Marijuana is created from the dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa.
Marijuana is the most common illegal drug used in the United States. Approximately 100 million Americans have tried marijuana at least once, and more than 25 million have smoked it in the last year.
According to one national survey on drug use, each day approximately 6,000 Americans try marijuana for the first time.
Worldwide, it is estimated that about 162 million adults use marijuana at least once per year, and 22.5 million use the drug daily.
After alcohol, marijuana is the most popular drug worldwide
After alcohol, marijuana is the most popular recreational or mood-altering drug used worldwide.g
Just under 40% of high school students in the U.S. report using marijuana at least once in their life, and 20% report using it regularly.
According to one report, it would take 800 joints to kill a person—but the cause of death would be carbon monoxide poisoning.
There are over 200 slang terms for marijuana in the popular vernacular. Some of the more common nicknames include pot, grass, weed, hash, and ganja.b
The international and scientific name for marijuana is cannabis. However, the substance is most commonly called marijuana within the United States.b
The name marijuana comes from a Mexican slang term for cannabis and is believed to have derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the names Mary and Jane. (The two names were also common Mexican military slang for a prostitute or brothel.) Marijuana came into popularity as a name for cannabis in the U.S. during the late 1800s.b
The cannabis plant can grow in nearly any environment and averages one to two inches of growth per day and up to 18 feet total in ideal conditions.a
The primary active ingredient in marijuana is THC (delta 9 tetrhydrocannabinol). It is this chemical that produces marijuana’s mind-altering effects.a
The psychoactive side effects of THC in small doses include loss of inhibition, elation, and a
distorted sense of time. The drug can also cause increased visual sensitivity and heightened imagination.
Depending upon the weather conditions, soil type, and time of harvest for a cannabis plant, as well as the specific mixture of dried leaves and flowers in the marijuana product, a sample of marijuana can contain anywhere from 3% to 20% THC.b
Cannabis seeds were used as a food source in China as early as 6000 B.C.a
Marijuana was first used as a medicinal drug in 2737 B.C. by Chinese emperor Shen Nung
The first recorded use of marijuana as a medicinal drug occurred in 2737 B.C. by Chinese emperor Shen Nung. The emperor documented the drug’s effectiveness in treating the pains of rheumatism and gout.
The first law in the American colonies regarding marijuana was a 1619 law that actually required farmers to grow the hemp plant. Once harvested, hemp was useful for clothing, sails, and rope.b
During the temperance movement of the 1890s, marijuana was commonly recommended as a substitute for alcohol. The reason for this was that use of marijuana did not lead to domestic violence while alcohol abuse did.
Marijuana was first severely restricted as a recreational and medicinal drug in the U.S. by the
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. The law did not prohibit marijuana use but imposed such a heavy tax that legal sale and use became nearly impossible.b
In October of 1937, Samuel Caldwell was the first U.S. citizen arrested under the Marihuana Tax Act for selling marijuana without paying the newly mandated tax. He was fined $1,000 and sentenced to four years of hard labor in Leavenworth.
Prior to its ban, hemp was a staple cash crop of the family farm in early America. The first two drafts of the United States Declaration of Independence were written on paper made from hemp.e
The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 made it illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate marijuana in the United States. The law classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no acceptable medical use.
Marijuana production and trafficking make up the world’s largest drug market and the substance can be grown in almost every country. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) has data on 172 countries and territories known to grow marijuana.
Paraguay is believed to be the world’s largest producer of marijuana.According to the UNODC, there are several countries worldwide where greater than 8% of the population are said to use marijuana. Among those countries are the United States, Canada, England, Spain, France, South Africa, and New Zealand.
In 2007, nearly 900,000 arrests for marijuana violations were made in the United States. Approximately 90% of offenders charged with marijuana-related crimes were arrested for possession only.
Marijuana was easily obtained at the local grocery store or pharmacy until the early 1940s
From 1850 to 1942, marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia as a useful medicine for nausea, rheumatism, and labor pains and was easily obtained at the local general store or pharmacy.
Current supporters of medical marijuana believe the drug has significant medical value for patients who suffer from AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and chronic pain. Several studies have been published to support and document this belief.
In 2003, Canada became the first country in the world to offer medical marijuana to pain-suffering patients.
In 1996, California became the first U.S. state to legally allow medical marijuana for patients with a valid doctor’s recommendation.
While marijuana is still a controlled substance under federal law, 13 U.S. states currently have compassionate use laws in place, which allow for regulated medical marijuana use: AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MI, MT, NV, NM, OR, RI, VT, and WA. An additional 17 states and the District of Columbia have legislated to recognize the value of medical marijuana but do not protect users from federal prosecution.c
-- Posted February 27, 2009. Updated March 2, 2010.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Is The War On Terror A Hoax?
Paul Craig Roberts
Prison Planet.com
Friday, September 30, 2011
In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” Washington’s attacks on the countries constitute naked aggression and impact primarily civilian populations and infrastructure and, thereby, constitute war crimes under law. Nazis were executed precisely for what Washington is doing today.
Moreover the wars and military attacks have cost American taxpayers in out-of-pocket and already-incurred future costs at least $4,000 billion dollars–one third of the accumulated public debt–resulting in a US deficit crisis that threatens the social safety net, the value of the US dollar and its reserve currency role, while enriching beyond all previous history the military/security complex and its apologists.
Perhaps the highest cost of Washington’s “war on terror” has been paid by the US Constitution and civil liberties. Any US citizen that Washington accuses is deprived of all legal and constitutional rights. The Bush-Cheney-Obama regimes have overturned humanity’s greatest achievement–the accountability of government to law.
If we look around for the terror that the police state and a decade of war has allegedly protected us from, the terror is hard to find. Except for 9/11 itself, assuming we accept the government’s improbable conspiracy theory explanation, there have been no terror attacks on the US. Indeed, as RT pointed out on August 23, 2011, an investigative program at the University of California discovered that the domestic “terror plots” hyped in the media were plotted by FBI agents. http://rt.com/usa/news/fbi-terror-report-plot-365-899/
FBI undercover agents now number 15,000, ten times their number during the protests against the Vietnam war when protesters were suspected of communist sympathies. As there apparently are no real terror plots for this huge workforce to uncover, the FBI justifies its budget, terror alerts, and invasive searches of American citizens by thinking up “terror plots” and finding some deranged individuals to ensnare. For example, the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York city subway plot, the plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago were all FBI brainchilds organized and managed by FBI agents.
RT reports that only three plots might have been independent of the FBI, but as none of the three worked they obviously were not the work of such a professional terror organization as Al Qaeda is purported to be. The Times Square car bomb didn’t blow up, and apparently could not have.
The latest FBI sting ensnared a Boston man, Rezwan Ferdaus, who is accused of planning to attack the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes packed with C-4 explosives. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz assured Americans that they were never in danger, because the FBI’s undercover agents were in control of the plot. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-09-28/DC-terrorist-plot-drone/50593792/1
Ferdaus’ FBI-organized plot to blow up the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes has produced charges that he provided “material support to a terrorist organization” and plotted to destroy federal buildings–the most serious charge which carries 20 imprisoned years for each targeted building.
