Miscellany
Some stuff I just might write about if I ever get around to it are,
What is the weight of 7 billion people?
What is the weight of their carbon content?
What happens to the carbon when people die?
What portion of that carbon is permanently fixed by embalming?
Tipping point: seabottom methane.
Only 7 billion years until the earth is engulfed by the sun.
How much money can Missoulians afford to spend on streets and sidewalks and pools and open space and such?
How much money does it cost to do all the things that need to be done?
70,000 people.
half are renters.
half own.
Most owners are actually buying their homes. Most owe more than 3/4 of the cost of their homes(?).
Many owners’ homes are worth less than the owners owe.
Do we have more than we can afford to maintain? Should we stop putting in sidewalks? Should we have more buses?
7 billion years and it’s all over for sure.
Krakatoa - stone age.
Cretaceous meteor - yow.
Paleozoic meteor - start again.
9 trillion dollars plus what? soc sec? vet bennies? Medicare/aid?
Who’s gonna pay all that back? Me? Why me?
al-qaeda wants everything.
- support from our crucial source of oil, Saudi Arabia (Bush’s Friends)
when Bush is gone, will S.A. still be our friends?
Oil sources
Venezuela, Russia, Canada?, Iran, Kuwait?,
All our manufactured goods come from - China?! Friend? Will China always take chits for manufacturing our stuff? What if they stop?
wealth comes from? adding value!
What added value does the US provide/create?
ideas? used to provide ideas. Then sold them to other countries/multinational corporations
Is the human race becoming smarter? or dumber?
(is it a given that the human race isn’t staying the same?)
Are the smartest humains becoming smarter or dumber? Are the human race’s smartest people alive today? Or not?
If the smartest humans are alive today, are they powerless because of the aggregate stupidity of the rest of us? Is that an Ayn Rand thing? How do you pronounce Ayn?
**just what is a “regressive?”
March 5, 2008 at 3:57 am
Ayn is short for Anyus.
March 5, 2008 at 4:09 am
So that’s, um, one vote for “dumber?”
March 5, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Ed, it is good to see I am not the only one who thinks too much!
The good news: regardless of whether you and I are smart or not so much, it won’t matter to either one of us 100 years from now.
P.S. The only problem with John Locke– is that he was wrong.
March 6, 2008 at 3:17 am
Thinking: it’s free, it’s personal, and it helps make the journey interesting.
Are there any modern philosophers?
March 6, 2008 at 4:21 am
“Are there any modern philosophers?” Not since Ed Abbey and Hunter S. Thompson died. On a similar yet unrelated note, can you tell me why the first two days of the meeting with the consultants for the downtown planning process were closed to the public. I find it offensive that public dollars are spent on meetings we cant attend. Something tells me, given the way people in this town love to argue, that this might have been a mistake. Dont get me wrong, I understand you got fed really well and I appreciate that. But still, all we get is a session tonight - break into small groups, talk warm fuzzies, report back to the big group. I’ve seen that movie a dozen times, I’m pretty sure I know how it ends. The BCC is going to show us that movie with the fairgrounds and I wont see that movie again either. Does this really accomplish anything in the realm of reaching public consensus? Thanks, Dan Hall
March 6, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hunter Thompson, modern philosopher - but not Don Rumsfeld? (you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had…
Can I say “why the first two days of the meeting with the consultants for the downtown planning process were closed to the public”
No, I cannot. I didn’t know that.
“I understand you got fed really well”
No, not me. I wasn’t there.
March 9, 2008 at 2:56 am
[...] Is the human race becoming smarter? or dumber? (is it a given that the human race isn’t staying the same?) Are the smartest humains becoming smarter or dumber? Are the human race’s smartest people alive today? Or not? If the smartest humans are alive today, are they powerless because of the aggregate stupidity of the rest of us? Is that an Ayn Rand thing? How do you pronounce Ayn? (This has been fully responded to by Larry Kralj). [...]