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I am sure there is enough worthless commodities in our universe to create an identical copy of our entire galaxy using just rubies, diamonds and gold… why are these commodities that can be found EVERYWHERE used as the foundation of our economy?

The true value of mineral resources

I find it interesting that the worlds economies are based on, to be quite honest, things that have absolutely NO value! Let’s look at gold, you can’t eat it, you can’t bring it with you when you die and mores importantly, it can’t do a damn thing! When was the last time you saw a piece of gold cook you super or better yet, provide your family sustenance to keep you alive for yet another day. You could say the same thing about diamonds, rubies and many other minerals… whose value is perceived (brainwashed?) rather then real. If I had to choose between a certified check from Google for one billion dollars or a half-rotten fish in a survival situation, the half-rotten fish wins hands down unless I was looking for something to start a fire… in which the check may have some value
Why do we value gold, diamonds and rubies so much?

Did you know that diamonds and rubies can now be created by man for a fraction of the price both environmental and financial? Did you know that the vast majority of diamonds are actually used as industrial polishers and cutting tools? Now you do, all that marketing crap about “diamonds are forever” is just that, marketing of a product that is essentially worthless other then for industrial applications. The reason why we value these minerals is simple, we are groomed at a young age to attach value to it, just like we do with paper money where there is no difference between a million dollar bill and a one dollar one, they are both just paper. Sadly, our entire economy is based on useless substances. Paper grows on trees, yet just because it has a picture of some dead guy on it, it’s worth now many times the value of the tree it came from? This is just silly. I am not even getting warmed up, consider the stock market, “virtual” currency and God knows what else we attach value to.

Are we really smarter then our closest cousins?

Let’s look at the plight of our closest genetic cousins, Chimpanzees. They live out their lives rather happily when not being killed off by humans as we clearcut their habitat. They multiply and are born in the same way we do it, they eat leaves, sometimes go hunting for insects and are relatively peaceful, living within the means of their local environment. Now, look at us, running around with our head chopped off buying our food, buying cloths, buying gadgets and widgets… working our entire lives towards the goal of accumulating the most gold which we cannot bring with us when we die anyhow. Now, who is really smarter? I go with the Chimps, they have a lot to teach us, if we can just open our eyes that other methods of existence are not only possible, but better for us!

How much Gold, Diamonds and Rubies are there anyways?

I haven’t a clue how much of these self-perceived valuable resources actually are, but considering there are trillions of stars out there in the universe, each with the possibility of some sort of planet made up of carbon (essential building block of these resources), I can easily assume that there is an unlimited amount of each that we could never run out even if our species lives on for billions of years. Gold, diamonds and rubies are not a limited resource, they are an unlimited resource.

What does this all mean?

Think about this, who benefits from making an unlimited resource perceived to be limited? Hmmm…. I don’t know… other humans? I have never seen a squirrel go to the bank to buy some jewelery using the nuts it has picked up over the previous season, only us humans attach value to worthless commodities. Back to the original question, what does this mean? Well, most of us have bought in to the myth that wealth itself has some value, that it creates happiness (you don’t buy diamonds because your sad do you?) and most importantly, the only way to ultimately succeed in life is by accumulating more resources then your fellow man.

Wealth is worthless?

Well, YES! Wealth itself, defined by “financial freedom” has the same value as a rock falling down a mountain. Wealth itself has absolutely NO value, as stated before, wealth is the accumulation of an unlimited resource that is given value by our society that brainwashes all of us to give it value. How can an unlimited resource have any type of value? Only limited things can have any type of value, not unlimited ones.

What’s your point?

Well, once you realize that financial wealth is worthless, you should be able to make sound decisions based on what is best for you and your family not on artificially created nonsense. The pressure to get a higher paying job, getting a mortgage that you cannot really afford nor need and just trying to best others just dissipates. We are pounded on a daily basis that the only true way towards ultimate happiness is the pursuit of wealth, what I am saying is that this way of thinking is all wrong, not only that, it’s based on flawed fundamentals. Don’t base your life around something that is flawed!

