"Choices & Change on the Path to a Sustainable Existence..."

 My second book is now available at the link below.  Please read the Description, in which I discuss who probably would enjoy the read and who would not.    

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSSVWB3N?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520

If interested at all in sustainability, you may also want to read a sample of the Introduction.  Click on "Read Sample" in the upper left quadrant of the page.  From time to time, I'll post other excerpts on this venue.  A hardback version will out soon.  I doubt that an eBook will be because (as I learned with the first book) getting it up and out is somewhat of a nightmare for a High Tech Dummy like me - even if I hire someone to do the eBook formatting.  😵

In any case, Thanks to All for your consideration, and 

Happy Trails,

Scott

Wars around the world currently are being run by thugs

 Civil society is being egregiously damaged, essentially torn apart.  Putin (in his defense) was backed into a corner by expansion of NATO to the East; then he reacted like a thug.  With October 7, the Leadership of Hamas became criminal thugs.  [Yes, Gaza and the West Bank have been strangled by Israel's politicians for decades; but that's no justifiable excuse to brutally murder civilians, including children.]  Netanyahu and crew certainly were entitled to a response; but for weeks their over-reaction has become criminal thuggery.  No time to summarize the various thugs in parts of Africa and even in South America.

While Biden is not a thug, he 's supporting the thuggery of Israeli Leadership by supplying weapons, ammo, and military intelligence against Gaza.  So, in essence, he gives aid to:

a)  the bombing of medical facilities, ambulances, civilian residences, schools, UN shelters, refugee camps, and whole areas where Palestinians were sent because they supposedly were "safe" areas; and,

b)  the killing of CHILDREN; and,

c)  the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians; and,

d)  the intentional starving of them as well.

While all that may not make him a thug, arguably it does place him on the border of being not only unlawful and heartless, but insane as well.  [No, I'm not trained in clinical psychology.  But a wise man once told me:  "You don't have to be a master carpenter to recognize a shack.":]

This is all so Orwellian that it's truly mind-boggling.  Why people keep electing Establishment thugs (for example, Netanyahu and the micro-thug, Trump), to office is beyond my comprehension.  If not thugs, we elect dogmatic, stuck-in-the-Past, corporatist-supporting people with no vision and zero capability of thinking comprehensively (e. g., Biden, Bush, and again, Trump).

In this country, Elizabeth Warren should be elected President, or someone along the lines (back when) of the Republican Senator, Mark Hatfield, a truly honorable politician; or, someone like George McGovern, another honorable Senator.  Instead, we get either wannabe Fascists or slumbering, corporatist drones.  C'est la vie

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

p.s.  War is mostly for the benefit of Big Biz, and a distraction from the shrinking of the Middle Class.

Public Awareness of ‘Nuclear Winter’ is Too Low Given Current Risks

This (see the title above) is particularly true in the UK and the USA; however, I'm guessing it's also true in other places around the world.  Decades ago, I'm fairly certain most people were up to speed on the highly probable effects of nuclear war and the aftermath of nuclear winter on the biosphere.  

https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/opinion-poll-survey-public-awareness-of-nuclear-winter-is-too-low-given-current-risks/

Nowadays, we have several world leaders who have developed, or are developing, so-called tactical (rather than strategic) nuke weapons.  Apparently, they think use of them will have no serious or long-term deleterious effects on the life which survives such a war.  According to the scientific fields of ecology, biology, climatology, and physics, such thinking is sheer nonsense.

https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/nowhere-to-hide-how-a-nuclear-war-would-kill-you-and-almost-everyone-else/#:~:text=Using%20a%20radiative%2Dconvective%20climate,weapons%20after%20a%20nuclear%20war.

Leaders such as Obama, Trump, and Biden (all of whom are responsible for our tactical nuke weapon arsenal) have displayed a mind-boggling ignorance of nuclear winter.  How tragic, and that's just in the USA.  I imagine leaders in other nuke weapon countries are just as bad.

In democratic countries, voters need to wake up and kick such politicians out of office.  Nuclear weapons are not necessary to defend a nation, not any nation.

If green plants and oceanic algae - which are the base of food chains AND supply us with oxygen - can't get adequate sunlight for months (perhaps up to a year or two), then such will be an extinction level event for many animals, possibly including humans.  In any case, famine would be widespread.  If animals are subjected to an atmosphere overburdened with soot and other fine particulates from explosion updraft, populations will crash.  Any animal with lungs would be severely impacted.  Then, on top of everything above, there's the damage from radioactive fallout.  Never mind the impact on fresh water supplies.  Ionizing radiation is the ultimate pollution.

BOTTOM LINE:  maintaining nuke weapons not only is the height of ignorance, it's an egregious insult to civil society and a stupidly dangerous risk to all life.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Science does not deal in Absolutes when it comes to the conclusions of research studies

 In my education and work, I've been involved in various aspects of science for a bit more than five decades.  Over time, it seems more and more people have developed a serious misconception regarding research in almost all fields of science.

When it comes to the conclusions of a study (not the measurements leading up to conclusions), Science and scientists usually deal in degrees of probability, not certainty.  In other words, science is not absolute.  Why?  There are too many unknown variables to be accounted for in any scientific investigation.  Because of that, when new discoveries are made in a particular area of research, the previous theory is likely to be modified or even discarded.  With new research, past conclusions often change. We should never forget:  for a long time, it was believed to be a "fact" that the Sun revolved around the Earth.  After all, anyone could SEE it happening every day.  "Proof" positive.  :)

New discoveries by the super-telescope, the orbiting "James-Webb-Space-Telescope" (JWST, launched in 2021), are debunking our concept of Space-Time.  Specifically, Time (as we perceive it) now appears to be nonexistent, an illusion made-up by humans.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IS5y5uFQ_c

In addition, these new findings question the "fact" of a single Big Bang creating the universe. That "absolute" now is being re-considered in depth.  Furthermore, repeated cycles of creation and destruction of the entire universe - in line with Vedic philosophy & the Upanishads - appear to be likely.  [Scientists don't mention anything about the Vedas, but that's what they're now considering.]   Also, the new info suggests the probability that existence is one big NOW, i.e., the past, present, and future all exist at once.

This is Science at its best - past "facts" being challenged by new discoveries.

So, ancient wisdom may be ahead of modern-day cosmologists.  In any case, the new discoveries of the JWST are strongly suggesting that the human concept of TIME is all wrong.

People should not lose belief in Science just because it deals in degrees of probability (regarding conclusions of a study) rather than absolute certainty.  Not even scientists are all-knowing.  A number of theoretical physicists have stated:  humans barely have scratched only the surface of Reality. 

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well