The Moai Territory Cliff Crisis

It was the 11th hour
and all the chieftains
of the Moai-head worshiping
Island had gathered to discuss
the Moai Territory Cliff Crisis . (Sometimes pronounced as Moan-ah-tarry Cliff Crisis --not to be confused with any Monetary/ Fiscal Cliff Crisis of any modern society)

It seems that years of
boastful chest pounding
had led to productivity
claims that just couldn't be met.

Try as they might, the Moai Head fabrication experts couldn't come up with a math that would appease the unease of them who were realizing there would be a By-the-Cliff Moai Territory Crisis soon befalling all who lived on this of-finite-size Moai-head worshiping Island.
What to do?

Some argued for
taxing the under
the cliff fishing
people more severely.

Some said that
a mere extension
of the Moai Head deficit
ceiling number would
fix the problem at least
until the next 2-year chieftain
re-election counsel met.

How did we get into this Moai print press mess in the first place? Some began to ask

Go ahead, do blame my ge ... generation

Whether you are a Baby Boomer (BB'er) or
a member of a latter day generation,

you sense by now that the George Jetson
Future-topia is just not going to happen.

We're not going to all have our own
levitated jet car

or a cushy one-button to push job
(if any job at all)

or a jobless wife who can
shop (consume) all day

But there will be blame

So if that's what it takes

to get
"the message" across

Go ahead
Do blame my generation

The joke is (on/over) us

Creating a (weak) joke was not the intent when starting
the "But I have Rights!" post
(one below this post).

In the writing of it though,
it occurred to me that quick humor might be necessary because
on the Internet, we are all ADHD.

How long can any one post
hold your attention?
Each must include a provocative image
or an emotion eliciting statement.
Or a joke.

The true goal was ...

to investigate the
"Property rights trump Nature"
mentality of Libertarians and associated Right Wing Thinkers.

This came about from trying to understand the logic
of a Libertarian named Alex Epstein
in his so-called "debate" with Bill McKibben regarding Climate Change and continued burning of fossil fuels:

(Warning the below video is over 90 minutes long)

In the words of Mr. Epstein:

"McKibben is dead wrong about fossil fuels and our environment. If we take an objective, scientific look at how fossil fuels have impacted the human environment, including our climate, the overall result is amazing--we live in the [economically] greatest environment in human history. The countries with the worst environments--with the most filth, disease, crop failures, low life expectancies--are the ones that use the least fossil fuels."
[Bracketed text added]

There is nothing "scientific" about Mr. Epstein's notion of "But I (and my fellow Libertarians) have property rights", in other words, "economics" trumps the "eco-sphere".

Mother Nature is blind to "property rights".

Destroy "her" atmosphere and we all die.

Destroy "her" oceans, "her" fisheries,

and we, the overly-sapien apes, all die.

"Money" will not undo the damage.
Money ($$$) is no more than a government sanctioned "claim" on assumed future production by those who are willing (and able) to keep playing the game.

In a recent video talk, Nate Hagen (PhD Eco-systems & finance)
explains this and much more

Some of Nate's points:
(1) Growth can't be forever ....
(2) What goes up usually comes down ....
(3) Oil is finite ....
(4) Post Carbon Institute (300 seconds)
(5) URR convolved with EROEI
(6) Communication skills for delivering negative factoids

Can we live with our own "progress"?

Or is the joke on us?

But I have "rights"!

A conservative dies,
and arrives at Heaven's Gate.

Saint Peter is not there to greet him.

Instead, it's Mother Nature.
Her name tag says, "Call me Gaia".

Mustering up all of his right wing ingenuity,
the Conservative frantically sweeps though
all the "talking points"
he has amassed in his studied life.

What to say in his defense?
That he was totally wrong?
That he was duped
by a Great Right Wing HOAX?

No.
Now, more than ever,
is the time to double down.

"Men," he argues,
"are born with unalienable rights! Among them is the right to do with one's property as one pleases and to pursue happiness for oneself by maximizing profits."

"Seriously?" quips Mother.

Conservative nods assuredly in the affirmative.

"Let's test that hypothesis."
Mother presses one of her Laws of Nature buttons.
Poof! He is gone.
It is as if he never existed. As if all his thoughts had been mere illusions. None of what he had conjured in his mind was part of a serious "reality".

"Next?" she says to a camel waiting on line.

Using Metaphor of Physicality (Cliff, Avalanche) to make Fantasy look Real

Dear friend,
Look here.

