Run your car on water.

This week, I happened across a link to a site where one can find directions on how to turn any gas powered car or truck into a water-run vehicle.

After a short but interesting debate on that site, one of the contributors posted this link
to a site that clearly explains the technology and outlines the 1998 murder of the inventor. Suffice to say, he did not bow to immense pressure from oil companies to discontinue his research and to destroy the technology.

Also on that site is a film called "Who Killed the Electric Car," which I have seen and which I highly recommend. That link is also live.

If any of us still really believe our governments and our corporations have any interest in anything other than war and profit, these two items should help us limit those beliefs.

Dick Cheney said, on camera two weeks ago, that the only reason the US is in the middle east is to protect the oil supply. That is the sum total of any truth that man has ever spoken.

kids

My friend Kiley, who lives up north posted a link to the site of an excellent photographer, Renee C. Byer, and her Pulizer Prize-winning series called A Mother's Journey.

Have a look and next time your kids are buggin' you, remember this.

There's no temper tantrum, bad attitude or anything that would make me want to trade places.

Here's to the end of school supported credentialism

Anyone who knows me knows how little respect I hold for credentialism and for the belief that schooling equals anything really valuable out there in the real world.

I'm always astounded by those job postings that contain the phrase, "University Degree Required to apply," as that stipulation immediately eliminates the creative and probably most functional people from the running.

Add too the reality of cheating in Universities. MacLean's Magazine had it in their research that cheating runs to 80% of students! What that means is that of those who gain a bachelor's degree, 80% of them don't deserve it. Additionally, that degree is obtainable with a passing grade of 50%....

So what does that mean for an employer? Simply this: by limiting their search to only those who hold a bachelor's degree, they're not asking for or getting the cream of the crop by any means. They're getting drones who will commit to four years (or more) in a class and who are quite good at regurgitation. Neither zombieism or regurgitation are sought-after characteristics for employment.

I certainly believe there is every excuse for further education. Simply for access to new ideas, philosophies and means of thinking, higher education is critical. HOW we educate is at question here and what is considered correct and right and valuable in terms of learning and styles.

This speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, eloquently packages up all the stuff I feel about the current state of education. Please note his brief but pointed nod to "ADHD."

About this Talk

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people."We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.

"If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

Read the transcript >>

Enjoying this? Then check out ...
+ Thoughts from a billionaire with dyslexia
+ More creative ideas for educating our kids
+ A dance merging biology and bodies

The Canadian Pot Law is no more

Calgary’s World Wide Marijuana March

On May 4^th, a well attended march for legalisation happened in Calgary. Considering there was a crowd about 500 strong, mostly stoned, there were hardly any disturbances.

There were three arrests for possession. Apparently the Calgary Police Service is unaware that the Canadian pot laws have fallen.

In July 2007 the Supreme Court struck down the laws pertaining to possession for personal use.

The dissolution of the archaic pot laws has been covered by numerous Canadian news outlets including an article by Brian Preston published February 27 2008 in The National Post.

The laws were previously challenged and struck down in 2003 and there is currently a class action suit underway to deal with people who were wrongfully charged with possession between the years 2001 and 2003.

The existing laws were challenged and again stricken from the books in July 2007. The Supreme Court ruled that because the law has not been rewritten to accommodate medical users, the prohibition on all use -- including recreational use -- collapses because the law is unconstitutional.

According to Peter Hogg, an expert in Canadian constitutional law, once the Supreme Court of Canada has held that a law is unconstitutional, there can be no doubt about the status of the law: it is invalid, and need not be obeyed.

Since July 2007, a growing number of people across Canada has been successful having charges of simple possession dropped. This is quite simply because the law no longer exists and therefore charges cannot legally be laid.

It seems either the police services nationally either do not know the possession laws are no longer valid or they choose to ignore that fact.

The reality is that Canadian courts and jails are crammed with people who pose absolutely no danger to anyone, including themselves but have been charged with simple possession.

The cost to Canadians of charging, processing, incarcerating and prosecuting these non-offenders is astronomical. As far back as 1996, the annual cost was over $400 Million and estimated to be more likely double that number, funds that should be put towards useful expenditures.

There is no question that for-profit grow operations should remain illegal – at least until there is appropriate legislation and management in place to regulate such businesses.

However, as it pertains to people possessing small quantities of marijuana for their own use, it is well past time Canadians got past their Reefer Madness silliness and our politicians stopped worrying about whether Canadian laws offend the architects of the failed US war on drugs.

For those who’ve been unlawfully charged, click HERE for a Canadian defence kit. This kit has been used in several recent trials where the defendants either were acquitted or had their possession charges stayed.

Yeah, Bottled Water is a Great Idea.... not...

I just happened on this great article on Environmental Graffiti. The bottled water industry is one of the other reasons that gas is so darn expensive… FACTS:

• Bottled water production in the US consumes roughly 17 million barrels of oil every year, not including transportation.

• 17 million barrels of oil (equivalent to just under the GDP of the Cayman Islands at today’s prices) used in production, bottled water consumes gallons and gallons of water.
  

• Three gallons of the wet stuff is required to produce one gallon of what you will happily pay a dollar for, largely because of the length and complexity of the various “purification” processes and the evaporation loss that takes place while the water is in the plant.
  

• One percent of the water on our planet is both accessible and potable.

• Besides the extravagant amount of oil used to make the bottles and large volumes of water used in the bottling process:

• Transport costs - by the time you transport every bottle by rail or truck and keep it cool, you may as well have filled it one-fourth of the way with oil.

• Operating costs of the factories themselves
  

• Profit the bottled water companies have to make for their shareholders.
  

• Environmental Impact of Production: Every ton of PET plastic for the bottles produces 3 tons of carbon–adding 2.5 Million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the 17 million barrels of oil.