Tamarind in the Tree

Tamarind is a sweet and sour tropical fruit with date like flesh which comes wrapped around a string of black seeds that are enclosed in a thin brown brittle shell. I came across a tree in the park yesterday and climbed up and helped myself. I also helped those below who weren’t keen on climbing but were into some free fruit by knocking down quite a few from the top since the low hanging ones had already been knocked down with a long pole over the past few weeks.

This is just another way we benefit from a stable climate which doesn’t bounce from extreme heat to extreme cold and from extreme drought to extreme rain and enables the fruit trees to consistently produce life supporting fruit without any assistance from us all while taking carbon out of the atmosphere and adding oxygen. Wow, if fruit trees are that awesome why are we cutting so many of them down including those which produce delicious and endangered fruits?

tamarind
If you want to help curb deforestation eat more or all plants and less or no animals because a primary cause of deforestation is meat production as it takes a lot more land and fresh water, not to mention pesticides and chemical fertilizers, to grow enough plants to feed livestock to produce meat than it does to feed people directly. Also if you use any products which contain palm oil, which you do, please take a minute to contact the manufacturers of these products and demand that they purchase their palm oil from sustainable sources.

Visa Run Complete

I was able to pick up my visa yesterday and fortunately I had a t-shirt with me because they wouldn’t let me pick it up in a sleeveless shirt, seriously. For women it seemed to be alright but for men it’s a definite no go and as I waited in line I watched two other guys get stopped and denied as well. Fortunately one of them had a t-shirt with him and the other was with his girlfriend who was able to step up to the counter and stand in line for him. I guess at the Thailand consulate in Penang they’re intimidated by man arms so remember to have some sleeves on hand if you plan on getting a visa there.
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Fixing a Broken System

Who are the “Billionaire Class” and why is Bernie so adamant about standing up to them?

Why is comprehensive campaign finance reform so critical to the future of U.S. democracy?

When are people in the U.S. going to wake up and support politicians that represent their best interests rather than those of big money donors?

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

The more you learn the more you Feel the Bern!

Bernie 2016

I support the Independent Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders for President of the United States because of all the candidates running for the Presidency in 2016 I’m confident that under a Sanders Administration we can achieve the best health outcomes for individuals, society, and the planet.

The purpose of this post isn’t to get you to support Bernie but to encourage you to learn more about him and then to ask yourself if there’s a better candidate not only in terms of integrity, foresight, and policy; but also in terms of ability to appeal to voters across the political spectrum and electability in the general election.

With so much at stake thank you so much for getting informed and involved!

Bernie 2016

Feel the Bern.org

Additional Grassroots Resources

How and When to Vote for Bernie in the Primaries

Just below are three short videos that are well worth watching.


2016 Circus

I watched the Fox Business GOP debate… pretty pathetic and I say that as a freethinking independent voter whose views straddle the political divide. To sum it up in a few words besides all the Obama bashing and making the U.S. out to be as if it was in as precarious of a position it was in when Obama first took office the Republican candidates are still acting like they’re running against Hillary Clinton. However I think a few of them are starting to realize that they may have wasted a lot of their hate on a candidate that isn’t going to make it past the primaries.

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SOTU 2016

In case you missed it President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address last night. In summary despite what you may have heard from Fox News, Conservative Talk Radio, and in the Republican Debates the U.S. has done pretty well the over past 7 years particularly when you compare them to the previous 8 under President George W. invade-the-wrong-country-and-give-rise-to-ISIS Bush who was granted the authority to do so by then Senator Hillary Clinton who supported the disastrously destabilizing and illegal invasion of Iraq a war which was opposed by Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.

If you’re interested in watching and/or reading about the speech you can do so on the White House website.

How Long Did You Fast Today?

I advise anyone who asks me about diet or health in general to fast for at least 12 hours a day. Personally I aim for 16 hours and although I sometimes fall short I couldn’t imagine not fasting for at least 12 hours in a day especially when considering I’m asleep for about 8 of them. It seems my personal experimentation and the conclusion it has led me to also has some research behind it.

BBC News article on fasting

Try Until You Die

I told a kid in a store how soda wasn’t good for his health and then as I stood behind him at the cashier I told his Mom that plastic bags weren’t good for the health of they environment as she put her soda into one. After they left the clerk said “You are very good.” to which I laughed thinking to myself it’s all useless or at least it often seems that way. However I thought about it for a second and told myself “Try until you die.” because that’s all you can do other than quit or die neither of which is an ideal option.

So keep trying and keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to raise awareness and educate people even if it is the billionth time you’ve had to say virtually the same thing to someone who would probably rather you not said it. When it’s safe to do so please speak up when you see someone doing something which harms other people, e.g., children in their care or the environment because although we might not be able to perceive it in real time it does help pull humanity in the right direction.

Crappy People

There’s a narrow side street that passes by my current residence which connects two larger streets and if I drew a map it’d look like a capital “H”. Usually you only get the occasional motor scooter driving through since one end has a curb however a couple days ago there were two guys that parked their truck at the end of it to do some work. When I came back they were gone and here’s what I found in the once relatively clean street.

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Don’t Jump!

I was at the beach yesterday and despite the warning sign I saw some people thinking about jumping into the water. I told them it wouldn’t be a good idea to jump from a 6 meter high cliff into 2 meters of water. I’ve jumped from this cliff and had done so about a week earlier however that was at high tide and just after the the moon was lined up with the sun as it is during a new moon or a full moon.

To learn about high tide, low tide, spring tides, neap tides, and how to better predict them check out this website by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.

Predicting the Tides: Webpage

Lesson on Tides: Slideshow or Video

It helps to know where exactly the moon is at.

