I haven’t been in the mood to post much here lately. My wife and I are officially in the “Late Fall Blahs”. This is probably a misnomer, since I don’t think the time of year has much to do with it. We are suffering from a conjuction of things happening all at once which has caused our bioryhthm charts to take a dive (anyone else remember bioryhthm chars?).

First of all, we are at the “needful junk” stage of the moving-in process. This is the stage where you have all of your important stuff put away, but you still have boxes of stuff lying around the house. When you sit down with one of these boxes, you realize that you will probably never use this stuff, but you might need it. You can’t throw it out, but you don’t really have a place for it, either. So you scoot it to one side, or push it under the coffee table to deal with later.

Second, the weather. We’ve had another week of dreary, overcast days where the moisture just hangs in the air and clings to everything. It sorta-rains, in an off-and-on drizzly kind of way, but it never really rains.

Third is the time of year. It’s approaching Christmas once again, and once again, we don’t have nearly the money that we would like to have around this time of year. This is compounded by the huge amount we just spent on the house and appliance, plus both vehicles need to be registered (one in November, one in December).

Anyway, I hope to post more going forward. I suspect January is going to come as a relief when it finally gets here.

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Source: Washington Post: Steeped in Greenhouse Gas, Pine Trees Deviate

Scientists are currently conducting a study on loblolly pines. The study utilizes a ring of carbon dioxide generators that surrounds patches of these trees. The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of an increase of CO2 in the air on these pine trees.

So far, they have noticed that the trees seem to be growing and reproducing much faster than before. They are also developing more needles - an average of 17% more needles than typical loblolly pines. At first blush, this looks like a good thing. Trees hold carbon dioxide inside them, keeping it out of the atmosphere. It appears that the CO2 problem will be self-remedying: more CO2 produces more trees which absorb the additional CO2. The system appears to be self-stabilizing.

There is a dark-side of course. For one, other species of trees probably won’t enjoy the additional growth spurt. This means that the loblolly pine could spread quickly, pushing out other species of trees, such as oak or maple. This can change the entire landscape of an ecosystem — for example, squirrels and black bear rely on acorns from hardwood trees. If the loblolly pushes out these trees, the populations of squirrel and black bear will have to move on or die.

Another issue, and the one we can learn a lesson from, is sustainability. The rapid growth of these trees is using up soil minerals much faster than they would normally. According to scientists, the trees will eventually run out of nutrients and fixed nitrogen, and then growth will come to a crashing halt, and may even reverse itself. So, by using up their “fuel” in order to create “rapid growth”, they will eventually run out of “fuel” and growth will stop or reverse itself. Does anyone else see a parallel to our own civilization here?

Nature is self-regulating. This is where my fellow liberals and progressives often get things wrong. Nature does not need man to protect it. Nature does not care if man abuses it. As our conservative bretheren are fond of pointing out, the Earth has survived much worse natural disasters than anything Man has been able to throw at it, and life has always found a way to survive and to thrive. Sure, it can take millions of years, but it does survive. . . and what is a few million years to a planet that is 4 billion years old?

Conservation is not an end unto itself. Conservation is not necessary to protect the Earth. No, conservation is necessary to protect and aid Mankind, not nature. Destroying rainforests, burning fossil fuels, overdeveloping the land. . . all the result of our species spreading and growing and consuming resources. Nature will correct this. We will run out of rainforests, we will run out of fossil fuels, and we will run out of developable land. Our sources of food and clean water will be depleted; our sources of medicine and other critical products will be depleted. The growth of our species will come to a crashing halt, and will reverse itself. It will reverse itself back to sustainable levels — however, the ’sustainable level’ will be much lower then than it is now since we will have used up almost all of what we need to keep going as a species and as a society.

Malthus was the first to predict this. He showed that, unless something else checks the growth of a species, the species will eventually “crash.” Catastrophic disaster will inevitably reduce a species’ numbers well below the sustainability level. In other words, if humans don’t regulate themselves willingly, nature will regulate us, and nature is far less selective or merciful about how it accomplishes this.

When we speak of growth now, we are not just talking about growth in numbers, although that is part of the equation. We are talking mostly about growth in consumption of resources. Even if our population was stable, our consumption will continue to increase as the develping world becomes more and more developed. This growth in consumption, like the growth in numbers, is subject to the same law of Malthus — if we don’t regulate it ourselves, it will be regulated for us, and it will be regulated by catastrophe rather than planning.

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We just recently moved into our new home. We were living in a motel, so we had a friend watching our pets, including our dog, Purdy. Yesterday we took our pets back and introduced them to their new home.

Soon enough, of course, our dog had to do her business. Like the beagle she is, she let us know this fact by barking in that special beagle yap: “Rort! Rort! Rort!” I decided that I would enjoy a pipe while I was out walking her, so I proceeded to fill a bowl, while the dog continued to bounce around, yapping (”Rort! Rort!”), and my wife giving me a dirty look and a “Are you taking her out today, or what?”

Finally, my bowl is adequately, if hastily, packed. I hook the dog to the leash, grab my matches and pipe nail, and head out the door. Outside, I hold the leash in one hand while Purdy tries her best to wrench my arm out of my socket. With my other two hands I light a match, and with my fourth hand I shield my pipe from the wind while lighting up. Of course, I don’t really have four hands, so a half a book of matches later, I have managed to get a charring light and a regular smoking light, while Purdy went into an apoplectic siezure trying to chase blowing leaves across the street (”Rort! Rort! Rort!”).

We live in a mobile home park now (save your ‘trailer trash’ comments for Jerry Springer) and the rule is that if your dog does her business on the ground, you have to pick it up. I realize that other people do this, especially in big cities and such where you can get a $10,000 fine for not scooping your dog’s doo-doo, but I’ve always viewed this as “one of those things that happens to other people”, like IRS audits, or airplane accidents. So I decided to get around this rule by taking my dog outside of the Park. Clever, eh?

