Throw The Bums OUT!!!

Multiplier Effect: When you spend a buck somewhere, that buck gets spent again and again, so the effect of you spending causes more spending. Look, say you hire a painter to paint your house. You pay the painter, who then gets his car fixed. The mechanic then buys a new tool, and the tool company buys material to make more tools. That is what every government does every time when there is a downturn in a country’s economy. Except the Tea Party Republicans. They insist on cutting spending. So the result is less money in people’s pockets, less spent, and less multiplier, fewer jobs, longer recession.
Almost every economist knows that in recession the government spends, and in boom times it pays off debt. Not the other way around. Reducing spending will only drive the economy in the wrong direction. Down. One more reason to use the “moron” appellation on the Tea Party and throw the bums out next election. Yeah.
http://news.yahoo.com/p-500-enters-bear-market-europe-worries-142523281.html
Image: http://img1-cdn.newser.com/square-image/106892-20110331180345/bernanke-were-ready-to-spend-more-to-prop-up-economy.jpeg

"Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink"

And so goes the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". I think everybody knows this poem, or parts of it anyway, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. There is a good discussion about it on the Wikipedia citation below. I remember reading it decades ago and thinking that the one thing we would never run out of was water. I didn't figure on the massive population growth, the unprecedented destruction of the ecosystems of the world, or the disastrous climate changes that would plague us in the decades following the reading.
I guess most of us didn't either. But here we are. Not enough drinking water in places in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, California, New York, Africa, Australia, China, and the list goes on. And not enough water for agriculture in may places either. So crops fail, people starve etc, etc. etc.
I read a comment of Facebook this morning by a writer I don't know:

"Borden Beck: ‎"we" are apparently planning to pull water from the Columbia to replenish an already depleted aquifer in NE Ore so that life can continue... Where will Nevada get water to replenish this groundwater? Answer = nowhere... they are planning on the rapture or armageddon or the apocalypse to make concerns mute."

And you know what? I think Borden Beck may be right. There have been murmurs for years about the policy shifts in America to favor the "endtimes" and bring on the end. I have always dismissed these as lunitic fringe conspiracies. Now I am not so sure. About the conspiracy I mean. The longer the world plunges into the freefall of global disaster, the harder it will be to stop the fall and pull back. I don't see any real effort in this country to do that. Pull back I mean. Sad. Very. Bloody. Sad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner
Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Gustave_Dore_Ancient_Mariner_Illustration.jpg/220px-Gustave_Dore_Ancient_Mariner_Illustration.jpg

Starvation 2008, 1998 and TODAY!

August 9th, 2008: Mark Hawthorne writes that meat production is a major contributor to world hunger. Here is an example he cites:
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC, states it succinctly: “People go hungry because much of arable land is used to grow feed grain for animals rather than people.” He offers as one example the Ethiopian famine of 1984, which was fueled by the meat industry. “While people starved, Ethiopia was growing linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rapeseed meal for European livestock,” he says. “Millions of acres of land in the developing world are used for this purpose. Tragically, 80 percent of the world’s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses which are fed to animals for consumption by the affluent.”
It is now 2011, and nothing has changed except there are even more people starving to death every day. I heard a guy on NPR the other day being interviewed and when asked what could be done to help the current starvation, and he said that many more tons and tons of food would be needed. But here is the kicker: he ended with this “but it is never enough. It will never be enough.” This from an advocate of feeding the starving masses.
Just what the hell will be enough, you ask? Will you give up meat and cheese because they are feed intensive? Beer uses grain. Will the world stop brewing and drinking beer? What about vodka? And bourbon. And Scotch whisky? Dog and cat food? The list of products that are not strictly needed and are made from grain of some kind goes on and on.
Now add to the problem the propensity for humans to reproduce every time they get a full belly and “it is never enough” comes into sharp focus. What is really needed is a dramatic drop in population coupled with an increase in world cooperation in food production and distribution, all without corruption. How likely is that? (Think the Catholic church, the Church of JC of LDS, and the rest of the churches that think more is better, and ignorant people who say stupid things like “we just wanted 4 to even out the family” and crap like that.) OK, so not very likely. What is the alternative? A slow degrading of the ecosystem of the world in an effort to produce ever more food for the ever more people ending with an environmental and political collapse of horrendous proportions.
Then we start again. Hopefully in a world not glowing from nuclear (pronounced new-cle-er not new-que-ler) fallout and freezing in nuclear winter.
Image of family in 1998: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/387/sudan2.jpg
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Feast-or-Famine-Meat-Prod-by-Mark-Hawthorne-080808-523.html

