D. Gardner

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-disney-duke-solar-20160412-story.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/wind-and-solar-are-crushing-fossil-fuels

http://evobsession.com/use-your-electric-car-to-power-your-home-with-honda-power-exporter/

http://longtailpipe.com/ebooks/green-transportation-guide-buying-owning-charging-plug-in-vehicles-of-all-kinds/gasoline-electricity-and-the-energy-to-move-transportation-systems/the-coal-powered-ev-myth-electricity-is-only-as-clean-as-the-method-to-generate-it/

http://www.autotrader.com/car-news/nissan-shows-another-use-for-the-electric-car-emergency-power-170267

Let’s look at how ridiculous testing is now in schools.   When in the world, is someone going to be set on an island, cut off from the internet, and asked to do anything by themselves that is worthwhile.  Anyone who gets a job is going to be required to work with other people to get a job done.  Testing expects a person to be set on an island and perform without any outside help.

In school we, the  students, are getting punished for doing what we are going to be trained and expected to do after we finish school.

It similar with athletes we put a huge emphasis on being the best, we want to watch perfect people do perfect things above what in most cases is impossible for the regular human.  No one is perfect and so the athletes turn to substances to make them better than human because being human is not good enough.

The other thing is we put so much emphasis on winning.  When winning is not where all the enjoyment is.  Watching and participating is where the joy comes from.   Many American’s complain about how there is little or no score in soccer.  We could get players up in front of the goal and have them kit balls into the net and the score could be in the hundreds.  But the real enjoyment in watching and participating is the struggle not the outcome.

Because winning is where everything is measured, people try to pay to change the outcome because they are too lazy and stupid to enjoy the struggle.

Unfortunately, the best cheaters, the ones that don’t get caught, are going to be the winners.

Those that struggle, and sometimes even enjoy the struggle, are the ones that are going to be mocked for being losers.

As long as the systems and motivations are set up poorly there will always be cheating.  Which will result in punishments by those that wished they could have been better cheaters.

My advice is to look at what is considered cheating and there is where the system needs to be changed.

I just discovered that the complete discography for Led Zeppelin is on Rhapsody, and probably on the other streaming services.   I have never been a huge Zeppelin fan, but as I listened to the music nostalgic emotions flowed into my heart.  I was surprised how many of the songs I recognized.  There is something about their music that makes me see bell-bottom pants, the feel of a polyester shirt against my skin and somewhere in the distance I can see a muscle car cruising the highway.   I don’t think anything can bring back the 70’s quite like a little Zeppelin.  Rock on!

Late last month I was given the opportunity to be an adjunct professor at Salt Lake Community College.  I looked up the definition of Adjunct once before; it means unnecessary.  I like being the unnecessary professor.  I’ve been an adjunct once before at Dixie State University.  I taught digital art classes there.  I taught classes on how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.  I enjoyed teaching.   I like the tools they give professors to teach college.  Both Dixie and SLCC use the Canvas LMS(

I’ve been an adjunct once before at Dixie State University.  I taught digital art classes there.  I taught classes on how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.  I enjoyed teaching.   I like the tools they give professors to teach college.  Both Dixie and SLCC use the Canvas LMS(

I’ve been an adjunct once before at Dixie State University.  I taught digital art classes there.  I taught classes on how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.  I enjoyed teaching.   I really like the tools they give professors to teach college.  Both Dixie and SLCC use the Canvas LMS(learning Management system).  All of the assignments are in Canvas and that is where the students turn in their work. The students don’t have to turn in any paper.

The class I am teaching now is Foundations for Business – The class objective is to teach the students Critical Thinking.  The way critical thinking is defined, in the text I am using, is the ability to detect error.  Or in other words, The process of finding the truth.   The readings for the class include writings from Adam Smith, Henry David Through, Karl Marx, Carnegie, Moi, Ghandi, and others.  All of the readings so far, we’ve only studied, three try to through religion under the bus for getting in the way of progress.   What is good about critical thinking is that it suggests that everything be questioned, using scientific methods, to prove the truth.

One of the paradoxes of the religious right in this country is this, Christian religions teach us that greed is bad, where on the other hand greed is the fuel of capitalism.  I know greed is supposed to be controlled, though shalt not covet.   However, capitalism seems to condone wanting more than you have and only real growth is going to come for trying to get more than you need.   One of the reasons the founding fathers wanted a separation of church and state is to keep traditional  religious views of wealth, the accumulation of wealth and property ownership out of the government.  Adam Smith argues that Christianity was the really reason for the fall of Rome because Christianity taught that the accumulation of wealth was evil and that stopped the government from encouraging people to be greedy.

I am sure I will have more to write about this later.   . . . to be continued