Monday, April 30, 2018

This Is The Man Who Began The Process Of Taking My Brother's Mind Away

A part of what makes this so pernicious is that, unfortunately, my brother's own bad choices led to a big part of it as well, but that doesn't change the fact that people like this, and the Alex Jones' who followed in Bell's footsteps, took advantage of a lot of disaffected, and troubled people.

My brother was also, unfortunately, the first of five siblings brought into the very real crazy that my parents created when they got married; and only so they could have sex because one of the few things that stuck with my mom in her orphanage upbringing was a few of the Catholic Church's views on sex. Being disciplined, and understanding delayed gratification, however, was not something they taught very well. Not a good thing when you are as unbelievably creative, and perceptive as she was.

The old man was already a good deal more than walking wounded emotionally because of the Great Depression. And I mean really really broken as a man who could stand up for himself. The only thing two things he got out of growing up, as far as I could tell, was, firstly, a horrible sense of life as only a terrible ordeal one had to plod through, without question or complaint, because that's all life is, and questioning, or complaining, would yield you nothing. And the second thing was that all he ended up being comfortable doing was selling things, in the worst, hand to mouth, hardly getting by way, you could imagine. Even after he acquired very high end, aerospace mechanic skills.

In any case, as I said, my brother was the first into this mad coupling. What he suffered as a result was never something he could share with me, or my two sisters. And of course, my youngest brother only lasted six years, most of which my brother was no longer around much anymore, having turned delinquent in about as big a way as you can without actually going to prison (though he was arrested several times for petty crimes). And then the Vietnam war happened and my brother's luck really started getting bad.

Oddly enough, it was my younger brother's eventual death that allowed my older brother to come home early from Vietnam, but the extra damage was already done. Which was, of course, a great deal more he would not talk about.

The main theme here that I want to point out to you, however, with this background, is this Nation's inability to deal with the economic roller coaster that is Capitalism; the very regular boom and bust cycling that has created the horrible thing that we now refer to as the "cycle of the generations;" the thing that has served to create the ever onwardly rolling, destructive rise of inept individuals who create even more inept offspring, who then grow up to begat even more ineptness still. That inability laid the groundwork for people like Art Bell to begin to fashion careers out of selling fear based mysticism, and a super tanker, boatload of wishful thinking, on cause and effect, to try to give people like my brother a sense of sudo understanding of how the world works. And boy did he take to it. And once he started down that path, regular facts, and ordinary truths, just started to take a backseat to his ever more troubled sense of reality. Something that would become self reinforcing because his bad life choices along the way would only serve to isolate him further into the fantasy world that people like Bell, and people a lot worse, could weave fairly well.

They found my brother only a few days ago wandering, quite out of it, and nearly starving, many miles from his home in Graham Washington. Apparently, some of the fellow misfits he had let stay on his property finally ended up taking serious advantage of him. Stole all of his bank cards. His Id. And his diminishing mental state made him unable to do anything about it. This despite the fact that we have been begging him for years to leave the place and come back to live closer to my younger sister and I.

And now the system treats him like a pariah that has no institutional reference point at all. He isn't fit to fend for himself anymore, but the ER room that took him in initially just dumped him back out on my sisters doorstep, because they won't take the responsibility for getting the VA to help him. And the VA waiting list to get someone in to receive this kind of evaluation is something you have to experience in fighting with to believe. And because his home is no longer livable because of neglect (which were the first signs of his growing dementia, which we saw and then reported to a host of agencies, and help hotlines, but to no effect), he now exists in a kind limbo of non personhood. A limbo that none of us has the resources to do much about (my younger sister is the only one still not retired, but is barely making it, even though she works two jobs, one for the Kent School District, and another part time gig cleaning homes). She was also the only one here in Washington with a house with a spare room in it.

