As the title of my blog says: Food for thought.
the cost of safety?
The defense/military budget for the United States is roughly just a bit over one Trillion dollars a year. Just so we are clear on what that looks like: 1,000,000,000,000. That's enough to give everyone on the planet about $142.
context
Out of 180-200 (depending on who recognizes what as a country) countries in existence, the U.S. only has about 6 that it doesn't have diplomatic relations with, and maybe a half dozen more that might have hostilities with it and maybe another 2 imaginary entities that have no actual nation, so lets say 14 total.. So that is an average of $71,428,571,428 per "hostile" country per year. Keep in mind that this is just the money that is known, I'm sure there are classified programs whose budgets are wrapped into other departments and not publicly disclosed for what they are. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, it just seems logical because, well, that is what I would do.
why this matters
Maybe the most immediate concern would be the global depression that we are in (if you don't like the word depression, substitute with recession, or slump, or rough period, or bumpy bits...whatever, it means the same thing). In one year, if the U.S. diverted it's entire defense spending to infrastructure across the globe, balancing our budget, and making creative business/employment incentives, our economic problems would be gone by the end of the year.
Better yet, the U.N. has estimated that it would cost $195,000,000,000 (195 billion) a year to feed EVERYONE on the planet. By just reducing our defense budget by 20%, the United States could feed the entire world, ending malnutrition and hunger on a global scale. As if that wasn't awesome enough, the process of feeding the world would create jobs globally and boost agricultural and transportation industries world wide. If done right, it could even usher in a new age of food production techniques that would not only become self sustaining, but would be environmentally sustainable. Side effects could include increased popularity, happy people, good relations, better economies, more jobs, clean air and water, and one less thing to worry about at night.
Or we could invest the whole thing into developing clean and renewable energy sources. I wonder how long it would take for people to develop workable products to reduce and eventually eliminate our dependency on environmentally detrimental energy sources with that kind of investment. I'm not an expert, but I would guess no more than 5 years, probably less. Maybe 2 years to develop and another 5 to fully implement? Man, that would be a rough world to live in.
What about any of the other environmental problems we face. Imagine the effects of a trillion dollars invested into bio-degradable products, better recycling, waste disposal and treatment programs. Finding technologies that don't rely on toxic materials.
How about reinvesting in education globally? We could develop an unparalleled education system across the globe, preparing the future generation to deal with all of the issues listed above, and ones we haven't even thought of yet.
What about curing HIV, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, or Cancer, or any of the other various debilitating illnesses that rob us of our loved ones. How much quicker could we find new ways to fight for healthy lives with that kind of money being pumped into it? I don't know about you, but I'm tired of people dying from anything other than old age.
Hell we could even invest in space travel and exploration. Imagine having a moon colony, or mars, or another solar system.
grain of salt
Ok so it isn't totally as simple of just redirecting the defense budget, but like I said this is food for thought. We are spending a sum of money so high, that if you were to withdraw that much in $1 bills, it would take you 31,000 years to count it all, on defending our country against a handful of other countries that may or may not be an actual threat (but how long do you think they would remain a threat if we started spending our money on helping the planet instead of killing them). Also, to be totally fair, the defense budget includes a fair amount of money that goes into researching benevolent things like medicine, or helping repair infrastructure and assist in disaster situations.
but still the point stands
I'm tired of the world suffering, and you should be too. Think.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Friday, September 23, 2011
Mississippi bound!!
Howdy folks, well it has certainly been a crazy year! First I was excited for AmeriCorps NCCC, a chance to pay off loans, do good works, and make something of myself. Then as time went by and I never heard back from them after my interview, that excitement faded.
Then, as my last semester drew to a close, rumors of the bookstore being sold arose, and suddenly the possibility of still having a job was there. I graduated, it was much to do about something (not nothing), but over all somewhat anticlimactic... Follett became the new management of the Bookstore, and sure enough I was hired on with a nice pay raise! This seemed to fit in well with my not getting accepted to AmeriCorps. THEN, just as I am settling into my new life working for Follett, AmeriCorps calls me again. Long story short, I was offered a Team Leader position doing disaster relief and trail restoration in AmeriCorps' Souther Region, which is based out of Vicksburg Mississippi and services Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennesee, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is a very exciting opportunity, and I am very thrilled to be a part of it. Right now I am still taking care of paperwork and figuring out the logistics, but I know that it starts in January and lasts for 11 month, which means I will be leaving Arcata (so all you wonderful Arcata people, we have 4 months left to hang out!!!) mid to late January.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this unexpected but amazing news :D
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
On "Cone-ing." Which is apparently a real thing.
