Larry Niven ( Writer ) has proposed the theory that "If the universe of discourse permits the possibility of time travel and of changing the past, then no time machine will be invented in that universe."
Blake, it's exactly that. Thank God not all scientists are in the science authoritarian camp, but enough of them are for it to be a concern. Especially in the area of climate change we see science authoritarianism clearly being pushed, now with the Chinavirus we see the same push towards obedience to the so-called scientific consensus. I keep saying that this pandemic was a blessing in disguise in some ways, it brought to surface the true colours of Science®. Their message is clear: Don't do your own research, accept what we say as true, you are wrong, we are right."
Interesting to see how statistics on climate change and statistics on Corona cases are manipulated to suit certain scientific (read: political) purposes, Patrick. Common sense is thrown overboard to make things look worse than they actually are.
Science is political, it has been political at least since the Copernican revolution. Politics funds science, it's important to keep that in mind. Any time we hear that science follows the evidence wherever it leads, you can bet that it isn't. Science (scientists) only follows the evidence on simple matters, such as water boiling at certain temperatures under certain conditions. Anything more complex than that, such as climate and spread of diseases, then what is followed is not the evidence, but the funding.
Plants thrive at high CO2, the higher the better. Current atmosphere contains about 400 ppm CO2, but when we add more CO2 under controlled environment, then plants explode in growth. CO2 increases plant metabolism when more of it is present in the atmosphere. The fear of CO2 serves no rational purpose except to push certain political ends.
Science is easily manipulated, mainly because there are no checks and balances. The "scientific consensus" supposedly serves as checks and balances, but it loses credibility on anything more complex than the boiling point of water.
You can depend on science to turn a good thing into a bad thing. CO2 is proven to be good for plants, but let's ignore that and say that it will make us die of thirst! Those darn plants sucking on water, despicable!
That's a beautiful picture, I like me some sucking plants.
Plants grow where rivers flow. Let's be realistic, what would have happened to that place had there been no plants? You guessed it, erosion. Plants play a key role in keeping the soil from eroding away thus leeching out nutrients. Plants do this by holding the soil together with their roots. So plants give back more than they take. They take CO2 and give us oxygen, they prevent erosion, they keep land fertile, they attract animals, birds and insects. Plants' motto: You give some, you take some. That sounds like a great deal to me.
Regarding the fear of people dying en masse of thirst because of evil plants sucking all the water, let's put that to bed:
It was cutting down much of the surrounding forests and putting in crops that warmed the local area. Trees make shade, shade is cooler, shade condenses moisture, moist air freezes on peak. Crops have small shade, warmer air, less moisture...
Sami, that's a picture of our property (upper left corner) you can see all around us there is managed forest. The bare areas will be left for either 15 or 30 years according to the kinds of trees being harvested. Pines Poplars and hardwoods. I was just trying to be funny, showing we had dominion over the forests...lol... Sometimes people get all out of joint when they see the hills after a harvest. I see management, either we harvest, or we burn. I love nature, it's much more dangerous than politics, but way less stressful. what's he going on about?
Communist Chinese Government "social control" program. Just a reminder what "media" this is and who controls it completely.
Is the Chinese Communist Party responsible for this fool's sacrifice to Darwin? I don't know. Who started this "fad"?
It not funny, I had a college buddy who "got off" on diet coke. Warm. I'm told some people are allergic to the artificial sweetener and can get weird side effects. Apparently he was one. I told him, "if it's not supposed to get you high, and it does, don't do it!" He didn't listen. I doubt that odd drug habit had anything to do with his death by suicide, but the underlying problem that made it a habit probably did.
I'm not railing against recreational drug use. I drink coffee and smoke tobacco. I even have an alcoholic beverage from time to time, aware that there's a family history of abuse and alcoholism.
But over the counter pharmaceutical fads, like "lean" ( remember who died gathering his dose, and decided to beat a Hispanic male who was following him? ) scare me, because there's little adaptation and experience with them. Stoners have been smoking pot for thousands of years, ditto alcohol, ( and it's a major problem ) but Benadryl?
I will point out the Communist Chinese government already practices narco-terrorism, with the export of fentanyl to us, having shills start a death fad is just too easy.
Trump recently blamed California officials not properly managing flammable debris on the ground for the spread of the fires.
"They're starting again in California. And I said, you've got to clean your floors. You've got to clean your floors," Trump said during a speech in Pennsylvania
"I've been telling them this now for three years, but they don't want to listen."
Posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 04:26 am:
Patrick,
The Chinese have a proverb: "The palest ink is better than the best memory."
I wish people had the memory to know about the Opium Wars so they could understand that we are currently living under one. The Opioid epidemic is China's vengeance. Speaking of, here's another Chinese proverb:
"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: One for his enemy and one for himself."
China knows that by taking vengeance for the Opium wars, they are digging their own grave as well. Many countries are choosing to become independent from China's manufacturing, seeing that dependence on China is risky in times of crisis.
Though China is not that worse off in the end. They have made billions in the meantime and built a significant working class, albeit at the cost of the American working class.
That is to China's credit, they were smart about it, they had ink and America had memory. Ink beats memory.
People are very much the same, but people are also very much different. Our differences are what makes us human, otherwise we would be like robots sharing the same programming deterministically doing what we were programmed to think and do.
I don't know which proverb is older, the Chinese proverb or these Biblical proverbs:
Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them. Proverbs 26:27
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. Romans 12:19
Truth is universal. All people have proverbs and parables on the double-edged sword of taking vengeance.
Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 08:38 am:
Yep, it's called rational forest management.
Practiced by the Natives for thousands of years. It took city dwelling "well meaning" fools ignorant of history or science to stop clearing dry brush creating a fuel overload in a land that burns every year since before man walked there from Asia.
Indeed. Natives have been practicing rational forest management for ages. Aboriginals have done that in Australia, while city dwellers have ignored it.
Since Europe was once covered in damp forests it's natural for idiots to not understand anything out of their medieval experience. Five hundred years ago.
The only excuse they have TODAY is deliberately induced ignorance. Deliberately dumbed down schools and deliberate propaganda instead of science.
I'll be long gone by then, but when the glaciers scrape Chicago off the map I expect the United Nations will blame Catastrophic Global Warming and call for South Texas to give up it's hateful insistence that it's ok to burn trash ( the only wood left after the ban on private property ) to keep from freezing.
But I could be wrong! The world might be in a lush forested phase after the cities burn in the panic during the Great Extinction unleashed when the Friends Of The Earth break into the heretical biology lab and release the lab animals infected with the Last human virus. I might still be around to post "I told you so!" on the last of the battery power in my Kindle ... But it won't have an internet connection left to reach out to the dying remains.
Posted on Saturday, September 19, 2020 - 02:27 pm:
Deliberate dumbing down is the right description, which is coincidentally the title of the book "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" by Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt. She is an interesting lady who has been a teacher and has written and spoken on the sad state of modern education.
Dumbing down results in ignorance. It is unfortunate that people refer to the medieval ages and earlier as "the dark ages". Doing so makes people see that period as "old-fashioned / backwards/out-moded". The opposite is true, that period was when many people where rural and had extensive knowledge of land management. Too bad that the argument from novelty has blinded people from applying the wisdom of the past to present issues.
So true. People now pay lots of money to attend college to learn the most basic of sustainable home siting, building, and living principles that used to be common knowledge.
College is a waste of time and money nowadays, students are taught to hate themselves, their parents and their history. What isn't a waste of time is teaching one another trade, crafts and skills related to life and living. Fortunately, apprenticeship and homesteading are making a comeback due to the crisis. God helps those who help themselves.
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats forever.
As for Fauci? My parents learned by the time I was five years old, that "because I said so" didn't fly. That, and the man contradicts himself. Frequently.
We're not a country that would accept if a ruler tells us, 'You must do this.'
We have to work together—and follow the public health fundamentals, doing as we're told
Um...yeah. Right.
Then, there's this little gem:
when you're dealing with an infectious disease—the infectious disease doesn't know the difference of the border between Mississippi and Louisiana or between Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and an infectious disease means the entire country. We did not approach it that way."
So, yeah, the virus doesn't know borders. That much is true. But...one-size-fits-all does not work. NYC needs a different response than, say...Montana, or North Dakota. There are variables other than "the virus" - population density. Climate. Age (of individuals, and of populations). And - as anyone who has ACTUALLY studied science knows - all variables are important, and all variables influence the outcome.
ALL of them.
Not just "the virus".
And this still doesn't take into account, the lack of dead bodies. The *CDC* (of all groups) says recovery rate for ALL AGES averages well over 99%. The "most susceptible" age group, 70+, STILL has a recovery rate over 94%.
I fail to see the horror.
What scares me the most about this whole thing? The idea that it's just a test run, for something REALLY deadly that's still being brewed in that lab.
That, and what we're letting our elected officials do to us, and to our economy. Like lambs to the slaughter.
Get on the train, citizen...you'll get a number tattooed on you once you're processed.
I don't trust anything that comes from politicians, or CEO's the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Google, and the IMF.
If - and that's the key word there, *IF* - something like this was to happen, it would need to be organically. Not by decree.
And CERTAINLY not by decree of people such as those. They have one goal in mind, and one goal only - power and domination, and the riches that come with it.