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Orange juice mixed with a hint of cranberry juice and a mouthful of blueberry yogurt constituted continental breakfast an hour ago. From the USSR (Soviet Georgia) in 1977, Dannon Yogurt had a TV commercial showing people living to 100, who also happen to eat yogurt every day. My hero (some of you may remember him) was ‘Bagrat Topogwah’, 89 years old, who ate two yogurt cups, which pleased his mother, who patted his cheek on screen.

yogurt. nice presentation

 Next, a glass of cold coffee, a chunk of 70% dark chocolate to get blood flowing to my brain as I jump into the saddle of this blog mindset. Rutgers University had graduation at their football stadium on Sunday morning. No invitations needed. Toni Morrison gave the commencement address. Commencement is a funny word. Graduation is an ‘end’ to a big part of life.  Next year, I’ll go and listen to my favorite bittersweet musical march, ‘Pomp and Circumstance,’ remembering I graduated from the same stadium and listened to Pearl Buck talk about the Viet Nam War and world uncertainty. Are times a changin?

 Just in. The cost of Japan’s disaster may be at $300 billion. And I’m still trying to comprehend the human tragic toll. Any number of times, I thought if I could be of use, to go there. What positively scares me is radioactive plutonium. On Saturday, I found out that used (spent) radioactive fuel is stored on site (for up to 120 years) at New Jersey’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant; I could ride my stationary bike there in about ninety minutes and use a sling shot from Route 9. The owners of this old Oyster Creek Nuclear plant may close it because of profitability amidst new regulations. But the spent fuel stays until George Washington comes back.

NJ Oyster Creek Nuke Plant. a bad dangerous old place by Barnegat

 In a never ending search for truth, justice and the American way, I was heartened to hear about the conviction of hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam; a breath of new life into the government’s campaign against insider trading and the obscenity of Gordon Gekko’s greed worship and deficit enhancement; quite a verbal mouthful as I now masticate a ‘flagel’, a Long Island, imported, flattened, pounded, thin excuse for a bagel. Did you ever notice how a bagel store advertises bagels as ‘fat free,’ conveniently forgetting to tell you that it throws enough sugar into your blood stream, to injuriously spike medical test results the next day and move you inexorably closer to the big ‘D.'(diabetes)

an everything flagel. a lot of sugar in the bloodstream.

 As I’m a ‘Rambling Boy,’ in my rambling streams of consciousness, now listening to Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger sing the song in 1965(Youtube)

video link Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNfnqueYQY&feature=related

Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger sing “Ramblin Boy” 1965

 Rambling: I need to mention that in New York State, if you’re on medical assistance, they’ll buy you a special wheel chair for $37,000(the cost of a BMW?). Meanwhile back on LBJ’s New York ranch (I was never invited there) the wheelchair’s wholesale cost is $15,000; so with all the budget cuts and layoffs, somebody out there in the ‘Twilight Zone’ of New York is making one stupendous profit. Do I want to put in my wormhole passage order now to come back in the next universe as a purveyor of wheelchairs in New York? Hey readers, a few vocal religious fanatics insist May 21st (in a few days) will be the ‘End of the World.’ Having been at the New Jersey Environmental Federation’s 25th Annual Conference on Saturday(more later), I do believe that divine intervention does NOT have to do that to us here and now on Earth, we’re doing quite an efficient a job of it on our own. Donald Trump is not running for President. I said that a couple of blogs ago. And to be or not to be a small replica of the Jeff Goldblum character in ‘The Fly’ on the wall of French Socialist, banker and Presidential hopeful Dominque Strauss-Kahn’s hotel room in New York after a maid accused him of rape; on the other hand, what an easy way. Never mind. And ex-Governor Arnold S. confessed fathering a ten year old child.  On a happier note for me, this has been a special rarified uplifting educational mind-expansive week.

 Last Monday, I hopped on my favorite train in the world, the Jersey Shore Coast line, secured my over-sized headphones, ipod streaming from two days stored worth of 60’s folk rock music and almost drifted away, heading into New York City, while faint impulses of recently revealed bin Laden terror plans to derail trains, kept me from falling completely asleep. I remind my son every day, how incessantly I watch the news and stay on top of everything. Actually, I was taking the train to meet my son for our night with Dr. Michio Kaku, world renowned astro-physicist and futurist, who was speaking at Hayden Planetarium on ‘Physics of the Future.’