This is where this nation is at in so many ways now it makes me want to cry even more than I already have been crying. So much is missing. So much does not work. And so much is made up for it by those who only see an opportunity to take even more advantage of people who have had all hope, dignity, and health just stripped from them because this ongoing ineptness just keeps growing in all areas, and aspects, or our social, and economic life. And even if that weren't enough to make you weep, you surely will be doing so soon because the planet itself is dying as well. And do not for a moment think that is something you will be able to escape feeling, as a natural part of existence, even given all of your distractions, and addictions now. You will feel it, even if only subconsciously, because that will be a big part of what is driving you to avoid feeling anything at all, that's real, anymore.

How do you keep any sense of meaning in such chaos. How do you keep any sense that there can be a way out of this? The only answer I can give you is never stop trying to find it. Never. It is the only thing that has kept me going. And because I was the second kid in that whole crazy mix, the one who had empathy burned into him by helping to take care of our youngest brother, I can't, and won't, ever give up. Because to give up would mean that it was all meaningless, and pointless and just an exercise in futility, and pain management. And I do not believe that. I can't because I have felt the possibility of so much more in coming to see what our place in existence really means. And so I won't. I owe it to both my brothers, and my sisters. And to this wonderfully beautiful planet.



BEFORE 'THE X FILES'


A late-night radio host with a — pun sorta intended — cult following who passed away this month at 72, Bell covered a constellation of topics relating to strange phenomena, pseudoscience, and niche concerns of the tinfoil hat sect.

See Also:

Women addicted to opioids turn to sex work in West Virginia










Thursday, April 26, 2018

Go Teachers!

Show the rest of us how there can be power in unified, peaceful action.

Thousands of teachers in Arizona and Colorado to protest on Thursday






We Must Emulate The Assyrians

At least in part.

We must eschew single minded conquest of course, in favor of world wide cooperation; just as we must see the ultimate futility of violent oppression.  But their other traits of being successful, the ones that allowed them to work together, and prosper, are much to be admired.

The biggest difference between what I propose now, and what motivated them, in a multi level sense of meaning, and what ordered, and energized that meaning structure, is that they were pursuing what they thought of as a directive of a higher power. Notice, though, that even with that, did they also recognize the importance of process itself. These were undoubtedly bright people. They probably couldn't help themselves. And in that did they also, whether they were aware of it or not, acknowledge that a dichotomy exists between the notion that the entirety is indeed something that has to have both the pursuit for "A Higher Power," as well as "A Higher Purpose," as the two sides of the total thing that the entirety is.

If you can accept that then you also have to accept this: At least one of the big problems for the Assyrians was that their path was not a very well balanced one. To be sure, they also had some tough competition in the neighborhood too, to contend with, what with the Babylonians not so far away, but even so, you have to wonder what might have happened if the both of them had turned to a path of better balance. If they had then became a cooperating partnership in their region.

In any case, though, as the video makes clear, live by constant conquest, and forced expansion, die by the same thing once you bump up against a bigger fish than you. And we all know there's always a bigger fish (and think metaphorically there so as to include any, really big, new challenge) to come along at some point.

Our imbalance these days is to worship selfish, singular aggrandizement; manifested naturally in a variety of ways, and to ever new, staggering heights. That the planet is now getting ready to evict us, for the several hundred years we've been at egregious imbalance, ought not to go unnoticed in the review of this video. The question now is how will we "Innovate", Administrate", and redo a lot of physical, and social "Infrastructure" to meet this new, "bigger fish," of a problem? Do you seriously believe it will be done by just more "Business As Usual?" The very thing that got us to this point in the first place?

A Brief History Of The Assyrian Empire, One Of The Most Formidable Societies The World Has Ever Known



See Also:
[Post Note: Ok. I couldn't help myself. I just had to also include more of the latest example of how "Disruption" now has gotten out of all sense of balance. J.V.]
BIG SCOOT


In a compact city known for experimentation, popular electric-powered devices are injuring toes, starting fights, prompting debates over regulation; ‘Wild West situation’


[Post Note: And if you needed any further evidence of our imbalance just check this new, growing, totally unnecessary, gouge being taken out of the lives of so many of us. J.V.]
SPOILER: REALLY BAD


The number of Americans with 90-minute-plus commutes, dubbed "super commuters" by researchers, is on the rise.