P.S. I bet Professor Splash and Dana Kunze could have done it safely.

 

A Huge Step in the Right Direction

Although yesterdays historic agreement in Paris falls far short of what is needed to keep the global temperature from rising 2C above pre-industrial levels, let alone 1.5C which was at least mentioned in the final agreement, it does lay a solid foundation to do so; but only if we as citizens continue to press our governments to take increasingly ambitious action to mitigate climate change. This means making it clear to our representatives in government and any candidates who seek our vote that we expect action, not apathy, and certainly not denial when it comes to this increasingly critical issue.

Considering we’re already more than halfway there limiting temperature rise to 1.5C will take a considerable amount of effort and ingenuity but if most of us do our part anything is possible. We can all start by eating less meat and more plants, and by burning less fossil fuels and more plant derived calories by walking and biking. By taking these two health conducive actions and reducing the amount of resources we waste in our daily lives we can go a long way in reducing our carbon footprints and by setting an example and speaking out we can go a long way in helping others reduce theirs.

The U.S. and Climate Change

With the U.S. responsible for emitting more of the greenhouse gas currently in the atmosphere than any other two nations combined and the average U.S. citizen responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that are over three times the global average it is shameful that so many U.S. citizens chose to elect such a scientifically illiterate and ecologically irresponsible group of ill-informed and imprudent people to the U.S. Senate and Congress.

If your representatives recently voted against reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and you disapprove then please let them know that you support the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to curb climate change; and when considering who to vote for in future elections please take where the candidates stand on protecting the biosphere, preserving its biodiversity, and curbing climate change into serious consideration.

White House     U.S. Senate     U.S. House of Representatives
Please write to your representatives in government when their actions do not represent you.

per_capita_emissionshistorical_emissions

United Nations Climate Change Conference

The two most important weeks of this year, the last, and perhaps even the next will be getting started in 6 days with the Global Climate Marches planned across the world for Saturday November 28th and Sunday November 29th just before the start of COP21 on the 30th.

If you have a march scheduled in your area please promote/attend and if you don’t then consider doing what I’m doing and start one. At times like this it is critical that we inform our fellow global citizens and show those who represent us in government where we stand.

For more information please visit 350.org.

paris-2015

Vietnam War

April 30th marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. A war which spanned three decades during which millions died, many of them civilians and many of them engaged in armed struggle first against U.S. backed French colonizers and then against the U.S. itself who in addition to bombs covered the beautiful and biodiverse country of Vietnam in toxic chemicals which are still causing horrific birth defects to this day.

While so many eyes are on Japan and it’s Prime Minster in anticipation of how he will represent Japan in another WW2 anniversary apology I think more eyes should be on the U.S. for an apology which has yet to come for what it did in Vietnam as well as in neighboring Laos and Cambodia where people are still being maimed and killed as a result of unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. which has thus far done far too little to clean up.

There are many lessons to learn from the Vietnam War including how racism and us/them thinking in general can pave the way to unthinkable acts one couldn’t even imagine enacting upon ones “own people”. More important than celebrating victory on this 70th anniversary of WW2 the U.S. should be humbly reflecting upon defeat on this 40th anniversary of the Vietnam War and how an ill-informed public along with bad foreign policy decisions like the one to support the French in their attempt to recolonize Vietnam after it fought with the U.S. in WW2 to expel Japanese forces led to such a terrible tragedy.

East West WW2

On this 70th anniversary of WW2 rather than simply pointing fingers at Japan it’s important to better understand the events which led a country that existed in near complete isolation and at peace with the world for well over 200 years to militarize and to or attempt to brutally colonize it’s neighbors. While Japan has no excuse for its actions during and leading up to the war Western powers must not fail to recognize their responsibility in helping to shape pre-WW2 Japan because one of the most important things that can be learned from any war is the role ones actions played in shaping if not creating ones enemies and adversaries.

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U.S.-Japan Pew Poll

In a recent Pew Poll regarding U.S.-Japan relations I was surprised to read that out of 1000 U.S. adults polled 73% said they had never heard of Prime Minister Abe who is Japans current and longest serving Prime Minister in nearly a decade. Considering the U.S. has around 50,000 military personnel stationed in Japan with over half of them stationed on the small island of Okinawa which represents only around .6% of Japans total landmass, and treaty obligations to defend Japan if it provokes a war with China over its refusal to even recognize there is a territorial dispute with China over the Diao Yu Islands I thought I should provide a brief introduction to Mr. Abe by mentioning some of his fairly recent statements and actions.

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Palm Oil

I don’t eat palm oil, or any oil for that matter, nor do I use products made with palm oil. However you probably do so please consider contacting the companies that use palm oil to make the processed foods and other products you consume and insist they use only Certified Sustainable Palm Oil in their products.

We can’t all be personally responsible for every problem in the world but we are definitely responsible for the problems that we create via our purchases. The good thing is many of the things we enjoy can be provided to us in more ethical and sustainable ways provided we make our support for such better practices known to the companies that seek our business.

WWF Palm Oil

Death Penalty and Animal Experimentation

Rather than be abolished I’d like to see the death penalty replaced because it’d be more ethical and beneficial to humanity to test experimental drugs and other treatments on people worthy of the death penalty than it would be to continue doing them on innocent animals like non-human primates who didn’t rape, murder, or maim anyone. However before any jury votes on sentencing someone convicted of a heinous crime or crimes to a punishment like this they should first be required to watch the documentary The Thin Blue Line because if there’s any shred of doubt as to a persons guilt then such harsh punishments must be taken off the table.

Tell Congress to End Chimpanzee Experiments

Ask Airlines to Stop Shipping Monkeys to Be Tortured

from peta.org by unknown