I was born in the summer of 1966 at the North Jetties, Jacksonville, Florida. I don't remember the day, but I do remember the wave.....in 1966 there was a beautiful point break just as you drove on to the beach after crossing the flats and I was born on the left break of that point break one summer day in 1966. I was forever hooked on surfing from that day and the North Jetties was THE place. However, in 1997 I moved to the N.C. mountains and essentially quit surfing although I never lost my love of, and interest in, surfing. Thus this Facebook page. Fast Forward.....I am now in the winter of my 69th year, I turn 70 next September, and the last few of those years has been consumed by a desire to return to surfing and the jetties. So....here I am.....on the beginning of a new journey--the goal? I would like to become one of the few over 70 surfers to hang ten at the jetties.
Can I do it? I guess we'll see.....but I'm not alone! Some others of my friends have recommitted to their interest in surfing and the jetties. They are Gary Palmer, with new knees, a rekindled flame, brother for life and best surfing buddy ever. Grady Pope, brother for life and best surfing buddy ever. Bobby Swift, real brother for life and best surfing buddy ever. Jason Smith, virtual son, pro surfer extraordinaire, and best surfing buddy ever.....always has been committed and the driver of my recommitment. Others have expressed interest in this journey.....like Barry Wunder, originally from Ft. George, early jetty surfer, has never lost his interest and still surfs there.
I will document our journey on these pages and whether we hang ten or not we will display surfing, and the jetties, as we know them in our lives.
And so, in this Winter of my 69th year, My friends and I restart a journey begun 50 plus years ago.......Come along on our trip!!!
https://www.facebook.com/lindsey.swift/videos/10209590545632261/
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Monday, December 22, 2014
Congress takes Family Farmers and Ranchers for a Ride | Center for Rural Affairs
Congress takes Family Farmers and Ranchers for a Ride | Center for Rural Affairs
What does Congress have against family farmers and ranchers? The $1.1 trillion spending bill passed last week included the full version of the so-called GIPSA rider passed earlier by the House of Representatives. A rider is a legislative provision attached to a larger spending bill.
There are not enough ways to describe how bad this hidden policy package truly is. It limits USDA’s ability to protect farmers’ and ranchers’ basic rights, such as their freedom of speech and freedom of association. The Packers and Stockyards Act, passed in 1921, was written to protect farmers and ranchers from discriminatory, deceptive and abusive practices when they sell livestock and poultry to meatpacking corporations.
Congress abandoned those principles when they passed the FY 2015 federal spending bill. They abandoned USDA’s effort to provide smaller volume livestock producers a more competitive livestock market and greater fairness for farmers and ranchers. The 2008 Farm Bill required Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to write regulation, under the Packers and Stockyards Act, to prohibit undue and discriminatory preferences given to large, industrial livestock operations and to provide basic protections to farmers and ranchers who do business with meatpacking corporations. Secretary Vilsack proposed the best and most comprehensive livestock market reforms since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Unfortunately, Congress has repeatedly undercut his efforts. Family farmers and ranchers, need and deserve access to competitive livestock markets that reward them fairly for their work. That’s something Congress must figure out, soon.
Congress abandoned those principles when they passed the FY 2015 federal spending bill. They abandoned USDA’s effort to provide smaller volume livestock producers a more competitive livestock market and greater fairness for farmers and ranchers. The 2008 Farm Bill required Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to write regulation, under the Packers and Stockyards Act, to prohibit undue and discriminatory preferences given to large, industrial livestock operations and to provide basic protections to farmers and ranchers who do business with meatpacking corporations. Secretary Vilsack proposed the best and most comprehensive livestock market reforms since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Unfortunately, Congress has repeatedly undercut his efforts. Family farmers and ranchers, need and deserve access to competitive livestock markets that reward them fairly for their work. That’s something Congress must figure out, soon.
Infrastructure advances in the rest-of-the-world will blow your mind.
Infrastructure advances in the rest-of-the-world will blow your mind.
"While we're "debating" torture, access to basic health care and the veracity of climate change, the rest-of-the-world is simply advancing transformational infrastructure like you would not believe."
"The clock is ticking. The rest-of-the-world is not waiting while the United States "debates" the future. It is building the future."................." These developments aren't just cool -- as in fast trains and long distances -- but they herald the end of American economic dominance; they are concrete symbols of our relative decline versus the other great nations -- and regions -- of the world.
"While we're "debating" torture, access to basic health care and the veracity of climate change, the rest-of-the-world is simply advancing transformational infrastructure like you would not believe."
"The clock is ticking. The rest-of-the-world is not waiting while the United States "debates" the future. It is building the future."................." These developments aren't just cool -- as in fast trains and long distances -- but they herald the end of American economic dominance; they are concrete symbols of our relative decline versus the other great nations -- and regions -- of the world.
