Click on the picture of the USA and smile as you keep from crying...
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Frish
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Frish
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
This article from the Onion is MEANT to be "tongue in cheek"
However, it also accurately reflects reality.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Hungry Beast - pacific ocean garbage dump
Lovely little video of the results of plastic being a major constituent of the middle of the Pacific ocean...the few albatross shown are barely a flicker of the reality of how plastics are disrupting food chains all over the world...
Sunday, January 10, 2010
"It's God's Plan..."
Sarah Palin, upon learning McCain had chosen her as his running mate, was not surprised because "It's God's Plan"!
However, she is simply expressing what many in the USA believe to be true, that "god works in mysterious ways", "the lord will provide", and simply "having "faith"" is enough...it goes straight to those who preach about "abundance" and how the "Power of Prayer" (if you are Really Really faithful) is all you need to get what you want in the world...(somehow forgetting all about "the meek inheriting the Earth", rich men and eyes of needles, etc.)...
However, that bit of trivia is only shared as a lead in, and one small example, that points to the REAL issue, and that is unwarranted, unsupported and incredible "optimism" that pervades the society in the USA.
It prevents many in the US to understand, acknowledge, and deal with the truly horrendous stuff that will be hitting the fan in the next few decades, as Humanity accelerates our disruption of the interconnected chemistry that supports living systems on Planet Earth.
Here's a terrific article from the Economist in December that deals with such unbridled optimism, and suggests merit in Pessimism!
So with that, I'll share one of the only jokes about engineers that I know...engineers just aren't that funny!
When observing a glass, with half of it's volume occupied by water, "normal" people see it as half empty, or half full, and thereby reveal their pessimistic or optimistic world view...However, when confronted with that same glass, engineers state, "The glass was mis-specified..."
Friday, January 1, 2010
Halting Russia's population collapse
Found this morsel today and thought I'd share...if it was posted before I didn't remember! Worth another look anyway, even if for the standard natalist propaganda and the underlying expectation that growth is not just necessary, it's inevitable and/or ordained.
Best quote from the article: "Russians don't like foreigners" (by way of explaining how the current immigration policies won't work!)
(I only copied selected sentences, the article is here: April 5,2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7971719.stm)
Demographic experts say Russia's steep population decline could have serious consequences for the economy.
"The numbers are frightening," says Sergei Zakharov, from the Institute of Demography at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.
By 2050, Russia's population could shrink from the current figure of 142 million people to 100 million, according to a United Nations sponsored study published last year.
When BBC Brasil travelled to Russia as part of its series looking at where the BRIC economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - will be in 2020 it found that the picture for Russia's population was bleak.
…snip
She also said that a hangover of the Soviet era is the custom that women only had one child, and that that thinking affected how women behave today.
((How about when women are educated and participate in the economic well being of the family, they are disinclined to have many children))
…snip
There is no easy way out for Russia as it tries to halt its population collapse, but to do nothing could bring the country to its knees and ruin any hope it has of joining the leading economies of the world.
(((In other words, if the policy to increase population succeeds, Russia will be brought to it's knees as well!! No wonder there is no easy way out!)))
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