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You prepare the soil, pick the right spot, then plant the Chinese Bamboo Tree. You water it and wait. But you wait an entire year and nothing appears. No bud, no twig, nothing. So you keep watering and protecting the area and taking care of the future plant, and you wait some more. You wait another year and nothing still happens. Okay, you are a persistent person not prone to giving up, so you keep on watering. You water, check the soil, start talking to the ground, maybe even click your heels in some kind of growing dance you read about in the National Geographic. Another year passes and still no sign of growth.

It has been three years. Should you give up? Someone told you that it might take a while to really see the fruits of your efforts, so you keep on keeping on. More water, more talk, more dancing. The neighbors are wondering. And another year passes. No tree.

You now make a decision. If there is no tree on this date one year from now you will stop watering. Period. So you begin year number five with the same passion as day number one. You water, you wait. You keep watering and keep waiting. You water some more and then, could it be? Is it really? Yep, there it is, something sticking out of the dirt. You come back the next day and WOW it has really grown! In fact you come back each day for about six weeks and finally the Chinese Bamboo tree stops growing—but it is over 80 feet tall! Yes, 80 feet in six weeks! Well, not really. It is 80 feet in five years.  For those five years the chinese bamboo was developing a root structure capable of supporting an 80/90 foot plant and securing it's foundation. 

The point is simple. If you had given up for even the shortest period of time, there would be no tree. It took almost impossible persistence. The Chinese Bamboo tree is there for one reason and one reason only—because you never gave up on it.

It took us six thousand years to decide to plant this seed.. Here we are, 36 AC growing something unique, something organic. This isn't some cross pollinated hybrid like mormonism. I think it's doing good for what it is, but every plant has to either adapt or die in it's surrounding... and apparently we are going up against a religious version of the Evergreen... and just like thse wonderful christmas trees we all remember, evergreen trees make the soil around it acidic so it is the only one that can survive in that environment and it doesn't have to compete for competition.


Exerp: "But watch out where you plant it, evergreen trees will kill any non-evergreen tree close to it by making the soil acidic and much more suitable for the type of evergreen tree that you plant."

Source: http://www.evergreen-tree.info/typesof.php


Note: cucumbers love acidic soil and lime will sweeten it

Natures Eternal Religion: Page 42
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Throughout this book I am going to use the non-scientific term, the "White Race" and for good reasons. I am well aware of the fact that various anthropologists have divided, sub-divided, classified and reclassified the White Race into many branches, and sub-branches. I am well aware of some arbitrary major sub-divisions as Aryan or Nordic, Mediterranean and Alpine. These are then reclassified into a multitude of further branches and mixtures.

Purposely I am avoiding this whole hassle like the plague. To here argue anthropological divisions and sub-divisions is to fall into a vicious Jewish trap. To even use the word Nordic or Aryan in this book is highly divisive. This book was not designed to start the White people arguing among themselves but to unite the whole White Race in the battle against the Jews in particular, and all the colored races in general.

Therefore, the term, White Race, is broad enough to encompass all good members of our race without nit-picking as to which branches are best, or who belongs where. I am well aware that the White Race has some mongrelized fringes. It has many mixtures in its own inner groups, such as Nordic mixed with Alpine, Alpine with Mediterranean, etc. However, it serves no purpose whatsoever to differentiate and create caste systems within the White Race itself. On the contrary, it would be highly destructive and divisive.
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Ok.. it makes scense to mebut is it destructive to define a cut off point?  I know, I know, I know. When you see a nig, you just know it's a nig, if you see a chink you know it's a chink (I have been fooled before by a mixed chink with sunglasses before though.), I've seen latino's with white skin and blue eyes and jet black hair.

Below is a skin tone chart I found..  My vote is that "Milk, Vanilla, Latte, and Ginger" wooks aww white to me. The rest are just talking trees.

Source:  http://cats.about.com/cs/spayneuter/a/sterilizationdr.htm
Related: http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9802/23/cats.birth.control/index.html


I know there is a wild cat problem in AU but there are wild cats in my area too that need this stuff.  It's tough to catch them too so I totally agree with the solution that's a food additive so I could just put it in a dish outside and let the animals come to it. I don't want rabies or anything, ya know?

