Discovery Night Launch - SUCCESS!!

After many many many failed attempts at catching a shuttle launch we FINALLY saw Discovery take of in a marvelous night launch at 11:59pm August 28th 2009!

Delta II Launch

FINALLY saw a launch after running to about 5 would be launches that ended up scrubbed.

The Delta 2 sent up another GPS satellite this morning at 6:35am.

A Look at the INCOME GAP!

... part of a long email discussion that started about big bank bonuses...   eventually worked it's way around to greed and income disparities in the US..  this is what I found.. . .

 

 

 

Take a look at these snippets from http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/29/163:

"... in 2005...  the top 1 percent, .... incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of ... about 14 percent."

 

"the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980."

 

"the top 10 percent of Americans collected 48.5 percent of all reported income in 2005... up from roughly 33 percent in the late 1970s. The peak for this group was 49.3 percent in 1928. 

 

The top 1 percent received 21.8 percent of all reported income in 2005, up significantly from 19.8 percent the year before and more than double their share of income in 1980. The peak was in 1928, when the top 1 percent reported 23.9 percent of all income" (greatest income disparity since the Great Depression - coincidence? I think not - especially in a time when we're in the midst of the worst economic crisis since!)

 

 

'That such a large share of the income gains are going to the very top, at a minimum, raises serious questions about continuing to provide tax cuts averaging over $150,000 a year to people making more than a million dollars a year, while saying we do not have enough money" to provide health insurance to 47 million Americans and cutting education benefits.'  --  Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

or from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/03/earlyshow/living/money/main4068795.shtml:

"According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, income for the bottom half of American households rose six percent since 1979 but, through 2005, the income of the top one percent skyrocketed - by 228 percent."

or even from http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/09/news/economy/incomegap/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories:

"Incomes, on average, have declined by 2.5% among the bottom fifth of families since the late 1990s, while inching up by just 1.3% for those in the middle fifth of households, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute"

 

"The wealthiest slice of Americans... saw their incomes rise by 9%."

 

"Wages have not kept up with inflation, families have loaded up on debt"

 

I think it's time for some change.  A step away from a mindset that seeks wealth, fame, and power and towards a new outlook that is far more selfless than the aforementioned goals.  A new direction towards cooperation, sustainability, and greater empowerment for all would be nice. 

 

Free Speech

Bank Bonus Culture.

Just a small snipped of wealth taken from a report by Andrew M Cuomo, Attorney General of NY, "NO RHYME OR REASON:  The 'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose' Bank Bonus Culture" dtd July 30, 2009

 

"Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan Chase - 2008 bonus payments were substantially greater than the banks' net income.  Goldman earned $2.3 billion, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses, and received $10 billion in TARP funding.  Morgan Stanley earned $1.7 billion, paid $4.475 billion in bonuses, and received $10 billion in TARP funding.  J.P. Morgan Chase earned $5.6 billion, paid $8.69 billion in bonuses, and received $25 billion in TARP funding."

Yeah, take a look at that!  Companies paying more in bonuses than they've earned.  Wow.  As a taxpayer I might as well just send these guys my paycheck in the mail.

Letter to Monsanto

After watching Food Inc and stumbling upon some of the spin from the food industry - www.safefoodinc.org & http://www.monsanto.com/foodinc/ - I just had to write someone a letter.. .

. .. ...so I sent one to Monsanto:

Wow. I just got done reading portions of your site that debunk Food Inc. Really informative. I can't believe that your company does such good things for our country, and with good cause.

Clearly you expect the average American consumer to buy into your lines of manipulation and misinformation.

How dare you suggest you work for the good of all those you feed.

If only it was as easy as picking up a package and seeing that Monsanto had anything to do with it I would cease supporting your company completely.

Fortunately, I can easily find and support those who seek to stop you.

You can guarantee I will, at every opportunity, inform my friends, family, co-workers, and every passerby possible about the ills Monsanto, and corporations like it, pushes on the world and it's people.

-- DetourMind

Yeah, my letter is a wee bit rushed and rather reactionary, but hey, I just felt the need to tell someone, so I filled out their web form and sent it to everyone on their list.

