LED energy thieves

I bought a toaster that has LED readouts. They're always on when the toaster is plugged in. My printer, my modem, my gateway, my stereo, my oven, my microwave, and other appliances all have them. On the night of a new moon with thick cloud cover, I can walk around my house with all the lights out and see perfectly by the light of the LEDs. All these appliances keep draining power, 24/7. It's like the food industry designing food to spoil faster so you'll buy more sooner, or a car that keeps using gas even when you're not driving. Not only do I dislike the light pollution, in a world where our energy policy should be conservation conservation conservation, these LED machines with their power draining standby modes are insidious leeches. Lisa has been trying to get me to put power strips on everything, or better yet, a master switch that turns them all off. If I'm going to preach the evils of these little parasites, then I dern well better get on it.

Energy

I read an article in old paper about the energy bill that passed the congress. Can't say which one, don't particularly care. It jogged loose another of those cerebral blogs that will now become bytes of bits. Way way back under Reagan, I went to a public forum on offshore oil drilling. I wrote a letter to somebody, probably Don Hodel informing him of what our primary energy policy strategy should be. He must not have gotten it, because my brilliant idea was never implemented. Here it is: conservation, conservation, conservation. At the hearing, when it was my turn to speak, I expressed my disgust that we were debating whether to drill offshore to increase our oil supply while we had a TV commercial on the air at the time that had the line, "When you step on the gas, it's like kicking in an after burner." How can we be debating the need for more oil while we were simultaneously encouraging wasting it? Oh, yeah, because profit is the driving force. Love of money is the root of all evil. Where is that quote from? The bible. Like most bumper sticker wisdom, it's not the truth, but it refers to the truth. Obviously then the real solution is to dismantle our economic system. And to have a loving relationship with your partner, simply stop having any problems. I'm reminded of the wisdom of the pinball wizard:

If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high
You'd laugh and say that nothing's that simple
But it's been said many times before
Messiah pointed to the door
No one had the guts to leave the temple

Ok, we're not likely anytime soon to set up a world where every human being had healthy air to breathe, safe water to drink and bathe in, a steady balanced diet of sufficient calories, appropriate attire, a decent bedroll, reasonable shelter, access to basic health care, and protection from agression and oppression, and to have all of these things without having to provide a monthly payment. If these basic things were provided to every individual human being, they would not be required to sell themselves as wage slaves. If people did not have to work to have access to these basics, how many jobs would end? Most people would still want to work, because really, who would be satisfied with that basic survival lifestyle? But would they still go to a job that was a soul sucking, health threatening grind, like a slaughterhouse?

Well, I left my energy path, and ended up on the dismantle the economic system soap box. Tomorrow, I hope to return to energy, and discuss all those LED lights on your appliances.

Below are some chunks I ended up not using in this diatribe:


Well actually, most people in the U.S. can have these things, but it's not enough for us. We also want our own automobile, and computer, and to drive to the festival, and etc. etc. It's the shelter

It's not like I don't like to drive fast. I'd drive 90 on the freeway if I could get away with it. But if we're pondering drilling offshore for more oil, and dependent on foreign oil and all that implies, shouldn't we be seriously conserving oil? Instead, we were subsidizing Hummers with a full tax write off until congress finally ended it. Cars are getting less miles to the gallon. Somehow, 28mpg is being toted as fuel efficient. I had a 1985 mazda that got 38 around town.

What have we today

Again I begin with no plan, not even an inkling of what to say. I suppose if I read the news or other blogs, I'd have reactions to report. Ah, I remember a thread I've been wanting to weave into my verbal quilt.

