NO POLLINATORS = NO POLLINATION = NO FOOD

For 90% of plants - the process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. That is called, "biotic-pollination". There are roughly 200,000 varieties of animal pollinators are in the wild - most of which are insects - and (by far) most pollination activity, is performed by bees!

Copyright ©2014 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved.

"FREE" HEALTH CARE?

While Healthcare will never be "FREE" in the strictest sense of the word, it is possible to greatly simplify the way it is provided. We need a system which is able to respond to all citizens! One which can meet everyone's needs - equally. There should be no deductible, no out-of-pocket, and no monthly payment to any business - no boundaries which define (and exclude): persons with pre-existing conditions! The cost should covered as part of taxation (not unlike military spending)... scaled to one's ability to pay (and amortized across the whole of society). I suggest that we KEEP the current "ACA" plan, as a starting point. That plan should evolve (in stages) towards the goal of the total elimination of "for-profit" healthcare businesses! Ask yourselves: "What portion of every DOLLAR paid-in (including: one's deductible, plus all monthly payments) goes straight to greedy SHAREHOLDERS, the fat-cat EXECS, the INFLATED PRICES for med-products, and the INFLATED PRICES for all med-services?" How affordable is a "service or product" which tags-on huge profit-margins - FIRST! The "Affordable Health Care Act" is NOT the problem. Greedy, for-profit healthcare companies (including all pharma companies) are at the root of the upwards-spiraling costs! We need a national, not-for-profit healthcare system! Everything at cost! Costs would remain competitive (and monitored). There would be no shareholders, no fat-cat execs, no pharma rip-offs! Let us work towards having a system inside of which - health and care - are the sole rulers by which success is measured, not MONEY (profits)! How much HEALTH, and how much CARE will there be - when, it is in the vested, "best-interests" of the for-profit provider company - to keep people, SICK - and (not) CARE ?!?! If we can keep America's MILITARY strong, why can't we keep the People healthy (and fed)? Are we no longer. "For the People, by the People"? We are not! And therein lies the rub... take the MONEY out of POLITICS!

Health + Care!

When ill-health or failing health is transformed into a profitable opportunity (i.e. a self-vested interest, "for" the "health-care" provider): we can be certain that they will "provide" sore little prevention, few cures, non-"health" and even less - "care".

[ I favor a NATIONAL HEALTH CARE system modeled after the network that has been implemented in Switzerland (not the abberations being tossed about by US party politics). Moreover, I oppose ALL "for profit" healthcare businesses (yes, all of them). ] Pls post your thoughts in "Comments". Click-on "Like" if you agree that present Amercan Healthcare strategies, are ALL on the WRONG track!

Both at the SAME time?

Be profoundly thoughtful, be also kind - for, one who VALUES nothing and no one, cannot be BOTH nor EITHER - at the same time.
Me Thinks

Take care of you...

None will improve your lot - if you yourself, do not...

A good way to begin 2011 ?

Kick the DRAMA out!

In life, there comes a time, when a person must walk away from all the drama ...and the people who create it. Unfortunately, too often - the people who don't treat you right, are the ones who need you all the more - but many don't realize that fact; others won't ever admit to it. It's likely that those "who need you", are also the ones who will never "get it"... They will continue down the same path, needing each next "give-take victim" all the more (doing damage to that person all the while and all along the way). Is your own well being, life, and self worth worth the sacrifice? Bets are "on", that that the answer is, "no!" So, the point I wish to make is this: some people, for whatever reason: cannot be helped, comforted, or fixed.

Circumvent the whole issue. Don't go there - easier said than done, since men by nature, tend to be "fixers". However, whether that be by nature, due to nurture, foolishness, self loathing, or from within a victim mentality - some people who "need", are simply not able to adequately receive the help they are given. In that case, the "helper" has no choice but to move on - as that other person is a lost cause - and the damage to self (to the helper) will likely circumvent any and all help given.

