Clicks Just Keep Getting Harder To Find

LECTOR EMPTOR"Reader Beware" 


The "survey" linked below is yet another example of how low the bar has been moved.

In the cyberwar for eyeballs, Interweb content providers are forced to put-out a constant stream of meaningless filler in order to placate their advertiser's demand for 'clicks'. 
To paraphrase Paul Revere & The Raiders: "Clicks just keep getting harder to find".



Even though it is within the realm of possibility that someday Social Scientists might discover a male human with an internet connection who has not been a consumer of pornography, it's possible, it's not realistic to produce a meaningful survey on modern male sexuality that is based on interviewing "20" testosterone-drenched male university students!?
 
All Men Watch Porn eh?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/6709646/All-men-watch-porn-scientists-find.html

I suspect that Alfred Kinsey must be rolling in his grave. 

The Generation GAPS
There are actually several Generation gaps, none of which may interest you in the least. Well TFB I think it's fascinating.


"You don't know your past, you don't know your future." Ziggy Marley


Because nobody cares aboot Canadian Demographics or Politics, we will examine the American population distribution which is basically the same as Canada anyway, just 10 times larger.

If you look at the Democrat/Republican Party split between the cohorts, it is never more than a 3% diff, so basically a 50-50 tie. The good news is that Independent candidates are continuing to grow in popularity.


Gen Y 100 million
The Gen Yers are the techno-cyber generation who are already changing our world. There are aboot one bajillion of them, and they are going to do whatever they want, and I'll be dead in a few years anyway so.. whatev!
b. 1985-2010
25 yrs old and under
38% Dem 33% Rep 29% Ind
"As a homegrown labor force of epic size, they will stop immigration cold and restore manufacturing."

Gen X 69.5 m
The Xers have always lived under the shadow of the Boomers and Reagonomics and they seem to be perpetually pissed off about everything. I am absolutely certain that they will introduce 'Youth'anization drive-thru clinics to kill off the Boomers asap.
b. 1965-84
26-45 yrs old 
38% Rep 36% Dem 25% Ind
"The housing market is tanking because Xers lack the critical mass to buy up the Boomers’ starter castles and will torpedo Social Security."

Baby Boomers 78.2 m
The Boomers are still waiting for their parents' generation (Silents) to die in a timely manner so that they can finally make some "real" change.
Grasshopper, what is the sound of one foot tapping?
b. 1945-65
46-65 yrs old 
37% Dem 35% Rep 27% Ind
"Boomers won’t stop spending beyond their means and will bring strong opposition to the religious right and finally legalize marijuana."

Silent Generation 35.6 m
The Silents who all smoked like chimneys, ate red meat 3x day, drove drunk without the kids in seatbelts, and tossed garbage out the fkn car window....are already starting to crash the Health Care system.They will squander Trillion$ of the Boomers inheritance by trying to live forever.
b. 1925-45
66-85 yrs old
39% Dem 36% Rep 24% Ind
"The remnants of this tiny generation will give us the false impression that the longevity trend has reversed and will shut down the assisted-living industry"

GI Generation 5 mish
The last few GIs are not long for this world.They grew up during the Great Depression and they saved Trillion$. They are leaving all this moolah to the Silents, who as I mentioned, are unfortunately trying to live forever, but are actually crashing the Health Care system and squandering the inheritance that should have trickled down to the Boomers.
b. 1900-25
85 yrs old +
41% Rep 39% Dem 20% Ind
"They amassed personal wealth of nearly $11 trillion through saving and still wield corporate influence. The few remaining are living longer because they can afford the best health care. The last of many generations characterized by racial and gender intolerance."


Well, is it too obvious that I'm a Boomer? I tried to be fair..sort of.

Here are some of the sources which I manipulated to back up my half-baked, fanciful notions:The Age Curve, Census, Greenberg Research, and my own rash conclusions.

DEM-ographics
"You cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot."
Frank Schaeffer

I recently received a fabulous book from a very thoughtful Blogger.

It's  The Daring Spectacle by Mark Morford...a "kick-ass, take-no-prisoners, laugh-out-loud-funny Liberal writer, thinker and cultural critic.

"Believe that you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable."

Here is an example of his insightful snarkasm:
How to talk to complete idiots

EVILution
Only 39% of Americans believe in Evilution!

In a recent Gallop poll , 25% admitted that they do NOT believe in Evolution.

Even more baffling is that 36% don't even have an opinion...1% don't know if they have an opinion! 

Only about half of Americans aged 18 to 34 say they believe in evolution.

(I added the quip but props to Propps)

The pollster summarized these findings with this stunning revelation;
"Americans' religious beliefs are a significant predictor of their attitudes toward Darwin's theory!"

