Wednesday, March 6, 2019

"The City of Brass"

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

"The City of Brass"

1909
“Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion: and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust.”
The Arabian Nights.
In a land that the sand overlays – the ways to her gates are untrod – A multitude ended their days whose gates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms dilated. They rose to suppose themselves kings over all things created – To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or sorrow – To declare: “We prepare it to-day and inherit to-morrow.” They chose themselves prophets and priests of minute understanding, Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest commanding – Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perversions of Justice – Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is. Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them – The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure, with limitless entries, And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries; And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers, They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and archers. They replied to their well-wishers’ fears – to their enemies laughter, Saying: “Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter. We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring, And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring.” They said: “Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour? Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.” They said: “Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him? He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed him.” They said: “Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession? Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.” They said: “Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it. If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it! So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him, The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him. As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the nation, They harried all earth to make sure none escaped reprobation. They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-won borders, And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed by their orders. They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to aid them; And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Viceroys obeyed them. When the riotous set them at naught they said: “Praise the upheaval! For the show and the world and the thought of Dominion is evil!” They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defied them, The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled them. They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strengths which are Faith and Endeavour. They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision: And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven, And the heart of a beast in the place of a man’s heart was given. . . . . . . . . . . . When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error, Out of the sea rose a sign – out of Heaven a terror. Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew – for none troubled to hide it, A host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it. They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trail; But the Sward that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial. It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven. The preposterous-minded were cowed – they thought time would be given. There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them; It was decreed their own deed, and not a chance, should undo them. The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping. The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping. The eaters of other men’s bread, the exempted from hardship, The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship, For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender, And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!

Did Kipling have an inkling of the future, though history does tend to go through repetitious cycles

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

A old dog can adapt with new tricks :-)

An old German Shepherd [Alsatian] dog starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.
The old German Shepherd thinks, “Oh, oh! I’m in deep shit now!”
Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German Shepherd exclaims loudly,
“Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder, if there are any more around here?”
Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.
“Whew!,” says the panther, “That was close! That old German Shepherd nearly had me!”
Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.
The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.
The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!”
Now, the old German Shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, “What am I going to do now?,” but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German Shepherd says…
“Where’s that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!”
Moral of this story…
Don’t mess with the old dogs… Age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery!
Bull Shit and brilliance only come with age and experience.
Us oldies are old for a reason.
.........
Maybe you’re familiar with P J O’Rourke’s brilliant book; “Age and Guile beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut”! 
I do not know if that joke is there, but sounds like good reading, as the final push before nearing "rest home" time. :-)

Thursday, December 27, 2018



Descent into Hell: Identity Politics as the Gateway to Islamic Theocracy


The Left has conveniently forgotten the incident: they knew exactly what Zahalka meant by that. Genuine ideological racism transformed long ago into their worldview and their prerogative, concurrently.
Democratic ideals, social justice and tolerance don’t rule the world anymore. A new ideology – a successor of the failed totalitarian ideologies of the past century — governs the soul of the West, and it’s called Identity Politics.
The product of a vicious love of Red and Brown dogmas, it is pseudo-scientific, and is dividing people into racial-class categories with a rigid hierarchy. White Christians and Jews — exploiters a priori, the embodiment of financial manipulation and conspiracy – are at the lower level of the social pyramid. The second level of this hierarchy is occupied by people with various pathologies (homosexuals, transgenders, disabled) and women, who by default belong to the oppressed class. They resemble the gigantic peasant masses in the writings of Marxists: deprived, but hardly aware of their own unhappiness due to the absence of “class consciousness.” “Proletarian masses” represented by the Third World (from Venezuela to Bangladesh) and suppressed by white imperialism are positioned in the third level.
The top of the social pyramid is occupied by the vanguard of the “global progressive forces” (such as the Communist party or National Socialist German Workers’ party) – embodied by Black American organizations, Palestinians and various Islamic groups.
A human being, as a thinker who is responsible for his own destiny and the fate of others, has no place in this scheme. Instead, there are faceless groups of “beneficial insects” and “harmful insects” (a precise copy of Marxist theory). The former deserve all the support; the latter should be expelled and persecuted in every possible way. Like sheep, a man is born with a stigma which determines his fate.
A Black transgender Muslim will a priori have a more privileged position than a white man, regardless of intelligence and moral qualities. As in Bolshevik Russia, the weaver was a priori better than a former nobleman, and in Nazi Germany, the Aryan criminal was above the “subhuman” — a Jew or Slav.
It is assumed that each group of “insects” must sacrifice itself in the name of universal progress. White heterosexual men should make space for socially oppressed groups: women and the LGBT community, who, in turn, ought to sacrifice themselves in the name of the “World Proletariat,” whereas the “Proletarian Masses” must put themselves on the altar for the benefit of the Labor aristocracy and “Progressive Vanguard.”
Linda Sarsour’s message about the “brave Black Muslim American woman” (Ilhan Omar) – a victim of “people with “dual loyalty” — has a hypnotic effect on the progressive public, and she is well aware of it. In the reflection of Houston Chamberlain’s racial theory, “people with dual loyalty” (“termites” in Farrakhan’s definition) don’t stand a chance…
The following examples will demonstrate how this ideology elucidates modern countless paradoxes of “liberal democracy”:
–    The Dead White European Males (DWEM) term in American campuses;

