40-Years of Travels with Leisa & Ralph
River out of Eden - Our Selfish Genes
Decompostion: Recycling Our Biomass
Your Family Tree: 6-Million Years
Our World - Our Realities
Humans! So Many Plagued with Delusions of Self-Importance.
The Brutal Reality: In the Scope of Cosmic History, Human Lives are but a NanoSecond in Astronomic Time - banish any delusions.
In the words of Carl Sagan: "We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."
Fact: The Universe is Within Us
The Arrow of Time - 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics (Entropy)
When you're finished changing. You're finished. Benjamin Franklin
You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up
USA - Plutocracy, not Democracy
"It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth." -- Alexis de Tocqueville
USA to sell California to Mexico
>"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there would be a shortage of sand." -- Milton Friedman
Ads Never to Be Seen on TV Again
"The Image of Death is the Beginning of Mythology" -- Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth
The More You Know - The Less You Need -- rkr
What a Fool Believes - He Sees
Insanity - Downhill bike race in Chile
"Generations of humans strive to achieve mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil." -- Will & Ariel Durant
Your Tax Dollars At Work - Lobster & Porterhouse Steaks purchased with Food Stamps
Man, lording it over all creatures great and small
Internet forums are like going to the zoo; if you get enough monkeys together, sooner or later someone will start throwing their poo. -- rkr
Tribal Wisdom vs. Modern Corporate Approach
Business: eMyth: The Fatal Assumption of the Technically Trained
Business: 4 Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." -- Albert Einstein
It Had Been Snowing All Night...
$1,500,000 - World's Most Expensive Dog
Dislike Traffic Congestion? Something to Remember
1887 Anaheim, California - Where Disneyland now Sits
"Humans Plan - The Universe Laughs" -- anon
Real-Time Worldwide Hacking Attacks!
For Men Only :-) The Italian Funeral
Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth
Endeavor to bear reality graciously and to respect one another's delusions - - rkr
New Official Announcement by the USA
"Death is natural, and if it comes in due time it is forgivable and useful, and the mature mind will take no offense from its coming." -- Will Durant
Truth - "Facebook, Twitter, Texting and Instagram: Never have lives less lived been more chronicled" -- Dennis Miller
Senior Citizen Gets Audited - Very Confused
Company policy on attitude and productivity: BEATINGS WILL STOP WHEN MORALE IMPROVES!
Marty Rubin
Every leaf before it falls must think itself immortal.
Carl Sagan
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Lady Gaga & fame
It was my delusion and naivety that brought me here.
The Cycle of Nature
The only life event that all humans have in common
Favorite
After-Death Belief: Polytheism
Why have just one Imaginary Friend?
Year in Time: 1905 Annus Mirabilis
Fitness Center: Around the Corner
Genus Homo: Homo Erectus
Very Smart Human: Nathan Myhrvold
Politician: Lee Kuan Yew
Celebrity: Magnus Carlsen
Paleontology Location:
Pinnacle Point, Africa
Sport: European Football
American Soccer
Theory: Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Principle
Holiday: Thanksgiving
Quantum Physicist: Niels Bohr
Cosmologist: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Human on Earth: My Wife
Historian: Niall Ferguson
Poet: W. B. Yeats
Performance: Go Here >
Game: Chess / Texas Hold'em
Theoretical Physicist: Kip Thorne
Avocation: Study of the Universe
Sadness: World Overpopulation
Physical Activity: Cycling -
Elliptical's & Other Aerobics
Philosopher: Bertrand Russell
Music: Classical
Word: Bloviate
Foods: Steamed Vegetables
Prophetic Lyrics: Go Here >
Mental Explorations / Mind Candy:
Quantum Mechanics & Cosmology
Stand-Up Comedians:
Ricky Gervais, Kathleen Madigan & Lewis Black
"Life: Brain Numbingly Repetitious"
Jerry Seinfeld
Leisa & Ralph - wedding guests
The Greatest Plundering
Annual funding of USA Federal & State "Entitlement" Programs constitutes the greatest plundering of wealth by old people from young people in human history. At no time in human history have the old been enriched so abundantly by government transfer payments systematically extracted from the young - rkr
RELIGION
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
Death, Gods & Religions
Religion & History
History has justified the Church in the belief that the masses desire a religion rich in miracle, mystery and myth. Some minor modification have been allowed in ritual, in ecclesiastical costume, and in episcopal authority; but the Church dares not alter the doctrines that reason smiles at, for such changes would offend and disillusion the millions whose hope have been tied to inspiring and consolatory imaginations. -- Will Durant
