Now I am reading Guns, Germs and Steel and it is a fascinating read. I am only about a third of the way through but the things that blow me away so far are:
There are only 14 large domestic mammals
1 Sheep
2 Goat
3 Cow
4 Pig
5 Horse
6 Arabian (1 hump) camel
7 Bactrian (2 hump) camel
8 Llama/Alpaca
9 Donkey
10 Reindeer
11 Water Buffalo
12 Yak
13 Bali cattle
14 Mithan
And 80% of our calories come from only a dozen crop species
Wheat
Corn
Rice
Barley
Sorghum
Soybean
Potato
Manioc
Sweet potato
Sugarcane
Sugar beet
Banana
Not to say we don't eat other kinds of plants but for the most part they are not a major source of calories.
I always thought the raw food movement as kinda odd but this and some maps abut where the food comes from shows that the only way to eat that way is in a high-tech, high-mobility civilization.
I need to add a map that includes the food species and where they originated and where they are cultivated and can thrive.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Telco Pirates Hold Silicon Valley Hostage - Datamation Blog
Telco Pirates Hold Silicon Valley Hostage - Datamation Blog: "In the next war, the first thing they'll hit are the computers, my father-in-law said today."
They only noticed now?
They only noticed now?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
How to Find Your Amazing Work | Zen Habits
How to Find Your Amazing Work | Zen Habits: "I thought he was kidding. I mean, it’s simple, right? Look at your to-do list and pick something that really excites you, that will really make a difference in your life and (ideally) in the lives of others."
Would that it would be so easy. but it's getting better.
Would that it would be so easy. but it's getting better.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Operation Recolonize
I wonder what is in that book, it is not very thick and it assumes some things we might not be able to. Actually having cities to repurpose would be really handy but I'm not going to assume that. Okay, they also have the main computer of the Axiom which makes the book a little redundant but that is a good thing.
A detailed map of the known natural resources would be great.
The Life Safety Manual would be fantastic. An old engineer once called it the holy scriptures of engineering as each line represented at least one persons death.
I felt sorry for the passengers of the Axiom, I would expect many deaths when the first storm would blow through, Wall-Es alert system only goes off it it's really close. But they should be able to tap into the weather satellites to see it coming earlier.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Why I am doing this.
If I am wrong this will have been in vain, and if I am right well, there is no guarantee that it will ever be found.
It comes down to this.
My parents escaped East Germany not long before the Wall went up. They left family behind and it seemed as though they were as far away as the Moon. Dad got a job with PanAm and eventually relations eased enough for travel back to East Germany.
When I was growing up we went back as often as we could. It was often our primary summer vacation.
Crossing the boarder was always interesting, because it was darker on the East German side, that might be dismissed as a cloud in front of the Sun but I could still see the Sun quite clearly through the window of the car. I have no idea what it meant, it was just one of the differences between East and West. I learned what it meant later.
Most of the differences were just odd, buildings still had bomb damage from WWII and a crater between them where the bomb had obviously fallen. Oma's toilet was indoors but rather then flusher it just had a hatch that dropped everything into the basement holding tank. It was also always cold in there, even if it did have a naked gas flame on a burner across from the toilet, I guess to burn off any gas buildup, but I was always very careful in there.
The town's downtown had a department store, the terms of the visas required us to spend a certain amount of money, though it always had a lot of open space where it seemed like it was waiting for more products. Their toy selection was rather limited I usually went with the die-cast military cars and tanks, mainly because there wasn't much else, and they tended to wobble. We do still have an orange wool blanket for the back of the car, and some old "china" that is in storage.
Getting a ride in a Trebant was "fun" not like a car today just turn the key and go. No, you have to prime it and fiddle with the choke and a bunch of other things. We had better lawn mower engines at the same time. And to get one had a 15 year waiting list. It was just 2 years to get a telephone line hooked up.
Many years later when I spent a couple of years in Germany still before the Wall came down, I found out why it was so dark there. I visited a place in the West: Dachau. That had the same kind of darkness as well.
We are moving toward totalitarianism, it doesn't really matter which version it is. While their idealism does them a credit they don't seem to realize the consequences even if they are successful. They may think they are protecting and defending the Constitution. They may think it can't happen to them. They may even think they have all the answers. They don't and it will.
They seem to want power and control and to have the best of the best. The problem comes in totalitarianism that the best of the best eventually die. And in coming to power the support structure for the best of the best is often destroyed along the way. A brilliant surgeon is nothing without the team of nurses, anesthesiologists, radiologist, doctors, administrators and janitors that make a hospital actually work.
