Grateful Dead

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Everybody wants to stake out turf on the marriage issue.

In my area, God bless'em.

is inundated with smoke from forrest fires. The air is extremely polluted and unhealthy to breathe.Those poor people!

continues to swell in monsoon rains this season. 1500 are believed to have perished so far in Pakistan.

...at a beach, lake, pond , sea, ocean or pool near you. Have a greatful weeke!!!

In the "Get a grip" category there were two stories in the news this morning: A Jet Blue stew. was arrested at his home in NYC by the SWAT team after quitting his job in a rather dramatic fashion after a passenger hit him in the head with as carry-on the passenger was trying to get out of the overhead bin before the plane was at a complete stop. The passenger swore at him and the stew. proceeded to go on the PA and swore back at the passenger, concluding at the end "That's it, I'm done". He then took two beers off the beverage cart, inflated the emergency exit slide, opened the door and slid to the tarmac. Now he is a national hero on the internet. No copycats, please! Next, earlier this year a woman was pissed-off she couldn't get her McNuggets at the drive-thru and went bonkers fighting with the employees. She ended that altercation by taking a hammer and smashing the drive-thru Plexiglas window. A bit of overreaction there. Fast-food rage? Again,no copycats -- pretty please? You can almost here the Snap! as the gray matter short circuits...

Historical and projected carbon dioxide emissions (in millionsof metric tons) for China, the United States, and the world, 1990–2025. Carbon dioxide emissions (percentage of world total) Location 1990 2003 2015 2025 United States 4978 (23.4) 5796 (23.1) 6718 (19.9) 7587 (18.9) China 2241 (10.5) 3541 (14.1) 7000 (20.7) 9349 (23.3) World 21,223 (100) 25,028 (100) 33,663 (100) 40,045 (100) Remarkable trends: With all efficiency and conservation included, the US is still upping the amount of CO2 emissions. At present, the US and China are roughly equal in emissions. While the US share of world emissions is dropping, China's share is growing at an alarming rate. This amount of emissions is unsustainable. Did you ever wonder how much CO2 is expended to produce all that plastic packaging we throw away each day??

OK, I've beaten War, The Economy, and Ecology to death in this thread. I'm going to start a more positive trend towards really uplifting current events. Hopefully, stuff that will make everybody feel good and leave you wanting to hear more. This has been inspired, believe it or not, by the "Making a Difference" segments of the NBC nightly news. It's hard to find the good, positive stuff because the news, blogs, etc. all slant to the bad stuff. I think it is really important to give light to the better half. Hopefully, to make it on topic, I can find some things that are directly Grateful Dead/Deadhead related. Sorry if if the events I've been writing about has got you down.

...is that nobody really argues against left-leaning positions on this site except for, perhaps, Dewlover -- who seems to be on a crusade against Obama. Oh, and one regular here in favor of nuclear power. I enjoy a good debate but we're all pretty much on the same side on most issues, albeit with varying degrees of intensity. I guess opening up your mind via music and "other" things breeds empathy. It really has nothing to do with left or right or center. More like a wish for others to be happy and free of suffering rather than an intense focus on making big piles of money at the expense of others. These days, in retrospect, I see the kind of decisions (stepping on and over others) and the hours (60-80 a week) I would have had to put in to make millions of dollars, and keep them. My best wishes to others who made millions doing/creating things truly useful to others of modest income. So, a toast to those us this summer who took the path less traveled! Saluud! ~ Long may you run! ~

...to you Johnman. I guess cookie monsters get an exemption!

...shows are online now. Over 3,000 of them. You can see the future stars before they got really famous and, of course, all of Johnny's monologues at johnnycarson.com. Thanks for the laughs Johnny and putting a smile on our faces as you tucked us in for the night with your humor.

...of Chinese dwellings being covered with soot. Very well could be. But as the Chinese modernize their middle class will have windows/walls/floors with seals. The coal factor is the killer. It is their primary source of fuel and they are putting one coal-fired power plant online a week. This is directly reflected in the the upped CO2 output. Per capita income in the US is around $41k a year, 17th the world. In China the pci is around $3.8k. After visiting China (Tibet, actually) last year I honestly have no idea how they sustain. Wearen't#1Wearen't#1Wearen't#1Wearen't#1Wearen't#1!!!!!!!!!

He was the steward on the plane who quit with 'tude. Now it seems the other passengers are saying he was in a snit the whole time the plane was in the air. There is a definite pivot going on to portray Mr. Slater as negligent and possibly dangerous and callous. I guess we'll never know if he looked out the window to see if anybody was in the way of the escape chute inflating and deploying so no way to tell if there was reckless endangerment. One thing is true, no jury will unanimously convict him. What we do know for sure is that deploying the emergency slide will put the plane out of action for a couple of days and cost Jet Blue millions. I think that is why the press is spinning this. If society makes heroes out of rebels who burn employer millions when they quit it is a problem. I never really noticed it until I lived in Vermont but it is a widespread occurrence. Barns are torched, heavy equipment is vandalized, etc., etc.. If the employer is a tyrant or a cheapskate the employees at the bottom of the ladder know how to grab them by the balls, twist and then get away with it. Often months and years after they quit. Was Jet Blue deserving of the loss in this case? Well, if they had free checked bags, more carry-on bins and gave gate-checked bags back to passengers when they stepped off the plane none of this would have happened. I agree with Colbert, Steven Slater is my Alpha-Dog Of the Week.

That the rapid modernization of the world cannot be sustained? That all industrializing cultures will want the same things? Agree; Agree. Everybody can't have everything and we are in no position to say who can have what. The free market rules. If there is demand, there will be supply. Look at the mess Mexico is in. I think you must work for a somewhat enlightened company to have them hire consultants to become more green. What is the owner's motivation (your company) to become more green? Doing The Right Thing (a warm, fuzzy feeling) or Saving Money (being seen as savvy). Probably a mixture of both. I would have thought all these conservation programs that businesses engage in and such government incentives as the Energy Star program and tax breaks for energy efficient windows, insulation and high-mileage cars would have cut CO2 emissions but the statistics don't bear it out. Frightening. The only thing that will help is a good old-fashioned depression coupled with an epidemic equal to the Bubonic plague. Looks like we're in a vice one way or the other.. Anybody out there want to create a Deadhead Biosphere? Our own self-contained and self-supporting community in a bubble?

Somehow I'm guessing coal because it is so dirty at the point of production. Not that oil isn't, just less so, I imagine. Maybe somebody has a definitive answer. And yer absolutely right that not all employees are justified at getting back at their boss. That is the other thing I notice living where I do. The amount of abysmally stupid people doing abysmally stupid things. If it's that bad in the rest of the country then I would say the Idiocracy is in full bloom. However, there is a law being drafted that would make a civil workplace mandatory and I say let the lawyers feast when the bill is signed. Owner/bosses would no longer have the right to bully, yell and belittle their employees in the workplace and I say it is high time for that. Past high time. There are a lot of businesses that have been passed down from parent to child where the habit of the parent becomes the habit of the child. That is, the bad habit of abusing their employees. I am extremely passionate on this subject. If the boss/owner can't control his mouth then let the wrath of shyster lawyers rain down on them like a tropical downpour. WE ALL DESERVE A CIVIL WORKPLACE and shouldn't have to put up with incivility from bosses, customers or other employees. Really. And no twinkie defense either (It was the junk food I ate, yer'honor. I really have no control when my blood sugar rises). Speaking of blood sugar J'man - I'm only giving you lo-cal cookies from now on. Here are some peanut ones.