Rebuilding Eden

I had the opportunity this weekend to travel to Washington, D.C. to return my son to school where he will be a Junior this fall. We took a similar trip just a few weeks ago to move my daughter into her first apartment. She is attending graduate school and thankfully they are only seperated by a few miles (more importantly 2 metro stops). I have never been in an area that has been gripped by the need for Change than the greater D.C. area is right now.

During this brief 2 day whirlwind tour we were approached no less than 2 dozen times for people looking for change. On the way to the metro, “Excuse me, do you have any change?”. Walking by the ballpark, “Got any change?”. People playing instruments hoping for change, people selling flowers hoping for change, people peddling local papers, hoping for change. More than anything else though, people doing nothing at all, just asking for change.

Presidents Clinton and Bush, with the help of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke have managed to get the printing presses of this country operating at full speed. It will be the job of the next president to get the Mints up to maximum capacity however, because if Washington D.C. is at all representative of this country, we are definitely in need of some change.

Last night as I was headed into the local Wal-Mart for yet another load of groceries for my always hungry crew I grabbed a cart on the way in as I usually do. Next to me, a mother and her three kids were walking in and the eldest boy says to the mother “Mommy, should I get us a cart too?”.

Her answer left me a bit mad, but not at all surprised. “No no honey, they have people to do that” Read the rest

(recovered from Google cache, thanks Google!) I have received a few emails this week regarding my weekly TalkCast, Rebuilding Eden, from some of my listeners on TalkShoe.com. Two of them stood out as they shared nearly identical opinions on the topics that we have been discussing recently, Peak Oil and Global Warming. Each of the listeners stated that they enjoyed the TalkCast, but had some reservations as to the relevancy of the information with regards to their own situations. The first argued that “We may not see any serious effects from Global Warming for years or even decades”. The second that “By the time we reach Peak Oil, the new technology will be there to relieve our needs”. In both cases I hope they are correct, but as we all know, hope is not a strategy. Read the rest

I have cause today to sit back and reflect a little bit upon the course my life has taken to this point and what I have accomplished thus far in my life. At first glance it appears to me that I have not really accomplished much. If I were to die today, what would my legacy be?

There would be no buildings erected in my name, no statues of me adorning the city center, no lasting “gifts” made to the study of science, mathematics, or any other education institute. I have simply been a drop in this large body of water we call life. Read the rest

I just wanted to get a short note out about the recent death of Scientist Bruce Ivins. He is the latest American scientist to be accused of the  Anthrax incidents involving Ton Daschle and the Washington Post. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock, or were too busy watching MTV, he killed himself while awaiting prosecution by the FBI.

The FBI claims that he acted alone in this dastardly deed. That he did in fact have the knowledge and expertise to create the Anthrax used in the attacks. If this is so then I would expect their investigation  to wrap up quickly and that documents will be published and the whole ordeal will be put to bed soon. My guess is that will not be the case. Read the rest

Image courtesy Butler County Sheriffs Department

On my way out this morning I happened to notice a trailer parked underneath a bridge underpass as I was going down the highway. A quick glance was all I needed to see that this wasn’t a break down parked on the side of the road, no this was the “Butler County Sheriffs Department Chain Gang” trailer.

I wasn’t surprised to see the trailer. Butler County, Ohio is renowned for its jail labor programs and this particular road gets scoured by inmates about once a month. I’m certain we will discuss the merits, or lack thereof, of such programs in the future, but today my surprise was not in seeing the inmates there. My surprise was about the trash. Read the rest

Polls and Statistics, statistics and polls, I just can’t take it anymore! If I get one more phone call from someone “conducting a political survey” I think I am going to be sick. The bias intertwined within the questions themselves is enough to make any sane person wince, but the questions themselves seem to be even more self-fulfilling then ever. Talk about a lack of choice, I’m waiting for a call asking me whether I prefer toast, toast or toast from the american bakers council. Tada! 87% of people questioned prefer toast! (The remaining 13% couldn’t take it anymore and simply screamed uncontrollably into the phone) Read the rest

If you’ve read my recent posts then you know that I spent a day in Washington, D.C. visiting my to oldest children at their school recently to celebrate my sons induction into the schools student government as the President of the Class of 2010. With the focus of our visit being a pseudo-political event, I  may have been more acutely aware of the political activities taking place around me. Maybe this years students are more politically active, or maybe the pending mid-term elections are generating more student activism, but one thing is for sure… Students from all of the major Colleges and Universities in the D.C. area can be found scattered around downtown staging rallies or protests at any time, any day of the week. Read the rest

This is what happens when you are smart enough to run your own webserver, but not smart enough to backup the sql database that contains all of your historical writings…you start over. This time you start over on a hosted machine though so that you have someone else to blame when a machine failure eats your homework. Back up soon…