Adjectives on the Typewriter

wackymorningdj @ 2006-12-12T17:31:00

2006-12-13T00:31:31Z

wackymorningdj @ 2006-11-14T01:54:00

2006-11-14T08:54:43Z

Hello world, it is two in the morning, I'm sitting outside the school after walking here to email a teacher something that's due on the 17th, because I'll be in Chiapas, Mexico (as of tomorrow night) all of next week, and it's a clear night with brilliantly bright stars, and life is beautiful.

wackymorningdj @ 2006-09-26T22:20:00

2006-09-27T05:21:58Z

So, I decided to just put all of the images on a web page instead of posting them here, and attaching them elsewhere, and so on and so forth.

Here's some (probably less than half - the rest is in my portfolio, which I don't currently have) of my work from block.

http://home.carolina.rr.com/richards9/AltPro-Lightbox.htm

A quick sample of my photo work from the last few weeks (i.e. whatever I happened to have with me)

2006-09-16T04:49:56Z

Pinhole Camera

Cyanotype

Kallitype (or Van Dyke)

Blue Van Dyke (Kallitype printed over Cyanotype)

Salted Paper Print

I feel it prudent to include that 1-3 are completely photoshop-free, 4 was warped with the GIMP (similar to photoshop) and printed on a map, 5 is two negatives layed over each other (the left negative had its contrast and sharpness altered with photoshop), 6 used photoshop to create two separate negatives to print on each other, and 7 was heavily photoshopped. Four through seven were printed on transparencies as negatives, and printed with their respective processes.

wackymorningdj @ 2006-09-07T19:41:00

2006-09-08T02:41:44Z

wackymorningdj @ 2006-05-05T22:25:00

2006-05-06T05:27:57Z

Inspired by my roommates... 'twas fun.

wackymorningdj @ 2006-03-29T11:45:00

2006-03-29T18:46:29Z

I believe that I'm starting to get to the point that I don't want to go to sleep at night because I'll just wake up the next morning with a whole lot of work to do. Perhaps that has something to do with me almost staying up the entire night each of the last four nights...

wackymorningdj @ 2006-03-21T13:47:00

2006-03-21T20:50:40Z

Happy first day of spring everybody!

And the forecast:

Thunder Snow

High
39°F

Precip
70%

wackymorningdj @ 2006-03-12T14:17:00

2006-03-12T21:18:08Z

wackymorningdj @ 2006-01-28T19:24:00

2006-01-29T02:29:33Z

Just popping in to say that I've found the perfect tea: Lemon Ginger Yogi tea.

Check it out

2005-12-27T21:47:42Z

http://www.music-map.com

http://www.literature-map.com

Books

2005-12-12T07:42:10Z

Mike is having a hard time sleeping tonight (surprise surprise), so here's a list of books that I think everyone should read. In no particular order, and intentionally scrambled.

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Walden - Henry David Thoreau
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the trilogy, of course) - Douglas Adams
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard
The Story of B - Daniel Quinn
Calvin and Hobbes (various) - Bill Watterson
Wizard of the Upper Amazon - F. B. Lamb
Short stories by: Julio Cortazar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel de Unamuno, Isabel Allende
My Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
1984 - George Orwell
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul - Douglas Adams
Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemmingway
After Dachau - Daniel Quinn
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

Alright, I can't think of anything else right now, and I'm getting tired (finally)
Suggestions welcome.

Philosophy

2005-12-02T00:15:08Z

For philosophy class, presented today...

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
-Noam Chomsky

In any human mode of thinking there are boundaries. If there aren't limits set by a standard set of rules or agreed upon conventions, we will make them up for ourselves. It's simply impossible for us to consider everything at once; we have a unitary consciousness that can really only focus on one thing at a time. The boundaries of a certain thought pattern can be compared to that of a system. They are completely subjective and defined by us – if we are able to see the boundaries themselves, we are able to change them. They are also useful in limiting thinking to something applicable. Like a systems model, any type of thinking is never completely correct, that is to say, it never reveals the whole picture (as nothing but a model of everything in existence would be completely true).