Exerp: " Dr. Stephen Boyle, developed a genetically engineered bacterium (Salmonella), which when fed to female cats, would prevent eggs from fertilization.... "

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Cat overpopulation is arguably one of the largest global problems facing animal advocates, as the figures increase annually. In 1996, Sarah Hartwell of the Feline Advisory Bureau wrote :

"Britain has an estimated 7 million pet cats and 1 million ferals. By comparison, the United States has approximately 60 million pet cats and 60 million ferals. Feral populations are swollen by breeding and the dumping of unwanted pets; 5 million cats and dogs are 'dumped' annually according to the US Department of Agriculture while American surveys suggest that between 36% and 60% of unneutered pet cats go feral within 3 years."
Alley Cat Allies estimates the current U.S. figure to be between 60 million and 100 million ferals, but the United States is not alone - Australia and Singapore also struggle with problems related to feral cats.

Traditional "solutions" in some areas have been trapping and destroying ferals, or even shooting them, which is currently still being practiced in Australia. The U.S. is not immune to this practice, either. Federal employees are still available to assist local agencies, by shooting "problem" feral cats. A previous article detailed one incidence of this "solution" in a city near my own hometown when Federal Wildlife Damage Control officers were hired to shoot feral cats in a park.

TNR is a Better Solution For several years, an increasing number of animal advocates are utilizing Trap - Neuter - Release programs for management of feral cat colonies. The reasoning behind TNR as opposed to trapping/destroying is that when feral cats are trapped and destroyed, new cats simply move into the colonies, whereas, and established colony of neutered cats will defend their territory from outsiders. The figures show clearly that TNR is working, as indicated by this page from a previous article.

Animal advocates breathlessly await the announcement of a new sterilization drug, which could be administered by injection, pill, or even as a food additive. The latter, depending on cost, would be a boon to managers of feral cat colonies who struggle daily to trap wily ferals. Many feral colony managers include vaccinations in their trips to the vet, but spay/neuter procedures are the "biggie," cost-wise, besides requiring invasive surgery in a controlled environment. Sterilization drugs are being developed on several frontiers:

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine Project
In 1998, student Michelle Meister-Weisbarth, in conjunction with Dr. Stephen Boyle, developed a genetically engineered bacterium (Salmonella), which when fed to female cats, would prevent eggs from fertilization.
"Meister-Weisbarth then introduced a gene encoding a protein derived from the zona pellucida surrounding the vertebrate egg into the salmonella. The bacterial vaccine is capable of inducing the production of antibodies which recognize the zona pellucida and block the ability of a sperm to fertilize the egg."
CNN Article Current plans involve testing by scattering of the vaccine-laced food pellets in areas populated by feral cat colonies. Of major importance will be the study of what effect, if any, the medication will have on the psychology of the colonies. Meister-Weisbarth says it may be two to five years before the drug will be available for public use, as the FDA will want proof there is no negative impact on the environment.

Injectable Vaccine from University of Georgia Vet
Dr. Richard Fayrer-Hosken, a veterinarian at the University of Georgia, has developed a drug, based on similar research, which is injectable. Fayrer-Hosken wants to test it on at least a thousand dogs before seeking approval from the FDA.

SpayVac - University of Florida
The Winn Feline Foundation has given a $14,484 award to a team at the University of Florida for research in the "Nonsurgical alternative to altering feral cats: 'EVALUATION OF SPAYVAC(tm) FOR STERILIZING DOMESTIC CATS (FELIS CATUS).'" SpayVac has already been proven to reduce fertility in Barbery sheep, rabbits, and several seals species, and the U. of Florida team hopes to prove its effectiveness in sterilizing feral cats.

RU-486 as a Cat Sterilization Agent?
Mibolerone, a close chemical relative of Mifepristone (an ingredient in RU-486), which is an androgen steroid which blocks the production of progesterone, which is needed to sustain pregnancy. For various political reasons, mibolerone has not been available for public use, and in its present form is not cost-effective for sterilization in a larger context. In fact, in 1985, after the FDA banned the importation of RU-486 into the U.S., the Carnation company quietly discontinued its previously announced plans to market a birth control dog food, tentively called "Extra Care."

However, it is thought that in the present climate, if mibolerone could be manufactured in sufficient quantity, with appropriate formulations, it might again present a viable alternative to surgical spaying.

None of these immunocontraceptive vaccines are expected to be a substitute for surgical spaying of owned female cats. Why? Because they do not stop ovulation, nor the attendant frustrated behavior of female cats in heat. Furthermore, surgical spaying helps prevents ovarian cancer and mammary tumors.
Barring an unexpected announcement, it seems apparent that it will be at least another couple of years before any of these "contraceptive" drugs will be available While we wait impatiently for these drugs to reach the hands of those who need them another three to five million kittens will be born. At least, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Selling sterilisation to addicts
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3189763.stm

Comment:

Might not be bad if they had some sperm already donated or if they already had kids. Obvious to say though I'm rather against this concept. I'm hoping the whites in this statistic are rather old and don't need their little warriors anymore.