All these interlocked developments suggest a geopolitical tectonic shift in Eurasia that the American media simply hasn't begun to grasp. Which doesn't mean that no one notices anything. You can smell the incipient panic in the air in the Washington establishment. The Council on Foreign Relations is already publishing laments about the possibility that the former sole superpower's exceptionalist moment is "unraveling." The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission can only blame the Chinese leadership for being "disloyal," adverse to "reform," and an enemy of the "liberalization" of their own economy.Yes, the rest-of-the-world has problems -- many of which are worse than our own: horrid unemployment in Italy, extreme gun violence in Brazil, horrific absolute poverty in China -- but, and this is crucial, even as they grapple with these challenges, they are still investing in the future -- in long-lasting ways. And, worst of all from the perspective of the United States, they are doing so to the exclusion of our nation: leaving behind our companies, our people, any concern for our relevance.The usual suspects carp that upstart China is upsetting the "international order," will doom "peace and prosperity" in Asia for all eternity, and may be creating a "new kind of Cold War" in the region. From Washington's perspective, a rising China, of course, remains the major "threat" in Asia, if not the world, even as the Pentagon spends gigantic sums to keep its sprawling global empire of bases intact. Those Washington-based stories about the new China threat in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, however, never mention that China remains encircled by US bases, while lacking a base of its own outside its territory.
The United States is being left behind. We will -- absent major change -- never be able to catch up with the infrastructure of Asia and Europe, given current political conditions in this country. And the most tragic part of this decline is that it's being actively promoted by our leaders."
Top Ten Lists - Merriam-Webster Online
Top Ten Lists - Merriam-Webster Online Top Ten Words-of-the-Year
I thought "Culture" was a great choice for #1 on this list---
I thought "Culture" was a great choice for #1 on this list---
1: Culture
 Culture is a big word at back-to-school time each year, but this year lookups extended beyond the academic calendar. The term conveys a kind of academic attention to systematic behavior and allows us to identify and isolate an idea, issue, or group: we speak of a "culture of transparency" or "consumer culture."Culture can be either very broad (as in "celebrity culture" or "winning culture") or very specific (as in "test-prep culture" or "marching band culture"). This year, the use of the word culture to define ideas in this way has moved from the classroom syllabus to the conversation at large, appearing in headlines and analyses across a wide swath of topics. |
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Snowy Egret, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Snowy Egret, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Colliding atmospheres: Mars vs Comet Siding Spring
"It is possible," says Brain, "that the atmosphere of the comet will interact with the atmosphere of Mars. This could lead to some remarkable effects—including Martian auroras."
Colliding atmospheres: Mars vs Comet Siding Spring
Colliding atmospheres: Mars vs Comet Siding Spring
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The corporation represents the event horizon of the singularity.
It is an artificial intelligence, composed of the combined intelligence of its shareholders, its management and workers, but with an agenda independent from any of them.
Cle...arly the interlocking boards of directorship and holding of shares has created a amalgamated mind made of many corporations all working if not in concert, towards common goals.
Clearly this hive mind, a product of our hive activity, has grown in complexity beyond our comprehension.
Clearly, it is the singularity.
It is an artificial intelligence, composed of the combined intelligence of its shareholders, its management and workers, but with an agenda independent from any of them.
Cle...arly the interlocking boards of directorship and holding of shares has created a amalgamated mind made of many corporations all working if not in concert, towards common goals.
Clearly this hive mind, a product of our hive activity, has grown in complexity beyond our comprehension.
Clearly, it is the singularity.
On the president as alien - The Washington Post
On the president as alien - The Washington Post
If you buy into the idea of democracy as a way to bring individuals and groups of differing goals and agendas together into a dialogue with the goal of seeking and forging a common pathway, than using these techniques to devalue "the other"... is a clear path to make their choices unacceptable and that common pathway unachieveable. It undermines the idea of democracy as a unifiying mechanism and turns the idea of majority rule into just another way to eliminate dissent and choice
I wonder about the underlying trajectory of some connecting links.....politics has always been about power and violence, verbal or otherwise, has always been an intregal part of that environment. But given the changing nature of our media a...ccessibility and the increasing role in both dialogue and action of "money as speech", the increasing complexity of our social environment (the broadest definition), that this seriously emphasizes the role that critical thinking plays in making choices. Then relate that to the changing educational environment for children which increasingly emphasizes "teaching to the test" to achieve statistical dominance as opposed to educating "how to think" processes and information as the fuel for that thinking. Are these two differing trends creating an environment where "money as speech" effectively replaces democracy, and the tools it uses, as arbitraters of our choices ?
