From Underneath the Trees

Before I say anything, I think it should be established that I tend to be cynical in the things I think of. I more think of it as realistic but it comes across as cynical. Anyway here is the rub:

Today I was watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition and they were helping out a soldier who lost his leg. Given, he had much more than that going for him. He received a lot of mettles and awards for excellence in service. However, let’s take two hypothetical soldiers:

Soldier 1: He volunteered for the Military and was sent off. He did his job well enough however was never really commended for his work. However, one day while working a normal shift his Humvee gets hit with an IED and he loses a leg. He is sent home after two years of service. At home he slowly recovers and shows good sprit about it. He is dealing with it just like any other person would deal with it: well. His wife sticks with him and they eventually get old together.

Soldier 2: He volunteered for the Military and was sent off. He did his job well and climbed the ranks. He fought in many battles and dealt with the death of many of his friends. He makes a career out of military service and eventually becomes a colonel (a rather decent rank however nothing amazingly special). He eventually retires and goes off to live a civilian life

My question is not who needs something like an Extreme Home Makeover. Because then it is obvious, the guy who loses a leg does because he is disabled and needs it to move around. My question is who deserves it more. One could make the argument that the guy who lost his leg deserves it more because he sacrificed more for the country. However, I feel that it was not his choice to give that leg and the other guy may have done it just as willingly. Because it was not a choice it reflects no personal character. Sure, how one deals with it once home does. However, I truly feel like if any of us had a tragedy like that we could pick ourselves up and confront it. I mean it is only our livelihood. I feel that the guy who gave his whole life into a military career is more “deserving” because he gave more to this country then the guy who lost his leg. Not to say that the guy who lost his leg wouldn’t have given more if he hadn’t lost his leg. I am just saying that the guy with a leg has physically done more for our country so in that respect he is more deserving.

What are your thoughts on this? Please please please please please feel free to disagree with my assertion, it is the only way I become a more thoughtful individual :-) thank you!

I am updating cuz yourlovingfeta  told me toooooo

I hate the stock market; to me it seems like the most arbitrary system in existence. It all has to do with confusion between primary and secondary gains. Primary gains are those were the benefit is directly apparent, if you get a nice stake, you can eat that stake right there and then. Secondary gains are those which benefit you indirectly, if you get your pay check you can use that to get your nice stake.

I believe that our society gets easily confused between primary and secondary gains; essentially we treat money as an end in and of its self. However if one were to think about it for more then a few seconds that little slip of paper means nothing without a value we assign to it. So when money becomes an end in its self then something is missing in our society.

Beyond this, when one can speculate about the value of something, one could add “value” to them without actually adding value. For instance, let’s say someone thinks that the price of chicken is going to go up. Because of this that person buys a lot of chickens and just holds them. Later the price of chicken does in fact go up so the person sells his or her chickens. This person just got money, and did not add any primary value to their investment. To me this type of buying and selling seems very waist full.

Unfortunately this glitch in the system would be present in any type of capitalist government.

Not that my tone has been at all formal for this "dissertation" but I feel that more what I was going for was a casual discussion of what I believe. So it will look similar but I am just changing up my goal.

Section II

Power is gotten by those who are good at getting it. This is an unfortunate but true fact. Because of this our government is made up of all lawyers and people willing to sell their mother for power. This does not seem fair, because there could be someone who could help us save the world, however if that person is not good at getting power then that person will be left in the dust.

Because of this we do not have a diverse view point representing the people of the world. There are hardly any scientists, religious leader, doctors, farmers, or average Joes. Because of this representation gets corrupted and people will only be represented through the lenses of a lawyer.

The consequences of this are corruption, manipulation, and waist. I feel that political campaigns are a huge waist of money. One may spend a lot of money to get a huge voice, but what is the point of that money if they do not win? Especially when it is tax dollars, it should be the better leader wins, not the one with more money or public speaking ability.