What is the terrorist organization that Ferdaus is serving? Surely not al Qaeda, which allegedly outwitted all 16 US intelligence services, all intelligence services of America’s NATO and Israeli allies, NORAD, the National Security Council, Air Traffic Control, Dick Cheney, and US airport security four times in one hour on the same morning. Such a highly capable terror organization would not be involved in such nonsense as a plot to blow up the Pentagon with a model airplane.
As an American who was in public service for a number of years and who has always stood up for the Constitution, a patriot’s duty, I must hope that the question has already popped into readers’ minds why we are expected to believe that a tiny model airplane is capable of blowing up the Pentagon when a 757 airliner loaded with jet fuel was incapable of doing the job, merely making a hole not big enough for an airliner.
When I observe the gullibility of my fellow citizens at the absurd “terror plots” that the US government manufactures, it causes me to realize that fear is the most powerful weapon any government has for advancing an undeclared agenda. If Ferdaus is brought to trial, no doubt a jury will convict him of a plot to blow up the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes. Most likely he will be tortured or coerced into a plea bargain.
Apparently, Americans, or most of them, are so ruled by fear that they suffer no remorse from “their” government’s murder and dislocation of millions of innocent people. In the American mind, one billion “towel-heads” have been reduced to terrorists who deserve to be exterminated. The US is on its way to a holocaust that makes the terrors Jews faced from National Socialism into a mere precursor.
Think about this: Are not you amazed that after a decade (2.5 times the length of WW II) of killing Muslims and destroying families and their prospects in six countries there are no real terrorist events in the US?
Think for a minute how easy terrorism would be in the US if there were any terrorists. Would an Al Qaeda terrorist from the organization that allegedly pulled off 9/11–the most humiliating defeat ever suffered by a Western power, much less “the world’s only superpower”–still in the face of all the screening be trying to hijack an airliner or to blow one up?
Surely not when there are so many totally soft targets. If America were really infected with a “terrorist threat,” a terrorist would merely get in the massive lines awaiting to clear airport “security” and set off his bomb. It would kill far more people than could be achieved by blowing up an airliner, and it would make it completely clear that “airport security” meant no one was safe.
It would be child’s play for terrorists to blow up electric sub-stations as no one is there, nothing but a chain link fence. It would be easy for terrorists to blow up shopping centers. It would be easy for terrorists to dump boxes of roofing nails on congested streets and freeways during rush hours, tying up main transportation arteries for days. Before, dear reader, you accuse me of giving terrorists ideas, do you really think that these ideas would not already have occurred to terrorists capable of pulling off 9/11?
But nothing happens. So the FBI arrests a guy for planning to blow up America with a model airplane. It is really depressing how many Americans will believe this.
Consider also that American neoconservatives, who have orchestrated the “war on terror,” have no protection whatsoever and that the Secret Service protection of Bush and Cheney is minimal. If America really faced a terrorist threat, especially one so professional to have brought off 9/11, every neoconservative along with Bush and Cheney could be assassinated within one hour on one morning or one evening.
The fact that neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, William Kristol, Libby, Addington, et. al., live unprotected and free of fear is proof that America faces no terrorist threat.
Think now about the airliner shoe-bomb plot, the shampoo-bottled water plot, and the underwear-bomb plot. Experts, other than the whores hired by the US government, say that these plots are nonsensical. The “shoe bomb” and “underwear bomb” were colored fireworks powders incapable of blowing up a tin can. The liquid bomb, allegedly mixed up in an airliner toilet room, has been dismissed by experts as fantasy.
What is the purpose of these fake plots? And remember, all reports confirm that the “underwear bomber” was walked onto the airliner by an official, despite the fact that the “underwear bomber” had no passport. No investigation was ever conducted by the FBI, CIA, or anyone into why a passenger without a passport was allowed on an international flight.
The purpose of these make-believe plots is to raise the fear level and to create the opportunity for former Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff to make a fortune selling porno-scanners to the TSA.
The result of these hyped “terrorist plots” is that every American citizen, even those with high government positions and security clearances, cannot board a commercial airline flight without taking off his shoes, his jacket, his belt, submitting to a porno-scanner, or being sexually groped. Nothing could make it plainer that “airport security” cannot tell a Muslim terrorist from a gung-ho American patriot, a US Senator, a US Marine general, or a CIA operative.
If a passenger requires for health or other reasons quantities of liquids and cremes beyond the limits imposed on toothpaste, shampoo, food, or medications, the passenger must obtain prior approval from TSA, which seldom works. One of America’s finest moments is the case, documented on UTube, of a dying woman in a wheelchair, who requires special food, having her food thrown away by the gestapo TSA despite the written approval from the Transportation Safety Administration, her daughter arrested for protesting, and the dying woman in the wheelchair left alone in the airport.
This is Amerika today. These assaults on innocent citizens are justified by the mindless right-wing as “protecting us against terrorism,” a “threat” that all evidence shows is nonexistent.
No American is secure today. I am a former staff associate of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee. I required high security clearances as I had access to information pertaining to all US weapons programs. As chief economist of the House Budget Committee I had information pertaining to the US military and security budgets. As Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, I was provided every morning with the CIA’s briefing of the President as well as with endless security information.
When I left the Treasury, President Reagan appointed me to a super-secret committee to investigate the CIA’s assessment of Soviet capability. Afterwords I was a consult to the Pentagon. I had every kind of security clearance.
Despite my record of highest security clearances and US government confidence in me including confirmation by the US Senate in a presidential appointment, the airline police cannot tell me from a terrorist.
If I were into model airplanes or attending anti-war demonstrations, little doubt I, too, would be arrested.
After my public service in the last quarter of the 20th century, I experienced during the first decade of the 21st century all of America’s achievements, despite their blemishes, being erased. In their place was erected a monstrous desire for hegemony and highly concentrated wealth. Most of my friends and my fellow citizens in general are incapable of recognizing America’s transformation into a warmonger police state that has the worst income distribution of any developed country.
It is extraordinary that so many Americans, citizens of the world’s only superpower, actually believe that they are threatened by Muslim peoples who have no unity, no navy, no air force, no nuclear weapons, no missiles capable of reaching across the oceans.
Indeed, large percentages of these “threat populations,” especially among the young, are enamored of the sexual freedom that exists in America. Even the Iranian dupes of the CIA-orchestrated “Green Revolution” have forgotten Washington’s overthrow of their elected government in the 1950s. Despite America’s decade-long abusive military actions against Muslim peoples, many Muslims still look to America for their salvation.
Their “leaders” are simply bought off with large sums of money.
With the “terrorist threat” and Al Qaeda deflated with President Obama’s alleged assassination of its leader, Osama bin Laden, who was left unprotected and unarmed by his “world-wide terrorist organization,” Washington has come up with a new bogyman–the Haqqanis.
