Why Is There a Global Bike Shortage?

We are still feeling the effects of the covid-19 pandemic. This remains the case even months after the release of the vaccines and programs dedicated to making sure everyone gets vaccinated.

The economy, health care, commerce and industry, hospitality and tourism, and many more have seen some bad times as a result of this health crisis. It is a moment many of us will never forget because of the untold hardship and negatives that came with it.

But like it or not, some industries did thrive during this period. It seems ironical but it is nonetheless the truth. Delivery services, game companies, ecommerce platforms, cleaning services, liquor, and grocery stores are examples of services that experienced a rise in sales. For more on this subject, you can read this article.

You should also know that some industries were caught between winning and losing during this period. The bike industry is one of them. This is because it saw massive sales across the globe but was unable to measure up for various reasons.

We will shed more light on this here as we explain 7 reasons why there is a global bike shortage. We strongly advise that you keep reading as the details here will be informative at the very least.

Reasons Why Getting a Bike Is Now Difficult

Days and months before the pandemic, seeing a large pile of bikes displayed for sale was a normal thing. But this is no longer the case.

As things are, people are trying so hard to get hold of one. This is even though the price of this commodity has shot up.

The first thing you should know is that the outbreak of the covid-19 virus is largely to be blamed for the shortage. This is because it affected the demand for this commodity and the following ways are how this has happened:

Restriction and Lockdown Regulations

The likely question on your mind is what the lockdown restrictions have to do with the shortage. The simple answer is that it has everything to do with it and here is how.

During the height of the pandemic and without a vaccine to curb the spread, social distancing was the best way to deal with the health crisis. As a result, policies were formulated to stop people from moving around and they were forced to stay at home.

It was a period when remote work became the order of the day. Unfortunately, some things cannot be done remotely. They need to be done in the factory and bike production is an example.

The fact that bike manufacturing was not considered an essential service made things worse. Maybe this was the biggest mistake after all. As a result, many manufacturers were forced to shut down operations but the demand for these items did not shut down. It was even on the rise.

Fitness Center Impact

Exercising is important! It helps us maintain the right body shape and benefits us in other ways. Unfortunately, fitness centers were also affected by the pandemic.

This is because social distancing rules meant that people could not use these facilities or that patronage was lower than ever. As a result, many people choose to exercise using bicycles and this impacted the demand for this item. Many of these people considered bicycles a safer way to exercise

Unfortunately, the production process of this commodity was just as affected as these fitness centers unknown to the consumers. So, this has also contributed to the shortage.

Safest Way to Transport and Adhere to Health Regulations

Safety was a big deal especially during the height of the pandemic and still is. You could see many people adhering to the guideline by the CDC and other health-related bodies in their best interest.

As a result, many people were particular about the safest way to transport themselves when they needed to move from their homes. Many of these people opted for bikes as it was a safer alternative.

In places where penalties were attached to violating covid-19 guidelines, the use of bicycles was not frowned at. All these have affected the demand for this commodity.

Best Way to Deal with Lockdown Boredom

We have established how bikes were used for exercising purposes and as a safer transport system during this period. But something else also caused the demand for this commodity to shoot up.

This has to do with many people realizing how biking is a good way to beat boredom and many of them purchasing it for this reason. The awareness was largely influenced by platforms that encouraged using a bike for this purpose and this increased the demand.

Overwhelming Demand on Supply Chain

The manufacturers were not the only ones affected by the pandemic as production could not go on as expected. Beyond them, the supply chain at large was affected. This is because the material suppliers were experiencing a shortage.

So, you should know that there is an underlying reason that extends beyond the manufacturers. This is because the suppliers are also caught up in all of this. And just so you know, this is not the only commodity that is affected.

For instance, automobile manufacturers in many parts of the country and the world at large are on the verge of shutting down operations. This is because of the unavailability of chips that are very essential in various parts of the vehicles. So, this points to the fact that many other industries are also affected.

Rising Cost of Materials

We did explain at some point in this article that the prices of bikes have shot up. Asides from the laws of demand and supply at work, this is largely due to the rising cost of materials used for production.

