This comes from the blog of our pal Peromyscus…
“The Devil is selling Robert Johnson's soul on eBay. Apparently he (the Prince of Darkness) is having a tough time making ends meet and is cashing out. Since souls are intangible, all you'll actually be able to wave around is the certificate of authenticity.”
Our really good friend Aeswiren has sent the following highly informative comments on my LA CityBeat Obama cover story. (See last Thursday.)
“One thing though that turned a crisis into the Depression was the Smoot-Hawley Act. America, basically put up trade barriers to European goods, and the Europeans did the same and trade collapsed and nobody made any money.”
“Dustbowl and Okies... yeah, but real story of the Depression, I believe was the decade of privation, hard times, expensive food etc. that the 30s became for a hundred million Americans, most of whom lived in the E. Coast cities. There was actual malnutrition, even starvation out in Appalachia and down south too, but the big theme, I think, is the pinched existence that most Americans endured for ten years or more, until WW2 lifted all boats with huge, Keynesistic money flows.”
“Oil – it's more complicated than that. The essential number to bear in mind, I'd suggest, is this – of the world's 15 largest oil fields, 9 are in decline now. This is the Peak. The big oil companies only control something like 7-10% of world oil reserves. What they possess is the distribution system and the refineries. What remains incredible- really-- is that oil rich countries run by mental rodents, have failed to build enough refining capacity for their own use – Iran. They have to import petrol! Blaming Big Oil is kinda 90s. The oil equation of the near future looks like OPEC+Russia=50% Market Control. Control Breakers include Canadian production, and potential new fields like that of the Amazon delta and the Bakken Formation in Dakota/Manitoba.”
“Nuclear. Modern fission nukes, especially metal cooled (ie liquid sodium) types, can be tuned up to get something like 70-80% of the energy available in Uranium fuel. Which compares favorably with the old gen PWRs that get 15%. But, of course, there's still the waste and the problem that within a century the affordable deposits of Uranium will be gone. Some near future types of fission nukes could, conceivably burn the radioactive waste left behind by the older PWRs. But, handling that shit, and transporting it, and all that looks impossible for error prone human societies without fucking up and turning some tract of Arkansas or wherever into another Chernobyl. Utimately, the answer comes down to renewables, high efficiency solar (recent breakthrough tech there, too...) geothermal etc. etc.”
“Plus-- nuclear Fusion-- for the concentrated high energy needs of huge, wasteful human cities. Thing to remember is that Fusion research was (deliberately) starved of money for the past 25 years. To the point where Europe is the leader in the field. The fingerprints of Exxon Mobil are said to be all over this, but it's not an easy story to track down. No surprise there. But if the US threw $500 Billion at the problem, the first commercial Tritium-Deuterium Fusion Reactors would be online in maybe 15 years. From that to Deuterium-Deuterium would be the next technological jump, and from that toWater-Deuterium in maybe another 25 years.”
“The wonder fungus. Did you read about that? Obscure S. American fungus that converts cellulose to gases that can be combined to make fuel. you should take a look at the wonder fungus... and so should I, so I know what the fuck this is...sounds amazing....could be a complete game changer, the kind of thing that we dream of.”
(Click here for more on the wonder fungus.)
He concludes...
“Good piece though. I like it.”
To which I can only reply, thanks bro, and note that he has also sent a longer and wilder rant on nuclear fusion that I’m holding for later.
The secret word is Education
To offset the absurdity of Palin, for retro-romance, and for other mysterious reasons know only to Google, here’s a picture of Elizabeth Taylor. (It also allows Doc40 to take some of today off because he isn’t feeling too good.)
After weeks of conducting arcane and darkly sinister rituals to make Sara Palin go back to the elk and the frozen tundra (well, they worked didn’t they?), and currently telling harrumphing Republicans, “Boohoo. Too bad. Now fuck off”, I actually wonder if the smartest move might be to keep the awful woman around. She could lead a rump fragment of the GOP – the Raving Looney Shotgun Hillbilly Jesus Plumber Party who would, if lucky, constitute some 15% of the electorate and never manage to be more than a noisy nuisance the rest of us could tune out.
