Atwaterpub: March 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

Six "Sixty to look younger" longevity tips

1. Don't smoke cigarettes. Don't drink alcohol. "Only drink water, or tea"

2. Take anti-oxident vitamins like Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12,
Vitamin E

3. Eat high fiber vegetarian. "One gram of fiber for every one hundred calories"

4. Work inside and avoid the direct exposure to the sun.

5. Do what you enjoy. You were born knowing what you enjoy doing.
Find out what that is and try to do that as much as possible.

6. Get enough sleep, but not too much.
Don't use an alarm clock unless absolutely necessary.
Sleep duration = .5 hour + N x 1.5 hours
(where N is number of sleep cycles from two to five)

William Schaeffer

Seventeen Facts

From an email to my friend Tom:

1. University of Illinois Engineering College has a planned 50% attrition rate for incoming Freshmen. Many of these unsuspecting young boys have their lives ruined for no good reason except to maintain cost effective reputation of the school and the Professors. This happened to some friends of mine.

2. The Christian Church burnt every single book in the Roman Empire that was not the Bible in 400 AD - 600 AD. This was the beginning of the dark ages. All science, math, literature, philosophy, and drama was lost. The only books that survived that were preserved OUTSIDE the Roman Empire. The Renaissance was literally the rediscovery of Rome and Greece. The hospitals were closed for 1000 years because the practice of medicine was "magic" and "devil worship". Europeans did not bathe for 1500 years because being naked led to sexual behavior.

3. Engineering graduates lifespan is shorter than average. Fewer engineer graduates get married than average. Fewer engineer graduates are "truly happy" than average.

4. I have an engineering degree and could not get a job at Radio Shack. What possible good is this engineering degree to me?

5. During the Roman Empire even slaves were literate and could read and write. The author and philosopher Epictetus, who wrote on the philosophy of Stoicism, was originally a slave. Under Christianity, illiteracy was prevalent. Not even Kings and Queens could read and write. Only the priests and monks had the ability to read and write.

6. The concept of the Holy Trinity is designed to cause "Cognitive dissonance" in the human mind. This technique is a form of brainwashing and renders the victim unable to discriminate between truth and falsity.

7. The George Bush $700,000,000,000,000 bailout doubled the money supply and halved the purchasing power of each dollar bill. Check how the Obama $700 trillion bailout did the same thing by 50%. Your money now has 1/3 purchasing power that it did in 2007. This was an intentional and planned event.

8. 20 % of men in America will NEVER get married.

9. The USA spends more money annually on the military, than the next SIX nations combined

10. The average lifespan of a professional football player is less than 50 years

11. You need to eat 30 grams of fiber a day.

12. Almost 1/4 of ALL your reported EARNINGS goes directly to the military and you get none of it. This means that one whole day a week, you labor just to give money to the military and you get nothing for it (except "protection").

13. It is no easier to get OUT of the USA and become a citizen of a different country, than it is to get INTO the USA and become a USA citizen.

14. Every mile you drive puts one pound of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere.

15. One third of agricultural crops are pollinated by the bee and bumble bee. The bumble bee is an endangered species. If there is a mass die off of bees, There will be a mass famine of humans. Presently, in North America the bumble bee territory is reduced to 10% of its original size.

16. When the polar Ice melts in Antarctica, the oceans will rise by 400 feet -- and stay there. This will happen long after we are dead, but it will happen.

17. USA is the largest terrorist organization in the world. This is not trivial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDSNqow4SwM

BONUS FACTS:

18. The number of homeless in Los Angeles has quadrupled in the past 20 years. Current estimates vary between 40,000 - 75,000 people living right on the streets in tents and sleeping bags and rain tarps and whatever.

19. Suicide causes more deaths annually in the USA than Car Accidents and Murder combined. An average of 123 people kill themselves every single day in USA America. Of these deaths, about 75% are men and about 22 are Active Service Personnel.

