Thursday, November 1, 2012

Please "enjoy" this reply to an email I sent...Fwd: 1pm Monday nov 5th

I had to cancel his interview and let him know in an email, and this
is how he replied.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: 1pm Monday nov 5th 1pm
To: "Michael W. Frishberg"


Ur a joke take ur animated resume and shove it way up ur asshole. And
tell ur boss thankyou for not wasting my time.

(Nice he can share his hostility with me, hope he finds work soon.)

Monday, October 8, 2012

Spider attack at OSU!!

To the nieces that are local to the news!

"This was a male wasp that suddenly found itself trapped in a spider web. This was the wasp's worst nightmare, and it never ended. The wasp was watching the spider just as it was about to be attacked, when tree resin flowed over and captured both of them."

http://news.yahoo.com/100-million-old-spider-attack-found-amber-193233281.html


Monday, October 1, 2012

An answer to Chinese sex ratio imbalance

War is a time honored means to direct a country's attention, therefore I have maintained the Chinese will start a war to obtain women, as the sex ratio there is so out of whack.  (In 2005 there were 119 males born per 100 females!)
Turns out, in another grand Chinese tradition, foreign markets are being engaged economically first!

So, while my contention may be premature, at this point it appears some Chinese men are finding "compliant" female companionship via economic means... 

This is not sustainable, but it is a fascinating/disturbing aspect of unintended consequences of the One-Child-Policy.
-- 
Frish

Sunday, September 23, 2012

What's left to exploit???

Dear Vegans, here's some interesting analysis...

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/um-professor-running-says-only-percent-of-planet-s-plant/article_d14373e0-0463-11e2-99ef-0019bb2963f4.html

""I'm arguing that we don't have all that much unused capacity left in the global biosphere," Running said Friday. "Humanity already uses 30 to 40 percent of the global production in various ways right now".

All this while we're heading to 30% more people with 100% (or more!) of our current desire for Meat, Fish, Forest Products, etc. 

As I've maintained many times here, going vegan wouldn't stave off for one second our probable demise, 
we're already using too much of the entire planet's production of protein and fiber!

Here's an interesting WHO chart...we're not only growing in numbers, we're growing in calories consumed per day at the same time...

Table 1. Global and regional per capita food consumption (kcal per capita per day)

Region

1964 - 1966

1974 - 1976

1984 - 1986

1997 - 1999

2015

2030

World

2358

2435

2655

2803

2940

3050

Developing countries

2054

2152

2450

2681

2850

2980

Near East and North Africa

2290

2591

2953

3006

3090

3170

Sub-Saharan Africaa

2058

2079

2057

2195

2360

2540

Latin America and the Caribbean

2393

2546

2689

2824

2980

3140

East Asia

1957

2105

2559

2921

3060

3190

South Asia

2017

1986

2205

2403

2700

2900

Industrialized countries

2947

3065

3206

3380

3440

3500

Transition countries

3222

3385

3379

2906

3060

3180



We'll eat ourselves right off the planet even before the planet rejects our ability to live!    

"Soylent green - it's PEOPLE!"

--
Frish

Why "protect women's fertility"?

Just because we can, why do we?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120922085845.htm

--
Frish

Monday, August 27, 2012

Our VEGAN FUTURE

I'll be 96 in 2050.  (Or, more likely, I won't be at all!)

When do we run out of food even if we are all vegan?

Becoming vegan doesn't stop humanity from ruining the Earth for human lilfe.

No fish of course in 2050...

But, insects may start to look a lot like food.

-- 
Frish

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Intersection of Health Policy, Scarification, Religion, legal rights of newborns, parent's responsibility, the interest of the state, science of statistics, etc...

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/decline-circumcision-rate-cost-billions-study-article-1.1141383?localLinksEnabled=false 

"Declining rates of circumcision among newborn boys in the U.S. could add up to billions of dollars in unnecessary medical costs for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, a new study warns."

Oh, the unintended (perhaps foreseeable) effect of little to no "safety net".

Disease, it happens to all of us, therefore we ought to be sure we all have health care.