Ya think?

"There is a strong relationship between education and belief in Darwin's theory, as might be expected, ranging from 21% of those with high-school educations or less,

 to 74% of those with postgraduate degrees."

The Good News for Modern Man is that 55% of Americans believe in "the Rapture," 

so before our world ends, those who denounce Darwinsky, will be spared and mysteriously taken up to Heaven in the blink of an eye.

I am presuming that after "the Rapture",  
the stats for the 36 percenters without an opinion on Evolution, will dramatically decrease.
Those poor "left behinders" will be much too busy looting the vacant homes and bank accounts of the Faithful to answer stupid surveys on Evilution.

Greeod is Good

IN GREEOD WE TRU$T

I watched the CARD GAME on Independent Lens/PBS the other night.
Did any of you see it? 
Let me begin with the premise that I suppose that a Free Market could in theory work fairly well if it was executed on a level playing field and people were able to manage their finances.

My Grandparent's Generation witnessed the Great Depression and didn't buy stuff until they had saved up enough money to do so. By the time that my Parent's Generation came around credit cards made it easier to get stuff before they could afford it.

My Generation wants everything (far more than they actually need) yesterday and now most of us can only dream of actually owning anything other than a bit of highly volatile equity.

The American Economy is the world's largest and most influential financial marketplace (for a few more years anyway) so for the time being, we cannot ignore it.

The recent financial landmine that Middle America flung itself upon was totally predictable... and yet We The People and their lobby-fed representatives, still let the "Banks" and their various tentacles, do whatever the hell they want.
WHY?

I've come to the conclusion that there are three main factors.
Fawlty Faith, the mirage of a Free Market, and unbridled Avarice. 
All one needs to do is look at the slogan on their one Dollar bill, "In God We Trust". Which should be changed to GREEOD?

For starters, atleast half of all Americans believe that Jesus is in charge of their finances. Like it or not, because so many American citizens adhere to their Faith above and beyond their Military Funding led Democracy, the USA is a defacto theocentric entity much like other Monotheistic states like Iranistan, which they despise.

One of the most perplexing situations is the average American's inexplicable addiction to the indoctrinated, ludicrous, notion  that the Creator of the Universe established the USA as the pinnacle of his plan for mankind.
Good Ole Manifest Destiny.

Yes, all 6,000 years of Human History has been Divinely premeditated and purposefully arranged for these "special" people at this precise moment in the Space/Time continuum.

Another dangerous part of this equation is that the guardians of the Free Market, like former Fed Grand Poohbah, Alan Greenspan, and the others before him, adhere to the notion that Capitalism cannot fail, because the forces of the Free Market will always correct itself. You can bet your bottom dollar on that and take it tothe Bank ;) 

Like the "Corporation", the Free Market is a living entity which is theoretically failsafe...so they fervently adhere to letting the chips fall where they may..what could possibly go wrong?

The other factor which is the glue holding it all together is pure Avarice.

Who can forget the great scene in the film Wall Street when Gord Gekko delivers his moving speech to the shareholders..
Greed is Good.

We hold these TRUTHS to be self evident, that Coveting thy Neighbours sh*t is the very foundation upon which the entire Economy exists. It's the American Dream to have way more sh*t than the Jones. 

For the chosen, exponential unlimited Government-Free growth is the Holy Grail at Ground Zero..this preposterous mixed-market governmentally tainted model would have never even be considered had the Great Depression mysteriously appeared.
Gee, how did the concentration of Capitalists enjoying unlimited-unregulated freedom to prey upon the public ever go wrong?

Surpassing the Jones, fuels the great unwashed to strive to have it all and then some,...atleast until the Rapture. I suggest purchasing this book..
How to profit from the coming rapture   

Rapturenomics 101!


It is backed up by the ridiculous Prosperity Gospel, which in itself is antithetical to the original proponent who was made famous for throwing the money changers out.
Doesn't anyone recall that bit about the Love of Money being the root of all evil? 
 

Don't worry about buying food tomorrow, or the surprise jump in your credit card rates, or your house being confiscated because you defaulted on your loans, no problemo...
GREEOD IS GOOD!


The Free Market is the living incarnation of GREEOD...
IT's will be done.

Cognitive Dissonance means simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas...ie both God & Greed are good.

As frustratingly obvious as this is, the Banks, that bailed-out Billionaire Club who gave themselves Billion$ in bonuses for f*cking up the economy & pooching the public, got a Get Out Of Jail card because what if they they had to pay for their mistakes like you or I do?

They'll take their glove and bat home and then nobody will get to play so nyeh!! 

Why don't the Americans storm the Bastille?
Why do they tolerate an Industry that preys upon them and then unbelievably has the gall to keep their bonus and and ask for a bailout?
It's abso-f*cking-lutely astonshing is what it is?