 A quick walk from Penn Station, thirty blocks up Seventh Avenue at rush hour invigorated. Then nearly thirty more blocks with my son up to 81st Street and the Museum of Natural History, stopping briefly for a sandwich and beer on Columbus Avenue, passing an array of busy, crowded sidewalk cafes and trendy everything boutiques(no bagel stores). The street looked like Paris and I wore blue jeans; my son wore black. What a remarkable street in the most remarkable place on Earth. Ah, the UWS (Upper West Side).

Columbus Ave. sidewalk cafe

 It was a sold out lecture and early birds catch wormholes (which Dr. Kaku spoke about) and sit in the first couple rows. One of life’s ten best night’s main characters was talking five feet away from us. The future was unfolding; my son’s eyes were burgeoning. I alternated between watching the animation of Dr. Kaku and my son’s facial responses to the practical side of the future. A month earlier, we were at Hayden learning about quantum physics, string theories and mysterious algorithms. Knowing that computer chips in thirty years will cost a penny and cars will drive by themselves and that Dr.Kaku’s favorite movie as a kid was ‘Forbidden Planet’ was so much more fun than the ‘Theory of Everything’ from that quantum lecture. Coincidentally, I made my son watch ‘Forbidden Planet’ a month ago. Who knew?

 Here’s a quick array from Dr. Kaku. People will wear glasses (contact lenses) already linked to internet; you’ll blink access to the data base of the whole earth. In your living room, you’ll really talk to the wall (imbedded with thousands of computer chips) and it’ll tell you who’s available to go out on a date; perhaps the best matchmaker ever. Cloud computing will be everywhere. No more PC’s; poor Hewlett-Packard, who now make PC’s and expensive printing ink that runs out too quickly. Even sitting on a toilet, DNA chips will diagnosis, analyze and pick up individual cancer cells; nano-particles will kill them all. You’ll have a genetic owner’s manual, so you’ll be able to grow a new heart, bladder, bone, nose (the end of nose jobs?), liver (maybe in five years). And wait until future Olympics when athletes can custom grow (untraceable) whatever they need to win (“win Rocky win”). Somehow I think those staid Olympic officials are now pondering this in between watching the Yankees being swept by the Red Sox this weekend. Enough with the future. I did get a chance to photo op with Dr. Kaku and ask him “are we going to environmentally make it to your future?” He unemotionally said, “I think we will.” That made my day.

Dr. Michio Kaku and Me

  Nearly 10pm, we walked out of Hayden onto 81st Street only to see a massive display of movie making paraphernalia, trucks, people, actors, artificial lighting and stunt cars. My son’s face burgeoned again with joy and disbelief; a purist comic book devotee was witnessing filming of a scene from the new ‘Spiderman’ movie. “Dad, I think I’m in heaven and we can’t leave.” For two more ‘standing’ hours, I continued to be that fulfilled father.

filming a scene from 'Spiderman' on West 81st Street

  Here’s the deal on ‘How to Live Forever.’ As you all know by now, one of the recurring themes of my blog is living forever, living to 150, life extension, anti-aging practices and healthful choices. This is a new important film by producer/director Mark Wexler. Enough said. Here’s a link to an article and movie trailer. Make time consigliore.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-live-forever

pix from movie 'How to Live Forever'

  Now to the neuro-chemistry of love: We probably all remember that feeling of intense emotions as a new love and romance begins. Despite the ongoing debate that intense love fades through the years, there are still many couples who claim to have that intense feeling years after marriage. In a new study published in ‘Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,’ researchers have discovered similar neurological responses in those experiencing new love and those in long-term and passion filled relationships.

The other night, sleepless in New Jersey as I’m often, I started watching the third go-around of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, when I flicked the channels telepathically (it was the remote control, truthfully) and wound up back in 1977 with Tony Manero (John Travolta) bopping down a Bensonhurst street in the opening scene of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ So I drifted, watched and gained insight into myself and one message from the movie. The maturation (aging) process helps us see things differently from a first or second or twenty-third viewing. Here’s what riveted, then saddened, then slapped me around.

