A “Sustainable Growth” is an insult to the intelligence of those that possess this rare quality.

An impossible theorem.

This is the first part of a 50 days long, tearing to shreds of the absurdity that sustainable growth is the future of humanity, series on TheTrimTab.

We start with a conversation with A. Bartlett from the University of Colorado that establishes the premises of our series:

Arithmetic, Population and Energy – 1

Mr. Han Feng, is the Commissar (Administration Chief) for the LaiBing City (GuangXi Province) Tobacco Monopoly Bureau. Mr. Han’s life was a well recognized citizen and public official, living a prosperous and well oiled life in the new China… Until one day, his diary was published on Internet and revealed a life of deceit, sex, corruption, arranged deals, influence trafficking and alcoholic habits.

His diary was published on Internet!

Sept 18th: 21-32 degrees, sunny – Morning in the “living quarters” – Afternoon: go to hotel & asked for a room, Ms. Long is coming – had red wine at dinner – go to GuoDa hotel, Xiao Tan is there, her menstruation is coming…

Dec 4th: Drank too much & Xiao Pai too, I asked her to come to my room…

Middle Finger Kingdom - The Han Feng Diary

The places they had sex was mostly in hotels in GuangXi, sometimes GuangDong or at his numerous mistresses’ places.

Yearly summary of 2007:

• 2007 passed by, in this year, my work is getting easier.
• The activities I supervise are operating within regulations.
• My staff is working hard and understands my expectations.
• I built high credit with my teams.
• This year we fulfilled 100% of our tasks.
• Income is quite high at 200,000 RMB (about 30,000 USD)
• Next year will be better
• ‘My son is also doing good & brings me honor & face. He was recommended as a graduate student & won’t need to take the exams. This makes it easier for him to find a job in two years.
• I improved my skills at digital photography; this is a hobby I must perfect into retirement.
• Women: I finally did it! Had sex with Xiao Pai and with Xiao Tan frequently. Xiao (?) is waiting in line.
• This year, I really had a good steak of luck.
• I must pay attention to my health with all these women!

The diary shows that most days, the commissar was drinking, no matter week ends or week days, often too much. He was even drinking his afternoons at work.

• Sept 29th: Together with a bunch of staff, we had dinner with Mr. Lin Zhen Wei the Traffic Police Commissar. We drank quite a lot.
• Oct 15th: Evening, drank too much.
• Nov 26th: Drank too much, slept in office all afternoon, till night.

Bribery!

• Sept 16th: Noon, Mr Wang invited me for lunch; just the two of us. He gave me two bottles of MaoTai (a famous Chinese liquor) and 50,000 RMB (about 7500USD)
• Sept 20th: Arrived office in the afternoon. Mr Chen sat with me in office & gave me 10,000 RMB. Mr Li got 2,000.

The diary mentions also under table deals

• Dec 11th: Evening, dinner with Mr Wang & Mr Hu, Commissar of the local Land Bureau – We decided to pay 5,000,000RMB (about USD 800,000) application fee and they will give us the land… Then we drank a lot!

And “market research” (sight seeing trips) that apparently did not negatively affect his election as an “advanced citizen”; a sort of mentor or example for other party embers and citizenry.

• Jan 25th: Award meeting. We obtained the “advanced citizen” award status as a unit… which means I get my salary and bonus increased to 250,000 this year.

Apparently, Mr. Han Feng was right, these women were not too good for his health… especially one of them, whose cuckoo-ed husband tracked him down, stole his diary and published it on the web… Too bad, this quiet retirement taking digital pictures will have to wait…

Middle Finger Kingdom - No See

THE LINE a true story

This work is reproduced with permission from Winston Rowntree at:

Viruscomix logo - Subnormality

Please take some time to go through Mr. Rowntree gallery (link above) – he has really good thought provoking comic strips that hit the nail square on the head — Let him know in the comments if you liked his art.