The Bottom Line

The sharing of love, experiences and life is the only true method of achieving happiness and fulfillment in life.

ps: Oil isn’t mentioned because it has no value what-so-ever, it’s a toxic soup that simply comes from decayed organics (vegetation, bacteria, animals, birds… ) and cannot be found where life does not exist. The extraction of oil is equivalent to digging up our ancestors from a graveyard and shoving them into our gas tank.

We are brought up by our society to aspire to the 9-5 lifestyle, so much so, that our entire educational system is established towards achieving this “goal”. Start a family after getting married and work for somebody else is how most people go through their entire life. I am here to tell you there are alternatives to this “normal”.

Religious Boundaries

I respect the role of religion in many peoples lives but the number one boundary that most people create within their mind is that imposed upon them by their religion. I believe religion was created by humans as a way of dealing with the dismal reality that not only do we not matter but there is no rhyme or reason for our existence. It must have began when we developed around the same time as our self-conscience. I am not saying religion is bad, quite the opposite, many people use religion as their moral backbone, but what I am saying is that if that religion closes off your mind about other possibilities, experiences and adventures then I think you need to re-evaluate your faith. Think about it, would a God create all of us to live a life that is but a fraction of what it could be? If I created a human, I would have given them the sense of adventure, exploration and an open mind… expecting them to eek out every second of their existence towards experiencing ALL their senses to the maximum. Not going into a house to worship me or to ask me constantly for my guidance. If I wanted mindless slaves, I would have created robots, but God instead created humans even it it means questioning their origins and significance. God gave us a mind, use it! God gave us a body, use it! God gave us life, LIVE IT! To do anything less then this I would take as an insult upon my creations. You don’t show your faith by going to church every Sunday, you don’t do it by spreading His word as he isn’t running in an election of any kind nor do you show it by living a life of limits, you show your faith by using everything He created you with. Believing is God is your choice, I am not here to convince you otherwise, but what I am saying is wouldn’t a God take more joy in a creation that was constantly expanding and questioning everything around them instead of this mindless obedience to doctrine? When you cease to question yourself and your beliefs, you begin shutting down your mind from other possibilities and this to me, is truly sad.

Societal Boundaries

Who told you that you must go to university in order to get a good paying job? who told you that having a family is the only way towards achieving self-fulfillment? More importantly, who told you that you must dedicate the prime of your life working for somebody else? Society. Well, I am a citizen of the world, as such, I want to live all around the world, in different societies there are different internal compasses that reflect outward. If you where born in a Muslim Middle Eastern nomadic tribe then the expectations and ways towards achieving great success are very different then if you where born in the heart of New York. For the nomadic tribe, carrying salt tables by camel to and from the mines would be essentially how you would live out your life while for the New Yorker, living among millions of people all trying to get through yet another crazy day would be your fate. What am I saying? Well, in our own world, the self-perceived societal boundaries are incredibly flexible, you CAN change them. Sure, going against the grain will be hard, imagine being a nomadic tribesman wanting to move to New York and work in a brokerage firm on the 100th floor of a prestigious building… the odds are stacked against him but where there is a will, there will be a way. You, Me, Us, we all have the ability to modify societal beliefs and impositions (boundaries) at will, sadly, most of us never go beyond getting our toes wet.

Life’s Boundaries

Imagine a life where people where completely free to think, act and do as they wished, free from religious and societal boundaries… it’s either excessively Utopian or an absolute Hell depending on your pre-dispositional beliefs. You see the problem of living outside of boundaries is that others may do the same, which leads to a very scary scenario. My mind is “all there” but not everybody has the internal strength nor physical ability to deal with the pressures that living in a boundless life has. This breads guilt, envy, resentment for some while for others they become sources of inspiration, motivation and fulfillment. This would create two groups of people, with some cross-flow between them as we aren’t always in the same emotional, physical nor intellectual state throughout our lives. One group would become increasingly depressed and go into a downward spiral, incapable of living with the knowledge that they must create their own structure in life that, at the end of the day, meant nothing anyways. The other group would become increasingly euphoric, always trying to best one another by climbing the highest mountains faster, swimming deeper and so forth. Basically, being an extreme type A personality surrounded by other extreme type A personalities is no better then being and among type F personalities… the result is the same. Without fear, you don’t live a long life but with too much fear, you don’t get out to experience life neither. Either way, life without meaning begins and ends in the same manner regardless of how you choose to live it. This is why, we have religion and societal barriers that the vast majority of people live by as the alternative is simply too much to cope with.

