Exploring the fringes of science and history. Caveat lector!

News Briefs 25-05-2011

Posted by Rick MG at 11:23, 25 May 2011

17 lost pyramids found by infrared satellite in Egypt.
RIP Spirit, the little Martian rover that could. More.
Leslie Kean's UFOs... On The Record endorsed by astronomer Dr Derrick Pitts.
UFO sightings in Argentina's Paraná Delta go back 20 years.
Researchers reopen their minds to psychedelic medicine.
Ralph Metzner recalls the beginnings of psychedelic research.
Dutch "Iceman" survives freezing water by meditating.
Does an early Buddhist writing describe supernatural abilities?
Do we all possess super senses, but we're too distracted to notice?
Mind and matter: agnosticism and consciousness.
Debate over the reality of dark energy reignited by new research.
Seven tombs from Tutankhamun-era open to tourists. With extra Zahi.
If you find yourself in my town, the Tutankhamun exhibition is a must-see.
1914 aerial shot of the Temple Complex at Karnak, Egypt.
How ancient monuments have lost their colour.
Volunteers clean graffiti from Nevada's rock art. More info.
Inca civilisation began with llama dung. Our civilisation today is ending with it.
Saving Civilisation Plan B with Lester Brown, narrated by Matt Damon.
Breakthrough in flexible film solar cells, rechargeable pants coming soon!
Tracking whale sharks with astronomical algorithms.

Big thanks to Kat, RPJ, and Max.

Quote of the Day:

“Leslie Kean and I talk UFOs as legitimate science research — NOT ET spaceships. Why don’t we investigate as legit science? Other countries do …” ~ Dr Derrick Pitts

France's COMETA report UFOs and Defense is a good example.

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Let's not and say we did...

#1

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Posted by Redoubt on 25 May 2011 at about 14:35.

Re: Saving Civilisation Plan B
http://www.earth-policy.org/about_epi/6/

"Plan B is a worldwide mobilization to stabilize population and stabilize climate. Plan B replaces the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model powered by abundant sources of renewable energy: primarily wind, solar, and geothermal."

Evolving away from our culture of the disposable sounds really good. The era of returning bottles for a deposit meant there were less empties then to be found in the landfills and roadsides. The rise of plastics was good for the petroleum economy but absolutely tragic for the environment. But please, leave my old pick-up truck alone!

"Its transportation systems are diverse and aim to maximize mobility, widely employing light rail, buses, and bicycles. A Plan B economy comprehensively reuses and recycles materials. Consumer products from cars to computers are designed to be disassembled into their component parts and completely recycled."

The authors of Plan B don't come right out and say it but... the implication here is that the two-car garage is slated for demolition. Private automobile ownership has been the target of the pine-nut crowd for decades. But I really don't see this happening so much as I do a change-over from the archaic internal combustion engine to electric. Anyone who wants to impose a plan B or Plan C or D or whatever, is not going to put the masses on buses and trains without a fight. We've tasted the freedom that comes with the private car. We're not going willingly embrace some misbegotten Barney-the-Dinosaur transit doctrine.
(I love you, you love me...)

"Plan B lays out a budget for eradicating poverty, educating the world’s youth, and delivering better health for all."

There is really only one way to do away with world hunger and poverty... and that is to throw out the free market concept and install a one world government that will distribute the wealth and goods produced by a fraction of our species, to the rest who produce little or nothing. The concept of individuality... the right of the one, will be removed and replaced with the concept of the mass/whole. Constitutions around the world that gaurantee certain rights to their individual citizens will have to be decommisioned and replaced with a one-world law that will replace those rights with enumerated and tiered responsibilities to the world-state.
(... we're a happy family...)

"It also presents ways to restore our natural world by planting trees, conserving topsoil, stabilizing water tables, and protecting biological diversity. With each new wind farm, rooftop solar water heater, paper recycling facility, bicycle path, marine park, rural school, public health facility, and reforestation program, we move closer to a Plan B economy."

(With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you...)

—

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."

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Wait a minute!

#2

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Posted by red pill junkie on 25 May 2011 at about 16:47.