Consumption driven by whimsical desire for gratification leads our culture down a cancerous path. Wow, that's a sentence huh? A cancerous path? I suppose I should be writing this in flipitoff, since that phrase is best explained by the quote in the matrix where Smith is pointing out to Morpheus that humans resemble cancer more than mammals. By way of illustration, allow me to develop this theme using happy meals, and I'm borrowing that particular branded term to represent all the childrens' meals that come with a toy. Typically those toys are made of plastic, and I suspect that few of those toys are played with for more than a day. How many millions of plastic toys in sealed plastic bags with ink printed on them are torn open by a child, then shortly after are discarded? Now the production of plastic is a pretty nasty process in terms of the toxics that are generated and added to the industrial waste stream. I doubt the ink is good for the environment either. Then off to the landfill with the minimally used item. I have this image of a machine excreting goop from its bottom into a mold, and the little robot turd is bagged, tagged and given to a child who plays with shortly then tosses it aside and it drifts into a huge mound of machine droppings. Can't even grow a garden with that shimmering pile. We have the toxicity of the production of these whimsical gratifiers and the two waste streams they enter. We also have the psychological implications of perpetual gratification of our children. I can only ponder the effect that these meal toys have on the psyche of our youth, and I'm not assuming it's all negative. It's that I believe that we the people of the industrial empire, particularly the inhabitants of the U.S. must cultivate a culture of frugality. We must consume less resources, and produce less waste. These happy meal toys are counter productive in both the material and psychological realms. We are encouraging our children to expect personal gratification in the form of a material item that does little more than promote consumption and produce waste. Many of these toys are associated with a motion picture and are simply a form of advertising to promote additional consumption. I think it's time for me to reread A Brave New World.

Ah, now I've written. It's time to read.

two in a row

As is typical of me, I have 4 blogs now, none of which I keep up on. Should I be writing this here? Which blog is for what? Egads, the indecision of the undisciplined mind has cursed me all my life. When I was 17, I attempted to enlist in the Army. I was squandering my life away, much as I am now, and really wanted discipline. I took the ASVAB. I talked with a recruiter. I told him I wanted discipline in my life. It weirded him out and he advised me against viewing that way. My mom refused to sign the papers, and being under 18, my hopes for getting motivated and the ability to achieve what I later came to call longevity of intention were not to be realized in the military. By the time I was 18, I was a full blown peacenik protesting like I write blogs. Which brings me to the topic at hand I suppose, well after another diversion. Flipitoff was meant to be a project of using machine metaphors to characterize the human collective. Cryyoureyesout is for personal reflections. And Flipiton was inspired by Obama's election, and is for expressing my views on and suggesting solutions to the social problems of the day. Then there is my music blog to journalize my journey to finally completing my first CD. I have picked a title: Never Been Done. Ok, now that I've completed the long set up, I can get to the short point.

Our school system sucks. In yesterday's blog, I discussed the money spent on soda pop, and suggested that money would be better spent on youth programs. Come on America, quit buying soda pop, and invest in your schools. Money is not the what's needed most to improve the schools. We need a new focus. We currently shove our kids all through the same basic curriculum. If a student has what we call disabilities, we accomodate them (yeah right we do) so they can accomplish the same work as all the other students. For the majority of students, this system works, but if your on either end of the bell curve, your needs are not being well met. An easy way to address this problem (and discover new ones) is to change the method by which we group classes. Chronological age is not the best indicator of which social/emotional and cognitive development stage an individual has achieved. What I propose is we group children on other criteria. Three I'm suggesting are interest, learning style, and ability. If curriculum covers topics that children are naturally interested in, internal motivation kicks in and assignments are less dreaded, even enjoyed. Common learning style makes group presentations much easier to produce. The oral lecture, perhaps supplemented with handouts, or more likely today, powerpoint presentations works well for students who can process spoken word at the delivered rate. They also must possess the skills to produce notes while listening. For a student who gets new skills best by doing, listening should not be the primary delivery method. Putting a student at a 6th grade reading level in a class requiring 9th grade reading skills and trying to catch them up is a really bad plan. And one last suggestion, if a student gets inspired on a particular project and wants to focus the majority of their time on it for a while, by all means let it happen. That student can work on the "missed" assignments later, or maybe even never. Do we really need all our citizens to be proficient at all the skills. If someone can't read Of Mice and Men and write an essay about it, but can skillfully run every machine in the woodshop and produce a beautiful table, I say we minimize the focus on the essay, and maximize the time spent in woodshop.

Two caveats: I work in education, and I don't have much formal uneducation, and nothing I'm proposing here is backed up with any meaningful research. In short, I'm making it all up from a limited amount reading and discussions, and a LOT of thinking about it.

let it be

I guess I'm a fly fishing blogger. I write these incredible blogs in my head, but they always get away. Here comes a spattering of pieces I can remember. Let's require all cell phones to use the same charger. It's a gross waste of resources created with toxic processes to throw out the charger every time you have to change cell phones. Our over consumption is the greatest threat to national security. We're consuming into a massive debt that is damaging our economy, we're sucking up resources and spewing out toxic waste that's damaging our ecology. We can survive without the economy, but we're goners without the ecosystem. President Barak Obama is another politician. Likely the most decent one we've had in a long time, perhaps ever...I sincerely believe that he is a decent and sincere man, and that's rare for that occupation...but he's President of the same bunch of yo yos that watch fox news, think Paris Hilton is big news, and want a toy in every happy meal. I'm obsessed with the notion that we are 6% of the world's population consuming 24% of the world's resources. I would like to know how much money Americans spend on soda pop, and how that amount compares to the cost of providing national healthcare. I'm off to google. I'll be back.

Ok, I found something that gives some perspective. From this article comes this quote from the American Beverage Association:

...the beverage industry accounts for 160,000 jobs that generate $6.7 billion in wages and $25 billion in economic activity in New York State each year.

This quote is telling in 2 ways. That's 25 billion in economic activity in New York State alone. That's a lot of money for sugar water, especially in a nation where childhood obesity and diabetes are serious problems. How's about that 25 billion and the activity it represents being expended on youth programs promoting skills? The other telling aspect of this quote is the 160,000 jobs the Association mentioned. Oh, if people stop drinking soda pop, all these jobs will be lost. And we need to keep having wars so the weapons industry jobs are secure. This is the bigger issue, and the primary topic of my cereberal blogs that rarely get written outside my skull. We need a new economic model.

I'll wrap this up with a quick list of ideas I'm trying to develop and articulate. Create a maximum wage. Create a minimum standard of living for every human on the planet with ready easy access to safe drinking water and by extension a good toilet as the foundation. Provide work for every person willing to get up and go to work each day. Provide incentive to get up and go to work each day. A company's profit should increase the longer their product remains in use; planned obsolescene must be eliminated. Let's all learn to enjoy simpler things like sunsets and each other's company. Like how much coal was burnt so I could sit at my fan churning machine to produce this blog?

retool the economy

Many years ago, in a previous 'economic downturn' when I was living in the bus at yeehaa, I was half awake with the clock radio on All Things Considered to coax me out of bed and off to school. I popped awake when I heard the economist being interviewed say, "and they economy won't get better until people get out and consume more." That woke me up, both literally and figuratively. It wasn't a new concept to me, that ours is a culture of rampant consumerism that will likely devastate our ecosystem like the inhabitants of Easter Island. But to hear it stated so bluntly, that rampant consumerism was the cure for our economic woes hit me with that mix of outrage and despair. This is a moment of hope.

I hope for a global movement that seeks to generate wealth for the companies that provide service and product with the least use of resources. The longer your product stays in service, the more profit you make.

We all fall down

My son needs guidance and structure, and I don't feel up to the task. But I'm what he's got, so I must rise to the occasion. Somehow I must cultivate a set of behaviors in myself that nourishes his sense of self worth. I find myself criticizing him too often, and he's responded by feeling incapable. It doesn't help that all the girls he's tried to date have rejected him. Add that to the most important women in his life have abandoned him, and he's got quite a load on his emotional shoulders. What I have done right is he knows he's loved. Now I have to find a way to engage him in positive activities where he can have success and build his sense of self worth. Since it's what I know best, music is going to take a key role. I'm seeking a simple drum set, snare drum, kick drum and high hat. That, and we have to start making balanced meals together. If just these two things become consistent activities, I believe our lives will improve. I ask for undying inspiration to follow through. And for a drum set.

