Wishing everybody a wonderful Christmas! Permit me one more disjointed freeform shpiel. My wife and I both love the number 23 for some reason, don't ask why [see the 23 enigma]? Perhaps it goes back to Robert Anton Wilson and the Illuminatus books or even the most dire hexagram of the I Ching, Splitting apart. I used to live at 2323 Rainbow Glen, my wife and mother were both born August 23rd. In any case, we had high hopes for 2023.
It sucked.
I will be very happy to leave this year in the rear view mirror. It was a disaster, from a health standpoint, financially, Leslie's headaches, honest to god, what a bitch this year has been. I can't believe that we have almost made it through, I guess I shouldn't hex it, there is another week, after all. Things can always get worse.
But I do hope next year is a little more stress free. Would be nice to experience a tail wind again, just to see what it feels like. The star appears right after the tumult of the tower, all those people jumping out of castle windows. Please grant us your grace.
*
Many people are celebrating Christmas and I wish them the best. But for many people this is the most depressing time of the year. I know two friends who were dumped by their significant others this month. What terrible timing. The gloom bugs a lot of people too. Have pity on the sad and less fortunate and those that will be alone in what can be a dark time of the year for some.
*
Bezos and Musk were prattling on the other day about how we need about a
“I would love to see, you know, a trillion humans living in the solar system. If we had a trillion humans, we would have at any given time a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins…Our solar system would be full of life and intelligence and energy.”
A thousand more Mozarts is all well and good but where the hell would we put all those pianos?
He (Bezoz) envisions people living in giant space stations, which have “a lot of advantages over planetary surfaces,” including the ability to spin them to create normal gravity. He said most people would want to live near Earth and go there for vacation, “the same way you might go to Yellowstone National Park.”
He sees the Earth’s environment being preserved by heavy manufacturing moving into space, taking advantage of resources on the moon and the asteroid belt.
Honestly, we have done such a foul job on earth and now we can't wait to destroy the rest of the Milky Way too? Please. Right when we are due for the next mass extinction, such exquisite timing.
Calculations in a September study published in the journal PNAS have suggested that groups of related animal species are disappearing at a rate 35% times higher than the normally expected rate.
And while every mass extinction has winners and losers, there is no reason to assume that human beings in this case would be among the survivors.
In fact, study coauthor Gerardo Ceballos thinks the opposite could come to pass, with the sixth mass extinction transforming the whole biosphere, or the area of the world hospitable to life — possibly into a state in which it may be impossible for humanity to persist unless dramatic action is taken.
Have at it, spaceboys. Glad I won't be around to see it. But we humans, concertos and theorems notwithstanding, have been remarkably bad stewards of this poor planet and things are only getting worse.
Entire categories of related species, or genera, are disappearing, a process he said is affecting whole ecosystems and endangering the survival of our own species.
Ceballos and his study coauthor Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies at Stanford University, assessed 5,400 genera of vertebrate animals, excluding fishes. A single genus groups one or more different but related species — for example the genus Canis includes wolves, dogs, coyotes and jackals.
The duo’s analysis found that 73 genera had gone extinct in the past 500 years. This is much faster than the expected “background” extinction rate, or the rate at which species would naturally die off without outside influence — in the absence of human beings, these 73 genera would have taken 18,000 years to vanish, the researchers said.
The causes of these extinctions are varied — land-use change, habitat loss, deforestation, intensive farming and agriculture, invasive species, overhunting and the climate crisis — but all these devastating changes have a common thread: humanity.
Life won't be nearly as fun without the other species around, even up in your stupid spaceship. We don't need a trillion more people, we need a few billion less. Although things are probably too messed up at this point to even matter. Terra deserved better...
Appears this fellow agrees with me.
*
Want to hear how stupid the FDA is? Read this. Decongestants no longer work. I realized the new medicine was worthless about eight years ago and now there's proof.
*
I made the mistake of talking to somebody in line while I was waiting to pick up my prescription at CVS. I noticed that the carpet is now permanently social distancing color-coated. They have inserted these squares in for proper distance.
"I guess it's forever," I exclaimed.
And the guy in front of me starts going off about stupid people in masks (like the woman in the next red square in front of him), and it was just the flu and the democrats created a new virus every four years to keep the people in line, on and on...
When he came up for air I did mention to him, that people that got covid shots and tried not to congregate at the height of the epidemic seemed to not die as much as the other ones but he was having none of it.
Everybody is still really triggered. next time I will shut up. Hopefully.
*
I had an interesting experience the other day. I had gone to the ATM and a landscape guy was in the next stall. I went to my car, checked over my shoulder and being clear, started backing. I heard a loud crash, oh shit. Jumped out of my car, the landscaper took off. I looked for damage, not a scratch or nick. Hit his rakes and shovels, all bark, no bite. So lucky. He must have started his curl in the opposite direction at the exact time I did.
*
Dave Manring sent this tune over from Japan. Love John Hartford.
*
December 27th will mark the fortieth year since I decided to not put any more foreign substances up my nose. Only hard drug I ever did and let's say, I enjoyed it a little too much. The statute of limitations is up right? I never looked back, honestly.
I told one of the double a guys at coffee who knows I might still have an occasional puff on a doobie about my forty year mark and he said, in program parlance, stopping the Peruvian weezil dust was just a half measure. Well, I am proud of myself anyway, half measure or not. Still drink caffeinated drinks too.
And wouldn't you know, I dreamed about the aspen chit chat powder last night. But I did not partake. White Christmas, indeed...
*
Tom's rust heap is finally saying bye bye.
It was nice yard art while it lasted but like most company, it overstayed its welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment