Something about church that bugs me

This is going to be short and sweet. Last week in church we had a discussion about how to keep our families safe from outside influences. It turned into political activism where everything we deemed evil and inappropriate should be banned. Instead of outing myself as the LEEBRAL that I am I wrote this down in my phone.

Even though we have all these things going on in the world that we may not agree with we can't loose focus on protecting our families in favor of protecting our community. Is our community important and worth protecting? Yes. Is it worth protecting at the cost of our families? Of course not. We must understand that we can't control everything that happens in our world, country, state, community, but we can control what comes into our homes. We need to focus on our families first. We need to make sure our children can deal with the outside world before we can have any affect on what goes on outside of our house. as long As we are teaching our kids righteous principles and raising a righteous generation the outside world will take care of itself.
We can't legislate morality. It will continue to happen no matter what laws are passed and what things get blocked. In countries where morality is legislated we've seen the results. Pick any country in the middle east and you'll see what I'm talking about. Once you start legislating morality everyone's choices become limited by the moral beliefs of the people on charge. We need to maintain our free will. That can't be taken away through law nor should it be.

rebirth

This time of year comes around and everyone gets the urge to make new years resolutions. Why do we do this? What compels us each year to make goals that we know we most likely won't keep? They're goals that are supposed to make us better in some way; make us thinner, stronger, quit smoking, eat better, to be better people all around. But why do we wait until the new year to do it? What is it about this time of year?

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” That's a quote from, of all people, Oprah. What does New Years mean to you? Is it a chance to get it right, or is it a new beginning? I know that people like to see the new year as a signal for change. Out with the old and in with the new. "An optimist will stay up until midnight to see the new year come in. A pessimist will stay up to make sure the old year leaves."

Here is a different way of thinking about it: "We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." So there are some arguments. But what about the notion of rebirth, the idea that we can become new again? There is talk of rebirth in religion. All men should be reborn in the spirit of Christ. That means our eyes are open to suggestion from the spirit and we are more willing to do what is right and what is needed. At least that's how I perceived it. But what about a rebirth in general? "All souls must undergo transmigration and the souls of men revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling, so many turns before the final release... Only those who have not completed their perfection must suffer the wheel of "rebirth" by being reborn into another human body.” Does that mean literally born into another body? Not necessarily. It could depending on your religious views but I'm going to use it this way; being born into another human body just means that your rebirth hasn't really occurred. You're still the same, a human. You haven't changed into an enlightened being yet. We go around on our wheels and we keep doing the same things. We make the same mistakes, the same choices, we do the same things that we believe are the safe choices. So every year we make resolutions and goals at the new year. Sometimes we are successful but most times we aren't for whatever reason.

"It quite often happens that the old man is subject to the delusion of a great moral renewal and "rebirth", and from this experience he passes judgments on the work and course of his life, as if he had only now become clear-sighted; and yet the inspiration behind this feeling of well-being and these confident judgements is not wisdom, but weariness .”

How true that is. We set goals on how tired we are of something. I'm tired of being fat, I'm tired of being sick all the time, I'm tired of my stressful job. What if we set goals to gain more of the things we love? Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.

So let's put this together. Why do we make new years resolutions? Because it is a new year, out with the old and in with the new. What kind of resolutions should we make? The kind that make us better but also brings us more joy than the previous year.

And rebirth? Well, that can happen anytime of the year. If we see ourselves going the wrong direction we can change direction and choose another path. We can be reborn as many times as we see fit. That's the beauty of it.

"Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn."

— Mahatma Gandhi

GMOs, OH MY!

Genetically modified organisms are becoming more prevalent in our society. There are a plethora of companies now that are breaking into the business in one form or another. They can now modify plants, animals, and bacteria and viruses to help humans with research, creating medicines more easily, and producing food with greater yields and are more resistant to bugs. There are many benefits with the modified organisms and there are many controversies that have come up. Basically there are a lot of people out there that aren’t sold on the benefits of these organisms and the businesses involved aren’t putting enough into the research of long term effects to put those fears to rest. Aside from all of that there are financial reasons to be for or against genetically modified organisms. Some companies control huge portions of the market and can thus dictate how it is used. Also, there are a lot of governments from around the world involved. Government intervention can make or break this industry. So what is a genetically modified organism?


A genetically modified organism is a plant, animal, and bacteria or a virus that has been modified using DNA modification or “an organism whose genetic material has been altered using techniques in genetics generally known as recombinant DNA technology. Recombinant DNA technology is the ability to combine DNA molecules from different sources into the one molecule in a test tube. Thus, the abilities or the phenotype of the organism, or the proteins it produces, can be modified through the modification of its genes” (Wikipedia). There are a couple ways that they do this: They can attach a gene to a cell using a virus, physically insert the gene into the nucleus with a very small needle, or by using a gene gun which fires very small particles. The reason that they do this is to introduce into an organism positive traits that can help make that organism more useful to humans. The most commonly modified organism is crop plants. They modify it by making it pest resistant and also to have higher yields. They can also have them produce vitamins and nutrients not natural to that crop making them healthier. Other organisms have been modified to produce medicines such as insulin and Atryn, an anticoagulant. These are just a few of the many benefits that modified organisms can provide.

Here is a short list of pros of genetically modified organisms: Production of human insulin, use in gene therapy, creation of neo-organs, and usage in agriculture. For the production of insulin human cells are transplanted into another mammal such as a goat which acts as a medium for the human genes. The cells produce the insulin in the medium and are then the insulin is extracted and given to patients with diabetes. With gene therapy, modified viruses are used to treat genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia, muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis. Neo-organs are perhaps one of the most important benefits. Organs for transplant are hard to come by. With the help of genetic engineering new organs could be grown for transplant from the cells of the patient so that no rejection occurs. This leads to safer transplant procedures. In agriculture some of the benefits have already been touched upon; greater yield, more nutritious, and pest resistance to name a few. With these benefits there are also some potential risks associated with this technology.

Some risks include: Harmful effects on crops, GM animals, Unnatural methods being used, risk of misuse, disruption of natural genetic information, and preliminary stage of research. The harmful effects on crops include the fact that all the crops have the same genetic makeup. If a strain of bacteria is especially harmful to one it is harmful to all of them. There is no genetic variety to protect the plants. With GM animals there are other problems that could be present. Animals are used to produce proteins, medications, and human organs. The animals could be cloned and if anything goes wrong they could be born with deformities and not live very long. Plus, there is the threat that if a pig is carrying a disease and the heart is used as a transplant, the disease could be transferred to humans. Genetic modification is not natural and some would argue that by going around the natural reproduction methods more problems could arise. And last of all genetic modification is still in its infant stage of testing. We are still finding out how it all works so we can’t be sure of what the long term effects will be. But what about the economic impact that these organisms can have on countries?

In 2009, of the 14 million farmers growing GMOs, 90% were resource poor farmers in developing countries: 7 million in China, 5.6 million in India, and 250,000 in the Philippines, South Africa, and 12 other countries. The global worth of biotech crops in 2008 was estimated to be $130 billion (Wikipedia). So where do these crops come from? There are a few firms around the world with ties to the industry but the largest of them is Monsanto. In 2007, Monsanto's trait technologies were planted on 246 million acres throughout the world. Why is Monsanto holding the largest portion a problem? Well they have patents on the seeds that they sell. To control that patent they have developed “Technology Protection.” There are two forms of this: One is the “Terminator” which means that the crops yield sterile seeds, and two is “Traitor” which requires the farmer to spray a chemical activator on the seeds to activate the genetically modified traits. These protectors will require the farmers to pay yearly to have the privilege of growing these crops. With farmers already under burdens such as shrinking land space and growing populations to feed paying to grow these plants on a yearly basis could become quite costly. It might also make these crops unattainable to the small farmers in under developed countries. On the other side of the spectrum it could be a boon for farmers because the extra cost of having to pay yearly for the modified seeds could be offset; they could cut down on the land needed to grow the same amount plus the money saved on pesticides and weed killer because those traits are engineered into the crops. There are definitely some economic risks and rewards associated with it but all of it could be for naught if world governments and activists have anything to say about it.

