Here is today's illustrated thought of the week. Have a good week. Next year, I plan to do a series of Christmas carols this way.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Here is today's illustrated thought of the week. Have a good week. Next year, I plan to do a series of Christmas carols this way.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
This is my new barrel cactus array along with an inspirational quote fom WB Yeats. Have a good week.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Zazzle Teaming Up With North Pole Productions
Zazzle and Santa Claus Partner to Make Custom Gifts for Christmas
Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:05 AM PST
On the eve of Christmas we’re pleased to announce our partnership with Santa to supply custom gifts for Christmas! Below is our official press statement.
In a groundbreaking new deal, Zazzle, the world’s leading platform for quality custom products, and Santa Claus, the world’s foremost gift giver and CEO of Christmas, today announced that the Zazzle custom products factory in San Jose, California will serve as an official “Auxiliary Santa’s Workshop” throughout the 2010 Christmas season. All requests for custom gifts sent to the North Pole this year will be rerouted to Zazzle’s factory, where the custom gifts will be made by Zazzle employees. The arrangement marks the first time in history that Santa’s Workshop has diverted a portion of its volume to a partner company for fulfillment.
The deal is expected to fill a major hole in Santa’s Christmas operations. Santa’s main factory in the North Pole was designed several hundred years ago to manufacture mass quantities of popular gifts. But in recent years, more and more children send letters to Santa requesting custom gifts which cannot be manufactured by Santa’s traditional Elfish workforce without causing major disruptions to efficiency. Zazzle, however, has made it their mission to offer all of the world’s custom products on their platform, and their unique focus since 2005 has been to make extremely high quality custom gifts for children and adults all over the world.
Santa also took a tour of our production facility, which we recorded for all those non-believers out there (Santa is real!).
Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:05 AM PST
On the eve of Christmas we’re pleased to announce our partnership with Santa to supply custom gifts for Christmas! Below is our official press statement.
In a groundbreaking new deal, Zazzle, the world’s leading platform for quality custom products, and Santa Claus, the world’s foremost gift giver and CEO of Christmas, today announced that the Zazzle custom products factory in San Jose, California will serve as an official “Auxiliary Santa’s Workshop” throughout the 2010 Christmas season. All requests for custom gifts sent to the North Pole this year will be rerouted to Zazzle’s factory, where the custom gifts will be made by Zazzle employees. The arrangement marks the first time in history that Santa’s Workshop has diverted a portion of its volume to a partner company for fulfillment.
The deal is expected to fill a major hole in Santa’s Christmas operations. Santa’s main factory in the North Pole was designed several hundred years ago to manufacture mass quantities of popular gifts. But in recent years, more and more children send letters to Santa requesting custom gifts which cannot be manufactured by Santa’s traditional Elfish workforce without causing major disruptions to efficiency. Zazzle, however, has made it their mission to offer all of the world’s custom products on their platform, and their unique focus since 2005 has been to make extremely high quality custom gifts for children and adults all over the world.
Santa also took a tour of our production facility, which we recorded for all those non-believers out there (Santa is real!).
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Peace Pilgrim
I just learned about the Peace Pilgrim form Joseph Chilton Peare's book, the biology of transcendence. This is a video clip of an interview with her.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
I try to live by this motto. It is important in my communications with our residents in the home. They are great teachers. Have a good week.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
I am going away for Thanksgiving, so I am posting this early. It will be the first time in my 26 years here at the boarding home, that I have not been here for every major holiday; so I have extra reason to be thankful this year.
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
This is our Thanksgiving week entry. Have a great Thanksgiving, eveyone.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Joseph Chiltern Pearce
Joe's books the Crack in the Cosmic Egg and The Magical Child were very influential on my development many years ago. I was delighted to see that he is still at it.
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Getting close to Thanksgiving, I offer this Estonian Proverb on gratitude. I am getting my Thanksgiving designs together just in time for next year.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tubae Mundi
Here is an interesting you tube video which is an example of where I want to go with my creations.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Continuing with our theme of gratitude leading up to Thanksgiving, I offer this quote from Ben Franklin. The star is made with a foliage line which I am using for my Christmas Cactus array. Come to think of it, I need to dig out my latest copy of Poor Richard's Almanac and look up some more quotes from Ben.
