Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Novel CoronVirus 2020 Epidemic

You may have noticed more epidemics lately. This is because we can expect more epidemics due to climate change. We may as well get used to it. Even if we were able to get to zero greenhouse emissions worldwide overnight, climate change would still get worse for the lifetimes of everyone on earth.

One of the things we can do to be safer during this epidemic is wash our hands a lot. We can use sanitizers to do it, but the antibacterial ones may be making more resistant bacteria. Soap and water and a good and thorough scrubbing may take a little longer, but it works. Health experts recommend that you do not touch your face or mouth, in order to protect yourself from contagious diseases. Wearing a face mask makes this easier. It lowers the numbers of bacteria and viruses that get into your respiratory system.

Another thing that you can do to lower bacteria and virueses in your respiratory system is sea salt nasal irrigation. Neti pots are the traditional way to do nasal irrigation. I use a turkey baster. One can also use an eyedropper, although most are so small it could take a while. It is also possible to simply place your saltwater solution in the palm of your hand and snort your nasal solution. I have done it this way when somebody sneezed or coughed on or near me before. People look at you strangely when you do this in a public restroom. As epidemics become more common, there will probably be a line of people at the sink waiting to do their own nasal irrigation.

Another help to avoid illness is herbs. I like Yarrow. It grows in most of the world. It is a very tough plant and easy to grow. It is especially good  for respiratory problems. Whenever I show any symptoms of respiratory problems, I drink a cup of Yarrow tea. If my symptoms do not disappear  after one cup, I drink more. It takes care of allergies as well as germs. The relief for allergies can be only temporary, but it still makes them better. It often stops me from getting flu or colds when I get them early enough. If I am kind of slow on dealing with a flu or cold, my Yarrow tea will still relieve the symptoms and shorten the illness.

I listened to some men on the internet talking about false information about the epidemic that included onions as a cure for the coronavirus. I do not like giving that idea no credit, because at least garlic, in the Allium family, actually does help fight off disease. I think people can overdo it, however. A few cloves of roasted garlic could be helpful, but raw garlic juice sounds like too much. A World War II veteran told me that they used to call garlic, "Russian Penicillin" because they used it for medicine so much during the war. Folk medicine often has some truth in it.

It bothers me to see Chinese people suffering so much, especially in Wuhan, and the vicinity. I am working on making medical face masks out of cotton, that can be washed and reused. I want some for myself and others close to me. I hope to make extra so I can send them to China. They need them very badly. Not having enough face masks is likely to cause more people to die. I  would like to encourage others to do this also.

I do not know if this is possible, but I wonder if some of the people being frightened and bored in their homes in areas under quarantine, could sew medical equipment? Masks and hats would be easy enough even for newbies.

The hard part would be getting fabric and sewing supplies to them. They are getting food, somehow. At least I hope so. If that is the case, then it might be possible to get them materials to make medical supplies and pick them up when finished. They could  be washed and taken to hospitals. That way less people especially medical teams, might not die.

In case anyone else wants to make medical masks for their own use, or to help others, here is information to help you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB2xyo-uSSU.
This is a flat pleated mask.

https://www.craftpassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/face ask-pattern.pd
This is a smaller fitted mask.

I think there are some mask patterns and  instructions written in Chinese and other languages.

We need to face it. We will have more epidemics and we need to get used to them, and how to handle them. We also need to learn to help each other. Climate change emergency will last a while. We have a lot of hard work to do to fix the mess we have made of  the Earth and it's systems, but we can do it.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Escaping Destruction By Being the Solution

Someone told me that they want to go to Mars so they can survive when people finish wrecking the Earth. 

I was surprised by that, but probably shouldn't have been. People always like to avoid bad stuff instead of facing up to it. That seems to be normal. 

Going to Mars is a nice idea and I like that, but thinking of it as a solution to the environmental train wreck that the human race has made of the Earth, is not at all nice. It won't even work. 

If we can't make a go of it on our home planet, why should we be able to manage on a new planet that will take a huge effort to make it even livable? If we don't figure out how to repair the Earth and carry out the plan for repair, then we will only wreck Mars or wherever else we go. 

It reminds me of a 9-year-old girl I met on a plane trip. Said, "Wherever you go, there you are." She meant that you can't get away from your problems if you are the problem. 

Going to Mars is a good idea if we just want to do it, not if we are going there to escape the consequences of humans destroying the Earth and not bothering to fix the damage in time.

We are perfectly capable of undoing the terrible harm we have done to our wonderful home, the Earth. We don't have a lot longer to start, or it will be too late and our end on our Earthly home will be certain, although not a quick end. 

