The Earth Is Dying, and It's Our Fault!

The fact that the situation the earth is in is grim should come as a surprise to very few readers of this blog. Most people who (I can imagine) read this are at least somewhat aware of the environment (another assumption, since pretty much only people I know read this). The problem isn't you, though, it's everybody else.
I just watched a very good video on youtube entitled "HOME". It was a video (movie really) about the sorry state our planet finds itself in. Not just global warming, but over consumption, overpopulation, deforestation and a host of other calamities that the world faces. All brought on by man, and our (some times lack of) technological advances. Did you know, for instance, that it takes 13000 liters of water to raise 1kg of beef? I didn't (ok, I did, but not until I went to an expo here in Brussels where I was told). "That's impossible", you say. "Cows don't drink that much!". This is entirely correct, they don't. What they do do, on the other hand, is eat. Lots. This water comes from the crops that are grown to feed the cows. Agriculture uses up 70% of the world's water consumption. Scary figured, but we've got to eat, right?
Back to the problem at hand; you don't need to be told that the planet is in peril, you probably already know. The people who need to be told are the people who would never go out of their way to watch a 93 minute movie about the state that the planet is in. Partially because they don't care (the bad people), and partly because the thought hadn't even crossed their mind (lost souls in a sense, people who might actually be willing to help save the planet, if they only knew it was in trouble).
I want you to show them this movie, and others like it ("An inconvenient truth" by Al Gore comes to mind). I want you to tell them that the planet is dying, and something had to be done quickly, lest we all die with it.
The mantra that you should live in the now and appreciate life is correct. It's also, at the same time, terrible advice. If you only live in the now, with no thought to past or future, your eyes only ever on the present, then you wouldn't see what is happening to the planet. You wouldn't see the progression from bad to almost infinitely worse.
People need to know that the planet is loosing resources faster than we can put them back, and people need to know that there are things they can do, small things and large things, that can help make things right again. Examples of small things are: take your power company up on that offer for green power. Sure it might be slightly more expensive (ours weren't, we saved 25% by switching) but it's good for the environment. Another thing is: leave the car at home. Especially in summer (and especially if you live in brussels! for fuck sake people, it's like a zoo here!). Take the subway or bus or even walk. It's a nice day, enjoy it while you can. Before you know it, the oxygen content in the air you breathe might be too low (ok, that probably won't happen for a long time, but it's coming).
You could also consume less. I'm not just talking about putting down the fork (I'm looking in your direction America, you fat fucks), but also just buy fewer things. If you consume less, the world has to expend less resources making the shit you purchase. If we could recycle everything with 100% efficiency, consumption wouldn't be a problem, but since we're a bit low on nano-disassemblers at the moment, you're just going to have to buy less shit. I'm sure your existing TV is good enough. You don't actually NEED to buy a brand new car. There are literally thousands of little things you can do to make your planet a better place (if you're reading this from off-world, I'm sure there are things that you can do to make whatever planet you're on a better place too). Think about how you live, and what you consume, and how much waste you produce. You might not think about it, because you don't throw it away in the garbage can, but you do produce a lot of industrial waste by the things you choose to purchase. Vote with your wallet. Buy environmentally friendly stuff, if you have the option.
I could talk forever on this subject, but in closing let me say this: you cannot pass the buck on this, and expect others to do it for you. If we don't all get together and start making the world a better place, there won't be a planet left to sustain humanity. Please think of what you're doing, and think about the planet.

Call the cops on your neighbor, get a cookie

Try as I might, I can't keep myself from posting delicious nuggets from Bruce Schneier's blog. If your not reading it every day you should be ashamed of yourselves.
This current one is about the war on the unexpected. How citizens are encouraged to report everything that they see that doesn't seem right to them.
In this day and age, that basically means everything.
You really need to read this article. It is very insightful, and it gives further proof that society as we know it is going to hell. The terrorists have won. Shit, they don't even need to kill another person ever. We are already terrorized by our petty fear. Terrorists don't need to blow up planes to shut down airports. Just call in an anonymous tip, and you'll terrorize the travellers and authorities for hours or even days.
This has got to stop!
People, refuse to be terrorized! Refuse to believe that everything outside your own kitchen is out to hurt you. The world isn't as bad a place as people make it out to be.
Sure, people are assholes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are out to destroy civilization as we know it.
A bright example of this fear mongering (that was also linked from Bruce's article) is this campaign that you're supposed to call the cops whenever you see a parent holding a child's hand. Does holding your child's hand automatically mean that you're sexually abusing it? I'm going to go for "no" on that question, but if the societal tendencies today are to be believed, the answer to that question is "yes".
I used to think that people's stupidity was what would bring about the downfall of society, but I was wrong. It's people's unfounded fear that will ultimately cause the world to collapse.

Maybe if people weren't so dumb, they wouldn't believe in all this crap that the media machine churns out.

Welcome to the Service Ecomony

Apparently the International Labor Organization came out with something called the Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) report. It details the state of the union, so to speak, in the entire world with regards to labor.
The biggest sensation in the report, however, was the face that agriculture is not the biggest labor sector in the world anymore, services is. In most western countries, I believe, agriculture has been lower than 10% of the countries economy, sometimes lower than 5%, for a while now, but that's not necessarily true for the rest of the world. I think this is pretty amazing. To quote the article that I found this news in:

And thus passes a tremendous milestone in the history of our species. Farming, invented around 8000 BC, quickly dominated human activity and has so continued to for the following 10,000 years (give or take a few). And we even find that the tradition agriculture->industry->services transition doesn’t hold up globally. The industry segment simply isn’t big enough, so many workers skip to services.

Childrens' books are for kids

When I was a kid, the stories we were told were things composed by people like H.C. Andersen or the Brothers Grimm. In our story, there was always a vile and wicked antagonist and a heroic, albeit not always smart, protagonist. There was always some form of monster under the bridge that would devour you for one reason or another.
The tales that kids are exposed to today feature nothing of the harshness and cruelty that we were brought up with. Sure, there might be a dragon or two, but there's always a comic punchline. Fairy tales don't scare kids anymore, and I foresee that becoming a problem when they grow up.
I think that if kids are not taught, in one way or another, that there are bad things out there in the world that can hurt them, then they might go out in life wearing nothing but the emperors clothes worth of mental protection, and when they actually encounter the harsh reality that is this foul year of our lord 2007, they will be in for a rude awakening.
Note that this is not the same thing as teaching kids that bad acts do not have any consequences (that me and my roommate have several discussions about, and can never agree on), but rather that bad things can happen to (supposedly) good people.

Their only saving grace is that people today can't refrain for beating the fuck out of each other and killing each other in the name of something or other (most often religion). I realize that the generation before mine raised their kids with the TV as the babysitter, but watching howdy doody and the CNN coverage from Iraq are two very different things. Maybe the horrors of the real world can teach the kids that there are things to be afraid of when they finally leave the nest, but you have to get them to watch the news first, and last time I checked, MTV did not broadcast the uncut video of the hanging of Saddam Husein.