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By Clare Murphy
BBC News Online 


To its critics, Project Prevention or Crack - an American organisation which pays drug addicts and alcoholics to be sterilised - is a terrifying throwback to the neutering of "defectives" during the 20th Century.
But the woman who runs this not-for-profit programme believes she is offering a service to everyone: the drug addict, the taxpayer, the child who has not yet been born, and if she has her way - will never be born.

  The project targets poor women - and you tell me what sort of choice it is when it's made by someone living in poverty and desperate for money

Wyndi Anderson
NAPW 
As the programme - which offers both sterilisation and long term birth control - reaches its fifth anniversary, Barbara Harris also believes she has cause to celebrate.

Some 1,050 addicts have taken up the offer as part of her programme over the past five years.

It may not seem a considerable number, but, Ms Harris stresses, the number of clients has more than doubled over the past 12 months compared with the year before.

"Basically, despite the initial controversy over the programme, people are starting to accept that it's a good idea. Probation officers, social workers and those who work on drug treatment programmes are increasingly referring their clients to us," she says.

Increasing presence

There is no way of independently verifying the figures given by Project Prevention, nor will the group divulge the names of institutes whose counsellors allegedly refer their clients to the programme - arguing that those people could fall foul of the authorities if their identities were revealed.


Volunteers are asked to distribute flyers in their areas
Some prisons - such as the Bernalillo County Detention Center in Albuquerque - have apparently allowed the group to host information sessions for their female inmates, but have stressed that this is not tantamount to a referral.

But what is undisputed is that the programme has expanded significantly over the past five years - growing from a small establishment in California to a nationwide programme with a presence in most major cities.

As it has expanded, the tone of the group has also shifted. Ms Harris, who was quoted in one of her first interviews as saying "We don't allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally having litters of children," has since toned down her language.

Her project was initially referred to simply as Crack (Children Requiring A Caring Community). Now it frequently uses the warmer term Project Prevention.

But the essence of her project remains the same. It offers drug addicts and alcoholics a sum of $200 for opting for a long-term form of birth control, such as sterilisation or a contraceptive implant.

Those interested are asked to submit documents proving that they have been arrested on narcotic offences, or provide a doctor's letter as evidence that they use drugs.

After she or he has been accepted on the programme, fresh documents are then required to show that the procedure has indeed taken place. The money is then despatched.

"Our principal aim is to stop children winding up in foster care or with long-term health problems, whose care puts an enormous burden on the taxpayer," says Ms Harris.

"If they spend the $200 on drugs, they spend it on drugs. It's none of our business what they do with the money we give them."

Historical analogies

Organisations like the National Advocates for Pregnant Women do not deny that there can be problems with children born of addicted parents but stress that many drug addicts become loving mothers and that their children in many cases do not suffer life-long health problems.

Project Prevention's statistics
1050 paid clients
1026 women
24 men
516 Caucasian
351 African-American
105 Hispanic
78 other ethnicity 
The programme diverts efforts away from helping addicts to become clean, they argue.

"Barbara Harris couldn't care less about the addicts themselves and what might be best for them. And while it may be dressed up in the language of choice, for them to argue that these people come to them entirely of their own free will is totally disingenuous," says Wyndi Anderson, co-ordinator for NAPW.

"The project targets poor women - and you tell me what sort of choice it is when its made by someone living in poverty and desperate for money. The whole project is eugenist, it recalls what went on in the 1930s in America, or even in Nazi Germany."

Laws authorising coerced sterilisations were passed in more than half of US states in the 1930s after lobbying from the American eugenics movement, which sought to further the existence of what it deemed to be the "genetically superior" and prevent reproduction among those it saw as inferior: "the licentious" and "the indolent".

America's legislation served as a model for the Nazis' programme of eugenics, which led to the extermination of Jews and the murder of many gypsies, the mentally ill, and homosexuals.

Ms Harris rejects any comparison.

"It's just nonsense. Nobody is forcing these people to do anything - it's their own decision. What infuriates me is that if my critics don't think these people are capable of making their mind up on an issue like this, why on earth do they think they are capable of bringing up a child?"

Time and reason

Ms Harris also has some influential, and wealthy, people on her side.

Dr Laura Schlessinger, one of the nation's most popular radio talk-show hosts, has made hefty donations and has frequently plugged the project.