So a friend mentioned a mutual friend being really into "cone-ing," which is an activity I had never heard of before. Naturally my first instinct was to think it involved taking traffic cones and leaving them on someone's lawn, somewhat like Flocking (where you take a hundred pink flamingos and leave them in someone's lawn until they donate money to your fundraiser, at which point you remove said flamingos and put them in someone else's lawn, usually chosen by the person who just paid to have you remove them from yours).
Apparently that was completely wrong. Upon being informed of what this cone-ing activity actually is, I immediately refused to believe it, why on earth would ANYONE waste their time, money, and edible substances like that? Upon getting home yesterday I decided to google the shit out of it. My results were disturbing on many levels.
Cone-ing is real, and it is in fact the act of ordering a soft serve ice cream cone from a drive-through, and then proceeding to grab it from the top. Yes grabbing it from the ice cream part. Clearly this is a prank of sorts that was created by a group of socially aware and yet awkward youths, probably in their late high school to early college years being incredibly bored and looking to have some fun at someone else's expense. Now in this instance the expense isn't an actual cost per se, but more of a loss of social cohesion. After thinking about it for awhile, the basic premise of cone-ing stems from the idea that we all know how to hold an ice cream cone (ostensibly from the cone part of the dessert), that is in fact what the cone is for. Arguably in some of the better ice cream joints out there the cone is actually just as tasty a part of the dessert as the actual frozen goodness found on top, but as we all know, the kind you get from fast food joints are rather bland, mostly air, and have a consistency and texture that is suspiciously similar to that of Styrofoam, in other words the point of a cone in a fast food place is really just to hold the soft serve, even if it is theoretically edible. Cone-ing operates on the principle that even though we all know how to properly take hold of, and hold a cone, it isn't really a law or a requirement of any sort, but rather just a social convention. By grabbing the ice cream off of the cone, or grabbing the cone through the ice cream (the two accepted methods of cone-ing), one is essentially flouting convention. People are just simply not prepared to handle that kind of social interaction, thus the humor of the situation, for those who find it humorous, derives from the feeling of awkwardness that the employee feels when someone inexplicably grabs the ice cream end of the cone, and then drives away.
Not exactly highly cerebral humor, but it does provide an interesting window into just how socially ingrained simple things can be, and how hard it is for us to think "outside" of the box so to speak when confronted with someone or some thing that doesn't follow the social conventions we live by.
Food for thought for anyone who actually reads this.
Seth
Apparently that was completely wrong. Upon being informed of what this cone-ing activity actually is, I immediately refused to believe it, why on earth would ANYONE waste their time, money, and edible substances like that? Upon getting home yesterday I decided to google the shit out of it. My results were disturbing on many levels.
Cone-ing is real, and it is in fact the act of ordering a soft serve ice cream cone from a drive-through, and then proceeding to grab it from the top. Yes grabbing it from the ice cream part. Clearly this is a prank of sorts that was created by a group of socially aware and yet awkward youths, probably in their late high school to early college years being incredibly bored and looking to have some fun at someone else's expense. Now in this instance the expense isn't an actual cost per se, but more of a loss of social cohesion. After thinking about it for awhile, the basic premise of cone-ing stems from the idea that we all know how to hold an ice cream cone (ostensibly from the cone part of the dessert), that is in fact what the cone is for. Arguably in some of the better ice cream joints out there the cone is actually just as tasty a part of the dessert as the actual frozen goodness found on top, but as we all know, the kind you get from fast food joints are rather bland, mostly air, and have a consistency and texture that is suspiciously similar to that of Styrofoam, in other words the point of a cone in a fast food place is really just to hold the soft serve, even if it is theoretically edible. Cone-ing operates on the principle that even though we all know how to properly take hold of, and hold a cone, it isn't really a law or a requirement of any sort, but rather just a social convention. By grabbing the ice cream off of the cone, or grabbing the cone through the ice cream (the two accepted methods of cone-ing), one is essentially flouting convention. People are just simply not prepared to handle that kind of social interaction, thus the humor of the situation, for those who find it humorous, derives from the feeling of awkwardness that the employee feels when someone inexplicably grabs the ice cream end of the cone, and then drives away.