*******
Have a good week.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Leading up to Thanksgiving, I will do a series of messages on gratitude. This is the first. Have a good week y'all.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Charmaine Zoe Moving Mandalas
How about another peaceful video from Charmaine Zoe? This is truly amazing.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Brian posted this on facebook a couple of weeks ago and I use it here with a star made from succulent foliage.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
I have started on this year's Christmas card design and expect to use this in the center of a mandala. Here, I have paired it with a fifth Chinese proverb.
Enjoy.
Bob
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Follow the Money
This is an excerpt from Bruce Lipton's latest book written with Steve Bhaerman. I have long thought that the debate between liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican is more or less irrelevant. No one in mainstream politics is addressing the issue these authors raise here.
*******
I think many of us have been afraid that Obama would get shot on racial issues; but if either he or any other president, had the courage to abolish the Federal Reserve Bank; they would probably sign their own death warrant.
*******
Spontaneous Evolution
Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman pages 303-306
Follow the Money
“So where does money- be it in dollars, pounds, francs, or euros-come from? Why, from the Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, respectively. The titles of these money-issuing entities sound very impressive and give the notion that they are governmental institutions whose mission is the well being of the commonwealth. Not so. Each of these banks is a privately held corporation imbued with the primary corporate mission to make money for its fortunate shareholders.
To understand how a bank brings money into existence, consider what happens when you go to a bank for a loan. Perhaps you think that the money you borrow is another person’s savings, invested in the bank to earn interest. That is not the case at all. Money issuing banks operate on a fractional reserve system, which means they can print a quantity of bank notes equal to nine times the value of their customer’s deposits. They literally create 90 percent of the money out of thin air!
How do privately owned banks fulfill their corporate mission to make a profit? They loan money for which they charge interest-10 percent interest equals 10 percent profit.
So let’s say you borrow $1000, the privilege for which you must pay the bank $1,100. Where do you get the extra $100? Well, from selling your goods or services to other people. True-but where do they get the money to pay you? Oh yes-they borrow from the same bank, which, of course charges them interest, too.
Let’s say a country has a population of 1 million people and each citizen borrows $1000 from the bank to create an economy based on currency exchange. Collectively, the bank loans the country $1 billion dollars in bank notes. In return, the country owes the bank $1 billion dollars for the loan’s principal, plus another $100 million for the interest. So where does the country get the extra $100 million dollars in currency to pay the bank? It doesn’t. It can’t.
That’s because the country can only borrow and repay money-and not create it-and because only banks can create money.
This issuing of a national currency solely by private banks results in a debt based economy in which there is never enough money in circulation to pay both the principal and interest. It’s only through continual economic growth-and the demand for new loans-that enough money can be created to repay the original loan. In other words, borrowing can only beget more borrowing.
Inevitably, the compounding of the debt leads to a situation in which creditor insolvency motivates banks to foreclose on loans. The debtor’s property, used as collateral for the loan, is confiscated and distributed amongst the bank’s shareholders. Because the value of the money loaned by the banks was never equal to the value of the collateral, the shareholders happily accept foreclosures.
This persistent pattern in the money game can be traced back to ancient Babylon. Centuries before Jesus cast the money changers from the temple, the priests of Baal had their own money racket. Each spring, they would extend credit to farmers to plant their crops. At harvest time, the priests expected payment. However, because the priests also regulated the money supply, they made sure there was never enough money in circulation for all the farmers to repay their loans. This led to more credit being extended, which meant that at the next harvest, the debt was even greater. Repeating the same pattern over a number of years led to the farmers becoming indentured servants to the priests, who produced nothing. The Babylonian civilization eventually collapsed when the productive elements of society were reduced to little more than slaves.
Visionary economist Richard Kotlatz recognized that the same pattern of exploitation, that is, “borrowing money into circulation, then withholding more money to make debt service impossible,” reverberated throughout the ancient societies of Persia, Greece, and Rome with the same effect. The practice later found resurgence in the era of colonialism and empire. It can be seen today in the policies of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other financial institutions. Their economic hit men of the globalization era hit on underdeveloped nations, promising freedom through credit for development but delivering slavery through debt. The consequence of such exploitive economies is that they always end up killing the proverbial golden goose from which the tangible value originated.
We see the same sad scenario being played out today as executives with golden parachutes bail out of once-productive, but now indebted companies, closing factories and leaving workers unemployed. Even though real wealth- the productive potential of available resources and willing workers- is in place, the means of exchange, the currency, has been extracted from the system. There isn’t enough money available to purchase goods or pay workers for their services.
