Switch Soylndra from solar panels to Soylent Green food rationing?
Soylndra, touted by President Obama to produce green jobs, goes belly up at a cost of $335 MILLION for U.S. taxpayers. Soylndra produced solar panels; eleven hundred California workers will lose their jobs. Soylndra is the third U.S. solar company to go broke in less than a month.
Can taxpayers recoop some of those lost stimulus millions?
How about converting part of the Soylndra property to a drive in theater lot. And show old classic pctures such as Soylent Green.
Instead of solar panels have the plant produce to “soylent green” food rations. For publicity, sell the soylent green food rations at the drive in along with candy and popcorn.
For humanitarian purposes and Obama’s penchant for “leading from the rear” the Obama government can buy and stock pile soylent green food rations for the next humanitarian war akin to Libya. Dropping green wafers from the sky is something any NATO plane can do without high level U.S. intelligence.
Remember the movie Soylent Green? With Obama at the helm of the economy that may be the future Obama seeks for America. Instead of exceptionalism of military, economic and cultural pre-eminence America’s future may be worse off that the most distressed areas of Africa where war and poverty are rampent.
DrCameronjackson@gmail.com
Soylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer. Starring Charlton Heston, the film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including “soylent green”.
The film, which is loosely based upon the 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison, won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film in 1973.
In the year 2022, the population has grown to forty million people in New York City alone. Most housing is dilapidated and overcrowded, and the homeless fill the streets and line the fire escapes and stairways of buildings.
Food as we know it in present times is a rare and expensive commodity. Most of the world’s population survives on processed rations produced by the massive Soylent Corporation, including Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow, which are advertised as “high-energy vegetable concentrates.” The newest product is Soylent Green, a small green wafer which is advertised as being produced from “high-energy plankton.” It is much more nutritious and palatable than the red and yellow varieties, but, like most other food, it is in short supply, which often leads to food riots. Continue reading “Aptos psychologist: Change solar panel Soylndra to produce Soylent Green food rations and re-coop $335 Million?”
Neanderthals interbred with European & Asian early humans
Long ago, in a part of the world now known as Europe, early modern humans lived alongside the Neanderthal people – and they interbred.
A fast-growing population of modern humans eventually drove the Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago, but the benefits of those early dalliances between the two groups live on.
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Where was the endangered species act when we needed it?
With Hurricane Irene coming, many thousands must evacuate New York City. First time ever, the MTA closes down. No buses or subways for a day or so. Here’s a map:
The Swiss have successfully reduced societal and personal costs of drug addiction by supplying heroin and other drugs to addicts.
Manage U.S. drug addiction based on Switzerland's successful program Perhaps we can learn from the successes of other nations’ management of drug addiction.
In the U.S. today 1 out of 100 persons in behind bars. If crimes related to drugs can be managed successfully without incarceration that will reduce the number of people in jail and the societal costs of keeping them there.
And, very importantly, if drug addiction can be managed without incarceration for the use of drugs, the angst, and shame that individuals and families experience will be considerable less.
The Swiss have a successful drug addiction program. They have solved many of their drug troubles by creating a successful policy of enforcement, treatment, harm reduction and prevention.
The Swiss have a heroin maintenance program that supplies addicts with cheap pharmaceutical-grade heroin, methadone and other things they need. They have seen a great reduction in addict-caused crime in Switzerland.
Demand for outlaw drug dealers in Switzerland has declined because there is no reason to buy boot leg drugs when a source of cheap, guaranteed, pure, legal drugs is available.
The Swiss have virtually eliminated overdose deaths for those in the program. Injection-transmitted diseases (HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C) have been greatly reduced.
The Swiss drug policy has resulted in a great decrease in heroin’s addiction’s damage to society. In 2008, the Swiss endorsed the national drug policy with a 68%+ vote of support in a national referendum.
Consider what might happen if alcohol was illegal today. Might gangs fight for turf control? Imagine Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing gangs killing each other for control of the beer market!
When we had Prohibition there was a surge of violence and organized crime. If pot and heroin are legalized, there’s no need for drug cartels in Mexico to fight each other resulting in thousands of dead Mexican citizens. Why not put the drug cartels out of business with the legalization of heroin and pot.
But before we legalize drugs let’s put a treatment program in place which can replicate the success Switzerland has achieved.
Switzerland is not America. Switzerland is much more homogeneous. One program which fits all in Switzerland might not work in America. For sure, the U.S. does need a drug policy that works better.
For more discussion, see The U.S. Needs a Drug Policy that Works Much Better, Letters to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, Friday, July 8, 2011
The World Bank’s Biocarbon Fund had arranged to pay European “entrepreneurs” $1 million to establish a system under which 60,000 Kenyans would restrict themselves to farming under rigidly controlled, inefficient, “sustainable” techniques.
For that the Kenyans will receive $1.4 million over 20 years.
That’s right, the beneficent World Bank will enrich more Europeans so 60,000 Kenyans can receive $23.83 a piece for 20 years of drudgery, poverty and misery – a princely $1.19 a year.