The Bottom Line

Life with boundaries is as liberating as it’s frightning

Critical thinking can be defined as not always accepting things at face value, if something seems out of place, it’s your responsibility to question it until it makes sense.

Critical thinking in our media

The lack of critical thinking in our media, the source of most of our information has gotten all of us in big trouble on multiple occasions. The time leading up to the invasion of Iraq was the result of the largest critical thinking vacuum in recent times as is the constant crackdown on political descent in such places as Burma, China and just a few weeks ago, Pakistan. Governments know that information or the subversion of the critical thinking process to be specific, is the best way towards achieving domination over it’s citizenry short of military intervention. It’s cheaper to control the media then to send patrols out. Of all the countries brainwashing their citizenry, North Korea has to rank among the largest out there, with state owned media, state owned enterprises and essentially, state owned minds making up the vast proportion of the population. Want to change things in a country? Easy, simply unleash the powers of critical thinking into the media which will then leach into the minds of people. The control of knowledge and how it’s disseminated is more powerful then any military weapon invented in modern times.

Critical thinking requires education

Critical thinking only comes with the power of knowledge, without an education in a vast array of areas, the ability to ask the right questions is impossible. You see, if you cannot mine the fragmented resources of your mind and yield something of value from it at the end of the day, the entire process will be very much a half-assed affair in the best of times. You can see this process of educational dumbing in many cults, suppressive governments and in poverty stricken countries which also happen to be in constant wars as well, leads to an easily malleable population. Going back towards controlling a population, you want to keep their minds busy on non-dangerous activities that take up resources that may otherwise evolve into critical thinking. A great example of this was under the Iraqi Saddam Hussein Regime, the entire educational system evolved around him, kids where not counting apples, they where counting Husseins. Another is Saudi Arabia, the country with the most highly educated population in the Middle East yet needs to import just about every profession just to keep their economy going. Why? Because the population is told to study religion instead of engineering, accounting and suppresses half it’s citizens (women) from getting any education at all.

Developing critical thinking

The only way to develop your critical thinking systems is to constantly expose them to new experiences. Get out of your comfort shell, visit the slums of this world, expose your mind to other types of thinking and most importantly, always try to learn something new on a daily basis. You need to keep working on your weaknesses while re-enforcing your strengths. This can be done a number of ways but the easiest is exploring this vast planet we all live on. As for me, I have learned more about the world living in different countries then I ever could reading a book or studying about them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, being there is worth a million.

The Bottom Line

Knowledge is only as powerful as the questions you ask.

Of all the things that bug me which are completely out of my control, my very own mortality is the biggest to come to terms with. As soon as we are conceived, we begin down the one way path leading to our eventual death. Life is great, but why does it have to end as a pre-requisite?

The Search for the Fountain of Youth

I believe I have discovered the Fountain of Youth, but no in the traditional sense, you will still get old and die but the pace of this demise will be greatly reduced. How? Well, eat only healthy foods, exercise with weights and do plenty of tough cardio. The stronger your body is when you are young, the stronger it will be when you are old… which is when it counts the most! Short of little green men and woman coming from the deep expanses of our universe giving us the gift of immortality, I doubt I will see medical science advance enough during my lifetime or that of my children’s children in which our lifespan will be greatly enhanced. We already, thanks to medical advances in the 20th century been able to almost double our “livable” lifespan with the use of wondrous medical procedures and exotic drugs to starve off the inevitable.

We don’t have enough time!

