"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin

(cut)

Let's see ... humans can adapt to live underwater, on land, in arid regions,
in space, etc. Unless humans run out of energy, I suspect that they will
continue to thrive. If humans *do* run out of energy, look for the cock
roaches and ants to fill in the void.

I can see a bright future...for roaches and ants. ;)

Humans though can live on land for quite a while (maybe 100 years) but
more difficult to live under water or up in space (maybe some months
at most).

The scenarios of destruction can be multiple, but it can most likely
descend into chaos and war due to scarcity of resources and/or
environmental catastrophes and/or injustice. We can see what's to come
by learning from the past...

A Recipe for Disaster?

Easter Island is the perfect precedent of what will happen to the
world--if we don't stop it on time. The most valuable resources are
being diverted into EXTRAVAGANT PROJECTS and WARS, while the REAL
ISSUES--environmental damage, injustice, etc--are ignored. The WATER
WELL IS DRYING UP before our very eyes. A recipe for disaster, I'd
say...

'The little spot of land in the middle of endless sea is more-or-less
in the same situation as our lonely little rock in dark cold universe,
and in the ecologically induced class struggle between "Long Ears" and
"Short Ears" we might see reflection of the escalating conflict
between rich and privileged states of the First World and numerically
increasing yet constantly impoverished multitudes of the Third World.'

RAPA NUI (1994)
reviewed by
Dragan Antulov

The plot of this film is based on the legends and historical
speculations about Easter Island in Southeast Pacific, the most remote
part of the world that was ever settled by human beings. Dutch
explorers, upon discovering those islands in 1722, found impressive
statues but the the local population, made of stone-age cannibalistic
savages, seemed incapable of erecting them. The movie tries to give
the explanation for this by setting the story few decades before the
arrival of Europeans. The island is so far away from the other lands
and that the descendants of Polynesian settlers forgot their roots and
believe that they are the only people in the world. Lack of external
conflicts doesn't mean that there aren't tensions within the community
- the society is divided into two classes based on racial features -
aristocratic "Long Ears" and plebeian "Short Ears". The class and
racial tensions has begun to escalate because of the population
explosion; the island is simply too small to provide the needs for the
people. Old and senile king Ariki-mau (played by Eru Potaka-Dewes) is
less concerned with those problems, because he thinks only of erecting
bigger and bigger statues in order to placate gods. His grandson Naro
(played by Jason Scott Lee) has other things on his mind, since he
fell in love in "Short Ear" girl Ramana (played by Sandirine Holt).
Love that crosses class divide happens in worst of all times, since
"Short Ears" like Make (played by Esai Morales) are less and less
enthusiastic about "Long Ears" rule, which slowly but inevitably paves
the way for brutal civil unrest.

RAPA NUI definitely belongs to the same category as multitude of other
films with strong environmental message, which used to be made during
the zenith of Hollywood's "political correctness" in early to mid
1990s. What distinguishes this film from those films is the manor in
which the message is delivered to the audience. Namely, filmmakers
wisely chose to set the plot in a time before arrival of Europeans,
thus sparing the viewers from "politically correct" cliches of evil
European civilisation destroying the nature. RAPA NUI shows that less
advanced native cultures, which are supposed to be more "in tune" with
the nature, can be equally or even more deadly to the environment than
their modern-day equivalents. What is even more remarkable about this
film is the fact that the whole story can be seen as powerful allegory
about the current state of human civilisation as a whole. The little
spot of land in the middle of endless sea is more-or-less in the same
situation as our lonely little rock in dark cold universe, and in the
ecologically induced class struggle between "Long Ears" and "Short
Ears" we might see reflection of the escalating conflict between rich
and privileged states of the First World and numerically increasing
yet constantly impoverished multitudes of the Third World. Unlike
other films that try to shove the Message down our throats by, RAPA
NUI successfully shows how greed, ignorance and unbalanced approach
towards environment can bring down entire civilisation.

Unfortunately, most of the viewers have to digest this message in the
context of plot, characters and situations that sometimes look too
cliched or simplistic, or simply out of place. One of the examples is
the triathlon scene, which looks like it was added into the film only
to provide some testosterone- filled action in otherwise depressive
movie. The writer and director Kevin Reynolds nevertheless manages to
keep things under control, helped by ethnically diverse and very
capable cast. Despite many flaws, RAPA NUI is a film that can leave a
strong impression on any viewers, and after WTC bombings, when the
future of our world seems so uncertain, this impression is definitely
going to be even stronger.

more...

http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote55

Timo Noko wrote in message ...
Remember that Finland's birth rate has been articially boosted for a
century. Especially during the fascist era there was a huge (20%)
bachelor-tax -- make babies or move out of the country. From 1990
even the officially stated policy of government and busines (=Nokia)
leaders has been that 1/4 of the native finns are genetically of
subhuman quality, not worth jobs, healthcare, housing, higher
education, or even as a breeding stock. Hence we have started to
import better people en mass and soon we'll have nice multicultural
scene like all em other countries..

