INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~~ William Ernest Henley

PBS NEWS HOUR

For years, my most trusted sources for news have been NPR and PBS. On the latter, Washington Week on Friday evenings, and the News Hour each weeknight. Washington Week is moderated by Gwen Ifill (photo below). The News Hour is undergoing a format change. It will retain a single moderator, Jim Lehrer, and increase the presence of the program's senior correspondents. The intent is to broaden the program's coverage, both on television and online, while maintaining the journalistic integrity with which PBS has always approached the people and events which shape the news.

That integrity is succinctly summed up in the guidelines to responsible journalism which Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer (photo above) crafted 34 years ago. If all news organizations, particularly those which substitute sensationalism and political agenda for true news coverage, were to follow suit, we would be a better-informed public.

BLEEDING RELIGION

As a quiet but confirmed atheist for all my adult life, I have serious issues with the lack of tolerance, not to mention the lack of intellectual rigor, inherent in most organized religions. Particularly oppressive to me is living in a region where (for reasons of inherent insecurity in their own beliefs, I suspect) the residents feel it necessary to relentlessly advertise their particular brand of belief in a supernatural being. In few places does this occur more aggressively than in the American South. I've lived in Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and traveled throughout the region.

I was reminded of the ubiquity of such in-your-face religious proclamations when a correspondent mentioned living in a rural area where signs with biblical references are common. It seems so odd that in a nation which has as one of the stones of its foundation the concept of freedom of religion, that a fundamentalist sect of one religion (Christianity) proclaims that ours is a "Christian nation." Gee, I wonder if that makes our millions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and non-believers into non-citizens? Hmm. Whatever happened to live and let live? If I had to accept a label for my spiritual leanings (labels are so limiting), Animist comes as close as any.

I had an English lit professor who once observed that inherent in any specified freedom is the choice to abstain from that freedom -- e.g., freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. What a concept.

Especially abhorrent to me are those who not only proscelytize where they live, but send out "missionaries" to spread their version of Truth among those of other traditions. How dare they? Who conferred upon them the Only True Vision? Since so many religions believe theirs is the true vision, how can all of them be right? And if one is wrong, might not they all be wrong?

I'll stick with the principle of parsimony -- analogous to Occam's Razor -- when in doubt, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. One does not need a god to explain where life and the universe came from. In fact past religious explanations have been woefully off the mark. Nor does one require a religion to posit a purpose to life. Why does there have to be a purpose? I'm persuaded that there is no destination, there is only the journey. It is the Quality with which we lead our lives which defines us, individually and as a species.

TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS

The U.S. has for decades refused to join the rest of the world in adopting the metric system. This has unfortunate consequences not only for those traveling to other countries which use metric units, but also for those who study any of the sciences in college -- where lab and field measurements are commonly made using metric units.

To my knowledge, Burma, Liberia and the U.S. are the only three countries on earth which still cling to the archaic English system of measurement (with a few local exceptions). Thankfully, many charts, graphs, and web sites exist for converting between metric and English units. Here is a site which allows conversions in temperature, weight, length, area and volume. And here is another devoted strictly to temperature conversion. Please note that the latter is one of a suite of NOAA sites covering weather and climate. NOTE: As I type this, it is 6 dF, or minus 14.4 dC outside.

And here, for your edification and possible amusement, is a map showing the metric world (green), and the non-metric world (grey).

THE BAY OF PIGS

I'm reading a novel by writer and movie director John Sayles, Los Gusanos. Sayles is one of my all-time favorite directors and screenwriters -- his talent for visual and written story-telling is nuanced and finely-crafted. He researches his subjects deeply, and creates genuine and credible characters. There is a common thread of social consciousness running through much of his work.

The novel focuses on the members of several generations of Cuban-Americans, living in or near Miami. They form a rich and colorful tapestry of humanity and culture.

One of the older characters, Serafin, participated in the CIA-planned Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Through a combination of agency ineptitude and political intrigue, Cuban security knew of the impending invasion. Cuban military forces soundly defeated the anti-Castro invaders, aided by the mysterious withdrawal of promised U.S. military support for the mission.

The following passage is a flashback memory of Serafin, one of the invasion brigade's survivors. It is not for the squeamish.

