Greenpa
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Re: more for the UK military – they are also cutting general science funding; except they do these kinds of things: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34892921
A billion for malaria, from the UK. Where malaria is such a threat.
They’ve got “fund our cronies” down pat- and a torpid public ready to be foisted upon.
Dickens saw very clearly, was horrified, and spoke detailed whole truth repeatedly. His “A Child’s History Of England” is as blunt as it is possible to be.
Anybody see any changes in human behavior or human law/government as a result?
Me neither. Lots of profitable movies and plays, though.
“Only solution: immediate ban on feeding livestock antibiotics. Which won’t happen because the chemical industry likes its profits too much.”
Not only the chem industry, but Big Pharm (only slightly different) and Big Farm. Industrial agriculture is totally addicted to antibiotics- and the hard reality is, they no longer have any farmers in their systems who know how to do without. Real farmers were replaced with unskilled labor, years ago. “Just feed them this, and punch the time clock.”
The other huge antibiotic problem we have, which is kept as quiet as possible by those involved, is biofuels. Both ethanol and any biodiesel process involving microbes use immense quantities of antibiotics to prevent their fermentation tanks from rapidly evolving wild microbial ecosystems. And in the case of corn ethanol- after fermenting with trained yeasts and antibiotics- and oh, those few bacteria which have now evolved to live in that stew anyway, resistant- the industries take off the ethanol, yes? But that leaves “distillers solids” – millions of tons. What do they do with it? Why – feed it to livestock, of course; more profit; and oh, yeah, the transmission of resistant microbes directly into CAFO livestock stomachs.
What could possibly go wrong?
Reality – evolutionary scientists pointed this out before the practices were put in place. Action? Hey; let’s have some committees look into it.
Just in case!!
You were wondering exactly how clueless/stupid/destructive it is possible for the press to be:
“Hey, Mo, look at this! The NYT says we’re running behind!” Competition, that’s what they need.
“• Wall Street Is Running the World’s Central Banks (Bloomberg)”
And isn’t it interesting to see that headline – from that source?
Once you’ve cannibalized your own set ups- you will need to find something else to eat.
There’s going to be a serious arctic air intrusion into Europe next week; the effect on refugees is likely going to be quite bad, and the pressure-cooker will be further pressurized.
I can’t guess what will happen to the pressure cooker; but the weather is a different thing. If you intend to be one of the survivors; you really need to learn how to read the information that’s right there on the web;
https://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display_alt.cgi?a=glob_250“• Debt Market Distortions Go Global as Nothing Makes Sense Anymore (Bloomberg)”
Something that is exceptionally difficult for humans to hold on to is the absolute truth that nothing in the entire Universe “does not make sense.”
Everything- always – makes sense. No kidding. If you find yourself puzzled; what it means is you have not found the context and viewpoint from which it makes sense. Vast amounts of human agony, including among “trained thinkers” is spent on holding on to the idea that we make sense, it’s the Universe that is wrong.
The Universe is never. Never. wrong. We are- more often than not, at this point.
Blithering while Rome burns:
https://www.details.com/story/most-expensive-mansion-500-million-nile-niami
Some of the photos show construction detail; the quality looks like total crap to me. Of course, for this market, actual quality is of no concern.
Another datum, symptom; consonant with impending broad economic collapse. I’m currently unable to find ANY datum pointing in any “upward” economic direction. That’s unusual. I’ve never seen commodities trends so absolutely uniform; all down.
“Fitch on Thursday cut the lender’s credit rating”
Question for the knowledgeable here. Is there any evidence that the ratings agencies are a rigged tool of the 0.1%? Not difficult to crash a company’s stock; not difficult to crash an entire country, if desired. As far as I’m aware, there is no governmental oversight to the agencies, not even pretend.
2nd question; a very useful one. Is there any evidence that the ratings agencies are NOT manipulated?
Folks?
Possible scenario for VW to survive: 100% of top 4 tiers of executives, including those retired in the past decade, are immediately imprisoned, and all their assets returned to VW. Top tiers are replaced NOT by adjacent tiers, but by workers from the floor.
Probability? Somehow, infinitely less than zero. Any other pathway? VW will not survive.
It’s a funny old world.Re: Roberts
“Incompetent economic studies by careless economists, such as Michael Porter at Harvard and Matthew Slaughter at Dartmouth, concluded that the gift of vast numbers of US high productivity, high value-added jobs to foreign countries was a great benefit to the US economy.”
