The new energy crisis

The sunday morning news shows all talked about energy and nuclear power, what to do, how we know, how long an issue. They went back to the 1970s when there were the first power plants, and the advent of the anti nuclear movement. The reactor in Vermont, the first to be build about 40 years ago, is the same design as the ill-fated Japanese power plant. How safe are we. Can we withstand danger. Will our lifestyle allow Americans to ponder the abolition of relatively safe, carbonless nuclear power, in the wake of burning more toxic, more costly, less available oil. Now there are some patrimonial echoes of global warming. Suddenly everyone is in an uproar. Where have they been for the last 30 years? No one wants to go backwards, understandably. But we are at a crossroads. What do we do? Will this crisis stimulate the world to reckon with the inconvenient truth, and finally tackle global warming, and CURB our expectations and our consumption? That will be a difficult task to wean us off of all the electronic gadgetry we are now addicted to, which was non-existent 25 years ago. it is an interesting dilemma for the world populations to grapple with. Who will take the lead towards a simpler life, which may just be the way to sustain our planet?

The Inconvenient Truth is really aptly named.

Just got around to seeing inconvenient truth.
have seen similar messages in exhibits over the years, but this was really an excellent film, with all the right messages and timing.
I have always thought this. It is the last 50 to 150 years since the industrial revolution that has really changed the tide. A blessing and a curse. There is no escape, yet nothing is being done, not strong enough, compelling enough to stop the trends. It is so demoralizing.

If you think you know the issues but haven't seen the movie yet, you really must see it.
very well done. It's hard to believe it hasn't convinced congress to change policy. reckoning. And inciting American public to demand change. Time keeps marching on at a dizzying pace. I am really scared to see the updates since 2005.

They claim there have been loads of changes, reducing environmental impact. www.climatecrisis.net www.climatecrisis.net
But I think those changes have barely scratched the surface, give the exponential trends gaining momentum.

I feel the same about Pickins and Michael Moore. They have the right message, but powers that be are not taking their messages seriously. Not seriously enough. Why is that. I can't understand. I must be dense and naive.

Why are Americas so dense about these things? They don't want to face the truth even when it is staring them in the face. They couldn't have picked a better title for this movie.
We have know about these issues and potentialities for years, but we aren't doing enough to arrest the inevitable global warning and other environmental and health disasters. It is horrifying. troubling.

Thinking about the recent Tsunami... I am sure it is no accident...
The crescendo pitch of these natural disasters. Or the excessive rains and weather planetwide. Yet we are not heeding the warnings, making the necessary changes.
What of the children, the grand children.

I have always tried to conserve and be conscious. But unless everyone starts making inconvenient life changes, heeding the warnings of the same drummer, all is for naught.

It is like everything is an isolated event, let me entertain you attitude... Give All a medal for the film. Next.

Very sad. Film Creates a fury. Then it dies down. And America is fascinated by the latest trivial media frenzy. Not me. I could care less about Sheen and Britany and all the others that I know nothing about. Very sad commentary on our world.

People are even becoming desensitized to calamities. I can't figure it out.
I guess for many it takes all their time and energy to cope with every day, and they think that someone in Washington is doing this important work. NOT.

I don't even have a representative to complain to.

Maybe he is right that he lost his platform for his message. This country sure lost a lot more when we lost Al Gore's presidential bid. Maybe he would have made a difference.

Got to get more traction on this, again.

I'm a believe in thermograms to ensure better breast health

I just found out about thermography. Actually, I've known about it for years, but was unable to find a site that did it. What I didn't know is that it detects cancer at least 5 years before normal MRIs and CTs do, since thermograms detect heat and not cell masses, which must be large enough to be seen. The other benefit of thermograms is that there is no radiation and there is NO PAIN. There is no breast compression. They just take photos of your breast. In fact they could do the entire body, much more cheaply and safer than MRI or CT. A fraction of the cost, in fact. (No wonder it fell out of favor since MRIs came to vogue.) Did you ever wonder if your cancer came back somewhere other than your breast. Or what was happening w. your reconstructed breast. Or how you could avoid the pain of squashing your dense breasts? Here's you answer. Women there IS a better way. Don't take NO for an answer. These sounds like much better odds and lots of pluses to me versus what they are currently offering as options. DEMAND IT as part of health reform. Yet insurance won't cover it. When you understand the benefits of thermogram, there will be no going back. WHy shouldn't we have a choice of what we want done? Cancer takes years to develop. Don't think it grows so fast that you can go from nothing to stage 4 in six months. It had to be growing way before that, undetected.

Beware Verizon has an anti-customer business model. You should know before you commit.