20. "Going to the Hospital" is the third leading cause of death in USA America.

21. The USA America had a per capita incarceration rate that is ten times greater than the next industrialized country. Almost one out of every one hundred people in the USA is presently incarcerated.

William Schaeffer

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Zinjanthropus Boisei

has a pocket full of posey

William Schaeffer

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Theory of Evolution

The USA is the only country in the world with a significant percentage of the population that holds a philosophical and theological doubt of the usefulness and truthfulness of the theory of evolution. This is not an insignificant issue and it separates the entire population of the USA from the whole rest of the world in a real and meaningful way.

William Schaeffer

Illogical beliefs

It is a curious nature of humanity that most people in the USA believe in a divine being, or supernatural entity, and yet

1. They have never seen this entity

2. They have never had any conversation or correspondence with this entity

3. No one on Earth has ever seen, this entity in any manner that is legally documented

4. No one on Earth has ever had any correspondence or conversation with this entity in any manner that is legally documented

5. There is absolutely no evidence that is admissible in a court of law that can verify or prove the existence of this supernatural entity.

If the majority of people in the USA (or on Earth itself) can so seriously believe in something that there is no evidence except hearsay evidence, then the average human mind has a tremendous illogical inclination and is not a very effective calculating engine, or truth determining computer.

Conclusion: Human thinking has an inclination to be fatally flawed and it is not good at logical or "truth preserving" analytical thought.

"prepare for doom." - Zobo the Clown

William Schaeffer

Religious indoctrination is not appropriate for children.

Religious indoctrination is not appropriate for children. Children are trained to accept religious ideas because a normally rational, intelligent, adult never would accept these ideas as an adult if they were not trained that way as a child.

Aside from my personal experience, it just stands to reason, children do not have adult faculties for detecting truth and logic. All religions have supernatural assumptions that cannot be proved or disproved and must be accepted on faith. If religions were more ethical they would behave like the Greek Mystery schools and not accept new members until these people reached adulthood; instead of trying to brainwash the vulnerable children before they know any better.

Ethical teaching and good personal habits are part of essential training for children, but supernatural justifications are not.

William Schaeffer

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Optimal Dietary Health Simplified

For optimal dietary health in the most simple way follow the two basic rules:

1. Only eat food that has at least "one gram of fiber for every one hundred calories."
2. Only drink water (or tea).

William Schaeffer

To bee or not to bee

Recently the bumble bee was put on the endangered species list in the USA. Apparently the bumble bee has been removed from, or died off in, 90% of its original natural habitat.

One third of all agricultural products are pollinated by bees. If the bees become extinct, then there will likely be world wide famine and hunger that destabilizes the established social institutions. It will be the end of life as we know it.

William Schaeffer

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Why do YOU think that you're so smart?

At least half the people in any population group are less intelligent than the average. That is a lot of stupid people.

William Schaeffer

Have a Good Day Anyway

vee

William Schaeffer

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Nobody in America wants you to have a long life

Nobody in America wants you to have a long life, especially not the bankers, insurance companies, senators, representatives, or social security workers. Everyone in America wants you to work sixty hours a week for forty years and then drop dead at age 65. THIS is why the system is organized the way it is. It is most profitable and profit is the only significant value in America. You are nothing but a means to generate profit (and then you die).

It is your responsibility to vigilantly guard your own health by practicing a healthy lifestyle. 1. Eat vegetarian (containing fiber), 2. Only drink water, 3. Get enough sleep, 4. Maintain nurturing friendships. 5. Maintain an active lifestyle and avoid sedentary professions. 6. Read, Study, Learn, Observe, Share. 7. Don't smoke cigarettes.

And it is not an "either - or" proposition. Except for smoking cigarettes, which are highly addictive, you can slowly move your lifestyle to a more healthy one by each decision you make. You get out what you put into it. The more healthy food you eat, the more healthy you will feel. One small piece of pepperoni wont cause you to explode, but three pizzas a day for lunch certainly will.

William Schaeffer

Friday, March 24, 2017

Cell Phone Lizard

I love my new cell phone, but like a molting lizard, or snake shedding its skin, I keep the old broken cell phone on my desk just for comfort.

William Schaeffer

One Dimensional People = Career Success

I am only now realizing that success in this country and this society requires that you be steadfastly one dimensional and only concentrate on a single particular skill that you can exploit if you wish to be successful in your career. This is exactly contrary to my natural inclination to be a multi talented and well rounded person who has professional competency in many areas. I do not see a workable resolution to this disparity of objectives.

William Schaeffer

Sunday, March 19, 2017

I hate the L.A. Marathon

I hate the L.A. marathon. Several years ago, I was working from 9 AM till 10:30 PM at Stereo-D "with a gun to my head" (i.e. I had no choice except quit). After a particularly difficult 80 hour week, I was longing for rest on my only day off. And then at 6 AM a cover tunes rock band started playing loud upbeat rock and roll music in a parking lot right across the street from my apartment. It was the L.A. Marathon. For the next four hours I lay in bed, listened to noise, and cursed my life. I was exhausted and had a splitting headache all day. I worked the next fifteen days straight in a row. No one cared. No one ever does.

William Schaeffer

Friday, March 17, 2017

The shortest video on youtube

What is the shortest youtube video? What is the shortest video? Would a video have to be two frames long at least?

Otherwise, if it was only one frame long,
it would just be a photograph, not a video.

Maybe a video has to be at least three frames long to define a "movement" of beginning, middle, and end?

William Schaeffer

Military Economy

The funny thing is that military spending doesn't actually help the economy. All other goods and services in the economy are used in some way to help create more goods and services. The exception is the military spending. All military manufactured goods are not then used to create more wealth -- they are stockpiled and effectively removed from the economy. Military spending is like throwing the money in a hole, or burying it. The economic advantage ends, stops, and the products are not reused to create more wealth -- only to stagnate or actually destroy wealth (if they are actually used).

Just think it through. A stapler can be used to create more wealth. A refrigerator can be used to create more wealth. A pair of shoes can be used to create more wealth. A bag of carrots can be used to create more wealth. A raincoat can be used to create more wealth. Same with sandwiches, coats, cars, planes, books, ink, paper, and medicine. Only Military hardware has no constructive economic use. It is stockpiled or used to destroy wealth and destroy lives. Military spending stops the chain of wealth producing investment. Military spending is not an investment. Military spending is either stagnation or destruction and death.

William Schaeffer

Counter Espionage

subliminal bananas
in flannel pajamas
creating dioramas

William Schaeffer

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Specialization is for Insects

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
- Robert A Heinlein in "Time Enough for Love"

William Schaeffer

The Idle Rich

What no one seems to understand is that the rich don't just want to be rich -- they want to be rich in comparison to poor people. The rich want to see the huddled masses and the homeless vagrants and the starving children. Whether they admit it or not, this is what they really LOVE, because it makes them feel POWERFUL in comparison.

Nobody wants to live in a Mansion if every one else they know also lives in a Mansion. In that case, they want to live in an office building or hotel.

Everyone wants to feel like a winner in the game of life and the only way the rich can do that is if everyone else is a loser. And they have the power to make it happen.

William Schaeffer

To Your Health

Only eat fruit and nut
and seed and leaf,

from vine and tree.

Only drink water,
or coffee, or tea.

William Schaeffer

Monday, March 13, 2017

Zero Circle by Rumi

Zero circle
by Rumi
(version by Coleman Barks)

Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we're lying.
If we say No, we don't see it
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window into spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Besides ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness.

From the book
"Ten Poems to Change your Life"
by Roger Housden
Harmony Books, New York, 2001

Daylight Savings Time blues

Is anyone else affected by the time change? I always am. I usually know what time it is without a wristwatch, but the week after the time change my whole rhythm is disturbed. Almost like I have a magnetic compass set to the time of day and the internal clock doesn't match the angle of the sun. It takes me about a week to realign the clock and the sun. Most of you have no idea what I am talking about I am sure. The older I am the less pronounced is the effect, but when I was younger I always knew what time it was to within ten minutes -- but then I had a very regular "machine like" work schedule at the time.

William Schaeffer

Propaganda effect

Psychological studies from the 1960's showed that the more educated a person was [with a college degree], the more likely they were to non-critically accept obvious propaganda falsehoods that were printed in the newspaper, [and later retracted or proven to be false]. The less educated a person was, the more likely they were to doubt the information and question the source. This seems counter intuitive.

The reason given was they were trained by school that what was printed, or presented by recognized authorities, was unquestionably true. In their academic experience and professional experience that was usually the case. This behavior influenced how critically they questioned news articles unrelated to work or school.

I forget the reference, but this was from an "Information theory" course I took in the 1980's at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

William Schaeffer

Sunday, March 12, 2017

The humus brain

is feeling no pain.

The humus head

will always get fed

The humus thought

will never get caught.

The humus mind

will save mankind.

William Schaeffer

Learning to play music

I am not interested in a feeling of continual dumb smiling happiness. I am interested in knowing how the world works. I am interested in taking everything apart and finding some small truths of how it works. I have a great capacity for understanding and I do not wish to stifle my curiosity just because it makes intellectually lazy people uncomfortable. I hope to find some intelligent associates that are well read and have insightful and thoughtful commentary and intellectual criticism on the basic ideas presented in my blog atwaterpub

When I play piano, I am naturally pleased when people think the music is beautiful or inspiring. It is nice to receive compliments. However, if I meet someone that actually knows how to play music and wants to jam on the blues -- then I really value that friendship and I really enjoy that interaction.

I am disappointed that learning mastery of a musical instrument is not required training for life in America. If everyone could make beautiful and inspiring music on their own, then we would have far fewer problems in our society.

William Schaeffer

0.75 pounds CO2 per mile driven

Every single mile you drive your car puts 0.75 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. Average mileage is 25 MPG. Burning one gallon of gas puts 19.2 pounds of CO2 into the air. Every 25 miles, you put 19 pounds of CO2 into the air. Every five miles, you put almost 4 pounds of CO2 into the air. Every single mile you drive puts 0.75 POUNDS of CO2 into the atmosphere -- for ever.

William Schaeffer

Friday, March 10, 2017

What makes life worthwhile?

What makes life worthwhile? Eating too much lunch AND having desert? Telling people what they want to hear so you can get them to give you what you want? Keep everyone sedated so they make happy victims? Tell the truth? Be honest and straight even if it is annoying? Taking as much as you can when no one is looking? Being a genius? Being a saint? Being rich?

William Schaeffer

The Great Cosmic Joke

Ultimately all of life is a losing game and you are going to die. Most of what you have devoted your life to will be swept away and forgotten within a hundred years. In five hundred years, no one will even know that you existed. THIS is the great cosmic joke. If you take everything too seriously you will just be broken and defeated. You will be crushed. Laugh it off. You were born screwed and you are never going to escape. You were destined to a life of toil and a horribly painful death at the end and there is nothing you can do except laugh, or go into denial.

William Schaeffer

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Four Pounds every Five Miles

The average automobile gets a little over 25 miles per gallon. Every gallon of gasoline burned puts 19.2 pounds of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. Therefore, for every 25 miles driven, you have just put over 19 pounds of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere -- forever. Every 100 miles you drive, you put almost 77 POUNDS of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. This is almost 4 pounds for every 5 miles. - OR- almost "a pound a mile" (if you have an old car). Phenomenal.

"Four Pounds every Five Miles"

We all share the guilt.