No wonder visionaries like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison fought against the establishment of a national bank in the United States. They understood that political freedom was not possible under a system of economic exploitation. Without the ability to coin debt free currency based on the value of natural wealth, an entire society would eventually fall into the perpetual in-debt status of those farmers in ancient Babylon.
Jefferson was quite prophetic when he wrote: “If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power of money should be taken from banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe that banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”
As the current economic crisis reveals, the amount of money in circulation doesn’t necessarily represent the wealth of a society. For example, consider that America’s farm production during the Depression in 1933, was roughly the same as it was in 1929 before the stock market crash. And yet, the monetary value of total farm income was half of what it had been four years earlier! As economist Carl H. Wilkens points out, the harvest of 1933 had the same number of calories as the harvest four years earlier. If our currency were truly a store of value, the value of farm production would not have been reduced by half.
The variable nature of our money’s value has profoundly undermined our natural economy and given rise to a totally unnatural one. David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy, bluntly described our current financial system as a “money game in which the players use money to make money for people who have money, without producing anything of value.”
Citing Kevin Phillip’s book, Bad Money, Korten compares the economy of America at its peak of global power in 1950 with the economy of today. In 1950, manufacturing accounted for 29.3 percent of the United States gross domestic product(GDP). By 2005, manufacturing was down to a mere 12 percent, while so-called financial services, meaning money invested into money markets, accounted for more than 20 percent of the GDP.
Hedge funds, an example of a financial service that was barely a shrub on the economic landscape 20 years ago, have now grown to over $1.8 trillion in assets. These risky ventures, which use borrowed money to borrow more money, totaled some $14 trillion in 2006.
The new word for borrowing is leveraging and the now defunct Lehman Brothers was leveraged 35 to one, meaning that it had borrowed $35 on every dollar of its equity. Lehman’s bankruptcy has left its unsecured creditors with over $200 billion in losses.
In the world of money marketing, Wall Street’s short-term gain end up as Mains Street’s long term loss. Korten reported that over a period of roughly three decades, “the benefits of productivity gains in the Main Street economy were captured by Wall Street players as interest, dividends, and financial service fees.”
In an attempt to make ends meet in an economy where the real value of the dollar was plummeting, the American consumer began to borrow money to pay for their consumable goods. Why, you can even use your credit card to purchase fast food, adding debt while you add calories. Financial institutions were all too willing to extend credit, and by 2007,personal household mortgage and credit card debt stood at $14.8 trillion, which is roughly the equivalent of that yeat’s GDP! Time for another round of foreclosures!”
*******
I think many of us have been afraid that Obama would get shot on racial issues; but if either he or any other president, had the courage to abolish the Federal Reserve Bank; they would probably sign their own death warrant.
*******
Spontaneous Evolution
Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman pages 303-306
Follow the Money
“So where does money- be it in dollars, pounds, francs, or euros-come from? Why, from the Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, respectively. The titles of these money-issuing entities sound very impressive and give the notion that they are governmental institutions whose mission is the well being of the commonwealth. Not so. Each of these banks is a privately held corporation imbued with the primary corporate mission to make money for its fortunate shareholders.
To understand how a bank brings money into existence, consider what happens when you go to a bank for a loan. Perhaps you think that the money you borrow is another person’s savings, invested in the bank to earn interest. That is not the case at all. Money issuing banks operate on a fractional reserve system, which means they can print a quantity of bank notes equal to nine times the value of their customer’s deposits. They literally create 90 percent of the money out of thin air!
How do privately owned banks fulfill their corporate mission to make a profit? They loan money for which they charge interest-10 percent interest equals 10 percent profit.
So let’s say you borrow $1000, the privilege for which you must pay the bank $1,100. Where do you get the extra $100? Well, from selling your goods or services to other people. True-but where do they get the money to pay you? Oh yes-they borrow from the same bank, which, of course charges them interest, too.
Let’s say a country has a population of 1 million people and each citizen borrows $1000 from the bank to create an economy based on currency exchange. Collectively, the bank loans the country $1 billion dollars in bank notes. In return, the country owes the bank $1 billion dollars for the loan’s principal, plus another $100 million for the interest. So where does the country get the extra $100 million dollars in currency to pay the bank? It doesn’t. It can’t.
That’s because the country can only borrow and repay money-and not create it-and because only banks can create money.
This issuing of a national currency solely by private banks results in a debt based economy in which there is never enough money in circulation to pay both the principal and interest. It’s only through continual economic growth-and the demand for new loans-that enough money can be created to repay the original loan. In other words, borrowing can only beget more borrowing.