As of 2007 the US, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil accounted for 94% of all GMO plantings (Council on foreign relations). The European Union accounts for 1% of all GMO corn grown in the world. Japan has no GMO products grown in the country and consumers continue to resist importation of GMOs. A bylaw was passed making it almost impossible to grow GMOs in Japan. The Consumers Union of Japan participated in the Planet Diversity Conference in Bonn Germany where Kokestu Michiyo was quoted,” We don’t only need networks between people, but between people and plants, and people and planet earth.” In New Zealand no GMOs are grown and no medicines containing live GMOs are allowed. The list goes on. These governments at the behest of their citizens have cried aloud that they don’t want these GMO products in their countries whether that is due to the fear of the unknown, the lack of understanding of what a GMO is and what it can do, or if it is for economic or environmental reasons they are currently against using this technology in most all of its forms.

There are many benefits both economically and for the general welfare of the citizenry that could persuade governments and farmers to use these genetically modified organisms. But if the technology is embraced to quickly without the proper studies and test performed there could be damaging consequences in the future. It is such a new technology that we just can’t know what may lie ahead. Some issues that need to be addressed are what effect will this have on bio-diversity? Will the benefits of having a pest resistant crop outweigh the possibility of producing more resistant pests? Are we really better off doing it this way than the old traditional ways? For now the technology is pushing forward with more acceptance gained worldwide everyday. The fact of the matter is we are seeing benefits and we are reaping rewards for our technological ingenuity.

Humans Being

It's been a couple months but here is my newest post. I decided to flex some linguistic muscles with this post and rather than raise some ethical questions or spark political debate I decided to explore something more abstract. Here is the question for your pondering pleasure: What makes us human?
I want to get down to this question and start by saying or rather asking is being born a human enough to make us human or is it something greater? There are two black and white categories here that need to be dealt with: first is human and second is inhuman. What separates the two? Where is the line drawn? Let me give you an example. Throughout human history there have been heroes and villains; Hitler, Stalin, Vlad, etc. These I would consider inhuman. The acts they oversaw were despicable to say the least. What human being could have carried out such heinous crimes is beyond me. That is why I will put them in that category. But that is easy, anyone would agree with me. Now where do we put criminals? Rapists? Murderers? Thieves? Druggies? Where is the line. It becomes less black and white and now has shades of grey. So you can't base it solely on what they do.
Let's shift gears a little and look at our society. If you look at it from a conservative point of view you have producers or capitalists and you have moochers and leeches. You have one group that is creating jobs and opportunities and the other side living off of the government and the goodwill of the people. Which of these groups would be considered human? How about if I rephrase and say which group is humans being and which are humans existing? If you contribute to society in a positive way does that make you more human? Does making a lot of money and controlling the wealth of a society make you less human? There is still something more to it.
The question of what makes us human is not a simple one as you can see. So at what point do people start pointing to God and all things spiritual for the answer? Before I do that let's play pretend. Let's assume there is no God and there is no all powerful being of any sort moving destiny and creating the situations that we find ourselves in. Where does our humanness come from? Is it something we are born with, something inherent in our species that sets us apart from all other life forms on Earth? If aliens were to visit would they be able to distinguish us from apes? This could happen if they had a small group of which to observe. After all our DNA differs from apes by such a small margin, something like 2%. Let's say they observe a tribe in Africa. I'm not saying they are animals, savages, or uncivilized in any way. I'm just saying that the lifestyle that they lead is very simple and to an outsider it could be construed that they are indistinguishable from some animals. Is there something that sets them apart to an outsider? Is there a humanness about them and is it visible from the outside?

Back to God. I know there are people that will argue that what makes us human is our spirit, our soul. Is that what makes us human? Did Hitler and those others have a spirit or soul and didn't that make them human? Is being human a question of good or bad? And if it isn't then what is the difference between human and inhuman?

I don't want to hear replies saying that this is a much deeper topic than I have put down here. I understand that. Philosophers have written libraries worth on the subject. And I don't expect to answer the question here on my humble little blog.

