Dear friends,

If you have been watching the recent Frontline program, then you recognize that we cannot count on our bought-and-paid-for federal government to do anything substantial about climate change. But this is not the end of the world. We can do it ourselves! We don’t need them. It's simple if everyone would do as Jill and I have done, our planet would already be out of the red and headed into the green. And it isn’t like most of us couldn’t afford it. And in the long run, it turns out to be a good investment.

In 2012, we bought a Nissan Leaf. People would stop me in parking lots to ask how I liked it. In 2015, we purchased a Toyota plug-in hybrid. In 2019 we installed 16 solar panels at a net cost of $8000. In 2020, we bought a tankless water heater when our original 40-gallon gas one died. Now, today, my SolarEdge app tells me that we have prevented 57,501 pounds of CO2 from being spewed into our atmosphere from our coal-fired, now gas-fired WPS plant. Another metric says we have had the same CO2 saving as would have been saved by planting 434 trees. I love that!

So now we drive our cars on sunlight and wait a few seconds for hot water with a minimum of natural gas use, but we are still heating the house with natural gas, so we still have more work to do. Over this next year, we will purchase an electric water heater and set the temperature on that a little bit higher than the temperature on the tankless water heater, so the tankless will only come on when there's extra heavy use of hot water, which may be never. Still, I'm not going to throw the tankless water heater away. We are also looking into replacing our inefficient air-conditioner with an electric heat pump to both cool and heat our 1900 sq ft ranch. We'll keep the gas furnace as a backup but only use it in emergencies when the temps drop so low that the heat pump can find no heat to extract. Under this scenario, our gas water heater and gas furnace should last forever, given how seldom they would be used.

So OK, I'm getting close to the bottom line. I have to remind myself sometimes that these solar panels are not only paying for themselves, they're also paying for the gas that I'm not using in our cars, and soon will be paying for the natural gas that I'm not operating in the water heater and furnace. Win, win, win. So here are some rough estimates of how much the solar panels have saved us. I believe Green Bay customers pay $0.09 per kWh for electricity. That’s cheap! Less than a dime for a thousand watts (volts X amps) for an hour! Using that value, I calculate that we have saved $2812 in direct savings for electricity for these past 4.25 years. But that's only the immediate savings in electricity costs; our panels often generate more electricity than needed. When we generate more than we use in a given month, WPS pays us back $012 per kilowatt-hour. I remember estimating our fuel usage based on MasterCard records before we put the solar panels in that we spent a dollar a day on gas. So we have two cars that's $0.50/car per day. So wait, we have also saved about $1580 on gas since we installed the solar panels, and that is based on gas prices that were much lower in 2011 than they are now.

So when you think about it, we are saving money, and we are saving the planet at the same time! And almost everybody I know can afford to do what we're doing. So, let's face it, our government is never going to do it for us. We have to do it for ourselves and our children and our children’s children's children. And, we can do this. And right now, there are so many cool electric cars and plugin hybrids out there that I'm kind of jealous that our vehicles are still in such good shape it is nowhere near time to replace them. I mean, both the all-electric car, which is now a 2015 Nissan Leaf, and the 2015 Prius are going on 7 years old, but they are almost like new. Because the electric motor not only propels the car when it is in EV mode, it also works along with the little gas motor once the EV battery is exhausted. This cuts way down on wear and tear on the gas motor. And, because the electric motor turns into a generator when the car is coasting, or you hit the brakes, there are tremendous savings on the brake linings. The only maintenance we have had to do on the Prius is annual tire rotations and oil changes. Yes, I use Mobil-1 oil and change it only once a year. Why? Because the gas engine runs a lot less often per mile traveled, and it gets help even when it is running. I might switch to a change every 6 months this year as the engine is well past middle age. Now, the Leaf is a totally different story. The electric motor has only one moving part! It never needs motor oil. The only “maintenance” I do with the Leaf is an annual systems check for $80 and a tire rotation for maybe $32. And the Leaf’s brakes get used only during panic stops and/or the last 30 feet or so of a normal stop. Savings upon savings upon savings! And now that the demand for electrics and hybrids is up, I can sell or trade in our cars for more than half what I paid for them seven years ago. And the buyer would still be getting a great deal!