What part of "common sense" did I miss?

How do "Rugged Individualism" and TB differ?  
One seems to have infected Republicans.

Frish

(To readers outside of the USA: my country is not focused on things that are important, health care is one.)

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

VHEMT quote of the day...

"Over a quarter of the world's population live in these regions where groundwater is being overused,"   Canadian hydrologist Tom Gleeson told AFP in a phone interview. 

One quarter of humans is a lot.  

Yet, somehow I doubt anything will change, and continued extraction will occur until none is left to extract.

The thing about climate - changes are pretty much permanent.

Thing about human nature - "getting one over" on Nature was a great vocation for humans for 2 million years.
Now, Nature's been disrupted due to our "rough play"...

Adaptation Haiku

without water, rain
survival "our way of life"
Bible's: dust to dust

The supply chains that bring us "our way of life" are not robust.
Failure is always an option (to quote The Mythbuster's!)...

-- 
Frish

Sunday, August 5, 2012

From a Tropical Storm discussion group

39 mins ago
These storms have all hit in alphabetical order so far this year, I've noticed? Don't know what the odds of something like this is, but it's interesting.
-- 
Frish

Friday, July 20, 2012

The promise of technology...(or, the elusive promise of technology...)

"We were able to guess from the nature of the croaking of frogs if there would be any rain in the near future," said Trilocha Pradhan, 63, who farms about seven acres of rice paddy in the mostly agricultural state of Odisha. "Such croaking is rare today," he added, blaming the effects of climate change. 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Frish's VHEMT quote for today

"The future of coral reefs isn't a marine version of tree-hugging but a central problem for humanity." 
--
Frish

Monday, June 18, 2012

Annals of Marketing: My Prospect's Website

"We provide you will the highest quality fo care in a safe an comfortable environment."

Typos grace** the "the highest quality" line!                           (**Hi Grace, sorry!)

While one's trust in this organization may not be swayed, 
their site should come with the disclaimer, like a "no animals harmed" thing...:

"No proof reader bothered in the production of this URL."

Monday, June 11, 2012

Know thy enemy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/us/north-dakota-voters-consider-ending-property-tax.html?_r=1 

The continuation of the "conservative" idea that no tax is a good tax, that "I've got mine, eff you!", and I can do what I want to it, IT'S MY LAND.

(Right up until the fire races through, then I want firefighting services and compensation when they couldn't save my mansion...)
--
FRISH

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

A tribe of mutes

"Neanderthals probably did have some form of language. They appear to have had a gene that is crucial to language in humans, and they buried their dead, which seems too complex an idea to have arisen among a tribe of mutes. "


--Nice.   

Neanderthal Haiku

all anthro students
political correctness...
get your degree now.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Earth's changing landscape

"The change first came to the attention of scientists when nomadic reindeer herdsmen, the indigenous Nenets, said they were losing sight of their reindeer in the new trees, Macias-Fauria said.

Until recently the shrubs common in this part of the Arctic stood at most about 3.3 feet (1 meter) high, too low to obscure a reindeer."

Shrubs now trees...

2012 is warmest year on record already...(quotes from some selected google results)

"April 2012 Selected Climate Anomalies and Events Map .... of 8.1°C (46.5°F)—the second warmest April in the 133-year record, behind 2007."

"The May 2011 to April 2012 heat wave bumped the last record-settingwarm year out of the way, which was November 1999 to October 2000 ..."

Happy Summer Solstice Month!


Saturday, May 19, 2012

Two Earths are better than one!

Well, it would be better if there were two, but seems we only have one.  

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/earths-needed-sustain-human-activity-2030-report-finds-article-1.1078933 

Wonder what the UN's Sustainable Conference is going to accomplish...I predict much hand wringing about how bad things are (2030 IS ONLY 17+ YEARS AWAY) and absolutely nothing like an agreement, commitment, means to enforce, anything.  

I'll be almost 80 by 2030, as I strive to live long and die off...
-- 
FRISH

First line of internet article, and already TMI...

