- Adapting to life in the year 1,226,788 -
| The purpose of the Council: To create an awareness of both Geologic and Astronomic Time in young minds. Along with the imagination, this awareness is essential in having a healthy and realistic perspective of this great expanse of time. Living in awareness of the Geologic / Astronomic Timescales will help inhabitants of Earth appreciate a brief 6 - 10 decade long lifespan. The paragraphs that follow attempt to bring to light our society's challenges relative to the astronomic / geologic time-scale. We have been evolving only about 6 million years...and now, with the discovery of Ardi in the Afar Rift of Ethiopia, our fossil history goes back 4.4 million years. How can one NOT wonder what life will be like in the year 1,226,788? After another 1.25 million yrs...how do you think we'll look?....and behave? At Fort Monroe, Virginia, I visited the room in which Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at the end of the Civil War (1865). Being 5'9", I actually had to duck to get in the doorway...H.Sapiens is getting taller.  NOTE: This section is being changed to a Table of Contents:
Anyone home in the auto industry? Actually...there are now a few: Ford Focus Electric, Chevy Volt, Tesla Motors, etc., etc. Possibly our president will draw attention to the "re-invention of the auto industry". Know this: At the turn of the century......MOST of the cars on the road were ELECTRIC. Do NOT miss Chris Paine's "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (2006)  "Hybrid" technology will pass...humans change one slow step at at time. As logic dictates, evolution of battery longevity for pure electric vehicles, is in progress. Here's a You Tube Video on Stanford R. Ovshinsky  Natural gas is prevalent... From
time to time on this particular planet, A highly
explosive gas is NOT a good choice for energy. Most
people are removed from basic laws of science.  View a concise timeline |
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Know the importance of lawmakers and their understanding (or lack of understanding) of the Sciences in the stewardship of Earth. The fact there
are NO people of Science
in office will be reflected in our future society. |
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| Examples of the
clash between science and politics:
Ever catch a fish with lesions? Read about Nitrates and their effect on humans and our environment. Imagine the chemistry/condition of Earth's oceans in just another century. ========  Society's most frequent contact with "people of science" involves medical doctors. MDs / Attorneys are individuals who, at one time, had the academic discipline to graduate from medical / law school and pass the necessary examinations. Does this mean that they will be good at their jobs? My conversations with attorneys are shallow & brief. They become defensive when I talk science. Most are not well versed in the sciences. Currently, according to the Congressional Research Service, 170 members of the House and 58 Senators have law degrees. The 109th Congress included 228 members who hold law degrees and 217 members whose former occupation was in law. I've worked elbow to elbow with hundreds of MDs through the years. They are easier for me to communicate with due to the underlying science in their profession. If an event has occurred in a medical facility...it's likely I've seen it. Any questions about anything related to health care....eeeeMail me. I'll give a brutally honest answer.... I once worked for a week with a gastroenterology bunch. It was a colonoscopy assembly line at about $2500 a pop. Just in the week I was there, I observed a dosing problem with Versed for folks with less than average body weight. A couple of the patients took wAy too long to come out of it. A standard initial dose of Versed was given to all....regardless of body weight....fat body / thin body...didn't matter. If I remember correctly, they crammed in up to 20 or so procedures a day. I call them "production butt docs" ...ever have a colonoscopy? The "prep" is delightful....I can go on and on with medical community stories. A few thoughts on Prescription Drugs: My concern.... media campaigns for medications. The term "depression" reaches out to a broad audience. I am especially alarmed by drugs used in the psychiatric branch of medicine, and the fact they are given to such young people. In California, in addition to MDs, psychologists also have the authority to prescribe these chemicals. Hollywood addressed the "mental illness drug" issue in the film Don Juan DeMarco, a colorful tale with an important message. Terms such as "chemical imbalance" are particularly annoying. Psychiatry is the least understood branch of medicine. We have barely begun to map the physiology of the brain....and how it does what it does. What actually takes place in the brain when we have a certain emotion or thought? We have centuries more of research to become effective in the treatment of what we call "mental illness". This branch of study is also known as "behavioral" medicene. The test fields for medications is much too small and the length of the trial inadequate to allow most of these chemicals into the "market". Medical research is a slowly evolving process. I find substances approved by the FDA to be "quick fixes" fueled by greed. A year or two of testing a drug on a few thousand humans is profoundly inadequate and dangerous. MDs will largely prescribe whatever is marketed to them. Most humans will follow an MD's advice. I've had many breakfasts, lunches & dinners funded by drug companies. The pharmaceutical companies love to wine & dine the MDs & RNs. Patents for drugs expire. Attorneys extend the patent to keep other companies from manufacturing the less expensive generic drugs. This is a practice in the pharmaceutical industry. Just a few links to info. on Meds: ClinicalTrials.gov ClinicalTrials.gov currently contains 107,675 trials with locations in 174 countries. Institute for Safe Medication Practices WorstPills.org Dialogue on "New Meds" Developments in California CBS article on TV Drug Ads Ask your MD if she/he has taken what they prescribed for you (just to see what it feels like).... prepare yourself for an entertaining / amusing answer such as: "Well, I'm not depressed", "I'm not in pain", or "I don't have erectile dysfunction". Does the prescribed drug require an accepted "blood level" of the chemical to become evident in lab values for the drug to "work"? Being "busy", your doctor WILL probably neglect to ask what other medications have been prescribed for you for whatever reasons by other MDs. These chemicals can adversely interact with each other. Tragic Comedy of the "Drug War" - Vol. 1 Please be aware - ADULT language in above video! |
  An illustration of the influence marketing has on our society is the subject of the film "The Corporation". |
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 The Council is concerned about frequency of deformity and carcinoma (cancer)
in H. Sapiens. Could it be that we are wallowing in our own waste? The answer is YES. |
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Please
note - The following material may be offensive to some. In this stage in the
evolution of our society, the mention of "cloning" is alarming to many.
Humans are so suspicious of the evil in human nature. They don't seem
to think about genius as a positive force. Genetic research is a noble and humanitarian
pursuit. |
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Popularity polls the people of Earth like to call "elections" produce no men/women of Science in our political structure. Having the academic
discipline to get through law or medical school does not mean an individual
will be good at their job. |
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Concerning the passage of time: We are living in
the Cenozoic
Era. |
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| Homo Sapiens and predecessors
have been present for only about 4 million years. It will probably take
another million for the situation to correct itself. Visit the Union of Concerned Scientists website. |
- The Council will issue Science Directives -
GTAC Science Directive #1
for Humans/Parents/Kidlings of all ages:
Mandatory once a year viewing of the IMAX film "Blue Planet". |
GTAC Science Directive #2
for Humans/Parents/Kidlings of all ages:
E-Mail your elected officials - they need to get a clue. Modify the job description mentioned below. |
A few thoughts
on TREES...Think about the individual driving the land clearing device
with the job description of clearing the land for real estate development.
It is THIS individual who determines what trees and natural features
remain. The person who cleared the land in this webauthor's subdivision
was a native Californian unfamiliar with Dogwoods (Virginia state
tree) and identifying types of trees was apparently not in his job
description. Hundreds of Dogwoods and Holly trees along with other
forest fauna/flora were destroyed in GTAC's home subdivision alone.
The day after the trees were felled, the very sound of forest fauna
changed dramatically...strange, unhappy sounds. |
GTAC Science Directive #3
for Humans/Parents/Kidlings of all ages:
Read the Endangered Species Act of 1973
GTAC Science Directive #4
for Humans/Parents/Kidlings of all ages:
Geo / Astro Time Related Link Compilation
Apologies for all the extinct links:::: :: :
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