As Chomsky noted, societies have spectra of acceptable opinions. Within these guidelines are different patterns of thought that fit with the defined rules. These rules are often not explicit, but are simply understood by a society as the correct way to live. The signs are everywhere however: in movies, newspapers, governments, schools, and so on. Those who are discontent with a society most often adopt an analytical, piece-by-piece approach. The goal is never overhaul, but tweaking. The basic societal goals are never in question – they are accepted because they are so widely propagated. Perhaps the boundaries (or goals) of our societal thinking are neither beneficial nor prudent.

Our society is not that of the United States or even the West. No, we are first and foremost civilized people, and the primary rule that has plotted civilization's course is stated clearly in the Bible, and was the unwritten truth for the past 10,000 years :

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
-Genesis 1:28

As these words echoed down from the Heavens, Man was enlightened. He realized that he was created to be master of the earth and all of existence, not simply another lowly. He cast away the laborious, brutish and shot life of the Hunter-Gatherer and became the proud Agriculturalist, capable of creating his own food at will. At these words, man stopped living from the bounty of the earth and took his destiny into his own, obviously more capable hands.

And thus begins the descent of man. Yet this did not occur at the dawn of humanity, some 200,000 years ago. This was a mere 10,000 years ago. For 190,000 years humans had been living in the Garden of Eden. We have traded a carefree life where all was provided for us for a dystopia of skyscrapers, overpopulation, and TV dinners.

This happened because the boundaries of acceptable thought are based upon the premise that humans are to be masters and stewards of the earth. The power of convention is enormous. It is what makes cow sacred in one culture and dinner in another. As in other cultures, the critical and dissident views are expressed and encouraged: they have led us to recycling, environmental protection, the Kyoto Protocol, and many other programs. These programs only reinforce the central principles of civilization. They seek to mitigate the harmful effects we have on the environment without changing the basis that has allowed us to cause harm in the first place. Like treating the symptoms of a disease while ignoring the cause, this approach doesn't get to the root of the problem.

Nothing will remedy the ills caused by humans except for a complete paradigm shift. The options we have for change are limited by the overarching guidelines for civilizational life. Nowhere in these rules is there room for life other than civilization. It's simply not possible that anyone would rather life differently, so why even bother considering the alternatives? If we are to move beyond civilization into a sustainable future, we must first acknowledge and understand the current paradigm. Once you have revealed the boundaries of thought it is possible to move past them and create a new vision.

wackymorningdj @ 2005-11-20T22:58:00

2005-11-21T04:02:16Z

Yesterday

Today

Hello, from college

2005-10-07T23:24:30Z

This is an email I just sent to everyone who I could find an address for:

For all of you who don't know, I am now in Arizona (I suppose that still applies if you already knew that). I flew out at the end of August to attend Prescott College, here in (coincidentally enough) Prescott. Our orientation lasted the first month of school. Prescott has a pretty odd schedule - each semester there is a three week block with one class, a week break, and an eleven week quarter with three classes. So orientation counted as the first block class.

Mostly we wandered around in the wilderness for three weeks. They split us into groups of ten with two instructors and sent us out in buses all over the state, and some out of state. My group went to Clear Creek and Beaver Creek - two sizable canyons in the middle of the state, although not (as my dad might have told you many times) the Grand Canyon. The trip was fantastic to say the least. On an average day we woke around sunrise, cooked some breakfast, played a game or two, and started hiking through the canyon, above the canyon, in the canyon, in the creek, and generally the entire day until around mid afternoon (or sunset on our longest days).
Every day was an entirely different experience, but all were filled with amazing sights. We swam with our backpacks on (turns out they float... that was strange) in occasionally frigid, but crystal clear pools with red canyon walls towering over us. We saw trees growing out of the rocks in dry creek beds. We climbed down a (mostly) dry waterfall, then lowered our backpacks after us, laughing like crazy at the seemingly careless manner they were brought down – kicking, tossing, rolling around on jagged rocks, etc. We found countless elk and cow skeletons on the flats, and one member of the group carried two sets of antlers back home with him. We saw tarantulas, scorpions, black hawks, horny toads, rattle and king snakes, and became well acquainted with our thorny plant friends, New Mexican Locust, Cat's Claw, Mesquite – in fact, probably over half of the plants we saw. I ate a few of the wild edibles I found, although the rest of the group was a little too skeptical of my knowledge to indulge (with the exception of wild grapes). We hiked from the creek bed to the flats in one day, a total of at least 1500 feet of elevation change, not counting the constant ups and downs. That journey took us through three distinct “life zones,” leaving us in a completely different ecosystem by nightfall. The stars were the brightest I'd ever seen, and we had a grand total of three days of rain.

