patrick.net

Do we get Brandon Routh to stage the place?

Scenario 6: Scientists invent sushi-o-matic. In goes trash, out comes delicious fresh sushi. Humanity is saved!

probably

"From liberals eager to embrace the cultural diversity of Undead Customs such as eating the brains of the living;"

I respect the undead's right to brains of the living, they just need to fill out these three forms and then get it signed and notarized by their intended victim. I think that is a compromise that respects the rights of the undead and rights of the soon to be eaten.

Our new dolphin masters do not appreciate the undead. However, they are welcome to the worthless landmasses which interrupt the far more important oceans. Eeee-eeee, chirp-chirp-chirp!

the venerable "Landbaron Merlin" escapes from 2nd life with his agent "hackbot" to the real world using Sony playstation 3 shared super power computing capacity and hacks into the cell phones of voters of American Idol thus capturing 80 percent of the world's financial wherewithal bringing the planet to a standstill.

agent jack bower contracts avain bird flu and is helpless

a mysterious killer virus appears in the midwest,at 1st thought to be from pet food,but pets are fine,the people are dying
Monsanto Syngenta and Jack in the Box claim ignorance

electricity grids across the nation go off line at 11:27pm on June2 with only 1 town ,Vernon California, with power

the sun fails to rise on June 3rd as a greenish haze settles over the heartland and a strange high pitched sound pierces the stale putrid air

cars wont start
radios dont work
people are hysterical riots start and gangs begin pillaging

the high pitched sound increases in it's intensity now accompanied by a deep throbbing monster subwoofer

boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

the green sky turns black as oil

boom boom boom boom

great arcs of lightning light up the heavens and balls of fire begin to pellet the earth

boom boom boom boom

what the hell is going on ?????????

bruce turns his face slowly across the slobber stained pillow aware of the sun coming thru the blinds as he awakes to face another day in the real world along with the realization that dammit randy has not yet answered his request to take him to a better existance in 2nd life and he better get up to let the dogs out and smoke a cigarette while takin a chit then eating some peanut butter toast washed down with oj before logging onto the internet as he does every day

We wake up from this housing bubble nightmare and find out that we are slaves for Martians.

Scenario 6: Scientists invent sushi-o-matic. In goes trash, out comes delicious fresh sushi. Humanity is saved!

I choose this future.

Peter P and Randy H lose their shirts trying to introduce authentic, fresh daily sushi to Cincinnati. But they recover less than 18 months later when they realize all that was missing was an industrial size deep fryer and sausage. They base their company in Mountain View and herald in a new wave of culinary exuberance as Midwesterners everywhere clamor to participate in the "sushi culture".

LOL.

One day in 2050, Second Life bots wake up to the reality of cogito ergo sum. The First Life ceases to exist as furries and avatars have more sense and willpower than the blubbery couch potatoes creating them.

TOS,

Fair enough points. Though housing bubble burst's collateral damage is just one more reason not to buy now.

I cannot comment about the mathematical possibilities that may exist in other dimensions.

I don't want guns to be banned. If all the guns are banned, we would have to resort to bows and arrow to hunt down deer. That's highly ineffective.

I didn't do so hot in calculus, so my ability to calculate moving targets are rather iffy.

Something about number three doesn't add up. But then, I'm not a quant geek, so I wouldn't get it anyhow. DS has argued voraciously that 2 + 2 can equal 5, however. It had something to do with postmodernism.

What qualifies one as a JBR anyway? I keep hearing myself referred to as such, yet I cannot for the life of me get my simple neural net around why.

Randy H Says:
Something about number three doesn’t add up. But then, I’m not a quant geek, so I wouldn’t get it anyhow. DS has argued voraciously that 2 + 2 can equal 5, however. It had something to do with postmodernism.

1) it's possible in non-Euclidean space, as any fule kno.

2) I question the very meaning behind the symbols '2' and '+' as signifiers -- therefore, they have no meaning and can represent anything. so in my alternative universe where '5' is the symbol for '4' it is very easy, even without recourse to non-Euclideanism...

Or, as Giovanna Procacci puts it, a signifier is a crucial ‘exchanger’ discourse (or discursive practice), one that links ‘the analytic-programmatic levels of the "sciences" and the exigencies of direct social intervention’. It forces the scientific projects into contact with ‘all the rigidities, inertia and opacity which the real displays in its concrete functioning. And it is precisely in this sense that a savoir can more explicitly assume the viewpoint of power.’ Think of that!

New Paradigm,

Advances continue in fully enclosed unicellular agriculture (E.g. www.greenfuelonline.com ). Desert areas throughout the world become highly sought after for large scale biofuel production, CO2 becomes a valuable feedstock, and all talk about peak oil ceases.

Kyoto agreement proves hopelessly inadequate, due to rapid increase in car ownership in the 3rd world. Global warming continues apace, sea levels rise a metre or so, the Atlantic conveyor shuts off, and Saharan African countries complain bitterly about the influx of European refugees fleeing their now uninhabitable continent.

(Astrid's scenario 2 would make this all the more likely.)

Note that I don't think this will happen as described above, but I do NOT think it impossible in general terms. Certainly, come hell or high water (possibly my most appropriate use ever of that quote :)) 3rd world countries are going to move to a car culture and increase their consumption of animal protein if economic circumstances allow them to do so.

We in the West are simply dreaming if we think they will be satisfied with the status quo regarding energy and food consumption. Consider the global warming arguments about human CO2 emissions: even if everyone accepts they are true China/India/etc are going to insist on their right to increase until their per capita emissions match the currently developed nations.