Still wanting outrage

I'm guessing that the people who engineered, executed, and profited from the financial mess we're in are not unemployed. I suspect most of them are living fairly large. Meanwhile unemployment is climbing, retirees have lost their pensions, former homeowners are displaced, businesses are closing. Let's start naming names people. Who are some of the actual individual people who profited from scandalous financing? What gym do they work out at? What restaurants do they eat at? Let's find them, and wag our fingers at them and holler shame shame shame. They should not be allowed to enjoy a penny of that money. If they are not working at a soup kitchen (metaphorically or literally), then they should have no peace anywhere they go. They financially raped us, and there's this trend going on where the victim is getting blamed. The people who took out a mortgage they couldn't repay are not to blame. It's the people in the financial industry that lobbied to create lax rules, and lied and cheated so they could collect the fees on those loans and create an illusion of wealth in an elaborate ponzi scheme, they are to blame. Let us shame them at every opportunity. Bring the brunt of the court of public opinion to bear upon them.

Outrage

Today I sent an email to Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Mike Thompson, my federal representatives. I expressed that I was angry and I wanted them to go after the scoundrels whose crimes contributed, if not wholly created, this financial crisis we're in. To all who may read this, join me in expressing outrage. Let's us identify the perpetraitors [sic] and throw shoes at them. I intend to continue to petition my representatives and other officials and demand that they seek repayment from any financier involved in illegal or unethical behavior. Please do the same. Let's get some of the money they stole back.

Sense of Relief

Listening to All Things Considered this morning, unctuous relief rose out of my chest and relaxed my mind and body. First there was a quote from Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton: ""I will do all that I can, working with you, to make it abundantly clear that robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America's future." This was followed by a story of Obama appointments. One of the worst things of the Bush administration was filling positions with sycophants and incompetent fanatics. Realizing that we now have an executive branch that will faithfully execute the duties of the office hit me with cathartic relief. I must ask myself every hour, "what can I do to help?"

Complacently hopeful

I've not felt compelled to blog. I felt no particular elation or relief inauguration day, just a simple sense of hope and a fair amount of resolve. What I can do best for my country is parent my son effectively, do my job faithfully, and save money. I plan on planting a garden for the first time in my life. Anything I have to say in a blog is likely being said better by another. I do enjoy the process of writing, and will occasionally post here, like once or twice a week, I intend to put my writing energy into songs, and correspondence. I have this notion of randomly selecting somebody in each of the 50 states, and hand writing a letter addressed to them asking for their participation in addressing the problems of our nation. I've got the concept, but the letter's not drafted. My basic goal is to advance hope in the notion that we can make this a better country. Now that I've stated this goal here, I will be more motivated to draft the letter. What is it I want to say? Once I decide that, the rest will be work, but it will be easy.

fertile or futile?

I've been commenting on the Times Standard Forum. In particular, I've posted several comments to this forum. A fair number of posts in these forums are...hmm, what shall I call it? Fallacious discourse is probably the most accurate, and diplomatic. Ad hominem occurs quite frequently. Some posters do not appear to have even read the article they are commenting on. Still, there are some thoughtful and apparantly informed posters, and I appreciate many of the ideas I've read. I hope that I can find meaningful and worthwhile discourse that somehow increases public awareness and involvement, or at least mine. May the posts like this:

Parents need to take more responsibility. I am on Power School once a week checking on my child's progress and if I need to, I call teachers to find out what's going on. Parents need to be at Back to School Night and have the Teacher's email addresses and be more pro-active.

and less posts like this

I think the tard should be graduated anyway. Someone has to man all the local business that tarsd obviously run anyway. Any kid with a future has already left Humboldt anyway, except for the gangsta growers of course.

I will comment on, and see what comes of it.

I was half listening to talk radio as I drove, and the guest was an insider from a collapsed mortgage firm who'd written a book. I tuned in when the guest was saying that it was a gray area between the lenders and the borrows where the responsibility for the mortgage crisis, and that the financial institutions were following the rules. The host disagreed with the point that the financial institutions spent huge sums of money to manipulate the political process to change the rules. I was grateful for the alert and insightful talk show host. I was angered by the guest's comments. Who's more at fault, the addict or his dealer? When the dealer uses personal influence to manipulate somebody into becoming an addict, the dealer is responsible. In the case of the bad loans, if reasonable rules are in place, and enforced, those suckers willing to take a loan they can never repay would never get the chance.

