From a moral standpoint can we allow even one death from oil or coal to take place without murder charges being applied to the culprits? Jobs or perpetuating current lifestyles are not an excuse for allowing even one death or disability from coal or oil pollution. Greed has twisted minds. We can measure and know that shutting down seven large cruise ships would equal getting rid of every gasoline engine in the US. But who has cried out to stop large ships from burning the worst possible fuels? Who has cried out about stopping international air traffic that is proven to spread germs quickly around the globe causing all kinds of health problems for the masses. Your immune system is being beaten into the dust by over exposure to germs caused by tourism. We are an insane society hell bent on doing the things we have always done as gutless masses cry out in fear of change. Like the insane we keep doing exactly the wrong things over and over again.

Three Mile Island was an eye opener as well.

The problem with nuclear power is the degree of harm it can cause. The world has already seen incidents of nuclear contamination that are far from trivial. The recent Japanese disaster will be harming human and animal life for centuries. Take a look at ocean front nuclear reactors in the US alone. Imagine rising seas and a need to disassemble these nukes and move them elsewhere. Could it even be done? I'm in Florida near a nuclear plant that sits about three feet above sea level right on the beach. When 9/11 occurred we had the German air force protecting our nuclear plant in Florida the next day. As I was born during WW2 seeing the German air force flying over my home was creepy to say the least. Yet we are sitting on tidal energy here that exists 24 hours every day all year long. And the amount of tidal and water current energy locally could probably power most of the US.

They listened to the bean counters. They put more and more junk advertising per hour on TV. Then they got the notion that having less episodes of a series would save a buck. Viewers fled over the air TV in droves. Ads should be restricted to 1 one minute ad per hour. Series should be designed to run 52 weeks a year with a new episode every week. That holds viewers. You could chart the encroachment of advertising and the shrinkage of new episodes of series and offer a strong proof of why business types simply can not run successful TV networks. Right now i would give up all over the air channels for Net Flicks.

Programming a chess computer or just using a chess computer can teach one quite a lot. The computer is essentially given a lot of rules and values are programmed in. For example a script aimed at capturing a queen in six moves without suffering a major negative can be installed. Other scripts might seek a certain advantage in 5 move or in 15 moves. The end result may be a very, very strong chess game that no human has ever played before. These programs have already reached a point at which humans offer only a tiny challenge to them and if one looks at the game as art then the art produced is likely to be totally original. The type of goal oriented programming exemplified in chess programs does not always extend well to other challenges but by any fair definition of creativity common chess programs meet the tests. Now imagine what can be done with a game of checkers. No human should ever win a game of checkers against a decent computer program. In other areas such as music programs can adjust every note slightly so that perfect pitch for every note is the norm. Human players simply can not play that perfectly so the music produced is singular in quality. I suppose that is musical intelligence beyond human abilities.

GM had a much sought after electric car and declined to allow customers to keep the car or get access to new ones. In other words GM has shown a dedication to stopping electric cars. This is likely an attempt to ruin Tesla rather than any real commitment to advancing electric vehicles. So go buy a Chevy electric and learn that if you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.

Although I think a confederate flag other than the battle flag should be flown I suspect that taking down the stars and bars will cause quite a severe reaction in the south. That flag honors our southern war dead from all wars and not just the civil war. Southern soldiers are well known for ferocious dedication and bravery during really heavy combat. Many people will be severely hurt by states not flying the flag and it may well spark violence. The confederate flag has nothing to do with race at all. Black soldiers fought for the south as well as white soldiers.

Obviously 3D printing is going to be an enormous blessing for all of us. It is as profound as the creation of computers in what i expect for social and economic change. Yet everyone I mention 3D printing to seems to be unaware, lost in space, or totally ignorant of what 3D printing can do. It is as if they are the ones who have been slapped silly with a mullet. I just can not understand how blind or dumb people can be when it comes to something that is sort of new.

Many teachers are already being replaced by computers. But as far as what target the teaching should be designed for I have an unpopular opinion. Teach to the brightest students! The gifted students will be the ones that offer society the most and educational efforts should support the star students far more than lesser students. Even in public grade schools we need to teach to a level that is challenging enough to cause some very bright students, from good homes, to fail. Lesser students should be trained to cook or lay brick or build roads. Right now many of our best minds are being held back while teachers struggle to get kids who could care less about learning up to speed which almost never works.

Wiki Leaks is so important in correcting social and political issues that it may well be something the history books must feature as a very prominent turning point in history. The more that people around the world are able to see and understand the better our laws and social policies will become. In a way it is simply nothing more than social and political government in the sunshine and we all should demand the kind of access that wiki has created for us. Every utterance of public officials should be public 24/7/365. Corruption could cease to exist.

And yet Germany is making even better progress with true, natural energy. No nukes needed thank you. Sun, wind and tide can get the job done. But I do fear that assassins will be used to keep big oil and big coal going.

A fact is a fact. In some areas it might be pretty hard not to park sort of close to a whore house. But anyone has the right to observe, collect and report such things. A wife for example might find that the husband is parking quite near every whore house in the entire county. And a newspaper might just print such an item if the person is a minister or public official. So suppose people think I am keeping a data base and that my data base "goes too far" and violates their privacy. So what is the cure? The state comes and demands that I reveal all my computer contents to decide if any privacy laws are being violated based on unfounded suspicions of people in the community. Then where are my privacy rights? And after all my data bases are not displayed where the public can view them. So the cure for an imagined invasion of privacy turns into a very real invasion of my privacy and guess what! When someone is falsely accused there is usually no legal compensation available for the falsely accused person. The girl that falsely cries rape almost never gets the type of prison sentence that the man would get if the rape charge was true. Remember the sports team at Duke that was falsely accused and cost those boys a fortune in legal bills, collapsed their sports team and halted their education for a year or two? Did the girl go to prison? Life without parole would be fair.

The car is displayed on a public road in full view of the world. What the heck definition of privacy includes existence of a situation or object in full view in a public place? Anything that can be viewed in public is not private. We are really over the edge stupid about some common beliefs.

First donate near where you live or work so you can observe the place and how it behaves. Sometimes odd places do a lot of good. For some disadvantaged youth a boxing gym is a life saver. Or a basketball program for youth can be quite worthwhile. The Kahn Academy is a blessing for many people and deserves support. Slashdot is a good spot to donate as well. Distrowatch,com gets Linux into the hands of people who can not afford Microsoft products or who wish to know about their computer than commercial systems offer. I have noticed a tragic shortage of group homes for men whereas most communities offer a bit of shelter for women in distress. Maybe helping out a shelter with either money or time is a good idea. Oddly one also might consider supporting liberal politicians as they usually try to aid the poor or unfortunate whereas the right wing only postures about such help. Locally our Catholic Church does more for feeding the poor than any other church. And do consider taking in a person to give them a leg up for a while. I have helped several people in tragic circumstances by giving them a free room until they could save up for their own apartment. Since I had the room anyway it cost me next to nothing but made a huge difference in some of their lives.

I have seen two stress generators in play at various jobs. One huge cause is when a company has economic wars and can not afford to pay the going rate for workers who really are productive. Employees tend to turn on each other as if one getting ahead decreases the others' chances of ever getting a raise. It can reach the point of employees destroying the work of other employees to make them look bad to management. The second cause of note occurs in jobs that are reliable and lasting in which there is a great deal of hostility when an opening is given to an applicant other than some friend of workers already in a department. The usual tactic is to go to the department manger and give false reports of the new persons job performance. And it can also involve sabotage of the work output of the new employee. In the construction trades peoples' lives can actually be at risk as the injury or death of a worker is all too easy to create.