Population and our eminent demise

The clock is ticking

People like to think of this world as infinite. Hike to a mountain top or take a boating trip beyond the horizon to observe the vastness of this world yet fail to see how small things have become. There is only so much in this world no matter how we would like to perceive it. The amount of air and water that existed thousands of years ago is still here. There won't be a mother ship sending in an emergency supply. But the one thing that will increase is the supply of people. You can morbidly cheerlead for the thinning of the herds but our obsession with self replication keeps our numbers bounding forward. And like it or not we are moving ever so closer to a breaking point. We have two choices. We can either stem the tide of overpopulation peacefully or wait for the inevitable conflicts to ensue. Even with our present day wars the population clock ticks upward with no end in sight. And no sneaking off to some far off galaxy because our technology won't get us there yet. It's reported that the population will "level off" sometime around just before 2050 at just over 9.5 billion people. I'm glad I won't be around to endure those conditions. Governments will have no choice but to issue mandates about our very existence and it won't be some politically correct BS either. Do it or not survive will become apparent. Yes things could get ugly but we're not quite there just yet.

Pop over and have a look at the ticking population clock and consider how much in resources each one of those little mouths consumes. We have an artist here who makes an interesting representation of what we throw away on a daily basis. It would be wonderful if all that trash were to land up in recycle but that is not the case. A lot of it ends up in our oceans and rivers to come back and haunt at a later date. "But I only threw away a paper cup or candy wrapper" you say. Well multiply that by a million or a billion or two billion and see what it looks like.

The amazing thing is all that has happened in terms of population growth and our polluting the planet has occurred in just the last 200 years with the start of the industrial revolution. We sure learned to produce and reproduce too. And now we face the consequences of our success. People never stop to think that they are part of the planet. Maybe it's our short sighted nature and it seems to be getting shorter still with the advances of technology. We have done everything in our power to separate ourselves from nature thinking somehow that it makes life better only to realize that in the process we destroy nature. What we fail to realize is that nature will always win. It was here before us and it will be here long after we're done.

What would Friday be without the Friday pussy

Cunning little creature these felines. Hope she has strong nails.

U.S. to sell Iraq $11 billion dollars worth of aircraft.
Nothing like a housewarming gift after you've destroyed the neighbors' home. They haven't rebuilt most of Iraq but they'll need a new fleet of F-15s to protect what exactly? Wouldn't happen to be their oil fields so we can steal all the oil now would it? And now to sell the Saudis a bunch of fighter jets too. What's next an aircraft carrier to Afghanistan?

Russian nuclear sub catches fire
I see they at least had the foresight to off load all the missiles first. I'll bet the fire watch is going to be in big trouble that is if they even use one.

Spain tries to cut it's debt further
Nothing like slapping more taxes and spending cuts on people who can least afford it. Yeah that will make the economy just sing. Italy to it's credit was smart enough to start putting people back to work with spending on it's infrastructure. I say we fire the lot of congress and hire an economics professional that knows how to do things. These "job creators" aren't creating jobs.

bank fails later

Greed. It can come back to bite you in the...

Rootworms have become resistant to genetically modified corn. The corn made by those wonderful folks at Monsanto (he said snarkily) was modified to produce its' own pesticide. Unfortunately the worms have developed a resistance to it and are starting to increase crop damage. The problem has been exacerbated by poor farming methods.

Don't fool mother nature

A problem of greed
Most farmers rotate corn with other crops in a practice long used to curb the spread of pests, but some have abandoned rotation because they need extra grain for livestock or because they have grain contracts with ethanol producers. Other farmers have eschewed the practice to cash in on high corn prices, which hit a record in June.

Crop rotation I might add has been used for centuries and when done properly results in higher crop yields and better soil conditions. We saw what happened in the 1930s when farmers abandoned standard practices and when a draught ensued the top soil blew away leaving farmers with nothing. That was the period of the great Dust Bowl in the midwest. With a dry winter it makes one wonder how the midwest aquifer is holding up. It's been known to be decreasing with the increase of agricultural activity of the farm belt.

I hope everyone realizes that we no longer grow most of our produce in this country. We only cover about 25% of our food needs here. The rest comes from countries like Chile, Canada, India, and Mexico. And you can thank Bush for our abundance of mangos from India. Much of our farm output was outsourced long ago and yet prices continue to rise. Good luck finding a pound of beef for under $5. That was due to our draught this past summer. But this makes me wonder what defense we would have should our supplies be cut off. We have developed a "just in time" supply system and any disruption to that would be a disaster.

Oil

Black gold. Texas tea. Bubblin crude as Jeb Clampett would say. Much has been written on the subject of late. But so much has been inaccurate. People focus on politics and geographic locations and fail to ponder the underlying causes of our present situation. I hear talk of alternative energy and a push away from oil. All well and good in theory but there are no replacements at the present time. Take a look around the room and count how many things are made from oil. And even if they weren't made from it they had to be transported there with oil. We are stuck with a major infrastructure built on oil and nothing is going to change anytime soon. Why you might ask? Because those who run oil companies will not let it happen. They may talk a pretty game of change with flowers and butterflies flitting around solar panels but they have no intention of killing their cash cow just for your or the planets' sake. They have said as much in interviews. It's always something like "In 40 or 50 years we'll be able to move away from oil". But of course all the oil executives will be dead by then so what would they care. Just a matter of keeping the game going until then and as the supply dwindles and the price goes up they'll make even more money.