The secret word is Isolate
Here's my take on the problems confronting our brand new president -- and maybe some of the solutions.
The secret word is not Shazam!
Uncle Bill is pleased with the outcome of the election, but then he sees the picture of Franz Kafka looking at him and has to turn away.
In which Marilyn, after being tediously trapped on either side by the Well Groomed Men In The Cheap Seats, discovers to her delight that her old and dear friend, Quagmar the Destroyer, has finally arrived from Planet J, where he had been disporting and dissipating in the Andromeda Galaxy. Marilyn is doubly pleased that Quagmar the Destroyer, along with his vast retinue, plus numerous extra and irregular thralls, concubines, and body helots, has managed to make the trip without incinerating his Beamship, or doing any more cosmic damage to the polymorphous reality.
“Click here and make of it what you will.”
(Sent by our pal Iggy)
Puzzled new readers should scroll back for previous episodes of The Adventures Of Marilyn. (Look for the pink type.)
The secret words are Life & Art
They reach for the Versace Machine Gun (figuring, with the inexplicable logic of wealth, it’s a case of use it or lose it.)
We also snidely wonder if the RNC will buy one for Gov. Palin. It would go delightfully with the swag from the $150,000 of campaign funds she's pissed away on clothes and accessories at Neiman Marcus and Saks. Can the Annie Oakley from Alaska live without one?
The secret words are Full and Auto
The following nice note arrived from the Natural Resources Defense Council...
"Dear Mick, We just got life-saving news for the last 375 beluga whales of Alaska's Cook Inlet. The National Marine Fisheries Service has decided to place these imperiled whales -- one of the smallest populations of marine mammals left on the planet -- on the endangered species list. It's a huge win for beluga whales, whose population has plummeted due to the industrialization of Alaska's most populated and fastest-growing waterway. And it's a huge win for the NRDC Action Fund. More than 118,000 online activists like you sent messages to the Bush Administration demanding protection for the whales. Our messages accounted for some two-thirds of all 180,000 comments received! This outpouring of national pressure put the White House on notice that the American people expect swift action to save beluga whales from extinction. But the Bush Administration still dragged its feet. That's why our partner organization, NRDC, and 10 other conservation groups filed suit and put a halt to the administration's delays. The beluga's newly won protection will help scientists deal with the many dangers now facing the whales: oil and gas exploration, increased pollution, and plans for massive new projects that could endanger the whales' survival. We will hold the government's feet to the fire and make sure that habitat protections are put in place under the Endangered Species Act, while there is still time to save the belugas of Cook Inlet."
And sticking with the theme of intoxication, Munz sent over the following story from the London Daily Telegraph that indicates the use of psychedlics was not the invention of Hoffman, Huxley, and definitely not hippies, but dates back to the dawn of time.
“It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.
Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes.
Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.
They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling drug fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.
While the use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known, the age of the bowls has thrown new light on how long humans have been taking drugs.
Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species. Drugs such as cannabis were not found in the Caribbean then.
Opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies, while fungi, which was widespread, may also have been used.
Archeologists have suggested that humans were extracting mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti as far back as 5,000 years ago, but have not found direct evidence that this is true.
They consider that drugs were being used to induce spiritual or trance-like states by people who had religious beliefs.”
