By Charly Mann

The United States is almost evenly divided people who call themselves liberals or conservatives. The acrimony between the two sides has never been deeper as each now feels the other side is intellectually, culturally, and morally inferior to the other. More glaring is how the two sides now live in separate worlds, surrounding themselves with friends, and getting their information from media sources, that are aligned to their point of view. There is no longer a debate or listening to the other side about issues. There are only maddening accusations and name calling of those on the other side.

Today 36 percent of Republicans say the Democratic Party is a threat to the well-being of the country, and just over a quarter of Democrats see Republicans as a threat to the nation. As soon as one side wins total control of the executive, legislative, and by default soon afterward the judicial branch of the federal government, extreme groups and individuals on the other side will initiate acts of violence against the other. The left would most likely initiate terrorists bombings against corporate and government structures and leaders it found most offensive. These "terrorists" would probably be only small cells totaling less than 3000 people, but their actions would provoke a swift and crushing response against most left wing leaders, organizations, and those speaking out on social media in support of such action.

If the left gained control the literally hundreds of organized militia groups all over this country that have long been training and preparing for such an eventuality would begin carrying out well-planned acts of sabotage and political assassinations. At the same time states including Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama would begin plans to secede from the United States unless they were granted broad exemptions from the policies and legislation the federal government was enacting. The liberal-controlled government would probably not meet these demands and the country would soon begin separating. Other majority "red" states where the population was more split such as Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and North Carolina would likely first be divided with minor internal violence, but the dominant and more militarily prepared right would prevail.

As all of this was happening America’s financial markets would collapse, inflation would spin out of control, and food supplies would be severely restricted, especially in many of our major blue state cities. The blue states would then have to contend with looting and riots, while at the same time fighting off internal insurgencies by armed militias.

Within months both sides would experience massive problems of societal breakdowns as a result of widespread fighting, terrorism, and economic hardships. Hundreds of millions of extremely polarized and desperate people would be scrambling for survival. I expect at this time the two sides will come together to agree to a Red State – Blue State confederation that would grant the red states virtual independence from the federal government, but with some economic ties that would probably be similar to the European common market without the common currency or central bank.

After the war there would be large migrations of liberals and conservatives moving to the states they felt safe in. Soon two totally separate social and economic systems would be competing against one another. Eventually the one where people were more prosperous and safe would grow while the other withered away.

Finally, if this conflict spirals into an all out civil war I expect the Red states would prevail within a year for the following reasons. The Blue state populations are concentrated in large cities which are easy military targets, and also do not have access to food which is produced by the Red areas of the country (even in California). Also the Reds have far more people who own guns, have military experience, and are self-reliant.

by Charly Mann

Raccoons are incredibly smart animals that have amazing problem-solving abilities. Extensive testing has shown them to be the second most intelligent mammal in North America – right behind humans. They are also close relatives to the Chinese Red Panda, which looks very much like a red raccoon.

Charly Mann with two of his raccoon friends

I have been closely observing a group of ten raccoons for two years. They have personalities as different from each other as humans. Some are very friendly and some are difficult, but you will not know until you spend enough time with them that they trust you. The majority of the ones I have known are quite mild-mannered and sociable.

In 1978 I took in an orphaned baby raccoon for a year who loved riding in cars and going on walks on a trail near where I lived. During those hikes I kept her on a dog leash for her own protection from dogs we would encounter. I also had an indoor pool which she loved to swim in. She also quickly learned to use a litter box and usually slept next to me on my bed at night. Baby raccoons are called kits because they purr like a kitten, which this one did whenever she would sit on my shoulder or lay next to me. She was always quite affectionate though she could be mischievous, and often opened the refrigerator to help herself to some food.

Raccoon close-up

Raccoons have a vocabulary of up to twenty sounds and each of those is varied into different pitches that make their conversations seem almost like songs. Two of “my” current raccoons seem to understand almost everything I say. They have exceptional hearing and can hear sounds too faint or high-pitched for humans to hear. They love music and their tastes seem to be more sophisticated than most people I know. They prefer listening to classical music over rock or country, and especially like the music of Bach and Beethoven. A particular favorite piece is reported to be Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Raccoons also have a keen sense of smell and will not eat old or decayed food.