I am already 31 years old and so far, probably lived off a quarter of my functional lifespan, my goal is to be the first to get to 150… even if it means I am an old drooling insomniac by that time! Like the one minute mile, everybody says it cannot be done, but there is NO reason with the incredible advances in modern medicine that will occur over the next hundred years, the availability of healthy foods and research that, if you start young enough, a body and mind cannot reach this. Suffice it to say, I look both sides of the street before crossing! I am astonished at not only how fast time goes by but at how slow the progress we make in our own lives takes. To get more life out of our daily lives, you either have to speed up what is happening around you or simply live longer. There is so much to be done, so much to learn, experience, see, invent and enjoy during the limited time we have on Earth that it’s a shame that we have such short lives! It’s like trying to fit a mountain in a fish tank!

If you don’t use it, you will loose it

Although this is an extreme statement as you never really LOOSE anything in life, it points to a simple fact about our bodies. If you look at today’s seniors, those that lead an unhealthy life are, for the most part, not looking too good even if they are still alive and kicking. No matter how far science has evolved, it still cannot undo the damage caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Hence, why, from day one, you MUST live a healthy lifestyle and surround yourself by like-minded people. Second, I have seen story after story from “old men” in their 80s living a very physically tough live that have the muscle tone of men half their age. They don’t know what obesity is, they don’t have medical problems and are incredibly active… enjoying all that life has given to them. Lesson to be learned? Well, you need to live a physically active lifestyle, optimize your Central Nervous System (CNS), optimize your critical muscle motor pathways, optimize the efficiency of your internal organs, optimize your inter-neuron connections and most importantly, optimize your entire outlook on life. When shit happens, take the bump in the head and move on.

Wasted Lives

If you smoke, you are wasting away your life in more ways then one… most importantly, you are taxing today’s body, for no real good reason at the cost of your future health. If you are an alcoholic, you are no better then a smoker in my opinion… good luck getting past 60 with anything resembling a healthy body. Same goes with obese people and those who are junk food obsessed. What I am saying is that, if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, no matter how much you try, until you quit these nasty habitual practices, you are wasting away the most precious resource we are all enjoying… LIFE! Life is an incredible gift, honor your parents, your future progeny and most importantly, yourself, by taking it seriously!

How to defeat mortality… is religion the answer?

Well, some people turn to their religion of choice as a way to mentally deal with mortality. I can’t say that this isn’t an attractive notion, the idea that our physical bodies may have an end but our mental soul does not. Heck, if there was even one sliver of a chance that this may be a reality, I would fight to be first in line! But, being a “don’t believe the hype” Athiest, I cannot logically come to terms with the notion of an after-life any more then I figure out the unifying mathematical theory for the universe. If it’s true, then it will be a welcome surprise to me, but I am assuming that the closest I will come to an after life is in the stomach of the neighborhood worm.

How to defeat mortality… is a physical monument the answer?

So what does that leave me? Well, immortality is possible, but not in any way that I will be able to live it out. Our own planet will explode billions of years from now once the Sun becomes a red giant so the answer cannot have anything to do with laying a monument on this planet. Even if technology existed to create an impenetrable diamond tomb for myself with a computer somehow connected to my mechanically life-supported brain, I would still be screwed to die billions of years in the future as I would be the only last surviving human being or possibly life within the universe at that point.

How to defeat mortality… is a virtual self the answer?

Alright, any type of foundation on this planet, much less this solar system or any other just isn’t do-able over the next 100+ years. Even if I had the financial resources of Bill Gates and all the worlds top billionaires at my disposal, it would still be useless. Why? Well, even if I could somehow create a technology that beamed out “me” radio waves deep into outer-space or send out probes with the contents of my DNA code for future aliens to re-animate me… I am still screwed to die! Why? Well, in several tens of billions of years from now, the vast universe we all inhabit will be gone. Nobody is sure if it’s from cooling due to continual expansion or an implosion into an infinitely small dot but either way, once the laws of physics break down, nothing survives.

So where does that leave us then?

Short of a multi-dimensional escape route that exists outside of all types of boundaries created by physics, no matter their variables, the only thing we can do is enjoy the time we have here as much as possible. Most importantly, take good care of oneself of those around us.

The Bottom Line

Life is like an ATM machine that cannot accept deposits.

There are two types of lies in this world, those you tell yourself and those you tell others… smokers seem to be experts in both! Caring about their health while smoking is one of the biggest.