And that's just the beginning.

After our three weeks in the woods (and our six credits), we returned to town, a bit nervous about the transition back to “normal” life. We had a week off from school, so that helped. I think I spent almost the entire week spending more time with the people from my orientation group. One guy was the coach of a little league team, so we went to watch one of his baseball games. There was much ultimate frisbee, bike riding, hiking, and especially baking. My baking projects have gotten even crazier since I left: pizza, breads, bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, apple crisp...

Quarter classes began last Monday with Plants & Humans. The class and professor are fantastic. We discussed (as an example of the way we'll be analyzing things) the history, uses – both old and new – cultural significance, and everything else of a pomegranate. Then, of course, we ate the pomegranates the prof brought (hey, it's an experiential college). During Wednesday's class, he showed us a slide show of his time living with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico, while studying the yeast cultures they use to make beer.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Ecological Economics (described by the prof as “hippie economics”), which seems like it'll be a promising class, as a critique of neoclassical economics while providing possible solutions for now. I also have Philosophy: Modes of Thinking on the same days. I really like our prof, Sam, although the material might get on my nerves at times. We're reading five books for that class, all based on different ways to view the world (emotional intelligences, systems thinking, a Howard Gardner book about intelligences, and so on). It's not, as Sam points out every once in a while, a history of philosophy class.
So it looks like I'll have great classes for this quarter.

So what else... hm
I decided I wanted to try cactus last week. I went to the hardware store and bought a cheap pair of gloves. On the ride back home I stopped at a Prickly Pear patch and picked a couple of the pads. I skinned them to get the spines off, then threw 'em in a stir fry for dinner. They were pretty good, although pretty slimy, like okra. I read later that you're supposed to wash them in cold water before cooking so they aren't slimy. Oh well, next them I guess.

And live moves on. I miss home sometimes, but all is well overall. I'm still adjusting a little but, considering I've only been in the city for half of my time in Arizona, but I'm mostly settled.

I hope all is well with all of you.

Love,
Mike

Classes

2005-09-02T06:19:47Z

So, I registered for classes today. Kickass. Those AP classes helped a lot (I got to register earlier than most of the freshman, and I don't have to take a writing or math class and I already have 30 credits. etc.)

I gots:
Philosophy: Modes of Thinking
Plants and Humans
Ecological Economics

and I'm on the waiting list for Ecological Design (Eco Econ being the alternative)

I got the last spot in Plants and Economics (kickass again)

So, we leave for the backpacking part of orientation tomorrow morning, and I'm soooo excited. The group I'm with is awesome, and our instructors are great too. We're just being crazy and generally having lots of fun. lalalala
I could go on for a while, but it's goddamn late and I'd like to get some sleep before the trip. (that backpack is definitely the heaviest it's ever been). We get to swim in a river with our backpacks and boots on for a good third of the trip. (so cool!)

So, see you guys in three weeks!

wackymorningdj @ 2005-08-27T00:31:00

2005-08-27T04:32:32Z

Playing around with my new scanner...

Flagstaff

2005-08-25T16:25:15Z

Yesterday:

Hey, look at that, it's me again

2005-06-07T01:32:33Z

So, went to the IshCon two weekends ago and a work weekend at Silverwater this past weekend. Too much to tell. Blah blah blah graduation is on Friday and I have a speech to write tonight - hurrah(?) - that was apparently due quite some time ago. Although Cox never decided to tell me. Or well, it's more likely that it just went in one ear and out the other.

From the IshCon two weekends ago:

"Air" Devin Hammond

and

me

Oh, and that song thing that Ashley asked me to do:

My "current favorite songs:"
1. "Flying Horses" - Dispatch
2. "Fly" - Nick Drake
3. "Rhapsody In Blue" - George Gershwin
4. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" - Radiohead
5. "Here Comes The Sun" - The Beatles
6. "Green Eyes" - Coldplay

So, off to write me a speech.

wackymorningdj @ 2005-05-13T16:24:00

2005-05-13T20:31:02Z

Well, isn't that ironic. I'm on page 42 in the yearbook. That is, I'm only on page 42 =P

And Dad scanned some more photos! Hooray! It's been forever since I've had new photos to share on here, 'cause I stopped going to chuch... some... amount of time that I'm not quite sure of ago, and the only time we ever go to his office is right after church. So - enjoy!