See also:

The Mandrake Mechanism Of Money Creation

The Bucky Call – Nobody But Yourself

The Information Contained In A Rose

America, A Definition In Bucky Fuller's Synergetics Dictionnary Cards

Synergetics Dictionary Cards: Card #387

Ralphie A Christmas Story - Triple Dog Dare You

How was the present shaped? Is the 1960 generation responsible for what 2010 looks like? What will the world look like in 50 years? How scary is that to contemplate? Yet, isn’t it going to happen of our own making? Who really is in charge? Is it going in a direction we have consciously chosen? Are truth and integrity at risk? You thought we were done with the crisis?

Following are 9 scenarios for the future the present that beyond your chuckles, will rock your confidence in the Future of Humanity. In 2010, the “Red Ryders” have been emasculated!

Scenario 1: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1960 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up mates.

2010 – Police are called, Armed Response Unit arrives and arrests Johnny and Mark. Mobiles with video of fight confiscated as evidence. They are charged with assault, ASBOs are taken out and both are suspended even though Johnny started it. Diversionary conferences and parent meetings conducted. Video shown on 6 internet sites.

Scenario 2: Jeffrey won’t sit still in class, disrupts other students.

1960 – Jeffrey is sent to the principal’s office and given 6 of the best. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2010 – Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Counseled to death. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra funding because Jeffrey has a disability. Drops out of school.

a christmas story Ralphie Bunny

Scenario 3: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour’s car and his Dad gives him the slipper.

1960 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2010 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. Psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mum has an affair with the psychologist. Psychologist gets a promotion.

Scenario 4: Mark, a college student, brings cigarettes to school.

1960 – Mark shares a smoke with the school principal out on the smoking area.

2010 – Police are called and Mark is expelled from School for drug possession. His car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 5: ******** fails high school English.

1960 – ******** retakes his exam, passes and goes to college.

2010 – ********’s cause is taken up by local human rights group. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that making English a requirement for graduation is racist. Civil Liberties Association files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher. English is banned from core curriculum. ******** is given his qualification anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

A Christmas Story Ralphie Soap

Scenario 6: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers, puts them in a model plane paint bottle and blows up an anthill.

1960 – Ants die.

2010 – MI5 and police are called and Johnny is charged with perpetrating acts of terrorism. Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny’s dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 7: Johnny falls during break and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him.

1960 – Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.

2010 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.

Ralphie A Christmas Story How Did We Teach The New Generation ?

Scenario 8: Elderly couple with a flat tyre:

1960 – Man sees elderly couple with a flat tyre. He pulls over to offer assistance, and is joined by a State trooper. The couple are grateful and handshakes are exchanged.

2009 – (Because this happened in New Jersey last year) Man sees elderly couple with a flat tyre. He pulls over to offer assistance, and is seen by a State trooper. State trooper pulls over and warns the man that he is providing roadside assistance without the appropriate license, and is therefore open to prosecution.

Scenario 9: woman left her car lights on while shopping:

1960: Upon finishing her shopping, a woman returns to the parking lot and finds her car won’t start. She aks the first person she sees walking by for help and that person gladly stops what they are doing and offers assistance. By the time it is found that the car won’t start with a jump, two or three more have gathered and all are trying to help. The manager of the store sees the commotion through the window, comes out, and offers to phone the woman’s husband or the mechanic.

2010: Woman asks 3 people in the parking lot for a jump (*), all of whom are “too busy” to help. Woman goes into the store to ask for assistance and is turned down due to company policy. Woman calls husband who has to pack the kids up and go get her. Husband is in a foul mood for the rest of the day…

(*) Note to British readers: the meaning here is to use electric extension cords with battery clamps to jump start a car with another one’s battery. What were you thinking?

Have we, somewhere, taken “the wrong turn”? What can we do about it? Can we still correct the course and get closer to the truth or will we need the help of the “Red Ryder”? I don’t know for sure, but we could at least try to get the word out and raise awareness: Have you got a scenario of your own? I “triple dog dare you” to share it in the comments area below!

Thank you for reading.

This article was inspired by a discussion on Kyokushin For Life Forums.

Hummm, I realized after posting that these snippets have been around for as much as two years; I was not aware of it! For those that had read it before, I apologize for the redundancy. In any case, I think there is something to take out from it – if only the questions I laid down to trigger your thinking.

