The Mayflower Compact

Today many of us will sit down to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings in celebration of Thanksgiving Day.  Football games and parades will be on our televisions. Yes, I admit it, that is what I am doing now, watching the Vikings/Lions game.  But, before all of the commercialization, bounty, and ease, there was struggle, hardship, and hope for a freedom that was lacking in most people's lives.  On this day perhaps we ought to remember how we came to be.  Because we seem to be watching the slow dismantling of so many things put in place to afford us that bounty, ease, and freedom we hold so dear.

What follows is a short video of the first Pilgrims who, in their wisdom, put together an agreement to see them through the hardships they were to endure in their new world.  It was really a lesson in working together for the greater good, which we could certainly use today.   It is an old video, but I felt it got the point across very well.

Here is an explanation of  The Mayflower Compact.


For all of you out there I wish you a....

And, if you are a football fan, so far the Vikings are ahead.  :)

The Three Gorges

With my post on the wind industry we have been talking about alternative energy sources, so when someone happened to mention water in the comments section that brought to mind how we have harnessed the power of water through the use of dams. Of course, that led me to China and the Yangtze River, which is now home to the largest dam on the planet.  While I had heard about its size and the dislocation of people as the result of flooding I hadn't really looked at the project too closely. It gave me an excuse to do a little research on the building of dams.  

This first video is about 46 minutes long, but it is a comprehensive look at the problems that various building projects have overcome as the size of the dams has increased.

It is not just the challenges in building that are an issue . There is also the human and environmental impacts to be considered. The intent behind the Three Gorges dam was to help control flooding in the region, as well as encourage economic development.  But some do not believe that the impact of The Three Gorges dam will be all good.

In the end, when all is said and done, it is the effect this dam has had, and will have, on those who live within its sphere that will determine how it is judged by history.