So it's either the doom of the species, or a "Communist-Barney-Teletubbing" pinko world scenario? kinda binary way of thinking IMHO.

There has to be a way to provide the basic necessities of life to the millions of poor, while at the same time retaining the liberties and rights that allow for the blooming of creativity and the pursuit of happiness.

On private transportation: like that book from 1972 (that Kat linked to) tried to predict, if public transportation within a town was free AND comfortable, I have no doubts many people would choose not to have a car, or just use it on the trips where you wouldn't want to have a planned schedule.

People are always fearing that pleas for egalitarianism are directly meant to go after them. In reality they are meant to attack the handful of rich bastards who have enough money to last them 100 lifetimes.

—

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie
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... and I feel fine!

#3

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Posted by Redoubt on 25 May 2011 at about 20:05.

In concept, you can have it both ways; freedom and equality beyond simply being free to succeed. But in practice?

You can't just say 'You are free to do the best you can...', and then expect the world to take up the offer. This has been tried a hundred times and it has failed in ninety. If it had succeeded, there wouldn't today be such a disparity between the haves and have-nots.

This is all just opinion. Nothing more.

I understand the inclination to hold the extremely wealthy accountable. Many have more than they or their heirs could possibly ever need or even appreciate. But at the same time, not all of the world's wealth was attained by less than honest means.

Some people worked long and hard to get what they have and now to say that those who did not work long and hard deserve a share is... well, theft. But we have reached a point now where the only real way to lift the lesser is to lower the greater by drawing from it.

What do you do?

As for saving the world via Plan B or some other concept? I don't see it happening in a way that will result in anything positive. It's not that I don't believe that something should be done... because it is obvious that something should be done about certain issues.

The problem lies in the stone cold fact that the only ways to obtain global unity is either through a long term, patient effort to create harmony among the peoples and nations... or to apply it as a bludgeon, as is currently being done.

Blunt force trauma as a prescribed treatment.

My personal guess is that the patient will die a slow, agonizing death before being reborn later to try it all over again... from scratch.

(BTW... Did you know that all-electric vehicles are being required to carry artificial engine noise generators in some places?)

—

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."

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Listen to yourself churn

#4

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Posted by red pill junkie on 25 May 2011 at about 21:24.

You can't just say 'You are free to do the best you can...', and then expect the world to take up the offer. This has been tried a hundred times and it has failed in ninety. If it had succeeded, there wouldn't today be such a disparity between the haves and have-nots.

I probably missed History class that day, but please tell me of the times of which what I'm talking about has actually been applied on some society —Russian communism doesn't count, because that's not what I'm talking about.

Some people worked long and hard to get what they have and now to say that those who did not work long and hard deserve a share is... well, theft. But we have reached a point now where the only real way to lift the lesser is to lower the greater by drawing from it.

I wished that if at least some good thing had come from the horrible 2008 manure pool we all had to dive into, was the overriding of that sorely deluded misconception that homeless people are lazy, or not willing to work as hard as those on the top.

Take this interview with a 24-year-old girl who suddenly found herself out of a job and unable to support herself —aka homeless. She wrote a book about her experiences and what they taught her:

What's it like living among homeless people?

I was raised to look down at homeless people with disgust. This challenged my perception. That's always a good thing. There are people who have experienced worse things than me. Way, way, way, way worse. I haven't had to sleep rough. So I'm lucky as far as that goes. I've always been safe. Not everyone has that luxury.

There are some homeless people struggling with mental illness or drug addiction, who can't pull themselves up by the bootstraps. They don't have bootstraps to pull. But the fastest growing subset of the homeless population are mobile homeless like me, those affected by the recession and living out of vehicles and just trying to blend in and boostrap their way out of it. I met a doctor. He and his wife were living in a car together, thinking of moving to another country and teaching English. I met a guy who speaks four languages and another guy who used to own three houses. There are a lot of people who lost their jobs and thought they'd be okay but were unable to find work. A lot of people who took unemployment as long as it would last. And a lot of others have been foreclosed on. That's pretty common. This recession has been completely indiscriminate. It's affecting everybody.

Those at the top are no more hardworking than those at the bottom. They just happen to get a better compensation for their skills.