When the housing bubble burst the reigning Republicans had managed to gift the Banks with the keys to the candy store and nobody was monitoring them.


The Banks thrive on victimizing the Mr & Mrs Joe Sixpack who live paycheque to paycheque and who are the least able to withstand any bumps in their finances.

The Banks allowed these people to live on overdraft, get "free" credit cards, and over-mortgage their homes by 125%...so that they would rack up a new huge pile of debt on the cards which were borrowed against their over-valued homes to pay the cards off.

Woo-Hoooo!

Half of them believe that the Almighty is in charge of their finances because GOD loves them more than any other people in history.
I won't bore you with my usual litany of unanswerable questions..
such as..

Oh I don't know, WHY on Earth would GOD wait until the 1600s to plop his favorite folk in the already inhabited New World? Why would he intervene in human affairs long after we had been mucking about destroying local biospheres and murdering each other for hundreds of thousands of years?
Actually Millions of years if you want to get technical.

When the black-hearted professional Bank Lobbyists were interviewed on the program my blood began to boil. They said that "the People" are to blame for the glitch...the Banks didn't do anything wrong.
Which is frustratingly true.

This Generation knows nothing about saving their pennies until they can afford to purchase something.

So the perfect storm, this triumverate of Greed, God, and Entitlement, triumphed over the original parsimonious Puritan ethos. How ironic is that?

Do not be surprised if this house of cards folds like a cheap carnival tent and the "money" moves offshore to the East for good...
the East holds most of Uncle Sam's personal debt that he has racked up buying enough Military Weapons to kill every living human being tenfold. 
Another correction is imminent and it will be of Biblical proportions.

Unless?
Here's your chance to offer some sound, practical, financial advice...
like save string, start using public transit, and bring a bag lunch to work.

Go for it...

TXTS FRM LST NIGHT

"(404): i hope kanye doesn't show up to patrick swayze's funeral.
' i'll let you get back to your funeral in a minute...but michael jackson had the best death of the year. just sayinnn '."

Are these faux or fo' real?

STICKIN' IT TO THE MAN

Yesterday, for the first time this Summer, I went to the Beach.

When one goes to "the Beach" the idea is to clear your head and not think about anything right? Wrong! When you live in an environment that is f-f-freezing for 7 months of the year you enjoy every second...

especially this Summer because it rains every second day?

There is a Thuderstorm happening as I write.

Plus we had to prove to a visitor from Switzerland that Grand Beach is one of the top 10 Beaches in the world, (according to a Playboy article in the 70s see my Post JULY 6, 2006 ...so nyeh!) and it is only a one hour drive from our back door.

The Beach is a unique environment to contemplate the complicated relationship between the genders. For some time now I have been wondering why Males have been allowed to take over the world.

Most of you know that I go on and on and on about how vertebrates are formed as default females, ergo males are mutants, and that it therefore stands to reason, that a Creator, should one exist, would be a nurturing feminine entity rather than an insecure masculine moron right?

Have any of you ever come across The Alphabet versus the Goddess?

Have a lash HERE .

Leonard Schlain did a lot of the mental heavy lifting and organised a timeline that follows the ascent of Humans and deals with genderfication issues. Take a moment and read it...very interesting.

He starts out discussing the consequences of us eating more meat on the African Savannah, the demands of a lengthy infant development period, left brain-right brain wiring, language vs imagery.

This goes a long way in explaining the historical adaptations which led to us living in a completely f*cked up world in which the dominant males muck about posturing, threatening, and actually inflicting carnage on each other.

Males are simply incapable of turning the WAR button off.

Instead of a world where everybody is fed, housed, and educated, most of the planet's resources are used to create Weapons of Mass Destruction and it totally SUCKS!

*photo by reysputin :)

As a Baby Boomer contemplating the abject failure of the Peace, Love & Unicorns fantasy of the Woodstock Generation..

40 years later it is painfully obvious that we did NOT "stick it to the Man", Maaaan!"

"And we've got to get ourselves

Back to the GODDESS"

WHAT'S LEFT OF THE RIGHT?

Right Wing Media Gadfly GLENN BECK, rhymes with Dreck (Yiddish dirt) said on a televised show that U.S. President Obama is a racist.

Glenn said,

“I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”

Okay, Glenn obviously uttered this stupid f*cking comment to get some ratings spin. For those of you unfamiliar with Glenn, he is at the forefront of the Celebrity Infotainment Culture in America. He has Peter Pander Complex which forces it's sufferer to do or say anything to get attention.