According to John Glaser and anonymous CIA officials, US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen “exaggerated” the case against the Haqqani insurgent group when he claimed, setting up a US invasion of Pakistan, that the Hagganis were an operating arm of the Pakistan government’s secret service, the ISI. Adm. Mullen is now running from his “exaggeration,” an euphemism for a lie. His aid Captain John Kirby said that Mullen’s “accusations were designed to influence the Pakistanis to crack down on the Haqqani Network.” In other words, the Pakistanis should kill more of their own people to save the Americans the trouble.
If you don’t know what the Haqqani Network is, don’t be surprised. You never heard of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11. The US government creates whatever new bogymen and incidents are necessary to further the neoconservative agenda of world hegemony and higher profits for the armaments industry.
For ten years, the “superpower” American population has sat there, being terrified by the government’s lies. While Americans sit in fear of non-existent “terrorists” sucking their thumbs, millions of people in six countries have had their lives destroyed. As far as any evidence exists, the vast majority of Americans are unperturbed by the wanton murder of others in countries that they are incapable of locating on maps.
Truly, Amerika is a light unto the world, an example for all.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.
Prison Planet.com
Friday, September 30, 2011
In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” Washington’s attacks on the countries constitute naked aggression and impact primarily civilian populations and infrastructure and, thereby, constitute war crimes under law. Nazis were executed precisely for what Washington is doing today.
Moreover the wars and military attacks have cost American taxpayers in out-of-pocket and already-incurred future costs at least $4,000 billion dollars–one third of the accumulated public debt–resulting in a US deficit crisis that threatens the social safety net, the value of the US dollar and its reserve currency role, while enriching beyond all previous history the military/security complex and its apologists.
Perhaps the highest cost of Washington’s “war on terror” has been paid by the US Constitution and civil liberties. Any US citizen that Washington accuses is deprived of all legal and constitutional rights. The Bush-Cheney-Obama regimes have overturned humanity’s greatest achievement–the accountability of government to law.
If we look around for the terror that the police state and a decade of war has allegedly protected us from, the terror is hard to find. Except for 9/11 itself, assuming we accept the government’s improbable conspiracy theory explanation, there have been no terror attacks on the US. Indeed, as RT pointed out on August 23, 2011, an investigative program at the University of California discovered that the domestic “terror plots” hyped in the media were plotted by FBI agents. http://rt.com/usa/news/fbi-terror-report-plot-365-899/
FBI undercover agents now number 15,000, ten times their number during the protests against the Vietnam war when protesters were suspected of communist sympathies. As there apparently are no real terror plots for this huge workforce to uncover, the FBI justifies its budget, terror alerts, and invasive searches of American citizens by thinking up “terror plots” and finding some deranged individuals to ensnare. For example, the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York city subway plot, the plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago were all FBI brainchilds organized and managed by FBI agents.
RT reports that only three plots might have been independent of the FBI, but as none of the three worked they obviously were not the work of such a professional terror organization as Al Qaeda is purported to be. The Times Square car bomb didn’t blow up, and apparently could not have.
The latest FBI sting ensnared a Boston man, Rezwan Ferdaus, who is accused of planning to attack the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes packed with C-4 explosives. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz assured Americans that they were never in danger, because the FBI’s undercover agents were in control of the plot. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-09-28/DC-terrorist-plot-drone/50593792/1
Ferdaus’ FBI-organized plot to blow up the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes has produced charges that he provided “material support to a terrorist organization” and plotted to destroy federal buildings–the most serious charge which carries 20 imprisoned years for each targeted building.
What is the terrorist organization that Ferdaus is serving? Surely not al Qaeda, which allegedly outwitted all 16 US intelligence services, all intelligence services of America’s NATO and Israeli allies, NORAD, the National Security Council, Air Traffic Control, Dick Cheney, and US airport security four times in one hour on the same morning. Such a highly capable terror organization would not be involved in such nonsense as a plot to blow up the Pentagon with a model airplane.
As an American who was in public service for a number of years and who has always stood up for the Constitution, a patriot’s duty, I must hope that the question has already popped into readers’ minds why we are expected to believe that a tiny model airplane is capable of blowing up the Pentagon when a 757 airliner loaded with jet fuel was incapable of doing the job, merely making a hole not big enough for an airliner.
When I observe the gullibility of my fellow citizens at the absurd “terror plots” that the US government manufactures, it causes me to realize that fear is the most powerful weapon any government has for advancing an undeclared agenda. If Ferdaus is brought to trial, no doubt a jury will convict him of a plot to blow up the Pentagon and US Capitol with model airplanes. Most likely he will be tortured or coerced into a plea bargain.
Apparently, Americans, or most of them, are so ruled by fear that they suffer no remorse from “their” government’s murder and dislocation of millions of innocent people. In the American mind, one billion “towel-heads” have been reduced to terrorists who deserve to be exterminated. The US is on its way to a holocaust that makes the terrors Jews faced from National Socialism into a mere precursor.
Think about this: Are not you amazed that after a decade (2.5 times the length of WW II) of killing Muslims and destroying families and their prospects in six countries there are no real terrorist events in the US?
Think for a minute how easy terrorism would be in the US if there were any terrorists. Would an Al Qaeda terrorist from the organization that allegedly pulled off 9/11–the most humiliating defeat ever suffered by a Western power, much less “the world’s only superpower”–still in the face of all the screening be trying to hijack an airliner or to blow one up?
Surely not when there are so many totally soft targets. If America were really infected with a “terrorist threat,” a terrorist would merely get in the massive lines awaiting to clear airport “security” and set off his bomb. It would kill far more people than could be achieved by blowing up an airliner, and it would make it completely clear that “airport security” meant no one was safe.
It would be child’s play for terrorists to blow up electric sub-stations as no one is there, nothing but a chain link fence. It would be easy for terrorists to blow up shopping centers. It would be easy for terrorists to dump boxes of roofing nails on congested streets and freeways during rush hours, tying up main transportation arteries for days. Before, dear reader, you accuse me of giving terrorists ideas, do you really think that these ideas would not already have occurred to terrorists capable of pulling off 9/11?
But nothing happens. So the FBI arrests a guy for planning to blow up America with a model airplane. It is really depressing how many Americans will believe this.
Consider also that American neoconservatives, who have orchestrated the “war on terror,” have no protection whatsoever and that the Secret Service protection of Bush and Cheney is minimal. If America really faced a terrorist threat, especially one so professional to have brought off 9/11, every neoconservative along with Bush and Cheney could be assassinated within one hour on one morning or one evening.
The fact that neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, William Kristol, Libby, Addington, et. al., live unprotected and free of fear is proof that America faces no terrorist threat.