"....Serafin had thought about bullets and dying in training camp but he wasn't ready for the way the men came apart. They were men like him and when the bullets or the shrapnel hit they tore apart. They were men like him and they tore, hunks of cloth and meat and blood and gristle ripping off into the air, spilling out onto the ground. Men were hit in the face and their heads exploded, nose and teeth driven back through their skulls. When the firing lifted Serafin could feel the ground still shaking, but it was his body trembling uncontrollably. One of the men with a rifle was spitting blood as he had bitten part of his tongue off without knowing it during the fighting and there was nothing moving out on the road.

"Here were heaps of soldier left lying on the ground. Smoke. Nothing moved. Then the shadow of something crossed over Serafin and he looked up to see vultures, dozens of vultures floating overhead, wheeling lazily around the open ground, cautious at first, then flapping in to roost on what was left of a body, one by one, till the road was glistening black with them."

TRACKING SANTA CLAUS

When I was a kid, thanks to the encouragement of our culture in general and my parents in particular, I was an ardent believer in the popular myth of Santa Claus. In fact, it wasn't until the relatively late age of 11 that a disdainful classmate disabused me of that belief. Only then did it become clear to me why my parents stayed up so late on Christmas eve - they were wrapping and placing under the tree all the gifts from "Santa" which they had previously bought or made.

Since then it has always puzzled me why we, as loving parents, set our children up for such intense feelings of disappointment and betrayal. While we are small and innocent, the experience is magical, and of course capitalism and the media are only too happy to play along. After the disillusioning rite of passage, perhaps Santa becomes a metaphor for our parents' love. That might explain why I perpetuated the myth with my own child. It's an enigma.

Here's an interesting twist, with its roots in the frenzy of Christmas consumerism. In 1955, a Colorado Springs-based Sears store ran an advertisement encouraging children to call Santa Claus on a special telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the wrong phone number was published, and calls poured in to the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defense Command. The Director, upon sorting out what had happened, instructed his staff to give Santa's position to any child who called.

Three years later, the goverments of the United States and Canada combined their respective national air defenses into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), but the tradition continued. Now major media outlets as well as children call in to inquire on Santa's location. In 1997 the service was expanded to include a Santa-tracking web site.

The fictional background storyline has changed with the world political situation. During the Cold War when the tracking team provided updates only by radio announcements, only North America was mentioned and Santa's approach was described in tense terms with interceptor aircraft being scrambled to shoot down the "bogie". Only at the last minute would the pilot realize whom he was engaging. Now the Web shows that as Santa approaches Newfoundland in Canada, a flight of Canadian Air Force fighters rendezvous with him to provide an honor guard.

In 2007 NORAD started tracking Santa in 3-D using Google Earth. His "location" is updated every five minutes. For those of you who would like to access NORAD's Santa tracking service, here is the link, with a continuous countdown clock.

HIKING THE GRAND CANYON

Today's NYTimes online features an article on something I've long wanted to do -- experience the Grand Canyon on foot, alone, with no time limitations. the "alone" part isn't adviseable for safety reasons, though Colin Fletcher famously did so in the 1960s, as chronicled in his book The Man Who Walked Through Time. Fletcher's trek took him the 200-plus-mile length of the Canyon, while most people (including the article's author) are content to hike from the rim to the bottom and back (itself a satisfying accomplishment).

If you scan the Times article, be sure to check out the accompanying slide show. No photo can do the Canyon justice, just as no photo can do the night sky justice. But perhaps the seed of your own adventure to the Canyon will be planted. Everyone should see it in their lifetime.

'Course, one of my other dreams is to kayak the Colorado River through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. But that's another story. (click on images to enlarge)

NaNoWriMo

Astute readers will recall that on 03 November, I described entering an online contest called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or NNWM as I abbreviate it). The intent is to encourage people who've always wanted to write a novel, to do so with guidance, encouragement and a 30-day deadline. That works out to about 1666 words per day, a very manageable number, even if one works and/or has a family to raise. No one profits from your work -- in fact, after November's composition and December's revisions, the writer retains all rights and ownership, and the website deletes all entries. It is an altruistic venture in the purest sense.

The "contest" is actually with oneself, not between writers -- the challenge is to discipline oneself to sit down daily and write. The fun of it is, there's no one looking over your shoulder, judging grammar, syntax or quality of content. It is simply an exercise to boost the aspiring writer off dead center, and get into the writerly habit.