Kapish? Surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad people. Focus on the good people. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. I shall continue to love mine (those who treat me right)! And I am going to give everyone else the boot...

The following people are "getting the boot" (written in invisible ink - not to protect the guilty, but to protect myself from the DRAMA that would ensue):
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
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Think about it... 

Who would you add to your own "list of the lost"?

The US-of-A ... I, E, and G...

Ah yes, the US-of-A ...the "Love it or Leave-It" country that can "afford" a MILITARY machine that is LARGER (in budget) than the top 43 "other" richest nations on Earth. We have no qualms about burning-up young lives (and loves) to "protect" our failing oil-based economy - as we toss naïve kids into war-zones (that we created). Unprepared and ignorant, they are mowed-down and returned cerimoniously to the... "Go ARMY", "America's NAVY", "My son is a MARINE" households, for a prompt burial.  (Wives and Mothers get to keep the flag for comfort,  or display. "Semper Fi" in a graveyard, is "forever" indeed!)

We Americans are (almost as blindly) pushing ourselves down the slippery-slopes of an enduring economic oblivion. We're the US-of-I too!  We're a US of, "I don't care" - because our Great Society has a pronounced "me first" orientation. Through all of that, we've stupidly underwritten a "healthcare" system that is (also) ..."all about greed", but not about "Health", and certainly (not about) "Care". To be cared for (genuinely), one must count-on good luck or rely on family, friends, or neighbors...

Yes, We-the-People can "afford" a planetary killing-machine (under the guises of "peace-keeping").  Tell me, how does one "keep" PEACE by "making" WAR? We have the most effective and brutal means to KILL other human-beings ever invented, and yet... We also think of ourselves as Religious, Political, and "Right" - while too many are "right-eous" about both.

How WRONG we are as a people! Is it any wonder that the fundamentalists of other ideologies, political regimes, and religions - want us (the entire "US"), dead?

Meanwhile we "care" for our down-trodden by allowing our legal-social-fiscal-financial system to TAKE everything a person has worked-for - often, simply because they've had the misfortune of falling-ill, or lost a bill-paying job (when some greedy employer "went bust"). Thereafter the credit system "treats" those individuals like losers - the guilty second-rate citizens - that they are not! How many jobs will their be for returning (unemployed) G.I.'s?

We aren't solely the US-of-A, we're also the US-of-E (of Entertainment) - even the ad-media-tized "News" is presented so as to, "make US think about something else" (as we entertain ourselves via mindless TV-programming - while munching butter-soaked microwave-popcorn). We are being trained to avoid doing something worthwhile to help and protect our fellow-man.  Munch. Watch.  Sit.  Don't worry, be happy?  (And was your TV "Made in the USA"?)

We endure a 24 X 7 onslaught of advertising: designed to prompt the sales (and purchases of) tons of "Made in China; Taiwan; Japan; Singapore; Maylasia; Philipinnes; Indonesia " schtuff... which most of us do not need (as MC / VISA / DISCOVER / AMEX lovingly oblige while rubbing their hands-together wryly).

No, the US-of-A is moreover, the US-of-G.  An (us) US, of Greed.

So, don't fall ill. Don't lose your job!  Else, Greed awaits ...you, your freedom, and your free will!

Me Thinks

No more questions...

People are living smaller - everywhere. The economy is bleak and it is going to deteriorate. As an optimist, I do not announce such things as idle talk. Still, I am present and a participant - grateful for the joys of life, big and small. The future is definitely going to be a challenging time.  Meanwhile, albiet that (in general) people do not choose whom they love, they may love whom they choose - and there are many ways to do that. How may I help (love) you? 

No more questions (for today)...

Thinkology of LOVE, the inevitable...

Some authors would have you believe that a good romance is the equal of a marriage of the heart and mind... (AKA "chemistry")?

A "thinkologist" however is busy at rehash, preoccupied by a "theory of everything" (on one's mind and sometimes, below one's belt).

For those of us, for whom, "thinking" is both an inevitability and a part of the daily diet... 