The road that runs by the park is a narrow, winding country road with trees on both sides. Despite it being narrow and winding, cars drive along this road like it’s the Autobahn. It also doesn’t have a single streetlight, so, apart from the illumination provided by the houses in the nearby mobile home park, the road is pitch black. So, at 7:30 at night it is already dark. I walk Purdy up to the winding road, tugging her along to make sure she doesn’t do anything inside the park. Once their, I find that I can barely see.

Suddenly, there are headlights! Purdy, the hyperactive beagle who is still tugging on the leash in a heroic effort to snap the tendons in my shoulder starts moving toward the road. I pull her back and stumble off the road into the trees and brush as I am blinded by the high-beams of the oncoming vehicle. The car passes at a speed just below Mach 1, and the shock-wave hits me like a hurricane hitting Florida.

Slightly shaken, I puff on my pipe furiously, giving the leash a tug to make sure that Purdy is still attached and alive, and hurrys up with her business. Since I can barely see anything, I have to guess when she has finally gone, and then I make my way back to the park, evading two more subsonic vehicles as I go. By the time I am back to the house, I am more than halfway through my pipe. Normally at this point in my pipe smoking I am in a nice relaxed zone, but not today. I let Purdy back into the house, and I sit on the steps to finish my pipe bowl (no smoking in our house by orders of the Boss - my wife).

The night is a bit chilly and the steps are cold, but I sit and unwind, enjoying my pipe in the evening air. The stars are out and clearly visible, the crescent moon peeking through the autumn-denuded trees.

This is my new home. I decide that I like it.

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We’ve been living in our new home since Monday, Nov 7 - thats 4 days now. We have most of our ‘essentials’ in the home now (toothpaste, soap, shampoo, food, computers, clothes, floss, beds, ball-point pens, and underwear), but we still have some more to move in (winter coats, boots, pipe tobacco, toys). We have two 10′ x 15′ storage units with stuff in them. Our goal this weekend is to go through all of our storage stuff, take out all that we want and need, and then combine the two into one unit (the cheapest one, of course).

We took back all of our pets on Tuesday. Our dog, Purdy, and our 3 cats, Sierra, Yin, and Yang. They’re still getting used to their new digs. . . they better not mess it up.

The kids have today off from school (what holiday is it? Veterans Day?), so they should be able to help Cindy get everything put away so we can make room for more stuff.

Also, in 9 days (Nov 20) it is Cindy’s birthday, and our 6th wedding anniversary (yes, we got married on her birthday). I’ve got a few ideas for what we’re going to do, but I won’t list them here in case she reads this.

Thats all the new news for now. I haven’t posted any more pics of the house yet since I’ve been busy, and right now the house is a bit of a mess.

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We’re finally moving in! It’s been a long haul. We lived with a friend for a month, and then moved to a motel, where we’ve been living for 2 months. The home that we had hoped would be ready by mid-October is just barely finished now that we are in early November. We were told we could move in on Friday of last week, but that fell through. They told us that we could move some of our stuff in, but we just couldn’t live there. Then, yesterday, we got word that we could move in officially. We all breathed a sigh of relief as we started to settle into our new home.

I will be posting some more interior pictures in the coming week.

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Sources: ABC News: Bush to Announce Strategy to Battle Flu; Washington Post: Gates Foundation Pledges More Toward Malaria Research

George Bush is ready to spend $7.5 billion dollars to protect the US from a disease that currently poses no danger and has so far killed no Americans, and only 62 people worldwide. Meanwhile, Bill Gates, much maligned by the media and internet geeks, is spending over $258 million in research toward Malaria, a disease which kills 1.2 million every year.

Of the $258 million that Mr. Gates is spending, $107 million will go towards accelerating the development of a Malaria vaccine. The added money could lead to the development of a vaccine within 6 years. Experts estimate that a malaria vaccine will cut the number of Malaria deaths in half. In other words, it will save 600,000 lives a year, most of them children.

Bill Gates is quoted in the Washington Post:

“It’s really a tragedy that the world has done so little to stop this disease that kills 2,000 African children every day,” Gates said in a conference call with reporters. “If those children were in rich countries, we’d have headlines, we’d take action, and we wouldn’t rest until every child was protected.”

Exactly right, Mr. Gates. So why would we spend $7.5 billion to fight a disease that maybe, someday, sorta, could possibly become a pandemic that will, at its worst, do no more damage in total than Malaria does every single year? Why would we not spend a fraction of that money to save 600,000 children every year? Some Liberal pundits would cry racism or classism, but that answer is too simplistic. The real answer is: The Media.

Quite simply, there is a media frenzy around the Bird Flu, and there isn’t a media frenzy around Malaria. Even the leaders of the world are susceptible to influence by the media, and they will spend their time, resources, and money fighting perceived threats while ignoring real, but hidden, threats.

So why is the media doing this? why is there more coverage of the Bird Flu, which has only killed 62 people, than there was of the earthquake in Pakistan, which killed tens of thousands? Because panic sells. Alarmism sells. The only thing that sells more media viewing time than a disaster, is a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.

There is hope. Eventually, people will tire of hearing about the Bird Flu, and in 6 months you won’t hear a peep about it. The Bird Flu will go the way of Anthrax letters, Ebola virus, flesh-eating bacteria, and a host of other medical disasters that never quite managed to manifest.

Further Discussion:

• nabeepchen.com
• The News Blog@i66.com
• Independent Conservative
• The Next Left

UPDATE: This article was featured on ArticleCity.com

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