Think now about the airliner shoe-bomb plot, the shampoo-bottled water plot, and the underwear-bomb plot. Experts, other than the whores hired by the US government, say that these plots are nonsensical. The “shoe bomb” and “underwear bomb” were colored fireworks powders incapable of blowing up a tin can. The liquid bomb, allegedly mixed up in an airliner toilet room, has been dismissed by experts as fantasy.
What is the purpose of these fake plots? And remember, all reports confirm that the “underwear bomber” was walked onto the airliner by an official, despite the fact that the “underwear bomber” had no passport. No investigation was ever conducted by the FBI, CIA, or anyone into why a passenger without a passport was allowed on an international flight.
The purpose of these make-believe plots is to raise the fear level and to create the opportunity for former Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff to make a fortune selling porno-scanners to the TSA.
The result of these hyped “terrorist plots” is that every American citizen, even those with high government positions and security clearances, cannot board a commercial airline flight without taking off his shoes, his jacket, his belt, submitting to a porno-scanner, or being sexually groped. Nothing could make it plainer that “airport security” cannot tell a Muslim terrorist from a gung-ho American patriot, a US Senator, a US Marine general, or a CIA operative.
If a passenger requires for health or other reasons quantities of liquids and cremes beyond the limits imposed on toothpaste, shampoo, food, or medications, the passenger must obtain prior approval from TSA, which seldom works. One of America’s finest moments is the case, documented on UTube, of a dying woman in a wheelchair, who requires special food, having her food thrown away by the gestapo TSA despite the written approval from the Transportation Safety Administration, her daughter arrested for protesting, and the dying woman in the wheelchair left alone in the airport.
This is Amerika today. These assaults on innocent citizens are justified by the mindless right-wing as “protecting us against terrorism,” a “threat” that all evidence shows is nonexistent.
No American is secure today. I am a former staff associate of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee. I required high security clearances as I had access to information pertaining to all US weapons programs. As chief economist of the House Budget Committee I had information pertaining to the US military and security budgets. As Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, I was provided every morning with the CIA’s briefing of the President as well as with endless security information.
When I left the Treasury, President Reagan appointed me to a super-secret committee to investigate the CIA’s assessment of Soviet capability. Afterwords I was a consult to the Pentagon. I had every kind of security clearance.
Despite my record of highest security clearances and US government confidence in me including confirmation by the US Senate in a presidential appointment, the airline police cannot tell me from a terrorist.
If I were into model airplanes or attending anti-war demonstrations, little doubt I, too, would be arrested.
After my public service in the last quarter of the 20th century, I experienced during the first decade of the 21st century all of America’s achievements, despite their blemishes, being erased. In their place was erected a monstrous desire for hegemony and highly concentrated wealth. Most of my friends and my fellow citizens in general are incapable of recognizing America’s transformation into a warmonger police state that has the worst income distribution of any developed country.
It is extraordinary that so many Americans, citizens of the world’s only superpower, actually believe that they are threatened by Muslim peoples who have no unity, no navy, no air force, no nuclear weapons, no missiles capable of reaching across the oceans.
Indeed, large percentages of these “threat populations,” especially among the young, are enamored of the sexual freedom that exists in America. Even the Iranian dupes of the CIA-orchestrated “Green Revolution” have forgotten Washington’s overthrow of their elected government in the 1950s. Despite America’s decade-long abusive military actions against Muslim peoples, many Muslims still look to America for their salvation.
Their “leaders” are simply bought off with large sums of money.
With the “terrorist threat” and Al Qaeda deflated with President Obama’s alleged assassination of its leader, Osama bin Laden, who was left unprotected and unarmed by his “world-wide terrorist organization,” Washington has come up with a new bogyman–the Haqqanis.
According to John Glaser and anonymous CIA officials, US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen “exaggerated” the case against the Haqqani insurgent group when he claimed, setting up a US invasion of Pakistan, that the Hagganis were an operating arm of the Pakistan government’s secret service, the ISI. Adm. Mullen is now running from his “exaggeration,” an euphemism for a lie. His aid Captain John Kirby said that Mullen’s “accusations were designed to influence the Pakistanis to crack down on the Haqqani Network.” In other words, the Pakistanis should kill more of their own people to save the Americans the trouble.
If you don’t know what the Haqqani Network is, don’t be surprised. You never heard of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11. The US government creates whatever new bogymen and incidents are necessary to further the neoconservative agenda of world hegemony and higher profits for the armaments industry.
For ten years, the “superpower” American population has sat there, being terrified by the government’s lies. While Americans sit in fear of non-existent “terrorists” sucking their thumbs, millions of people in six countries have had their lives destroyed. As far as any evidence exists, the vast majority of Americans are unperturbed by the wanton murder of others in countries that they are incapable of locating on maps.
Truly, Amerika is a light unto the world, an example for all.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.
The war of terror reaches it’s 10th birthday – Has it been worth it?
By Dark Politricks
It’s been 10 years since we went to war in Afghanistan. What has changed?
Are we safer? Nope.
Even though we have supposedly just killed the leader of the enemy organisation we are at war with, Osama Bin Laden and a number of his replacements, we are still faced with daily terrorist threats, colour coded terror levels and suicide bombing attacks all around the world.
Experts reckon that the number of actual al-Qaeda terrorists (the people we actually went to war in the Stan against) number in the dozens. The people we are fighting are mostly Taliban and Pakistani militants that cross the border from their safe havens in North Waziristan to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Therefore the reason we went to war initially doesn’t exist anymore – that is if the real reason was to defeat Al-Qaeda.
The people we are now fighting are people who want us off their land, who are fed up with the corrupt Karzai government that we installed, and are sick of the high civillian casualties which have soared since America started to use inaccurate drones to do much of their killing.
A recent study showed that 92% of Aghans have never even heard of 9/11 or the World Trade Center.
It also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to “destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan.”
Most Afghans are poor villagers who live in mud huts, have no electricity let alone televisions – and the ones who join the Taliban are people who are avenging lost loved ones who have been killed by the war from drones, missiles, kill sqauds and of course “collateral damage”.
These Afghans either want revenge for their lost loved ones or they fight either because the Taliban pay better than most other jobs or for the honour in repelling the invaders who have helped bring over 30 years of endless war to their country.
So what are we doing there apart from propping up the “Mayor of Kabul” who rarely leaves his compound due to the recent high number of successful attacks that have led to the death of his famous drug dealing CIA asset of a brother Ahmad Wali Karzai and the recent killing of ex President and recent negotiator with the Taliban Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Well apart from allowing the opium harvest to increase year by year since the Taliban outlawed it in 2001 and feeding over 90% of the worlds supply we seem to be chasing our tails as well as pushing Pakistan into the picture more and more with accusations that their ISI intelligence agency has been behind many of the recent spectacular attacks in the center of Kabul.
So we can forget all those claims by Tony Blair and Bush that we were there to help eradicate drug production as the Russians can attest to it has only soared since NATO got involved in their country with Russia now the main destination for Afghan heroin.
What about all the girls who can now go to school and get jobs you might ask.