Richard Scaife, heir to the Mellon fortune in Pittsburgh, is also reported to have donated, along with Jim Woodhill, a right-wing venture capitalist from Texas.

African-American writers favourable to the programme have also helped to rebuff criticism that the programme targets black people.

Despite these luminaries, the group continues to attract negative coverage in the media and it raises hackles whenever it opens a new branch.

And while it is acknowledged that the group is making progress, the treatment of 1,050 drug addicts in five years remains a relatively inconsiderable number.

This, however, appears to provide little solace to the critics.

"It doesn't seem a lot, but the fact is that the group hasn't disappeared or faded away, and people are now starting to get used to it," says Ms Anderson of NAPW.

"As the saying goes: Time makes more converts than reason."

Comment: Knowledge is power, information is knowledge waiting to be learned.

This article talks about the aging baby boomers who pushed the growth of info. tech. and the problem we will face replacing them.

I thought it important to point out because, as we know, the white race is shrinking and that 99% of the time we are the one's progressing tech. I hope this information falls into the right people's lap because while some are out there doing jobs like running convenience stores or fast food places there is a higher calling. Creativity and organization are our genius and technology is the expression of that genius that can make the world a better place for our children.

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Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/01/18/228985/the-race-to-replace-its-baby-boomer-generation.htm

Author: Cath Jennings Posted: 12:00 18 Jan 2008 At first glance, it's hard to see why the retirement of New Jersey teacher Kathleen Casey-Kirschling last October should be of interest to the IT profession, or even why such a seemingly innocuous event should have made both national and international news.

But Kathleen was born just past midnight on January 1 1946, and is widely regarded as the first of the US's post-war baby boomer generation. For the US government, the most pressing concern is how it can support the 80 million individuals due to follow Kathy into retirement and claiming social security benefits in the coming years.

For business, the challenge is different, but just as profound. As experienced staff and management start to leave the workforce, a skills crisis looks set to ensue, exaccerbated by falling birth rates. And nowhere is this likely to be felt as strongly as in the IT industry. The largest number of baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, so the first impact will be felt over the next few years, becoming much more severe over the next five to ten.

ADVERTISEMENTTom Kucharvy, a senior vice-president at Ovum, explains: "The first big change will be a shortage of senior IT people. But another big problem is the dramatic decline in Generation Y adults [born between 1981 and 1995] who are moving into IT."

According to a recent survey for cwjobs.co.uk by Salary Services, this scenario is already being reflected in wage hikes for junior staff as the number of permanent IT jobs advertised grows and the number of suitable candidates dwindles.

And the situation is set to worsen, in part because the high-tech sector is no longer considered as lucrative and rewarding as it once was, and therefore fewer students are opting for IT-based degrees.

"These days there just aren't as many high-tech companies to act as employers and a lot of influences were shaped during the dot.com bust. Job security isn't what it used to be and more and more entry-level jobs are going offshore, so IT isn't seen as such an attractive proposition anymore," Kucharvy explains.

Senior personnel

But as the availability of senior personnel begins to wane as well, major change will become inevitable. Brinley Platts, executive chairman of the CIOdevelopment.com consultancy, clarifies the dynamics. "The majority of CIOs in the FTSE 100 will retire over the next five or six years as they're well-paid and are approaching their 50s. So right across the senior echelons, we're going to lose a lot of skills. But they're not going to be easy to replace and those coming through now will have a lot more choice, because experienced, high-calibre people are going to be more scarce."

This move from a buyers' to a sellers' market will have several repercussions. The first is that retirees are likely to find themselves being offered interesting incentives to stay on longer - on a part-time or more flexible basis.

Another is that the role of executive advisor will become more mainstream than is currently the case. So IT directors that have chosen to retire will be given the opportunity to come back as consultants operating under one-to-two-year contracts in order to mentor less experienced colleagues or undertake specific activities such as business transformation, perhaps in industries that they have not worked in previously.

A third implication is that IT directors are going to have to undertake succession planning more carefully than ever before, meaning that they will need to be much more proactive in identifying the next generation of IT management from both within the company and outside in order to bring them on. But because of the demographic decline of the traditional recruitment pool - white, middle-class, and male - it also means that they will be forced to expand their profile of suitable candidates.

"In the future, we might face a world that is very short in all kinds of resources and that will promote breakthroughs. Lip service tends to be paid to women and ethnic minorities now, but the CIO profile is going to have to broaden out. It's a fact of life," says Platts.