So, after we install the third row on our solar array and put in the heat pump and the electric water heater, we'll be either net-zero or even net-negative for CO2 production. And there is another new technology coming online right now. It is a car charging port that works both ways so that if/when the grid that powers your house goes down, your car’s batteries can provide backup power for the whole house for two days if you are careful. And, if you have a plug-in hybrid, you can power the home for as long as your gas holds out. How is that for a sweet and inexpensive perk? No need to install a special battery in the basement for backup. You already own one.

I have a friend who said he’d get solar, but he was not planning to stay in the house long enough to get the full payback. I just said, “Huh.” I should have said, but you’ll get your payback when you sell the house, and if you leave it to your kids, they’ll get the payback. But even more importantly, we citizens have already spent millions and millions pitching to finance 350.org or other green initiatives. Why not just take the initiative ourselves. Do we love our children that much? Do we love them enough to bite a small financial bullet now to save them from having to face climate chaos? I think we do. It just hasn’t been practical until now. Now is the time. WE CAN DO THIS. WE CAN DO THIS NOW!

Do you remember the early chapters of Tulip that I posted in the fall of 2016?  Well, those posts turned into a book available on Amazon.  However, nobody is buying the book.  Nobody knows about it.  I can't afford to advertise like the big publishing houses advertise, sooooo...

I have decided to publish the book here for free, one chapter at a time.  But, if nobody is reading it, I will stop posting it until I get a request for the next episode.  No request, no next episode.  I hope to upload it all before Christmas, but that will be up to my readers if there are any.

Here's the cover:

So, let's start now.  Does anyone want to see that first chapter?

Killer Traffic Rules

I have to admit, I am trying to change the world here.  To no Avail, yes, but trying still.  Here is a recent letter I sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Granted, they are busy trying to find excuses for all the traffic deaths their stupid rules cause.  Yes, they do have the wonderful generic blame flame, "inattentive driving," but that doesn't really cut it with many who have had severe accidents when they were paying very close attention.  I could go on and on...  But instead, here is the letter...

Oh, and by the way, I NEVER got a reply of any kind from the NHTSA.

- - - - - -

Dear Highway Traffic Safety Administration Representative:

I am a retired behavioral psychologist who spent his career researching and teaching about human learning, performance optimization and signal-guided behavior.  I am writing today as a result of two traffic accidents that I recently witnessed.  I am motivated to write because both of these accidents had elements in common that can be easily addressed by simple changes in signage and or rules of the road.  The common theme of these and many accidents that repeatedly occur in what your agency terms “inattentive driving” situations is conflicts between the signals present in intersections and the drivers’ well established habits.  If we have learned anything in the human performance lab it is that when one uses the same signal to guide different actions, confusion and accidents arise.  When a factory worker sees a flashing yellow light that means “STOP” or “DON’T MOVE!” in one situation or setting, but which means “PROCEED WITH CAUTION” in another, accidents will eventually happen.  It is inevitable that the habit of proceeding with caution will eventually be invoked in the more dangerous setting resulting in equipment damage, injury or death.  This is why we standardize signals of all kinds.

Modern transportation is an industry just like any other heavy industry.  By now you may be wondering which specific signals I am talking about.  It is the standard red stop sign which is currently being used in most states in two completely different situations in which opposite actions are needed.  There is a third setting that is also affected by the rules governing stop-sign intersections that I will also address.  For each of these problems I will suggest simple and inexpensive fixes that will save lives.  Please do not dismiss these suggestions simply because they seem simple or because it is easier to attribute these accidents to “inattentive driving.”  While it is true that we can always blame the driver for every accident, it is also true that the driver works in a designed environment that we can arrange to make accidents less likely.  This is one such case.

The signal/action conflict I want to address first is that which arises in two-way stop intersections as a result of habitual actions that arise in four-way-stop intersections.  Put as simply as possible, in the four-way intersection the driver stops looks and goes.  Often this sequence occurs when oncoming traffic is approaching the intersection from a side street.  The driver stops, looks, sees oncoming traffic, then drives across the intersection feeling safe because he knows that the oncoming driver will stop when he reaches the intersection.  This situation establishes reactions that then arise in two-way stop intersections when a driver stops, sees oncoming traffic, then drives into the intersection.  How many deaths could be averted if we could only prevent these accidents?  The extremely simple solution to this problem is to make the two-way and four-way signs distinctly different.  While a simple color change, say make the four-way yellow and the two-way red which would be appropriate because the standard signals use yellow for caution and red for more extreme danger.  If the signs were different shapes, that would work as well.  There will be a learning curve if this change is implemented, but such learning is generally swift and does not engender the kind of confusion that causes accidents.