Appeal for conscience

I filled up my gas tank today, and the price was $1.989. Does anybody believe that the high prices we experienced the last few years were from uncontrollable market conditions, or were we soaked by the oil industry people? I certainly cannot answer definitively, but I suspect it was the latter. It's indisputable that the California "energy crisis" was caused in large part by unscrupulous business practices. Desire for financial gain gets out of hand, and the addictive behaviors of corporate officers damages the health of our markets. Regulation provides minimal protection from the scoundrels intent on amassing wealth. We must also appeal to the conscience of the people in positions of financial power. How can the general populace ensure that the officers of industries conduct their business in a fair and reasonable manner? Certainly we must have thoughtful and effective rules. We must also build and maintain a sense of community in all our citizens. When the powerful gather at the Bohemian grove for their forays into hedonistic release, they engage in a ritual that "symbolizes that members are banishing the 'dull cares' of conscience." How can we convince those with power to begin a ritual to welcome the meaningful responsibilities of conscience, and to ban from their ranks those who lack a healthy conscience? Without people of healthy conscience in positions of influence and power, we cannot improve the human condition. This is a concept I'd like to hear daily in the dialogue of the nation.

Think whole house, clean one wall

I easily get overwhelmed and projects get left unfinished. I find myself expending time and energy on inconsequential activities. I must gently return myself to the goals on the list, and keep myself motivated and focused on finishing. And when the inevitable setbacks come, I must process my discouragement in a healthy and effective way, then return to the task at hand. The possessions of my life are in ill repair and disarray, and the outward condition reflects an inward state. So I go now to tune mind and body by scrubbing walls with dreams of finishing the whole house, but getting one wall done now.

speck and log

To change the world, change yourself. This is the wisdom I must embrace and implement. Late last night, I ate excessive amounts of greasy food at a chain restaurant, then went home and got in bed. I woke hours later, and forced myself to vomit. As I write this, I'm still paying the price of that foolish decision. Add to that the cigarettes I smoked, and the insufficient intake of water, and I'm one miserable stomach owning dude. And due to poor choices of activities, posture and too much inactivity, my back is throbbing with pain that shoots into my hips. I started this blog with the idea of inspiring myself to get active in social change, and it's working. I'm the first issue I must take on. If I don't improve my health and habits, I'll be of no use to any movement, social or bowel. I am my cause.

need to believe

"That will never happen." This is a response I often get when I'm suggesting a course of action to address the ills of the world. For example, to address the financial crisis, I suggest we make the people who stole the money, either give it back, or at least invest it in ventures that put us back to work with decent jobs. Why can't our justice department fine the offenders, and the money be used to fund public works projects that rebuild our infrastructure? I'm hoping that the Obama administration announces plans that the enough of the nation gets behind with a yes we can attitude. We need to believe in a plan, and support it in word and deed. I'm ready. I'm hopeful.

A new year, a new blog

I still hope to develop flipitoff, but I have a new desire to post regularly with my thoughts on the current political and economic conditions, so I've created this blog. I'm setting a goal to post to this blog at least 5 times a week. And so it begins.

I visited with my family for the holidays, and we of course discussed the economic crisis. I suggested some idealistic solutions, and my mother replied, "give it up, it'll never happen." I got to thinking that we the people have to believe that something will work. We have to have hope that leads to action. The election of Barack Obama inspired hope in me. I believe that he is a leader that can move us in better direction. I believe that his election is a statement by our citizens that we want something better. For the Obama dream to achieve success, we the people must participate. We have to do the work of shifting our nation, our world, to a better condition. We must find common ground on which to work together, and demand of our government effective leadership. I'm seeking inspiration, and I'm seeking a cause for action. I'm asking myself, "what can I do? What will actually help?" I have not yet found an answer. I intend to keep looking and to take action when I do find what will actually help.

I'd like to team up with people interested in demanding that the players in the financial debacle are held responsible for their crimes. They lied. They stole. And then we bail them out? Shouldn't we jail them first, bail them out later?