The news is constantly headlined by stories of Global Warming and its cause by man. The most interesting part of this is that fact never related--We only experienced the latest Ice Age just 10,000 years ago.
There are areas of the world, specifically at the poles, which are still covered with ice from the latest Ice Age. In fact, areas in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia still have glaciers that were formed during the aforementioned Global Cooling.
Neither scientists nor historians can document, with impunity, the conditions that existed 10,000 years ago. There is no way for anyone to express with absolute certainty that the current warming trend is nothing more than a constant of the world still recovering from the last Ice Age.
Most reptilian creatures in the world today live in very arid areas of the world. It is only logical to make the assumption that the largest reptiles who ever roamed the lands were in fact dinosaurs and if modern-day reptiles live in hot arid parts of the world, then their ancestors more than likely lived in very arid, dry, and hot areas of the land. Furthermore since dinosaur remains are being, or have been found in areas that currently have very cool climates--Wyoming, North Dakota, Siberia, Ural Mountains, Finland, and others associated with cold, very cold temperatures--it would be logical again to presume these cold areas of the planet were not always cold.
The current climate changes, the warming of the poles, and the discovery of nearly complete dinosaur remains proves only one thing. Areas that are now covered with ice were not always covered. Land mammals and reptiles roamed the same areas before the Ice Age.
It is possible Global Warming is nothing more than the normal chain of events in a revolutionary cycle.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Holy Crap....!
It is absolutely ridiculous to think an employer advertising a "more than competitve wage" would actually attempt to hire someone at a rate thirty percent below the national average for careers in the same field.
Needless to say, I didn't take the job and am still looking.
Time for a beer. I'm out!
Needless to say, I didn't take the job and am still looking.
Time for a beer. I'm out!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Job Interview
I am a Mechanical Designer. Right now I am working for a company whose products everybody is familiar with. They may not know it, but they probably use some of the products I design, two or three times a month. The company I work for makes thermo-formed plastic products and pan-formed foil products.
One might think that a company whose products sell as well as theirs do, they would pay a bit more to the employees who make them their money. Especially the one who designs the products they sell, and the tools used to make them. Unfortunately, they are more concerned with the bottom line. They pay just over minimum wage to the production workers, just over that for the ones who maintain the equipment, and not much more than that to the ones who supervise them all. Above that there are employees like myself who are basically autonomous and require little or no supervision nor instruction, yet make enough in forty hours to barely put food on the table for a family of six, pay a bill or two--usually past due, and pay for gas to get back and forth to work and nowhere else.
Don't get me wrong, I love what I do for a living, I am just not to enamoured with who I work for, anymore.
Tomorrow I have a job interview with a different company. Their ad proclaims "more than competitive wages and benefits", "incentive to advance", and "reimbursement to further education"! The work also closer to what I ultimately hope to be doing.
Anyway, tomorrow I will hopefully have a new job I can not only be proud of, but also be able to enjoy life outside of work a bit more.
More later on that!
One might think that a company whose products sell as well as theirs do, they would pay a bit more to the employees who make them their money. Especially the one who designs the products they sell, and the tools used to make them. Unfortunately, they are more concerned with the bottom line. They pay just over minimum wage to the production workers, just over that for the ones who maintain the equipment, and not much more than that to the ones who supervise them all. Above that there are employees like myself who are basically autonomous and require little or no supervision nor instruction, yet make enough in forty hours to barely put food on the table for a family of six, pay a bill or two--usually past due, and pay for gas to get back and forth to work and nowhere else.
Don't get me wrong, I love what I do for a living, I am just not to enamoured with who I work for, anymore.
Tomorrow I have a job interview with a different company. Their ad proclaims "more than competitive wages and benefits", "incentive to advance", and "reimbursement to further education"! The work also closer to what I ultimately hope to be doing.
Anyway, tomorrow I will hopefully have a new job I can not only be proud of, but also be able to enjoy life outside of work a bit more.
More later on that!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
In response...
I have toyed with the thought of starting a blog for quite a while now, but decided now to start as a way to voice my opinions in regard to comments written in response to the Writer's Guild strike.
People had written many comments condemning unions. Their comments, though, showed they knew little about unions other than what they had learned through movies such as F*I*S*T, Hoffa, or others that showed versions of union life that were not quite realistic.
My union experience is not extensive, but is direct, realistic, and to the point.