–    PinkNews’ headline that “US Muslims are more accepting of homosexuality than White evangelicals”;

–    Bullying all who disagree with the superiority of marginal groups over heterosexuals (after he dared to support heterosexual families, a cofounder of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, had to step down);

–    The physical destruction of “politically incorrect” books, including children’s literature. In 2007, for instance, the municipal library of Botkyrka (a suburb of Stockholm) burned the entire edition of “Pippi in the South Seas,” written by Astrid Lindgren in 1948, because of “racist” expressions;

–    The total onslaught against the origins of Western civilization and its history. For instance: a publication such as “Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires” by Richard Sugg claims that 18th century British nobility practiced cannibalism;
Ralph Ellis’ research tries to prove that King Solomon was an Egyptian Pharaoh (“Solomon, Pharaoh of Egypt”); and Jesus was the fourth king of Manu, ruler of Edessa in Mesopotamia (“Jesus, King of Edessa”).
Or a “discovery” by Annika Larsson from Uppsala University that the word “Allah” was embroidered on Vikings’ funeral clothes (compared to all this the Soviet agitprop is a kids’ game).
Alan Ereira and Terry Jones (in “Barbarians against Rome”) claim that the Romans were bloodthirsty and evil savages, whereas the ancient Germans and Celts were peaceful, highly civilized communities.
In “Battlefield-1” — a Swedish computer game based on World War I motifs — British, American and even German soldiers appear as black.
USA Today columnist Brian Truitt criticized a lack of diversity in “Dunkirk” — a movie about the British Expeditionary Force in World War II. Could it be that Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton were black transgender lesbians? Why not?
–    The statement of Prince Charles that gangs of pirates were “fantastic” for aquatic life because the fishermen were too scared to fish in coastal Somalia waters.
Only by understanding the nature of modern synthesis of Marxist and racial ideologies one can explain the inexplicable. The self-forgetful vilification of Israel and complete disregard of the scourge of the Palestinians in the refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.
Total indifference to the fate of Ukrainians in war zones and moving concern for migrants from peaceful areas of Africa and Asia.
The willingness to accept ISIS militants and the apathy to the fate of their victims: Christians and Yezidis.
Compassion for jihadists in Guantanamo and mobsters from “Black Life Matters,” while cynically ignoring the genocides in Sudan and Rwanda.
The accusation of the “white man” for all mortal sins and the refusal to recognize poorly disguised slavery in the Muslim world.
The denial of Islamic terror side by side the hysterics about marginal “White Terror.”
Feminists’ violent attacks on Sir Tim Hunt, the Nobel prizewinner, because of his joke about girls in science labs, while the same feminists defended rapists from Afghanistan, Somalia and Morocco.
Drexel University (Philadelphia) associate professor of politics and global studies George Ciccariello-Maher’s wishes of “White Genocide for Christmas” and expressions of delight for the 9/11 terror attacks from famous intellectuals.
Adoration for all kinds of dictators of the Third World on the one hand, and contempt for the white descendants of the Boers, hunted by the South Africa’s regime on the other.
The adamant reluctance to release the names of Muslim gang rapists and a comparison of Viktor Orban to Hitler.
Claims on CNN that “Islam has always been a part of the American fabric” and “America has always had heroes who were Muslims.” The new heroes are Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (professional basketball player), left activist Malcolm X and the leader of notorious Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. Surprised? Not at all. Farrakhan is the personification of a “progressive man of a new type”: he is a Black Islamist, a personal enemy of Jews and whites. If you disagree, than you don’t fully understand theories of race and class.
Only by understanding the pyramid’s structure of the modern totalitarian ideology, the game of leapfrog of absurd facts acquires its own clear logic.
–    Hounding Marine Le Pen for Twitter photos of ISIS’ atrocities and pogroms at the University of Berkeley in “Stormtroopers” style following Trump’s victory.
–    An assignment from a University of Iowa professor to describe the 9/11 terrorist attacks from the perspective of Al-Qaeda, and a UK textbook asking children to ask questions of terrorists.
–    A demand by students from a prestigious London University to eradicate Plato, Descartes and Immanuel Kant from the curriculum because they are white, and the replacing of Shakespeare’s portrait with the portrait of Audre Lorde, “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” at the University of Pennsylvania.
–    Havens for all but “Straight white students” on campuses and allegations (by FBI leaders as well) that “white nationalism” is a greater threat to the US than ISIS.
–    A letter from the French Professor Christian de Moliner in November 2017 asking Macron to create a Muslim state within France, Ken Livingstone’s sympathy for Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Jeremy Corbyn’s empathy for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hizballah.
One will understand the Swedish feminists who wear burkas in Iran and the French court decision to remove the cross from the monument of Pope John Paul II, as well as the training of new migrants to be snipers in Sweden, and the efforts of British leftist groups to disrupt a demonstration against Muslim gangs of rapists.
The deportation from Sweden of Iranian actress and ex-Muslim Aideen Strandsson, who converted to Christianity (the explanation was “It’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian”; she got asylum in Hungary, thanks to Orban) and the refusal of the British Home Office to give asylum to a 34-year-old Nigerian, Nneka Obazee, a lesbian, and her stepson.