The secret word is Loaded
Elf Hellion sent this report of mixed portents…
"DUBLIN, Ireland - The race is over as far as Ireland's biggest bookmaker is concerned. Paddy Power PLC says it is so sure Barack Obama will win the U.S. presidential election next month that it paid off Thursday on all bets it had taken backing the Democratic candidate. It said it shelled out more than euro1 million, about $1.35 million. "We declare this race well and truly over and congratulate all those who backed Obama — your winnings await you." Paddy Power has a long tradition of winning free publicity by paying off early, particularly on political contests — and it also has a recent record of getting the result spectacularly wrong. In June, the company paid out early in favor of people who bet Irish voters would approve the European Union's latest treaty in a referendum. The next day, a "no" result sent shock waves across the 27-nation EU, and cost Powers a hefty sum since it ended up paying off both sides of the bet.The same thing would happen to Powers if it guessed wrong about the U.S. election. The pro-Obama bettors would keep the winnings paid out Thursday, while John McCain backers would cash in, too. Powers said the biggest winner among the Obama bettors was someone who gambled euro100,000 and got back a total of euro150,000. The most visionary bettor, though, was the "punter" who put downeuro50 on Obama in 2005. At the time, Obama was listed at 50-to-1, sothe bettor got euro2,550. Despite calling the contest, the Dublin-based bookmaker said it is still taking new bets on the race. A John McCain victory Nov. 4 on a bet placed Thursday would pay off euro5 for every euro1 bet. By contrast, each euro1 bet on Obama would net just 11 euro cents."
Of course, whatever Paddy has decided, you Americans STILL HAVE TO VOTE!!!
The secret word is Vig
Every few days, I get an email telling me I have a message on My Space. The problem is that I don’t have any truck with My Space. I did have an account but I ripped it out by the roots. I loath My Space. It’s cumbersome, it’s invasive, it’s silly, it leaks data, and it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch. If you want to get in touch just use Byron4d@msn.com. (And the Doc40 fundraiser is still going on if any kind soul wants to make a PayPal donation.)
I've never previously removed a link from Doc40 except where a website had vanished or was out of business, but I don’t feel inclined to keep the link to People’s Daily Brief. During the 2004 election, PDB was an energetic and valuable asset. Lately, though, it seems to have gone off on some weird, a-pox-on-all-their-houses tangent that I find wholly negative and destructive, and I’ve been shocked and dismayed by recent posts like these quoted below…
“That foul skank of duplicitous, disingenuous ordure that is Barack Hussein Obama. How anyone at this dark hour could pull the lever for this arch insider is truly and completely beyond me.”
“So voters for evil, after your fairy godmother Barack Hussein "Afghanistan" Obomber voted to help bush loot The People's Treasury, his boy blunder Diamond Joe "Drug Bust" "Bankruptcy Reform" Plagiarizin' Biden followed the same with some more lies from the dark heart of Camp Manchurian.”
And the scarcely believable...
“Palin may be flawed, but she was fresh as a daisy, strong, competant, and youthful. No wonder coastal women can't stand her. They'd kill to have half of what she has.”
Okay, fine. PDB has every right to make its point. I just don’t feel inclined to steer Doc40 readers in its direction at a time when I feel we’re fighting for our cultural, if not actual survival.
(Shit, but this is a grim day. And I’ve got no reefer.)
It may actually be a one of the natural laws of high anxiety. When things start looking good for a change, we cast around for reasons for it all to go wrong. Such is the nature of paranoia. (The following story was sent by Peromyscus.)
“Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory, which has been gathering strength on the blogosphere the way a hurricane feeds on Caribbean waters: It is widely believed, both online and, increasingly, offline, that the Bush administration intends to declare martial law and postpone next month's elections. To prevent Barack Obama's inevitable ascension to the Oval Office, obviously.
This theory/rumor/delusion dates back almost a year and a half, with the appearance on the White House website of National Security Presidential Directive 51, which outlined a policy for "continuity of government" in the event of a national emergency. Such emergency is defined as "any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." (Click for the full story)
On the other hand, Ireland's largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, is now laying 20-1 that the American election will be postponed, odds which have shortened from 40-1 in just one week. We can only pray (to paraphrase The Pioneers) this longshot kicks the bucket. There will be no weepin' and wailin'.
The secret (and venerable) phrase will be Rising Up Angry
Rate Me on BlogHop.com!
.JPG)