[Post Note: And let's not forget this classic on imbalance. J.V.]
Koyaanisqatsi







Wednesday, April 25, 2018

You Really Need To Read This Essay On The Fixation Of Numerically Objectified Success

It's important because it really gets to the meat of why, from a philosophical point of view, especially as it relates to one's sense of cosmological order, that it really isn't the case that life is all about the numbers, and the math that lies behind them.

Which is not to say that the numbers aren't important, only that they are not the only important thing to a well lived life; and most particularly to a life that would seek to have balance shape a good portion of its overall strategy. And also because this is how we can best accommodate each other in social systems that have both practical meaning, but also meaning that relies on the faith in our fundamental position in how meaning gets created in the first place; because we are fundamental to the expression of energy.

It should also not surprise us that it is our outdated economic system that moves so forcefully to emphasize this very sort of unbalanced, numerical abstraction, because that is really all it cares about. How could it be otherwise when it is the abstract process of making profit that rules that old system, and the only thing that matters at the "bottom line."

It seems to me that, in order to move away from the tyranny of  too much metric thinking, one would really need to give serious consideration to getting rid of an operating system that puts too much emphasis on it. But that's just me I guess. What do you think?

Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires









Tuesday, April 24, 2018

We Need To Keep A Couple Of Very Important Dictums In Mind Here

As we do what needs to be done to save the planet.

The thing to start with, naturally, would be what any doctor could tell us: first do no further harm. Which means you better be looking very carefully at what the long term effects of your measures might be, beyond just lowering the amount of sunlight getting through the atmosphere.

Which is why I thought the second dictum I would operate under, in thinking about this sort of thing, should be that we ought to have a design parameter in place that establishes the ability to dial, whatever the effect is that we relying on here, up, or dial it back down again.  And in that vein using things like mirrors in orbit provides a good example of (forgetting for the moment the considerable effort it would take to put that many mirrors into orbit, or even what that might do to orbital congestion in general).

This is why my bias towards lighter than air constructs seemed quite appropriate now. And if you started with the elegantly simple starting point of "Lift Doughnuts," as I have described them, you could indeed create very large, fairly high altitude, lighter than air support platforms that could alternately block sunlight, collect solar power, and be scaled up or down in effect in relatively quick fashion; if they were assembled correctly, of course, within a well thought out assembly, and maintenance process. And I am talking about a very large, as in many square miles large, actual floating object that could get to altitudes where we might even be able to bring very cold air down from.

The biggest problem, certainly, with all of these schemes is that they will take tremendous amounts of infrastructure, of one type or another, to make happen. And in that we must also face the fact that this sort of thing simply can't be taken on without a corresponding change in how we operate as a society as a whole. How could it be otherwise when we will also have to tackle the population problem as well, for to do otherwise would doom any efforts to save the planet environmentally, no matter what you did to limit sunlight, or increase ice, at the poles. Which is also why we will have to mobilize as a nation, just as if this were another great threat to our existence; even if it's not a war against tyranny or Imperial domination. And until we recognize that, as well as to realize that Capitalism won't be able to take it on, we will just be spinning the mental wheels in useless conjecture.

The Machines That Could Darken the Sun to Stop Climate Change







Monday, April 23, 2018

What A Wonderful Idea For Infrastructure, and tech, appropriate approaches to transportation

In underdeveloped parts of the world. One can only hope this continues to go forward in a way that will truly benefit these areas of the world, until they have the base upon which to start to do more on their own.

The OX flatpack truck moves into pre-production and on to India







We Should, At The Very Least, Reconsider Our Role As Being Fundamentally Involved

In how reality is created in the first place.

How else can it be if we are fundamental to the duality of energy?

As such, I remain convinced that Cosmolosphy offers a path to at least better understand how this new realization should affect us, and how we should incorporate it into everyday life.

It does, unfortunately, take some bouncing around in all of these posts to fully understand what Cosmolosphy is, but if you can do it I think you will see the elegant simplicity inherent in this philosophical model.