Another thing you would have noticed is that even parts of this commodity have witnessed a price increase. For instance, tires, pumps, seats, and other parts are affected. Some of these manufacturers do not see the point of producing in such times.

Limited Options in the Bike Sales Market

There are two ways to explain this shortage – partial or absolute shortage.

This is because bikes can still be purchased in some parts of the globe. However, consumers are not presented with as many options as they would love.

This is in terms of quality, price, and other things. This is what is referred to as partial shortage as these consumers can still lay their hands on some options even though they are not preferable.

On the other hand, there are parts of the world where getting a bike is not possible right now. This explains the absolute shortage. Hard as it is to admit, this is the situation in many parts of the world.

So, there is truly a shortage regardless of how you choose to see it. This has also been reiterated by many major players in the bike sales and manufacturing business that have aired their opinion. Many of them have stressed how it would have been practically impossible to imagine this happening months before the pandemic.

Will Things Ever Return to Normal?

Things are likely going to return to normal. However, this is going to take a while. We are talking about a little above one year from now at least.

And even at that, it is hard to know if the prices of bikes will return to what they were before now. The best thing for people to do would be to regularly update themselves with the prices of this commodity.

We suggest that they use credible review platforms for this purpose. You can check out https://www.bikebinge.com/ for more on this subject.

Conclusion

We have explained why getting a new bike is more difficult than ever. The best way to explain this is “covid-19 pandemic” and “supply and demand laws”. This is because every other reason falls right under both of them.

Even in these times, we suggest that you make informed decisions if you really want to get a bike. This is why we advise that you make good use of credible review platforms.

The post Why Is There a Global Bike Shortage? first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

A Look at Road to Hana Private Tours

When it comes to amazing vacation destinations with breathtaking scenery, Hawaii probably ranks somewhere at the top. It is one of the 50 states of the U.S, the fourth-smallest in land area, and 11^th least populous. Being an island, its coastline stretches for miles along the Pacific Ocean, 750 miles to be precise. It is the fourth longest in the United States.

Thanks to its unique tropical climate, numerous public beaches, and beautiful natural scenery, many unique visitors and tourists make their way to the state every year. The state also houses many active volcanoes which is why you won’t look too hard to find archeologists moving around. Click here to learn more about the active volcanoes in Hawaii.

Perhaps, the most interesting fact about this beautiful state that many people are unaware of is its military achievement. The state of Hawaii is home to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the largest Naval Command in the world. It also accommodates about 75,000 employees of the Defense Department. Unexpected right?

With this much military presence, one can safely conclude that Hawaii may be the safest vacation destination in the world. However, this article isn’t about Hawaii, at least not directly. Rather, it is about a very interesting location in the state, the famous Road to Hana that everyone seems to be talking about.

A Quick Look at Hana Town

Hana is a small town in the eastern parts of Maui County, Hawaii.  It is one of the most isolated communities in the state, which is why most of its cultural heritage and natural scenery are still intact. The fact that the area is seen as “untouched” is one of the things visitors find appealing about place. Visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maui_County,_Hawaii to learn more about Maui County.

To get to the town, you’d have to drive along the Hana Highway, which is famously known as the Road to Hana. Its calm, peaceful environment is a place people looking to get away from all the bustling of city life come to. Locals are friendly and most of the food vendors serve really delicious meals.

But the most exciting and interesting part of visiting Hana isn’t the town itself, rather, the journey to the town.

The Road to Hana

Many people enjoy road trips with scenic views of mountainous plains, long stretches of wild green vegetation, and ocean views. It is as relaxing as it is exciting! But you may be surprised to find that the Road to Hana offers more than any road trip you’ve ever been on. 

Hana town, unlike most other parts of Hawaii, is unspoiled. What this means is that the modernization of cities hasn’t made its way to the area. As a result, the natural mesmerizing scenery of the town, as well as the routes leading up to it, are still intact.

As fascinating as this is, you’ll realize that the Road to Hana is much more than just a scenic drive. Once you get to experience it, you’ll realize that the trip to the town is more of an adventure. A trip back in time through the incredibly wild tropical rainforest of Maui. You get to experience wild nature to its fullest and appreciate the peace that comes with connecting with mother earth.

Like we mentioned earlier, this trip is both relaxing and exciting. This is because there are so many things to see at every bend or turn that will leave you breathless and in awe of how beautiful nature can be.

Hana Private Tours

People that have travelled the famous Road to Hana often advise others to do it on a private tour. A Road to Hana private tour takes the experience to a whole new level. You probably already know the benefits that come with going on tours with a private guide.

The experience is usually more personalized and detailed as there are no distractions. The tour guide focuses on just you to ensure you get the best experience possible. Hana private tours are certainly the best ways to explore the unspoiled Hana landscape.

You’ll be driven around in a jeep that is both comfortable and open so that you don’t compromise your comfort for the views and vice versa. These private tours come in different packages, so you’d have to go through them to find the one you fancy the most.

Final Thoughts

Being a private tour, you can customize the experience to visit several stops, making the trip even more fun. The best private tours usually begin at 7 am. This is done so that you can see most of the places before they become swamped by other tourists. But if you prefer to sleep in, there’s always the option to begin the tour much later, usually around 9 am.

The post A Look at Road to Hana Private Tours first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

C++ Vs C Which is Better

Shows Job Assist specialists that have enormous expertise in C Programs as well as can finish the job on any kind of shows subject regardless of its degree of intricacy.

For years, we have actually been assisting trainees from the UNITED STATES, UK, Canada, Australia, as well as the remainder of the nations to finish the show’s projects. With a group of 900+ committed designers, we have actually developed ourselves as the leading shows task aid supplier for c programming assignment help.

We’ll contrast the C as well as C++ programs languages comprehensive as well as aid you to make a decision which to take into consideration finding out in this write-up.

For the majority of people, C++ is a far better selection. It has even more functions, even more applications, as well as for many people, finding out C++ is less complicated.

C++ is a put-together, statically keyed-in, and also object-oriented programs language. It’s difficult to launch your computer system without running some C++ code. Adobe software application, Google software program, MySQL, as well as also huge components of Windows itself are all made with C++.

What Are C Languages?

C languages are, in numerous means, the bedrock that many software programs bases on. C languages, unlike Latin, are not just the basis for numerous various other languages still being used today.

Which Technique is Much better?

They actually come down to choice, as well as knowledgeable designers can utilize either to produce a useful and also valuable program. EVEN MORE: Python vs C++: Dynamic as well as Static

Intent as well as Usage Today

Regardless of the reality that C++ has all of these attributes, C is still in usage today. As a lot of the Windows OS is composed in C++, lots of components of its core elements are made in C for the added rate.

Information Kinds

While both languages are statically keyed in, C just has assistance for primitive predefined information kinds. EVEN MORE: JavaScript vs C++: Resemblances and also distinctions

Various Other C++ Functions

C++ additionally sustains driver overloading and also feature overloading, which offers programmers the capacity to appoint a personalized interpretation to particular drivers, information, and also features. C++ likewise utilizes inline features (over macro features) for company, attempt as well as capture blocks for mistake handling, and also referral variables. C consists of none of these functions.

If you are acquainted with object-oriented programs, C++ is a wonderful language to discover specifically. Understanding object-oriented programs will certainly take you a lengthy method to understanding C++. This experience is not essential.

Just How Do Designers Make Use Of C++ vs C?

C is a step-by-step language created with a top-down strategy in mind. This permits designers to make the high-level aspects and also frameworks prior to going on to the smaller sized internal operations. This is a very easy-to-understand framework and also leads to arranged programs.

C++, on the various other hands, is still exceptionally quickly. It is the front runner for systems that need rate yet still require the performance that C++ supplies. Area like AAA video game layout as well as networking usage C++ due to the fact that it’s quickly, yet it still keeps greater degree functions that make growth reasonably feasible.

What is C++?

C++ is similar to C; actually, it’s thought about a superset of C. Basically, C++ is C with extra capability. Bjarne Stroustrup produced C++ in 1985. Stroustrup had actually developed “C with courses,” an expansion of the C language that offered lower-level C performance as well as rate yet with an object-oriented framework.

C++, on the various other hand, is a bottom-up programs language. Like a lot of object-oriented languages, a developer usually creates multifunctional components planned for usage when making the major feature of the program. This strategy is harder to results however arrange in even more modular code as well as an end product that’s simpler to utilize as well as customize.

Due to this, C++ has far better information safety over C, the last having public variables that destructive code can gain access to.

Phrase structure

It’s essential to keep in mind that given that C++ is a superset of C, you can run the majority of C code on a C++ compiler. C++ can not generally run on a regular C compiler.

What is C?

Dennis Ritchie initially created C in 1972 at Bell Labs. At its core, C is a general-purpose, assembled, as well as step-by-step programs language.

Object-Oriented Programs

C++ includes courses and also object-oriented shows to the C language. As an object-oriented language, C++ has the capacity to utilize information encapsulation as well as info hiding. Variables that showed up in C can currently be concealed inside a course that just particular features can gain access to.

C: Harder However A Lot More Control

Among the primary advantages of C is its straight control over memory and also equipment. As a superset, C++ has the exact same control with much easier devices to offer designers a lot more control. One advantage to finding out C would certainly be finding out the tough means to do points, yet having even more control over what you do later on.

C vs C++: An Overview

Allow’s have a look at the distinctions between C and also C++ thoroughly, and after that establish which is ideal for you.

C is still appropriate, as well as finding out to the program in C can enhance exactly how you program in C++. Neither language is a negative selection, and also both have sensible professional applications.

C++ vs C.

C and C++ are the oldest earliest and also well-known popular in the family household C++ is simply like C; in reality, it’s taken into consideration a superset of C. Basically, C++ is C with added capability. Stroustrup had actually produced “C with courses,” an expansion of the C language that supplied lower-level C performance and also rate however with an object-oriented framework.

C++ vs C: Which Language Should I Discover?

C++ is a superset of C. C++ is object-oriented, bottom-up, as well as consists of several top-level functions. C is reduced degree, step-by-step, and also top-down. Since it is somewhat faster as well as smaller sized than C++, c is still in usage.

It’s vital to keep in mind that given that C++ is a superset of C, you can run the majority of C code on a C++ compiler. C++ includes courses and also object-oriented programs to the C language.

C++ vs C.

C as well as C++ are the earliest and also most widely known languages in the household. According to PYPL, these languages place as number 6 in use worldwide since January 2020. PYPL tracks as well as rates the appeal of shows languages.

At the time of its production, C was reducing side, changing setting up language as the go-to for running systems like Unix and also later on Windows. Since it has a reduced degree of abstraction, it’s taken into consideration a mid-level or reduced programs language.

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Consumerism Piles Up People and Thing

There’s an inverse spiritual and metaphysical relationship between thousands of desperate people piling up at America’s southern border, and thousands of shipping containers of consumer goods piled up on sea and land waiting to be unloaded off America’s coasts.

What percentage of distressed people waiting for a chance to get into the United States at the Mexican border is objectionable as immigrants for this or any country? Fox News and its ovine followers would say 98%, and think they’re being generous by letting 2% in.

In truth, probably 98% of the Latinos and Haitians who have risked their lives and the lives of their children for a chance to enter the United States are good people, whereas it’s looking like half of America has gone bad. (And no, I’m not calling for “open borders,” and that we should let everyone in.)

I don’t know which is worse however – the Biden Administration sending thousands of Haitians back to a devastated country that most of them escaped from years ago, or the Trump Administration separating children from their mothers and fathers as a deterrent to migration.

When I lived in Silicon Valley, I met a French businesswoman who spent three months a year in the US in the tech sector, traveling around the country, and then returned to France. We got to talking about what happens to people after they’ve lived in the USA for a while.

“One year,” she said cryptically. One year for what, I asked? “One year before a person loses their soul living in America.”

That was over two decades years ago, and what seemed hyperbolic to me then sounds about right now. The questions are: Why do people lose their souls after a year or two in the USA?

Second, given that the French woman’s estimate is even half correct today, why do so many people still want to come to the USA?

The first question is harder to answer, but the second seems fairly obvious, especially if you’ve been to a place where inescapable poverty and violence are endemic.

Besides obvious survival reasons, I think it’s also because even though the social and political culture has collapsed in America, incredibly, things still basically work here.

Of course, right-wing extremists now speak openly on Fox and from the highest political offices of the “Great Replacement” by people of color. They refuse to see the malevolent parallels in such thinking with the most horrendous eruptions of nationalism and authoritarianism in the last century.

But I digress. The rot of racism is catalyzed by the rottenness of consumerism, which turns people against each other by turning everything and everyone into a commodity, thereby siphoning off our souls unless we’re inwardly extraordinarily diligent.

So what percentage of this gargantuan amount of stuff lingering on ships, slips and lips is actually necessary for survival and a decent standard of living? Conversely, what percentage are things people don’t need, but are stimulated by advertizing to desire, in a futile attempt to fill the bottomless emptiness within so many Americans?

My estimate is that 80-85% of the mountains of imported consumer goods are actually consumer bads – useless, redundant, and unnecessary vanity and escapist junk.

Less than a 100 years ago, many people who had little to begin with stood in soup lines during the Great Depression. During the height of the pandemic, thousands of cars queued up at local fairgrounds to obtain boxes of food.

It’s called “food insecurity,” and estimates range from 10-20% of people in the wealthiest country in the world.  

Despite the much ballyhooed “reset” of values and priorities, there’s now an even more voracious appetite for clothing, shoes, electronics and other stuff made in factories in Asia.  

The causes of the worldwide “Great Supply Chain Disruption” are complicated. Shortage of truckers on the consumer-gorging American end, and problems restarting manufacturing and shipping after pandemic slowdowns on the Asian production end, are two of the reasons.

Also, as reported by one of the main MSM economic organs, “as many companies have ordered extra and earlier, especially as they prepare for the all-consuming [sic] holiday season, warehouses have become jammed. So containers have piled up at America’s ports.”  

Hitting a low note of slickness and sentimentality, the article concludes: “On a muggy afternoon in late September, Christmas suddenly felt close at hand. The containers stacked on the riverbanks were surely full of holiday decorations, baking sheets, gifts and other material for the greatest wave of consumption on earth.”

The engine of the disintegrating, earth-decimating global economy has been American consumerism, driven by a vacuous way of life currently imitated by peoples around the world, including the Chinese. Let’s end it, now.  

Martin LeFevre

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Conception Prevents Perception of Beauty

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

                                                          John Keats

It was raining so lightly late this afternoon that you could count the drops as they fell on your skin.

My next-door neighbors, a rather secretive group from Korea, never cut their grass. Which is fine because the drought has made it desert dry in California, and water is precious.

The neighbors’ brown, waist-high grass in back yields brilliant purple flowers from a vine that spills over the fence and forms a string of singlets along the ground and a regal bouquet overtopping the fence.

It’s getting harder and harder to see and feel beauty during months of smudgy skies from wildfires erupting every year, driven by climate crisis.

The usual bike loop around the recent habitat of pheasant, long-eared rabbits, kite falcons, coyote and rattlesnakes, now has a hideous ‘development’ with architecture ranging from a city hall monstrosity to hundreds of retro-tech box apartments to sprawls of cheap office buildings.

What becomes of “beauty is truth” when the beauty of the earth is destroyed?

A prominent pundit in America recently gave this philosopher pause when he wrote: “As our old friend Kant argued, perceptions without conceptions are blind.”

I’ve talked with many philosophers, and I haven’t met one yet who fully understands what Kant meant by much of what he wrote. So it’s a double conceit for our New York Times columnist to assume Kant’s mantle in pronouncing, “perceptions without conceptions are blind.”

Especially since he gave only half of the Kant quote, which goes: “Perception without conception is blind; conception without perception is empty.”

Kant meant that we cannot perceive what we haven’t first conceived, and that our conceptions must be refreshed by perception. To my mind, the first clause is false, the second half-true.

In actuality, perception comes before conception. Our conceptions, having been formed by knowledge and experience, are always pre-conceptions where the present moment is concerned.

Therefore perception determined by conception is blind.

Despite the glib assertion by the commentator, looking at people and things through the lens of our prior conceptions (and our conceptions are always prior to the present moment) prevents direct perception of what is.

Since the direct perception of what is is the portal to truth, which is always of the present, direct perception without pre-conception isn’t just a philosophical fine point, but a psychological, emotional and spiritual imperative.

In short, conceptions are made by thought, and the more thought the less perception.

It’s only in the spaces between thoughts and conceptions, or when the movement of thought falls silent, that we perceive things as they actually are.

That’s why taking at least 20 minutes a day to simply observe, beginning with sensory perception, and observing the observer that judges, compares and associates, is vital to our growth as human beings in this frightful world.

As Keats poetically put it, beauty and truth are synonymous, and can only be perceived in the silence of being.

Martin LeFevre

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Tea, Truth and the Multiverse

In the past week, I had two long talks over zoom and tea with a librarian at University of California, Davis, a man who has started ‘tea, meditation and dialogue’ sessions online and on campus.

The conversation led to new insights, links between believing in the randomness of the universe and atheism, and between the multiverse speculation and denial of the existence of truth. 

The librarian fellow is a tea connoisseur, and though I’m not, I like tea, having never acquired a taste for coffee. I was curious about his online Tuesday tea to start the day, and participated in the short ceremony last week.  

The ritual begins with tealeaves (no bags of course), a bowl (not a cup), and very hot water. The four other participants had some specialty teas and a bowl, and they all were, except me ironically, outdoors.  

The zoom session is advertized as “tea and meditation,” and the Tuesday ceremony is short and solemn, lasting less than 20 minutes. The librarian conducted a Japanese-like tea ritual, and guided participants in some breathing exercises, neither of which are my cup of tea.

On Friday, the tea fellow hosts a small in-person group outside the library, where he serves tea and the first ‘round’ (cup) is sipped in silence. If he and I could think together over zoom, my intent was to drive the two hours down to Davis for the Friday in-person tea/meditation/dialogue session.

At the end of our second hour-long online dialogue however, which I felt had gone well, Karl referenced a remark about truth I had made in passing during our previous talk. He questioned whether there was any such thing as “objective truth” (a term I didn’t use and don’t like, since it implies separation between the observer and the observed).

Suddenly his worldview became clear. He had likened conspiracy theories to the need to believe in God, saying both involved believing in a “super controlling intelligence.” I didn’t disagree.

However I then asked: Is there only randomness, or is there an underlying order in the universe, which isn’t pre-determinative but includes a random and creative element?

Karl emphatically replied that the universe was purely random, and that people are predisposed to see patterns, just as there is a need to believe in God and conspiracy theories.

I pointed out that the consensus among astrophysicists is that the universe is “fine-tuned” from the Big Bang, with laws that permit it to unfold and evolve as it has, from the laws of gravity, to star and black hole formation, to life itself.

Randomists, who are often dogmatic atheists, have gotten around this problem by proposing “the multiverse,” a speculative and intellectually dishonest theory that upholds randomness by maintaining our universe is but one of an infinite number of universes, the one that by chance we happen to have evolved in.

Randomists seem to fear that an acknowledgment of a fine-tuned universe (‘uni’ means one) implies that there must be a Great Designer, a Creator God that set the whole shebang in motion. However just as the laws of the universe are intrinsic, the intelligence imbuing the universe is intrinsic; no separate agency is necessary.

Dialogue, as I propose it, means finding the truth of things, such as randomness and God, through questioning together. That was too much for Karl, a rock-ribbed individualist who believes there is only ‘my perspective’ vs. ‘your perspective.’

When I pointed out that such a worldview means that there is no such thing as truth (without implying objective, fixed truth), he ended the dialogue by saying, “How do I know if the truth I’m seeing actually agrees with someone else’s?”

I responded that shared insight into ever-changing truth isn’t a matter of agreement or disagreement, which flows from the false idea that we’re separate individuals. Karl indicated he didn’t want to talk again.

Martin LeFevre

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History Is No Guide During Unprecedented Times

“It is impossible to say where we stand in relation to our own crisis. Perhaps the worst is yet to come; perhaps we’ve already sailed through.”

That is simply wrong, and deeply misleading. It shows that avoidance and denial still rule in the mainstream media. Simply aware people see the way things are, and the way things are going, and that without radical change within and without, society and the world will continue as they are, only worse.

Why are intellectuals the last to grasp that during unprecedented times, history can provide little or no guide? Is it because they are so invested in accumulated knowledge over direct perception, in idea over insight, in ‘perspective’ over truth and actuality?

By definition, the fact that the human crisis is unparalleled means that there has been a deep rupture with the past, and previous historical cycles do not significantly pertain to the present.

That doesn’t mean we can’t learn by studying the history, including the evolutionary history of humans, just that a higher level of insight and creativity is required during the unique, multi-faceted crisis facing humanity in the present age. 

What makes the present time unique? First and foremost, man has never threatened the basic balance and biodiversity of the earth before. The so-called march of civilization, with our deeply conditioned ideas of progress in the West, is running smack up against the reality of a degraded, decimated planet, if not ecological collapse.

New insight is the wellspring of expanding knowledge, but the state of insight, which occurs during methodless meditation, is a different animal altogether.

Throughout history, there have been very few human beings who have lived in a state of insight. That’s mostly due to the fact that the state of insight is not accumulative. It doesn’t matter how much insight you’ve had in the past; it only matters what insight you have in the present.

The state of insight, whether it lasts for a few timeless minutes or hours after a complete meditation, or whether it is irrevocable, is synonymous with illumination. Strictly speaking however, illumination is irrevocable, and the question that besets me is, why does the brain return and revert to consciousness based on thought — that is, symbol and memory?

In any case, I’m sure the survival of humanity now requires many human beings of insight. That means a new human being, unlike the humans that have existed in history or prehistory.

The psychological, spiritual and ecological crisis of humankind is unprecedented, demanding an unparalleled response – a new human being.

Martin LeFevre

The post History Is No Guide During Unprecedented Times first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

Facebook Down is a Happy Day

For all of those sad they cannot interact on Facebook. Pick up your phones and call someone. This was life in the 80s before the internet bullshit. This is life when we had human interactions before the COVID flu shut down the world and socialist took over the USA.

There is a new revolution coming in the USA when people are fed up of paying taxes to support a government that does not support their real intentions. No taxation without representation is here and now.

Biden sucks he has done nothing right. Its time to stand up to our rights and have people from California stay in place and those in New York to stop moving to Florida. They want socialism they can have it. They can move to Costa Rica or whereever but stop thinking that Venezuela’s country is how we want the USA.

Biden has dementia and is not really running the US government.

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Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp All Down

You know its a good day when Facebook and other social media go down and people have to actually talk to each other. The last 15 minutes have been great and what the world would be with actual interaction and no Facebook fact checkers.

I’ll add this…..For al you Biden supporters. Name one thing this President has done and you cannot mention Trump in your response? I’ll wait…..This is for Costa Rica too.

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Costa Rica Vehicle Property Taxes Increasing

The initial intention to reduce vehicle property tax by up to 50% in 2022 has been reversed. A replacement text motion has been created. It would have a lower reduction than that approved last year. 

In 2021, deputies reduced by half the tax on cars valued less than ₡7 million. The normal tax on a car worth ₡6 million, is ₡170,000. In 2021, this was reduced to ₡85,000. With the latest text, the tax for 2022 would be ₡143,700. The reduction, instead of 50%, will be 21%. 

The Comptroller General of the Republic reminded us that reductions in taxes have a negative effect on public revenues that are needed to pay for infrastructure maintenance like road repairs. The adjustment from last year cost the Government 

 ₡60,000 million, or 0.16% of the GDP.

The newest proposal consists of 12 motions. 11 have been presented already. This proposal would reduce the effect on the Government from ₡60,000 million to ₡30,000 million. 

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