My sister had a baby last night. Little Mollie. I wonder if right now she has all the attributes that will make her human or if she will earn them through her life. To be human isn't about right or wrong. Everyone is human and because of that they all have human actions. It is their actions that we can attribute human versus inhuman. It is their character that can be judged. Simply existing cannot be either good or evil and so humans existing can't be good or evil. No child is born bad. They are born with potential. It's like Mahjong; as you clear away tiles you lose the ability to do some moves while gaining the ability to do other moves. If you have gain more moves than you lose you will ultimately clear the board. That is our goal in life. To act human we must work toward clearing the board. Hopefully we will and if we don't let's try to keep the tiles left on the board to a minimum.

Immigrants

Okay people let's get some things straight. 2 women from a gevernment office in Salt Lake County released a list of 1300 or so names of supposed illegal immigrants. Releasing the list is a felony. They should not only be fired but they should be put in jail. The reason that list exists is because the state of Utah keeps track of the illegals because they issue driving priviledge cards to them. Think about that for a second. Utah knows about the illegals living here in this state. It's not really a secret to the people who need to know. By releasing this list there are a few privacy issues that were ignored. How about addresses? Do we really need crazy immigration people finding these people and harrassing them? How about their children who may or may not be legal citizens of this country? So all you people who are saying these women are patriots and heros and should be protected whistle blowers, you're wrong. They are criminals. The crime they commited was worse than someone who is living here illegaly. Let me repeat that so that it sinks in all nice and warm in your mind. The crime they commited was worse than someone who is living here illegaly. That's right. They commited a felony. Living here illegaly is the same as having a speeding ticket. It's not a big deal. It becomes a big deal when a crime is commited that is serious enough for them to be deported. Yes it must be serious enough. Our prisons are not filled to bursting with illegals. In fact they're filled with people who have been caught with marijuana or other drugs. That's whose filling up our prisons. And before you say it's the illegals that are bringing the drugs over the border think again. Most drugs are made and distributed right here in the good ol' USA.

If you want to stop people from coming here illegaly there are a couple things that must be done. First you need to enforce the laws in place that punish the companies that are hiring the illegals. It is way to easy for companies to hire illegals and pay them whatever pitence they want. They don't have to give them benefits or time off. If they call in sick they can just fire them. The companies can treat them like dirt and they have no recourse to get fair employment. Second you need to make it easier to come here and become a citizen. Not that everyone that comes here wants to be a citizen. Some just want to come here and work and then go home. That needs to be easier also. Last I heard there was a 17 year waiting list to become a citizen legally. It takes less time if they are here already. Makes sense doesn't it? No, of course it doesn't. Let's stream line it. Make it easier for them to come here and live, become a citizen, or work and go home. What does that hurt. You worried about terrorits? The 9/11 highjackers were legal citizens of the US. You think they would risk getting caught crossing the border? They're smarter than that. Drugs? Made and distributed here. Crime? Most illegals keep a low profile for fear of getting caught and sent home. There are very few crimes commited by illegals.

We don't need to build a fence to keep them out. It won't work anyway. We need to punish the companies hiring illegals and we need to make it easier to come here.

And one last thing. What is up with all the hate? I have heard way too many tales lately of people insulting hispanics whether they are legal or not just because they speak spanish or have dark skin. Come on! You're racist and that's all there is too it.

Oh I wish I may...

I'm curious; If you were to get three wishes what would you wish for? I don't want to hear about I want world peace or I would end world hunger, blah blah blah. We all know these "PC" answers that every beauty pageant queen would give. I want to know what you'd really ask for. And I don't care if it's even a little bit skeevy like I would wish to be invisible so that I could sneak into the women's showers at the gym. I know there are people out there like that so let's hear it. I know what I would wish for so give me your best list.
There are a lot of things that I would wish for given the chance. I would love to be rich, smart, not so much famous but popular among my group of friends. I never liked the idea of being famous. I would much rather be rich and have no one know who I am. You get to enjoy your money more that way. Smart because I would want to be able to just have fun with my life. I don't want to have to go to school anymore unless it was to share my knowledge. I think it would be fun to teach a highly specialized class on a subject that I felt passionate and knew a lot about. It could be interesting. I could generate genuine conversation, something I try to do with my blog.