In one hand there is
nothing but hot air.

In the other,
warm and fuzzy fantasy.

The mouth is, however
faster than the mind's eye.

Hocus Pocus and Behold.
Hands' holdings are clapped together to form tangible substance.
Fiscal Cliff.

Here, for your consumption my friend, are images
of cliffs, of avalanches and
of going over the "edge".

Here also for your intellectual intake is
the adjective "FISCAL".

Ask NOT what that modifier might mean.
For if you do, you might look foolish
and disloyal to our faith.

You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Someone who creates your "job" for you might suspect the truth (that you really don't know what "fiscal" means) and then "THEY" might take away that "job", take away your way of life, take away your freedoms from you.

Observe that "FISCAL" has a Freakin' F in it.
How eFF'in cool is that?

"cliFF" has a lot of Freakin' F's in it two.
Put 'em together and ... magic happens.

The freaked-out fear center in your brain is already abuzz
worrying itself to death about
the implications of going "over"
the Fiscal cliFF.

Lions, tigers and Bears.
Oh my!

But now comes the eFF'in Freakin'

AVALANCHE

Fiscal Avalanche.
How good and scary
is that?

Don't even think about it.
Don't even think about anything.

Infinity is Fantasy

Infinity is a Fantasy

Reality 'Rithmatic Requires Real
(Finite & Discrete)
Numbers

Money is Fantasy & Hence Can Grow to Infinity and Beyond

Imagine a Giant (but finite) computer with a storage capacity of G bits (where G< infinity).
That computer could store one Giant number that is G bits long.
Or that computer could store a Giant number, G of one bit values.
Neither distribution comports with that of Gaussian distribution found in Nature.

Instead, in a finite and bound Universe,
the number line holds only a finite set of number points,
with vast voids in between,
not an infinite set with no voids as we were taught in math class.

Our Visions of Infinity are an Illusion
Mirrors are made of finite numbers of atoms

Right Means Never Having to say You Might be Wrong

There is absolutely only one possible way to think.
My way or the highway.

Isn't that how some people approach any conversation?
But why?

Maybe they are looking to determine if you are part of their flock?
Birds of a feather flock together.
We avoid conversation with "the stranger".

You might be a Republican tool if ...

You Might Just Be A Republican (Hawaiian Style)

Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax

You might be a Liberal If ....

Contact of the Disconnected Type with a Climate Denier

Their eyes glaze over.
Their ears clog full of wax.
Why even bother?

We've all been there,
trying to talk sanity to a stuck-in-the-cement climate denier.

Here are some recent links,
Not that they will help.
Deniers have picked their story and they are going to stick with it no matter what. Any of dozens of denialist talking points will do.

James Hansen's TED talk

Turncoat Skeptic Richard Muller

Deniers are human too:

Another Climate Skeptic Turned Into a Believer

Bonus Video (Now I'm a Believer)

More on Talk'n to Deny Baby Deny kinds
Finding Points of Commonality
Love (/Hate) of Warming, American Style

Thugs of the Think Kind

In days of old,

When knights were bold

And violence was respected.

Nobles hired some thugs

Beat up some pugs,

And revolutions were prevented.

We live of course, in more sophisticated times. Raw violence is no longer acceptable as a means of keeping the lower classes in their places.

What is a nobleman to do then?

Why but of course. Hire Thugs of the Think Tank type.
If you can't beat them physically into submission,
then brow beat them into a catatonic state with all means of mental thuggery.

Who are the Thugs of Think in our modern times?

Winning for Winning's Sake

There are many ways to tackle the title topic.

Maybe, just maybe, it could be directed to performance enhancing drugging or other cheats?

Example: Tampering with the skates of a fellow speed skate competitor.

But no.

Today's thought bomb is directed to the subtopics of:
(1) The habit of winning
(2) Evolutionary pressures to keep on winning

Why do politicians (for example) want to keep on winning?

Even if it means constantly flip flopping on one's position?

Republicans and Democrats want to win for winning's sake.

Even if it means taking the country down in the process.

What formed habits or evolutionary processes drive these leadership class lemmings to leading their flock toward cliff's edge?

He plans to kill Big Bird

He's got no love lost for Jim Leherer or the rest of PBS either

His 5 sons constantly lie to him ... or as they say, the acorns don't fall far from the daddy tree

One of these is different ... Can you tell which one?

The Science of Job Creationalism

If you're going to create a thing, shouldn't you first know "what it is" that you are creating before knowing "how" to create it?