Didn't expect to get a response, but the next day, poof, this is in my inbox:

From: AIRASCA, SANTIAGO [AG-Contractor/1000] <santiago.airasca@monsanto.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Subject: Monsanto
To:

Detour-Mind ,

You said that ‘you don’t believe’ that Monsanto does good things for America? It is not a matter of faith; there are facts that prove that Monsanto’s is working to provide American farmers the tools to produce safe and healthy food. Did you try asking real farmers how their lives have changed since Monsanto became an ag company? Do you want to chat with Monsanto’s employees? Do you know how many people is now making a living producing food and other commodities only because biotechnology companies are providing them with the tools to do it, especially small farmers?

Please, if you have the time, could you explain me why are you saying that our website is manipulating and misinforming the average American consumer? Do I have to assume that you are not an average consumer?

I won’t suggest, but state that WE WORK FOR THE GOOD OF ALL THOSE that consumes food produced using our products (we are not food producers, we are a seed company).

I would really appreciate if you take the time to look for real and serious sources before providing your friends, family, co-workers and everybody else bias information. I guess you want them to know the facts and not some anti-xxxxxxx propaganda.

If you have any particular question or concern I will be more than happy to provide you good information from respectful sources about these topics.

Regards,
Santiago

Santiago Airasca
Ph: 314-694-2581
santiago.airasca@monsanto.com


This e-mail message may contain privileged and/or confidential information, and is intended to be received only by persons entitled to receive such information. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately. Please delete it and all attachments from any servers, hard drives or any other media. Other use of this e-mail by you is strictly prohibited.

All e-mails and attachments sent and received are subject to monitoring, reading and archival by Monsanto, including its subsidiaries. The recipient of this e-mail is solely responsible for checking for the presence of "Viruses" or other "Malware". Monsanto, along with its subsidiaries, accepts no liability for any damage caused by any such code transmitted by or accompanying this e-mail or any attachment

It may just be me, but it seems I hit a sore spot at Monsanto. Apparently someone needed to make sure I wasn't sharing my views and opinions on Monsanto with everyone I come into contact with. They suggest that I should speak to some real farmers, but unfortunately, less than 1% of Americans are farmers (http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/demographics.html), so that should prove rather difficult.

After receiving this email from Santiago of Monsanto, I thought I better see who this guy was. A quick Google search of Santiago Airasca produced some interesting results.

Apparently, this guy is the "Issues Manager at MONSANTO" and worked as "PR Manager at Medanito S.A." - an Oil & Energy co in Argentina once associated with Chevron (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/santiago/airasca). So, I should trust a the former PR guy for Big Oil when he tells me about the goodness of Monsanto - the maker of the Round Up, Round Up Ready seeds, and the terminator gene?

I think not.

$100 Million Bonus?!

Well, looks like my letter to the editor made it into the free paper from the St Pete Times - the TBT.

I wrote them regarding this article:

$100 million bonus?! that's outlandish... I just had to comment...
so I sent this to the editors:

YES, it is too big.

First, $100 million is 5% of $2 billion, but Andrew Hall made an average of $400 million a year ($2 billion over 5 years) and, unless he doesn't get a yearly bonus, that would make his $100 billion bonus 25% of what he had brought in. Even if his bonus only rolls around every 5 years, one should ask themselves what kind of income comes BEFORE the $100 million bonus.

Second, not only is this man in the highly unregulated business of speculation, he happens to work for those same bailed out banks that lost billions last year and are raking in record breaking billions this year, largely in part, due to government handouts and cheap loans from the Fed - both at taxpayer expense.

Last year big business logic took more than $81 billion in losses and decided it was worth more than $32 billion in bonuses and the people just let it happen. Looks like they're on track to see the same kind of big bonuses again this year - who will stop them?

Detour-Mind

As luck would have it, they printed it... well, almost, some editing had taken place..

Here it is:



Of course, they left some things out... but so did I.

I should've included the fact that $100 million is 4000 times a $25k salary!

Peace out

Food Inc

Went to see Food Inc this weekend at Tampa Theatre. Not a bad movie, but if you've been following the food industry it's not really anything new. Great flick you should check it out.




I kinda find it funny that the food industry has struck back rather quickly, even opening a http://www.safefoodinc.org website. Monsanto too has it's own page dedicated to debunking this movie.


Oh yeah, great previews too.

You've got to see the Cove. Preview below:


For those of you in Tampa it opens at the Tampa Theatre August 14th.