Life is hard. After all, it kills you. Katharine Hepburn
Death is a distant rumor to the young. Andrew A. Rooney
Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it. Haruki Murakami
It is not length of life, but depth of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mark Twain (and Ralph Rasmussen) on Death
I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
Religion keeps the poor from murdering the rich -- Napoleon
There are roughly 4,200 religions and their variants in the world. The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system", but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. The major religions that we have today are a small fraction of all religions that have existed throughout human history. The ones that we are left with have survived because they have more effectively adapted to attract and hold the allegiance of many people.-- Oxford Religion Experts
Absurd that we have a cosmically vital role -- Armin Navabi
There is no single outside force imposing meaning on the events of your life. There is no evidence whatsoever that people's life events conform to some sort of divine plan or predestination. Life is, objectively, meaningless; given the size and scope of the universe and our tiny role within it, it's absurd to think that we might have any sort of cosmically vital role.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Anon
That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet. Emily Dickinson
Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day. Napoleon Bonaparte
Religion is the human response to being alive and having to die. Forrest Church
Clinging to the Here & Now
I have seen no evidence that people who believe in God and the afterlife do not grasp hard to live as long as possible as they desperately cling to every new promise from the medical and pharmaceutical industries to remain in the "here and now."-- rkr
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time. Samuel Johnson
To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. J.K. Rowling
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. Mark Twain
I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life. Corazon Aquino
Actress Emma Thompson & Religion
I'm an atheist ... I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qur'an and I refute them.
Neale Donald Walsch & Religion
Nothing has done more to separate and divide human beings one from another than exclusivist organized religion. Because we believe that our ethnic group, our society, our political party, our God, is better than your God, we kill each other.
Joseph Campbell
Religion - The Power of Myth
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.
Joseph Campbell on YouTube
Choose Cremation! Here's Why:
Cost, Simplicity, Environmental Concerns, Become a Diamond, Last chance to have a Smokin' Hot Body
Meet Your Oldest Remaining Biological Ancestor - Cyanobacteria / Blue-Green Algae "Stromatolites" : + - 3 Billion Years Old
The Birth of Oxygen
Stromatolite - Wikipedia
The Beginning of Life 4 Billion Years Ago
Much More - You Tube
Hope
Hope is a tease that keeps us from accepting reality.
Remember
After all the "great" achievements in technology and our proclamations of progress, we are still just trousered apes.
"The Universe Is Under No Obligation To Make Sense To You" Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ralph Rasmussen, MBA
Curriculum Vitae - Abbreviated |
|
| MBA, Master's Degree, Business Administration Pepperdine University, Malibu, California - 1976 - 1978 |
Owner: Alliance Trucking & Logistics, Los Angeles. Caltrans LTL Freight Carrier - 14 Trucks Serving California - 1968 - 1975 |
| BS, Business Administration - Finance / Accounting California State University, Northridge, California - 1973 - 1976 |
California College Instructor: Ventura, Oxnard, and Sierra colleges Teaching wide variety of courses within Business Department including Finance, Real Estate and Management. |
| Lifetime Teaching Credential, California State University System: Credential #183139-22: Business Management, Finance, & Real Estate | Instructor: University of Nevada, Reno - Teaching Real Estate, Finance and Management courses within Business Department. |
| Computer Science Advanced Coding Certifications: Pierce College, Woodland Hills, California - 1968 - 1971 | Owner: Delphi Associates, Small Business Consulting Firm - Emphasis on Restructuring Troubled Firms to Avoid Bankruptcy 1973 - 1984 |
| Professional Certification: Fitness Instruction & Health Management University of California San Diego - 1982-1984 |
Principal: Corporate Turnaround Consultants USA - Specialty: Distressed Firms Facing Bankruptcy or Unwanted Acquisition: 1984 - 1995 |
| Certified Lifetime Member: American College of Sports Medicine, May 1985 | Owner & Broker (License #00403858) - Conejo Associates Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) - Westlake Village, CA: 1971 - 1993 |