Consider:
There are 7,000,000,000 peoople on the planet.
1% of that is : 70,000,000
1% of that is : 70,000
1% of that is : 700
1% of that is : 7

However you slice it, .00000007 of the population can be counted on to do really strange/odd/unbelievable things, beyond 'normal' imagining.

Good news: Humans do remarkable things.

Bad news:     Thanks to the internet, we get to know about them.


I read this: "Six human foetuses which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a ... " and no further.

-- 

F
RISH

Sunday, May 13, 2012

They call her lucky...

After her leg was amputated, Copeland was flown to Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., where her recovery has been touch and go. Tuesday, one week after the accident, her heart stopped beating, forcing doctors to resuscitate her. 
--
FRISH

game changer

Nano Manufacturing one big step closer...
--
FRISH

Friday, May 11, 2012

What little 'gaydar' I have is quivering...

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/a-house-made-for-a-future-family.html 

Forget the exterior columns, Grecian Urns above cabinets is the giveaway...and I have several questions concerning their offspring.

Nice to see Omphaloskepsis in action, as those big decisions that took YEARS to make came to fruition!
-- 
FRISH

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Saw a new shark article, and was reminded...

Here was some news you may recall from 4 years ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/health/11iht-11shark.13645106.html 

Here's today's addendum:

The human behind the journalism.

One wonders just what part of 90% decline is 'sustainable'.

Humboldt Squid sushi coming to a cafe near you, all too soon.
--
FRISH

Free Unicorn Fraud...

From a marketing blog:

Leave comments below!  For every comment you leave and for every Retweet or Facebook share you get 100 awesome points. 

Once you reach 10,000 awesome points you get a free unicorn*

*No one is actually keeping track of awesome points and for that reason…and ONLY that reason, no one will get a free unicorn."

-- 
FRISH

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Women choose careers over marriage, when men are scarce

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120417113708.htm


By itself, education of women reduces numbers of offspring, by delaying having kids, reduced fecundity by starting family later, etc. 


The conclusion: 

Women who choose careers are even LESS likely to find eligible mates, education provides money and higher expectations!


"...modern women are increasingly forced to make tough choices such as choosing briefcase over baby."

Forced?  Tough?  

I draw a different conclusion...
 
If they have options (in the first place)...it's more evidence of the emancipation of women, less frequently found in kitchens, barefoot and pregnant...now eager to ignore societal norms and pursue dreams!
FRISH

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Leaving in style...

Today, Thai Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi had an unbelievable funeral procession, on her way to being cremated.



On another note:

On a recent trip to Argentina I was in "La Recoleta"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Recoleta_Cemetery  as the (recently dead) richest woman in the country was being interred. 
Not quite as fine a procession, but certainly a lot of flower involvement...she may have been both older and maybe richer than the princess, it's hard to compare!

She was of a world that no longer exists...me thinks.
-- 
FRISH

Sunday, April 8, 2012

There is a complex hermaphroditic reproductive system in pulmonate snails (those snails that have a lung rather than a gill or gills.)

thot you'd care...

Love darts.  Who knew...

--
FRISH

Good news! Evolution gives life a chance!

Regardless how many "Hair, Scales, Feather" bearing creatures 
are left Post-AOH (Age Of Humans), the next geologic epoch 
will be well suited for both Bacteria and Eukarya to exploit all ecologic niches.


Definition of Evolution: That which gives descendants a greater probability of having descendants.


FRISH

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

2030...enjoy until then.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Looking-Back-on-the-Limits-of-Growth.html 

The last line is my bottom line: "We're not on a sustainable trajectory."
--
FRISH

Monday, April 2, 2012

Interesting article concerning Climate Change and Evolution

This article suggests what prompted our early ancestors to walk upright: in order to carry things(!) (early shoppers one supposes!).


I imagined that the deforestation mentioned was due to FIRE caused by our upright ancestors...
but fire appears to be a much more recent refinement to our corporal and cultural repertoire.

Bi-pedalism appears about 6 Million years ago.  (I have a geeky Archaeology degree, forgive me!).
That's way before anything could be called "human".