I feel that democracy will yes get the view points of everyone but along with that stifles the political process. When the goal is to win the presidency and not to make the best leader that takes precedence to the issues. I am not sure how we can fix this problem with democracy, however I know that eventually it will have to be. I may have proposals to fix things in later sections of my writing

I feel that this problem is largely do to the fact that we have been able to become so disconnected with our actions. If we had to kill our meat for survival many people may not be able to kill the cow they need to eat for dinner. So the problem with our money system making it easy for us not to think about the world has made it hard for us to think of our actions on a larger scale.

Because humans are animals like any other animal on the face of the earth, we have a desire to reproduce despite what environmental impacts it may have. If we look at this from an evolutionary psychology point of view, this makes perfect sense. Those with genes which want to reproduce will reproduce more then those with out those genes. However we have come to a point in time when those genes could be our downfall. History has never selected against creatures which stop growing. Unfortunately there is about to be a large change when growth will actually be detrimental. This is similar to cancer; it will grow and grow because the nutrients are around for it to grow. However if the cancer grows too big it will kill the person, thus no more nutrients for the cancer.

I do hate to beat the now antiquated idea of man kind being a virus on the world originally presented by The Matrix however it is very true. There is little in our evolutionary history which would make us naturally mindful of our environment. However for one reason or another evolutionary history has given us a mind. With this mind we have built wonders. The only thing left to do is build the last wonder, one that will make all of us sustainable.

As of now there is little sustainable development going on in our world. In many places we practice slash and burn agriculture. However if you think about it, everything is going to have to be sustainable at some point. Is it going to be any easer later then now? Will it have any less of an economic effect later? So why not start now, the world is going to have to change eventually.

As of now we live in a primarily capitalist society. I find little fault in a capitalist society until we lose sight of what we are actually doing. Food is a good example, when you buy food your goal is to either feed your family or feed your self so in that instance that is all that matters. The act in and of itself of feeding your family is required, however what happens on the other end. It is likely that the food was transported almost half way around the world from a country which needs its food much more then we do. However it is the all mighty dollar that makes it possible to become so disconnected from the consequences of buying.

By this logic the capitalist system only works when one understands completely what they are buying. Because of this I will make an attempt to understand what I am supporting when I buy something. In a lot of ways what comes before you in any system of production and distribution is much more important then after it is bought. Unfortunately all that matters in our current system is making you buy it, before that it doesn't really matter.

Another issue this world has is our treatment of natural resources. The reason this is a problem is because we see resource management as a one way street, you buy something and when you are done with it you throw it away. However it is a fundamental property of matter that it can not be created or destroyed. Because it can not be created it must come from somewhere, mainly the earth as of now. Because it can not be destroyed when one throws something away it must go somewhere. Now what happens when we run out of the materials needed to make things on one end, and everything is now in a land fill? This is why everything must eventually be recycled. If we continue down this one way street we will only end up destroying our self in the bust side of the boom bust cycle.

The reason this is such a problem is because it is so hard to identify with running out of resources. Other issues, like the crises in Darfur, are really easy to identify with, people are dyeing that’s right in your face. But something like this that says one day we are going to run out of resources and this will cause all of us to die is much harder to put a face on. Nothing has happened yet so why would it now?

A different way of looking at it was purposed by M. King Hubbert who said the following:

The world's present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin.

The first of these two systems has been responsible for the spectacular rise, principally during the last two centuries, of the present industrial system and is essential for its continuance. The second, an inheritance from the prescientific past, operates by rules of its own having little in common with those of the matter-energy system. Nevertheless, the monetary system, by means of a loose coupling, exercises a general control over the matter-energy system upon which it is super[im]posed

 

By this Hubbert means that we have two systems which are currently fine together. On the one hand you have the monetary culture which grows and consumes following an exponential model. Essentially the human race wants things, thus we will get them and grow bigger exponentially taking them from wherever we can. However it requires resources to manage that growth. And the resource system follows a bell shaped curve. This means that we will get allot of resources to start with, simply because technology will get better and better so we can get more and more. However, eventually we will run out so no matter how good our technology is we will not be able to pull any more out of the ground. This is where it turns and starts to gradually fall. Eventually we will no longer have the resources we need to support ourselves. Once this happens we will be in trouble and that may lead to the end of the world because by that time no one will have enough to support themselves. I hope that before this occurs we will be able to create a sustainable system were everyone gets enough.