A related issue involves the rules governing rights of way in uncontrolled, four-way-stop and “traffic-circle” intersections.  The standard rule that as taught in all driver’s ed classes is that when two cars arrive at an uncontrolled or four-way-stop intersection the driver on the right has the right of way.  The standard rule at the traffic-circle is the opposite, the driver on the left has the right of way.  A great deal of confusion and resulting fender-bender accidents could be avoided if these rules were consistent.  The simplest change would be to give the driver on the left the right of way in all of these situations.  A related pedestrian problem arises in traffic circles when pedestrians try to cross from the drivers’ right side.  Since drivers who are approaching these intersections must look left to determine if they need to stop, pedestrians approaching from the right are in grave danger.  Pedestrian signals in traffic-circle intersections MUST ALWAYS instruct them to cross from the drivers’ left side even if this means they must go the “long way around.”  In other words, the pedestrian must follow the same rule as the driver and circle through the intersection from left to right.

So, in summary, the simple application of one of the best documented and commonly applied signal-control principles, “Do not use the same signal to guide different actions.” can save lives in two-way stop intersections.  And the clarification of and consistent use of right-of-way rules can save pedestrian lives in traffic-circle intersections and fenders in uncontrolled and four-way-stop intersections.  I believe that when these kinks are straightened out we will not only find that lives are saved, but that several sources of traffic congestion and frustration will be relieved as well.

Please reply to this correspondence so that I will know the work I have invested has, at least, received an audience.  If no reply, I will begin forwarding it or something more persuasive to my Senators and Congressmen.  If I get no action there, I will approach my state traffic authority in an attempt to begin implementing these strategies locally.    I believe that once we see how dramatically these simple changes improve safety and traffic flow, they will be broadly adopted.


Sincerely yours,



Raymond Reed Hardy, Ph. D.
Retired Professor of Psychology

Slavery in the 21st Century

Slavery in the 21st Century

I am grateful for my freedom.  As an veteran of the war in Vietnam, I have benefitted from the sacrifices made by me and those made by uncountable men, women and children in recognized and celebrated battles as well as the myriad unrecognized and unsung battles fought by so many courageous Americans in an effort to secure this nation.  I know that I owe gratitude to many, many others in other countries as well, but for the sake of focus, I’ll keep this discussion more local.  So, anyway, even though as a retired man of comfortable means, I am more free than most Americans–free to pursue my interests and passions or to just sit around enjoying the grandchildren and the weather–I am still a slave to the fear of financial and/or medical ruin.  I remain, at least to some extent, a slave in the 21st century.  This is true for the vast majority, if not all of Americans and it is for the rest of the world as well.  Slavery is alive and well in 2016.

Let’s put a stop to it!

Do I really need to recite a million or billion ways in which we are all still slaves?  I mean it is easy to see that, as long as we must work to put food on our tables and a roof over our heads and clothing on our backs and medicine in our cabinets, we are a part of a forced-labor class of people.  But even we retirees are under the gun to “manage” our retirement accounts, pay our co-pays, mind the donut hole and keep an eye on politicians who want to “...take away our Social Security and Medicare benefits.”  And, did I mention, avoid being victimized by scam artists?  If there is anyone out there who honestly feels totally free to do anything they want to do at any and all times, they are rare birds indeed, and probably not fully sane.  Because, to feel that totally free would require a great deal of denial.  Even our wealthiest citizens must remain extremely vigilant lest their wealth be squandered or plundered.

But I don’t intend to depress us all with a full cataloging of all of the ways that we are enslaved.  Consider that to be your homework assignment as you prepare for the next phase of the effort to extricate yourself and the rest of humanity from this era of slavery.  No, what I intend here is just the opposite.  I intend here to underscore the true facts that make it possible, for the first time in history, for us all to become truly and absolutely FREE.