Not exactly highly cerebral humor, but it does provide an interesting window into just how socially ingrained simple things can be, and how hard it is for us to think "outside" of the box so to speak when confronted with someone or some thing that doesn't follow the social conventions we live by.
Food for thought for anyone who actually reads this.
Seth
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Weather the Wind Blows or Not
Tragically this beautiful and sunshine filled day is cooled by a persistent and pervasive wind. Actually I kind of like it. Out the window to my left is a scene of dynamic eloquence, the wind causes the tree limbs to flow amongst each other, none more beautifully so than the weeping willow stationed just outside the patio. Through my window the wind does blow, it brings with it the subtle and under toned breath of fresh air that I have come to know as being that of nature. Intertwined with the organic and heavenly scents of the world as it is, a faint odor of bleach lingers from my uncommon burst of cleanliness. While unnatural and a little overpowering, it is clean, cutting, and sterile. Nature and Bleach, allowing for a heady mix of perfection and radical dynamism, this brings a soothing salve to my compromised and trivialized soul.
Once I flowed verse and form, attempting to translate and elocute that which I conceptualize. The results, of course, imperfect and absent the truth which I wanted for them to convey. They were organic though. Free form, natural and shifting. They were forms of incomplete characterization, never formed complete lest they suffer the loss of meaning within the pattern of uniformity. Each facet of character provided a break in the purity and clarity of singular meaning and thought.
Then, as if a bolt in the night, I found myself schooled in the science of clarity and precision. No word wasted on the flowing of thought to paper. The pen makes way for the crisp sterile clatter of plastics, keys pressed in specific pattern, never slowing for four years of objective rendering. Thoughts and mind form secondary to the obvious, logical, reality of facts in objectivity. The casual frivolity of transient word play turned to a red slash on the pristine white and black, no room for style or grace, only the precise charactered flow of raw, unshaped data. The mind is not a tool of artistic expression, gracing the papyrus with significant and exuberant characters, but rather a vise, a mechanical tool for conveying the significant figures and perfect, precise, platonic numbers.
Enter the third age. As with all things of man or nature, time reforms and perfection is eroded into something new. Now the words are alive again, nature flows again, and the perfect is intertwined in with the frivolity and suddenly it is new. Like that of bleach and wind, Nature and Sterile, words with form and style objective and explicative. Now we live again, academia ended but not forgotten, flowed and formed into the new, the better.
Once I flowed verse and form, attempting to translate and elocute that which I conceptualize. The results, of course, imperfect and absent the truth which I wanted for them to convey. They were organic though. Free form, natural and shifting. They were forms of incomplete characterization, never formed complete lest they suffer the loss of meaning within the pattern of uniformity. Each facet of character provided a break in the purity and clarity of singular meaning and thought.
Then, as if a bolt in the night, I found myself schooled in the science of clarity and precision. No word wasted on the flowing of thought to paper. The pen makes way for the crisp sterile clatter of plastics, keys pressed in specific pattern, never slowing for four years of objective rendering. Thoughts and mind form secondary to the obvious, logical, reality of facts in objectivity. The casual frivolity of transient word play turned to a red slash on the pristine white and black, no room for style or grace, only the precise charactered flow of raw, unshaped data. The mind is not a tool of artistic expression, gracing the papyrus with significant and exuberant characters, but rather a vise, a mechanical tool for conveying the significant figures and perfect, precise, platonic numbers.
Enter the third age. As with all things of man or nature, time reforms and perfection is eroded into something new. Now the words are alive again, nature flows again, and the perfect is intertwined in with the frivolity and suddenly it is new. Like that of bleach and wind, Nature and Sterile, words with form and style objective and explicative. Now we live again, academia ended but not forgotten, flowed and formed into the new, the better.
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