| Doctoral studies - Industrial Psychology U.C. Berkeley - 1978-1979 | European Relocation While Leisa (wife) Completed Grad School at Warwick University School of Business, Coventry England 1995 - 1997 |
| American Bankers Association Enterprise Risk Professional Training - 1975-1976 |
Principal: India-based Technology Firm (Bangalore & Chennai) - All Web Programming Languages, Server & WorkStation Network Creation & RMM Management. Also SEM, SEO, SMO & ORM Online Marketing Specialists 1995 - |
Travelers
During the past 40-Years my wife Leisa and I have traveled to over 58 countries on five continents spending over six months in New Zealand and Australia - which was delightful. Our preference is to lease a place, stay and get to know the locals. Let's Go Traveling >
We once thought ourselves to be at the center of the world, now we know
that we are just a small speck in a giant universe. The Proof >>
Life Is The Extreme Expression of Complex Chemistry
"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." -- Carl Sagan
Family Tree - Yours and Mine: 6-Million Years See it now
Tired? "Technology promises to let us do anything from anywhere with anyone. But it also drains us as we try to do everything everywhere." -- Sherry Turkle - MIT
Lake Tahoe Residents
Full-time residents at our Incline Village (Northeast corner - Lake Tahoe) townhome from 1977 through 1982. Hillside location with view of Lake Tahoe and across from Incline ski resort Take a Look >
On Freedom and Equality
"Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and on one prevails the other dies. Leave men free and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically." - - various
Inequality is not only natural and inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization. - - rkr.
What Would an Extraterrestrial Think of Our Popular & Social Media?
That finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage.
October, 2016: Hubble Reveals Observable Universe Contains
10 Times More Galaxies Than Previously Thought - Details Here
DEATH: The Cycle of Nature versus Centuries of Myths
* * What Should We Think About Death? > * *
After all the "great" human achievements in technology, we are still just trousered apes - rkr
River Out of Eden - Our Selfish Genes >>>
Abraham Lincoln & Revolution
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address on Monday, March 4, 1861 (Paragraph 29).
* * Love, Brides & Technology >> * *
The 21st Century Opium of the Masses
Evidence of Digital Opium Addiction:
>>> Evidence Link 1
>>> Evidence Link 2
>>> Evidence Link 3
>>> Evidence Link 4
Is Progress Real?
"Sadly No. Against the historical panorama of human history, all technological advances reveal themselves to be merely new means of achieving old ends -- the acquisition of goods, the pursuit of one sex by the other, the overcoming of competition, the fighting of wars. Proclamations of progress are just the vain and traditional boast of each "modern" generation." - - Will Durant
Pascal's Wager
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) posits that humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not. Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (eternity in Hell). More at Wikipedia
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear to be bright until you hear them speak
3,000 Human Skeletons Don't Lie
Our ancestral legacy and the costs of walking upright >>
Journalism Dies in Self-Importance
USA: The Undeclared War
American society has been in an undeclared Social Civil War since late in the 20th Century. Wide-spread extreme and rapid tribal, ethnic, religious, and political insolence continues to escalate as demographic and economic shifts occur at a rate rarely seen in the nation's history. - - rkr
Living Beyond Our Means:
America's middle class Worldwide: Poorer than you think >
Bring Back the "Good Old Days"
...Of Our Great Grandparents. 'When Heroin, Cocaine and Alcohol Mixtures Were Legal in USA
The Universe is absurd - but we can still construct a purpose. Jim Holt
Meritocracy is a myth invented by the rich
There can be never be such thing as a meritocracy, because there's never going to be fully equal opportunity. Inequality is not only natural and inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization. - - rkr
"Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and on one prevails the other dies. Leave men free and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically." - - various
Time is an Illusion : The Space-Time Continuum -- Einstein
Don't Mess with Mother Nature Watch Dorian destroy the Bahamas >
My Belief: It's the Quality of our Lives that matters, Not the Quantity of years we live.
Regardless of age, all human lives are but a moment in the scope of astronomic time!
Profound Read by Dr. Emanuel of Univ of Pennsylvania"