Inevitably, the compounding of the debt leads to a situation in which creditor insolvency motivates banks to foreclose on loans. The debtor’s property, used as collateral for the loan, is confiscated and distributed amongst the bank’s shareholders. Because the value of the money loaned by the banks was never equal to the value of the collateral, the shareholders happily accept foreclosures.
This persistent pattern in the money game can be traced back to ancient Babylon. Centuries before Jesus cast the money changers from the temple, the priests of Baal had their own money racket. Each spring, they would extend credit to farmers to plant their crops. At harvest time, the priests expected payment. However, because the priests also regulated the money supply, they made sure there was never enough money in circulation for all the farmers to repay their loans. This led to more credit being extended, which meant that at the next harvest, the debt was even greater. Repeating the same pattern over a number of years led to the farmers becoming indentured servants to the priests, who produced nothing. The Babylonian civilization eventually collapsed when the productive elements of society were reduced to little more than slaves.
Visionary economist Richard Kotlatz recognized that the same pattern of exploitation, that is, “borrowing money into circulation, then withholding more money to make debt service impossible,” reverberated throughout the ancient societies of Persia, Greece, and Rome with the same effect. The practice later found resurgence in the era of colonialism and empire. It can be seen today in the policies of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other financial institutions. Their economic hit men of the globalization era hit on underdeveloped nations, promising freedom through credit for development but delivering slavery through debt. The consequence of such exploitive economies is that they always end up killing the proverbial golden goose from which the tangible value originated.
We see the same sad scenario being played out today as executives with golden parachutes bail out of once-productive, but now indebted companies, closing factories and leaving workers unemployed. Even though real wealth- the productive potential of available resources and willing workers- is in place, the means of exchange, the currency, has been extracted from the system. There isn’t enough money available to purchase goods or pay workers for their services.
No wonder visionaries like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison fought against the establishment of a national bank in the United States. They understood that political freedom was not possible under a system of economic exploitation. Without the ability to coin debt free currency based on the value of natural wealth, an entire society would eventually fall into the perpetual in-debt status of those farmers in ancient Babylon.
Jefferson was quite prophetic when he wrote: “If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power of money should be taken from banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe that banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”
As the current economic crisis reveals, the amount of money in circulation doesn’t necessarily represent the wealth of a society. For example, consider that America’s farm production during the Depression in 1933, was roughly the same as it was in 1929 before the stock market crash. And yet, the monetary value of total farm income was half of what it had been four years earlier! As economist Carl H. Wilkens points out, the harvest of 1933 had the same number of calories as the harvest four years earlier. If our currency were truly a store of value, the value of farm production would not have been reduced by half.
The variable nature of our money’s value has profoundly undermined our natural economy and given rise to a totally unnatural one. David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy, bluntly described our current financial system as a “money game in which the players use money to make money for people who have money, without producing anything of value.”
Citing Kevin Phillip’s book, Bad Money, Korten compares the economy of America at its peak of global power in 1950 with the economy of today. In 1950, manufacturing accounted for 29.3 percent of the United States gross domestic product(GDP). By 2005, manufacturing was down to a mere 12 percent, while so-called financial services, meaning money invested into money markets, accounted for more than 20 percent of the GDP.
Hedge funds, an example of a financial service that was barely a shrub on the economic landscape 20 years ago, have now grown to over $1.8 trillion in assets. These risky ventures, which use borrowed money to borrow more money, totaled some $14 trillion in 2006.
The new word for borrowing is leveraging and the now defunct Lehman Brothers was leveraged 35 to one, meaning that it had borrowed $35 on every dollar of its equity. Lehman’s bankruptcy has left its unsecured creditors with over $200 billion in losses.
In the world of money marketing, Wall Street’s short-term gain end up as Mains Street’s long term loss. Korten reported that over a period of roughly three decades, “the benefits of productivity gains in the Main Street economy were captured by Wall Street players as interest, dividends, and financial service fees.”
In an attempt to make ends meet in an economy where the real value of the dollar was plummeting, the American consumer began to borrow money to pay for their consumable goods. Why, you can even use your credit card to purchase fast food, adding debt while you add calories. Financial institutions were all too willing to extend credit, and by 2007,personal household mortgage and credit card debt stood at $14.8 trillion, which is roughly the equivalent of that yeat’s GDP! Time for another round of foreclosures!”