Honorable mention for Scholastics! (also, the only of these to actually have been printed by that time)
I gave Keith a copy of this at the rendezvous, and he said "Hah! It's me talking to the little people!"

Except for the first three, these were printed within, say, the last month or so. The last four I printed in the last week or two. They're all montages, as I've become a bit obsessed lately.

wackymorningdj @ 2005-05-12T21:36:00

2005-05-13T01:36:44Z

I'm off to make a nice cup of tea and watch the lightshow that's on display (hopefully still) right now.

The Decemberists!

2005-05-04T22:07:40Z

...were just on NPR - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630887

and

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627506

!!

Oh, and wow, looks like All Songs Considered has a good (albeit small) collection of concert recordings: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627437

Story of a Rendezvous

2005-05-04T01:21:06Z

Here's the story of my Rendezvous, rather, Tuesday through Friday of the Rendezvous, copied straight from an email:

In the dead of night a small, but loaded white car turns down a road seemingly
untraveled for many generations. An ember flickers on the horizon, guiding the
weary travelers to their destination. Six hours of sore asses and tired eyes
became soothed by the comforting thought of the emerging flame in the distance.
Upon arrival, harsh orange plastic barriers and a gate greets them rather than
the familiar and expected warmth of community.
(who says I can't add fluff? Oh wait... no one, heh)
A bit annoyed, the pair tromps around the gate to a field full of silhouetted
tepees, and the friendly sound of a voice they have come to love. Excited for
the upcoming week, but tired from the trip, they circle 'round the fire
casually, and then more intently, finally resting their gaze on a few friends to
camp near.
"Hey, why can't we bring the car closer to unload?"
"Oh, you need a some special permit. Snowbear's been giving them out. Not
that anyone's been paying them any attention. It's bullshit.
"Got a red sharpie? I'll make you a parking pass."
"Don't worry about it, we'll just pull up and set up the tent. No one will
see anyways."

The throngs of old friendly faces awaited once the tent had been erected. They
split paths. He was accosted by numerous small children, fresh out of the pond.
A particular favorite decided to sit her dripping self in his lap, and chat for
a while. After all, it had been quite some time since they'd seen each other.
Another, even more rarely seen teenage friend passed by, quickly heading off to
other adventures. That flurry of events over, he spend the remainder of the
night wandering around the grounds, familiarizing himself with the new
surroundings. Reunited now at the tent, the travelers collapsed into their
sleeping bags, exhausted.

At the break of dawn, a sleepy head emerges cautiously. It peers around the
blinding landscape, becoming accustomed to the morning sun. Out plops a foot.
Then another, and the entire clumsy body stumbles across the waking earth.
Spying a fire already blazing, it wanders over to warm up. Then following the
apparent migration of the herd, it heads toward breakfast.

With new energy, he becomes excited about his much awaited hammock camping.
After rushing through the morning meal, he gathers up his hammock, tarp, and
clothes, and sets about making his own campsite, placed skillfully smack dab in
the middle of a poison ivy patch. He only realizes this several days later, and
surprisingly never catches the rash.

Shortly after lunch he resumes wandering aimlessly, eventually attracted by the
growing buzz surrounding a mysterious giant rock that has appeared in the middle
of camp. Actually, this buzz now comprises a grand total of three people,
including himself, but the project looks like it could use some help.
Gradually, several huge felled trees are brought to rest near the rock to be
used as levers. Another couple are tugged in and cut to be used as rollers, to
move the rock. Now the real work begins. Digging a small hole and mitering the
end of one lever, the project leader begins lifting the giant rock. Quickly,
another lever is inserted opposite him, and a roller-log is shoved under the
rock. Two more rollers are placed in a similar fashion.
By that point, the group had grown significantly (fortunately). A rope is tied
'round an end of the rock, a few sets of hands and levers gently shove the back
end, while a lump of about ten hands grasps the rope and tugs. The rock lurches
forward a foot. Ants scramble about, adding rollers on one end, removing extra
rollers, and positioning the load for the next movement.
"One, two, three! Pull! Come on"
creaaak...
"Once more!"