Avoiding a lingering and awful end of human life on Earth, will not be easy. We have waited so long to start working on it, that our chance for an easy way to fix our mess is gone. We chose the hard way by our inaction. 

We really need to get started on this right away.  

Monday, January 18, 2016

Cold Weather - Walking Safely On Snow And Ice

This post is for people who are not used to dealing with cold weather, and are getting lots of it due to climate change. They may not know how to deal with cold weather safety issues. 

Even if you live in a desert area, you need to know some basics, because our weather is going to be less dependable and predictable from now on. 

When I moved to Alaska and lived in snow, I fell down a lot. I knew an Alaskan Native elder, so I asked her how to walk safely on slippery ice and packed snow. 

Alaskan Natives are descended from many generations of people who lived through a lot of slippery conditions, so they are real experts. 

She told me that her elders told her to take baby steps, and, "Don't pick up your feet", shuffle, in other words. 

I tried it immediately and it does work well. It works even better if you make sure your footwear has some traction. 

The common way of getting traction on your footwear is to use, "ice cleats". There are other terms for them, but you are stuck with the one I use for now. If you want to look up, "ice cleats", the internet will give you other words for them. 

There are different kinds of ice cleats that you can buy. The main types are something rubbery, chain types and spike types. There are variations on these that don't precisely fit these categories, but here is a link making comparisons to give you an idea:

http://www.bestcovery.com/best-ice-cleats

The ones in the above link are mostly intended for winter athletes or climbers. They are often used by people who only want to get down the street safely. 

The rubbery type are made of heavy stretchy rubber that you pull on to slip over the soles of your footwear. I hate pulling them over my footwear, because you have to use a lot of strength to get them on and off and they also slip off too easily and you then have an ice cleat instead of cleatS. This is better than nothing, but not great. Then you get to go buy another pair. 

The Yaktrax are sort of like walking on little springs. I don't like putting those on and taking them off either and they cost more to replace than the rubbery ones. They also make a lot of noise when you walk. 

It is a lot cheaper to make your own ice cleats and you can get them the way they suit you. You can also use what you have around and don't have to try to get safely to a store to buy them.

This link is on a site called, "Instructables". I like it very much because it tells you step-by-step how to do lots of very useful things. There are other Instructables on how to make other types of ice cleats. One of them uses stuff like tape and staples, so you don't need a lot of tools or know-how to make most of them. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ice-Fishing-Cleats/ 

Once you look at a few Instructables on how to make your own ice cleats, you might be inspired to do it another way. If you do that, you can then make your own Instructable. They do have lots of contests on the site for submitting your Instructable to. You then have a chance to win great prizes. 

Youtube also has how to make ice cleats. I don't like this as much as Instructables because lots of youtube posters do not have supplies and tools lists and you have to keep running the video back and forth to get them all down. 

Many ice cleats are not compatible with flooring. If you survive the slippery ice because of your ice cleats, you risk getting killed by a store manager or homeowner if you wear the ice cleats on their floor. 

That means wearing ice cleats makes life much easier if the ice cleats are easy to get on and off quickly. Velcro closures for the ice cleats are good for this purpose. 

There are a lot more things to know about ice cleats and dealing with cold weather. You can find some of them in my blog posts. Be safe and try to stay warm and comfy. 



Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Universe As A Beta Test

Hello dere. Sorry for not posting in a while. The vicissitudes of life and all that. 

It doesn't ordinarily do to admit that one ponders on the fate of the human race and of the universe, but I do. 

Lately, I have been doing this pondering on the fate of the aforementioned more than usual. This is because I believe we are not that far from reaching an irrevocable point, that has not been exactly well-thought-out. 

My view of the universe is unconventional as far as I can tell. I can probably tell pretty far, since I have taken at least a cursory look at a lot of religions, philosophies, sciences and other ways of thinking about the nature of the universe and the place of the human race and of individuals within the universe. 

I don't expect anybody else to necessarily agree with me on my take on the universe and the human race and of individuals, but I plan to give a thumbnail of it just for the sake of making things a bit easier to talk about. 

Somebody wrote about the idea of the universe as being a giant hologram. That idea seemed like a good one to me. I digested it and put it into my own ideas. 

Another idea that seemed to fit in with that, is the idea of the universe as being a sort of giant computer program. The idea of this computer program generating the hologram of the universe seems good to me. 

People who think of the above ideas are mostly agnostics or atheists. I am not one of those, although I was an agnostic for a period. After working through a lot of stuff, I concluded that a single being, that I refer to personally, as Gd, short for the usual three letter spelling, exists.

I believe that Gd predated the existence of the universe and created it. The mechanism that I believe created the universe was a computer program, or something similar, within the mind of Gd, which generated the hologram that comprises the universe.