Sunday, October 10, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Here is another Chinese proverb paired with a star I made using flowers of the jumping cholla and prikly pear cacti. Have a good week.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
I give you another Chinese Proverb this week. I paired it with a star made from nightblooming cactus flowers.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Emerging Sunflower Video
I have redone the sunflower slideshow. The first one was to work out the mechanics; this one is to enjoy.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sunflower Slideshow with Music
I just completed this slideshow showing development of my sunflower mandalas and array. I used iamges with low resolution which makes it come out fuzzy; and the automatic editing software, while amazing leaves something to be desired. Still this shows the potential, and I will expand on this. I have been waiting 40 years for this technology.
********
I set this to a beautiful version of Greensleeves by Mason Williams of Classical Gas fame.
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
This is the first time I am using a Chinese proverb, but I will do a series of them.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
More Illustrated Thoughts of the Week
These 3 older posts will catch you up on the Illustrated Thoughts of the Week series. From now on, I will post them one at a time on Sundays.
Monday, September 13, 2010
More Illustrated Thoughts of the Week
This is a collection of Einstein quotes. I had put one of his with a flower design on Zazzle and had it taken off for copyright infringement. I tried afterward to get permission from the copyright holder, but was told that I couldn't afford it. So I cannot offer these for sale, but I can use them for these free postings as long as I give the credit.
*******
One of my biggest themes is a unity of science and spirituality, and a number of Einstein quotes fit nicely into that frame. I hope you find them as inspirational as I do.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
One of our residents has put up a scrap of paper by her bed with the words "no excuses". I made up this sheet for her so that she would have a choice of color and font. The symbol of the butterfly says no excuse for crawling around like a caterpillar.
*******
To me it is encouraging that a lady with her disabilities wants to give herself this daily reminder. Let's all fly through this week on butterfly wings.
9/11
This was posted by a friend on facebook today. It is more the spirit we need this weekend. Bravo Budwieser.
Dr Lea Quote
There is a naturopath here in Tucosn, Dr Lea, who posted this on facbook this morning. It is well said.
*******
Rather than focusing on prevention, our "health-care system" is primarily a disease-care system. The unspoken message has generally been to ignore prevention: wait until it’s broken and then seek out the “magic bullet” or drug to cover up our symptoms. Or if that doesn’t work, cut it out. This is a severely defective and expensive approach, one that is threatening the welfare of a growing number of American households. Some 54 million Americans will go without health insurance this year alone.
Americans now spend over $250 billion a year on prescription drugs – more than all the people in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom combined!
When it comes to your health care, the best bargain, hands down, is prevention of disease through a healthy lifestyle – diet, exercise, stress reduction, healthy habits, and nutritional supplementation.
*******
Rather than focusing on prevention, our "health-care system" is primarily a disease-care system. The unspoken message has generally been to ignore prevention: wait until it’s broken and then seek out the “magic bullet” or drug to cover up our symptoms. Or if that doesn’t work, cut it out. This is a severely defective and expensive approach, one that is threatening the welfare of a growing number of American households. Some 54 million Americans will go without health insurance this year alone.
Americans now spend over $250 billion a year on prescription drugs – more than all the people in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom combined!
When it comes to your health care, the best bargain, hands down, is prevention of disease through a healthy lifestyle – diet, exercise, stress reduction, healthy habits, and nutritional supplementation.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Time to Say Goodbye
A friend recently posted this on facebook. This song by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman is one of my all time favoites. It is sure to give chills.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
More Illustrated Thoughts of the Week
Here is another set of old illustrated thoughts of the week from early in 2010. As always, have a good week.
Bob
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
This thought came to me this week as I was studying a newely created mandala array. It can have other versions such as:
I am not the writer, I am the pen.
I am not the composer, I am the scribe.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
As promised, here is Psalm 100 in a pink tree bell border. Have a great week!
Bob
Sunday, August 22, 2010
ILLUSTRATED THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
I have had a couple of requests for more psalms. This is #61, #100 will be next week. Have a good week.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Continuous Chest Compression CPR
This method was developed at UMC here in Tucson. I had heard and read about it, but this video makes it clear.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
23rd Psalm in Sunflower Frame
I am working on sunflower designs and have extracted 8 flowers. I use them here in pairs to frame the 23rd Psalm. This one is popular, but if you have any favorites you want illustrated; let me know.
*******
Have a good week.
Bob
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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