"Thirty days and nights of literary abandon"

My story centers on a man who is single, and learning about the world of online dating services. His exploration consumes most of the story, with some space devoted to contrasting being single now to being single in the mid-1980s, pre-Internet, when one's choices were limited to blind dates through friends (iffy), the bar scene (ugh), or personals ads in the local alterntive newspaper. The latter was, in those days before AIDS, actually quite a safe and fun way to meet people. A teaser -- my character learns through both personals ads experience and online experience that of those women who are reasonable prospective matches, roughly half turn out to be duds (they lied about their age or their weight or their intelligence, or were simply not a good psychological fit: another fourth rated a second or third date but didn't really go anywhere; slightly less than a fourth became relationships of varying duration; and one (the last one, obviously) becomes true love. The devil is in the details ....... the story describes examples of each interaction, with names and other particulars changed to protect the identities of the innocent (or the guilty).

Well, in spite of starting late, I finished yesterday. The NNWM website validated my word count at 50,921 -- or an average of 1959 words per writing day. The experience was a tremendous confidence booster, and an inspiration. I was increasingly aware of something that many writers describe -- how one's characters take on a life of their own, with their own aspirations, quirks, and follies. Throw in their interactions with each other, and with their social environment, and the writer starts to feel a bit like a reporter at times, rather than a creator. It is only a feeling, of course. All those people and events arise from our conscious or subconscious minds. Still, a lot of fun. I never knew from day to day, what was going to end up on the page as I sat down to write.

This first book is not likely to see publication -- though the premise is relevant and the prose is passable. I almost feel possessive of it, wanting to share it with only those few whom I trust. We shall see. My thanks to my friend Celeste for introducing me to NNWM. I shall forever be in her debt.

LEOPARD SHARK

Regular readers know that I'm an avid advocate for predators in general, and the big cats in particular. I happened upon an article about a non-feline predator with a partly-feline name, due to the markings on its skin. The leopard shark ranges along the Pacific coast of North America, from Oregon in the north, to Mazatlan in Mexico in the south. a relatively small shark, the four to five foot long leopard shark often swims in large schools in coastal waters less than 13 feet deep -- bays and estuaries, intertidal mud flats at high tide, or rock-strewn areas near kelp beds or reefs. Since most leopard sharks live within a defined territory, there exists genetic divergence between populations of sharks living in different areas within the species range. such divergence is one of the many possible sources of speciation, i.e., the splitting of one species into two or more distinct sub-species,

Leopard sharks are harmless to humans, and sadly are harvested both for food, and to stock exotic salt water aquaria in offices and homes. (click on image to enlarge)

CHEETAH

Documented as the fastest land animal, the African cheetah can reach speeds between 70 and 75 mph, in short bursts covering distances up to 1500 feet. It has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 65 mph in three seconds, faster than most supercars. North America's pronghorn antelope is marginally slower, but can sustain its speed over much longer distances than the cheetah.

Cheetahs exhibit very little genetic variability among individuals, the result of a prolonged period of inbreeding following a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age. one consequence is that the entire species is highly vulnerable to any potential infectious disease that is species-specific. New research indicates that the last known common ancestor to all cheetahs lived in Asia 11 million years ago.

There is a popular film that provides a window into the life and personality of a cheetah that was raised as a pet and returned to the wild -- director Carroll Ballard's Duma.

THE OTHER THANKSGIVING

I refer to how white America's celebration of Thanksgiving tastes to most Native Americans -- like bitter ashes. European American invaders used disease, lies and the fine art of massacre to steal Indian land, and tried to obliterate their culture, language, traditions. Confined to ghettos euphemistically called "reservations", decimated by broken treaty after broken treaty, Indians have become the forgotten minority in the U.S. -- the most oppressed, the most impoverished, the most plagued by alcohol and unemployment.

And yet, against all odds, decent and informed (and sometimes justifiably angry) Indian voices persist -- writers, scholars, historians, activists. There is as much variety of opinion and behavior among Indians as there is among whites, with this difference -- whites hold the financial and political power, but seldom the moral high ground.

On this day, I am thankful for those other voices, which sit on my shoulder and whisper into my ear about conscience, honor, pride.

MILKY WAY

some images just don't need the clutter of commentary -- this splendid APOD photo of our Milky Way galaxy is one such. click on the links for descriptions. click on the image to enlarge. enjoy.