Fact #1

The primary fact that opens the door to our freedom is our population.

“WHAT?”  You say, but as you will see, having the minimum number of people to create a world of sufficient abundance to allow us to have total freedom is a primary pre-condition.

Fact #2

Universal, or near universal individual-to-individual communication.  Again the reader may scoff.  How can this be a pre-requisite for MY freedom?

Fact #3

Universal, or near universal omniscience.  Now, now, calm down.  I’m not talking God-like omniscience.  We don’t need to know EVERYTHING in order to get out from under the yoke of slavery, but we need to achieve a world where secrecy, treachery, dishonesty, and hiding stuff--like money and wrong-doing-- in the shadows, is less and less a possibility.

Fact #4

Universal, or near universal trust.  This is really a psychological skill that can be strengthened with exercise regardless of the individual’s circumstances, but it comes more easily when the Fact #3 condition is met.

Fact #5

Compensated human effort is no longer required.  We can produce everything we need to stay healthy and happy by implementing a communication-facilitated synergy between what is needed and human volunteers coupled with technological assistants.  

Fact #6

We may all need to “work” for a brief period in our young or middle adulthood, at least early in the transition from a slave-based economy to a freedom-based economy.

This entire notion is based on the idea that, in a world where we have technologies to assist us in almost every endeavor, fewer and fewer of us will have to do things that we would not otherwise do in order to create the products we all need like: food, clean water, comfortable housing, medicines, and medical care that includes dental and optical health.  Initially, we will rely on volunteers who will work short-hour weeks based on an altruistic desire to be of service to the community, but soon even that will be unnecessary.  While it will always be possible to do things that serve the community, it will soon not be “necessary.”   In other words, the basic needs of the community will be met by the efforts of technological assistants combined with the work of folks who do the work simply “for the fun of it.”

For example, at first we will need folks to help with farming.  They will work with the machines, or help set up irrigation systems, or even hand-pick fruit and vegetable crops for which robots have not yet been developed.  It will be hard work but, for the most part, done on a short day and a short week.  So, in the beginning, one might work two or three two- to four-hour shifts two or three days each week during the growing season.  Or one might work intermittently as the crops demand.  Flexible scheduling would be a basic feature to allow for maximal freedom.  But, after a time, only those who wish to pick the fruit or set up drip irrigation systems or drive the big combines will be needed.  The message will go out to the nearby community that the berries are ready for picking and people and children will come and pick them.  The message will go out that a driver is needed for the newest mega-hyper-drive pick 20-tons-a-minute, harvester and 20 young men and women will show up for training.  They will compete for the opportunity to drive the machine.

Here is how I believe this transition will happen.

Here in America and the other industrial countries like China, South Korea, India, Australia and the European Union, the need to find a way to provide a living income to working-age citizens will become critical before 2020.  We in America are fortunate in that the political, economic and social mechanisms for addressing that need are already in place.  I am referring to our universal income and medical care programs; Social Security and Medicare.  Given that these systems are already up and running the political actions needed to adapt them for our shrinking work force may be less demanding.  We need only gradually lower the age of eligibility for both programs while at the same time extending free or very inexpensive higher education opportunities with increasing emphasis on  programs that promote personal development as well as appreciation for esthetic endeavors.

Only time will tell how these transitions will happen in other parts of the world economy, but it seems certain that once one country begins the phase- out of slave labor, the rest will follow.  As this process progresses, it seems likely that the need for an economic points system like money will fall away.  With the advent of a universal basic income, truly universal affordable housing, food, clothing and medical care it will not be long before folks recognize that the income part is an unneeded and unwelcome holdover from our primitive slavery-based economic systems.  When all we need is available in abundance, when no one need fear going hungry or being without a place to live or needed dental or medical care, who will want to hoard wealth?

The only question is, will all of this take place under Hillary Clinton’s first term, or will it require a second term?

The author of this article is Raymond Reed Hardy, Ph.D.,  a retired Professor of psychology and a lifetime member of The Mankind Project (www.mkp.org) who volunteers at UWGB’s Mauthe Ecumenical Center for Social Justice.

panaceas

Pet Peeves!