A couple of statements from a business paper -
We're highly dependent on a finite fuel source controlled by crazy people who hate us
We've done next to nothing about this problem for four decades

To which I'd reply - they may be crazy and they may hate us but they aren't stupid. They realize that their income is tied to oil and that the world needs oil. And like the addicts we are we'll come crawling for the stuff. They know perfectly well that economies can't function without oil. So you'll see back room deals and cheats as we've seen with other embargoes all under the guise of humanitarian facades. Did we do anything in the last forty years? Yes we went from the gas guzzling behemoths of the late sixties and early seventies to the smaller cars of today but the population increased as did the number of cars. And with those new cars came plastic parts made from oil. And the greed and the quest continues. So sit back, watch the show and don't be fooled by the loud mouth characters on stage. They are but a diversion from what is really happening. I'll bet the speculators are just loving this show.

Year end review

Taking stock of the year as 2011 slides into 2012 I'd say it was a mediocre year for me at least. I haven't fallen off a cliff yet but I still have a few obstacles to over come moving into the new year. Somehow all of those once in a while bills decided to converge in the month of January. The bi-yearly insurance couldn't have come at a more inopportune moment. And some long over due dental work had to be done before loosing out on the few crumbs the insurance pays. I would just love to be in the position of offering my services the way they do. I'm sorry sir/madame but in order to get my services you'll have to submit to my lengthy questionnaire, physical and be drug tested. Upon review of your application a determination of your eligibility will be made by our acceptance board. A minimum of three month waiting period is required prior to consideration. Should your request be denied you may have the right to appeal the decision. All requests for appeal must be received no later than 7 days after notification of denial. And on and on etc etc.

On the national economic news front it looks like stocks are up a bit. One would have you believe that everything is going well after an increase in retail sales. A few tiny bits of overlooked information on that front. In order to get shoppers into the malls retailers had to slash prices. And this didn't happen just once as is usually the case. Normally they drop prices the day after turkey day then it's back to business as usual until January. Not so this year. There was an uptick as usual on Black Friday but then a large fall off. Retailers fearing full shelves at the end of the year slashed prices even more. They may have moved a bit of inventory but at a cost to their profit margins. And now that the boa constrictor of consumers has been fed it will be a while before the next feeding. I'd bet that those seasonal temps have already gotten their walking papers and are or will be joining the ranks on the unemployment line sometime next week.

But hiding in the depths far from the economic news are a bunch of 800 lb. gorillas. We have the european economic mess which has been neatly shoved off the front pages for cheerier news. They still have no concrete solution in spite of what they're telling you. So once again it's crank up the money presses to shovel money at more debt. Isn't that like trying to eat yourself skinny? The problem there is that in order to keep the body alive you can't starve it to death because after all dead people don't pay taxes. And it's those taxes that pay for the debt or at least lower it. There always is and always will be an imbalance of economic activity. That's what causes the system to operate in the first place but too much imbalance will cause things to stop.
The other 800 pounder is the housing market. I have to wonder just what the banks plan to do with all those foreclosed homes they hold on their books. They can't leave them there forever as they fall into decay. We saw how Cleveland bulldozed their problems but what about all the debt that went with it? Will it become a write off or will they figure out some sneaky way to package this junk into something they can foist on the world markets as they did with the subprimes?

Just a thought, maybe I can package my debt into a bond of some type and sell it on the open market. If I could leverage it at nine times like the banks do I could be retired in no time at all. Just need to buy a hedge when I can't pay the bill when it comes due. It's all paper after all.

One reason I don't go out much

At least on holidays that is. Or make that a couple of reasons.

House Fire Kills 5 in Stamford

Nine shot at Tennessee teenagers' party

Police find 7 dead in Fort Worth-area apartment Update Santa killed Texas family after opening presents.

8-year-old girl killed when branch falls on car

Soldier shot, paralyzed during homecoming party

Man's body found in Everett storage unit after fire Saturday

By the looks of it you'd think everybody got a fifth of scotch and French dueling pistols for Christmas. And with today's economy I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Between self emulation and lunatic relatives is it any wonder why I'll pass on such merriment?

So just keep fighting and thinning the gene pool. I'll just sit back and watch from the comfort of my own living room. Goof balls just won't learn will they? You just can't teach them anything. Oh well nothing more to see here. Move along and while you're at it don't disturb the crime scene tape while the investigation is still under way. The coroner's results should be available in about a week. That's all for today. Now get back to work Cratchit!

A message of Peace

People wonder what the reason for this season is and never really stop to consider the true meaning. Yes I get silly here probably because it's the only way I can keep what little there is left of my sanity with all that's going on in the world. But the underlying reality is that this is the season of sacrifice. It's the time of year when we're supposed to look at the other of humanity and feel compassion. It's for people like Billy who helps out his neighbor Helen knowing that she can not care for herself and yet looks after her daily anyway. It's for Randal who inspite of a sarcastic exterior never hesitates to say the right thing when trouble comes. Not to mention S.W. and Jim and Tom and many many others who are always there for you even though they may be hundreds of miles away. It's for the ounce of compassion left in a world that's turned hostile. And to all those out there who for one reason or another have stopped posting we're still thinking of you. Even though life may have thrown it's ugly fate at you we still care and are worried about you.

So to all a momentary period of compassion even if it's brief for we're only on this earth for a brief time. That is the true meaning of the season. Whether it's true or not about a virgin birth doesn't matter. But the sacrifice always matters, it matters for our very existence, our very will to live on this planet.

Peace to all and may at least some of your wishes come true this coming new year.