Picture this:

If you toss two really bright people into one room (a male, a female), and then leave them there long enough... The fundamentals of today's theory are: that they WILL mate, fall in love, and that a romance will ensue!  Alas, I've spent time in one or two rooms decorated to those precise "House Beautiful" norms. Somehow, the physical coitus never seemed to supplant or offset the, "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) component of the intellectual copula that was ALWAYS well underway, and first. Does such a "union" make thinkers into part-time lovers, or part-time lovers into thinkers? 

When romance reunites people who have been "thus" united, then separated, and then re-united (after a certain time), is their reunion (also), once too often?

I always try to engage my readers with a tone of sarcasm (nobody ever really believes everything I say anyway)...  Am I wrong (rhetorical)?  ;-)

This sort of amusement invites everyone to laugh at the many easy foibles of our lives and our living.  A "thinkologist" makes observations about the most rigorous, purely formulaic alternatives - as well as the unpredictable nature of LOVE.  The objective being ...to make whatever one thinks about LOVE (thereby), a joy to read (and to experience)? 

Romance is a love story told in such a way, that it appeals to men (stiffened) and it appeals to women (swollen). Love's most primitive allures engage both the naive and the jaded - from Algebraic Number Theorists, to Professional Violinists - and (likewise) all those manic enough to harbor phobias towards either endeavor.  Patience comes to the penitent...

If I'm not being funny or clever here (nor original, in a way that pulls, you the reader, "in"), then blame me - for I am the only farcical, hugely entertaining, and equally as modest author of this strangest of stories.

LOVE is a Greek Classic (and oft-times, as lyrical): "boy meets goddess"; "girl meets a god"; "boy or girl loses the other god". Along the way, the two engage in playful eros romps that out-perform the soggiest TV-soap (and) every made-for-Broadway satirical play, ever written.  Pass the hankies, to wipe my wetted eyes... 

Each of those compositions become somewhat more accursed (as entertainment) than the other (...akin to a trash-talk, romance-novel - composed for, and targeting lonely, generally rather unattractive women whom men date once, at best).  In general, men aren't into romance (no, not even the unattractive guys). 

So, as YOU read this, weep with me...

As YOU become an active THINKOLOGIST yourself...

Soon enough, there will be thunderbolts raining down from your own Mount Olympus, as the gods drink themselves into a carefree stupor on cheap sex ...and cheaper wine.

Align yourself to "thinkology".

Save CIVILIZATION as we never knew it! Lock yourself up in an empty room with someone who thinks the way you do. Do it today!  It's the cerebral version of, "getting laid".

There is a spiritual teacher who states, that "if you fight against reality, you suffer". The object is to "come into acceptance".  Small words, big concept.

Difficult at times,
Me Thinks.

P.S. My next entry will be about "missed opportunities" in life...

Don't be where you're not!

Welcome, but not wanted.
Here, a Good person is both.
I won't be where I'm not.

Who loves you dearly?

With respect to "betrayals of trust"...

Something I've learned through my many hard knocks (when dealing with the people I have loved, or love):

Trust is rather misunderstood, Me Thinks. We like to believe that we can "trust" others. But trust doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't also human; nor that they don't have their own ongoing "issues" - sometimes they do "things", and they do hurt us.

Trust instead, needs to be focused on ourselves - so that we may trust (remain assured) that we can always be resilient - whenever others reveal their humanity in unexpected (perhaps unwelcome, and sometimes hurtful) ways...

Look in the mirror, my friend - that is where TRUST is the most deserved.

People will always do and say whatever they will.

Isn't life just full of surprises?
(Thoughts shared by cousin, Annie!)

Healthcare for Everyone (equal risk = equal cost)

No self-focused entity should (ever again) be allowed to "wish away" this GREAT EMERGENCY!

Not by pretending that it does not exist, nor by placing profits over an equal shot at wellness - for every man, woman, and child.

Everyone (also) needs to take care of themselves by living and eating healthy.