Glenn wraps himself in the flag and pretends to extol the virtues and aspirations of the little guy, the everyman who if given half a chance would gladly gnaw off one of his own nuts to be a Loudmouth Right Wing Celebrity Millionaire like Glenn!

The consequences of recent history have run roughshod over the Right (Never Wrong) Wing of American Politics. boo-hoo. The political mojo of the Right has been justifiably eviscerated for it's role in destroying the Economy by

A: allowing unregulated charlatans to rule Wall Street and the Banking Industry and

B: ex-President G. Dubya Bush and his collection of myopic Fat-Cat cronies and henchmen started several unjustifiable Wars in the Middle East that may take decades to resolve and trigger an even larger final confrontation between the reigning Monotheistic Behemoths..

imagine Armageddon and all the worst parts of the Bible coming to life in your backyard.

Haven't you wondered why the Media isn't raking these perpetrators over the coals now that they are out of office? Could it be because that for nearly a decade the MEDIA was complicit in the sh*tstorm? All they did was re-broadcast press releases from the Dubya's White House. It's not their fault, the NEWS is now owned by Conglomerates who see Infotainment as another division that needs to sell ADs and turn a profit?

Anyway all that is left of the Right, are the pathetic, last ditch antics of celebrity moutpieces like Rush Limpbaugh and now ex-Governor Sarah Failin. Pretty sad.

They do make a nice couple eh?

I had originally intended to write about Loretta Napoleoni's book Rogue Economics;

"As in the film The Matrix, the world we live in is an illusion.
If we break through the Market Matrix we discover that our planet is being reshaped by dark economic forces creating victims out of millions of ordinary people whose lives have become trapped inside a fantasy world of consumerism. The world has been overrun by organizations, both private and public, that have accumulated vast fortunes and enormous political influence by regulating, containing, and manipulating the market to their own advantage.

From Eastern Europe’s booming sex trade industry to China’s “online sweatshops,” from al-Qaeda’s underwriters to America’s bankruptcy and lending scandals, Rogue Economics exposes the paradoxical economic connections of the new global marketplace."

So when a celebrity like Glenn calls the President of the US a racist, it's not just a cry for help, he is trying to sell more ads on the Fox Network. Seriously Folks we don't get our NEWS from father figures like Walter Cronkite (1916 – 2009) anymore..nope..we get our so-called news from handsome/beautiful, sometimes nekkid, models and announcers..which is exactly what Cronkite had tried to eradicate.

Napoleoni writes, "Celebrities are performers and politicians encourage famous people to be part of their team because their image translates into votes. Celebrities belong to the Establishment because they owe their stardom and wealth to the obssesive marketization of their image. Their loyalty to the market is unshakable because their existance and continued success depend on it."

So ignore getting caught up in this charade. It does not matter what Glenn says about anything. He is just a celebrity who lives and dies by his pandering and vitriol..if he can't attract attention and sell soap..

the Conglomerate "suits" will find somebody else who can.

Glenn schmenn!

Glenn you may have tried your best to wrestle the eyeballs of millions of potential consumers from the turmoil and mysterious circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson's death, but we ain't buyin' whatever you are sellin'.

Accusing America's first Black President of being a racist is about as f*cking stupid as it gets Glenn. That ain't RIGHT!

You should be talking about something that Consumers are genuinely interested in, like why did Michael Jackson die?

Pictured here as he might have looked in the real world.

Michael Jackson was the biggest celebrity (Human Brand) on the planet and his premature demise is a ratings bonanza of O J Simpsonian levels! In the simple minds of tens of millions of potential Consumers of stuff Jackson's departure will easily supercede all other Earthly Events for the rest of the year and perhaps the rest of their lives!?

Maybe Loretta has uncovered the Matrix of Globalization. All those Newspeople are starting to look more like Game Show Hosts and it does seem like we live in a Matrix of make believe. We have way more information being thrown at us but most of it is utterly useless...unless it's about Michael Jackson.

We are SPECIAL :)

As a species (special) we Homo Escapeons been around in our present form for at least 200,000 years...which is not very long compared to most of the animals so actually, we are sort of special.

According to most Paleo-Anthropologists our ancestors migrated out of Africa in a series of waves and eventually occupied nearly every corner of the globe.

Five thousand years ago, having decided to abandon the insecurity ridden life of nomadic hunter gatherers, Homo Escapeons settled down in large numbers and invented Civilized Empires. These days the vast majority of us are dazzling Urbanites who are sold on the whole "economy of scale" thingamabob.


Most of us realise that it really isn't 2,009 A.D., utter rubbish, and so are all of the other Calendars....since we or our brains (same thing) have not changed one iota in 200,000 years, this should be referred to as the year 200,009.


