Heat

                                                                                           written 26 May, 2024

                                                                                          published 2 June 2024

  

            Humans are warm blooded mammals, which means our metabolism runs faster, allowing us to eat more varied foods, supports a larger brain, and allows life in more varied regions.  

            However, when external temperatures increase above 97°F, our bodies have to shed heat.  We can dilate the blood vessels below our skin, increasing the blood flow, allowing heat to escape, as we have very little hair on our bodies, reducing skin insulation.  However, our primary system is the evaporative cooling from our extensive sweat gland system.

            The evaporation of water requires significant energy, which is pulled from our skin, cooling it.  However, air always contains some amount of moisture: the "relative humidity".  When humidity is low, the air can absorb more moisture, and evaporative cooling is possible.  As the humidity increases, cooling becomes less possible.  When the air holds as much moisture as possible at that temperature (100 percent humidity), no cooling is possible.  This is why we can survive 115°F here in Ukiah, with a humidity of maybe only 30 percent, while 104°F with 99 percent humidity can be lethal.

            When our cooling systems fail, our body begins to die.  As more blood is shifted to the skin, central organs (kidneys, liver, and brain) become blood deprived, and begin to shut down.  Symptoms of heatstroke include: body temperature over 104° F, flushed skin, rapid breathing, racing heart rate, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, headache, agitation, irritability, slurred speech, confusion, delirium, seizures, and unconsciousness.  

            With increased heat, our cells "denature", and melt.  Proteins begin to come apart, kidneys and intestines begin leaking toxic waste into the blood stream, triggering systemic clotting of the blood.  Once all the clotting proteins are consumed, we hemorrhage everywhere, as our bodies disintegrate.  The only remedy, if applied in time, is to cool down our core, by drinking cool water, moving into cool shade or buildings, or being immersed in cool or icy water.

            After thousands of years of relatively stable climate and temperatures, we now live in a climate hotter than the one we were born into, and heat death is increasing.  A 2003 European heatwave killed over 70,000 (more than all US deaths in Vietnam).  A 2010 104°F heatwave in Russia killed more than 55,000.  In 2017, Pakistan experienced record heat of 129°F.  In 2021, Antarctica saw an extra 70°F, a heatwave in the Pacific Northwest killed more than 1,000, and 126°F heat hit Pakistan again.  2022 brought a 104°F heatwave to London, killing more than 3,000, and Phoenix set a heat record of 122°F.

            For those that can afford it, air conditioning has allowed human civilization to survive in increasingly lethal heat conditions.  But this technological fix has limitations.  To cool a building, the heat is shifted to the outside environment, making the outside even more lethal.  A more serious concern is the availability of electricity.  Last September, record heat, and record use of air conditioning, nearly crashed the California electrical grid.  Rolling blackouts were avoided by massive voluntary customer load shedding.   In places where electricity is less secure, people die when the power goes down.  2023 was the hottest year on record, and 2024 is already hotter.

            Despite growing awareness that the climate crisis is real, humanity is adding increasing amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere every year.  The wealthy few who are profiting from the existing energy system are doing everything they can to keep people ignorant of the problem.  People seem to deny a situation until it affects them personally.  So, for the foreseeable future, we will have to deal with what we are creating.

            Here in Ukiah, the City Council, the City manager, and the head of the City electrical utility should begin planning for power resilient cooling centers, because the grid is unstable in times of high heat.  Traditional use of diesel or propane power not only adds to the underlying climate problem, but these expensive systems are rarely used, and might not work when needed.  

            The City has been told by NCPA, our power provider, they need to add 15 percent more power produced locally.  In addition to designing local systems to power essential City services, a creative plan would install renewable power for cooling centers, which could be of use all the time, while being ready for emergencies.  Furthermore, an effort should be made to help other groups build resilient cooling systems, as the entire community will be in need.

 

 

Fire Insurance

                                                                                           written 19 May, 2024

                                                                                        published 26 May 2024

  

            In unity reality, everything is connected, so any evaluation of a situation has only a relative "beginning" point.  In most cases, the "start" is when something rises to the point of unavoidable awareness.  A case in point is the home owner's insurance crisis.

            An arbitrary beginning might be the end of the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago.  Atmospheric CO₂, functioning much like a home thermostat, rose 50 percent over a few thousand years, and then held steady.  This warmed the planet enough to melt ice sheets several miles thick, allowing the rise of human civilizations.  All of recorded history has occurred within a stable temperature range.  