Well yes we have done some good in places where we still actually control the population and can prevent the medival Taliban from burning down and killing girls who dare to educate themselves but is that really why we have sent hundreds of our troops to die in a foreign land?
If that was the case we would be invading other medival places like Saudi Arabia or Nigeria which still implement Sharia law to the point of executing women who have been raped as adulterous.
So if the leaders of Al-Qaeda are now confirmed dead and the only people we are fighting are people like you and me who would undoubtedly fight for our country if it were invaded by a foreign power for a reason unknown to us then what is the reason for our continued presence?
It is clear from listening to military experts from various Armies that they don’t think the Taliban can ever be beaten and history shows that Afghanistan sits on top of the league of “unbeatable countries” so what makes us think we can buck the trend and leave as heroes rather than zeroes like the Russians, Brits and countless other armies of the past?
A Guardian article today stated that:
A British government review of the Afghan conflict is to warn that there are “significant risks” of civil war or a Taliban takeover of the south and east of the country after Nato withdraws its combat troops at the end of the 2014.
and that,
Retired General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the force was only “50% of the way” to achieving its goals in the country.
Not only has $57 billion of aid been wasted in places that were secure rather than areas that most required it but the Kabul government has been awash with corruption and any gains in the quality of Afghani lives have been minimal and probably will be reversed once the ISAF forces leave.
So why are we still there when the total cost of the war in monetary terms has undoubtedly contributed to the bankruptcy of the governments involved.
Just think of all the “austerity” measures citizens in the USA and UK wouldn’t be facing today if the billions (UK) and trillions (USA) were spend on the people rather than on the Military Industrial Complex and their endless wars of terror.
Your elected officials allow this waste of money to continue and you continue to elect them to office therefore you cannot escape any blame for the situation we are now facing but when the next elections come around and the debates about deficit reduction, pension and health care cutbacks are raging just look at this counter and think to yourself – has it been worth it.
The following counter from costofwar.com shows the total running cost of the war of terror in both Afghanistan and Iraq since it started in 2001.
The War on Terror has cost the US since 2001
$1,261,829,192,494
The cost of the war of terror to your country .........
It’s been 10 years since we went to war in Afghanistan. What has changed?
Are we safer? Nope.
Even though we have supposedly just killed the leader of the enemy organisation we are at war with, Osama Bin Laden and a number of his replacements, we are still faced with daily terrorist threats, colour coded terror levels and suicide bombing attacks all around the world.
Experts reckon that the number of actual al-Qaeda terrorists (the people we actually went to war in the Stan against) number in the dozens. The people we are fighting are mostly Taliban and Pakistani militants that cross the border from their safe havens in North Waziristan to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Therefore the reason we went to war initially doesn’t exist anymore – that is if the real reason was to defeat Al-Qaeda.
The people we are now fighting are people who want us off their land, who are fed up with the corrupt Karzai government that we installed, and are sick of the high civillian casualties which have soared since America started to use inaccurate drones to do much of their killing.
A recent study showed that 92% of Aghans have never even heard of 9/11 or the World Trade Center.
It also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to “destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan.”
Most Afghans are poor villagers who live in mud huts, have no electricity let alone televisions – and the ones who join the Taliban are people who are avenging lost loved ones who have been killed by the war from drones, missiles, kill sqauds and of course “collateral damage”.
These Afghans either want revenge for their lost loved ones or they fight either because the Taliban pay better than most other jobs or for the honour in repelling the invaders who have helped bring over 30 years of endless war to their country.
So what are we doing there apart from propping up the “Mayor of Kabul” who rarely leaves his compound due to the recent high number of successful attacks that have led to the death of his famous drug dealing CIA asset of a brother Ahmad Wali Karzai and the recent killing of ex President and recent negotiator with the Taliban Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Well apart from allowing the opium harvest to increase year by year since the Taliban outlawed it in 2001 and feeding over 90% of the worlds supply we seem to be chasing our tails as well as pushing Pakistan into the picture more and more with accusations that their ISI intelligence agency has been behind many of the recent spectacular attacks in the center of Kabul.
So we can forget all those claims by Tony Blair and Bush that we were there to help eradicate drug production as the Russians can attest to it has only soared since NATO got involved in their country with Russia now the main destination for Afghan heroin.
What about all the girls who can now go to school and get jobs you might ask.
Well yes we have done some good in places where we still actually control the population and can prevent the medival Taliban from burning down and killing girls who dare to educate themselves but is that really why we have sent hundreds of our troops to die in a foreign land?
If that was the case we would be invading other medival places like Saudi Arabia or Nigeria which still implement Sharia law to the point of executing women who have been raped as adulterous.
So if the leaders of Al-Qaeda are now confirmed dead and the only people we are fighting are people like you and me who would undoubtedly fight for our country if it were invaded by a foreign power for a reason unknown to us then what is the reason for our continued presence?
It is clear from listening to military experts from various Armies that they don’t think the Taliban can ever be beaten and history shows that Afghanistan sits on top of the league of “unbeatable countries” so what makes us think we can buck the trend and leave as heroes rather than zeroes like the Russians, Brits and countless other armies of the past?
A Guardian article today stated that:
A British government review of the Afghan conflict is to warn that there are “significant risks” of civil war or a Taliban takeover of the south and east of the country after Nato withdraws its combat troops at the end of the 2014.
and that,
Retired General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the force was only “50% of the way” to achieving its goals in the country.
Not only has $57 billion of aid been wasted in places that were secure rather than areas that most required it but the Kabul government has been awash with corruption and any gains in the quality of Afghani lives have been minimal and probably will be reversed once the ISAF forces leave.
So why are we still there when the total cost of the war in monetary terms has undoubtedly contributed to the bankruptcy of the governments involved.
Just think of all the “austerity” measures citizens in the USA and UK wouldn’t be facing today if the billions (UK) and trillions (USA) were spend on the people rather than on the Military Industrial Complex and their endless wars of terror.
Your elected officials allow this waste of money to continue and you continue to elect them to office therefore you cannot escape any blame for the situation we are now facing but when the next elections come around and the debates about deficit reduction, pension and health care cutbacks are raging just look at this counter and think to yourself – has it been worth it.
The following counter from costofwar.com shows the total running cost of the war of terror in both Afghanistan and Iraq since it started in 2001.
The War on Terror has cost the US since 2001
$1,261,829,192,494
The cost of the war of terror to your country .........
How to Make a Fused Bulb Work
1.
Very important: If the filament has cut off from the connecting wires and is independently moving around the bulb, this effort is not worth it
2.
Check out if the bulb is fused because of a broken filament dangling to either edges of the Connecting wire ( this would mean, one end of the filament is still connected to the connecting wire and the other end dangling.}
3.
Slowly and with patience, get the other end to connect to the broken end. (It’s a little time consuming work, but the results are awesome)
4.
cautiously put the bulb back into its holder / socket and switch on the light.
5.
Leave it on for sometime, as the heat in the bulb will expand the filament and make the connect with the broken end, thereby staying connected.