Thursday, February 16, 2012
I recently read two items and became aware of an event that highlighted some of the issues with genetically modified organisms. In the January 2012 issue of Scientific American there were two interesting columns on this subject:
"Tweaking Photosynthesis", (
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tweaking-photosynthesis)
"Pond Scum to the Rescue", David Biello interviewing J. Craig Venter, January 2012
And an event :
Late last month in downtown Manhattan, Judge Federal Court Judge Naomi Buchwald heard the first arguments in OSGATA et al. versus Monsanto, a groundbreaking lawsuit brought by The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) on behalf of 83 farmer plaintiffs, who are “seeking court protection under the Declaratory Judgment Act, from Monsanto-initiated patent infringement law.
(http://www.ecocentricblog.org/2012/02/15/organic-farmers-sue-monsanto-hundreds-converge-in-support/suits)
Most of Tweaking Photosynthesis is about improving the efficiency of photosynthesis, or altering it's nature in some way to make greener fuel.....and using genetic manipulation as the method to achieve this. Or to replace photosynthesis altogether with other processes. Pond Scum to the Rescue was about using genetic tools to rewrite the genetic code and "get cells to do what we want them to do". It's about engineering algae cells to produce liquid fuel in quantities 10 to 100 times normal cells.
These articles are a very small sample of the type of products genetic manipulation can potentially produce and give a backdrop to the Manhatten lawsuit against Monsanto. All of these GMO organisms have the potential to genetically mix, in natural ways, with wild and/or domestic counterparts and passing on those GM characteristics causing a significant loss of revenue to the designing companies. Monsanto is claiming that their patent rights give them ownership of any plant displaying any GM characteristics designed by them no matter what the method of genetic mixing was. That is a potentially devastating blow to any farm. The implications of this lawsuit, while highly significant in ownership of our food supply, has major significance in human healthcare both in ownership of processes and the result of those processes. If thru patent rights Monsanto can own the product of your labors independent of anything else what does that mean for healthcare companies who own the patent design on GM's that affect you ?
"Tweaking Photosynthesis", (
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tweaking-photosynthesis)
"Pond Scum to the Rescue", David Biello interviewing J. Craig Venter, January 2012
And an event :
Late last month in downtown Manhattan, Judge Federal Court Judge Naomi Buchwald heard the first arguments in OSGATA et al. versus Monsanto, a groundbreaking lawsuit brought by The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) on behalf of 83 farmer plaintiffs, who are “seeking court protection under the Declaratory Judgment Act, from Monsanto-initiated patent infringement law.
(http://www.ecocentricblog.org/2012/02/15/organic-farmers-sue-monsanto-hundreds-converge-in-support/suits)
Most of Tweaking Photosynthesis is about improving the efficiency of photosynthesis, or altering it's nature in some way to make greener fuel.....and using genetic manipulation as the method to achieve this. Or to replace photosynthesis altogether with other processes. Pond Scum to the Rescue was about using genetic tools to rewrite the genetic code and "get cells to do what we want them to do". It's about engineering algae cells to produce liquid fuel in quantities 10 to 100 times normal cells.
These articles are a very small sample of the type of products genetic manipulation can potentially produce and give a backdrop to the Manhatten lawsuit against Monsanto. All of these GMO organisms have the potential to genetically mix, in natural ways, with wild and/or domestic counterparts and passing on those GM characteristics causing a significant loss of revenue to the designing companies. Monsanto is claiming that their patent rights give them ownership of any plant displaying any GM characteristics designed by them no matter what the method of genetic mixing was. That is a potentially devastating blow to any farm. The implications of this lawsuit, while highly significant in ownership of our food supply, has major significance in human healthcare both in ownership of processes and the result of those processes. If thru patent rights Monsanto can own the product of your labors independent of anything else what does that mean for healthcare companies who own the patent design on GM's that affect you ?
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Real Challenge
These three articles are linked from an energy demand that we are going to have a huge struggle to meet, an influx into government of people unwilling to work within a framework of a global agenda, or even a national agenda, and the devastating consequences of those issues.
In fact, at the global level, in order to shift away from a world that gets 81 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide to just 14 gigatons per year, here is what the International Energy Agency says will have to be built every year between now and 2050: 35 coal-fired and 20 gas-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage; 30 nuclear power plants; 12,000 onshore wind turbines paired with 3,600 offshore ones; 45 geothermal power plants; 325 million square meters-worth of photovoltaics; and 55 solar-thermal power plants. That doesn’t even include the need to build electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in order to shift transportation away from burning gasoline
These new energy infrastructures would have to be spread over areas ten to a thousand times larger than today’s infrastructure of fossil fuel extraction, combustion and electricity generation…. This is not an impossible feat, but one posing many regulatory, technical and logistic challenges.”