Me Thinks

Living ONE HUNDRED years...

Today, mother began her 100th year of life (her 99th birthday), thus 99 years of living are behind her...

So, what are the odds of living to 100?

Mankind has come a long way. In the recent past, the odds of becoming a centenarian were about 1-in-20 million, but today those odds can be as great as: 1-in-50. A world fact: in developed countries - girls, who were the first born, to caucasian mothers, aged to 25 years (or younger) are the most likely to live to 100...

Here's an approximate summary of the progression of global (historical) Average Life Expectancy:

Stone Age = 20 years
Bronze Age = 18
Early Rome = 28
Medieval Times = 33
End of 19th Century = 37
Early 20th Century = 50
1940's = 65
Present (circa 2009) = 77-81 years.

Quite naturally, the major factor in determining life expectancy is always, Genetics.

But other factors well within a person's control will also have an influence. It has a lot to do with Common Sense and the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle - by keeping fit; good diet; conscientious hygiene; the preservation of balanced mental health; and stress management. It's a complex matrix and difficult to quantify just how much each of those play a part. What is certain, is that substance abuse shortens one's life dramatically (smoking, for example has a very significant negative impact because of the inreased risk of both heart failure and cancer).

A truism?

By the time an individual arrives at 90, he or she has gotten past a lot of the things that have already killed most of their contemporaries. It's an irony, but those statistics may become rather irrelevant in the next 20-30 years - as medical technologies advance (including genetic engineering, stem-cell therapy, bionics, nanotechnology, and rejuvenation therapy). Indeed, the human lifespan could be pushed out to 150, 200, 300 or more years (assuming you can afford the price tag).

I for one, would love to live to 100!

What an achievement to have lived for an entire century! And to have witnessed so many varied world events, and seen so many innovations come to be, or pass into obsolesence.

Yes, I would love to live to 100 (provided that I don't become a burden for my loved ones), and provided that I still have "all my marbles". I think that living to 100 would be marvellous!

By the way, my (Me Thinks) calculated life expectancy is 98!

Mother has always said, "I shall grow old, gracefully." To that, I would add, "A great life is not to be counted as the number of years we survive, rather - it's all about HOW we live them." I cannot recall ever seeing her angry, nor hearing her pronounce a foul word, or saying anything unpleasant about another person... She knows inner calm. She is also the most "other-centered" and genuinely "giving" and loving person I've even known.

May EVERYONE "love to 100" and live to set an example for others ...as my mother has done for almost a CENTURY.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

P.S. Our "record holder", was one of mother's STREMMEL relatives - a gal who lived to the ripe old age of, 105. Another, reached 103. Two of her sisters made it to 94 and 92. Mom was her mother's 5th-born child - when Mary was 37.

H-u-m-i-l-i-t-y

Humility makes one great, and honorable twice (it directs our best thoughts to favor others, in lieu of one's self).

Getting NOTHING, for something...

Ah yes, the United States of America. For the People, by the People? Country First? Good luck. Let FREEDOM ring, but Me Thinks that the time has come, to RENAME this ailing land.

Something along the lines of:

The US of E. - "The United States of Entertainment" (Vive Blueray!)
The US of G. - "The United States of Greed" (Not God?)
The US of O. - "The United States of Obama" (Wannabe god.)

That's right, E+G+O - "The U.S. of Ego" ...that of Corporate "Healthcare" America!

What with all the 'tweet' about Healthcare, seems that everyone has forgotten that those businesses are all about making MONEY (aka, "profits"). Logically, are those "operations" [pun] about "PREVENTIVE" medicine, or about "CURATIVE" medicine"? Seems to me, that having lots of unhealthy (sick) "customers" would be one heck of a lot more PROFITABLE (more so, than helping folks to "prevent" themselves from becoming ill). Or (perish the thought), by having "customers" who succeed at living within "wellness", by maintaining and enjoying, consistent Good Health!