The Human "World" on Earth is basically a hodgepodge of 200 countries (Tribes), the vast majority of which have little or no effect on the whole of mankind. There are a handful of Super-Corporate/Military/Political Entities that control the majority of us.

We are all slaves to the capricious actions of a handful of powerful men who are deluded enough to assume, that they deserve to manipulate the great unwashed. Thank heavens that their ginormous egos prohibit them from uniting because the rest of us would be totally f*cked if they ever joined forces.

Many of us believed/expected that after 2,000 Centuries Homo Escapeons should be far more advanced and living in a "kinder-gentler" global village. The real miracle is that we haven't eliminated our species.

Compared to other species we really are SPECIAL because our brains find ways to circumvent many natural corrections that would normally limit our numbers. By the year 1800, make that 201,800, there were One Billion of us!



Another paradox is that WE are our own worst enemies. Two hundred thousand years later the most "advanced" one third of our species are voluntarily killing themselves by consuming mass quantities of a nutritionally bankrupt diet which precipitates major health issues.

Then we invent ways to prolong and extend our lifespan so that we can continue to overindulge in self destructive behavior.
Go us!

We invented a system of producing mass quantities of junk food but our genetic programming is still operating as if we were half starving hunter/gatherers mode.... 95% of our time has been living hand to mouth and our brains are telling our stomachs the same thing it did out on the African Savannah. EAT! This could be your last meal for a while.

So 200,009 years later and we still have the same old program operating our brain. That's why we keep repeating the same mistakes and I keep writing the same posts over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

"IT" doesn't matter,
Who's Wrong Or Right

Yesterday I left a comment on a Blog posting dedicated to the passing of Farrah Fawcett. The texan beauty whose wholesome face and feathered blonde hair were made famous by her ubiquitous bonerific 70s poster made her rich N' famous. Farrah lived her life and her final showdown with Cancer out in the open.

She was 62.

I stated in the comment section that once MY cohorts (50ish year old celebs born 57.58) start expiring, then I'll start to feeling mortal. The two shiniest stars in my age bracket are Madonna and the most famous person on the planet, Michael Jackson..

shown here as he should have looked at our age.

Some of my other cohorts are:

Sharon Stone, Annette Bening, Madeline Stowe, Holly Hunter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rachel Ward, Andy McDowell, Jennifer Tilly, Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Viggo Mortensen,Christopher Lambert, Tim Robbins and Spike Lee, Prince, Kate Bush, Simon Le Bon, Donny Osmond, Sid Vicious, Joan Jett, Neil Finn, Grandmaster Flash, Paul Weller, Sheila E and Belinda Carlisle, Ray Romano, Jon Lovitz, Denis Leary, Ellen DeGeneres, Bernie Mac, Megan Mullaly, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Dan Castellanta (DOH!) and Osama Bin Hidin.

Then I learned that the frail, tortured, gloved-one had beat it.

Michael was as gifted as he was cursed.

One look at his Father (JW) Joe, a clinic in his own right, and it's easy to see why controversy would shadow his career from the getgo.

A few days ago I had tossed Michael's name in with other famous Bad Dads..mainly because he dangled his child over a balcony...

I should have included his monstrous stagedad!

I prolly got more schadenfreude from Britney's very public meltdown (shame on me) because at least for a while, Michael was a genuine musical phenomenon and trendsetter...thanks in large part to the brilliant Producer, Quincy Jones.


You have to admit, that as far as having "IT", few other performers in the 2oth Century could compete with the innate charisma of Michael Jackson.

Jackson's life has all of the important ingredients required in creating an icon although he would have been better off had he passed after Thriller.

At that point he was still hip N' happenin', before the scandals and scalpels era which has overshadowed his showmanship for well over a decade.

Timing is everything in Show Biz/Life.

A huge part of being an Icon is the whatif factor...

what if James Dean had made 4 movies?

What if Marilyn wrote a tell all book about the Kennedys?

What if Martin Luther King had to face the music about his adultery?

Humongous Elvis trolling around the slot machines in his jumpsuit...we don't want the truth..we can't handle the truth.

These STARS should have been taken down a notch that's what! Their stock should have dropped when all of the evidence is in right?.

Most people assumed that Jackson was descending into weirdness even if he had soldout his London concerts. Most of us figured that he was "done" and headed for his Vegas-Elvis stage...wow that would have been a perfect ending :)

Unfortunately Reality dillutes the Fantasy.

Icons, are essentially a Lie.

We choose to believe and cherish the good stuff.

The empathy factor overrides the culpability and voila..a teflon icon is born.

Thanks to the Internet, the frail bleached performer will become an instant Icon, in the truest sense of the term. Unlike most of the present I-Cons who are fabricated pretentious poseurs or I-conjobs (infamous for trying to be famous) Jackson actually deserves to be famous.