            Beginning a few centuries ago, humans began tapped into stored fossil energy, which living organisms had laid down over millions of years.  Beginning slowly, but increasing every year, the combustion waste products changed the atmospheric chemistry, slowly increasing the temperature.  As of today, humans have increased the atmospheric CO₂content by another 50 percent. 

            When the planet heats, droughts increase, and fires increase in both frequency and intensity.  The California fire season is now year around.  A few years ago, a fire burning into Redding became a tornado, with temperature up to 2,000°F.  Whole communities have been destroyed.  As we continually add more CO₂, this problem worsens.

            The fire insurance industry evolved during more stable times.  Historic records were reliable measure of future events, and insurance rates could be confidently established, giving a balance between homeowner affordability and insurance company profit motives.  However, as the atmospheric chemistry changes, the rate of asset destruction increases.  Historic records no longer accurately predict future losses.  As the companies pay out more than their premiums bring in, they risk bankruptcy.  

            In California, regional insurance companies can't raise rates arbitrarily, but are legally constrained in order to insure homeowner affordability, a socialist balance against the normal greed inherent in insurance.  Until recently, future forecasting of risk wasn't allowed.

            A further pressure on regional companies comes from the fact that they insure themselves with international reinsurance companies, which necessarily take long-term, global reality into account.  Decades ago, they began to notice the climate crisis was increasing losses they covered, and they began to raise reinsurance rates to the regional companies.            

            With climate driven destruction increasing, regional companies were caught between the legal inability to raise rates locally, and the constantly increasing re-insurance rates.  Rather than going bankrupt, regional companies began to quit the California market.  The California FAIR Plan is a state-run backup insurance plan, providing coverage that is more limited and more expensive.  However, a significant portion of the funds come from all the insurance companies operating within the state.  Consequently, if too many for-profit insurance companies leave the state, the FAIR Plan is also at risk.

            California has bowed to reality, and recently changed the rules to allow forecasting of future risk when setting rates.  This reduces the threat of lack of available insurance, which could have crashed the entire real estate industry and the banking system which funds it.  Uninsurable property loses 80 percent of its market value, threatening the property tax income of every level of government.  While allowing rates to increase might keep insurance available, it won't necessarily be affordable.  The bankruptcy threat shifts from companies to individuals, neither being socially beneficial.

            We pay about .4 percent of our home value in annual insurance costs.  Other states already pay from 3 to 13 times as much.  Florida has experienced 5 major hurricanes in the last 7 years.  Flooding and storm damage is increasing so fast that the entire state may become uninsurable.  Most of the US has yet to factor in the growing climate risks when it comes to insurance rates.  Increasing climate driven losses threaten to bankrupt all forms of insurance, which is beginning to get more attention.

            But adjusting insurance rates does nothing to deal with the root problem of our worsening atmospheric chemistry.  Effectively dealing with this has two parts: decarbonization and sequestration.  We are still adding ever more CO₂ every year.  Decarbonization is the process of re-engineering our entire economy to reduce that emission rate to zero as soon as possible.  Sequestration is the process of removing 1,000 billion tons of CO₂, returning to 300ppm, a level we know can sustain humanity.

            While canceled insurance gets attention, we have to do more to leave a habitable planet for our descendants. 

 

 

Blaming Others

                                                                                           written 12 May, 2024

                                                                                       published 19 May 2024

  

            In 1755, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit Lisbon, Portugal, destroying the city, including all the churches.  Since geophysics was unknown in those days, the "cause" was attributed to "sinners" who had angered God.  Church leaders helpfully pointed out the guilty few, who were immediately lynched.

            The concept of scapegoat, "one that is made to bear the blame of others", is ancient, a tool used by fundamentalist in all authoritarian structures.  It presupposes the "problem" resides outside their community, and promises changes "out there" will fix things.  When the real problem is internal, external fixes ultimately fail.

            Despite the equalitarian concepts within the Constitution, America has always fallen short in practice.  From the beginning, voting was limited to only white men, disenfranchising Native Americans, people of color, and women.  America's "experiment" in democracy has slowly removed these limitations, at least in the letter of the law.  But the social structure has consistently distorted the legal system, effectively preserving those previous exclusions, slowing progress toward real "equal protection under the law".