FARM TOWN CROPS

For those of you who use the app Farm Town on Facebook, here is an updated chart showing all existing and new crops, grouped according to how long they take to mature. Within days-to-mature groups, all crops are arranged in ascending order of profit per day. This gives you a much more useful comparison than simple seed cost, or simple harvest yield. Time, cost of seed, cost of plowing, and harvest yield affect your profit and profit per day, and are figured into the chart.



Crop...........Time to Mature....Profit... Profit per day

********************************************

Raspberry......2 hours..................12..........(depends on # plantings)

Grape..............4 hours..................16...........ditto

Beets...............4 hours..................18...........ditto

Squash............8 hours..................24...........ditto

Basil................8 hours..................28............ditto

Asparagus....12 hours..................27............ditto

Sugar cane...12 hours..................31............ditto

*******************************************

Strawberry.....1 day....................35...............35

Watermelon....1 day....................37...............37

Potato..............1 day....................39...............39

Cabbage...........1 day....................42..............42

Eggplant...........1 day....................47..............47

Sage..................1 day.....................52...............52

*******************************************

Tomato............ 2 days..................70...............35

Wheat.............. 2 days..................80...............40

Rice...................2 days..................90...............45

Peas..................2 days..................92................46

Carrot...............2 days..................98................49

Pepper..............2 days................108................54

Blackberry.......2 days................120................60

*******************************************

Coffee................3 days...............128.................43

Corn.................. 3 days...............135.................45

Sunflower..........3 days...............142.................47

Onion.................3 days...............148.................49

Blueberry..........3 days...............177.................59

Pineapple.......... 3 days..............192.................64

Rosemary..........3 days...............211................70

*******************************************

Cotton.................4 days..............160.................40

Pumpkin.............4 days..............176.................44

Broccoli...............4 days..............197.................49

*******************************************

NOTE: Farm Towners, if you would like to see the complete chart, which includes seed cost, plowing cost, time to mature, harvest yield, profit, profit per day, and XP (experience points earned), let me know, and i'll send you an email with the chart as an attachment.

NOTE: As always, your available time, personal preference and aesthetics trump this chart. This information is intented solely for those who seek to maximize their profit for a given time period. :)

SADDLE UP

I've discovered a weekly show on PBS which focuses on the humane training of horses. It's called "Saddle Up", hosted by Dennis Brouse. The show is remarkable for two reasons. The first reason is that the training practiced on the show is clearly influenced by Monty Roberts and other so-called horse whisperers, trainers who "adopt a sympathetic view of the motives, needs and desires of the horse, based on natural horsemanship and modern equine psychology." Both the book and the movie The Horse Whisperer were based loosely on Roberts' life and philosophy, in which the emphasis is on paying attention to the horse's behavior, in effect listening to its non-verbal language, and on negotiating with a horse to form a voluntary, non-violent relationship with the trainer.

The second reason is that in addition to helping individual horse owners to train their animals, Brouse introduces his audience to different horse breeds, and to the variety of ways in which humans and horses associate, from trail rides to polo to steeplechase.

My own experience with horses is mostly limited to having ridden bareback as a child, during a time when my dad had his own farm. I still prefer riding bareback to a saddle -- there is a more immediate connection and communication between rider and animal. It feels more like a partnership, rather than one being imposing its will on another. But to each his/her own. I can well understand the enhanced control and safety which a saddle affords.

CLIPPER SHIPS

when i was a lad, i spent much time outdoors, exploring the prairies and mountains of northwestern Montana. during those times when i was indoors, i could be found either reading voraciously (which i still do), or assembling models from kits. those models not only taught me about planning, constructing and artwork, they also seized my imagination. models ranged from military aircraft, classic cars and medieval knights to naval warships and sailing ships. of the latter, one of my very favorites was the Flying Cloud, a clipper ship built in 1851. clipper ships were designed for speed, with a long narrow hull, and billowing mountains of square-rigged sails mounted on multiple masts. they were merchant vessels, plying the trade routes that ran between the u.s. east and west coasts via south america's cape horn during the california gold rush, and also the routes to asia from the u.s. and europe. the Flying Cloud set a speed record of 89 days for the cape horn trip in 1853, a record for sailing craft that stood until 1989.

ultimately clipper ships, whose visual image blended an impression of immense speed with powerful grace, were replaced by steamships, and their doom was sealed by the construction of the suez canal, though elements of their design were incorporated into modern warships. today three clippers are known to survive. of those three, only the Cutty Sark remains in serviceable condition. it is being renovated to become a floating museum in greenwich, england.