I wonder if Michael had any real friends who looked out for him?

Maybe Liz Taylor?

Taylor certainly knows how fickle fame can be. She was also a child star who was later villified as a slut and then reborn as an Aids crusader.

Being a Celebrity SUCKS.


The troubled man who never had a childhood, and chose to live as a child in his adult years (because he could afford to do it) won't need to worry about what other people think about him anymore.

The great thing about being an Icon is that we, the great unwashed, remember the good stuff...it's called selective memory. Jackson will now take his rightful place in the pantheon of the American Iconosphere.

You either have IT or you don't and his lyrics in the song Beat It testify...

IT doesn't matter,

who's wrong or right.

Baitballing = DUMBOCRAZY!

I just read an interesting article by Wildlife Biologist Robert Alison on the the inherent wisdom of group decisions.
You can read it here.

Alison wrote about Cordocet's Jury Theorem which was first outlined in 1785 by oddly enough some Dude known as the Marquis de Cordocet. It's fundamental presumption is..wait for it...

that the many, are more likely to make a collective correct choice, than the one or the few.

"Group decison making is common in animals"...

Hello! Especially during those spur-of -the-moment incidents of sheer panic and utter terror!

Geddit? I just happen to believe that most people are bewildered by politics and the media and so they vote based on what they have heard, rather than what they Gnow.

"According to Krishna Ladha of Washington University, a majority of any group of people, when selecting between two alternatives, is more likely to make the "better" choice than any one member of the group. Recent studies show that the larger the group, the more likely an optimal result will occur."

If by optimal they mean that some other poor bastard will get eaten instead of you then Yes, they are right.

"Many animal groups routinely make consensus decisions jointly," confirmed Jinhu Lu of the Institute of Systematic Science. Research by Ashley Ward at the University of Sydney shows that quorum decisions shape collective movement patterns in fish.

Yeah? They're called baitballs and predators purposely make them bunch up because it's easier to eat them. All of the prey try to hide in the middle where you'd think they're playing the better odds but that is exactly where the predators charge!

The pathetic reality is that poor little bait fish (like us) are doomed if they are caught out in the open... so we actually are better off in a baitball.

"The outstanding complication regarding very large groups is that their consensus decisions tend to oscillate, resulting in an inconsistent analysis of the same facts in separate, even consecutive, sessions.

Conversely, human group decision-making is comparatively new, having occurred only in the past 300,000 years, which makes them more prone to incorrectness due to relative infancy. One main problem is the tendency among humans to rush decisions. "

Another flaw in the human group decision-making process is that majority choices can be wrong when subgroups form alliances with conflicting agendas. Coalitions tend to make the Condorcet jury theorem inoperable; the result is the "Condorcet paradox."

"Mathematicians agree that although group-made decisions are more often correct, compared with individual decisions, and that adding more voters to the process increases the probability that a majority decision is correct, the effect is most dramatic if decisions involve only two choices, such as in jury trials.

Decisions made by groups are no better than individual choices when there are more than two options at issue."

Is there such a thing as Common Sense?

Doesn't it feel as though we live in one giant baitball?

I READ IT IN THE PAPER

SO IT MUST BE TRUE!

According to the American Newspaper lobby, the following percentages apply to people who purchase, steal, or borrow a Newspaper on the way to the washroom:

65-87% read the Main NEWS & Front Page..

85% Local News...

63% Advertising pure bullsh*t..

56% International/National News...

55-59% Sports...

44% Editorial Page & Entertainment/Lifestyle...

42% Business...

39% read the Comics & Classified

13% Home & Decorating

Do you "BUY" any of that?

Craigslist has an article on newspaper-sections-rendered-obsolete by the INTERNET: FRONT PAGE / NEWS/ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR/ RESTAURANT & MOVIE REVIEWS/ WEATHER.

The article suggests that your local Newspaper's strong suits are supposedly: OBITUARIES, OPINION & COMICS? Who still reads Comics?

I'd say people want to know about the LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS and they will keep buying Newspapers until the Publisher or some enterprising group starts producing an interactive on-line version.

60-66% of those who slog through the day-old Local, National & International NEWS, Business, Finance, & Politics, Weather, Letters from the Readers, and the Opinions & Editorials, are members of the dreaded and universally despised Older Male group. Bastards!

50 % of the readers who check out the Sports section are self-loathing, bitter, insecure, beer-purchasing, asexual, males. The other 50% are single males.

75% of those who devour the Crosswords, Su-Do-Ku, and Bridge tips, remember when Elizabeth the First was Queen!

Younger Metrosexual males glance at the newspapers for automobiles, movie listings, and Celebrity Gossip. This demographic would like to see more pictures.