            The book "Prequel", by Rachel Maddow, describes the authoritarian scapegoating in America in the decade leading up to WW2.  Capitalism and authoritarianism have significant overlap, both being based in the flawed concept of exclusive gain.  FDR was dealing with the economic collapse of 1929, using the power of the government for the benefit of the larger population, angering the wealthy elite, who traditionally felt entitled to their position.  

            Hitler knew that it was important to keep America out of the war in Europe in order to consolidate his desire for empire.  To that end, beginning in the mid 30's, a massive, well-funded, dis-information propaganda campaign was launched in the US to divide the society, keeping it neutral.  

            Hitler was portrayed as a white Christian strong man savior, willing to take a hard line on the "undesirables" who he claimed were the root of all evil: Jews, communists, and immigrants of color.  Many influential Americans avidly supported with words and funds.

            White Christian nationalist organizations in America at the time were enlisted to Hitler's goals, including the KKK, the White Camellia, Catholic priest Charles Coughlin, America First Party, American Gentile Protective Association, American Nationalist Confederation, American White Guard, and the Silver Shirts.  

            Among the authoritarian supporters were Republican Senators and Representatives, who read German propaganda into the Congressional Record, and then sent it to massive mailing lists, using federal tax dollars.  Henry Ford had fascist newspapers in every Ford dealership, and put fascist literature in every Ford sold.  

            Several people understood what was happening, and began to investigate on their own.  The FBI and Secret Service weren't interested at first, because their focus was on communists, not fascists.  However, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany declared war on America in alliance with Japan, everything changed.  

            The popular tolerance of fascism collapsed.  Domestic German propaganda organizations were broken up, and dozens were indicted and tried for sedition.  But the domestic supporters of authoritarianism prevailed.  The biggest trial was ridiculed in Congress.  The trial was marred with unruly behavior by the multiple defendant’s lawyers.  It was all cast as partisan Democratic zeal.  Eventually, a mistrial was declared, and very few ever saw any consequence for their actions, as the tide of the war in Europe shifted to the allies, and German fascism lost completely.

            More than 8 decades later, we are witnessing a sequel.  White Christian nationalism is on the rise again, courted by another malignant narcissist.  Putin is presented as a white Christian savior, fighting a war in Europe.  Authoritarian propaganda, some originating from Russian Intelligence services, is read into the Congressional Record by Republicans.  Powerful media organizations support autocracy over democracy, and the Internet gives widespread, unfettered access unimagined in the 40's.  The issue in this next election is again between autocracy and democracy.  

            What is new this time is the climate crisis, a fundamentally unifying experience.  Last week saw flood inundation in Brazil, Uruguay, Kenya, Netherlands, Germany, Oman, Dubai, Afghanistan, China, Texas and Tennessee.  Lethal heat is beginning to hit southeast Asia.  More numerous, and stronger, tornados are hitting the US Midwest, extending further north and east.  This year is already hotter than 2023, which was the hottest year on record.

            At some point, humanity will awaken to our collective fate, and transcend the apparent outward differences to address our inherent unity.  The only real alternative is social collapse, with possible species extinction.

 

 

 

Access To Inspiration: part 2

                                                                                            written 5 May, 2024

                                                                                       published 12 May 2024

  

            In 1965, two clinical psychologists, Helen Schuman and William Thetford, were frustrated by how ineffectual their therapy forms were in the real world, and felt "there must be another way."  Shortly thereafter, Schuman began hearing a voice in her head, which said: "This is a Course in Miracles, please take notes."  

            Schuman did take notes, which she shared with Thetford, who offered to type them up.  Schuman was a devout Catholic, and described the process as inner dictation from Jesus Christ.  The underlying premise is that the greatest miracle is simply becoming aware of love's presence in a person's life.  Even though the information was disturbing to her traditional religious upbringing, she persevered.  

            Dictation continued over the next 7 years, resulting in three books: a text, a workbook for students, and a teacher's manual.  From the beginning, the document was shared with other psychologists, who were excited about the information revealed.  Growing interest brought funds for publication, and the books went on sale in 1976.  

            They became popular, with sales increasing every year since publication, especially after Marianne Williamson discussed them on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in 1992.  A Course in Miracles is now translated into 27 languages.  

            The text is a detailed presentation of a unity view of reality, a new conceptual way of relating.  The workbook is a series of 365 daily lessons, which gradually brings our unconscious programming up to awareness in the moment, allowing for growth and transformation.  The very first lesson is: "Nothing I see means anything", followed by the second lesson: "I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me."   