I believe that this hologram is something equivalent to a beta test of the universe, along with the various parts that make up the universe, including the human race and the individuals that make up the human race. 

I believe that if the human race and the universe that we inhabit, have a successful beta test, we will become real. I believe our program will be permanently deleted if we do not have a good beta test. 

I believe that we are very close to failing our beta test and being deleted forever. I believe there will be a period before the final deletion, that will comprise many religions' ideas of hell. 

I believe that a successful completion of the beta test will cause the human race, the individuals that make up the human race, and the universe, to become real and consequently experience something comparable to concepts of heaven. 

I believe that we are unlikely to experience a successful beta test and heaven unless we, as individuals, and members of the human race, make drastic changes in our behavior(s).

I was raised as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, which I still regard somewhat fondly, but cautiously and from a distance. I have attended a wide range of religions and read about and studied a great many more. I used to consider myself a Christian, and am not necessarily averse to this identification, but think it is somewhat limiting, compared to my beliefs.

I don't think any particular religion is '
"wrong" or "right". I think Gd and our universe are entirely too complex and immense for finite human beings to even begin to comprehend. 

I believe this complexity of Gd and the universe result in all religions being inevitably incomplete. I think each religion has a piece of the concept of what Gd and the universe is like and it requires the plurality of different ways of looking at the universe, including science and agnostics and atheists, to even begin to cover the complexity and immensity of Gd and the universe. I believe all this diversity of beliefs and bits of understanding, is not an accident. I believe that Gd has some sort of enjoyment, as individual humans do, of being understood. I think it is a mistake to argue or quarrel about different concepts of Gd and the universe, since all these concepts are necessary, even though we may perceive them as being conflicting. 

I am not attached to anyone else agreeing with any of the aforementioned. It is simply what I have thought about to explain things to myself and use as a way to think about things some more. I don't consider this as even my personal, final conclusion about things. It is just a way to be able to do some more thinking. 

I don't think it is humanly possible to ever have a final conclusion about Gd and the universe, since we all have finite minds and are, inadequate to the job of coming to any valid conclusions about much of anything.

None of that stops me from continuing to try to understand more about Gd and the universe, however. I actually enjoy trying a lot. 

I consider myself to be very much in love with Gd and believe this is inevitable, if one thinks about Gd much at all. I don't feel a need to reach conclusions about how other people feel on this subject or what this says about them or not. 

Since I love Gd very much, this causes me to behave in certain ways. I believe that if one truly loves another individual, or Gd, one will automatically want to know and understand the object of one's love. 

I believe that the attempt to understand the object on one's love, either Gd or another individual, will cause one to wish to know what the other individual or Gd wants and will make them happy. I believe that this will cause attempts to change one's behavior to bring happiness to the other individual or Gd. 

I do not believe that Gd will be happy if the individuals that make up the human race, the human race as a group, or the universe, fail the beta test we are undergoing now. 

I do not believe that individuals who make the human race, the human race as a whole, or the universe will be at our best or happy, if we fail our beta test. 

I believe that we individuals who make up the human race, the human race as a whole, and the universe have the option of choosing to succeed at our beta test or not. 

I believe that not choosing to succeed at our beta test, or doing nothing, is a failure of our beta test. 

I believe that destroying the planet we have been given to live on, the Earth, will be a failure of our beta test. 

I believe that many or perhaps, most of the the individuals who make up the human race are choosing through actions or inaction, to destroy the Earth. 

I do not believe that it is necessary for all individuals who make up the human race to pass the beta test in order for the beta test to be successful. 

I believe that even if a comparatively small part of the individuals who make up the human race make choices and act on them, that will cause them to pass the beta test, that it will be enough to allow for a successful beta test. 

I do not know what will happen to individuals who do not make the choices and actions necessary to pass the beta test, but doubt it will be good. I do not consider this to be much of my business. 

I am interested in people who wish to make choices to pass their beta test and who are willing to act on those choices and therefore, pass their beta test. 

I believe that every individual who makes up part of the human race, has been given a particular spiritual gift or set of them to help them to pass their beta test. I believe it is difficult or impossible to pass one's beta test without the use of one's spiritual gifts. 

I believe that the majority of the individuals who comprise the human race never have an idea of what their own spiritual gift, or set of spiritual gifts are, let alone learn to use them. 

I believe that some individuals have a glimmering of their personal spiritual gift, or set of them and are making some use of it, or them, and are happier than others who do not do this. I believe that those who partly use their spiritual gift or set of them, are more likely to pass their beta test than those who do not have this, but do not have as good a chance as possible. 