Figure 1

Given: at the core people are all the same in that they have needs and wants that if fulfilling they would be happy. Now if we, as in the human race, are the ultimate judge of our society then I believe that fulfilling our own needs takes precedence. This does not mean fulfilling every little need you have by quitting your job and going off and partying all the time. What it does mean is paying attention to fulfilling the needs of the human race.

To do this we need the raw materials to make the world work. Fulfilling the needs of people takes resources. Unfortunately resources are limited so as of now there is not enough to go around to everyone. Because of this the world has developed the mentality of the haves and the have nots. Once we can break through this wall of the haves and have nots when there is enough for everyone to be a have without others losing out because of it the world will be a much better place.

But not only do you have to provide for all 6,000,000,000 of us, we have to make sure we can hold on to it forever. To make sure this eventually occurs population must even out so it is simply easer on the world around us to provide the resources we need. In population dynamics there is something called a boom bust cycle where a species booms and then can no longer support itself so it busts. The human race may be a great example of such a species if we keep going the way we do. In this dissertation I plan to clarify what needs to be done on a large scale so that our society will eventually make its citizens as happy as possible.

We wish to suggest a plausible design for the prion which causes Emoism. Emoism is a mental and physical disorder in which unsuspecting teenagers are infected with the prion emotiace which will breakdown any anti-emo hormones normally released from the body. Infection occurs as soon as certain albums by artists such as My Chemical Romance or The Used are played in any device with the ability to project sound. The sound waves cause the prion emotiace to be formed from healthy anti-emo proteins. The function of the anti-emo proteins is normally to force the cell into apoptosis if they are attacked by emo sound waves. However, much like cancer, when they are adversely affected they evolve and start to spread emotiace throughout the body. Over time emotiace will attach its self to healthy hair follicles, an attack on the hair yields three major symptoms. The first symptom is a blackening of the hair pigmentation caused by a change in the hair protein. Second the prion will break any disulfide bond which may exist, making the hair strait. With long enough exposure hair begins to exhibit a positive oculartropism, meaning they will grow towards the eyes of our victim. By this time the body is actively releasing another protein which attacks clothing. This protein is able to shorten the fibers which make up the victims clothes, making them tighter and tighter. In some cases, mainly in males, the jeans switch gender to female jeans. Some extreme cases force the body to release a neurotoxin which switches the pain and pleasure receptors in the victim's brain. This causes some of them to exhibit a behavior called cutting, were they cut themselves for pleasure. If someone has actually reached this stage it is advised that they seek immediate medical help. However, be careful, some less developed emos will simply claim to cut themselves as a way of getting attention. Be wary of these types of emos.

I got the new Linkin Park CD :-D.

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

Because I went through the trouble of uploading it that means you must download it

Well I have decided to make a monstrosity, recently anolinde sent me a cover version of Breaking Benjamin’s So Cold. So I decided to compare them side by side by overlaying them on each other. What came out was gross with two beets and voices talking over each other. But it’s kind of cool because it sounds a little like a round. Anyways the three songs are here for anyone who in bored enough to be interested.

So Cold – Breaking Benjamin

So Cold - University of Pennsylvania Off the Beat

So Cold Mixed – Breaking Benjamin & University of Pennsylvania Off the Beat

from anolinde

1) Say one good thing about George Bush. Go on, I dare you. (And not something like, "he can't run next year.")
He did a very good job with the managing the economy, under him we expanded a lot despite raising interest rates. but I mean the economy to me just seems like a made up number.