            As I mentioned last week, the increasing understanding of our material world, as exemplified by the rise of quantum mechanical technology, demands a shift in in our culture, economy, and consciousness, from the illusion of separation to the experience of a connected, unified world.  This shift involves recognizing the ways we have unconsciously internalized incomplete patterns from the past, accepting them as accurate definitions of reality.            

            Another aid to this type of growth is "The Choice for Consciousness: Tools for Conscious Living", published in 2011 by Veronica Torres, channeling Eloheim and The Council.  It begins with: "Living from the soul's perspective is only achievable by Being in the Moment.  Being in the Moment is only achievable by not having baggage with you in the Moment.  Not having baggage in the Moment is only achievable by becoming conscious of your baggage.  Becoming conscious of what's going on in the moment is only possible if you are willing to break habits.  Breaking habits is only possible if you're willing to confront the biology that says, Change is too scary.  Confronting the biology is only possible if you have courage."  The courage to change result is "Being in the body, but living from your soul's perspective."  The rest of the book describes various tools for achieving this transformed awareness and terms for understanding an evolved perspective on life.         

            Onenessofall.com is an online source that encourages this same shift in perspective, channeled by Marilyn Raffaele. 

            "This web site is dedicated to the promotion of truth and Light at this powerful evolutionary time.  Mankind has journeyed through lifetimes in which false concepts, beliefs, and fears were blindly accepted as the truth and in our ignorance, we gave away our power."

            "The Arcturians, one group of many highly evolved beings from other galaxies, wish to present their messages of love and guidance in order to assist the people of Earth to let go of the false fears that were given to and accepted by mankind.  They stand ready to offer spiritual and technical assistance when and if desired.  Free will does not allow them to step in unless asked."

            "It is time to embrace the truth of who we are and why we are here.  The answers are now pouring in from multiple Sources of Light.  Events of great energy and change began manifesting in 2012 and will continue.  It is crucial that mankind become informed and thus be prepared as changes occur."  

            "There is absolutely no need for fear.  For us and for Gaia; this is a graduation."

            The old ways of "knowing" have brought us to this point in evolution.  However, we are too powerful and numerous to be so ignorant much longer.  We are all alive today to participate in this graduation event.

 

 

Access To Inspiration: part 1

                                                                                          written 28 April 2024

                                                                                         published 5 May 2024

  

            Throughout the ages, people have experienced inspiration, often considering it communication from a transcendent divine.  This is so universal that I am offended when someone claims they have the "one and only" communication from God.  This is as foolish, narrow minded, and insulting as the materialist proclamations that matter is dead, consciousness is a biochemical artifact of brain complexity, and life is meaningless.

            Dating back thousands of years, in cultures all over the world, the "shaman" are individuals who are more sensitive to information beyond the ordinary safe and familiar areas of the culture.  Through inspiration, ceremony, and drugs, the shaman is vital to the survival of the tribe, directing where to hunt or how to heal the ill, validated by feedback from the real world.  

            All three major western religions describe individuals hearing the voice of God.  In Judaism, from Abraham through Moses, the burning bush, and the instruction of the ten commandments at Mount Sinai, communication from God is central.  Christianity is founded on the teachings of Jesus, who had numerous communications with God.  The entire Quran, the holy document of Islam, was transcribed by Muhammad, directed by the voice of God.

            More recently, the American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945, left over 14,000 medical readings, all transmitted while Cayce was in a sleeping state.  These have been curated by the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Cayce did readings on people at a distance, stating all consciousness is united beyond time, and his subconscious was able to access information from this timeless source.  While Cayce has numerous critics and sceptics, the testimony of his thousands of successful healings is difficult to ignore.  Before his death, he had achieved a worldwide following.  ARE study groups are located around the world to this day.  

            When I was younger, living in San Diego, my friends and I were exploring metaphysical subjects, and discovered a local ARE study group.  The woman leading the group was a clairvoyant channel, and gave readings to new people, to give information before getting to know the person.  I had questions, and decided to test her validity by listening to hear her answer them, without my actually asking them.  On the ride home afterward, I was deeply disturbed, because she had passed my test, and I had to rebuild my entire world view.  Within a year, I had quit my engineering job and moved to the Mendocino coast.