Fred.

A Christmas Story Red Ryder

Photos, courtesy of ia.media

Specialization - The Bucky Call

Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual’s leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war.

In chrome-nickel-steel, the primary constituents are iron, chromium, and nickel. There are minor constituents of carbon, manganese, and others. It is a very popular way of thinking to say that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. That seems to be very logical to us. Therefore, we feel that we can predict things in terms of certain minor constituents of wholes. That is the way much of our thinking goes. If I were to say that a chain is as strong as the sum of the strengths of its links, you would say that is silly. If I were to say that a chain is stronger than the sum of the strengths of its entire links, you might say that that is preposterous. Yet that is exactly what happens with chrome-nickel- steel. If our regular logic held true, then the iron as the weakest part ought to adulterate the whole: since it is the weakest link, the whole thing will break apart when the weakest link breaks down. What humans have been experiencing and thinking of “realistically” as dim “somethings” or “points” in a field of omni-directional seeming nothingness now requires experimentally provable reconsideration, epistemographic re-con-ceptioning , and rewording.

All exclusively three-dimensional matrixes, consisting only of parallel lines and perpendicular rectilinear interactions like parallel railroad tracks inherently fail to accommodate any terminal convergence. Such matrixes fail to accommodate the inherent strategy of range-finding: the fact that the linear distance relationship between our two human eyes and also those of other optically equipped creatures was designed to provide the baseline of a triangle whose opposite apex occurs at the position of a sighted object. The convergent apex angle of the object provides the human brain’s computer circuitry with a limited, distance-to-object-magnitude appraising, or range-finding perceptivity, whose maximum terrestrial range is the horizon. Beyond the horizon the distances between remote objects are reduced to optically non-tunable angle-size or – frequency discernibility. Ergo, at the maximum tunability of differential wavelength- perceptivity, our range-finding optical system produces a false image of a seemingly convergent pair of parallel railroad tracks. It is not that the tracks or the ties are coming together, but that the distance between them is sub-tunable.

Only ants?

I have found during my whole life that I have had a problem dealing with society because I am dealing with that which is not obvious to the rest of society. I have found that Universe is actually operating in an entirely different way from the way society thinks it is. Society is living in a sort of “fault.” The kind of fault I am thinking of is like an Earth fault, like a great cliff, a great discontinuity in Earth’s surface. There are great discontinuities in the public’s image of what the Universe is.

We find no record of man having defined the Universe scientifically and comprehensively to include both the metaphysical and the physical. The scientist was able to define physical Universe by virtue of the experimentally verified discovery that energy can neither be created nor lost; therefore that energy is conserved; therefore it is finite. Thus, man has been able to define successfully physical Universe but not, as yet, the metaphysical Universe.

Our definition of Universe includes both the objective and the subjective, i.e., all voluntary experiences (experiments) as well as all involuntary experiences (happenings). The total of experiences is integrally synergetic. Universe is the comprehensive, a priori synergetic integral. Universe continually operates in comprehensive, coordinate patterning’s that are transcendental to the sensorially minuscule apprehension and mental-comprehension and prediction capabilities of mankind, consciously and inherently preoccupied as he is only with special local and non-simultaneous pattern considerations. Angle and frequency modulations, either subjective or objective in respect to man’s consciousness, discretely define all events or experiences which altogether constitute Universe.

Objective: free of bias based on fact

Subjective: not impartial based on somebody’s opinion

A Priori: existing in the mind prior to and independent of experience

Non-Simultaneous: not at the same time

Aggregate: forming whole collected together from different sources

Transcendental: not experienced and knowable independent of human experience

How Many Ones Are In Your Life, And How Do You Divide?

Specialization Leads To Extinction

The Bucky Call, Avoiding Extinction

The Reality of Natural Selection

Natural Selection and the Malthusian Principle or Competition for Limited Resources

Year Of The Tiger - Are Chinese Anticipating A Resurgence Of The Crisis?

Once again, we find ourselves in “the war zone”; starting last week, around the clock fireworks and firecrackers are resonating between the city walls, sometimes setting a building ablaze or instantly obliterating a kid’s hopes at ever playing the piano…

Hopefully, it is mostly noise, accidents are infrequent, or maybe under-reported.