6.
Happy Lighting and you reinvented Light
7.
Note that this would save you some money and less garbage from the environment for some time.
Tips
(Filament - thin strand of spring that connects the two contact wires inside the bulb, with two or three supporting wires)
There are inert gases inside the light bulb. Please be aware and cautious..........
Warnings
- Bulbs may be heated on continuous lighting, protect yourself while removing and assembling bulbs
Take protection while working with any form of Electricity.
Things You'll Need
A Fused non CFL Bulb, with its filament dangling at one one if the pin.
Appropriate Safety measures in case you have to climb up and / or down to reach out to remove the bulb
..............
Very important: If the filament has cut off from the connecting wires and is independently moving around the bulb, this effort is not worth it
2.
Check out if the bulb is fused because of a broken filament dangling to either edges of the Connecting wire ( this would mean, one end of the filament is still connected to the connecting wire and the other end dangling.}
3.
Slowly and with patience, get the other end to connect to the broken end. (It’s a little time consuming work, but the results are awesome)
4.
cautiously put the bulb back into its holder / socket and switch on the light.
5.
Leave it on for sometime, as the heat in the bulb will expand the filament and make the connect with the broken end, thereby staying connected.
6.
Happy Lighting and you reinvented Light
7.
Note that this would save you some money and less garbage from the environment for some time.
Tips
(Filament - thin strand of spring that connects the two contact wires inside the bulb, with two or three supporting wires)
There are inert gases inside the light bulb. Please be aware and cautious..........
Warnings
- Bulbs may be heated on continuous lighting, protect yourself while removing and assembling bulbs
Take protection while working with any form of Electricity.
Things You'll Need
A Fused non CFL Bulb, with its filament dangling at one one if the pin.
Appropriate Safety measures in case you have to climb up and / or down to reach out to remove the bulb
..............
Things to Do When You’re Bored at Home
So it’s almost time for school to start again and you’ll be a little busier than you have been recently. Don’t let anyone try to tell you you can’t be bored at home year-round! All the same, if you’re not as stubborn as we are and you’re actually looking for some way to escape your boredom, peruse our list for great ideas. Or busy yourself suggesting additions–the comments box is only a scroll away!
1.Star gaze in your backyard
2.Look at old photographs (you were so cute… what happened?!)
3.Make a collage/poster out of your old photos
4.Rearrange the furniture in your room (ask for permission first!)
5.Paint/draw a picture
6.Write a thank-you note to someone important in your life
7.Teach your pet a new trick (be patient!)
8.Write a poem
9.Plant something (in a pot or outside if it’s warm enough!)
10.Climb a tree
11.Throw out stuff you don’t need (donate old clothes!)
12.Make a CD or playlist of your favorite songs or as a gift for someone
13.Learn words in a foreign language
14.Talk to your parents about your ancestors (believe me… it’s cooler than it sounds!)
15.Ride your bike
16.Learn to do a sudoku in the newspaper
17.Go jogging, bike riding, roller skating, etc
18.Call up neighborhood friends and play soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, Frisbee, etc
19.Teach yourself sign language (use youtube.com or google.com to find info on it!)
20.Reread your favorite childhood book
21.Bake cookies
22.Lie out on the grass and decide what the clouds in the sky look like
23.Call someone you haven’t talked to in a REALLY long time
24.Take a bubble bath
25.Make a movie/documentary
26.Write in a journal
27.Cut out cool newspaper/magazine pictures and make a new wallpaper (ask for permission!)
28.Mow the lawn (your parents will LOVE you!)
29.Set up a tent in your backyard and go “camping”
30.Go sledding!
31.Learn to cook something new (pasta is an easy starting point)
32.Make a video on your computer (see if you have the right program first)
33.Invite everyone you know and have a snow “war” – make teams, forts, and snowballs!
34.Make someone a card just because
35.Learn origami
36.Ask your dad for some scraps of wood, nails, and a hammer – see what you can make!
37.Play a board game you think you’re too old for
38.Learn a card trick
39.Read a joke book
40.Play Wallyball! Look up rules at: http://www.wallyball.com/
41.Plan a fun outing for another day
42.Learn how to do a French braid on someone else’s hair… then try your own!
43.Put together a puzzle
44.Rake and then play in the leaves
45.Have a squirt gun or water balloon fight
46.Play 20 questions
47.Invent a new game… maybe even make your own board game with pieces and all!
48.Learn to juggle
49.Pick a bouquet of flowers and put them on the table as a nice surprise
50.Have a car wash or lemonade stand
51.Invent a secret code
52.Hide a “treasure” and make a scavenger hunt for your friends
53.Start your own blog
54.Play a nice, funny prank on someone
55.Make a time capsule
56.Karaoke
57.Learn some big words to impress (or confuse!) others with
58.Go exploring! There are probably tons of things you forgot you had at home…
59.Have a picnic in your backyard
60.Watch TV on mute and make up the dialogue
61.Think of nicknames for everyone you know
62.Start collecting something
63.Start a nature scrapbook
64.Sidewalk chalk!
65.Make goop! (Mix 2 cups water, a few drops of food coloring, and 6 cups cornstarch/cornflour.)
66.String beads or macaroni on some dental floss to make a cool necklace or bracelet
67.Make a smoothie
68.Make birthday cards for all your friends and family so they’re ready for the year
69.Put on a play
70.Collect canned goods for a soup kitchen
71.Use fabric paints to decorate a shirt
73. Choreograph a dance to one of your favorite songs (thanks, Oddish!)
74. Google yourself :))
75. Make your own calendar
comments r awaited :)))))
72.Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored!
1.Star gaze in your backyard
2.Look at old photographs (you were so cute… what happened?!)
3.Make a collage/poster out of your old photos
4.Rearrange the furniture in your room (ask for permission first!)
5.Paint/draw a picture
6.Write a thank-you note to someone important in your life
7.Teach your pet a new trick (be patient!)
8.Write a poem
9.Plant something (in a pot or outside if it’s warm enough!)
10.Climb a tree
11.Throw out stuff you don’t need (donate old clothes!)
12.Make a CD or playlist of your favorite songs or as a gift for someone
13.Learn words in a foreign language
14.Talk to your parents about your ancestors (believe me… it’s cooler than it sounds!)
15.Ride your bike
16.Learn to do a sudoku in the newspaper
17.Go jogging, bike riding, roller skating, etc
18.Call up neighborhood friends and play soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, Frisbee, etc
19.Teach yourself sign language (use youtube.com or google.com to find info on it!)
20.Reread your favorite childhood book
21.Bake cookies
22.Lie out on the grass and decide what the clouds in the sky look like
23.Call someone you haven’t talked to in a REALLY long time
24.Take a bubble bath
25.Make a movie/documentary
26.Write in a journal
27.Cut out cool newspaper/magazine pictures and make a new wallpaper (ask for permission!)
28.Mow the lawn (your parents will LOVE you!)
29.Set up a tent in your backyard and go “camping”
30.Go sledding!