So what is a "job"?

Maybe first we should examine a taxonomy of one's possible relations with the "job" thing.

(1) One may "have" a job.

(2) One may "do" the job.


(3) One may do useful, wealth-increasing work while on the "job".

(4) One may do useless or wealth-decreasing work while on the "job".


(5) One may be "proud" of one's job.

(6) One may have a IDGASOF* attitude about one's job.
(* I Don't Give A Sh8 Or Fa_t)

In the Vacuum of Spaced-out Politics You Can't Hear the Unemployed Scream

They say that in the Vacuum of Spaced-out Politics, You Can't Hear the Unemployed Scream

Two US Presidential conventions.
Two weeks of speeches.
But do they know how to make it rain jobs?

The Republicans rain dance to the right.
The Democrats limbo rock to the left.

The clouds of thunderous voices gather.
But it raineth not.

iRooster (Part Deux), Crowing at the Sun Financially

One of the noises we insapien roosters of the human kind most enjoy making are "financial" noises.
Cock a doodle woo hoo$$
Cock a doodle woo hoo$$

We like to crow about "money".
We like to crow about "Mr. Economy".

"Mr. Economy" is feeling unwell today.
"Mr. Economy" is facing headwinds today.
"Mr. Economy" needs to keep growing (forever).
His "Hand" is more invisible than even he is.

But his "Hand" (Invisible) is more intelligent than any of us ever will be.

Cock a doodle woo hoo$$
Cock a doodle woo hoo$$

iRooster, Crowing at the Sun

Anything with that leading little "i" in front of it catches our attention these days.

iPhone
iThink
iThereforeExist

It's a dawn-stopping show-starter to open each day with a mirrored image of self ("I", the 1% ahead of those 99% other i's; I, the sapien) as the center of the Universe; the cause and effect of all that transpires.

We feel particularity self-elevated on our own perch when mocking the mythical Rooster who crows at the rising sun as if his call is the cause of all that comes after.

But are we truly any different?

Cornucopian Hunger Games: Feeding Falsehoods to the Starved

If truly we are at the dawn of a new cornucopia, then why have all these Hunger Game Wars: Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Libya, Syria, ... ?

On one end of the burning candle ... Monbiot says he was wrong on peak oil

On the other burning end of the candle ... Foss tries to explain EROI to the math deaf and definition dumb (collapse of demand plus collapse of production "is" the peaking and decline of production)

But what does it matter which way the blame game runs?
Collapse is collapse.
Its victims are victims.
Let the Hunger Games begin.
And may luck be slightly in our favor.

The Fight for What's Left and The Race to Destroy It

Two editorials in one day:

Michael Klare warns on: Energy Wars Heat Up

James Hanson tells us it's: Game Over for the Climate

How do we End It? With "the Bang" or with the "Warm Whimper"?

Education? Only If Economically Justified !

Economics professor ...

Peter Morici talked on 5/3/2012
about his Des Moines Register article
on the value of a college degree
in comparison to tuition costs,
accrued debt, and salaries earned after graduation. He said that employers require college degrees
for jobs that do not pay enough to justify college costs, in part due to high schools' failure to adequately prepare students for the work force. He urged incoming college students to major in science fields, which pay higher salaries and provide specific job skills.

IMHO, his advice is a perpetuation of the Doctrine of "the Wealth of Tunnel Visions".

The idea is that everyone
randomly takes his or her
own path of specialization
and then
out of this sum of random actions,
together we form a seamless
network (no holes or gaps)
of ingenuity for tackling
all the world's problems.

There are no cracks in that theory.
Are there?

We are raising one generation after the next of of narrow-minded "specialists".

Few will have a broad enough of a mind frame to take in the big picture.
Few will grasp what is going on overall within our civilizational system (our civilizational complex).

So what happens?

We will have a mass of narrowed minded specialists who are each incapable of engaging in "(truly) critical thinking".
(More on (truly) critical thinking here, here, here, and here,)

Each holds the hammer of his trade.
And every problem is merely a simple nail to be tacked down with a swift and thoughtless smack down of the specialist's one and only tool.

Our problem is y=f(x)?
No problem!
I went to Z school.
"The ANSWER" is Z101 (the basic course in my Z school).

1) For the "economics" specialist, the answer is this:
[free markets]

2) For the "politics" specialist, the answer is this:
[compromise]

3) For the "business" specialist, the answer is this: [BAU]

4) For the "technology" specialist, the answer is this: [the singularity]