Oma was so crippled with arthritis it was like nothing I'd ever seen in America. She was all hunched over and could only sort of use her thumbs and forefingers the rest of her hands were clenched into useless claws.
Without freedom- medicine, technology and many other things wither and fade away. Sure the elites may be able to have the best of the best for longer then anyone else, but their children won't have it not because they can't afford it but because it no longer exists.
How many generations would it take to forget how to do it?
How many generations would it take to forget that it had ever been done at all?
Not many.
That is why this project is important.
A global totalitarian government would be of necessity complex. Feeding, housing and employing billions of people is a tough job and someone has to do it. A little corruption here, population control there, a purge over there and an ill-placed disaster and a key capability is lost, forever.
Well, it doesn't have to be forever. With freedom and capitalism we jumped from cooking on open fires and driving horse carts to microwave ovens and space flight in less then 200 years. We went from outhouses and sail power to flush toilets and manned heavier then air flight in 125.
That is why it is worth it!
It comes down to this.
My parents escaped East Germany not long before the Wall went up. They left family behind and it seemed as though they were as far away as the Moon. Dad got a job with PanAm and eventually relations eased enough for travel back to East Germany.
When I was growing up we went back as often as we could. It was often our primary summer vacation.
Crossing the boarder was always interesting, because it was darker on the East German side, that might be dismissed as a cloud in front of the Sun but I could still see the Sun quite clearly through the window of the car. I have no idea what it meant, it was just one of the differences between East and West. I learned what it meant later.
Most of the differences were just odd, buildings still had bomb damage from WWII and a crater between them where the bomb had obviously fallen. Oma's toilet was indoors but rather then flusher it just had a hatch that dropped everything into the basement holding tank. It was also always cold in there, even if it did have a naked gas flame on a burner across from the toilet, I guess to burn off any gas buildup, but I was always very careful in there.
The town's downtown had a department store, the terms of the visas required us to spend a certain amount of money, though it always had a lot of open space where it seemed like it was waiting for more products. Their toy selection was rather limited I usually went with the die-cast military cars and tanks, mainly because there wasn't much else, and they tended to wobble. We do still have an orange wool blanket for the back of the car, and some old "china" that is in storage.
Getting a ride in a Trebant was "fun" not like a car today just turn the key and go. No, you have to prime it and fiddle with the choke and a bunch of other things. We had better lawn mower engines at the same time. And to get one had a 15 year waiting list. It was just 2 years to get a telephone line hooked up.
Many years later when I spent a couple of years in Germany still before the Wall came down, I found out why it was so dark there. I visited a place in the West: Dachau. That had the same kind of darkness as well.
We are moving toward totalitarianism, it doesn't really matter which version it is. While their idealism does them a credit they don't seem to realize the consequences even if they are successful. They may think they are protecting and defending the Constitution. They may think it can't happen to them. They may even think they have all the answers. They don't and it will.
They seem to want power and control and to have the best of the best. The problem comes in totalitarianism that the best of the best eventually die. And in coming to power the support structure for the best of the best is often destroyed along the way. A brilliant surgeon is nothing without the team of nurses, anesthesiologists, radiologist, doctors, administrators and janitors that make a hospital actually work.
Oma was so crippled with arthritis it was like nothing I'd ever seen in America. She was all hunched over and could only sort of use her thumbs and forefingers the rest of her hands were clenched into useless claws.
Without freedom- medicine, technology and many other things wither and fade away. Sure the elites may be able to have the best of the best for longer then anyone else, but their children won't have it not because they can't afford it but because it no longer exists.
How many generations would it take to forget how to do it?
How many generations would it take to forget that it had ever been done at all?
Not many.
That is why this project is important.
A global totalitarian government would be of necessity complex. Feeding, housing and employing billions of people is a tough job and someone has to do it. A little corruption here, population control there, a purge over there and an ill-placed disaster and a key capability is lost, forever.
Well, it doesn't have to be forever. With freedom and capitalism we jumped from cooking on open fires and driving horse carts to microwave ovens and space flight in less then 200 years. We went from outhouses and sail power to flush toilets and manned heavier then air flight in 125.
That is why it is worth it!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
So Moved - And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog - NYTimes.com
So Moved - And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog - NYTimes.com
This is an interesting take "On Democracy"
This is an interesting take "On Democracy"
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A Mindmap for the bread
The scale of this problem just blows me away sometimes. Here is a mind map that I put together just for the bread. I know it has gaps but Wow.
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