Women 25-50 account for 4 out of 5 readers who read the Society-People, Tourism-Travel, Style-Fashion, Cooking, Health, Home & Decoration, Family, Kids & Youthzzzzzzzzzz.

Women 50+ scour the Classifieds for Divorce Lawyers, Cosmetic Surgeons, used-untraceable Handguns, Cougar-friendly Lounges, Horoscopes and the Personals where they troll for emotionally-unavailable, bitter, single men without baggage.

Every morning I read the OH-bitch-uaries...OH look who died! Life's a bitch innit?

I love those idiotic "Letters to the Editor" which always feature "one normal-sounding person" who is familiar with the concepts of the 21st Century.

The rest of the regulars or "Regs of society" are the same 15 asshats who go off on tangents with vitriolic, self-righteous, myopic, uninformed, tirades about "kids today" or the "price of Tea in China"...exasperated end of the world stuff.

These always begin with "when I was a your age" or "we never had ____ and we turned out OK" and end with a reference to Bob Hope, the signing of the Magna Carta, or an obscure Bible verse from the Kingeth Jameseth Editioneth.

The younger "Reg's" are either raving Time Capsuled Marxists, Anti-EVERYTHINGers, or just attention-starved opinionistas who didn't get enough hugs from their Mommy..whose liver they were nibbling on (with some fava beans and a nice chianti) when the police stormed in.

OK, I always read the Local Tragedy Section which is entirely made up of horrible accidents, Crime, Business Crime, Political Crime, and Street Gang Crime, ...the National & International NEWS happened yesterday so I either saw it on TV or the Internet.

I don't read the Sports unless my bff wrote a piece. I never look at the Classified or Automotive section. I do however enjoy the colourful yet disturbingly inaccurate Weather forecast map..which the Newspaper creates in the staff room with volunteers, Tequila shooters, and a colour-coded dart board.

Just as Real Estate is all about Location, Location, Location, Newspapers need to focus on all things LOCAL, LOCAL, & LOCAL!

The other thing that I appreciate is that folks editorialising out here on the Interwebs can speak freely in the vernacular of the great unwashed. If the Mayor or Minister of Edumacation or Goalie for the local Hockey Team are complete f*cking asshats, then you can say that.

You can't say what you feel in the Paper unless you actually want your house egged, the tires on your car slashed, or a hit-squad from one of the "Stan" countries storming your home with a freshly minted fatwa.

You are only allowed to express yourself openly in the Letters To The Editor if you are unleashing your self-serving, self-righteous indignation, as a member of one of the ubiquitous groups that are government funded, politically-correct, exclusive, all-encompassing, anti-democratic, perpetually-victimized associations..

gasp..

which is currently engaged in an all-out, winner-take-all war with society whose primary objective is to eliminate any vestiges of empirical reasoning, logic, common sense, and the mother-flippin' worst concept of all, the greater f*cking good!

Do you still read "the Paper"?

AFRICkAn MESSage for all of us

A quick setup: Friday night I had supper with some wonderful acquaintances from KENYA and Saturday & Sunday I was hugging it out with my daughters' choreographer who is from MOZAMBIQUE.

Then last night I watched The INTERPRETER (an assassination attempt on an African despot scheduled to make a speech at the U.N. starring Nicole Kidman & Sean Penn thinly disguised stab at ZimBOB'sway tyrant Bob Mugabe) and it occurred to me that since our species originated in Africa, maybe that is where we will start disappearing?

When I was a kid I loved Africa...well the Lions, Rhinos, Elephants..to me it was a gigantic Game Reserve. Every Saturday night I'd watch Tarzan and every Sunday there would be a couple of "Nature" programs. Our patrician Western view overlooked the people and concentrated on the wildlife.

We loved Africa but not Africans!

During the 60s I became aware that "we are all Kenyans" and that humans originated in Africa when I started reading about Anthropaleontologist Richard_Leakey and his Father in National Geographic Magazine. Leakey has had an incredible life which mirrors the transition of our Western View.

His decision as head of the Kenyan Wildlife and Management Department in 89 to shoot Poachers on sight encapsulated the zeitgeist of the African Wildlife debacle; if you recall Elephants and their Ivory tusks once represented the ecological awareness movement, just as the Polar Bear = Global Warming today.

Leakey's view that the National Parks were a place to protect the wildlife by keeping people out still resonates with common sense for most of us in the West. Make room for the Wildlife, at least they have an excuse for acting like animals. Unlike the psychotic monsters who force others, even child soldiers, to hack women and children to death with machetes, necklace them with burning petrol-soaked tires, or mow down entire villages with a machine gun after raping all the girls and women.