Raccoons are very smart. In one study a number of adult raccoons were put into a room in which complex locks were put on the doors of cages that contained dishes of food. In the majority of cases they were able to open 11 of the 13 locks in less than ten attempts, and had no trouble repeating the action even when the locks were turned upside down. The scientists concluded from the study that raccoons through abstract thinking had figured out the locking mechanisms. Four other studies spanning a period of 40 years demonstrated raccoons could remember solutions to problems they had not solved for more than three years.

Psychologists also say that, unlike most intelligent animals who use trial and error to solve problems, raccoons have the ability to use reason and observation to solve problems. An amusing example of this is of a pet raccoon who when he disliked certain TV shows would turn the channel knob to a program he liked. He had learned this simply by watching how the humans he lived with did it. 

Mother raccoon with her 4 kits out of their den

Raccoons are great escape artists and can get out of about anywhere (this is well demonstrated in the great Disney film Rascal about a pet raccoon). They have the dexterity to remove nuts and bolts, as well as open latches and turn on water faucets when they want water.

To many people raccoons are a nuisance and a pest, but they do not understand why they are sharing our neighborhoods and foraging through our trash and gardens. The reason they live in our midst is that most of their natural habitat which is wilderness has been destroyed or polluted. They no longer have the large forests they once lived in because we humans have taken it away and they are now forced to share our surroundings.

Raccoon’s intelligence may equal humans within 10,000 years. Their mental ability is rising faster than any other creature on the planet, and as they rapidly adapt to living in urban landscapes they are passing along new skills to successive generations. Our modern cities and towns are full of food rewards and rife with challenges of finding shelter and staying alive. These are the types of puzzles raccoons excel at solving and in turn raise their brainpower. They are also becoming more adept at watching humans from a distance to see how they do things and adapting some of the techniques they observe. In just a hundred years they have gone from a forest animal that primarily lived by lakes and rivers to one than can live almost anywhere, eat almost anything, and open any lock or zipper. I think if they had opposable thumbs like us, they might have accomplished even more in this time.

Kathryn Mann with fearless 10-week old raccoon

By the time Henry David Thoreau moved to the woods around Walden Pond on July 5, 1845 the wilderness was almost gone, and deer, moose, cougar, and bear had long since been exterminated in the region. Like Thoreau, I believe all creatures are better off alive, and I hope this article will encourage more people to respect and protect raccoons.

Raccoon Dangers: Raccoon attacks on people and family pets are very rare but they do happen and one should think of raccoons as wild animals. These attacks are so rare that we have never found any official statistics on how often they occur, although it does get a lot of press attention when it happens. On the other hand, 4.7 million Americans (2 in every 100 people) are bitten by dogs every year and 15 are killed. 8,000 people in the United States are bitten by poisonous snakes each year and about 5 people die from snakebites. Finally, 40 Americans die each year from bee stings.

by Charly Mann

More than nine billion animals are raised and slaughtered for food every year in the United States. Most of these animals are kept in factory farms where livestock is confined to a very small area during its entire lifetime. These animals are fed large amounts of food to fatten them up as quickly as possible.

Factory farming is not concerned with how the animals are treated. Its function is to produce meat for human consumption as quickly and cheaply as possible. Unfortunately, Americans’ increased consumption of meat is a contributing factor to our dramatic increase in obesity and heart disease.

Billions of pounds of waste from slaughtered animals are fed to other animals on these farms, including cattle blood fed to calves. Waste generated by slaughtered cows is fed to pigs and chickens, and waste from dead chickens and pigs is fed to cattle. 

Factory farming is also causing dangerous bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. Animals in factory farms live in very confined spaces, in or close to their own manure and urine. This unsanitary condition makes them highly prone to illness, so antibiotics are placed in their feed to boost their immune systems. The routine administration of antibiotics to factory farmed animals increases bacterial resistance to the antibiotics that humans use to fight off illnesses.

Whether you eat meat or not, everyone should want animals to live in sanitary and somewhat comfortable conditions. Placing animals in spaces so small that they cannot turn around, often never see light, and live in their own waste is cruel. Most male calves are castrated at three months and sent to feedlots, while female calves are taken away from their mothers just days after they are born and fed on artificial milk as they prepare to become diary cows. Dairy cows usually also have a very painful procedure called docking in which their tails are cut off to make it easier for workers to get close to their udders for milking. Dairy cows are eventually slaughtered when their milk production declines at five years of age, while male cows are quickly fattened and ready for slaughter in only one or two years. The natural lifespan of a cow is twenty-five years.  Pigs are very social, affectionate and intelligent creatures that are confined in narrow cages where they cannot even turn around. A mother pig is usually unable to move during most of her life, lying in her feces while her piglets barely have room to move. As a pig grows, it is placed in a concrete pen without any form of bedding and without soil to root in, which is natural for a pig. Pigs become aggressive and restless in such confinement and often attack one another. Many pigs develop pneumonia from the high level of ammonia produced by the waste they live in. Chickens in factory farms spend their entire life in a space of less than eight by ten inches.

Chickens naturally forage for food by pecking with their beaks. Since they are unable to peck in their small cages, their beaks are seared off. Chickens raised for meat are genetically altered to have thighs and breasts so large that they have difficulty standing. Chicken hens raised to produce eggs are kept in cramped cages with five to eight other hens in a space of just 14 square inches. Male chicks born in egg factories are suffocated in trash bags. When hens stop producing eggs they are slaughtered for meat.

Being human means being humane. This requires us to be compassionate to animals. There will be a much brighter future for all living beings if man can learn to respect and be kind to animals. Empathy for animals helps build moral character, reduces our tendency for violence, and creates a world where people are more caring toward each other.

by Charly Mann

Most people believe that we will live for eternity after this lifetime.
So think about just a blip of the eternal clock.

On Wednesday March 19, 2008 one could look up into the night sky and see with the naked eye a strange burst of light for about an hour. What one was actually witnessing was the explosion of a star forty times larger than our own sun that was 7.5 billion light years away from us. That means this event occurred 7.5 billion years ago, and the light from it was finally reaching the earth.

Now think about this.  Light travels 5.9 trillion miles in one light year. Multiply this by 7.5 billion and you get the distance in miles to where this star once existed, and it was located only at about the halfway point to the edge of our universe. Our space shuttle is very fast, traveling at about 5 miles a second or 18,000 miles an hour. But this is slow compared to the speed of light which is 37,200 times faster than the shuttle. So if we got in a vehicle as fast as the shuttle it would take us 37,200 years just to go one light-year. It would take us 279 trillion years at that speed to finally reach the location of this former star.

Now put that time in another perspective. The world population in March 2008 is estimated to be 6.7 billion people. In the time it would take you to travel halfway across the universe at 18,000 miles an hour you could spend 41,641 years with each person currently living on the planet. 

by Charly Mann

There was a time when artistic triumph, quality of goods, and creative innovation was celebrated. Today we live in a world of complacency where people only seek to be comfortable in their lives. Our culture no longer desires great art, literature, or music. We have become duped into believing that all of our technological progress makes us smarter and more sophisticated. In reality we have accepted the notion of fitting in and being normal. Today our most popular cultural figures are celebrities that demonstrate neither originality nor exceptional intelligence. Idolizing such individuals robs us of the chance to be extraordinary. Striving for excellence is the best way to combat mediocrity. We see and hear the ordinary everywhere. Truly profound ideas, talents, and insights are only achieved by those who study the exemplary.

While the majority of people in every generation have been attracted to a mass-market mediocrity, there has always in the past been a respected elite that strove for excellence in every phase of life. It is from these people that our great leaders, business innovators, and cultural icons emerged. The responsibility of schools and universities was once to ensure that students be given the opportunity to achieve their full intellectual potential. Today our schools are more concerned with achievements on the sporting field than academic.

Each of us should be determined and focused on reaching our human potential. To achieve excellence requires living life with a clear purpose and intensity. The ingredients for great achievement are curiosity, discipline, and an irreverence in thought that will spark new ideas. You also have to be committed to excellence in everything you are trying to achieve. Studies have shown that people who can allow themselves to be sloppy even 5% of the time rarely achieve any form of greatness. Excellence truly means striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.

The unique personality which is the real you, you will not gain unless you search for the spiritual quality in others. It is only from the God inside others, that the God hidden in you will consent to appear.