Found out the hard way that Verizon's 24/7 tech support really is NOT unless you have a basic issue. THe reset, the critical ones-- they CANNOT SOLVE.
OSC is the office of customer support. Do you believe that they are NOT open on a Sunday.
And there is NO WAY to reach OSC... except if your Verizon rep elevates your technical issue? So in effect, you can't have a big problem on a Sunday... and god forbid you have a server issue -- that only OSC can handle -- then you are S... out of luck.

And you know that any severe technical problem requires immediate intervention, if there is a chance to correct it. Yet another nail in the coffin. You're screwed by Verizon's anti-customer business model. What an outrage! They do NOT see anything wrong with this policy.

It gets WORSE. Last Saturday 5 years of emails on the server were mysteriously erased. I did NOTHING to my account. Verizon claims it did nothing either. Once deleted, they can NEVER be retrieved. How can this BE? Every business worth its salt has redundant servers. I've been a customer for years. SO how is it possible that there is NO BACKUP that can restore my emails? Doesn't VZ back them up every day? What if a server died? In effect Verizon is telling its customers - screw you. No recourse. No reprieve. No action.
No accountability. No respect. No kiddin'.
Yet Verizon claims its award-winning record, 24/7 help.

All I can say is when they are BAD they are very very bad. And when they are Bad they are horrid. Its all or nothing. Bet millions of people would make different purchase decisions if they know the real truth.

No companies care about customer service any more. You can't even find a number easily, and if you do, many of the reps are clueless or unable to help you.

The world is changing at a fever pace.

Today I saw a headline in Time Magazine that the young Arabs are challenging their governments and overthrowing them. They don't understand why America elects new leaders every year and they "can't". Very interesting commentary. This is the revolution that world has been waiting for. Fascinating that they are steam-rolling into power, riling people up to take action. Hopefully democracy will thrive around the globe. Isn't that what the US has been trying to achieve for decades.

Japan tsunami and aftermath is devastating

I can't imagine how the people of Japan are doing. With such widespread devastation and more to come. People hopelessly trying to find relatives and food and water.What do you do when there is little resources and everything is an unknown and a hurdle. How do people make the most of things and be optimistic in the wake of such horrible conditions, with little end or hope in sight. This is far worse than New Orleans or Haiti.

I was thinking that a hundred years ago, there would be comparable devastation, but not as much perils because there would not have been high rises and nuclear power plans. So people could go on. Rebuild. But what about today's populace, who are so conditioned and dependent on their creature comforts - home, food, electronic gadgets, travel, education, TV, internet, and more. It will be very hard for people to start over from ground zero and to rebuild all the amenities that today's communities have come to expect. Much harder transition, to be sure. That would be very hard, indeed.

Maybe that is what we need, to go back to a simpler life. There is no way that we would willfully take the action to give up all our internet and social media connectedness and self sufficiency and global society. But once again, the internet and global telecom has saved the day, by helping people communicate when other networks were down.

This is one for the record books.

The Unemployed Finally Get Their Due

Finally! Economists finally come clean and admit the unemployment figures do not reflect reality. It's long been obvious to me that the unemployment figures couldn't possibly be accurate. Once your 26 weeks are done, you don't count any more, literally and figuratively.

Shockingly the DOL (Dept. of Labor) figures do not include the long term unemployed, or discouraged workers who have given up finding a job. Nor the self-employed/transitional or temp workers. Nor young people who never had their first job. Nor immigrants, farm workers, people with disabilities, or the homeless... whose jobs are irregular.

Unemployment is grossly understated by at least 100%. It's not 9.8% or 15 million people as the Feds would have us believe. It's approaching 20% -- or at least 30 million (or more) Americans who are not working, not by choice. They are the real victims of the Wall Street Debacle and the greed of the last decades and the bubble economy that went bust.

Now we are faced with a jobless recovery, for the first time in our history. So it will only get worse in the next 2-3 years. Moreover, the longer folks remain out of work, their skills stagnate or become a mismatch. It could take until 2015 before there are enough new jobs created, for a declining working-age population. This loss of jobs and loss of income creates a trickle-down effect that reduces -- and permanently removes a portion of the United State's GDP capacity. Most of the new jobs will be in increasingly lower skill and lower pay jobs that do not require a 4-year college education -- like service or health care or home health or energy efficiency -- so our standard of living will also have to shift.

Too much effort is being spent on bailing out Wall Street and not enough on bailing out Main Street. What do lawmakers think will happen when most Americans have no livelihood, no money, no home, no dignity, and no hope left?

For more insights on the needs for education, energy, and infrastructure spending to create jobs that will kick-start the economy and help the next generation, visit the New America Foundation's website. You can view videos and presentations on the Job Deficit from 3 top-knotch panels of experts. Search for the Bernard Scwartz Symposium on October 20, 2009 at www.newamerica.net