BLOODY SUNDAY -- 1920

the Irish War for Independence was a guerrilla war mounted against the British government by Irish citizens. the revolt began during the Easter Rising of 1916, during which various factions proclaimed an independent republic. during the subsequent period of violent repression by the British Army, by its intelligence agency MI5, and by the loyalist Irish Auxilliary Division, rebel factions united under the umbrella of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Michael Collins. in 1919 the IRA's political arm, Sinn Fein, under Eamon de Valera, issued a formal declaration of independence and established an elected assembly, the Dail Eireann.

the war continued until July 1921, when the Anglo-Irish Treaty ended British rule in most of Ireland, establishing the Irish Free State. however, the northeasternmost 6 of Ireland's original 32 counties, being predominantly Protestant and loyal to the Crown, opted out of the treaty, choosing to remain under British rule as Northern Ireland. the remaining 26 counties, mostly Catholic, form the present-day Irish Republic.

during the war, one of the most significant events was Bloody Sunday -- 21 November 1920. on that day, an IRA operation in Dublin led to the deaths of 12 British agents and 2 Irish sympathizers. in reprisal, that afternoon the British Army and the Auxiliary Division surrounded and attacked unarmed civilian spectators at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, massacring 14 Irish men, women and children, and wounding many others. although the IRA's attack provoked condemnation from the British government, it was the British reprisal which solidified Irish opposition against the Crown, and which fueled world criticism of the British government.

the foregoing is only a cursory summary of the events and participants of those violent times. for greater and more colorful detail, i recommend Morgan Llywelyn's "Irish Century" series of novels -- 1916, 1921, 1949, 1972, and 1999.

SCORE ONE FOR THE HUNTED

on this day in 1820, the whaling ship Essex encountered a sperm whale that was much larger than normal. the whale rammed the ship twice and sank it while the crew was hunting and killing other members of the whale's pod (family). the ship sank 2000 miles west of the west coast of south america. of those sailors who escaped in whaleboats, only eight survived.

this incident formed the basis for one of the great novels in american literature, Moby Dick by herman melville. unfortunately, melville turned his fictional whale into an archetypal figure of vengeance which bordered on caricature. in real life, the whale upon which Moby Dick was based, was only protecting his family and himself. my own feeling is that all human hunting should be structured so that there is equal risk to hunter and hunted -- bow hunting or spears only, no GPS tracking, no high-velocity rifles with scopes. i'm just sayin'.

EEB

a quarter century ago, i was fortunate to be an undergrad student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) program and the University of Arizona in Tucson. i was well into my thirties, and had a clear sense of direction in my studies. with most of my general requirements having been satisfied previously at another school, my courses were predominantly math and science, in which i flourished. all those amazing labs, all those far-ranging field trips in southern arizona and northern sonora, studying everything from mammalogy, herpitology and ornithology to oceanography and biogeography. many of my classes were graduate-level, and i mingled freely with grad students as equals.

i've always been drawn to taking the longer view, seeing the bigger picture. EEB was ideal in that respect. ecology is the interdisciplinary study of the interactions between organisms, as well as the relationships between organisms and their environment. evolutionary biology is also interdisciplinary, and concerns itself with the origin of species, and how species change, multiply and diverge over time. coursework included microbiology, cell biology, genetics, paleontology, taxonomy and animal behavior.

both professors and guest lecturers were high calibre. one that stands out in my memory is dr. lynn margulis, one of the founders of the gaia hypothesis and of the endosymbiotic theory. another, my de facto mentor, was dr. paul s. martin, author of the theory that north america was populated by waves of immigrants from asia during the last ice age, and also the theory that these immigrants were responsible for the extinction through overhunting of native megafauna such as north american camels, mammoths, and great sloths, among others. and let us not forget dr. james brown (no, not the football star or the soul singer), now at the university of new mexico, whose original thinking on island biogeography did so much to promote that body of knowledge.

i was a lucky, lucky lad.