Guiding the rock toward its final resting place in front of a hole, the crew has
nearly doubled. A bit of quick construction, and an A-frame and tall log have
rope tied around them. The rock, A-frame and log now form three long spokes of
a theoretical bicycle wheel by which the rock will be raised. Several
"heave-ho"s later...
and...

Nothing.

The rope is lengthened, and others scramble to grab hold. Scores of hands
grasping the rope, the rock is gradually raised into it's hole. But, one must
have pulled too hard, for the stone has been shoved too far! Other small flat
rocks are quickly gathered to fill in gaps in the hole. Within five minutes,
the entire group has organized five ropes running in five directions, all tied
to the rock. With double the man(and woman-)power, the stone is pulled
completely upright and centered in the hole. The small rocks are shoved in, and
the hole filled in with soil to complete the epic.
He sticks around to admire the afternoon's work, and to take a few group photos
with the impressive new standing stone.

Dinnertime is filled with reconnections between old and not so old friends, and
discovery of the latest crop of rendezvous newcomers. The crew shares stories
over a piping hot and always delicious meal, continuing long into the night,
surrounded by the warmth of music and fire.

The chirp-chirping of birds awakens him, to a view of complete white. The
morning mist eventually lifts, unveiling the view of sun reflecting brilliantly
across the pond. A sudden uneasy feeling accompanies the sudden clanging of
pots and pans. Were those the sounds of breakfast preparation or clean up?
Sitting up further, he can see the sea of people wandering toward the kitchen
with their bowls and forks, which calms him.

The morning's class is in kudzu basketry, instructed by the aptly named (or
chosen) Nancy Basket. He, and the other participants in the class are slightly
discouraged by the apparent randomness of examples, and the presence of
yesterday's pupils and their half-completed baskets. Nancy is a good-natured
woman, who always elicits laughter from those nearby. The class learns much
about the prominence and many uses of this invasive plant, and is surprised by
the ease of splitting it. In mere minutes, enough kudzu for ten baskets has
been split. The following hours are spent performing an entirely random weaving
pattern, and conversing with anyone who chances a stop by.
At mid-morning, thunder rumbles around camp, yet dry skies prevail. One instant
nothing, the next the heavens open, and a downpour begins. Fortunately, most
had anticipated the storm, and prepared beforehand. They waited it out under a
giant tent, working on their baskets.

Finishing his basket, our traveler visits the plethora of classes offered in the
morning. As afternoon arrives, he drifts toward the natural dyes class,
bringing his finger weaving project. Weaving effortlessly and with great
trouble at the same time, he ambles around the kitchen, waiting for class to
begin. He encounters several uses for the dyes and wool yarns to be dyed in
class. One participant has experimented with tie dyes and hopes to use natural
dyes for his works. Another designs dance costumes, hoping to use the yarn as
extravagant hair decoration. Curiously, they all learn that onion skins make a
strong dye, while beets do not.

As this was a short class, by rendezvous standards, most of the now sunny
afternoon is free. He takes a quick look at the bowyers tent, striking up
conversation with some familiar and some not so familiar faces. He decides to
spend the afternoon, and retrieves his half-completed net from his tent, to
string up near the prospective archers. Ironically, this attracts more
attention from passers-by than does the bow-making. Several people stop by,
intrigued by the process, or to offer helpful hints, or to relate a tale about
their fathers and fishing nets. A few even snap some photos.
Suddenly tragedy strikes the boy and his net-making venture. A bit too much
pressure here and there, and his shuttle snaps! He quickly realizes that this,
unlike the last fracture in the shuttle's wood, is irreparable. Sneaking over
to the bow-making workshop, he snags a few scrap pieces of wood to carve another
shuttle.
After some time laboring at this, the halfway formed shuttle snaps as well; he
throws the broken shard into the fire, disgusted with his own carelessness in
both breaking the old and forming the new.