Our grandparents had no bona fide Healthcare companies to "care" for them. (Obviously, one doesn't "miss" what one never knew.) Grandma and Grandpa had no "concerned" money makers to "share" their paycheck (during those days gone by)... You'd think that our ancestors (recent past, to ancient past) were always sickly (dropping like flies). Goodness sakes! Call a Law firm. You (might) have Mesothelioma! (Get some money for nothing, and your kicks for free?)

Geeze, "Living" itself must have been HELL for Grandma 'N Grandpa (unhealthy all the time)?

Nah. Bullscheist! Pure propoganda! Corporate America (The U.S. of Ego) has CREATED that perception of need (while the balance of Corporate America supplied "healthy" JUNK-FOOD to get the "sick people" ball, rolling). Just, drop-by for FAST-FOOD, anywhere. Then, "Ask your doctor" (for a pill to cure whatever ails you)! We've been brainwashed onto mindless pathways that lead towards POOR HEALTH. We wanted it. We suckered for it. We pay for it.

Now we're REALLY going to pay...

Hell no! I would prefer my own (independent) private Physician, one who still does housecalls (and who knows me by name). Someone who KNOWS my medical history and gives a damn.

But no, THAT would be COMMON SENSE. Alas, things are getting crazier and less sensible (less sensitive) by the day.

What is the PRICETAG on life (to remain alive)?
What is the PRICETAG on the quality (of that life)?
What is the PRICETAG of curative (vs. preventive)?

Consider this: The United States spends US$ 7,290 on health care per person, per year - while the average spent by the 30 most developed countries is US$ 2,960. It is unacceptable that we have so much more of our money tied up in health care, yet we are not delivering demonstrably better health care than many of these countries. Studies show that the U.S. ranks below average on major health indicators, including infant mortality and life expectancy, when compared with the rest of the world. We currently rank 44th in infant mortality and 30th in life expectancy, with the average American living to 78 years of age. By comparison, Japan spends $2,550 on health care per person each year - just over a third of what the U.S. spends - and boasts a life expectancy of 83 years.

Sarcasm: how in the world did our ancestors "get by" without ANY of the "Ask your Doctor" medications - before BIG pharma companies (for PROFIT), and BIG healthcare (for PROFIT) came along? The whole SCAM of health and medicine in America (The US of Ego) is a sham (there shall be no "premature exhaltation" coming [pun] from this horny old man). What does "USFDA" stand for (really)... ? Is it similar to, "FUBAR"?

For-profit healthcare will NEVER place WELLNESS or WELL-BEING of a patient first.

The current delivery system has built-in incentives to create and maintain a General Public in a POOR state of health - not prevention, not cures! Such organizations should be rewarded (paid), and allowed to innovate (profit) - but ONLY when a patient is "cured" (or kept healthy). Why should any organization be "rewarded" for failure?

Or am I crazy?

The "politics" of Healthcare, has everything to do with the "money-making" motives of Healthcare". Let's make sure that the ONLY priority is "health success". Let us ensure that profitability is NEVER allowed to be the engine that empowers a Health (Wellness) system.

As a footnote, one cannot set goals that aren't attainable. As they say in French, "La Fontaine ne peut grimper qu'à l'hauteur de sa source." (A fountain cannot surge higher than its spring.) If a Government-run Healthcare plan is to be based upon corporate profits (without the guarantees of sustainability, motivated by health-success - by placing the personal HEALTH of every INDIVIDUAL first), I'll be the first to say, "Lick my buttons!" and "Kiss my axe!"

You know, this whole process resembles a bankruptcy - that of a "Psychic-Readings" studio. Whenever one of those fails, shouldn't the resident "prognosticator" have been able to predict their own collapse, so as to have prevented the event?

Such rationale doesn't exactly instill confidence, does it?

Working hard at play? Playing hard at work?

A child's "play", is their "work". The trick in life - is to become an adult for whom, one's work IS play!

Me Thinks

Never give up, Never give up, Never give up!

Happy Father's Day!
To all the Dads
(And other unsung heros AKA, meritorious Step-Dads)...