            The Berkeley Psychic Institute, in Berkeley, California, was founded in 1973, dedicated to training clairvoyant readers and healers.  In the mid 70's an Institute graduate moved to the Mendocino coast and began giving readings and classes.  I took a few classes, and demonstrated to myself that any complete theory of the world had to include a psychic component, even though I wasn't drawn to becoming a reader or healer.  However, a good friend of mine did pursue that path.  She had deep sensitivity, which she experienced as disturbing nightmares before she encountered the psychic framework of life.  She has been making her living as a medical intuitive for almost half a century.

            The advent of quantum mechanics pushed consciousness front and center in the world of physics.  The act of observing affects what is observed, opening the door for considering that the ground of reality is not matter, but consciousness.  Non-locality, the transcendence of space and time, is now well demonstrated for both matter and consciousness, despite appearances to the contrary.  This truth challenges our traditional view of reality.  Even though hardware based in quantum physics (such as nuclear weapons, computers, lasers, LED's, and solar panels) repeatedly validates the theory, and has radically transformed our society, we still live in a culture of obsolete Newtonian billiard ball thinking.   

            Every individual has access to non-local consciousness, which we experience as empathy, intuition and inspiration.  This is intensely personal, completely independent of outside control, despite centuries of religious and cultural structures which teach we are all separate.  One of the ways to understand the social upheaval of our times is to see we are awakening from that illusion, beginning to experience our fundamental connection.  This is frightening to people who want to be told what to believe, or have gathered fortune and power by telling others what to believe.  But that world is falling apart as more people feel their innate connection with life.

 

Earth Day

                                                                                          written 21 April 2024

                                                                                      published 28 April 2024

            Last week was Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970.  Since that time, humanity has added almost 700 billion tons of CO₂ to the atmosphere, 36 billion tons in 2023 alone.  We have changed our atmospheric chemistry, and are now living on a planet hotter than any humans have ever experienced.  2023 was the hottest year on record, but will probably be remembered as the coolest of the rest of our lives, because 2024 started out even hotter. 

            Weather extremes are becoming more common.  Last week, in one day, Dubai experienced the amount of rain that normally falls in 2 years.  Last summer, Greece was inundated with 22" of rain in a single day.  Every week, some portion of the world is dealing with flooding, and this year the hurricane season is projected to be 50 percent above the previous normal.  Lethal heat events are increasing.

            This climate impact is finally beginning to be acknowledged by the financial world.  A recent report stated that global climate costs are increasing, and will amount to $38 trillion a year by 2050, far more expensive than estimated costs of complete decarbonization.  Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, just reported that the climate crisis is an increasing driver of inflation, raising overall insurance costs by 20 percent, much worse in selected areas.  He warned that our built infrastructure is becoming "uninsurable", risking an 80 percent drop in market value.

            One the positive side, awareness of the climate issue is increasing, especially in locations where the impact has been greatest.  We know what needs to happen: stop making it worse, and begin making it better.  This means shifting away from anything that adds more atmospheric CO₂ and start effective sequestration of what already exists.  It will be expensive, socially disruptive, and take decades, but can result in leaving a habitable planet for our descendants, surely a goal worth embracing. 

            Significant efforts to respond are already happening.  The majority of new power generation being built is non-carbon.  Real transportation alternatives are on the market, getting better, cheaper, and more varied.  Serious thinking, and planning, is happening all over the planet.  However, there is still a lot to do.  Electrical generation has to triple, the grid has to evolve to handle the larger loads, our energy infrastructure has to be retooled, and massive numbers of skilled workers are required.

            Some of the progress causes more problems.  For example, the recent jump in temperatures is partially the result of eliminating high sulfur fuels, which cause air pollution and acid rain.  But the aerosols released also cooled the planet a little, masking some of the heat increase for the added CO₂.   

            However, considering the scale and magnitude of the problem, our best efforts to date are lagging behind what is needed.  There are still folks who think this is all just a liberal fad, doubting any reality to the concerns, or distrusting governmental involvement.  In addition, those currently making trillions off the existing fossil fuels energy system act like they are immune to the consequences, and heavily fund the climate denial campaign.

            Without a doubt, all these resistances will eventually fade away as the reality of the crisis eventually touches everyone.  The question is, will it be too late to make effective changes?  Some already feel we have passed that point.

            However, I am still optimistic.  I see the climate issue as a symptom, not the core of the problem.  It is an expression of the illusion of separation, manifested as the foolish belief we can kill the planet for profit.  This is insane in a unity reality, akin to drinking your own blood to quench your thirst.  But this mindset has dominated the species for thousands of years, so baked in that we mistakenly feel it is "human nature".

            The exciting part of these days is that the climate crisis is a unifying force.  There are no national, religious, gender, or economic barriers to climate.  It is unyieldingly inclusive.  Which means that any real solution, other than extinction, will require a unified global response.  The crisis is the consequence of human activity, but all life is in this together, whether we like it or not.  Therefore, real solutions will end the constant war with life, and begin massive cooperation with our living planet, honoring the fact we are part of life, not the "rulers".  We are here to manifest that solution.

 

 

The Money Addiction

                                                                                          written 14 April 2024

                                                                                      published 21 April 2024

  

            All human suffering come from believing the illusion of separation in a world that is fundamentally unified.  Nowhere is this clearer than how money operates.

            While capitalism has always suffered from the flawed assumption of "exclusive gain", the idea of who gets included has shrunk.  A century ago, a corporation was expected to serve not only the shareholders, but the suppliers, the employees, the customers, and the larger society.  This is what was taught at the Harvard Business School when it first opened in 1924, whose graduates go on to shape businesses everywhere.

            Over time, as the economics of accounting evolved, the quantification of profit became dominant over the more qualitative social values.  Today a corporation's entire goal is defined as maximizing shareholder return.  This gets more narrowed, prioritizing short term profits over everything else.

            We saw an example locally when MAXXAM corporation used junk bond money to take over the Humboldt county Pacific Lumber company in 1985.  For over a century, this company had been economically, and relatively environmentally, harvesting redwood, but Charles Hurwitz had convinced Houston bankers to front the money for a hostile takeover.  He then raided the pension fund and doubled the rate of harvest, clearcutting as fast as possible to pay off the high interest loans.  Big money "now" was more prized than sustainability.  Two decades later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

            ENRON corporation was formed in the mid 80's, and rapidly grew to become a significant player in energy commodities.  By 2001, it was the darling of Wall Street, held up as an example for all.  However, in October, 2001, it was revealed as a massive fraud, using questionable accounting techniques to make their profits look good each quarter, while hiding significant losses off book.  The stock crashed with the largest bankruptcy due to fraud on record, impoverishing all their employees, and some company officers went to jail.  

            But fraud and bankruptcy are not the only ways companies are damaged by exclusive focus on money.  Boeing corporation began building airplanes in 1917, becoming a major manufacturer during WW2, and continued to grow as domestic airlines expanded after the war, with a corporate ethic of excellence, safety, and ingenuity. 

            In 1997, facing increased global competition, Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, which had a corporate focus on Wall Street.  The merged company chose stock value over excellence, ignoring that making a product safe and well produced takes time.  The result was decreased worker satisfaction, and loss of production quality.  The recent news of parts falling off Boeing planes has hurt the company economically.

            Last year a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, creating a hazardous material fire that burned for days, forcing evacuation of the local community of 4,800 people, with unknown impact on the local environment and water supplies.  This is the result of corporate decisions to make trains longer (1.75 miles in this case), while cutting safety inspectors and train staff, all to save money.  This is typical of the entire railroad industry.  

            Exclusive focus on money has other adverse social impact as well.  In 2004, a second year Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, created the foundation for Facebook, originally a program for comparing which college women were "hotter".  This typically sophomoric, culturally misogynistic goal might fit into a college venue, but Facebook now has almost 3 billon daily users around the world, many of whom get all their news from this source.  Online advertisers, and platform algorithms, keep a viewer locked into their screen time, creating a $500 billion dollar company.  Combined with the explosive growth of smartphones, now almost 5 billion globally, we have seen a significant rise in online bullying, depression, and suicide among teenagers.  

            Closer to home, the drama around the Palace Hotel in Ukiah results from one man buying a derelict property at a discount, expecting to make a profit by doing nothing, rejecting serious bids to restore the building, while holding out for maximum return on his investment, expecting millions of dollars of tax payer funds to make that happen.  Each day the building deteriorates further.

            Money is only a concept, totally elastic when manipulated by those in control, able to be created out of nothing, and disconnected from reality for long periods of time.  However, the experience of life is much more than that.  As long as we sacrifice life for money, we all lose eventually.