I believe that one must become very familiar with one's spiritual gift or set of them and use them as fully as possible, to have the best chance of passing their beta test, and be happy.

I believe that I have been given a complete set of spiritual gifts and that this is unique. 

I believe that the purpose of my having a complete set of spiritual gifts (all of them that anyone has,) is for the purpose of being able to tell what spiritual gifts that other individuals have and develop them so that they may eventually make full use of them and pass their beta test and be happy. 

I believe that once an individual begins to discover their own personal spiritual gift or set of them, they will begin to have a drive to continue learning about their spiritual gift(s) and develop it more and be happy, and incidentally pass their beta test. 

I believe we are sort of hard wired for wanting to find out about and use our spiritual gift(s) once we begin to awaken our spiritual gift(s).

I think our relation to our spiritual gifts happens regardless of our religion, or philosophy or lack of it.

I believe that an individual can develop their spiritual gift(s) regardless of their religion or philosophy or lack of it.

I believe that an individual can develop and use their spiritual gift(s) and pass their beta test regardless of their religion or philosophy or lack of it.

I believe that many individuals have a main spiritual gift and one or more subordinate spiritual gift(s). 

I believe that my main spiritual gift is to help others find and develop their spiritual gift(s) and pass their beta test and be happy. 

I would like to help more people to find and develop their spiritual gift(s), pass their beta test, and be happy. 

That is why I am writing this post. I think that writing this post is exposing myself to problems that I would rather not experience, but I am doing it anyway. 

I do not believe that the universe will continue to exist much longer unless enough people pass their beta test. I do not think we have much longer for enough people to prepare themselves to pass their beta test, for the human race, and the universe to be able to pass our beta test and continue to exist. 

I find it distressing to think of how Gd will feel if we do not pass our beta test. I dislike the idea of how Gd will feel if we do not pass our beta test. 

This idea is one of the conclusions I have reached about what I can do to help Gd to be happy. 

Since I love Gd I wish Gd to be happy and therefore want to do what I can to contribute to Gd being happy. 

I have written this blog up to this point because I concluded that individuals have no chance to pass their beta tests if they do not survive. I hoped that the information in my blog would help more people survive and therefore have a chance to pass their beta test.

I have concluded since starting my blog, that simple survival is inadequate for passing one's beta test, and finding and using one's spiritual gift(s) is also necessary.

I have already posted a bit about spiritual gifts on this blog, but feel that my efforts in that department are inadequate.

I believe this is especially so, considering how little time is left for us to pass our beta test. I think that if we as individuals and a group, are to pass our beta test(s), we really have to get moving on it. I mean we need to hurry, in other words.

I have over 500 posts on this blog, although some have not been published. It has come to my notice that the number of posts and the information they cover, can be overwhelming to some people. 

I am afraid that information about spiritual gifts could easily be blocked by the amount of information on this blog on other subjects. 

I feel reluctant to start another blog, but think it is necessary. I am gathering my resources to do so anyway, since I consider it very important. I believe this will probably please Gd. I intend to pray about this, which is one of my personal methods for making decisions that are important. I would appreciate prayers from readers on the matter also.

Thank you to anyone who read this. 

Monday, June 29, 2015

Nuke Yourself Out

We are at severe risk of having World War III right now. The United States is busy provoking Russia to push their nuclear buttons. I do not like this and thought other people might not either. I don't know that you will have a chance to see this, but I will post it and take a shot that you will anyway.

The United States signed a treaty a few years back that agreed that a country owns the area where their continental shelf extends. 

Russia did a geological survey that shows their continental shelf extends past the North Pole. They planted a titanium flag on the sea floor below the North Pole and filed a claim with the United Nations for ownership.

The North Pole area is claimed by several other nations, including, Canada, the United States, and Russia. 

Vladimir Putin was quoted in Pravda as saying that he thinks WWIII will begin over the oil and minerals in the North Pole area. 

Shell Oil company has two oil drilling rigs chugging their way toward the area right now. One left Port of Seattle area a while ago. The other has not reached it yet as far as I know. 

A diagram of the drilling plan showed the oil rigs in American coastal waters inside an Alaskan wildlife reserve. The pipelines from the rigs will reach out at an angle and start sucking up oil from disputed waters, even though they are sited in American waters.

I believe that signing the permit to allow Shell Oil to do this is a betrayal of the American people as well as a betrayal of the entire human race. 

People have been hung or shot for lesser acts.

Here is a link to a site that shows the thermal effects of various weaponry. All you have to do is enter the name of your city or a likely nearby target, choose a weapon and hit, "nuke it". 

Friday, June 5, 2015

Are You Important?