In the words of an American commenting on the origins of the Chinese New Year’s blasting tradition: “If Chinese evil spirits are stupid enough to be scared away by firecrackers… I really should not worry too much about them!”

I am not going to bore you to death with the origins and meaning of the lunar spring festival, and why it happens in the middle of winter; there are plenty of copy/paste blogs out there that did that already… and if you missed it, they’ll be at it next year also. I am instead going to allude to the type of game that is going on and the different parties involved:

Everybody has a part in the game; Chinese spirits must come and visit for Chinese New Year, and are expecting to be repelled by fireworks. Of course, Chinese people know that and are ready to abide and make the appropriate noises to fulfill the spirits expectations… the spirits are then happy to go away; see you next year! The eternal has had its scheduled encounter with the ephemeral, face has been sought, face has been given and face has been received; vital energy flows are regenerated, etc… A Panglossian “all is well in the best possible world”, world!

What would happen should they (the spirits) be welcomed and frustrated by an eerie silence? They would have no chance to retreat and no choice but to probe closer and deeper into our lives and those of the multitudes, in the hope of triggering the expected noisy flurry or in fear of the horror of being stuck in between two worlds… at that moment, who knows how evil they could really become and how out of hand our reaction could be… But let’s not go there, for 5,000 years, Chinese have learned to ignore worst case scenarios to focus on the probable.

Of course, in the grand scheme of eternally repeating things, the foreigners (LaoWais) must also play their own part and display the appropriate and not unexpected amounts of fearlessness, disdain, and would you believe, bragging about their non “believing in those fairy tales” attitude…

So, once again, as for the last 5000 years, everything is well in a perfect world and the Year of the Paper Tiger can run its cyclical course, following in the tracks of the now distant Raging Bulls.

=

AS YOU GET OLDER,

MONEY LOSES

VALUE

Your hat doesn't look that sexy any more Art!

OOOPS!

"Price " of the Dow Jones Industrial expressed in Gold (without Enron, Citi, GM and the likes!)

ARE YOU

BEING

FOOLED?

See also:

Alex Grey: Open Minded

1. Cosmic: forming a part of the material universe, esp. outside of the earth.
2. Evolution: A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form
3. Irrevocably: Impossible to retract or revoke: an irrevocable decision.
4. Intent: the act or fact of intending: as a : the design or purpose to commit
5. Transform: To change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphose
6. Metamorphose: Change appearance
7. Omni: a combining form meaning “all,”
8. Disintegrated: to separate into parts or lose intactness or solidness; break up; deteriorate
9. Complex: composed of many interconnected parts
10. Unprecedented: Having no earlier parallel or equivalent
11. Utopia: perfect place for all
12. Oblivion: State of being forgotten

Alex Grey - Complex Universe

Synergetics presents a picture of the multi-optioned operational field of cosmic favorabilities, inter-transform-abilities, and complementary inter -accommodations within which each human individual, his life, his world, is always one alternately elective, complex-integrity way Universe could have evolved.
No man or woman can ever prove when they wake up in the morning that they are the same person who they think they remember went to sleep. They may dream that they had other dreams, but there is now no way to prove that there are not a great many alternate “me’s,” and that one of them may have awakened under one set of alternate possibilities while the others may have awakened under other circumstances, and that each of them thinks that it is the only “me.” So it could be that human beings, wherever they occur in Universe, may be introduced as a means of coping metaphysically with the most complex kinds of local Universe problems, so that each one of us is where the problem-solving of Universe is being transacted. If we were to think of ourselves as things as china dolls, as kinds of china dolls that would just get smashed up or would just get worn or eroded away that wouldn’t be very good thinking. It would be much closer to actual Universe to think of ourselves as an absolutely continuous complex process.

We are quite possibly the most complex of the problem-solving challenges of the invention that is eternally regenerative Scenario Universe.

In this way each of us might be a department of the mind of what we might call God

See also: The Bucky Call – A Butterfly Dream.

Humans as Local Universe Complex Problem Solvers