Drug addicts are all the same

So far, I have talked to smokers from Canada, United States, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Korea over an extended period of time and the excuses are all the same. They seem to relish describing how “addicted” or “hardcore” they are. I was talking to one addict yesterday and they where quite proud to say their breath smelled like that of an ash tray… interesting, another from Australia told me exactly the same thing while I was in that country! Here are some fantastically delusional lies you can expect to hear from a smoker (feel free to add more):

I can quit anytime

If this where true, they could quit right now but just try to get enough guts and throw their pack away in front of them… they will run like a squirrel right into the bin to get them. I know… I have done this several times with the same results.

I don’t smoke that much

Sadly, the effects of smoking both primary and second (onto non-smokers) is cumulative. You won’t die right away from emphysema or COD but I wouldn’t want to be a lung in a smokers body after a few decades of continual self-poisoning.

I feel fine

Next time a drug addict tells you that they feel fine, ask them to join you for a hike up a sizable hill… their tune will change guaranteed. The reason they feel fine is because they are use to living in a marginalized body, not because they are actually “fine”.

It helps me keep my shape (slim)

There are two ways to keep your body in shape, one is to exercise and the other is to under-feed it. Sure, smoking is keeping you slim, but guess what, you can accomplish far more by working out and quitting smoking then otherwise. What you are doing is actually starving your body, making it waste resources trying to clean the crap out of the air you take in instead of improving or optimizing it.

My father/mother/uncle smoked till they where 90 years old!

George Burns also smoked a cigar until he hit 100 years old, sure, there are some people out there with wonder genetics but odds are, you don’t have them. Imagine if George Burns never smoked, he might still be alive today! Regardless of how you cut it, smoking WILL reduce not only your lifespan but the quality of the live you live dramatically with time.

Smokers Facing Death

I had a grandfather who I wish everyday never smoked because he died a painful death over several years, his body was fine but his lungs where shot from a live addicted to cigarettes. Now, this week, I got news that one of my uncles, one who saw what my grandfather went through his final years, has been diagnosed with lunch cancer caused by smoking. My grandfather openly admitted that if he ever got a lung transplant that the first thing he would to is smoke and oddly, my uncle, even while at hospital surrounded by smokers slowly fading away, still had the conscience to go… you guessed it right… smoke in hiding! Each and every smokers has to face up to the fact that one day, guaranteed, they will face their maker far sooner then anticipated due to a slow, selfish, purposeful self-poisoning of the very body they inhabit.

Unfunny Joke

Here is an unfunny joke I seem to repeat to myself just about every time I see somebody smoking. What is the difference between a smoker and a junkie? One uses a legal substance. Sad isn’t it… mentally, a junkie is in the same place as a smoker.

How do I treat smokers?

I take my health very seriously, to the point that if I find out a friend smokes, they are no longer somebody I associate myself with. I would honestly prefer to be alone the rest of my life then to spend it with somebody hell bent on destroying their health. There is no sugar coating things, smokers have a death wish but are too much of a coward to get it over with, instead, they drag the emotions of those around them into the hole they inhabit. My only exception to this “banish them from my sight” rule is family but then I try to spend my time outdoors with them as much as possible, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke. Would I ever hire somebody who smoked? Nope, politically correct or not, why the hell would I want to invest my time and resources into somebody who doesn’t give a damn about themselves?

Spiders on Drugs

To some, alright, many out there, this may seem kinda harsh but I live my life by many simple rules, at the top of my list is that if you don’t care about yourself, then I don’t care about you. I do have a very well developed sense of humor so here is something to lighten up the mood on a serious topic. The effect of drugs on spiders! If you can’t laugh at even the worst of things, then the thoughts that follow them have no way out of your head.

The Bottom Line

Reversing a denial is the first step towards a successful life.

No matter your views on Larry Flint, you got to give him credit for exposing the sexual deprivation that seems to take hold of most people in this world. We are sexual animals, from the moment we hit puberty, we have a deep desire to procreate, to deny this is to deny our heritage.

Larry Flint goes after the two faced

What I respect about Larry Flint is that during election time, he exposes via a million dollar “informer” bounty, how two faced some politicians really are. He is a self-described sexual animal and unlike most of us, very proud of the footprint he has had on American culture. Some professional politicians preach abstinence and religious doctrine while secretly having affairs with people who are sometimes of the same sex. What I find very interesting is that these two faced politicians, once discovered, admit to their sin and ask God for forgiveness (????). Yet, in all likely hood, would have kept doing what they where caught doing otherwise, a forced apology is the most insincere of all. This happens globally by the way, two faced politicians who pass laws condoning their own secretive acts isn’t anything new from China to Italy.

Sex is what we are

A sad reality is that we have all been brainwashed by religious doctrine of various degrees that to express our sexuality is evil, gay or straight, if you decide to enjoy the body had been produced by the love of your parents, your going straight to Hell. The Romans where extremely liberal with their sexuality, with bath houses and even a very open tolerance for diverse sexual behaviors yet our “modern society” is intent on depriving us of what we really are.

I understand fully the predominance of sexually transmitted diseases (including aids and herpes for which there is no cure) but a mix of extreme selectiveness and precautionary weapons can exponentially reduce the risks (though not 100%) of acquiring these true evils. There are HIV Disease test kits available on the market (http://blog.myfoodcount.com/the-60-second-hiv-disease-test/), blood tests and physical protection available just about anywhere. The last thing you want is to regret a few hours of fun for the rest of your life.

Sobering Stats

The one thing that keeps me in check is this fact, 1:250 which represents the ratio of HIV Disease infection and 1:4 which represents the ratio of Herpes infected individuals within the United States. Each country is in various states of denial about their own figures but assuming these ratios represent minimum exposure rates around the world is a very safe bet.

Weapon of Knowledge

What is the point of this article? Well, I want to expose the one weapon that politicians and the religious community are intent on keeping secret, that of knowledge. We need to educate our children, yes, children, from the moment they say their first words about sex. There is NOTHING evil, bad, disgusting or immoral about sex. Knowledge has been shown to give power to those who otherwise would have done regretful behaviors, yet, the powers that be are intent on keeping sexual taboos from being openly discussed. Hiding behind the Quran, Bible, cultural taboos or just plain ignorance is doing our species a great disservice in the long run.

Think of it this way, all the people who tell the great religious lessons of the past where the product of sex, even if you believe in Virgin Births, you cannot deny that the mother of Jesus was the product of sexual behavior. I bet you never thought of sex that way before huh?

The Bottom Line

The sexual behavior of our species needs to be moderated by knowledge, not ignorance in order to stand the test of time.

Buzzvia
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/10/vitter.madam/index.html

Apparently MIT Media laps are hard at work creating a robot that will help you loose pounds and presumably keep the weight from coming back.

What ever happened to common sense?

I can see this being fantastic to remind people to take their medication or to help them live a full life but do we really need to waste resources creating a robot that takes the place of common sense? If you are obese or out of shape, this is a choice more often by not, the symptom of a problem far deeper then a simple robot slapping your hand as you eat out of proportion with your goals. Let’s face it, if you are too lazy to educate YOURSELF to YOUR benefit about nutrition, spending a few thousand dollars on a robot will simply give you yet another excuse as to why you aren’t achieving your weight goals. Technology, even the one behind myfoodcount.com is there to help you, the will power to succeed must come from your end.

Real Solutions to Weight Loss

What we need to do is mandate nutritional and exercise classes in all levels of schooling, from elementary to university. I am not talking about “this class is sponsored by Post Cereals” kinda thing neither! I mean teach people what a fat is, what a carbohydrate is, what sodium does to your body, the effects of a couch potato lifestyle etc… health is a wonderful and exciting field, marketing has made it into a dull one because there is more profit in selling gadgets then education. Remember the old saying “give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, show a man how to fish and he will eat forever”? Well, this is the same approach we should integrate for nutrition.

The Bottom Line

You only have one body, one mind and one life… give them the honor they deserve!

Buzzvia
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9759643-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave

You can watch the video of these robots in action here
http://www.media.mit.edu/?p=114