I began working in the late-seventies at my first union job. I was an apprentice for the carpenter's union--The United Brotherhood of Carpenter's and Joiner's of America. I started out getting my initial training though Job Corps. When I graduated, I was hired by Thiesenn Custom Homes as a framer. My first check--I worked only three days that pay period--was over three hundred dollars. That was huge money for an eighteen year-old who had a small apartment and minimal bills. My first real check of forty hours was over seven hundred dollars, having worked six days which included overtime pay of time-and-a-half for Saturday. I worked there for three months before I was laid off. Seeing how I was the last one hired, I was the first laid off.
I had to continue my apprenticeship training at the union hall while still paying my monthly dues. I was on the out-of-work list and had to report to the hall daily to see if there was any work for me. Gas back and forth, bills, and dues ate away at my savings. I did go out on a few small jobs but they were short lived and long in-between. There were not many jobs for first year apprentices at that time.
Eventually, I went and got a job outside of my "career field"--I joined the Marine Corps.
When I discharged from the service, I chose not to continue in the carpentry field, but I did work in several other "union" jobs. All of which paid well, allowed for time-and-a-half for overtime, had paid leave for vacation, etc.
My last job of thirteen years was a job in the sheet metal industry. The employees there were covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Although the business was in a Right-to-Work state, the employees were covered by a union contract.
I joined the union and paid my dues. I do not believe in "workers' welfare", which is what I call it when employees choose not to join the union, yet reap the benefits of the contract. They also expect free representation when the chips are down, meaning they are availing themselves to the services of the union without paying the dues.
Anyway...
The reason I am writing in reponse to the idiotic comments made concerning unions is simply to enlighten those who have no idea what they are spouting off about.
Here are some truths-
Back in the day, there was no established minimum age for workers. Companys would hire elders and as soon as the elders offspring were old enough to perform the job, their employers would put the offspring to work as well. This all sounds fine and dandy, but when "old enough to work" is eight or nine years-old, something needed to be done. There were times when the elders were not able to work--due to illness or something like that--and their offspring were made to work double shifts to keep production up. Imagine, an eight year-old working sixteen to eighteeen hours in one day, at hard physical labor.
Unions fought to establish a minimum working age.
Years ago there was no such thing as a minimum wage. Employer would pay their workers whatever they felt like paying. In many instances the pay was less than the cost of living. This required employees to work longer hours at straight pay just to afford to live. Or--much to the pleasure of the company--recruit their offspring to work alongside them in order to increase the household income.
Unions fought for a livable wage and helped establish the minimum wage.
Paid time off was never heard of before unions fought for paid holidays. Many people take take it for granted, and assume the companys give their employees time off with pay. It may seem so, especially when a company that has no union connections, but think about it, how can a company recruit individuals to work for them if they cannot match the benefits their competitors are offering?
Paid vacations would not exist without unions.
How many of you reading this have seen old-time footage of factory workers? The open drive belts on the macinery featured in those film reels had claimed many lives--many of them just kids--before unions stepped in and fought for a safe workplace. OSHA is a direct result of the union's fight. Machinery guards and every other safety device is the fruit of Labor's fight.
In a bygone era there were company towns. In those towns nearly everyone works for the company, lived in company owned housing, shopped at company owned stores, and relaxed in company owned taverns. Every bit of money those employees earned for their labor was returned to their employer through rent, grocery, clothing, and other living expenses. Their children even when to company ran schools, and any money they were able to skrimp and save was usually kept in a company ran bank.
Some of these company towns still exist in a few coal mining communities. New-age company 'burbs have even sprung up in modern technology centers in and around the "Silicon Vally" area. Anything to keep the dough in the company's pocket.
Some smaller businesses who care about their employees are completely wiped out when "Big Box" store fronts move in. They pay minimum wage and overwork their employees. They claim to have the lowest prices in town, when in fact they shut down the competition. Their employees cannot afford to shop anywhere else then at the place that pays their wage.
Many blame unions for companies shutting down factories, plants, and workplaces in a various communities. The fact is, these greed mongering corporations leave behind American workers for the lax labor laws in foreign lands. Why pay an American worker twelve dollars an hour when they can pay a Malaysian worker twelve dollars a month.
Three percent of the entire population of the United States holds eighty-five percent of the wealth. Those individuals have names like Walton, Gates, Heinz, Buffet--just to name a few.
Capitalism is what makes this country great, but greed on the corporations part is what is killing it. Let's keep the borders open so those who will work for less than minimum wage will continue to give these companies a steady flow of cut-rate workers.
The writers have a right to receive pay for their work that is offered on DVD and on the internet--Union or not.
People had written many comments condemning unions. Their comments, though, showed they knew little about unions other than what they had learned through movies such as F*I*S*T, Hoffa, or others that showed versions of union life that were not quite realistic.
My union experience is not extensive, but is direct, realistic, and to the point.
I began working in the late-seventies at my first union job. I was an apprentice for the carpenter's union--The United Brotherhood of Carpenter's and Joiner's of America. I started out getting my initial training though Job Corps. When I graduated, I was hired by Thiesenn Custom Homes as a framer. My first check--I worked only three days that pay period--was over three hundred dollars. That was huge money for an eighteen year-old who had a small apartment and minimal bills. My first real check of forty hours was over seven hundred dollars, having worked six days which included overtime pay of time-and-a-half for Saturday. I worked there for three months before I was laid off. Seeing how I was the last one hired, I was the first laid off.
I had to continue my apprenticeship training at the union hall while still paying my monthly dues. I was on the out-of-work list and had to report to the hall daily to see if there was any work for me. Gas back and forth, bills, and dues ate away at my savings. I did go out on a few small jobs but they were short lived and long in-between. There were not many jobs for first year apprentices at that time.
Eventually, I went and got a job outside of my "career field"--I joined the Marine Corps.
When I discharged from the service, I chose not to continue in the carpentry field, but I did work in several other "union" jobs. All of which paid well, allowed for time-and-a-half for overtime, had paid leave for vacation, etc.
My last job of thirteen years was a job in the sheet metal industry. The employees there were covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Although the business was in a Right-to-Work state, the employees were covered by a union contract.
I joined the union and paid my dues. I do not believe in "workers' welfare", which is what I call it when employees choose not to join the union, yet reap the benefits of the contract. They also expect free representation when the chips are down, meaning they are availing themselves to the services of the union without paying the dues.
Anyway...
The reason I am writing in reponse to the idiotic comments made concerning unions is simply to enlighten those who have no idea what they are spouting off about.
Here are some truths-
Back in the day, there was no established minimum age for workers. Companys would hire elders and as soon as the elders offspring were old enough to perform the job, their employers would put the offspring to work as well. This all sounds fine and dandy, but when "old enough to work" is eight or nine years-old, something needed to be done. There were times when the elders were not able to work--due to illness or something like that--and their offspring were made to work double shifts to keep production up. Imagine, an eight year-old working sixteen to eighteeen hours in one day, at hard physical labor.
Unions fought to establish a minimum working age.
Years ago there was no such thing as a minimum wage. Employer would pay their workers whatever they felt like paying. In many instances the pay was less than the cost of living. This required employees to work longer hours at straight pay just to afford to live. Or--much to the pleasure of the company--recruit their offspring to work alongside them in order to increase the household income.
Unions fought for a livable wage and helped establish the minimum wage.
Paid time off was never heard of before unions fought for paid holidays. Many people take take it for granted, and assume the companys give their employees time off with pay. It may seem so, especially when a company that has no union connections, but think about it, how can a company recruit individuals to work for them if they cannot match the benefits their competitors are offering?
Paid vacations would not exist without unions.
How many of you reading this have seen old-time footage of factory workers? The open drive belts on the macinery featured in those film reels had claimed many lives--many of them just kids--before unions stepped in and fought for a safe workplace. OSHA is a direct result of the union's fight. Machinery guards and every other safety device is the fruit of Labor's fight.
In a bygone era there were company towns. In those towns nearly everyone works for the company, lived in company owned housing, shopped at company owned stores, and relaxed in company owned taverns. Every bit of money those employees earned for their labor was returned to their employer through rent, grocery, clothing, and other living expenses. Their children even when to company ran schools, and any money they were able to skrimp and save was usually kept in a company ran bank.
Some of these company towns still exist in a few coal mining communities. New-age company 'burbs have even sprung up in modern technology centers in and around the "Silicon Vally" area. Anything to keep the dough in the company's pocket.
Some smaller businesses who care about their employees are completely wiped out when "Big Box" store fronts move in. They pay minimum wage and overwork their employees. They claim to have the lowest prices in town, when in fact they shut down the competition. Their employees cannot afford to shop anywhere else then at the place that pays their wage.
Many blame unions for companies shutting down factories, plants, and workplaces in a various communities. The fact is, these greed mongering corporations leave behind American workers for the lax labor laws in foreign lands. Why pay an American worker twelve dollars an hour when they can pay a Malaysian worker twelve dollars a month.
Three percent of the entire population of the United States holds eighty-five percent of the wealth. Those individuals have names like Walton, Gates, Heinz, Buffet--just to name a few.
Capitalism is what makes this country great, but greed on the corporations part is what is killing it. Let's keep the borders open so those who will work for less than minimum wage will continue to give these companies a steady flow of cut-rate workers.
The writers have a right to receive pay for their work that is offered on DVD and on the internet--Union or not.
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