I thought you were anti-immigrant, but I didn't get the point about
inferior Finns. Well, for those who are anti-immigrant, they must
realize we got something in common in fixing the problems of the
Thirld World...

Scandinavia went from being a poor emigrant place to a rich immigrant
place. Sweden studied America in order to learn what to do--and what
not to do--in the 1920's and by the 30's it was already a model.

On 2004-11-28, DonQuijote1954 wrote:
Timo Noko wrote in message ...
Remember that Finland's birth rate has been articially boosted for a
century. Especially during the fascist era there was a huge (20%)
bachelor-tax -- make babies or move out of the country. From 1990
even the officially stated policy of government and busines (=Nokia)
leaders has been that 1/4 of the native finns are genetically of
subhuman quality, not worth jobs, healthcare, housing, higher
education, or even as a breeding stock. Hence we have started to
import better people en mass and soon we'll have nice multicultural
scene like all em other countries..

I thought you were anti-immigrant, but I didn't get the point about
inferior Finns. Well, for those who are anti-immigrant, they must
realize we got something in common in fixing the problems of the
Thirld World...

20% unemployed (defacto) and they say we "urgently" need more people.
According to CEO of Nokia those (unemployed) are of inferior quality
(inspite of high education) and we need to give tax-breaks those
educated foreigners that are willing to move to Finland.

Scandinavia went from being a poor emigrant place to a rich immigran
place. Sweden studied America in order to learn what to do--and what
not to do--in the 1920's and by the 30's it was already a model.

Please. Sweden did not start mass-immigration until 1960. Wages were
3 times higher than in Finland (I was there -- as a summer-timer
immigrant laborer). Downhill ever since, now Sweden is poorer than
Finland with appaling third-world problems.

"Across its range, this magnificent animal is being poisoned,
electrocuted, blown up by land mines, trapped, snared, shot and
captured"

Funds to save the tiger are short; funds for war are plentyful.
Welcome to the land of the human predators... :(

Conservationists call for more funds, commitment to protect tigers

Fri Nov 26, 7:56 PM ET Science - AFP

HANOI (AFP) - A large injection of funds and commitment from the
international community is needed to prevent the world's critically
endangered tiger population from dwindling any further,
conservationists warned.

Out of the eight sub-species of tiger that roamed the earth's jungles
and forests 60 years ago, the Bali tiger, the Caspian tiger and the
Javan tiger are now extinct, while less than 20 South China tigers
remain.

"Across its range, this magnificent animal is being poisoned,
electrocuted, blown up by land mines, trapped, snared, shot and
captured," according to global conservation organization, the WWF.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...s_041127005644

Well, NOT ALL HUMANS ARE PREDATORS. Actually it may only be a minority
who are, so we must isolate them, punish them--and remove them from
power where applicable.

This man wants to save the snail against man-made pollution. Perhaps
this is the kind of people we need in power...;)

At One With the Snails

Sat Oct 30, 7:55 AM ET Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

By P.J. Huffstutter Times Staff Writer

PROTEM, Mo.-- More than 170 feet below the surface, Tom Aley feels his
way through a pitch-black cave, searching for a blind snail no bigger
than a grain of sand.

The air is dank and cold. Aley squeezes his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame
through a gap in the stone just wider than his thighs. Far ahead, he
can hear the faint sound of water trickling through the cave, which
stretches out for two miles. It's the underground creek that winds
through Tumbling Creek Cave, buried deep in the lush rolling hills of
southwest Missouri.

Along the creek, inside this cave he owns, Aley discovered what has
become his obsession: the snail called Antrobia culveri.

There is nothing else like it-- it is the only species in its genus
and so far, it has been seen only in this cave.

About 15,000 Antrobia culveri once flourished here. Today, fewer than
150 are left: Runoff from overgrazed pastures has washed sediment and
pollution into the creek's once icy clear waters, and is thought to
have killed off nearly all the snails.

Aley's attempts to keep this seemingly insignificant creature alive
destroyed his first marriage, cost him $1.4 million and consumed 38
years of his life. The dwindling snail population exasperates him --he
sees it as a personal failure-- but Aley refuses to stop.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ewiththesnails

....stuff deleted

20% unemployed (defacto) and they say we "urgently" need more people.
According to CEO of Nokia those (unemployed) are of inferior quality
(inspite of high education) and we need to give tax-breaks those
educated foreigners that are willing to move to Finland.