31.Learn to cook something new (pasta is an easy starting point)
32.Make a video on your computer (see if you have the right program first)
33.Invite everyone you know and have a snow “war” – make teams, forts, and snowballs!
34.Make someone a card just because
35.Learn origami
36.Ask your dad for some scraps of wood, nails, and a hammer – see what you can make!
37.Play a board game you think you’re too old for
38.Learn a card trick
39.Read a joke book
40.Play Wallyball! Look up rules at: http://www.wallyball.com/
41.Plan a fun outing for another day
42.Learn how to do a French braid on someone else’s hair… then try your own!
43.Put together a puzzle
44.Rake and then play in the leaves
45.Have a squirt gun or water balloon fight
46.Play 20 questions
47.Invent a new game… maybe even make your own board game with pieces and all!
48.Learn to juggle
49.Pick a bouquet of flowers and put them on the table as a nice surprise
50.Have a car wash or lemonade stand
51.Invent a secret code
52.Hide a “treasure” and make a scavenger hunt for your friends
53.Start your own blog
54.Play a nice, funny prank on someone
55.Make a time capsule
56.Karaoke
57.Learn some big words to impress (or confuse!) others with
58.Go exploring! There are probably tons of things you forgot you had at home…
59.Have a picnic in your backyard
60.Watch TV on mute and make up the dialogue
61.Think of nicknames for everyone you know
62.Start collecting something
63.Start a nature scrapbook
64.Sidewalk chalk!
65.Make goop! (Mix 2 cups water, a few drops of food coloring, and 6 cups cornstarch/cornflour.)
66.String beads or macaroni on some dental floss to make a cool necklace or bracelet
67.Make a smoothie
68.Make birthday cards for all your friends and family so they’re ready for the year
69.Put on a play
70.Collect canned goods for a soup kitchen
71.Use fabric paints to decorate a shirt
73. Choreograph a dance to one of your favorite songs (thanks, Oddish!)
74. Google yourself :))
75. Make your own calendar
comments r awaited :)))))
72.Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored!
20 Productive Ways to Use Your Free Time
If you’ve got a big block of free time, the best way to put that to use is to relax, have fun, decompress from a stressful day, or spend time with a loved one. But if you’ve just got a little chunk — say 5 or 10 minutes — there’s no time to do any of the fun stuff.
Put those little chunks of time to their most productive use.
Everyone works differently, so the best use of your free time really depends on you, your working style, and what’s on your to-do list. But it’s handy to have a list like this in order to quickly find a way to put that little spare time to work instantly, without any thought. Use the following list as a way to spark ideas for what you can do in a short amount of time.
Reading file. Clip magazine articles or print out good articles or reports for reading later, and keep them in a folder marked “Reading File”. Take this wherever you go, and any time you have a little chunk of time, you can knock off items in your Reading File. Keep a reading file on your computer (or in your bookmarks), for quick reading while at your desk (or on the road if you’ve got a laptop).
Clear out inbox. Got a meeting in 5 minutes? Use it to get your physical or email inbox to empty. If you’ve got a lot in your inbox, you’ll have to work quickly, and you may not get everything done, but reducing your pile can be a big help. And having an empty inbox is a wonderful feeling.
Phone calls. Keep a list of phone calls you need to make, with phone numbers, and carry it everywhere. Whether you’re at your desk or on the road, you can knock a few calls off your list in a short amount of time.
Make money. This is my favorite productive use of free time. I have a list of articles I need to write, and when I get some spare minutes, I’ll knock off half an article real quick. If you get 5-10 chunks of free time a day, you can make a decent side income. Figure out how you can free-lance your skills, and have work lined up that you can knock out quickly — break it up into little chunks, so those chunks can be done in short bursts.
File. No one likes to do this. If you’re on top of your game, you’re filing stuff immediately, so it doesn’t pile up. But if you’ve just come off a really busy spurt, you may have a bunch of documents or files laying around. Or maybe you have a big stack of stuff to file. Cut into that stack with every little bit of spare time you get, and soon you’ll be in filing Nirvana.
Network. Only have 2 minutes? Shoot off a quick email to a colleague. Even just a “touching bases” or follow-up email can do wonders for your working relationship. Or shoot off a quick question, and put it on your follow-up list for later.
Clear out feeds. If my email inbox is empty, and I have some spare time, I like to go to my Google Reader and clear out my feed inbox.
Goal time. Take 10 minutes to think about your goals, personal and professional. If you don’t have a list of goals, start on one. If you’ve got a list of goals, review them. Write down a list of action steps you can take over the next couple of weeks to make these goals a reality. What action step can you do today? The more you focus on these goals, and review them, the more likely they will come true.
Update finances. Many people fall behind with their finances, either in paying bills (they don’t have time), or entering transactions in their financial software, or clearing their checkbook, or reviewing their budget. Take a few minutes to update these things. It just takes 10-15 minutes every now and then.
Brainstorm ideas. Another favorite of mine if I just have 5 minutes — I’ll break out my pocket notebook, and start a brainstorming list for a project or article. Whatever you’ve got coming up in your work or personal life, it can benefit from a brainstorm. And that doesn’t take long.
Clear off desk. Similar to the filing tip above, but this applies to whatever junk you’ve got cluttering up your desk. Or on the floor around your desk. Trash stuff, file stuff, put it in its place. A clear desk makes for a more productive you. And it’s oddly satisfying.
Exercise. Never have time to exercise? 10 minutes is enough to get off some pushups and crunches. Do that 2-3 times a day, and you’ve got a fit new you.
Take a walk. This is another form of exercise that doesn’t take long, and you can do it anywhere — but even more important, it’s a good way to stretch your legs from sitting at your desk too long, and it gets your creative juices flowing. If you’re ever stuck for ideas, taking a walk is a good way to get unstuck.
Follow up. Keep a follow-up list for everything you’re waiting on. Return calls, emails, memos — anything that someone owes you, put on the list. When you’ve got a spare 10 minutes, do some follow-up calls or emails.
Meditate. You don’t need a yoga mat to do this. Just do it at your desk. Focus on your breathing. A quick 5-10 minutes of meditation (or even a nap) can be tremendously refreshing.
Research. This is a daunting task for me. So I do it in little spurts. If I’ve only got a few minutes, I’ll do some quick research and take some notes. Do this a few times, and I’m done!
Outline. Similar to brainstorming, but more formal. I like to do an outline of a complicated article, report or project, and it helps speed things along when I get to the actual writing. And it only takes a few minutes.
Get prepped. Outlining is one way to prep for longer work, but there’s a lot of other ways you can prep for the next task on your list. You may not have time to actually start on the task right now, but when you come back from your meeting or lunch, you’ll be all prepped and ready to go.
Be early. Got some spare time before a meeting? Show up for the meeting early. Sure, you might feel like a chump sitting there alone, but actually people respect those who show up early. It’s better than being late (unless you’re trying to play a power trip or something, but that’s not appreciated in many circles).