2) What disease are you most afraid of getting?
Ebola, you die bleeding out of every hole of your body! :-D

3) If you could travel back to any time period, which one would you choose?
Well if I could go back and forth it would defiantly be medieval and I could look like god by taking flashlights and stuff back then. If not I would go back to the 90's because they still had some sort of computer.

4) Is there anything better than chocolate?
More chocolate :-D

5) If you had one day to do anything that you wanted, what would you do?
I would fly around all day like superman :-D

INSTRUCTIONS
01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
03. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


1. If you could be any color crayon, what color would you be and why?
Green most defiantly, because that is by far my favorite color and it is alive:-D

2. What is your favorite smell and why?
I like the smell of basements. it depends how disgusting it is but they generally smell pretty good :-p. I do not know why

3. ARE YOU FEELING YUMMY HEAD TO TOE?
...you caught me

4. If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be and why?
*breaks out in song*I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger. *gets embarrassed and stops* because then I could start freshmen year over again sine up for the right science teem, maybe to S&D and help divert the self destruction of my other friends

5. What kind of a first impression do you think you give people?
I try to leave people with a first impression of maturity and intelligence. However I think that I can come off strong and be annoying

Fuck other people, literally and figuratively

P.S. I Beat pinkeeyore

I have decided to take a pole, the pole is in regards to the song Next Contestant (Dl at http://www.sendspace.com/file/4uz8tc) by Nickleback(Lyrics available at http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nickelback/nextcontestant.html).

What I am wondering is if that is actually attractive to anyone? To me it sounds like an over protective brutish boyfriend. But then how am I supposed to know :-) interested in others points of view, Thanks!

P.S. Why must LJ block my link code :'(

elven_pirate_22 sent me an invite to an event over facebook. I feel it is necessary to extend that invite to those who still have their soles :-)essentially on February 1st (Thursday) from 6:55 until 7:00 there is some sort of protest going on. All you need to do to partake is turn off your lights for those five minuets to show support for our environment and a hope that we are not secured yet :-) I hope you all do it!

Well I finally got off my lazy ass and made a somewhat decent layout for my LJ with help from pinkeeyore so come and gasp at it's somewhat decentness!!!!!

I feel extremely bad for both families involved. On the one hand you have a family who lost a son one they loved. I don’t think unless any of us have gone though a similar situation we can exactly empathies. However we can understand how it is to lose a loved one. On the other hand you have the perpetrator who now can most likely never to back to school and is going to have their life permanently distorted simply for this incident in their life. One fate is not better than the other which in the end is too bad. This kid no longer has a chance to become a productive member of society. I think it would be best if their were some way to settle this out of court out of the system which will simply destroy another family, just in some way it must be delta with

Rest in Pease James :-)

Well I feel like ranting so I am going to do such. Today Adam Singer showed up at the spot. That was not too bad because I know he has improved much since he came to school. Still just because if his past it annoyed me to an extent, anyways here is the main point of my rant. The trippy hippy spot is getting too big and it shall only get bigger from its current place. This is because of something called a positive feedback loop. In a positive feed back loop the bigger something gets the bigger it will grow. It started off with a few people and then they invited all their friends. From their, they invited all their friends and it just got bigger and bigger. Unfortunately I see the positive feedback loop running out of control. Nothing against either of these people but Tim and Mike Demarko were both hanging out their. And they are friends with Ashley and so on. I see their being a real possibility that the really “popular” people coming their and taking it over. Such would make me oh so sad :’( *rant done*

Marry Xmas everyone! its the disney soundtrack from the 2000 celebration, it sounds like LotR mixed with Cirque du Soleil and some good vocals. Hope you enjoy it :-)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/pxgvm6

that is a link to the Idlewild soundtrack by Outkast becaue jenny requested it! have fun