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Return to the stone age (for at least some of us). “Tote that barge…”
San Francisco is one of the dirtiest cities in the US. And it is obsessed with no plastic bags….
Dirty San Francisco! San Francisco was the first city in the nation to ban plastic bags. It’s obsessed with recycling and organic food. But apparently none of this is satisfactory for the good people of Travel + Leisure magazine.
Our City by the Bay scored the dubious honor of being listed as the 12th dirtiest city in the nation in Travel + Leisure’s annual America’s Favorite Cities survey.
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The glory of organic filth.
patient centered treatment gives quality of life Woman living with advanced breast cancer seek quality of life not just quantitiy of life. Palliative approaches can help women whose cancer has spread to feel beter and possibly live linger.
Amy Berman published a Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2011, titled When Quality of Life is Especially Dear.
Avastian gives 5-6 months progression-free survival for women with advanced breast cancer. To be able to have Avastian should be possible for women with breast cancer. Lately, the FDA seeks to removal of approval of Avastian for breast cancer.
Amy Berman, diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer that spreads rapidly, rightfully wants quality of life — not quantity. She has chosen a palliative approach without chemotherapy, radiation or mastectomy.
What Amy Berman says makes complete sense. The patient’s goals must be central to decisions for patient care. For more info go to Amy’s blog: www.jhartfound.org/blog
DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
written by Amy Berman. “For those of you who haven’t yet heard, I have recently been diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer. This rare form of breast cancer is known for its rapid spread. True to form, it has metastasized to my spine. This means my time is limited. As a nurse, I knew it from the moment I saw a reddened spot on my breast and recognized it for what it was.
“My recent journey through the health care system has been eye-opening. In only a few months, I have witnessed the remarkable capabilities and the stunning shortcomings of our health care system firsthand. I am writing here because in the time I have left, I hope my story and my journey can help illustrate why some of the reforms that my colleagues and I at the John A. Hartford Foundation, as well as many others, have championed are so important.
“At the cancer’s earliest appearance, I consulted with a well-regarded oncologist in New York. After the tests were done she regretfully informed me that my disease was not curable. Because my cancer is hormone-receptor-positive, she recommended an evidence-based course of medications aimed at slowing the progression of the disease. Before I committed to this course of care, I wanted to get a second opinion. I secured an appointment with the pre-eminent researcher/clinician in the field of inflammatory breast cancer, at a top medical institution in Philadelphia.
“The building was beautiful, the staff attentive. They even assigned a nurse, whom they assured would follow me throughout my course of care. I had no doubt that the care would be top-notch.
“Everything changed when my mother and I sat down with the physician. He never asked about my goals for care. He recommended an aggressive approach of chemotherapy, radiation, mastectomy, and more aggressive chemotherapy. My doctor back in New York had said this was the standard, evidence-based protocol for patients in Stage IIIB, whose cancer had only spread locally. But since I am in Stage IV she said I wouldn’t get the benefit of this aggressive, curative approach.
“All of my patients use this protocol,†he said.
I was shocked. “Does this mean I could get better?†I asked.
“No, this is not a cure.†he answered. “But if you respond to the treatment, you might live longer, although there are no guarantees.â€
“My goals are to maximize my quality of life so I can live, work, and enjoy my family with the least pain and the most function. Would I undergo a year or more of grueling, debilitating treatment only to live with spinal fractures if the cancer progressed? Would the treatment strip me of the quality of life I enjoy now? I wouldn’t be cured by the treatment. Would I get the possibility of quantity and no quality?
I pressed him. “Why do the mastectomy?†I asked, puzzled. “The cancer has already spread to my spine. You can’t remove it.â€
His brow furrowed. “Well, you don’t want to look at the cancer, do you?â€
He made it sound like cosmetic surgery. Considering that a total mastectomy includes months of pain and rehabilitation, I thought that worrying about the view was secondary. Right now, I feel fine. I can work. I am pain free. Did I want to trade that for a slim chance of a little extra time (no guarantees, of course)? Would they be years of living, or years of suffering?
“But what about the side effects of radiation?†I asked. “I’ve heard they are terrible.â€
He frowned and seemed annoyed by my questions. “My patients don’t complain to me about it,†he replied.
Inwardly, I shook my head. Of course his patients never complained to him. Most of them were probably unaware that other, less aggressive treatments were viable options for patients with this stage of disease. To me, there were real drawbacks. Undergo aggressive therapy that might buy me a longer life…at what cost? I might never recover my health for the limited period of time I might have following the aggressive treatment. This doctor, top in his field, was reflecting the bias of our medical system towards focusing only on survival. He was focused only on quantity and forgot about quality. The patient’s goals and desires, hopes and fears, were not part of the equation. He was practicing one-size-fits-all medicine that was not going to be right for me, even though scientific studies showed it was statistically more likely to lengthen life. His lack of concern for my focus on quality versus quantity of life reminded me of how so many older Americans are treated at the end of life, shuttled in and out of hospitals and hooked up to countless machines to keep them alive when all they want is to manage pain and symptoms and to spend their final days at home, with their loved ones.