When it comes to the prairies of the Great Plains...human fire definitely helped create the grass/bison ecosystem...
forests being all the rage soon after the last ice age...

The most significant type of environmental change brought about by Precolumbian human activity was the modification of vegetation. … Vegetation was primarily altered by the clearing of forest and by intentional burning. Natural fires certainly occurred but varied in frequency and strength in different habitats. Anthropogenic fires, for which there is ample documentation, tended to be more frequent but weaker, with a different seasonality than natural fires, and thus had a different type of influence on vegetation. The result of clearing and burning was, in many regions, the conversion of forest to grassland, savanna, scrub, open woodland, and forest with grassy openings.

William M. Denevan[5]

Native Americans were every bit as disrupting in their environment as humans are everywhere.

Shaping the Earth's environment to suit our needs has been a great strategy for a LONG time!

-- 
FRISH

Dr. Richmond, all I can say is thanks and www.vhemt.org
                        We volunteers are vehement!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Bio-engineering to create photosynthesis on steroids...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120329171607.htm 
The article is more "dense" than most from this source.

Which makes this article even more interesting, since it won't be widely understood.

Watch the mass media for a play on "how great this achievement will be" crap, if they even figure out it's a story...

From the article:
Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy and storing it in the bonds of sugar. 
There are two parts to photosynthesis -- a light reaction and a dark reaction. 
The light reaction converts light energy to chemical energy and must take place in the light. 
The dark reaction, which converts CO2 to sugar, doesn't directly need light to occur.

"We've been able to separate the light reaction from the dark reaction and instead of using biological photosynthesis, we are using solar panels to convert the sunlight to electrical energy, then to a chemical intermediate, and using that to power carbon dioxide fixation to produce the fuel," Liao said. "This method could be more efficient than the biological system."

The researchers envision every rooftop in every conurbation with solar panels and a bio-generator, producing alcohol to run whatever one needs, directly or via electrical generator.

Photosynthesis has produced a huge majority of all energy humans have used through history; obviously wood fires, but also coal and petroleum were once plants...

What percentage of energy needs are provided by a rooftop (of a conventional house, 100sqM or 1075 sq ft of panels)?

Is it enough to run a car even, or a large percentage of household daily needs?

If our ethanol from grain production stopped tomorrow, that much more grain becomes available for food, or cattle feed.

We're already planting more corn http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_20290078/largest-u-s-corning-planting-since-1930s-expected than ever before.

Also, our "ownership" of the electrical generation capability may make us more discerning consumers, and more conservation oriented.

All of which stretches the limit on the number of people on the planet...

WHAT SOCIETAL GOVERNANCE IS IN PLACE TO HAVE TOTALLY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY GET INTRODUCED WITHOUT CARE OR FORETHOUGHT.

(I sound like such a Luddite...)

FRISH

Wild weather puts richest bio-systems at greater risk

This study is a simulation, which doesn't mean it's right, but maybe it's close enough.


"Human impact means that flora and fauna become extinct at a rate 100–1000 times higher than normal. 
Climate change has been deemed as one of the main causes of species depletion." 

Here's a test for all those who don't "believe in" human caused climate chaos:  
Name all the ways the mass extinction event we've initiated will benefit humanity. 

Here's what bugs me most:
The short term obsession with results means commercial interests find the eventual destruction of customers a good strategy.

That cannot last, yet corporations have more influence then they have ever had politically.

And, it's going to get a lot worse, they can control local races all over the place, 
to "reduce regulation", while confusing an ever distracted populous with "entertainment" and misinformation.
--
FRISH

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Republicans and Limbaugh brewhaha, LA Times Letter


Dear Republicans:

You object, religiously, to birth control? Fewer kids may be just what this world needs most.


Every one of us has the ability to act morally; it is up to the parishioner to do what's right.


Deciding that certain medical procedures are so sinful that they cannot be paid for is total bunk. 


I'm beyond morally outraged, having paid taxes in support of "an elective war" in Iraq.