Even though IT is currently considered "a very hostile" work environment by many women, making it more female-friendly is going to become particularly important, according to Diane Morello, a vice-president and Gartner fellow.

Lack of experience

Yet another repercussion of the lack of experienced and available senior IT management, however, will be a growth in non-technical executives with knowledge of multiple disciplines being brought in to head up the technology function.

This will not only necessitate more organisations putting effective training programmes in place to develop and mentor people from different parts of the business in this role - and likewise those moving into more junior IT positions - but it will also lead to a progressive blurring between the two areas.

Marc Dowd, principal of the CIO Group at Forrester Research, takes this logic a step further, however. He indicates that there is already a shift towards replacing chief information officers with chief operating officers and he believes that the trend will only continue.

"CIOs will either become much more business-focused and almost interchangeable with the COO role if they have enough business acumen, or they'll be replaced by a COO with some understanding of technology," he says.

But having some understanding of technology is and will remain crucial, warns Graham Quint, IT manager at Tewkesbury Borough Council. "There has to be some understanding of the implications of introducing this or that technology into the business. IT experts are there to ensure that people don't walk down a technology cul-de-sac or open up a can of worms. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and that's not going to change," he says.

Nonetheless, the entry of more non-technical staff into the IT sector will inevitably be forced by two key factors - demographics and the progressive requirement that IT moves closer to the business. This means that IT heads, whether they have a technology background or not, will increasingly need to have both a deep comprehension of business requirements and be able to come up with innovative technical solutions to business problems.

Lateral thinking

The latter proposition, however, implies being able to think laterally. "A lot of it is just about re-purposing someone else's ideas from other environments and applying them to your own," says Dowd. "So we'll see the creation of more innovation teams that look at technology in the widest sense to see how it can be used in the business to help move it forward."

Quint likewise agrees that delivering pertinent services will become more about strategy and ideas and less about the technology per se. "It's like buying a car. They all get you from A to B in some way, but a farmer wouldn't buy a hatchback as it wouldn't meet his particular requirements - he'd buy a 4x4 instead. So really it's about being clear what you want to achieve and delivering it in the most effective way, while also managing the risk," he says.

As a result, he believes that not only will IT take on an increasingly strategic role, but it will also become more and more embedded in the business so that "you're working not just at the technical level, but more and more at the information management level". To do this, however, will require a major rethink of how the IT function is structured and organised.

A key challenge here, however, is that such a shift may have to take place against the backdrop of a growing split between front office and back office IT, with the latter will be progressively outsourced.

Kucharvy explains: "There'll be a need for an IT function for a long time, but I think IT teams will increasingly be moved into business units. The head of IT will have dotted line responsibility for them, but they'll report directly into line of business executives to ensure that front-end systems really address business needs."

Standards-based technology

The two areas will be connected using standards-based technology such as web services, he believes, but the fall in available numbers of IT personnel will mean that it becomes increasingly difficult to justify and afford large in-house teams to manage back-end infrastructure.

This accelerated adoption of outsourcing models will, however, both help enterprises to cope with the onshore staffing shortfall and to revamp their legacy systems, which will become simply too expensive to maintain and support into the long-term - particularly as baby boomers with Cobol and other mainframe expertise start leaving the workforce too.

"I don't think organisations will have any alternative. They'll have to go through modernisation programmes and migrate to things like SOA architectures, standardised software and programming models and automated hands-off policy-based management tools. For many outsourcers, this is their focus and they have a lot more skills in doing it than existing IT organisations, although there are exceptions," says Kucharvy.

But this situation will also see vendors start to embed existing deep technological knowledge into their products in order to simplify them and make them easier to use. This, in turn, will lower requirements for staff to have that deep technical knowledge themselves, but will instead push them into more business-facing roles such as business analysis.

"Career prospects for techies with poor communications skills won't be that great in the future. CIOs going into the baby boom retirement era will have to look carefully at people coming through the ranks to evaluate their social skills as they're going to become increasingly important. And if staff don't have them, it'll have to be a case of helping them on their way," Dowd says.

But the same theory also applies to IT directors. As they progressively become relationship managers rather than technical experts or even vendor and service provider contract managers, the need for softer relationship-building and influencing skills will come to the fore.

"Even only 10 or 15 years ago, we had technology barons running IT departments and while the current generation has moved on from there, the next generation will first and foremost be business technologists and analysts with a lot of soft skills. They may love technology, but they won't waste time doing IT. Instead, they'll focus on how they can use it to support business processes," concludes Platts.