Based on a perverse set of metrics, the Philadelphia oncologist was offering technically the “best†care America had to offer. Yet this good care was not best for me. It wouldn’t give me health. Instead, it might take away what health I had. It doesn’t matter if care is cutting-edge and technologically advanced; if it doesn’t take the patient’s goals into account, it may not be worth doing.
I returned to my original oncologist. I was determined not only to choose treatment that would maximize the healthy time I had remaining, but also to use that time to call on our health care institutions and professionals to make a real commitment to listening to their patients.
In the health policy field, we call this patient-centered care. As a nurse and a senior program officer at a health care foundation, I understood my disease and my health care options well enough to make an informed decision about my treatment.
What about the millions of older Americans facing a terminal illness or chronic disease? How can they possibly stand up to the juggernaut of our health system and say, “No. I want care that focuses on my goals, care that is centered on me.†We need to make it easier for everyone to obtain care that fits their health care goals. How can we change the system and the measurement of quality to place the patient at the center? I call on everyone involved in health care practice and reform efforts to give serious thought about how we can reorient our health care system toward patient-centered care.
Idiotic regulations fine children with lemonade stand.
Idiotic regulations!
BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA) — You can make a fortune selling parking spots outside the US Open, but don’t even dream of setting up a lemonade stand.
A county inspector ordered the Marriott and Augustine kids to shut down the stand they set up on Persimmon Tree Rd., right next to Congressional. And after they allegedly ignored a couple of warnings, the inspector fined their parents.The director of permitting for the county, says it’s technically illegal to run even the smallest lemonade stand in the county.
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Insane but true: No govt. employee ever was fired
for following orders.
Want to literally grow a more resilient, healthier brain and also feel better? You can do it. The following is based, loosely, on a class for mental health professionals given by licensed neuopsychologist John Preston, Psy.D. in Aptos, CA.
First of all, rule out possible medical problems. So —
Go to your MD and get a physical and appropriate blood work. See if your MD recommends that you seek professional help to implement the following:
Improve sleep: Learn how to maximize “deep sleep” so you are more rested. Get up at the same time every day. Let light shine on you when you get up. Get at least 10 minutes twice a day outside exposed to day light.
A light box: Some people who are clinically depressed benefit considerably from a light box which delivers 2,500 LUX from 2-3 feet away from the person. The cost is about $250 or equivalent to a couple sessions of therapy.
Minimize stimulants: Limit caffeine (coffee, tea, some soft drinks) so it does not interfere with going to sleep. One or two cups in the AM will not interfere.
Minimize alcohol: Alcohol interferes with deep REM sleep patterns. So minimize alcohol use to what your doctor recommends. The Mediterranean Diet recommends one glass a day.
Improve your exercise program: Robert Thayer has examined the connection between low energy and high tension during a person’s typical day. Use some 30 second stretches to get you going, up and out walking. Depending on how in shape you are, get at least 10 minutes twice a day of moderate exercise. Sufficient that you “huff and puff” while walking. Make your goal, when physically able, 5,000 steps a day. A pedometer that costs less than $20 easily measures your steps.
Mental exercises: Engage in meditation an hour a day. Research studies show that an 8 week, six day a week program can change the way your brain functions. Use a simple form of meditation which focuses on breath . Exhale. Inhale. Pay attention to your breath. Push aside gently what comes to mind. Later, focus on what you feel, a hurt knee or pain in your shoulder. Notice it. Learn to focus on what your feelings are, notice them and become more aware of them.
Dietary supplements: Anybody can put anything in a bottle and sell it in a health store.
Know what you are buying — that it is what it say s and does not contain contaminants. Look for USP or NSF on the bottle. Go to www.consumerlab.com for information.
Dietary quick fixes: Feel fatigue or apathy? Ingest pure protein which increase tyrosine in your body. How: an egg, some tofu and nuts are excellent sources of pure protein. Don’t use in the evening as can keep you awake.
Carbohydrates — without protein — are excellent to get more triptophan into the brain in the morning. This releases insulin and helps control for diabetes. Oatmeal and bananas are excellent sources. It takes about an hour after eating to release the triptophan into the blood stream.
The Mediterranean Diet may help: It allows a glass of wine and studies show that persons on it long term have much less dementia, depression or diabetes.
We all want to sleep better, feel better and enjoy life more. These are some simple, well researched ways to do so. Try them out and let us know how they worked for you.
That proposed ban on circumcision on November’s ballot really isn’t so only-in-San Francisco after all.
We may be the first city in the country to see the ban make it onto the ballot, but opponents of male circumcision certainly hope we’re not the last. In fact, they just took out papers to qualify the same ban for the 2012 ballot in Santa Monica, too.
The nonprofit MGM Bill stands for Male Genital Mutilation.
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Well with SF and Santa Monica in, can Berkeley be far behind.