...more delted

Timo,

We have reached the same situation here. There have been massive layoffs
in the technology sector and I have friends with 10-25 years of
experience who cannot find jobs. The government, however, allowed an
additional 20,000 H1B work visas this year (over the previous
50,000/year allowed before) to replace "inferior workers." Inferior
means, by the way, expensive to pay (another example of doublespeak).

When the world salary structure begins to equalize and you no longer can
pay someone from India 30% of what you pay someone in the US, the US
worker will suddenly have become more knowledgeable.

Rick

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 19:49:27 GMT, Rick wrote:

We have reached the same situation here. There have been massive layoffs
in the technology sector and I have friends with 10-25 years of
experience who cannot find jobs. The government, however, allowed an
additional 20,000 H1B work visas this year (over the previous
50,000/year allowed before) to replace "inferior workers." Inferior
means, by the way, expensive to pay (another example of doublespeak).

When the world salary structure begins to equalize and you no longer can
pay someone from India 30% of what you pay someone in the US, the US
worker will suddenly have become more knowledgeable.

Too bad the downsizing of employment and salaries does not extend to
the executive types in proportion to what has happened to American
workers.

Have they finished changing $6/hr burger-flipping jobs to be
considered as manufacturing jobs, so that the stats look better?

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

Timo Noko wrote in message ...
I thought you were anti-immigrant, but I didn't get the point about
inferior Finns. Well, for those who are anti-immigrant, they must
realize we got something in common in fixing the problems of the
Thirld World...

20% unemployed (defacto) and they say we "urgently" need more people.
According to CEO of Nokia those (unemployed) are of inferior quality
(inspite of high education) and we need to give tax-breaks those
educated foreigners that are willing to move to Finland.

It sounds to me like Saudi Arabia...

What is good for GM...is bad for the American people, in light for so
many SUVs out there polluting and threatening others on the road.
Perhaps the same for Nokia?

Anyway if you got such unemployment, isn't it time cut down the
workweek?


Scandinavia went from being a poor emigrant place to a rich immigran
place. Sweden studied America in order to learn what to do--and what
not to do--in the 1920's and by the 30's it was already a model.

Please. Sweden did not start mass-immigration until 1960. Wages were
3 times higher than in Finland (I was there -- as a summer-timer
immigrant laborer). Downhill ever since, now Sweden is poorer than
Finland with appaling third-world problems.

Well, the problem in Finland seems to have more to do with
globalization than with immigration. Sweden is another story, which
may prove the failure of socialism with people who don't share the
values (immigrants). I'd chose neither route: neither socialism nor
globalization, but ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY (mostly through competition from
coops), providing more employment with fewer hours and cutting down
welfare. Of course, those policies must be implemented first and
foremost in the countries that feed the immigrants to Scandinavia.

Scandinavia has its own system based on low corruption and high taxes
that may work best for them. At least it can't be called a jungle, and
it's #1 in most world rankings. For one the hordes of homeless, the
crime, the dilapidation you find in America are not found there...

What else is an idiot to believe, that leaders of the world care about
the environment any more than their petty wars? :(

Petty wars? Well maybe the war of Jenkins ear but I don't think that
happens
anymore.

petty: Marked by narrowness of mind, ideas, or views.


So an opposite point of view or ideology is petty? Boy, you'll fit right in
here :-)

Petty wars occur when the real motives of a war are faked, so to hide
the fact that they remain good old-fashioned plundering and pillaging.

'I typed this message espically on a japanese keyboard because quite
frankly it sickened me the other day whilst in my hotel room i turned
on the T.V (thats not the only revelation) but it sicken me to what i
heard and I can say this until the cows come home The 2nd Gulf War is
nothing compared to vietnam and that is what sickened me i may not be
a racist or politican but i am a patriot and i respect my own and my
allies countries and the fact that a "petty war over oil" can be
compared to the sheer horror of vietnam and i want to close by saying
that it is un4exceptable and that this is the kind of slander that
needs to go from our lives not violent films etc.

I just want to display my point of view.'
Fox

Posted by TheFox on 04/28/04 at 02:12 PM

http://www.oddlotsirregulars.com/ind.../comments/658/

Petty wars occur when the real motives of a war are faked, so to hide
the fact that they remain good old-fashioned plundering and pillaging.

Now you're just applying words to a current situation. Booooooooo. No
attention span.

remainder deleted

Actually that's what I had in mind all along. While politicians turn a
blind eye to the environmental crisis, they engage in petty wars over
oil.

This is a picture of our leaders...

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders...tten/moai.html