Bobby C.’ played by Barry Miller was a troubled teenager, close friend of Tony Manero and member of the gang but got his girl friend pregnant and was faced with abortion versus getting married. He reached out to everyone in his world for help, understanding, guidance, including Frank Jr, Tony’s brother who was leaving the priesthood. No one gave him time or cared yet he was smart enough to know he was really alone in the cold world. Nobody ‘gives.’ Mendacity is alive and well; timeless as ‘Heathcliffe’ and ‘Cathy.’  Overwhelmed being alone in an unfeeling world, he eventually fell off the Verrazano Bridge. And I’ll never, not in this universe or the next, be able to dance like Tony Manero.

On Saturday, my special week continued in Newark, New Jersey (my hometown) I was burdened with the dilemma where do I go, what do I do? The City of Newark was host to ‘Newark Peace Education Summit’ (The Power of Non-Violence) featuring H.H. the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King III, Deepak Chopra, Mayor Cory Booker(whom I met at Rutgers once and talked to about Life-Extension), and Russell Simmons, among others. This conference was three days and 100 speakers worth of intensity and magic, excepting there was a $300 charge; so to my sensibility, this wonderful conference became somewhat of a ’boutique’ event and those that may’ve needed its message the most; might not have been able to afford it. In my final analysis, I belonged at the New Jersey Environmental Federation’s 25th Annual Conference a few blocks away at Rutgers Law School, where I’ve been going the last five years. Peace versus the environment. If we don’t have sustainability, clean water and a place to eventually safely store thousands of tons of radioactive spent Plutonium fuel, what good is non-violence or the air we breathe? The environmental conference’s keynote speaker was Governor Christie. He admitted not knowing enough to make certain decisions because he didn’t understand/believe global warming. To his credit (I’ve criticized the Governor on his teacher union bashing); he arranged a meeting (with help from the folks at NJ Environmental Federation) this week with global warming scientists to teach him ‘things.’ Does this kind of global reach, beyond local ‘shores’ cryptically mean something? Scariest part of the day was learning about radioactive spent fuel that’s stored on nuclear plant sites for a long time; perhaps someday, one single underground safe place will be found. The spent radioactive fuel takes 24,000 years to half decompose.

Tongue and cheek time: I’d love to have the franchise for making signs that warn people in 24,000 years to stay away because stored nuclear spent fuel is still dangerous. I’d have to come up with a sign that stays intact for 24,000 years. Of course, I wouldn’t be worried about residuals. By the way, nuclear energy is nasty stuff. A book to read: “Carbon Free and Nuclear Free” by Arjun Makhijani, an amazing intellect as was Arnie Gunderson, who bravely spoke out years ago about nuclear dangers and was blacklisted for a while.(Sen. Joe McCarthy?)  Favor time: go to:  http://fairewinds.com/     Enough said.   More conference tidbits: Regarding solar energy. 12% of the area of Nevada (if fitted for solar) could supply the entire country with electricity. The arctic was 15 degrees warmer last winter. New Jersey has the toughest fertilizer bill in the country and with that, its time to wind down the blog, except for the buzz word of the conference, ‘transparency.’

And I still wonder who wrote the book of love and why so few ‘kids’ and twenty or thirty something’s don’t find their way to this or any environmental conference. Why some psychologists say you can’t talk to this generation of kids; they think they know it all and maybe they do. Input going on is 24/7 for them and for me too. Every which way we turn; fingers are bringing us the data base of the whole planet. Globalization is a kind word. But why am I so involved in all this? My father’s father and him; both sat in a rocking chair at my age and read newspapers, helping to harden arteries. Last night, I was at another lecture; a journalist told how his newspaper laid off 1/2 the reporters. When I got home from the lecture, I listened to Bob Dylan sing ‘The Times They are a Changin.” And I Cheshire smiled. I’m glad that I decided to live to 150 years. That’s a lot of tennis yet to play. But if we all go to 150 years, how will I ever get court time?

CONTACT INFORMATION:

website: http://vichywater.net                                

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

‘Vichy Water’ Book Trailer:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

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