Nicaragua: Don't blame the Monkey

Meanwhile, back at the Villa Paraiso all hell was breaking loose. Several men were running around, some climbing the building, some going in and out of upstairs rooms, obviously looking for something. But what?

The Villa Paraiso had a few animals in cages in the back, including a strange kind of wading bird that held it's head straight up to effectively hide amongst the reeds. And a monkey. This was a Capuchin, one of two species we saw on Omotepe. Now remember that monkeys are smart, have hands and don't like to be in a cage. This monkey, lovingly named by me "That F**king Monkey" loved to escape. The funny thing, though, is that it didn't just disappear into the jungle. Instead, it ran all over the hotel property breaking things that were loose. The week before we got there it smashed a Dutch tourists very expensive camera. On purpose. Just picked it up off a table and threw it hard on the ground. Mean little bastard really.

So anyway, these guys were running all over the place trying to catch the monkey, again. It looked like a French Farce. They finally cornered it, caught it and locked it up, again.

When we got back to our little villa, there, on the ground, was one of the interesting pots we bought from a local potter. Smashed by "That F**king Monkey". That's how it got its name.

Sally reminded me not to blame the monkey. A free animal, now caged, taking out its rage on the captors. Not its fault.

What I can't figure is why it just didn't melt away into the jungle across the road. Maybe payback was more important than freedom. Or maybe it was raised as a babe and didn't know about the jungle. Whatever the case, if you visit the Villa Paraiso, keep your stuff inside, and don't blame the monkey if you forget and something gets "accidentally" broken.

Image:http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/thumbnails/29626-monkey-in-cage-ometepe-island-nicaragua.jpeg

Dining in Nicaragua: Spiders

We got to Ometepe Island in the late afternoon, got off the ferry (?) and drove to the Villa Paraiso. Check in for the group, around 14 or 15 was the usual firedrill, but we got settled. We probably had supper at the hotel, drank a lot of Tona` or Victoria and plenty of Flor-de-Cana 7 year old dark rum. BTW, this is a magnificent rum, among the best if not the best I have ever had. World class. Anyway, the next morning when Sal and I walked the path to the patio for breakfast we noticed a lot of spider webs across the path. We used the old "sweep your hand in front" trick and had no more trouble. I noticed a few webs around the table.
The next morning when we went for breakfast the damn path was really webbed, so we picked up a couple of sticks to clear the way. On sitting down I noticed that the silverware and everything else on the table was webbed down to the table. Then I noticed that I was webbed to the chair, so was Sal, and so was everyone else!! Nobody had seen a spider, but when we looked, as they say down this way, real close, there they were. Thousands of the tinyest spiders I ever saw. Busy running all over the place, webbing everything to everything.
The next morning, more of the same. When we left that morning I looked back at the hotel and the entire roof was solid web. I couldn't see the tile or thatch. Just web. The owners told us that sometimes they have an outbreak (read that a hatch) of these harmless spiders. Just an annoyance. I agree. We didn't get bitten or anything, and we had good breakfasts, but what a feeling to be webbed to your chair, arms, legs, shoulders, the whole Guapote.
I couldn't find a photo of the building, but here is a tree covered in webs. Imagine a whole building, but so dense you couldn't see through it. It was GREAT!!!
Image: http://igniteaparty.gigxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/flor-de-cana-grand-reserve-7-year.jpg
Image.http://cdn.webecoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/worlds-largest-spider-web.jpg

Mexico: Model for the Future?

What is needed for your town to get to the place where Acapulco finds itself today?
Extortion and killing have made this once popular tourist destination a nightmare town. The latest atrocity discovered yesterday is a sack containing 5 human heads left outside an elementary school. The note inside warns specific drug traffickers of the same treatment. Now, the unanswered question asks are these heads of drug traffickers, killed by rival groups, or the heads of teachers who have been threatened with death if they don’t “donate” half of their salaries to the cartel.
Other heads and corpses with and without heads are found daily in many parts of Mexico. All of these are presumably drug cartel executions. Maybe there is the odd murder for gain, hidden in the avalanche of bodies, but mostly these are drug killings.
Corruption of officials at all levels lets this massacre go virtually unpunished, except by the law of the jungle. Could this happen in your town? Did it happen in Chicago in the early 1900s? Did it happen in New York? In Miami? In Los Angles? Could it happen in Tallahassee? In Thomasville? In Managua?
Friends, we are inching closer to this level of violence and criminal control every day in many places in the world. When we cede control of public functions to private enterprises we lose control. Then we open the door to corruption and criminal activity. There are credible reports that the US Government is contracting with the cabal that manages the Conficker network for access to botnets to infiltrate hostile governments. The cyber groups that run the Conficker network are criminals with criminal intent. So the infiltration of crime into government is already an established pathway.
Get real. We are not that far from Acapulco.

Image: http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/191819/slide_191819_376178_large.jpg
Graphic slide show: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/27/acapulco-severed-heads-mexico_n_984263.html#s376187&title=Recent_Violence_In
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/27/140704494/the-worm-that-could-bring-down-the-internet

Who Wrote the Bible? Who Wrote the Book of Love?

(Disclaimer: I think religion is very important and often does very good works. I think many people believe in some religion and benefit (some more than others). I also think it is fundamentally flawed.)

The girl (Pamela Foreman, aka tamtampamela) on this (1) YouTube video has been around for a while making videos about god. She made one where she says that god came to her in a dream and told her to tell everybody in Massachusetts to vote for Scot Brown OR ELSE!!!
Now for me, this kind of statement defines a wacko. So when she posts about another dream that prompts her to ask atheists “Who Wrote the Bible” and expect the obvious answer to be her god (Duhhh!) she just adds to the wacko-ness of her persona. The answer, substantiated by evidence, is that MEN wrote the Bible. In the First Council of Nicaea in 325ce MEN sifted and began to choose which books to include and which to exclude, and during the dark ages Monks and Scribes, all MEN, wrote and rewrote the Bible, picking and choosing what to leave in, what to throw out and what political slant to portray at any particular time. Then, MEN had the book that emerged from the dark ages translated into other forms by MEN, and so it went up the present.
I may be incredibly naïve, but it looks like the answer to her smugly asked question is MEN. I don’t see god anywhere. Oh yeah, the “god directed the men and the men wrote down what he (see, god is a MAN too) wanted” argument always appears here. Divinely guided I think is the usual phrase.
I think it was rather Manly guided, to produce a work of contradictory rules and bizarre scenarios to serve the MEN that were doing all the work.

Oh, and the “Book of Love”, that’s easy: The Monotones (2).

Image:http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/TUsgUPX8Pho/default.jpg

1. Bible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-ijRn6JORs&feature=related
2. Book of Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvQdsfzVa4

Thanks for the Memories

Research conducted in the 1930s by Sir Frederic Bartlett (1) put a new and amazing face on memory. In short, Bartlett described a process whereby some factual data are placed into storage by association and missing data points are constructed by the brain on demand. As time passes, the factual data may fade or disappear altogether and the brain will fill in the missing data by assuming what should be there, based on experience and other similar memories.
This is a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? What this means is that memory is at best suspect and at worst entirely made up. In view of this well documented theory of memory, how valid do you think eye witness accounts of something are? Especially after some time has elapsed. Personally I wouldn’t want to be on the chopping block because of someone saying “I remember perfectly”.
I wonder about my own memories, the times of trial, bliss, terror and exhilaration. The remembered stories of youth, of adolescence, of growing up in strange places and of growing into the person I currently am . I write often about something I “remember”, and go on to draw all sorts of conclusions based on that remembrance. I reviewed dozens of my postings from the last three years and found many to be reminiscences of one thing or another. Stock car races, guns, bombs, abuses and others. And I stick by them to the word. Yet - - - yet I suppose there will always be that doubt of memory.
Anyway, that is one of the many reasons why people “journal” and “blog” isn’t it? To etch the memory in a place where it can reside with some permanence? Where it can be retrieved when needed? And of course, while journals are usually personal, blogs are hung out there for someone to read for some reason. Maybe just to stir the pot a little, maybe to express outrage at some current event, or maybe just to educate. And, yes, maybe to provide a memory, unchanged in content, as best as can be, umm, remembered.
1. http://books.google.com/books/about/Remembering.html?id=WG5ZcHGTrm4C
Image: Sal and Woody in Venice. (I remember it well)

“Now” is More Important then “When”

Sal and I travel quite a bit, both for professional jaunts and to see the world. We have been to lots of exotic places and enjoyed Nature and the World at its best. We have been lucky in that we have not seen the worst of both first hand.
Looking ahead to the next few trips it occurred to us that these represent a really good cross section of our travels. We are going to a family gathering in Asheville, a marriage reaffirmation, a week in the Georgia mountains for hiking and camp-fireing, and a week in Amsterdam without a car. The Amsterdam experience without a car is a first. I love to drive the new places.
Then we go to Newfoundland, Canada for a week of hiking, seafood and relaxation. And in there somewhere is a week in the Keys for fishing, relaxing and going to Geiger Key Marina, the funkiest place in the keys, for food, beer and good folks.
Travel is a perk of getting to a place in life where you either have the time or TAKE the time to get out and see the world. Go to new places and do new things. Traveling should be done when a person is young enough to really take what the world has to offer and swallow it whole. We do that, and then some. As the end of life approaches and the world changes (for good or bad is a judgment call) time runs out for going places and doing things. So we do. Plenty of time later for sitting around the fire helping each other remember “when”. What is important at this time is “now”.
Image: http://www.geigerkeymarina.com/gallery/images/z1a.jpg
Image: http://beautifulplacestovisit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Amsterdam_Netherlands_031.jpg

Titus Lucretius Carus and Woody.

I was reminded just yesterday of the Epicurean philosophical school by a discussion on NPR (where else?) of Lucretius centering on his epic poem “De Rerum Natura”. The title is variously translated as “On the Nature of Things” or “On the Nature of the Universe” and is considered to be an effective portrayal of the Epicurian ideas.
This morning I read over some reviews of “De Rerum Natura” and a few articles on Epicureanism and there, squarely in the middle of it all, is my philosophy. Dead center. I wish I could assert that as a young academician I was profoundly affected by these ideas, but in truth I can’t remember reading much philosophy at all. Sure, the obligatory Philosophy 201, and some skimming of ideas from all over the place, but strong influence? Doubt it.
Yet, there are my thoughts neatly summarized. And I really have to wonder about something: were the seeds of my mechanistic view of the universe, and my convictions about a natural system that requires no gods to make it or make it run, and my ideas about death planted decades ago in some hot classroom in Miami and slowly germinated as I grew older? Or, as I have asserted on occasion, are a sub-set of humans born without the need for supernatural explanations and therefore freed to think differently? I suppose both may be true.
In any case I now have a new short-term goal: get and read “De Rerum Natura”, bone up on Epicureanism and see where they lead.
Ain’t retirement wonderful?
Some background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretius
Image: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uEbJjsheL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/09/19/140533195/lucretius-man-of-modern-mystery