Please consider that the availability of birth control diminishes the power that men have over women.

I hope that's not too outrageous for anyone's religion.

Frish

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Let's continue to let corporations poison us en masse...

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/diet-soda-addictive

 

Sure, all the talking head TV doctors SHOULD talk about how tap water is better for you than anything in a plastic bottle.

 

Here's the real story, we've let corporations obtain total control 

of the creation, use, and disposal of unique chemical substances.


http://www.iss.it/binary/publ/cont/ANN_08_04%20Binetti.1209032191.pdf


"The number of new chemicals synthesized and marketed increases exponentially. 

The database CAS REGISTRY at present contains more than 33 million organic and inorganic substances. However, the little information regarding the potential hazard associated with a large amount of chemicals is an old known problem in the European Union and also in the United States."


 

Wherever you live in the world, politicians that give the right answer about people versus corporations must be in office. 


If only we could get our stuff together enough to make it happen, we really could take back some of it.


-- 
FRISH

Monday, February 27, 2012

Invader species welcomed into Great Lakes

My "Onion-Worthy" subject is actually true.  Unfortunately.

http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-rejects-emergency-carp-measures-203641235.html 

So called "Property Rights" trumping science trumping economics trumping common sense trumping logic trumping sustainability.

On the bright side, I can just hear the advertising jingle now:
"Carp, get used to it, we're carnivores"   

Aren't all those "resources" ours after all?
FRISH

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Fame, how bad do you want it? (now casting, soon to be autopsying...)

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/tfr/2819847441.html

Could your addiction be DANGEROUS? Now casting! (nationwide)


Date: 2012-01-26, 2:47PM PST
Reply to: chicagocasting2 0@gmail.com [Errors when replying to ads?]


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Are you addicted to:
- Choking yourself
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A major cable network is searching for men and women who are engaging in potentially dangerous or uncommon behaviors, who would like to share their stories on a documentary television series. All participants will explain how and why the behavior began, and how it is impacting their life. Each person will consult with a professional, medical or psychological, to delve deeper and understand the risks that may be involved.

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Life is far more flexible than we are, luckily

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/deep-sea-hydrothermal-vent-community.html 

This is good news.  
There is a lot of life on Earth we know nothing about.  
We are taking our best shot, but we probably can't exterminate everything...

-- 
FRISH

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Famous Last Words Example #739...

http://news.yahoo.com/radiation-detected-400-miles-off-japanese-coast-133824136.html 

"This is good news," he said, adding that scientists expect levels to continue to decrease over time.

"We still don't have a full picture," Nies said, "but we can expect the situation will not become worse."


I'm not that reassured, honestly.  FRISH

Monday, February 20, 2012

Meat, it's coming out of a vat near you soon!

In 1985 I had a discussion with a friend who was "morally opposed to the eating meat due to the suffering of animals" even as she admitted "I love bacon!"

Asked her if she'd have an objection to test tube meat.  She didn't.

Took longer than I thought at the time but...

http://news.yahoo.com/first-test-tube-hamburger-ready-fall-researchers-003035452.html

Unless it comes with built in contraception, can't see how this will help reduce population pressure on the rest of the planet...
--
FRISH

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Improving photosynthesis...

Way too much research is going into "higher yield crops" and... Energy Production... instead of describing how human nature might be changed...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120217145755.htm

Without social science of the highest order, chasing MORE FOOD and MORE ENERGY simply means MORE PEOPLE, and Earth's interconnect set of energy and chemistry that supports life will more quickly degrade.

FRISH

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Best comment re: Rick Santorum's "Win"

"The GOP has truly relocated to CrazyTown! 
A mythical place where Newt's the cranky old libidinous Mayor, 
Mitt's the anal retentive, dictatorial Comptroller, 
and Rick's the dim-witted dog catcher. "  
(Stolen by frish.  Many thanks to the poster, Juno100, who caught the gist of the evening.)

Haiku to Santorum (by Frish)
Corporations ain't folk!  
Gay marriage isn't illegal.
Earth needs shepherding...