Log. If you keep a log of anything, a few spare minutes is the perfect time to update the log. Actually, the perfect time to update the log is right after you do the activity (exercise, eat, crank a widget), but if you didn’t have time to do it before, your 5-minute break is as good a time as any.
Got some productive spare-time tips of your own? Share them in the comments :)))
Put those little chunks of time to their most productive use.
Everyone works differently, so the best use of your free time really depends on you, your working style, and what’s on your to-do list. But it’s handy to have a list like this in order to quickly find a way to put that little spare time to work instantly, without any thought. Use the following list as a way to spark ideas for what you can do in a short amount of time.
Reading file. Clip magazine articles or print out good articles or reports for reading later, and keep them in a folder marked “Reading File”. Take this wherever you go, and any time you have a little chunk of time, you can knock off items in your Reading File. Keep a reading file on your computer (or in your bookmarks), for quick reading while at your desk (or on the road if you’ve got a laptop).
Clear out inbox. Got a meeting in 5 minutes? Use it to get your physical or email inbox to empty. If you’ve got a lot in your inbox, you’ll have to work quickly, and you may not get everything done, but reducing your pile can be a big help. And having an empty inbox is a wonderful feeling.
Phone calls. Keep a list of phone calls you need to make, with phone numbers, and carry it everywhere. Whether you’re at your desk or on the road, you can knock a few calls off your list in a short amount of time.
Make money. This is my favorite productive use of free time. I have a list of articles I need to write, and when I get some spare minutes, I’ll knock off half an article real quick. If you get 5-10 chunks of free time a day, you can make a decent side income. Figure out how you can free-lance your skills, and have work lined up that you can knock out quickly — break it up into little chunks, so those chunks can be done in short bursts.
File. No one likes to do this. If you’re on top of your game, you’re filing stuff immediately, so it doesn’t pile up. But if you’ve just come off a really busy spurt, you may have a bunch of documents or files laying around. Or maybe you have a big stack of stuff to file. Cut into that stack with every little bit of spare time you get, and soon you’ll be in filing Nirvana.
Network. Only have 2 minutes? Shoot off a quick email to a colleague. Even just a “touching bases” or follow-up email can do wonders for your working relationship. Or shoot off a quick question, and put it on your follow-up list for later.
Clear out feeds. If my email inbox is empty, and I have some spare time, I like to go to my Google Reader and clear out my feed inbox.
Goal time. Take 10 minutes to think about your goals, personal and professional. If you don’t have a list of goals, start on one. If you’ve got a list of goals, review them. Write down a list of action steps you can take over the next couple of weeks to make these goals a reality. What action step can you do today? The more you focus on these goals, and review them, the more likely they will come true.
Update finances. Many people fall behind with their finances, either in paying bills (they don’t have time), or entering transactions in their financial software, or clearing their checkbook, or reviewing their budget. Take a few minutes to update these things. It just takes 10-15 minutes every now and then.
Brainstorm ideas. Another favorite of mine if I just have 5 minutes — I’ll break out my pocket notebook, and start a brainstorming list for a project or article. Whatever you’ve got coming up in your work or personal life, it can benefit from a brainstorm. And that doesn’t take long.
Clear off desk. Similar to the filing tip above, but this applies to whatever junk you’ve got cluttering up your desk. Or on the floor around your desk. Trash stuff, file stuff, put it in its place. A clear desk makes for a more productive you. And it’s oddly satisfying.
Exercise. Never have time to exercise? 10 minutes is enough to get off some pushups and crunches. Do that 2-3 times a day, and you’ve got a fit new you.
Take a walk. This is another form of exercise that doesn’t take long, and you can do it anywhere — but even more important, it’s a good way to stretch your legs from sitting at your desk too long, and it gets your creative juices flowing. If you’re ever stuck for ideas, taking a walk is a good way to get unstuck.
Follow up. Keep a follow-up list for everything you’re waiting on. Return calls, emails, memos — anything that someone owes you, put on the list. When you’ve got a spare 10 minutes, do some follow-up calls or emails.
Meditate. You don’t need a yoga mat to do this. Just do it at your desk. Focus on your breathing. A quick 5-10 minutes of meditation (or even a nap) can be tremendously refreshing.
Research. This is a daunting task for me. So I do it in little spurts. If I’ve only got a few minutes, I’ll do some quick research and take some notes. Do this a few times, and I’m done!
Outline. Similar to brainstorming, but more formal. I like to do an outline of a complicated article, report or project, and it helps speed things along when I get to the actual writing. And it only takes a few minutes.
Get prepped. Outlining is one way to prep for longer work, but there’s a lot of other ways you can prep for the next task on your list. You may not have time to actually start on the task right now, but when you come back from your meeting or lunch, you’ll be all prepped and ready to go.
Be early. Got some spare time before a meeting? Show up for the meeting early. Sure, you might feel like a chump sitting there alone, but actually people respect those who show up early. It’s better than being late (unless you’re trying to play a power trip or something, but that’s not appreciated in many circles).
Log. If you keep a log of anything, a few spare minutes is the perfect time to update the log. Actually, the perfect time to update the log is right after you do the activity (exercise, eat, crank a widget), but if you didn’t have time to do it before, your 5-minute break is as good a time as any.
Got some productive spare-time tips of your own? Share them in the comments :)))
How Does a Phone Circuit Work?
Telephone circuits are dedicated connections used to transmit voice or data information. Phone circuits rely on a tip-and-ring operation, which form the two sides of a phone's circuit.
Tip
The tip is the positive, or ground, side of the phone circuit. Ground refers to the electrical circuit that uses the earth or ground as a return path or direct connection. The tip side of the phone circuit typically connects to the telephone company.
Ring
The ring is the negative, or battery, side of the phone circuit. Batteries use electrochemical cells to transform chemical energy into electrical energy that is distributed via the circuit. An electrochemical cell facilitates chemical reactions through electrical energy. The ring side carries -48 volts of direct current, or DC voltage, when idle.
Combination
Combining the tip-and-ring line connections creates a phone circuit. Activating, or "ringing," the phone in an incoming call requires about 90 volts of AC, or alternating current, to be sent, or superimposed, over the direct current voltage at the ring side of the circuit.
Tip
The tip is the positive, or ground, side of the phone circuit. Ground refers to the electrical circuit that uses the earth or ground as a return path or direct connection. The tip side of the phone circuit typically connects to the telephone company.
Ring
The ring is the negative, or battery, side of the phone circuit. Batteries use electrochemical cells to transform chemical energy into electrical energy that is distributed via the circuit. An electrochemical cell facilitates chemical reactions through electrical energy. The ring side carries -48 volts of direct current, or DC voltage, when idle.
Combination
Combining the tip-and-ring line connections creates a phone circuit. Activating, or "ringing," the phone in an incoming call requires about 90 volts of AC, or alternating current, to be sent, or superimposed, over the direct current voltage at the ring side of the circuit.
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