Your Virtual Think Tank Online in Action

More and more Think Tanks are going virtual, as the coordinator for the Online Think Tank, I have watched many emulators try to cash in on the Internet to build mass appeal for Think Tanks. For instance, the Democrat party has decided to use this format of Think Tanks Online to project its public opinion. George Soros even planned on funding nearly 100 million to Think Tanks to promote his political agenda. Perhaps this is an extension of the MoveOn.org group and it does make some sense, as their goal is to shape the political climate.

Is this a proper venue for a think tank - politics? Well, sure it is if the think tank has the integrity to let life assurance quote know Ofcourse it is a political think tank, with a specific agenda, if not it should be likened to propaganda or even false advertising, misdirection or trickery.

Now then the Online Think Tank that we run has nothing to do with politics, indeed the subject does come up, but more or less as a component of implementation, knowing that many decision makers make recommendations and vote certain ways on issues that best serve, well themselves. This is not political satire or condemnation, it is what it is.

The Online Think Tank crosses all socio-political boundaries and we side with one party one minute and another the next, as what we are most interested in is thought, concepts and solutions to serious problems which plague mankind or offer a glimpse of hope for the forward progression of mankind. Our topics are wide and vast, how so you ask? Well, here are some topics and subjects we discussed today.

Is Excessive Noise is Toxic for Your Health?

It was recently noted in a research project that specific frequency manipulations near plants caused various DNA switches to change the growth patterns in plants, thus affection the plants at the cell level thru vibrational energy. What about humans - what happens when they are exposed to excessive noise? Well, studies show that noise causes poor sleeping patterns, stress, anxiety, pulse rates, heart rates, thus it can very much affect one's health. See the issue, and this is an on-going topic at the Online Think Tank that surely transcends political lines.

Why Do People Often Name Their Pets the Same Thing?

Hey, that is my pets name too! It seems that many people are not all to creative with their pet names. Many dogs go by the names of Spot, socks or bear, while many cats are known by Fluffy, Tiger, kitty? The famous Six Wise Ezine, stated the most popular Dog and Cat names. For dogs they showed most popular were Max, Jake, Buddy, Maggie, Bear, Molly, Bailey, Shadow and Sam. For cats were Tigger, Tiger, Max, Smokey, Sam, Kitty and Sassy. Do you have a pet by that name? What about your friends and why is this happening?

Man Created God - In Second Life

What would Second Life be without a God, so one was created, even though man also created second life in the first place - so, apparently man does not want the credit for creating this world and therefore will not have to take the blame if the whole thing is doomed to repeat and crumbles in folly. This entire circumstance begs the question:

If man created God in Second Life who is to say that he did not create a God or Gods in this life? Well we know he did create both myth and legend in previous periods. So how do we know that God is real after seeing all this evidence? Well, it should be obvious that god is not a divine thing at all, but rather an invention of man and the superstition stuck as it struck a cord with man's limited intellect and need for structure and answers.

Business 2.0 Magazine Calls it Quits - They Should Have Hired the Online Think Tank

It seems that Business 2.0 could not hold their market share against other similar magazines, so it will be an online ezine now. One article stated that the advertising pages was down 35% in 2007 and one can only guess that Google AdSense has stolen much of their volume and sales, after all the print magazine Business 2.0, owned by Time Warner, was a lot about the high-tech and Internet World in the first place. Business 2.0 was one of the longest running magazines of its kind and outlasted the best of them. eCompany was also previously merged into Business 2.0, but if the advertising sales are down, the corporate media axe cometh.

Does this mean the final phase to Internet Advertising is upon us - is TV next? Consider if you will that surveys now show for the first time that people spend more time online than watching TV. Business 2.0 had a subscription list of 600K and was available at nearly every legitimate newsstand and bookstore that sells magazines.

Cell Phone Monitoring - Intent of the Caller is Known

There is now new software that can tell how agitated you are when you are talking to a call center, and the system specially routes your call and warns the operator in India on the other line of the problem status level of your call. So what you say can be used against you in the court of the call center now? Much of this software is now being used, as a Threat Assessment Tool, by the Department of Homeland Security, as well. Interestingly enough this tool can be used for many things. Call Centers now can tell if they are about to lose you as a client, but if you get transferred to a call center in some foreign country, then the company ought to know you are already on the hunt to replace them.

The software can tell by the pace of your speech, the voice inflection, emphasis on certain words and the time you pause between your comments or questions. So, no more faking it, you may as well tell them what you really think, as they think they already know.

