3 posts tagged “health”

Hear, See, Speak No Evil

We the citizens of this great country are often like sheep say some. Perhaps we are more like the ostrich who puts his/her head in the ground. Perhaps we are any one or all of the three monkeys: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.

We will always try to bring relevant information to you by finding and spreading the word on whats going on that you may have not heard of.

Why? Because it should matter to you because it affects you, your children, your future, and your money, that is why.

In this video, the question comes up as it almost always does...'just what are we paying our representatives to do anyway? Where does our tax money go and why is it not being used to improve our lives rather than something else?'

Starting at the 6:19 mark: "Since 2004, the Bush Administration has removed 1,000's of water-ways from the Clean Water Act protection." So the question is why? Why has our top government leader and his people, stripped away the protection however meager, from thousands of water ways? Who is and who has influenced these negative actions and why? I think we all know. Question is: how long will we continue as the tax paying public, the supposed ones who supposedly elect our representatives; how long will we continue to look the other way as our rights and our wishes are plundered and that plundering protected under another new law or amendment?

This next two part video shows how studying animals help us understand what effects polluted water is having on our planet's wildlife. The second part finds that water pollution is causing potential effects on our current state of health and questions what it is doing to our newborn children. Are we going to give birth to unhealthy babies? Will our children's lives be troubled by high concentrations of chemicals that have altered their bodies from birth? Mutations in animals could lead to mutations of humans. What are we letting happen to the future us?

This morning we are scratching our heads over some number which was released yesterday.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $130 million over three years, subject to Congressional appropriations, to advance the development and use of fuel cells for automotive, stationary, and portable power applications.

The head scratching comes into play when we take the other side and say: the government is perhaps doing the right thing to get us away from our addiction to oil. Away from the devastating effect that has now been proven to destroy our environment. A step towards the promise of a far cleaner future.

But then we see the number which is $130 million dollars of your tax paying money, over 3 years.
Wait just a sec... didn't the government spend some $1BILLION dollars beginning sometime near the President Carter administration to develop Hybrid Technologies? As seen from another fairer perspective, $130 million X 3 which is the nine years for the $1 billion formerly used for hybrid technologies... comes out to a small $390 in today's money. Hmmm...390 million in today's money vs. 1 BILLION dollars starting in the Jimmy Carter era.

Perhaps even with the flawed idea of fuel cell technologies, perhaps this is just a diversion making it look like our leadership is doing the right thing when in fact it may be quite the opposite.

This can be seen as a way to prolong the use of oil and combustion engine production until we can show as we have here that we already have proof that this isn't the best way to go in reducing our addiction to oil. That perhaps then, we throw some paltry amount of money at another idea that doesn't quite fit the Eco bill and even further prolong our addiction. A kind of bait and switch tactic if you will.

What was the effect of the U.S.A. producing a clean electric car all those years ago?
It scared Toyota and Honda to produce a good electric car on their own w/o anyone's help.
They only took it off the roads when our government was willing to sue it's own State of California to cause the electric car to disappear off the roads. Why? Because there was not enough profit in it for the car manufacturers and most especially for the big oil companies. Some of you may argue that BP and perhaps other oil companies now have an alternative energy division. So why aren't they using these windfall profits to boldly and swiftly change from oil addiction to a healthy future for all? Because it isn't as profitable maybe?

Born unto a country whose government cares not for my future or that of my brothers and sisters...

1 comment

Shows you how an effective Leader and administration can be changed away from doing what is absolutely right for the consumer, for our health, for the environment, and for our entire human population and the planet.

We are in a sad state of capitalism when leaders have to create laws to help capitalists get away with criminal and some would say immoral acts. Acts which hurt the entire planet and put billions of people at great risk just for a few more years of windfall profits.

This is what has prompted the head scratching event today.

Also, did you know that the White House once had solar panels on the roof? It did during the time of Jimmy Carter but they were removed when Ronald Reagan and his Vice President took office.

More head scratching.....

If you can possibly take one more minute; watch the first minute of this video before it disappears.

Pollution is at an all time high globally. The problem is so bad that finally we are seeing videos, news casts, articles, movies, word-of-mouth, and web logs which scream the bloody bad situation we've managed to put our planet home into.

We may very well choke to death if we don't quickly figure out what to do about it. Still though, the governments of many countries including the U.S. don't seem to be taking any of it seriously enough to interrupt business as usual.

I've replaced all my regular bulbs and appliances with energy star rated products everywhere possible. I drive a car that gets an average 40 miles to the gallon. I combine my trips and don't have a heavy foot.

As an investor we can do another thing or two to encourage more focus on combating pollution. Alternative energy stocks in solar and wind are a start. And tonight I came across a company who deals with air born contaminants. The CEO has just acquired new shares.

This from a recent SEC filing:
We are one of the leading providers of air-pollution control products and services. We have a diversified base of more than 3,000 active customers among a myriad of industries including aerospace, brick, cement, ceramics, metalworking, ethanol, printing, paper, food, foundries, power plants, metal plating, woodworking, chemicals, tobacco, glass, automotive, and pharmaceuticals. Therefore, our business is not concentrated in a single industry or customer.

Our return to profitability in 2006 and 2007 after several years of losses is directly related to an increase in the level of pollution control capital expenditures which is being driven by an elevated focus on environmental issues such as global warming and energy saving alternatives as well as a U.S. Government supported effort to reduce our independence on foreign oil through the use of bio-fuels like ethanol and electrical energy generated by our abundant domestic supply of coal.

Consolidated sales in 2007 were $235.9 million, an increase of $100.5 million or 74.3% compared to 2006. This increase was primarily due to increased demand for our products and services created by the fundamental strength of many industrial sectors including ethanol production, steel production, coal fired power plant construction and automotive related sectors. This increase also included $27.5 million in new equipment sales revenues attributed to the addition of Effox, Inc. which was acquired in 2007 and $48.1 million in contracting revenues from a large automotive project at H.M. White, Inc. Additional demand for our products and services was created by increasingly strict EPA mandated industry Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards (“MACT”) and OSHA established Threshold Limit Values (“TLV”), as well as existing pollution control and energy legislation.

Financial highlights for the twelve months ended December 31, 2007 compared to twelve months ended December 31, 2006 include:

Net sales increased 74.3% to $235.9 million; Gross profit increased 67.7% to $40.4 million; Operating income increased 108.9% to $12.6 million; Net income GAAP - $6.3 million (increase of 103.8%); Net income non-GAAP - $7.0 million (increase of 204%); GAAP Earnings per diluted share - $0.45 (increase of 87.5%); Non-GAAP Earnings per diluted share $0.50 (increase of 256%).

CECO Environmental Corp. (Nasdaq: CECE), a leading provider of air pollution control and industrial ventilation systems, announced today that it has booked 33 new orders, each of which has a value of over $200,000.

Rick Blum, President and Chief Operating Officer, commented, "As usual, our orders are coming from a wide variety of industries. The largest order, which is in excess of $2.5 million, was received from an automotive company. Another significant order was received from a tire manufacturer. The rest of the business came from the metals, power, electric equipment, ethanol, steel, aluminum, gypsum, refining, and copper smelting industries."

Phillip DeZwirek, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Fisher-Klosterman's China operation booked a significant order just last week. We are seeing ever increasing quoting activity in China and have already had established CECO customers visit the facility. Now that Fisher- Klosterman is part of CECO, we are in the process of establishing that facility as CECO Filters' manufacturing base in China along the lines of the facility that CECO Filters already has in India."