Social benefits to ISIS militants by Great Britain, Sweden and France, and the allowing of Pakistani homophobic preacher Hamza Sodagar to enter Britain. He infamously claimed the following: “There are five punishments for homosexual men.
First, probably the easiest one, is to behead them.
The second, is to burn them to death.
Third, to throw them off a cliff.
Fourth, crash them to death with bricks.
And finally, a combination of all of the above, is the fifth.”
(Muslims are more accepting of homosexuality than White evangelicals, isn’t it? But let’s remember: each class must consciously sacrifice itself for the sake of the more progressive ones).
The comparing of Trump with ISIS (obviously not in Trump’s favor) by GQ columnist Julia Ioffe on CNN, and the words of Arizona Democrat Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema, that she doesn’t care if Americans enlist the Taliban and fight for it in Afghanistan.
A German police commissioner blaming girls who are victims for being raped by migrants, and the refusal of a left-wing German activist, 24-year-old  Selin Gören, to reveal the names of rapists, out of a fear of fueling racism against refugees.
The hosting and rewarding of a young Palestinian terrorist by Real Madrid, and the blocking of Facebook posts about retaliation for homosexuals by Muslims.
Mohamed Atta and Paris’ Bataclan jihad killer Ishmael Omar Mostfai as part of the exhibition in the “Martyr Museum” (along with Socrates and Martin Luther King) in Germany, and the celebration of the Ottoman conquest of the Hagia Sophia by the Florida Museum.
The assertion of the University of California that “only whites can be racist” and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ and Lord Chief Justice Phillips’ support of Sharia law in England.
A call by Georgetown Professor Jonathan Brown — an advocate of slavery in the Muslim world — that “Muslims in America should stand with Black Lives Matter” and the dropping of rape charges for migrant rapists and pedophiles. “Muslim Brothers” such as Obama’s and Macron’s entourage and a campaign of state-owned company Lernia to replace the “standard Swedish language” with a migrant-inclusive accent.
All of this can only be understandable if one knows the concepts of class struggle and scientific racism theory.
Nazism and Marxism of the 20th century cast mankind into hell. In the 21st century, their offspring welcomed a new Golem: Islam.[ideology] In my opinion, the followers of this new ideology are yearning for the triumph of a global caliphate, consciously and subconsciously. Subconsciously, because they need a doctrine robust enough to keep their superficial and feeble souls from self-destruction in a complex and incomprehensible world. Consciously, because due to public relations and apologetic abilities, only Islam, as a universal world system, will ensure their existence — albeit the miserable existence of the “capo,” but still an existence. Nobody needs them anymore.
A Red-Brown mutant inevitably becomes green in our eyes.
Alexander Maistrovoy is the author of “Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger),” available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

https://www.amazon.com/Agony-Hercules-Farewell-Democracy-Stranger/dp/151444402X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pl_foot_top?ie=UTF8
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Kipling

The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Kipling
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Taxes: tax his

This is from USA, but it applies in many places
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid…
Put these words
Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me
to my doom…’
When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Thursday, September 27, 2018

UN committee's mix



Friday, September 7, 2018

On Death Kahlil Gibran

On Death
Kahlil Gibran
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Many English Spellings and Pronunciations

The Chaos
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it’s said like bed, not bead-
for goodness’ sake don’t call it ‘deed’!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I’ll not learn how ’til the day I die.
-Gerard Nolst Trenité

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Once were Green



lastmanstanding


Talking of her here is an email I sent to each Green MP recently. Apologies for any threadjacking;
Subject: HOW THE “GREY BEARDS” HAVE DESTROYED THE PLANET
Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman that reusable grocery bags were a good idea as plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing back in my earlier days.” The young cashier responded, “That’s our problem today – your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right our generation didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So, they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day. Grocery shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-used for numerous things, most memorable besides household bags for rubbish, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school), was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have a lift in every supermarket, shop and office building. We walked to the local shop and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go half a mile. But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day Back then, we washed the baby’s Terry Towelling nappies because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 3 kilowatts ……. wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids had hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day. Back then, we had one radio or TV in the house – not a TV in every room and the TV had a small screen the size of a big handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Scotland In the kitchen. We blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We pushed the mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back then. We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then. Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s $70,000 People Carrier which cost the same as a whole house did before the “green thing.” We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances and we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pub! But isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?

We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off…especially when the “advice” is being offered by a tattooed, multiple pierced smartarse who can’t work out the change without the cash register telling them how much it is!
-----------------
RC
Thanks for sharing.
The baby boomers popularised the environmental movement. They were also far more connected to nature as a lower percentage of Kiwis lived in urban settings.
Today caring for the environment has been hijacked by politically movitated city dwellers born to a life of extreme privilege

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Testing Science Data

Beware those scientific studies -- most are wrong, researcher warns

Ivan Couronne
1 / 4

A skull made of sugar -- one of a large number of foodstuffs that have been associated with cancer risks or benefits, despite a lack of strong direct evidence

A skull made of sugar -- one of a large number of foodstuffs that have been associated 
with cancer risks or benefits, despite a lack of strong direct evidence (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)
with cancer risks or benefits, despite a lack of strong direct evidence (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/beware-those-scientific-studies-most-wrong-researcher-warns-164336076.html
Washington (AFP) - A few years ago, two researchers took the 50 most-used ingredients in a cook book and studied how many had been linked with a cancer risk or benefit, based on a variety of studies published in scientific journals.
The result? Forty out of 50, including salt, flour, parsley and sugar. "Is everything we eat associated with cancer?" the researchers wondered in a 2013 article based on their findings.
Their investigation touched on a known but persistent problem in the research world: too few studies have large enough samples to support generalized conclusions.
But pressure on researchers, competition between journals and the media's insatiable appetite for new studies announcing revolutionary breakthroughs has meant such articles continue to be published.
"The majority of papers that get published, even in serious journals, are pretty sloppy," said John Ioannidis, professor of medicine at Stanford University, who specializes in the study of scientific studies.
This sworn enemy of bad research published a widely cited article in 2005 entitled: "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False."
Since then, he says, only limited progress has been made.
Some journals now insist that authors pre-register their research protocol and supply their raw data, which makes it harder for researchers to manipulate findings in order to reach a certain conclusion. It also allows other to verify or replicate their studies.
Because when studies are replicated, they rarely come up with the same results. Only a third of the 100 studies published in three top psychology journals could be successfully replicated in a large 2015 test.
Medicine, epidemiology, population science and nutritional studies fare no better, Ioannidis said, when attempts are made to replicate them.
"Across biomedical science and beyond, scientists do not get trained sufficiently on statistics and on methodology," Ioannidis said.
Too many studies are based solely on a few individuals, making it difficult to draw wider conclusions because the samplings have so little hope of being representative.
- Coffee and Red Wine -
"Diet is one of the most horrible areas of biomedical investigation," professor Ioannidis added -- and not just due to conflicts of interest with various food industries.
"Measuring diet is extremely difficult," he stressed. How can we precisely quantify what people eat?
In this field, researchers often go in wild search of correlations within huge databases, without so much as a starting hypothesis.
Even when the methodology is good, with the gold standard being a study where participants are chosen at random, the execution can fall short.
A famous 2013 study on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet against heart disease had to be retracted in June by the most prestigious of medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine, because not all participants were randomly recruited; the results have been revised downwards.
So what should we take away from the flood of studies published every day?
Ioannidis recommends asking the following questions: is this something that has been seen just once, or in multiple studies? Is it a small or a large study? Is this a randomized experiment? Who funded it? Are the researchers transparent?
These precautions are fundamental in medicine, where bad studies have contributed to the adoption of treatments that are at best ineffective, and at worst harmful.
In their book "Ending Medical Reversal," Vinayak Prasad and Adam Cifu offer terrifying examples of practices adopted on the basis of studies that went on to be invalidated, such as opening a brain artery with stents to reduce the risk of a new stroke.
It was only after 10 years that a robust, randomized study showed that the practice actually increased the risk of stroke.
The solution lies in the collective tightening of standards by all players in the research world, not just journals but also universities, public funding agencies. But these institutions all operate in competitive environments.
"The incentives for everyone in the system are pointed in the wrong direction," Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, which covers the withdrawal of scientific articles, tells AFP. "We try to encourage a culture, an atmosphere where you are rewarded for being transparent."
The problem also comes from the media, which according to Oransky needs to better explain the uncertainties inherent in scientific research, and resist sensationalism.
"We're talking mostly about the endless terrible studies on coffee, chocolate and red wine," he said.
"Why are we still writing about those? We have to stop with that."