Paving the atmosphere as we drive

"Four Pounds every Five Miles"

William Schaeffer

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Big, Big, Bible

One of the reasons the Bible is so large and has so many Books is the Bible's own pre-programmed "self preservation." It takes a significant portion of a lifetime to become acquainted with the basic text well enough to analyze them critically. By the time you has completed the effort, the better part of your lifetime has already passed. The Bible just "out lives" all it's detractors and critics. It takes too much work to read the book for an ordinary human to accomplish the task.

Another reason it is so large is to defy logical criticism. Almost any social view can be found to be championed by some portion of some book of the Bible. Therefore, a response to any criticism can be found pre-existing somewhere it the text before the common criticisms are even voiced. Again, it takes the better part of a lifetime to even understand the issues, or voice a concern, and by that time you are almost dead, so it doesn't matter anyway.

The real truths of life are brief. They are concise and accurate descriptions of the way the world works, like "A squared plus B squared equals C squared" Truth is not a collection of obscure and colorful descriptions of things that may, or may not not exist, but there is no possibility to really know anyway.

William Schaeffer

Monday, March 6, 2017

The Future of Capitalism

Capitalism HAS no future. Capitalism is a self cannibalizing economic organization that always destroys the host culture from the inside out.

William Schaeffer

Shopping List

1. Laundry Soap

2. Cough Syrup

3. Epsom Salts

4. Pit Bull

5. Vitamin C

6. Salted Pig's Bladder

7. Ragweed Juice

8. Used Floor Mats

William Schaeffer

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Oceans Away - 400 feet

When the ice on Antarctica melts the Sea Level will rise by almost 400 feet. The calculation is easy. Antarctica land mass is 5% of the surface area of the Earth, The ice averages about a mile thick. The oceans cover 66% of the surface of the Earth. The simple math equation give the answer: 5% times one mile = 66% times Y, where Y is the sea level rise. .05 x 5280 = .66 x Y, Y = 400 feet sea level rise.

William Schaeffer

The One great Trick

One great trick of Christianity is to try and destroy the mind. Two things cannot be different AND be the same. This is the great crime of the Trinity. Three things cannot be separate and be the same thing at the same time. It is not possible. It defies all logic and understanding. The concept of the Trinity is meant to destroy minds, and render the owners incapable of clear and honest thought. Enough of the sophistry and diversions. You know better than that.

William Schaeffer

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

The Love of Jesus

We forget that in the Middle Ages, you would be burned alive for just saying you did not believe in the God or the Bible. While you were screaming in mortal agony and enduring unbelievable pain, your neighbors were enjoying the show and dividing up your property. Not much has really changed in a thousand years. Apparently, the love of Jesus dictates that infidels be tortured to death and publicly displayed in their humiliation.

If you read eyewitness descriptions of the burning of witches, or infidels by the Christian Church, you will see that it was usually a big festival like a public hanging. I tend to think the people were more indifferent to the personality of the victim, but they did enjoy witnessing the torment of the death struggle or they would not be there. Most people don't care about anyone but themselves and any socially conscious behavior is usually just for show. There are a few empathetic or philosophical exceptions, but not many. Humanity is mostly depraved and the behavior of the Christian Church is a good example.

William Schaeffer

9/11 flight 93

Do a visual inspection of the few photos that exist of the wreckage of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and compare them with two other civilian air disasters: Germanwings flight 9525 which crashed into a mountain in Italy and Malaysian Airlines flight 17 that was shot down over Ukraine.

Surprisingly there are not many photos of Flight 93, but not one of those few photos looks anything like the carnage and destruction that resulted from those other two airline crashes. Now when you are finished with THAT, just try and find a single photo of the crash site at the Pentagon where American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon Building wing that had just been closed for renovation. Why are there no photos and why is there no wreckage? Now look at the photos of Germanwings 9525 and Malaysian Airlines 17 to see what a REAL crash site looks like.

William Schaeffer