See [link]:
Every Day is Father's Day

WI State Governor underwrites "Me Thinks", thinking.
See [links]:

2009 Wisconsin State Fatherhood Week

Official Gubernatorial Proclamation

From the White House, about Responsible Parenthood...
See [link]:

On the 100th anniversary of Father's Day.

Every day is Father's Day - yes, it takes a MAN to be a Dad!

The genetics of death: H1N1

The W.H.O. (World Health Organization) escalated the ongoing pandemic to a LEVEL 5 alert status, just yesterday (in an attempt at containment).

"Influenza A virus subtype H1N1", also known as "A(H1N1)", or simply "H1N1" - is a subtype of influenza virus A, and the most common cause of influenza in humans.

Discussion: In each time and each place, mankind has always sought to avoid disease. Historically, we've tried to limit the diffusion of diseases.

Surely, I am not alone to have taken notice of the fact that ALL of the deaths attributed to H1N1 (to date) have occurred in persons of Hispano American origin.

Let us also take note of the ethnological fact, that a very large percentage of the human populations alive today (from the Hispano American region)... is genetically speaking, descended from the aboriginal peoples who lived in isolation (from the balance of planetary populations) for at least 12,000 years, and possibly longer...

Genetic studies conducted by the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY have produced "genographic" mappings which describe the genetic-geographic origins of the peoples of the world (based upon DNA samples obtained from humans, all over the planet). Their statistical results connect (and disconnect) the "families" of the Planet, and span a sea of time...

It is clear, that all of Mankind has ties to the most ancient of the "Out of Africa" genealogies. Since anthropological times, the descendants of those "men" have bound all humans alive today to a common ancestry. But that same expanse of time served to produce the divergences of race, and the geographic isolation of entire populations. Both have fostered the evolution of immunities (and vulnerability) to specific types of disease.

Could it not be, that the H1N1 victims (Mexican descendants of ancient American peoples), have an inherent genetic predisposition (vulnerability) that other genetic groups may not share (carry)?

Are the "purest" aboriginal, Hispano Americans alive today, not part of a remnant population - the result of the varied geographic isolations of time? And does not such an inheritance, make them who they are today (from an immunology perspective)? And perhaps, particularly vulnerable?

Time will tell, and history is a wondrous teacher.

As the first Europeans arrived in meso-America (during the XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII centuries), they also introduced an entire array of communicable diseases. Some of those ailments ultimately ravaged the indigenous aboriginal populations. Indeed, entire cultures were virtually obliterated.

Is it not true that disease became the most efficacious "Conquistador"?

The practices that were used to avoid disease (those 500 years ago), were derived from observation. And the only control measures were to stand clear from the contagious places, and to isolate sick persons (by means of the simplest of quarantines). There was merely implied epidemiologic surveillance.

The supply of safe drinking water, sewage disposal, and sanitary control of food were not habitual practices, as they are today. Food residuals - waste collection were not opportune. Those were the practices of ignorance. They favored the existence and proliferation of many parallel vectors that serviced to spread the tides of disease (including insect-borne ailments and through various animals).

Domestic waste did not simply disappear in a timely fashion. Society allowed an accumulation of excreta and waste near to dwellings. In some places, there were measures related to water supply, excreta disposal, handling of dead bodies, and environmental sanitation - but there was no knowledge of the risks, as we know them today.

It was believed that (through) ceremonials, sacrifice, processions, and prayers to various gods - prevalent diseases could be avoided.

It is certainly true that hygiene (or lack of same) is still a contributor to endemic illness across the Hispano American region, but that the larger more logical vulnerability may simply be tied to the acquired genetics - that is to say, the mere genealogical make-up of the victims. Logically, all descended from native peoples who were present 500 years ago (and perhaps as much as 20,000 years ago).

A genetic predisposition (vulnerability) to specific, albeit evolving flu strains, may well explain why the deaths are occurring inside of selected populations, but not in others...

Me Thinks