After a relatively uneventful but long night of guitar playing, conversation,
fires and friends, the morning arrives early. Despite the lack of sleep, he
feels sprightly and ready for a new day of learning. The morning's activity is
a discussion of alternative fuels, namely vegetable oil. He has many
misconceptions righted, and many other ideas clarified during the presentation.
The camera filming the event seems unobtrusive enough this morning. The rain is
spotty, and at times heavy, causing a slight shortening of the veggie-power
class, but this leaves him needed time to work on his finger weaving project.
The rest of the morning and afternoon is spent avidly weaving wefts through
warps, in and out, back and forth, in a continuing pattern that takes on more
form and regularity during the afternoon. Likewise, the afternoon's
conversations weave around each other, revolving around music, Costa Rica, and
everything in between.

Agriculture and Population

2005-04-30T03:32:15Z

This is a long overdue, I think...

Here's why it just won't work. Period.

Agriculture requires more human energy than it produces.

Check it out (from the Environmental Science text. There are many other sources of course):

Kilocalories per person per day. 
Primitive.....................2,000 
Hunter-Gatherer...............5,000 
Early Agricultural...........12,000 
Advanced agricultural........20,000 
Early Industrial.............60,000 
Modern Industrial...........230,000

So basically, it means that each person requires (X) amount of energy each day to provide for their 2,000 calories that they consume. So, "Primitive" (don't ask me what the book defines as 'primitive') societies did nothing but go and get their food. They ate about 2,000 calories a day, and expended about 2,000 calories a day (per person). Meanwhile, now we eat 2,000 calories a day, and spend more than ten times that amount to acquire those food calories. It takes 230,000 calories of energy to get 2,000 calories of food on your table.

Sounds kind of absurd to me.

So why use agriculture in the first place?

The first farmers practiced agriculture for two main reasons. First, it allowed them to remain stationary. Second, it produced more food. Yes, (obviously?) more food. So, agriculture could support larger societies than hunting and gathering, because more food could be produced in a smaller space.

It's just horribly inefficient.

Now, keep in mind that 230,000 figure is human (or other, non-solar) input. Obviously it takes more than 2,000 calories of energy from the sun to produce the 2,000 calories of food (basic, second law of thermodynamics).

Some of that energy can be supplied by animals. Humans can only supply about 2,000 calories of energy per day, or they'd die (or become undernourished, like say... slaves). Of course, if animals are used as help on the farm, they require food as well.

Basically, agriculture boils down to (much) more energy in than out.

In order to close the energy gap, agriculture requires expansion.

More people = more hands to help on the farm = more food = more people.
If population growth slows, then you have an energy shortage again, and food production will fall, resulting in fewer people, and even less food, and so on.

Often the energy gap is filled by fuels, such as oil to run farm machinery, etc, requiring fewer actual farm laborers to produce the food. This can allow a population to stabilize. Instead of human labor, we now use primarily petroleum "labor" to produce our food. This kind of agriculture doesn't require human expansion, because people don't have to work in the fields as much to produce the food. Most of those 230,000 calories are supplied by oil.

However, any non renewable energy source will become extinct, and oil will run out, most likely sooner than later. Yes, alternative energy sources can be harnessed, but nothing else can supply the nearly as much energy that oil does right now.

Most of you have probably seen the charts of human carrying capacity. They all boast that our carrying capacity has jumped with each technological advance - agriculture, industrial revolution, and so on. But, those are sort of artificially raised numbers, because most industrial agriculture won't run without non renewable energy. Then we'll be back into human labor, and population will have to expand faster, again.

So, we have:

                supplies more food                          supplies energy
Agriculture          ------>          Higher population        ---------->
               requires more energy                        requires more food

in a loop. It's a positive feedback loop, which causes exponential growth. This is all fine and dandy in a limitless world, but the earth can only provide so many resources, and so much space to obtain food.

If agriculture continues, population will continue to expand, and it will hit a wall somewhere. As soon as population stops growing, it doesn't even have to being decreasing, all hell will break loose, because agriculture needs constant growth to exist.

Anyways.

So that's why we have exponential population growth, and that's why the earth won't support 6 billion of us, and that's why we'll have to change something drastic if we want to survive.

*wipes hands*

Guess what!

2005-04-29T18:44:44Z

http://www.wamu.org/audio/dr/05/04/r2050429.ram

Go to 39:37 and just listen to Devin, from Charlotte, NC, and who went to Piedmont with Dom and me.

Hurrah!