As Gord Gekko said in the Movie Wall Street. "The thing that you need to remember about Wasps (white anglo-saxon protestants) is that they LOVE animals..can't stand people."

Forty years later I see the "Dark Continent" in a totally different light. Gone are the days that I imagined it as a time-travellers paradise where one could still look back into an Edenic wonderland of Wildlife and simple noble tribesmen content to live side by side in the Neolithic Age.

Now it's been replaced by years of TV ads showing horrifying images of starving children, the HIV epidemic, Blood Diamonds, the genocidic horrors in Darfur and Rwanda, Somali Pirates, Tribal barbarism, and we still see images of poaching for Bush Meat and profit.

I admit that unlike BONO , I am still more concerned about the Wildlife?

Post Colonial Africa is circling the drain.... it is the poorest and most dangerous Continent on Earth for Humans to live. Why do Westerners worry about the survival of African Elephants, yet feel as if the probability of improving the lives of the African People is a hopeless cause?

Over half of the sub-Saharan countries are authoritarian states. The revolving door of despotism and pillaging foreign aid to amass personal fortune seems to be the standard form of Government throughout most of Africa.

According to the Economist, four generations of constant WAR can be partially attributed to dietary influenced neuro-biological defeciencies which manifests itself with low intelligence..

combined with a culture of fear, ageless tribal animosity, and poor educational opportunities, creates a perfect storm for conflict and misery.


According to this SURVEY , the 4th annual report prepared by the Fund For Peace, a mere 15 Countries on the planet are rated as having sustainable balanced political stability.

They are..
Japan 127.7M

Belgium 10.7M

Luxembourg 491,700

Netherlands 16.5M

Canada 33.5M

Austria 8.4M

Australia 21.6M

Denmark 5.5M

New Zealand 4.3M

Iceland 325,500

Switzerland 7.7M

Ireland 4.5M

Sweden 9.3M

Finland 5.3M

Norway 4.8M

Humans originated in Africa and after 150,000 years of transitioning from hunter-gatherers to Civilization and spreading out across the globe and the best that we can do is produce 15 frickin' countries that are OK!?

265 Million people out of 6.7Billion!

"This is an assessment of the pressures on stability and political risk of countries by focusing on 12 key economic, social, and political indicators and 5 Core Institutions; Leadership, Military, Judiciary, Police & Civil Services, plus local issues, and their relations with other countries in the region."

There are synoptic, single-paragraph summations at the end of each review..click here to check out your COUNTRY.

Of the 177 Countries assessed;

1-35 rated ALERT

36-127 WARNING

128-162 MODERATE

163-177 SUSTAINABLE

Here are the 15 Nations in immediate crisis, no big surprises but look at all the African nations!

Somalia 8.6M

Sudan 38.5M

Zimbabwe 13.3M

Chad 10.7M

Iraq 28.9M

Congo 62.6M

Afghanistan 27.1M

Cote d'Ivoire 19.2M

Pakistan 165.8M

Central African Republic 4.3M

Guinea 9.3M

Bangladesh 158.6M

Burma 48.7M

Haiti 9.5M

North Korea 23.7M

Look at the African Nations listed under ALERT or WARNING!

All but Mauritius, which was rated Moderate like the USeh.

#80 Algeria

#56 Angola

#100 Benin

#120 Botswana

#36 Burkina Faso

#24 Burundi

#33 Cameroon

#65 Cape Verde

#10 Central African Republic

#4 Chad

#74 Comoros

#26 Rebuplic of Congo

#8 Cote d'Ivoire

#5 Democratic Republic of the Congo

#71 Djibouti

#40 Egypt

#42 Equatorial Guinea

#44 Eritrea

#16 Ethiopia

#93 Gabon

#83 Gambia

#123 Ghana

#11 Guinea

#32 Guinea-Bissau

#26 Kenya

#61 Lesotho

#34 Liberia
#111 Lybia

#86 Madagascar

#29 Malawi

#89 Mali

#47 Mauritania

#148 Mauritius

#88 Morocco

#85 Mozambique

#98 Namibia

#22 Niger

#19 Nigeria

#43 Rwanda

#78 SanTome

#107 Senegal

#114 Seychelles

#31 Sierra Leone

#1 Somalia

#125 South Africa

#72 Swaziland

#2 Sudan

#75 Tanzania

#45 Togo

#122 Tunisia

#17 Uganda

#63 Zambia

#3 Zimbabwe

The African Continent, the cradle of Mankind and home to nearly 1 Billion Humans is in A-frickin mess!

I contend that the Cosmic Creator may have left us a valuable clue by making the shape of the African Continent look exactly like a Human skull.

Africa holds the answers to our origins, maybe it also holds the answers to our demise?

Do you think that we will see the "beginning of the end" where it all began?