Should Quantum Anomalies Make Us Rethink Reality





As We Say Goodbye To Another Earth Day

We are immediately reminded just how adverse big money is to doing anything about actually saving the planet; at least when they are supposedly tasked by law to do right by it. And of course the current demented clown car of an administration has clearly indicated where it stands on this issue with its current, equally demented pick, for the head of the EPA. Talk about a poster boy for corruption and not doing anything that will cost corporate America significantly, in relation to its bottom line.

With these kinds of, "facts on the ground," as it were, the question then becomes just how many more Earth Days we will be able to say goodbye to.

Canary in the Coal Pond



See Also:
[Post Note: This little tidbit concerning who gets what dumped on them, in everyday economic life, is quite telling about at least one notion in today's toxic, corrupted economic norms. And that is the simple dictum that feces always rolls down hill; where the hills and valleys naturally refer to the uneven playing field that dominates American life these days. And how more fitting can it be that a state that voted mostly for the current example of demented leadership, in our nation's top job, is the one at the butt end of this really bad joke; the farce still being played on the American electorate as they are encouraged to do nothing but abide what a very privileged few think is simply the natural order of things. J.V.]

A SHITTY SITUATION


Playing host to a train full of New York's poop was just the latest environmental injustice inflicted upon the state.






Sunday, April 22, 2018

Earth Day

Another earth day is here and we should all ask ourselves what are we personally committed to doing about making things right with a planet we have treated almost as bad as we treat each other most of the time.

As such, money, and the system that supports it, isn't really the true culprit here of course. That complex of problems serves to make things a lot worse, mind you, but we all know that it is as the comic strip Pogo once put it: "We have seen the enemy and the enemy is us."

Giving in to indifference. Giving in to despair. Giving in to the powerlessness that a few would certainly like to preserve in the rest of us. Frail and weak in many respects, we are still, however, capable of great compassion and caring. There wouldn't be an earth day otherwise because we can never really get away from being connected to connection itself. Meaningful connection. And if you look at it right you will see that this planet was the beginning of meaningful connection for all living things; us included. Which means we must have our own inherent meaning as well. If only we could see it.

And maybe. Just maybe. We are being given this one last chance to show up and be there for her when it really matters the most because now it really does. Our choices now will determine if meaning will continue or not. All of this amazing, meaningful, interdependence that life developed, and that we have been systematically destroying. Mostly because we can't stop being so caught up in our own petty differences with each other; centered of course on which is the correct way to live, and believe, and which isn't, when we all should share at least one common goal: the preservation of life itself, first and foremost.

Another Earth Day






Friday, April 20, 2018

Another Interesting Conjecture Concerning Cargo Containers

I know. I can hear the voices asking, with great incredulity: "You're doing a conjecture on cargo containers? Seriously?"

But hey, you have to understand something here. Public logistics, across a wide spectrum, locally, regionally, nationally, and for the rest of the world, is of absolute concern if you are someone who thinks in terms in full integration of any number of critical social needs. If you can't get it where you need it, when you need it, what good is it going to do you, after all. And what I am talking about here applies to just about all areas of human effort.

So yes, I do think providing conjecture here is just as important as any philosophical one might be.

That being said, what I am wanting to talk about now is what might be a better way to go about having container traffic done by airborne Dirigible Blimp train; specifically referencing how you do the interface between loading, and unloading such long craft, without necessarily having to have an airfield, in the ordinary sense, involved at all.

This has been bothering me for a while now, actually. 

Originally I thought you might use existing airports in a new way for these new kinds of trains. I thought you might want to try having the trains come in quite slow, and just after crossing over the runway beginning, would begin lowering containers down; either to waiting carts being towed below, or just down to their own wheels (taking the weight penalty) so that they could then self steer themselves to appropriate cargo gathering areas. Thus, with one pass, you could unload entire train, and then, with another slow pass you could pull up waiting convoys of outgoing, self steering containers.

And the thing is, you might actually be able to make that work, but even if you could, it wouldn't be the most elegant way to do it by any means. And would undoubtedly take some serious effort to solve all of the problems associated with it. But what if you took another approach altogether?