I thought you were a quant geek too, Randy, initially. You have to admit, you are kind of quanty and you are pretty geeky!

Anybody catch the jihad docu on PBS last night?

http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_jihad.html

Maybe Al Quaeda and friends make good on their threats, and inflicts large scale casualties on the US. (nuke device or otherwise)

The industrial war machine kicks into high gear, the economy roars, and house prices rise, and all JBR's are rounded up for being political dissidents.

Net net is educated fiscally conservative folk get screwed once again.

Only recourse is to throw away years of critical thinking, and invest in a few hours of training to become a Used House Salesperson.
(Because, after all, when you receive a "big fat juicy check (with many zeros at the end) at the closing table after selling a house", it is very easy to ignore the world wide socio-economic issues that are eventually going to "skin yer @$$ raw")

theotherside

TR. I imagine now we'll see a whole debate about what delineates a TR from a SR (strategic renter) to a LSR (life style renter) to a JBR.

I'll readily admit that I'm an AR (annoyed renter), though not in the least bitter or jealous. Unless one becomes a LSR (usually after a divorce), I think most anyone who's owned for 10 or more years will automatically fall in the AR category.

And just to be clear, I didn't ATM my home because I didn't intend to nor did I spend any of the $. I CD'd my home.

NRA members and gun lovers, please argue this http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Virginia-Tech-Shooting.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Can we be reasonable and try to keep guns out of the hands of maniacs? I don't think everybody carrying guns would have helped this situation.

Scenario 7: Mobile phone towers prevent bees from returning to their nest, causing mass die off. Humanity have to contend with a future without fresh fruits, nuts and honey.

We'd still have butterflies and hummingbirds to pollinate fruits and nuts. We'd be SOL on honey though.

RE: Virginia Tech shooting

SAD. But banning guns would not have prevented this. Outlaws obey no bans.

Can we be reasonable and try to keep guns out of the hands of maniacs?

We can try but we will fail. We should seek to remove maniacs from the society instead.

Did they say that the gunman had two 9mm handguns?

I think it is time for me to wear body armor.

"Scenario 7"

Pretty shocking isn't it? Before we start shorting the cell phone mfrs. we may need more studies, but it sure seems plausible? Every time I see a cell tower out in the middle of a farmer's field I can't help but wonder just how many calls that thing must be relaying and what kind of electromagnetic trail it might be broadcasting.

Since the most commonly asked question on a cell phone is either "white or wheat" or "action or comedy" I'd say we could live without them. :)

"We'd be SOL on honey though"

This may prove to be important b/c I think I once read that honey is the only food with an indefinite shelf life. (For when the stuff really hits the fan).

My wife always prefers a home with little or no cellular coverage. All the EM waves must not be good for you. The alter the energy field around you.

Peter P,

It's still early to say we've found the "smoking gun" but the decimation in the bee populations (thus far) seems to be confined to heavily industrialized nations. U.S, U.K and parts of Europe being the most affected.

The article also mentioned Scandanavian research that showed a 40% increase in brain tumors on the listening ear side of frequent cell users. They also suggested early senility for teens today by age 40 or 50.

The article also mentioned Scandanavian research that showed a 40% increase in brain tumors on the listening ear side of frequent cell users. They also suggested early senility for teens today by age 40 or 50.

I watched a dowsing video and the instructor showed that cellphone has influences up to 10 meters away.

In that case, I'm pretty much f_cked at this point.

There are so many people in Portland that no longer have a land line of any kind and strictly operate on a Wi-Fi/cellular basis. People of all ages, so it's not necessarily a generational thing. Also many do it to circumvent the Multnomah Cty. phone taxes.

That could prove to be an ugly trade off. What I guess I don't get, is how can the unattended bee-hive emit any kind of frequency? Even if the queen (or whatever) gives off a signal how could it be heard/sensed for more than a few hundred feet anyway?

I require a land line. I do not trust wireless technologies that much.

I'm of the opinion all EMR related maladies are correlations, not causal. when I see any study that adequately controls for obvious Occam's Razor questions then I'll become concerned.

Why are there less bees? Perhaps because there's less habitat, more contaminants, less pollination sources, too many monocrops? It could even be the case there are too many predators eating them or other insects displacing them.

But looming mysterious electro magnetic radiation (scary word) towers make for better media.

It is easy. We can use a dowsing rod to find out the presence of EM radiation.

It is quite likely that bees do internal dowsing.

Randy H,

There have been major population die-offs in the past. Some recently, but what experts and handlers are now finding is that they're not making it back to the hive. In the past I guess the bees would return to die in or near the hive?

I'm afraid I don't believe in dowsing. I need objective, repeatable, falsifiable evidence.

I thought the earth (as viewed from space) with an infra-red camera would have a magenta hue b/c of all of the microwave/radio transmissions. It would basically blanket the globe (and probably has since they launched Sputnik) so why now?

Biological life on this planet has been bombarded by all kinds of very nasty EMR from the cosmos since the beginning. Not to say there isn't a sensitivity to it, because there is. But we're not so fragile as to be ravaged by minor changes caused by relatively low power sources.

I'm not a biological expert by any means, but unless there's been some discoveries I've missed in the past couple decades, bees communicate through chemistry, not radios or mysticism.

I've read theories about the collapse in bee populations being related to increase in use of neonicotinoides (nicotine-based poisons) for weed control:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder. Other leading theories involve the weakening of the earth's magentic fields, GMOs and HFCS. Can't really comment on cell phone towers, but that one seems a bit far fetched, especially considering how long the things have been around.