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/green_energys_big_challenge__the_daunting_task_of_scaling_up_/2362/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/469133a
When the universities were doing well — and in many parts of the world, they have just enjoyed decades of expansion — the concentration of scientific research within their walls was more or less entirely beneficial. When the economic storm struck in 2008, the ride came to an abrupt end. Now, as Western governments attempt to maintain investment in science as a route to innovation and industrial development, they are undermining support for students and the quality of their education. Instead of joining with students and teaching staff elsewhere in academia in protest, too many scientific leaders have stood aloof. (Martin Rees, until this month the president of the Royal Society in London, is a notable exception.) Strategically, this approach is a disaster in waiting.
China and India know this and are building universities from the ground up, with a firm emphasis on student education as their bedrock of energy and ideas. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, these foundations are being demolished, and students drowned in debt, to keep researchers' grants flowing. It can only end badly, and more in the scientific establishment should have the courage to say so.
http://nyti.ms/efpgBB
Over the next 100 years, many scientists predict, 20 percent to 30 percent of species could be lost if the temperature rises 3.6 degrees to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. If the most extreme warming predictions are realized, the loss could be over 50 percent, according to the United Nations climate change panel.
Polar bears have become the icons of this climate threat. But scientists say that tens of thousands of smaller species that live in the tropics or on or near mountaintops are equally, if not more, vulnerable. These species, in habitats from the high plateaus of Africa to the jungles of Australia to the Sierra Nevada in the United States, are already experiencing climate pressures, and will be the bulk of the animals that disappear
In fact, at the global level, in order to shift away from a world that gets 81 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide to just 14 gigatons per year, here is what the International Energy Agency says will have to be built every year between now and 2050: 35 coal-fired and 20 gas-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage; 30 nuclear power plants; 12,000 onshore wind turbines paired with 3,600 offshore ones; 45 geothermal power plants; 325 million square meters-worth of photovoltaics; and 55 solar-thermal power plants. That doesn’t even include the need to build electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in order to shift transportation away from burning gasoline
These new energy infrastructures would have to be spread over areas ten to a thousand times larger than today’s infrastructure of fossil fuel extraction, combustion and electricity generation…. This is not an impossible feat, but one posing many regulatory, technical and logistic challenges.”
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/green_energys_big_challenge__the_daunting_task_of_scaling_up_/2362/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/469133a
When the universities were doing well — and in many parts of the world, they have just enjoyed decades of expansion — the concentration of scientific research within their walls was more or less entirely beneficial. When the economic storm struck in 2008, the ride came to an abrupt end. Now, as Western governments attempt to maintain investment in science as a route to innovation and industrial development, they are undermining support for students and the quality of their education. Instead of joining with students and teaching staff elsewhere in academia in protest, too many scientific leaders have stood aloof. (Martin Rees, until this month the president of the Royal Society in London, is a notable exception.) Strategically, this approach is a disaster in waiting.
China and India know this and are building universities from the ground up, with a firm emphasis on student education as their bedrock of energy and ideas. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, these foundations are being demolished, and students drowned in debt, to keep researchers' grants flowing. It can only end badly, and more in the scientific establishment should have the courage to say so.
http://nyti.ms/efpgBB
Over the next 100 years, many scientists predict, 20 percent to 30 percent of species could be lost if the temperature rises 3.6 degrees to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. If the most extreme warming predictions are realized, the loss could be over 50 percent, according to the United Nations climate change panel.
Polar bears have become the icons of this climate threat. But scientists say that tens of thousands of smaller species that live in the tropics or on or near mountaintops are equally, if not more, vulnerable. These species, in habitats from the high plateaus of Africa to the jungles of Australia to the Sierra Nevada in the United States, are already experiencing climate pressures, and will be the bulk of the animals that disappear
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
What Does 'Obama Didn't Focus on Jobs' Mean, Anyway?
I thought you would find this interesting:
What Does 'Obama Didn't Focus on Jobs' Mean, Anyway? - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtlanticBusinessChannel/~3/bG9ZoMMJ-UI/click.phdo
Shared from TheAtlantic, an iPhone app made with www.AppMakr.com
What Does 'Obama Didn't Focus on Jobs' Mean, Anyway? - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtlanticBusinessChannel/~3/bG9ZoMMJ-UI/click.phdo
Shared from TheAtlantic, an iPhone app made with www.AppMakr.com
Lindsey Swift
NYTimes: Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.
From The New York Times:
Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.
Government officials are considering financial incentives to spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.
Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes
Lindsey Swift
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