Free VoIP Service if You Accept Advertisements Based on Your Conversation

Tired of paying your phone bill, well one company will offer you Serpo story VoIP service with an agreement that you will accept pop-up ads on your computer based on the conversation you had. So, if you say something about a restaurant in a specific city, a bunch of them will appear on your screen while you are talking. You talk about a country and American Airlines ticket counter website pops up with a direct link. The startup company says it is trading your information for free phone service. Some people are worried about privacy, others like their favorite four-letter word - FREE! Starving College Students, people on fixed income or just miserly people might indeed go for it - would you?

The Online Think Tank did a survey in a very liberal area and many were put off by the idea, and yet several said they would do it, if it were offered. Additionally, we asked the average phone bill and it seemed to be about $50.00 and if you invest $50.00 per month from the time you are 20 years old until you retire with compound interest in stock market growth, you could have a third of your retirement covered, interesting isn't it?

The way the system works is with an Artificially Intelligent software program, that picks our key words from your voice and chooses the closest advertisements to them, displays them and collects your phone bill from the advertisers? You are letting corporate America pay for your phone bill for the privilege of entering your once private space. You decide, we are still thinking on it.

Paris Think Tank Puts Our Media Hit Against the US Economy and Consumer Confidence

The Federal Reserve knows that at least a third of the US economy is based on "feelings" or consumer confidence. When people are worried about the economy they buy less and that is bad for sales, economic growth, jobs and it lowers the GDP. Thus, what is said in the media, matters and it matters a lot. When a foreign government that has a vested interest in surviving the housing credit crunch in the US, starts putting out media releases that the US economy is tanked or the Fed must have a swift and robust answer or the US economy will crumble, this affects consumer confidence and they know.

It is like a market maker touting a stock, in a way it is very diengenuous and it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. It is meddling in our financial markets. As you know many foreign banks did high risk loans at the top of the housing bubble and they want to survive, but is putting negative information in the mass media honest. No way, it is incestuous stated the Online Think Tank and it is fraudulent and more than an apology is deserved after the fact. The Fed did lower rates to stave off the credit crunch, but much of the reasoning was the consumer confidence levels. If media controls that much of the economy, by simply putting out false information, then who really is running things? Hmm?

Vulture Value Investors Attack Real Estate Market with Low Ball Bids

Florida Trends Magazine reported that; "Joseph Long's efforts to raise $700 million to buy as many as 1,500 homes and condominiums from Southwest Florida builders is piquing the interest of well-heeled investment firms." So, what is a near economic disaster for some maybe an opportunity of a lifetime for someone else. Provided no big last minute Hurricanes wipe out the Great Sandbar of Florida this might prove a very good move in Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour years time, but we shall wait and see, it is a risk, but the potential upside is enormous indeed.

Other investors doing the same thing include; Carl Ichan, Steven Cohen, Eddie Lampert, Palisades Investments, Zilbert Realty Group, Peter Zalewski and Raymond James Capital. Even GE Capital is seeing this as a good play for its Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust. Very interesting and as things continue to deteriorate we may see the same things happening all around the country. For those willing to take the big risks there may be some healthy gains down the road, huge ROIs.

I Do Not Think the Romans would Appreciate Us Abusing their Numerals

As the Online Think Tank sifts thru various proposals we find that many people do not understand how to make an Outline or how to organize their thoughts, which prompted one of our Think Tank Members to say; I do not think the Romans would appreciate us abusing their numerals. I laughed as did the rest of us, but it makes you stop and think, how unfortunate it is that people cannot follow such simple rules, especially with all the word processing programs available. One skill that is needed, whether you go to college or not is how to prepare an outline and if one cannot do it, then go get a robust word processing program like Microsoft Word 2007 for gosh sakes?

Over 60s Dating - Looking for a Purse or a Nurse?

For those who are older folks that do Online Dating, it should be noted that many of these older folks who are actually looking to get married again, are really looking for someone to provide for them. They are looking for a Nurse or a Purse in their older age years. Someone to pay for things or someone who will take care of them in case their health fails. Although this is the big joke in places like Los Angeles' West Side in California - there is a bit of truth to it. So, one has to wonder if the online dating services are aware of it and if so, why not just make some new categories, after all the over 60s crowd is now blogging big time in many areas.