"Peeves" isn't really the right word for what I have in mind, but there is no better one. I mean, sure, I could say "My interesting issues," or "Things that I think are important," or "My ideas," but those seem so, so, blah. So, what are these mental pressure points? What are these things I have pushing at my psyche like apple peal stuck between my teeth? Well, here they are in a nutshell!

1) Someone needs to start an InterNet Nano Bank that automatically keeps track of NanoBuck debits and payments that are based on the hits our Internet sites attract and the hits that our usage generates on other people's sites. They get some nanobucks from our account when we use their information, I get some nanobucks from them when they use my sites. A nanobuck is 1 millionth of a dollar, or 1/10,000th of a cent. This may seem small, but when one generates millions of hits a day, they start to add up. This would put all of us bloggers and many other web activists on the payrole instantaneously!

2) Ok, next on the list is IQ Phobia! How did we ever get the idea that knowing our IQ would be a bad thing? What if someone told you that knowing your shoe size would be a bad thing? Would you buy that? They might say, "Knowing your size would prevent you from trying on all those smaller or larger shoes!" or, "Knowing your shoe size would prevent you from growing bigger feet!" Hogwash! Knowing your shoe size makes it possible to find the right fit without a lot of wasted anxt trying on every shoe in the store. Well, the same is true for IQ. People who have a high one will never be really happy in a job that doesn't let them use it. People who have a low one will never be happy in a job that requires them to have a higher IQ than they have!

Here is the bottom line. People have to get over their belief that IQ is any more important than our height, weight, complexion, hair color, age, etc. There is nothing wrong with telling a ten- year-old he is too young to drink. By the same token there is nothing wrong with that ten-year- old knowing that he is ten! Know thyself...isn't that good advice. You can take a quickie IQ test online, or just look at your school records to find out yours. Believe me, doing so can do no harm and may just help you understand yourself and your situation better.

Ok, all that said, I know I have a high IQ. Well, not that high... I mean, I'm like 2 in 100 high. That's not like Einstein who was 1 in a million high. No, my IQ is just high enough for me to feel like I really can understand most things I put my mind to, but not so high that I want to make a living out of being like totally smart! But, IQ isn't everything. There are a lot of different dimensions of mental life that contribute to our "practical intelligence." One of these is what the IQ researchers call "ideational fluency." It is the ability to think outside the box.

A good example of this would be the people who realized early on when credit-card companies were giving frequent-flyer miles when the customer "bought" traveler's checks that they could get "free" airline tickets. Here is how it worked... Traveler's checks are like cash almost. So, these people, put $20,000 in traveler's checks on their credit card, deposited the $20,000 in their checking account and used it to pay off the credit card bill before the end of the month in order to avoid paying interest, and viola! they got a completely FREE domestic air ticket! These unscrupulous people saw a huge outside-of-the-box opportunity and many of them took advantage of it, until the credit-card companies got wise to them... So, a lot of times people with a modest IQ and a low ethical IQ can be very high on ideational fluency and do very, very well in problem-solving or creativity positions.

But, the fact that we do not yet have a standardized way to measure and report our Ideational Fluency Quotient (IFQ), does not for a minute excuse us from the need to know ourselves as well as we can. We should all know our IQs! Just my opinion...

3) Since the third time is the charm, I think I'd better cut straight to the real bottom line panacea...Zen. Yes! If you haven't read my Zen books, then you don't know that, with all of the deep and sophisticated wisdom I have gathered throughout my relatively long life, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone in the world to do is daily Zen meditation which is called zazen. The reason I think zazen is THE PANACEA for the planet is that it is! So, don't ask why I think it is, just accept my judgment for once. There is no way that anyone could explain what Zen is or why daily zazen practice might resolve our personal and cultural ills, so forget that. All you need to know is that zazen meditation is a very natural and very powerful way to address our mental malaise. It is totally without any doctrine or any belief system to impose on the student. The only thing we can possibly acquire via such a practice is a deeper understanding of ourselves. With that deeper self understanding we can then begin to understand our loved ones and our not-to-loved-ones better. We can find better ways to be in the world. Being, is the art that zazen strengthens in us. Just being who we really are. If you think that being who you really are would be a bad thing, then you need to WAKE UP!

So, start a zazen practice NOW!

I'll explain how to do it in my next post just in case you haven't read ANY of my books!




....to be continued...