The System Is Broken

US national labs receive lots of money to research energy production and consumption, how to mitigate the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption (global warming, habitat destruction, etc.), and ways to produce and consume energy with less impact.

Yet those same national labs waste amazing amounts of energy on a daily basis. Here are just a few examples.

• The food served in the cafeterias is consistent with the standard American diet (SAD) -- lots of meat, dairy, and highly processed foods. Food starts out as simple plants. To produce meat and dairy, we feed the plants to cows and chickens, losing a significant portion of the usable calories and emitting significant quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in the process. To produce processed foods like bread, snack foods, desserts, and highly sweetened beverages, the plants are processed in various ways, again losing a significant portion of the nutrients and emitting greenhouse gases. We could save energy by simply eating the unprocessed plants in the first place.

• Consumption of the highly processed food served in the cafeterias over time leads to chronic disease -- obesity, vascular disease (heart attacks and strokes), cancer, and autoimmune disorders. Eating unprocessed plants instead would save energy by reducing the future per capita healthcare requirements.

• More could be done at relatively low cost to encourage and support staff members getting more exercise and saving gasoline by riding their bicycles to work. Bike paths, lanes, and shoulders cost much less than the full roads required for cars or the fallout from accidents. Safety is a big issue at the labs. Why can't we make it safe to be green?
  

Who am I?

Who am I?

What am I?

Looking for I, nothing is found. There is just the looking. No looker to be found behind the looking.

Where do thoughts come from? They seem to simply appear from nowhere. It seems sometimes as if one thought leads to another, but there doesn't seem to be any way to be sure they are connected. What is seen is this thought, then another, then another, arising from nowhere, returning to nowhere. Or from God. Or from the conditioning. We can attribute the thoughts wherever we like. I still don't know where they come from.

Meaningless

How long can one enjoy a flat, tasteless life devoid of meaning? Maybe you can do without one of them -- meaning or flavor -- but not both.

Where does meaning come from? What connects signifier to signified?

Not the connection but the process that makes it -- awareness, consciousness -- that who is, what is, all that is.

Where does that process come from? Is it created by the brain or does it contain the brain? A moebius strip -- locally two sided, globally one sided.

Is it enough? Enough, not enough, all a judgement. Make the judgements happy. Be at peace. Or not. What else can you do?

So What?

Reading the coverage on the tazing of Andrew Meyer, I noted that a number of the stories pointed out that Mr. Meyer is a "known prankster" or has "a history of practical jokes."

Are practical jokers exempted from the right to free speech? Or was the point that this was just another of his "pranks"? How is the contents of his website relevant to the story?

The System is Broken: Liquor

The system is broken.

Trying to read your T-shirt

Men are stereotypically accused of looking at women's breasts. This conversation floated through my head earlier today and seemed funny...

Attractive woman wearing T-shirt: "What are you looking at, jerk?"

Me: "Um... I was trying to read your T-shirt."

Attractive woman: "Nice try."

Me: "It's true. Your breasts kind of get in the way. Sorry. Never mind."

Woman: "It says, 'Yanni Live'."

Me (looking away): "Thanks"

The System is Broken: Giving away national secrets is okay as long as you do it anonymously

"An embassy official provided no information about Iraqi casualties
but said no State Department personnel were wounded or killed. He
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to media."

So what was he doing speaking to media?! How is this system supposed
to work?

Giving away secrets is against the law, but "officials" do it, and
get away with it, all the time. Sometimes, as in the case of Valerie
Plame, it seems to be the people in charge who *want* information
leaked inappropriately.

The System is Broken: Contradictions

Why are some registered dietitians overweight?

Why do some nurses and doctors smoke? Wouldn't you think that health professionals would exemplify good health? But many of them are overweight and have poor health practices, like smoking and failing to get enough sleep. Why is that?

Why do religious leaders and organizations get involved in lawsuits? Aren't they supposed to be the experts at getting along with others?

Why is a nation ostensibly devoted to individual freedom and choice trying to force its system on other nations?