What if you designed a new kind of airborne cargo container. One that was built of the lightest composite material truss work you could come up with, from either natural, or carbon/natural, fiber combinations, that would have special mounting sockets on all four corners. These sockets would allow for the connection of completely autonomous, singular ducted fans, on a gimballed mount, units. Units that would have their own battery packs that would give them (at the very least), say, 30 minutes of flight time to either fly up to and mate with a container, in flight, inside an airtrain unit; and then recharge so that it would have another thirty minutes of flight time to get the container back on the ground. And of course, you could reverse the process to get new containers back up to be shipped to new locations. And in this, you could have the airtrains orbiting over a port marshalling yard almost anywhere you might want to have a port at.

The big downside here would be the clouds of these autonomous lifting/landing fans flying around wherever you put the new ports at (though one assumes that existing ports might actually handle this sort of thing quite well). Some existing airports might handle it quite well, and some not so much at all, but you could compensate for that, I think, by just co-locating airtrain ports, with already existing, large warehouse facilities.

Just something to think about as you give logistics the consideration it really deserves.







Thursday, April 19, 2018

Exciting News On The Graphene Front

This is tailored for filtration applications but even so, it's still a very big step. Not only do we need to be building desalination plants everywhere we can for direct human use, we will also need to pre desalinate sea water before we do electrolysis on it via my sea based, Yen Tornado Turbines. Doing that saves a lot of after the fact processing to deal with if you leave the salt in while you zap it.

MIT researchers develop scalable manufacturing process for graphene sheets








Monday, April 16, 2018

Is Spirit Just Another Way For a Meaning Processor To Talk About Meaning, Energy, And Quantum Entanglement

The tricky thing about talking about information, as opposed to meaning, is that meaning has to underlay both, because information must be expressed via a meaning system of some sort, and of course meaning can't exist at all if there isn't something meaningful to allow for it to exist in.

Information is separate from meaning in the sense that, as you step back to gain a broader perspective, or look much closer, to isolate factors to a particular scale of consideration, you turn known things into new objects collections that have no new, desired linkages, with which to make new propositions of cause, and effect with. The information is what you can collect concerning these new black boxes, in whatever metrics that are available to you, as it all relates to each other in an unavoidably arbitrary frame of reference; typically an operating situation of some complex form, that you have been closely associated with over time . The meaning is then whatever new relationships you can discern, with as many of the new, meaningful connections, between your known objects, that you can describe, that would make this new relationship hold together.

Once meaning is described, however, does how its stored matter? And I hasten to add that I mean this question in a sense beyond just the practical considerations that guys like Harold Innis described in the "Bias of Communication" (you know, where whether its a clay tablet, or a scroll, might change whether your society was spread out over time better, or physical space better). And in this sense I am wondering if one form contains a spirit that the other cannot.

Uh Oh. I've done it now. Talking about the spirit of a thing.

Of course, on the one hand a would be philosopher ought to be able to have some slack cut if he were of a mind to at least broach the subject every now and again. On the other hand, though, if a philosopher who also claims to be Mr. Process guy, how does spirit fit in? And remember also that, if your cosmology also allows that meaning processors are fundamental in the expression of energy, why wouldn't their utilization of instrumentality not have lasting, entangling, effects.

In point of fact here I am trying to make clear in my mind whether a book can have a spiritual mysticism that an electrical switching system, simply rearranging numbers to represent descriptive content, does not. Which is not necessarily to say that the electronic machine itself, as a whole, would not have spirit; assuming people worked on it to make it come into being; with hands, and meaningful intent by an actual meaning processor.

I know, it's a thin margin of difference to say that a book's content has one bit of spirit, and that the book itself also has some, to the degree that people actually worked to make it happen. If other machines made it, though, what then?

Am I just talking about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin here, in any case?

Or is it simply a matter of the combination of both belief, and meaning, that makes things be whatever enough of us describe; with whatever degree of meaning we can muster, as well as the degree of belief?

Will AI ever be able to master both meaning and belief? Any more than intuition or imagination? Will AI ever be able to take a leap of faith? Will AI ever be able to understand balance as I have described it in my philosophy? Understand the metaphorical overlays of what I am talking about when I say we must live the tension, of working the negotiations and compromises, that must form the balance between Father Fortress, and Mother Earth? Or, expressed more basically, the compromises between the fundamentals of Mind, and the Elemental Embrace?

I am just asking questions here. I am always just asking questions. I can't help it. It's a necessary part of trying to create a philosophy that appeals to a questioning mind. It is also just a part of the curse of not only living in "Interesting Times," but also of having been so naive as to what the consequences of being so curious about everything would entail; so naive as to how it would leave me to deal with so much; at least as that curiosity has come up against commercialized life as we now know it.

I believe in spirit and magic because I have experienced them directly. Early on especially. I have had, for instance, books speak to me without words, from a bookshelf. Most usually from a used book store shelf. And in point of fact, back when I was selling blood for books in the mid seventies, I would get a feeling from a book, the title of which might, or might not, have anything in them to suggest their applicability, but for which the feeling would say: you must read this. And in almost every case it was precisely so. To an amazingly important degree, in fact, as to critical aspects of things that would help me understand the concepts that I have come to rely on to get me to this point; for both an analysis of Capitalism, and a suitable alternative; not to mention a philosophy to with which to provide a proper foundation for change.

So are we then confronted with effect without material causality? And to that I would answer that just because we are not aware of how a mechanism works doesn't mean it has to work by magic, or not at all. It is just that certain parts take place in contexts that have to be implied because the cosmos is just complicated that way. Way more so, in fact, than we will ever be able to fully comprehend. And we won't be able to do that because there will always be limits to what we can objectify in the first place, from our primary scale of existential consideration, let alone with any objective precision in scales outside our primary. Which is why, in the end, even scientists will have to take some things on faith eventually.

Bottom line? Do not ever think that old books are an anachronism because they simply are not. Just like a house, that people have lived, and died, in, is more than just a building. The entanglements just go on and on and on. And as long as small inputs can have large effects, in very complex systems, you just better believe that spirit, and magic, are real. You will live longer, and more rewardingly, if you do.


See Also:
[Post Note: I know I've posted this link before, but I just couldn't resist posting it again here. J.V.]

You thought quantum mechanics was weird: check out entangled time








Sunday, April 15, 2018

It's Not a speeding locomotive, It's not an accelerating plane. It's Super Meaning Processors!

To objectify
and make effect
of object.

To create
the how of connection?
For what meaning
can meaning have
without connecting
meaningfully.

To those things
already known,
with handles of course
to grasp them by,
for what is an object
without its handle.

And oh don't we want
to reach out for more
grasp than we can
reach.
But we do need
to keep reaching.
For everything,
within the sway
of balance,
we can imagine.
Because we can
make what we imagine.

We are the choice
makers inherent
in having the other
need to make choices
as to the one
or the many
that energizes
getting the connections
to work. So it all keeps
going round
with the true gravity
of self sustaining iteration.



Saturday, April 14, 2018

Just Like The Outdated Economic System That Created It, We Need To Start Over

Garbage in garbage out as they used to say. Start with a very bad, very out of date economic system, and then, in its later stages of decay, have it create a new information exchange for the world? Are you really that surprised that it would turn out this bad? Even knowing that it is electrified information itself, and what that has done to the foundations of Democracy, that has created so much of all of the problems we face today. And for the very simple reason that you can have an informed electorate, or you can have a controlled electorate, but you certainly can't have both.

MEACUL.PA



Even those who designed our digital world are aghast at what they created. A breakdown of what went wrong — from the architects who built it.

See Also:
[Post Note: And finally, how are we to know much about those who influence the internet the most when they get to know more about us than we will ever get to know about them. Which puts us in the position of having to trust that these very powerful corporations will tell us things that we need to know. Things like Facebook now is probably be wishing people didn't have such complete info on. And certainly Facebook isn't the only player of import here. And if we also then vilify the leakers on a one size fits all methodology, what then? Nothing very good I would think. J.V.]
NOT TAKING THE PISS WITH LEAKERS


The Cupertino, California-based company said in a lengthy memo posted to its internal blog that it "caught 29 leakers," last year and noted that 12 of those were arrested.

[Post Note: Isn't it interesting to consider that, as one ponders why one is, well, let's consider fighting for a living first, year after year, and one is hoping for a deeper exploration as to the reasons for this, that the first thing one would need is a public forum in which a proper discussion could be carried out. And to do that of course one would also need a forum one could trust for a proper exploration of those reasons. And certainly this is related to workers in general now wondering what meaning they have in what they do, as very arbitrary, and often quite coldly logical (or illogical) markets make the decisions as to value, and worth, and meaning. The very kinds of things that tend to define the limits of our options before we even begin asking questions about what we can do about much of anything.

If, however, one cannot trust anything that comes down from any information source these days, because no one puts info out anymore without the expectation of getting more back in return for what was given out, then what chance do you think there is for anybody looker for real meaning to find it?

That's right, not very much.

J.V.]
NO FREEDOM IN THE WAR ON TERROR


After nearly 17 years of war, service members have seen plenty of patriotic displays but little public debate about why they're fighting.








Thursday, April 12, 2018

With All This Worry Over Possible War, Possible Rodents Coming To Testifying Before Congress, Actually Planning To Leave Same, Or Quite Haven't Decided What To Do Yet, Other Than Not Doing Their Jobs

There are still other pressing issues going on that everybody seems hell bent on ignoring no matter what. Tens of thousands are dying all over the world simply because they have no habitable place to go. And, lest we forget, the planet itself is not very happy either. Hence the new info below from Mach on NBCnews.com. about Antarctic ice.

That hole in the ice could be just a very odd seasonal anomaly. Then again, it could be something else entirely, as the indicated trend line for the ice so far ought to surely suggest. Do we wait until it's too late to do anything about it, just to be sure one way or the other? With what is at stake?

I certainly don't think so, but then I am biased about this. I make no pretense about it at all. Even with that, however, you would have to admit that the trend line for arctic ice so far is scary as hell. That is if you were of a mind to pay attention at all of course. Let alone do something if there were a way to do something about it. Which of course there is, but you just don't care anymore, do you. Too many other things going on that you just can't pull yourself away from. Oh well.

It was such a nice planet once. Perhaps the next tenants will do better with it.


A Massive Hole Was Spotted in The Antarctic Sea Ice



See Also:
Harsher winters and rising seas: Study finds slowing ocean could mean climate extremes


[Post Note: Sometimes I hate it when I am right. And this new circulation info is a real case in point. We must take this very very seriously. It is long past time to start considering what our immediate actions should be, now that we face a very real existential threat. And as I have said before: we need to change our social/economic/political setup in a very substantial way because Capitalism is in no way capable of getting us through this. And, as we did in WW2, mobilizing would require a managed economy in any case; because there can be no mistake, we must mobilize now. But we must do this in a way that can affect the grand compromise that I have proposed between the Right and the Left. If we do that, and we get rid of Capitalism, we still have a good chance to make this right. But make no mistake as well, this will require a lot of hard work, and sacrifice; just like it did when WW2 got everybody working from the same shared vision. J.V.]
The oceans’ circulation hasn’t been this sluggish in 1,000 years. That’s bad news.

[Post Note: Seeing as how we may soon be living on a planet with no ice at its poles, one wonders just how you go about making education be "future proof" as far as jobs go (other than for disaster cleanup of course). This is an especially pertinent question when you realize that it is, in the largest part, our current economic system, where we made jobs, and livelihoods, be dependant on more and more consumption, that has put us not only into dangerous territory concerning our environment (and our relations with other nations), but also as it relates to what the nature of work should be in the first place. No small question when you also have other, related questions, about how that same obsolete economic system has made information itself become a thing lusted after just as much as gold used to be; and therefore hardly conducive anymore for the kinds of distribution that a Democracy would require to continue existing. So how much choice do you think these kids are going to have to exercise in the first place?

But hey. If this gives folks something to do while they wait for the end, who am I to pass judgement on them. J.V.]

Students are being prepared for jobs that no longer exist. Here's how that could change