CREATURES IN CAPTIVITY

the bluespotted ribbontail ray is the most common stingray found in the home aquarium trade. however, like many exotic species, it seldom fares well in captivity. most individuals refuse to feed, dying of starvation in isolation from their home habitat, the tropical indo-pacific region.

the human compulsion to keep animals, birds and fish in cages and aquaria is a common expression of our need to dominate and contain all that is wild, all that is wilderness. having pets as companions is an understandable urge, especially for children, or for adults who are lonely. i have two cats who live indoors, and the only moral justification i can muster is that had i not adopted them as kittens from the animal shelter, the probability is high that they would have been killed. nine out of ten animal shelter refugees never live to enjoy a new home.

still, it is sad when humans keep pets in conditions with too little space for exercise and freedom. this applies to cats, dogs, horses, fish, reptiles, et al. even more sad (for me) is keeping animals caged for public display in zoos. i cannot bear to visit one, even recognizing the recently-emerged and important function of keeping endangered species' genetic pool alive.

as for rodeos, they are down on the same level with dog fights and bull fights -- a barbaric spectacle which demeans the participants and the audience, and is cruel to the animals. sorry, that's my opinion. (here is the natural range of the bluespotted ribbontail ray -- conditions which are a far cry from any aquarium.)

DEMOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE

here is something that is making the rounds by email. the information is illuminating, but i have serious issues with the conclusions drawn. first, the info --

1. If you could fit the entire population of the world into a village consisting of 100 people, maintaining the proportions of all the people living on Earth, that village would consist of --

~ 57 Asians

~ 21 Europeans

~ 14 Americans (North, Central and South)

~ 8 Africans

2. There would be --

~ 52 women and 48 men

~ 30 Caucasians and 70 non-Caucasians

~ 30 Christians and 70 non-Christians

~ 89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals

3. 6 people would possess 59% of the wealth and they would all come from the USA.

~ 80 would live in poverty

~ 70 would be illiterate

~ 50 would suffer from hunger and malnutrition

~ 1 would by dying

~ 1 would be being born

~ 1 would own a computer

~ 1 (yes, only 1) would have a university degree

4. If we looked at the world in this way, the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious. But, consider the following ....

5. If you woke up this morning in good health, you have more luck ehan one million people, who won't live through the week.

6. If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of prison, the pain of torture, were not close to death by starvation, then you are better off than 500 million people.

7. If you can go to your place of worship without fear that someone will assault you or kill you, then you are luckier than 3 billion (that's right) people. And if you have a full fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are wealthier than 75% of the world's population.

8. If you currently have money in the bank, in your wallet and a few coins in your purse, you are one of 8 of the privileged few among the 100 people of the world.

9. If someone sent you this message, you're extremely lucky, because someone is thinking about you, and because you don't comprise one of those 2 billion people who can't read.

10. And so?

11.

~ Work like you don't need the money.

~ Love like nobody has ever hurt you.

~ Dance like nobody is watching.

~ Sing like nobody is listening.

~ Live as if this was paradise on Earth.

12. Send this message to your friends. Bypass those who will treat this as childish, having their own egocentric view of the world. If you don't send it, nothing will happen. If you do send it, someone might smile while they are reading it, and that will be a positive.

13. And apart from that, have a nice day.

got all that? did you notice the GLARING disconnect between entries 1-10, and 11-13? we are presented with a "demographic perspective", courtesy of global village, which spells out how privileged we few are, and what shattered lives most of the world leads. not to mention dismissing anyone who might disagree with the totality of the message as "childish, egocentric". i think the writer needs to look in the mirror.

and then, we're told to celebrate this, smile, be happy, have a nice day.

WHAT?? ok, fine, appreciate what your privileges and gifts. but where is the obvious followup message -- to use those gifts and privileges to make the rest of the world a better place? where is the exhortation to level the economic playing field, eliminate war, poverty, starvation, torture, religious and racial and ethnic intolerance? where is the appeal to conscience? to social responsibility?

and above all, where is the discussion of the root cause of nearly every human misery you can name, which is our own staggering overpopulation? our garden planet could sustainably support roughly one-tenth of our current 6 billion people (a number which is increasing geometrically). where is the call for birth control, for literacy and education, for the global prosperity which would shut down the runaway engine of having more and more children?

where is the recognition that simply placing our heads in the sand, enjoying ourselves, having a nice day, means that we are signing the death warrant for the natural world, which, by the way, happens to make our continued existence possible?

"don't worry, be happy" -- i would suggest instead "stand up to injustice, use your gifts for good, and do so with a happy heart."