So if I wish to be rich and I wish to be smart what else in the world is there that I wouldn't be able to attain? Love? Got it. Family? Got it. Friends? Got it. The ability to perform true magic as seen in Harry Potter? Don't got it. That would be my third wish. It always bugs me that when someone is given the chance to have three wishes they never wish to become magic themselves so that they could just conjure anything they want whenever they want. I could fly, become invisible, be super strong, leap tall buildings in a single bound, etc. What more would there be really?
Another cool thought would to wish that your favorite TV show or movie was real and that you could live in that universe. Yea, I'm going to get a little geeky now. What if you could fly around space on the Enterprise or train to become a Jedi but for realsees? How cool would that be? And it doesn't even have to be sci-fi.
Whatever you want could just be. Live out your wildest fantasies, your dreams, your greatest desires. Everyone has three wishes they would love to have granted. Sit and think about it for about 5 seconds and I'm sure you will come up with a whole lot more than 3. Have fun and remember, I want to hear about your wishes so post replies.

Thanks for reading.

History and Bikes

So how's this for a post: I haven't found any pictures or come up with a title for this one yet. I thought I would just write and when I'm done I'll pull the meaning out and fill the rest with pictures and a title that fit. Haven't done it that way before.

So here I am sitting at work loading images into Photoshop so that I can edit them. Sounds fun, huh? Well to some I know it does sound fun because they took photo classes and know what they're doing. To others it may sound tedious and boring. To me, well...it's both and here's why: while I do enjoy working on photoshop with pictures that I've taken it can get tedious when everything you do is mapped to a hotkey. All I have to do is press one button and all the functions are done. I just have to save it and move on to the next image. And the images I'm working with are just typed pages. Nothing interesting in the slightest. My employees however get to work with some really cool old negatives. They are working on a collection of nitrate film that has started to degrade so we have to scan them and get them all digitized so that we can preserve the history of what's on those negatives. Those pictures are really cool to look at. Here's an example of what we are doing with them:

These pictures were damaged to a point that you wouldn't be able to see what was on the negative because the emulsion is so damaged. We scan them and then we have to play with settings and techniques in Photoshop until we come to an image that we can see. We literally pull the image out of the muck and this is what we end up with. Pretty cool I think. It amazes me how much can be pulled out of some of these. You look at them and think no way is there an image in that mess but once you scan it and see it, it's very cool. And the pictures themselves are pretty cool too. I love history, I always have. I have favorite time periods that I would love to visit just to see what it would be like. A lot of them have to do with war so I wouldn't want to stay long but still I would love to see things take place. I would love to see a Roman army form ranks and attack an unorganized horde of barbarians. I would love to see and hear the battles of the civil war where passion was king. Where it was brother vs. brother and family vs. family. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. And it all hinged on where you were from. You fought for what you believed, right or wrong. Some of those wounds still haven't been healed. I love the 1920's with all the flash and flair and pomp and circumstance that went on then. The parties, the extravagance, the overindulgence that comes from a great economy. Then of course you have the crash in december 1929. I wouldn't mind seeing that. I've thought about doing a photography project where I take pictures to look like they were from that time period. touch them up and tear them down in Photoshop to make them look desperate, desolate, disconsulate. I would love to do that. Recently I took some modern photos of a temple in Cambodia and used Photoshop to make them look like they were taken back in the early 20th century by explorers. I love it because they look like something out of Indiana Jones now. So that's something.

The weather has now turned warm. To all of you who have been whining about how cold it was and that it was snowing in May, Bite me! I miss the cool weather. I love waking up to 50-60 degree mornings and having the temperature not go above 75. Now it's going to get too hot and it will be uncomfortable. That just sucks. I can't wait for fall. Yes, already. I don't like hot weather. I like warm weather but not hot weather. It makes me feel sick to be in the heat for too long. I know, I'm weird. But one good thing comes from summer weather:

getting my butt off the couch and in the mountains to ride my bike, my baby. I have missed you. And, thanks to Chauntay, I have a biking buddy. She loves it about as much as I do. I've found some new trails to ride that I'm really excited to try out. Some new early season rides that are out on the mountain face where the snow will melt quickly. Can't wait to take Chaunie out and have some fun. Planning on Friday. Hopefully my knee feels better by then. Really wish I knew what happened there because I don't feel old enough to have bad knees like that. See ya in the mounatins.

Thanks for reading.