I met an important man last night. He knows how things work in the government and systems that support or connect with it so well that he spoke truthfully when he said, " I know how to get things started and I can stop them too." 

He was talking about building projects. He does great big ones like enormous housing projects and malls that incorporate businesses with residences.

A question that occurred to me when this important man said that he can start and stop things, was, "Yes, but do you know what to start and stop?" 

That question cut into my sleep and woke me up early. I think the answer to it is, "No. He does not know what to start and stop."

I am a rather unimportant person and can barely manage to start and stop myself. I am not sure I know what to start and stop either, but boy am I good at asking questions!

Once upon a time a long time ago, I took a test for a job with my government. The test also happened to be used by the government to find people who have high IQs. I was one of those high IQs they found that way.

My government was rather irate that I had escaped their notice so long with my valuable high IQ. This was because they like to catch people with very high IQs and put them to work with important stuff like blowing stuff up and calculating how to blow things up, or programming computers to do that.

I was young, naive, and therefore decided to work for the government sort of as a volunteer. The job that taking that test got me was as a postal clerk. I would be paid as a postal clerk, and still do other things for the government.

I thought that what I was doing for my government would make the world better and help lots of people. That is why I did not ask for lots of money for using my high IQ for the government.

Government people did try to talk me into helping them do important work like blowing stuff up, but it was kind of late for me to do that. I already really hated math so much that I didn't find blowing stuff up or programming computers to blow stuff up, very appealing. 

The government decided that they would use me in other ways, that might not be as useful to them as blowing stuff up and programming computers to blow stuff up. They had me doing all sorts of things. Many of them involved thinking and being a sort of mobile computer.

They mentioned that I was especially useful with information that was difficult to quantify so that it could be put into a computer. 

Apparently I was very useful them in this way. They decided that I was so good at it that they would sort of loan me out to different government departments and even big semi-government corporations.

I was somewhat bemused by all of this. They considered what I was doing so important that they gave me body guards. Lots of body guards. I am not sure they even thought that I actually needed that many body guards.

It was just that we had that many government departments; it was about 15 at the time. Those different government departments didn't trust each other, so each one wanted one of their guys around me to watch out for the others and be able to influence me for their own purposes. 

It was also a pain. They never left me alone, even at home. They didn't go right into the toilet with me, but they hid microphones in there.

The thing I seemed to be best at was asking questions. Lots of questions. 

It escaped me then, why that was so useful. I can't say I really grok that now either, but it sure seemed to make people happy.

They would bring some important person with a problem to me. I would ask the person questions about their problem and the important person would suddenly seem to have a solution to it.

They would then bring the next important person with a problem and we would do it again.

It didn't seem to me that I was really doing anything, but everybody seemed to think I was really good at it. 

They wanted me to do more of this. They started scheduling me with one important-person-with-a-problem, after another, all day long. There got to be so many people waiting to have me ask them questions and help them solve their problems, that they ran out of my time and got a backlog. I was scheduled for years ahead and there was still not enough time to go around.

I found out after a while of doing this, that I did not like some of the stuff that I was helping with. 

Blowing people up and finding other ways to kill them was not something I liked helping with. Doing other nasty stuff to people was not pleasant to me either. 

I didn't want to keep helping the government people do things that I considered wrong. I quit working for them.

They were mad at me for that. They took away my body guards. I wasn't sure that was bad.

All kinds of things happened to me that showed me things that I had not known while I was still working for the government.

One of these things I had not known, was that the bodyguards were not just there for the reasons I knew about, like protecting me from bad guys who might hurt me, or from being influenced by the other body guards. They were there to keep me from being useful to other people, especially people from other governments.

They would rather have me dead, than working to help other governments. I was almost killed lots of times since I quit working for the government. 

I have been learning lots of stuff since I worked for the government. I think my questions are much better than they used to be. 

One of those better questions is, "Why shouldn't I get to ask questions that help more people?" 

Another question is, "Why should I have to die instead of getting to help people who are not part of the government of my country?" 

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of problems in the world. These problems are real humdingers compared to the ones I ran across when I used to be working for my government.

Some of these problems involve climate change and other effects of environmental system trashing that the human race has been doing. I have lots of very good questions about this sort of thing. One good question is, "Why don't more people understand that the future of the human race is in danger unless we make big changes in how we live?

It seems to me that people who have most of the power and money do not want our problems solved. They do not seem to even want the rest of us to know much about those problems or think about them and work on them. 


I think the rest of us can solve our problems and make things better for all of us even if the rich and powerful don't want us to do that. I think we should do that and start now. 

Be important. Pay attention to what is going on and do your little bit to make it better. Do it now.