their predecessors, are trying to do the best they can, but they are not really sure what it is that needs to be done. They have kept the federal-funds rate near zero for almost two years, but small businesses find it difficult to get loans and savers suffer from the lost income brought by artificially low interest rates. Now they’re about to advocate higher inflation – i.e., less price stability – in hopes of spurring economic growth. Economists and pundits may disagree on why the gold standard delivered such superior results compared to the recurrent crises, instability and overall inferior economic performance delivered by the current system. But the data are clear: A gold-based system delivers higher employment and more price stability. The time has come to begin the serious work of building a 21st-century gold standard for the benefit of American workers, investors and businesses. |
Peace, love, and happiness...until next time!
Posts
Hemorrhaging Red Spots on Your Eyeball
Fever – Perhaps the Most Overtreated Symptom of All
The Many Benefits of Letting Fever Run its Course
The Best Way to Treat a Fever
When is Medical Attention Warranted for a Fever?
Do You Need to See a Doctor for a Cold?
Some Serious Diseases have No Symptoms Whatsoever…