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This quotation is very important to me:

"It has been said, "Time heals all wounds." I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

--Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

*Biosphere*

One can't but conclude we live in an incredibly wasteful and inefficient world. Here are a few signs:

1. Nowhere do you see collectors for methane gas over dung and waste piles. What a no-brainer that is. Massive amounts of methane dissipate into the cosmos every single day. We seem to believe that if third-world people want to stoop to that level (methane collectors are very common in the third world; that's the only way some folks can get electricity), we can only pity them. The truth is we are _all_ duty bound to harness every ounce of energy we can. Methane can be used to generate electricity, for motive power, for use in anular pistons powering solar-concentrator arrays, etc. We wouldn't be totally dependent on foreign oil, we'd cut way down on greenhouse-gas emissions, and the world would be one step closer to efficiency _if we only push for collectors over dung and waste piles_. It's so obvious we must do this now, it's painful to watch the world continue on its wasteful path.

2. Another way we can generate unlimited amounts of electricity is by tying storm-drain systems to micro-hydro generators deep within the earth. Tall buildings could all be energy independent in fact; it's simply a matter of realizing the potential energy available to us with so much water high up in a given building. Either way, _not_ using all electricity available to us is a cataclysmic waste. When they look back on this age, all they'll see is waste. Tall buildings and massive micro-hydro projects _in cities_ must become part of the solution to our growing energy woes.

3. While photovoltaic panels can't be the long-term answer (they're much to inefficient; some say they can never generate more electricity than it took to make them in the first place), so much solar energy hits the earth daily it would be a huge waste _not_ to make use of it. There's no saying they won't invent whole new kinds of solar panels; thermo-photovoltaic panels strike me as a good bet, as they generate electricity two ways: from the sun's rays _and_ from heat striking the panels. To the best of my knowledge, they are no worse than regular PV panels in terms of efficiency. Needless to say, if we choose to ignore the many ways we can improve the efficiency of our lives, future generations will have every right to vilify us.

*Adam's-Index*

Number one thing about the way we live that will appear heinous to future generations: people still use incandescent light bulbs, which burn at least five times less efficiently than Compact Fluorescents. CFL bulbs also last decades; I have CFL bulbs which have been burning in the same sockets for more than eight years.

Number two thing: waste piles with no methane collectors.

Number three: the amount of paper we go through. It's not plastic filling up landfills; plastic, all of it, barely registers a few percent of landfill makeup; paper on the other hand makes up more than 75%. Paper _does not biodegrade_ in a landfill unless the landfill has been specifically retrofit to accommodate such biodegradation.

Number four: the amount of electricity we could have generated without burning a drop of fossil fuel (in the end, fossil fuels have so many other many other better uses and the fact we once _burned them_ will one day be seen as catastrophic).

Number five: the amount we disregarded them at every turn.

Number one Chinese snack: noodles (noodles in China have a much older history than in Italy; I think it was Alexander the Great who brought noodles west).

Number two: deep-fried corn on the cob.

Number three: turnip cakes (a specialty of dim-sim places).

Number four: stewed chicken feet (ditto).

Number five: real seitan as they've made for millennia.

*China*

Here are a few treats for me during my time in the Republic of China:

1. Surprisingly, breakfast is the most common meal to be eaten out in China, eaten almost exclusively by men. I must say, those breakfasts are stupendous, and this propensity is common on both sides of the Straight of Taiwan. One is treated to warm soy milk, warm peanut soup, buns with fried eggs in the middle, etc. Any self-respecting man eats out for breakfast. It's sort of an unwritten rule that men are not around the house in the morning. My take was always that, given a little time, the women turn back into something resembling the woman a given man married.

2. In Taiwan, they think of themselves as kings, having lived through hell and high water to hang onto their lives. Every fancy meal, a diner has in front of him or her: juice, hard liquor, wine, iced coffee, tea, etc., and this is not to mention the unlimited supply of delectable food on offer. They survived famine and worse and they'll be damned if they don't eat well now.

3. People often forget this salient fact: as far as I know there are more vegetarians in China than any other country in the world. Moreover, since they don't have a habit of eating dairy, all those people are vegans. We tend to think veganism is a new-age American phenomenon. They've been perfecting great vegan food in China for 5000 years--and, oh my, have they perfected it. Best vegan food, hands down, is found in China. Doesn't this say a lot about the general health of people on a vegan diet?

4. One of the strangest phenomena in Taiwan is this: because Taiwan is very hot, they like to eat plates of shaved ice, to which red beans and corn syrup have been added.

5. Three items which I found to be delicious in Taiwan were: 1) deep-fried corn on the cob (the outside is a little crunchy and the inside sweet and juicy), 2) one woman I knew at a noodle stand used to make me lamb fried noodles (not on the menu), and 3) fresh snails with basil (for some reason, this dish tended only to be available at road-side carnivals).

*Quotations*

It has been said, "Time heals all wounds." I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.

--Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Time and opportunity are in no man's sleeve.

--German proverb

Time fleeth away without delay.

--Dutch proverb

Time is an inaudible file.

--Italian proverb

Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names.

--Japanese proverb

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

--Carl Sandburg

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

--Johann von Schiller

Now is the only time there is. Make your now wow, your minutes miracles, and your days pay. Your life will have been magnificently lived and invested, and when you die you will have made a difference.

--Mark Victor Hansen

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

--Einstein

True friends leave footprints in your heart.

--Eleanor Roosevelt

Peace love and ATOM jazz