That amounts to an incompetent analysis. The “economists” in question don’t publish their nonsense out of carelessness or incompetence – but in completely intentional (and probably paid) support of the 0.1%. They know exactly what they are doing. And they do it so well and professionally that they mislead not only the public- but academics like Roberts.
“Essentially, we are witnessing the reverse of Darwinism – those the least competent are the ones with the most kids.”
Nope, not the reverse, at all; right on target. A general rule measured in many mammals and birds; the lower the probability the offspring will survive, the higher the birth rate. Many species are capable of changing birth rates in a very short time, some even “now.” Snow Owls are the favorite example; when the lemming population is low, they’ll lay 2-4 eggs per year; if the lemming explode, the same owls will lay as many as 11 eggs. This is not the same thing as “uncertain future= high birth rate”; but an example of the basic ability of many species to change their birth rate very quickly.
Humans do this also- but it is certainly not the only exterior factor that makes our birth rates go up or down. Despair can make the birth rate crash, and being an Owner can result in very high rates. We’re complicated.
“Chevron cutting 10% of workforce.” Ok. Wow.
“its hated one-child policy”. The whole article is straight big-bank capitalist party line propaganda.
Yep, if you talk to a Chinese from Taiwan; or Hong Kong, it’s “hated”. But in central China years ago when I was there- even out in the remote country- it was discussed constantly, but as a pure necessity. “We are too crowded; don’t have enough resources to go around even now. We have to stop population growth.”
Was I exposed to a statistically significant cross section of Chinese thought? Of course not. But be aware the “universally hated” is just not true.
I read the entire article. 🙂
My long range prediction: This situation is ample justification for Japan to open mining operations in Antarctica. They can now point to China’s rather astonishing move in building artificial islands so it can claim, forcefully, that it owns great chunks of ocean- with the accompanying oil and gas. “See?” Japan can say. “National self-interest is totally acceptable motivation for grabbing undefended assets.”
And when they start mining for rare-earths in Antarctica; building nice new nuclear power plants using their abundant MOX fuel, to provide power for smelting (with zero environmental controls) – exactly who is going to stop them?
I assign this scenario a Bayesian probability of 41%, over the next 2 decades. Not certainty; but high enough for everyone to lose sleep.
And lest ye imagine that government double-speak is a foreign accomplishment: the NYC de Blasio administration – today announced that it will allow over 50% of a major apartment block – to be removed from “affordable housing” regulations. So- this is a big win- it will “preserve almost 50%.” Actually; 44.5% If you’re about to dine, I don’t recommend reading the story.
I think everyone here will fully enjoy this from NHK today- I’ll give you the RealSpeak translation, first: “Japan’s Finance Minister has announced that he will henceforth see to it that the statistics being published by all other agencies will now reflect Official Truth about Japan’s economy, instead of – that other stuff. The Abe administration is not the least bit embarrassed that this decision has been made public, since everyone understands that whatever they do is for the good of Japan.”
“Govt. to review statistics
“Japan’s Finance Minister has urged other ministries to reexamine their statistics to better reflect the nation’s economic activities. Taro Aso made the proposal at a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Friday.
“Prices and other statistics play an important role in tracking business trends and determining economic policies.
“The Internal Affairs Ministry publishes the consumer price index. But analysts point out the figure does not cover the prices of goods sold through the increasingly popular Internet.
“They also say data on household spending are skewed toward consumption by elderly people. They cite a demographic change that more than half of the households surveyed are now headed by someone aged 60 or older.
“Finance Ministry officials plan to make specific requests to other ministries on how to collect information and what items to include in compiling economic statistics.”
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151019_15.html
“Rome was never a democracy in the Athenian sense. ”
Athens was never a democracy in the Athenian sense. The WSJ here is just reading out of old textbooks, which mostly took Athenians’ descriptions of themselves as accurate. At least 40% of the population consisted of slaves- invisible and never mentioned; not really humans. A bit tricky getting good estimates at this point, but clearly – a small minority had active power, always.
Doc – many thanks. The opacity smells hugely of insiders not wanting anyone else finding a “good thing” – and a really lousy outlook for actual farmers. One more destabilizer
Ilargi – I would really like to see some authoritative numbers and graphs on how much Wall Street money has been diverted into farm land, purely as an investment (since oil futures suck so loud) – and what the trends there are over time.
I know it’s going on; I know local land prices have been affected- but – is anybody really keeping track over all?
Nicole – desperately want time to listen to the podcast; but don’t got it in the next days. Harvest overload.
But; here is a bit of current research gleaned from current Nature that you may find interesting/useful; https://tinyurl.com/pyvdr26
Irtnog version: experiment: inequality, and display of wealth, both tend to drive inequality further.
Oh, piffle. Everything is just fine. Abe says so, and to prove it: :
“Abe said he would carry out a productivity revolution to achieve the goal of increasing Japan’s GDP to 600 trillion yen or about 5 trillion dollars.
“He said companies have been enjoying record profits and called for the private sector to invest actively and boldly in equipment, technology and human resources.
He said it will be an investment in the future, and the government will ease regulations if needed.”https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151013_28.html
Antarctica: run away?? Au contraire, run towards- new land opening up soon, on sale in just a few years. Coolest and highest ground left anywhere!
More seriously: when you remove billions of tons from the top of a continent, what happens? We know, actually. It will float higher up on the mantel (already measured as going on) and in the process of rising, generate a few earthquakes, and push the various tectonic plates around. Tsunamis enough for everyone!
The piece I’m still struggling with is how astonishingly good we are at refusing to learn or remember. How do we do it? And I include myself, to be sure. I read “Grapes of Wrath” in high school, and “Silas Marner” – and learned not one single thing, in spite of plenty of emotional response.
“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.”
― Aristophanes, PlutusThat’s perfectly lucid, and accurate, and from around 400 BCE.
So I’m re-reading “Catch 22” at the moment; you know, so I can keep my mind off the headlines, and actually get to sleep.
All seems so soothingly parallel.
🙂 I know you’ve dealt with the topic before, but what hit me this morning – maybe due to what I had for breakfast – was the simple lucid dispassionate flow. You usually write with great passion; which is great for us here – but which can also make some new readers wary.
Regardless. I liked it.
Ilargi – outstanding! Not sure I’ve seen you write like this before. I’m NOT suggesting you abandon your regular style; just that this is an excellent addition to your armament. 🙂
Your suggestion for a video game is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT on target. Yes, it should be done- excellently – and a top composer should be commissioned to create music especially for it- art, likewise…
A huge number of todays “greenies” got their bent by watching “Captain Planet” as kids- they’ve told me so. As lame and juvenile as it was- they loved it and it stuck.
You could make “changing” your avatars one of the big goals-
What fun it would be to make that happen!
Component #1; a leader for it who demands excellence in everything; and who will stick through it. And a next cadre who demand the leader demands it.
Excellent. Truly.
This seems more like Nicole, writing- yes? no? Either way – First Rate.
Best target audience, high school and college students. They are reading more- and really searching for anything that helps them understand. How do we get it to them?
“the Empire has become extremely silly so silly that I believe it deserves the title of the World’s Silliest Empire.”
Yes, there are silly entities here. But- one of the very silliest is Orlov. He paints himself as an outside wise philosopher, revealing Truth – but –
He keeps ranting because the Empire does not work or respond to logical principles or analyses.
Um. Duh. Empires do not, never have, worked on logical principles, particularly not on principles aimed at increasing human or world well-being. No Empire, ever, anywhere, including the USA in 1776.
Reason has nothing to do with the problem; nothing whatever. And as a tool, reason is as useless as expecting a dead rat to function efficiently as a hammer. A rat dead for a week.
Reasonable people need to acknowledge that, once and for all, and move on. What actions can you take, reasonable or entirely otherwise, that might improve things?
“It’s not just rhino’s. We kill across the board.”
Much too true; and far too unrecognized. My friends who are professional ecologists argue about which is the greatest danger to H. sapiens- climate change, or the loss of biodiversity. Climate gets the most attention, but the loss of other species is truly at least as dangerous; and we don’t recognize it.
And the Multinationals are now actively promoting the idea that wildlife is tremendously healthy and resilient – since not all of the evacuated area around Chernobyl is a scorched desert- https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34414914 Hugely misleading, and very intentionally so.
Yes, Abe is a big fat liar, but I don’t see a fool there, nor any desperation; rather he seems to be in total control. He’s simply grasped fully a basic principle of governance, which is that when your opponents call you a big fat liar- you ignore them.
And, they are showing us all how to handle nuclear power disasters; it’s called “Trickle Down Public Relations” – i.e. release the disaster news over decades, though it was all known within days. Why, yes, 100% of the fuel in Reactor #2 melted through the bottom, and is still melting its way down –
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150926_07.html
Gaia Vince wins book prize… boy, there’s just good news all over! In the NYT, big corporations announce they’re going to fight bad stuff, too! I’m all verklempt.
Nicole- I will bet good money you actually understand the very complex tangle of NOx pollutants. It’s clear from yesterday’s comments; most of the commenters are clueless.
Some of the NOx family are very, very bad for the world indeed. It’s another place where the corporate dispensers of disinformation rejoice- it’s very easy to mislead the partially educated.
Could you write a brief clarification here of the hazards? They are far from trivial, and “good mileage” is not the ultimate argument.
“Better do it well. Fire the right people, not scapegoats.
• Volkswagen To Start Firings Over Emissions Scandal On Friday (Reuters)”
I’m afraid we know, historically, how this kind of thing works- no, the people who caused it will not be fired; rather the “open season” firing will result in getting rid of people who have irritated their immediate bosses. Usually, that will mean the most competent workers will be fired; they are the ones who make waves.
Result – the most corrupt will be in charge of the most meek incompetents. Bad recipe.
” a Long Auto Industry Pattern (NY Times)”
Starting a journalistic meme. I have vague, infantile fantasies that SOME journalist may now point out, effectively – “It’s not just the auto industry, stupid. It’s ALL industries. They all cheat, at the drop of a hat.”
“Chinese have lost trust in their government.”
I think the Chinese are a good deal more sophisticated than that; they never “trust” their government.
It was entirely natural for me, but I discovered it was the fastest way to earn the trust of my co-workers in China; to tell them: “You and I are working together to do something good. And you and I both know that both our governments are full of people we can’t trust to back us up.”
I got big smiles with that one, every time; and quick intimacy- and tons of “my government is more corrupt than yours” jokes- from both sides; it became a friendly and hilarious competition.
Incidentally; one more guess. The Pope and President Xi – WILL meet; probably in the VIP lounge at the airport- with zero announcements ahead of time. Probably plenty after.
A) why schedule so closely – if not intended?
B) both individuals strike me as the kind to go ahead and meet- and see what happens.
C) announcing would quintuple security problems, and make world media go seriously weird; so, no announcements.I betcha a dollar.
My guess. As to where it may eventually go.
The UN will become the putative over-seer, and the European countries being deluged will provide the money; since it’s obviously going to cost billions anyway- to set up “intercept” territories, inside the countries of the refugees’ origins. Those without papers anywhere in the world will be shipped back to where they came from – but kept inside UN premises.
The argument will be that they will one day be able to truly go home- so they need to wait there. It will all be horrifying; corrupt instantly- but will be sold as more humane- and cheaper than allowing the floods of people to continue. Concentration camps, in reality – but on their own soil. The “No Strangers Wanted” signs are going up rapidly, and seriously – do you see today’s humans doing anything else?
Dinosaurs- this is an excellent illustration of how the press will keep scientific “conflicts” alive for decades- after complete resolution. I vass dere, Sharlie.
One of my teacher/mentor/friends was a major “contender” in the original discussion; featured in the first NOVA special – around 1976 or so? Upshot- the really big dinosaurs HAD to be essentially warm blooded- via pure physics. A bit of heat generated by muscle movement in the center of the animal – may take hours to make its way to the skin, and out. The problem for any animal as large as an elephant is not how to keep heat in, but how to get rid of it fast enough to avoid cooking oneself to death.
Surviving the arctic environment is not a problem of keeping warm- but a problem of dealing with dark and greatly decreased plant growth. We have known the heat dynamics, conclusively, for decades; but every time some sophomore (or plain incompetent breathes “this proves it!” – it’s instant reruns.
Another “Why the other intelligences in the Universe won’t talk to us.” “They don’t progress; they just watch reruns- in all aspects; government, science- all just old Gilligan’s Island reruns.”
Oh, yeah, “the economy”. I’m wondering if the Volkswagen debacle may not be the trigger for the next big down tick in planned pump and dump. Easy to ride the trends, and down is clearly the trend; worldwide. The Owners know how.