—

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie
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Stumbling on the way down...

#5

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Posted by Redoubt on 26 May 2011 at about 01:22.

"I probably missed History class that day, but please tell me of the times of which what I'm talking about has actually been applied on some society —Russian communism doesn't count, because that's not what I'm talking about.

I wasn't attempting to hold anything you said accountable, RPJ. Nor was I trying to teach history. I was just offering an opinion; my own. Nothing more, nothing less. It was an attempt to detail the garden path that I followed that led me to the conclusions I had just a few moments before expressed.

I could defend my view on the subject of wealth and its current distribution by offering that I am nowhere near wealthy. In fact, I am in debt up to my earballs paying for the last 5 years of college for our youngest. I could tell you exactly what I think about how students and their parents are being financially raped by a system that allows the educational loan industry to hold these young people hostage for decades after they graduate.

I could tell you what I think of banks that are now forced upon society... meaning you can't just NOT have a bank account anymore just like you can't drive a car without insurance or get a job without a Social Security number. I mean, $3 for using an ATM for 30 seconds comes to $6 a minute, $320 an hour and $8640.00 per day. It simply can't be justified but neither can it be changed because our governments are owned like we are.

Hell, I grew up in a project where you never saw a day pass when someone wasn't at your door asking for food... or you were out at their door for the same reason. I was a latchkey kid and the only silver spoon to pass between my teeth was stamped, stainless steel.

None of it is right... but at the same time, I don't believe Plan B is right, either. I don't see how anything like it can be implemented without first razing national boundaries & constitutions, raiding national treasuries and holding people's material wealth against them like they were criminals for succeeding in a system that was designed to reward intelligence and hard work, and then giving it away to those who - for whatever reason - didn't succeed.

It is all so screwed up right now that it can't really be fixed... only torn down and begun again.

And... I'm sorry if I said anything wrong. I don't write this stuff to make people mad. I just spell out what is bouncing around in my head, man.

—

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."

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No, I should be the one to apologize

#6

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Posted by red pill junkie on 26 May 2011 at about 01:41.

I let out a bit too much steam on that comment :(

But couldn't it be that we believe there can't be no solution just because we can't imagine one at the moment? couldn't it be that this is all due to our education? —conditioning, if you want to go to the more conspiratorial side ;)

I really think there has to be a better way. Call it my 'controlled folly' :)

—

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie
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conditioning

#7

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Posted by thefloppy1 on 26 May 2011 at about 06:05.

spot on...while this exists there will allways be a divide between rich and poor (powerful and powerless). If your born into elite then you are conditioned to believe that without you being ontop finacially and in positions of power, then the whole system would fail and all would suffer. All others are born with a great carrot in front of them which they struggle all their lives to catch. Meanwhile the elite gain from your hard work honestly believing they are doing you a favor.

It's quite funny really.

So to change it all one would have to have a complete workable alternative good enough to break the conditioning.

I was talking to a person not long ago with an estimated worth of 55 million. Not great in todays standards but plenty enough to give freedom to go and do what they wanted. The subject was about wealth distribution and they truely believed that the amounts they gave to charity was more then enough to justify increasing their personal wealth.

Makes you wonder how much is enough?

—

"Life can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you do what your told."
LRF.

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from the Splurge-Urge-Dept.

#8

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Posted by Inannawhimsey on 25 May 2011 at about 22:57.

red pill junkie wrote:

There has to be a way to provide the basic necessities of life to the millions of poor, while at the same time retaining the liberties and rights that allow for the blooming of creativity and the pursuit of happiness.

I think what it is going to have to involve is creating a civilization where one doesn't have to work to survive. I sincerely believe that unemployment is the cure, not the problem. Those in power are quaking in their boots because they are having great difficulty in figuring out how to continue since, for work, globally we increasingly DON'T NEED PEOPLE, but can automate with machines.

So, to survive (or, for those in power to stay in power) without going into some sort of Road Warrior survivalist wet dream scenario, the concept of 'jobs' are going to have to change, which means the economy is going to have to change as well, which means that the concept of centralized currency is going to have to change as well.

—

---------
All that lives is holy, life delights in life.

--William Blake