Over Paid Pre-Madonna Football Athletes Deprive Fans and Disgrace the Game

We all like to have BBQs and get togethers and often for the men of the household this includes a good high-definition, large screen TV foot ball game while eating snacks or having a few drinks. One of the Online Think Tank members watched an extremely high-paid athlete both in endorsements and in salary, run out of bounds as he encountered two-large tacklers, perhaps he did not wish to break a fingernail. Sure, it is understood that there are some risks one should not take, if they want to live long and prosper for many years in football - but by the same token, fans pay big bucks and we want to see full contact. So, the players should still try for the extra yard and take the tackle for the fans, otherwise the fans are cheated for what they came to see or watch on TV.

Human Religion in Prison - Poor Use of Self-Esteem Building

Most prisons in the United States have Chaplin Services and they assist prison inmates in making peace with their maker and allowing them to ask for forgiveness. Unfortunately, the prison employees tell us that many inmates attend services merely to get out of their cells for an hour or two, to attend services. Nearly all inmates seem to claim that they found god at their parole hearings, maybe so, but that should not be a factor at all in the decision process. The rates of recidivism is too high, something different needs to be done, because this is not working - god cannot seem to handle this one.

China Predicting World Economic Slow Down - But Who Caused it?

China is watching world markets carefully, as they sell their wares to the rest of the World, but now China is expecting an economic slowdown. Why, well they cite the US economy as entering a downturn in the business cycle and they expect that will hurt their growth. Yes, if that happens it will indeed hurt their growth and yet, one has to ask, why they have not bothered to monitor their own growth, take it a little slower and not take such advantages of our free trade policies. By not floating their currency, not handling their environmental issues and not allowing more US trade to enter their nation - perhaps China will experience them selves what they have allowed to occur from a non-win-win standpoint. They would be much better off to take advantage of other Western Policies in trade if they really want to succeed long-term.

Retail Sales Tell it All for the Financial Stability of the United States

Retail Sales have been hammered lately in the US and that does not make the Christmas Season look too promising either. Some figures showed a barely negligible gain; still this does not make investors of retail stocks too happy. One big issue is with consumer borrowing and pull backs with tighter reigns from credit card companies. With Housing down, auto sales down, credit tighter, consumer confidence barely squeaking by with a C- average and the government curtailing expenditures, a downturn in the business cycle is possible, recession that is. The issues with trade deficits and oil prices are also a big hit on the economy and all that is very serious too.

Is Human Evolution Occurring - Are Humans De-evolving or Progressing?

Is overall progress is being made in human evolution, have we progressed with all our cities, jet aircraft, infrastructure? It appears so, says the Online Think Tank. Sure, the forward progress is in the right direction albeit slow, but evolution in complex systems usually is slow to protect the system from things changing too fast and upsetting the balance. Chaos is so easy to occur and structure takes pre-planning and time.

What might an alien species say in observation of the human accomplishments? Alien species you ask - where and what do they look like? Well, the speculation seems plausible, and yet, we see so many other forms of life on Earth, who is to say. The most advance design would be able to live in a minimalist environment, thus perhaps "no body" or anything similar to what we might perceive. The ultimate and most efficient, would be a goal of no boundaries, no body, just energy, alive and well?

Verbal Stories of Vietnam Vets filled with bad information and fraudulent testimonies

A website for Vietnam Vets shows that WikiPedia is not the only website with occasional embellishment? And of course, I guess this lets John Kerry off the hook for any special write-ups he and his friends did in order to get free medals of valor. Indeed, it seems Virtual Medals of Honor are just as good these days? Or are they.

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But if we know that these oral stories contain so many falsehoods then we also know that other handed down tales or stories are erroneous, and thus how can we trust "any" historical biblical record? If it was not written on the dead sea scrolls, then it is probably wrong and who is to say that those scrolls were actually first hand knowledge anyway? Sure you can debate it and say the historical record is accurate but judging by the present period, I am unconvinced. In fact, all human history, handed down by tales or written is most likely hogwash. Dare to care to debate?

As you can see from just some of today's Online Think Tank discussions, a Think Tank that operates outside religious bias, political bias and without preconceived notions requiring specific outcomes; can in the end become more honest with their solutions, objective opinions and therefore has the best chances of solving problems in the present period. It should be noted that we are not lambasting the competition, they draw enough attention to themselves, rather we are merely stating the obvious for those who care to partake in the intellectual process.

In the end we hope to not be jaded or compromised in our mission to solve problems and come to the solutions that are the best for all concerned. I hope this indeed clarifies our position and gives you the confidence needed to perhaps join us in your thoughts. Sincerely, Lance.

"Lance Winslow" - Online www.WorldThinkTank.net/">Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/">www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for www.ourspokanemagazine.com/">Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington