Rhinocrisy

I went kayaking on the Charles River yesterday, which entailed passing through Park Street subway station. Presently it is tastefully decorated with a series of Dove soap advertisements. This precipitated a conversation about the effect of advertisement on public space, and some anecdotes from me about ways in which people have “encouraged” advertisers not to shit all over every vertical surface.

Culminated with one friend’s comment (seconded) that such was the price to pay for living in a capitalist society (couched in the odious “if you don’t like it then leave” syntax).

This crushes my heart.

I’ve long felt that advertising is one of the most awful things our society has produced, aesthetically and spiritually. If we had eyes that saw in other ways, we’d see ads as pitted and covered in mildew, oozing pestilential slime. Their minimal justification – that they inform society about important, desirable new products – is outweighed by their other properties. An advertisement is an article specifically crafted by an agent to manipulate the desires of the viewer. This goes beyond the mere suggestion that one purchase their products. Advertisers quite consciously instruct us as to who we are, what we want, and why we want it. This IS the linchpin of modern capitalism. Base human urges do not suffice. They must be built up; the consumer must be manipulated to propel the market beyond its normal bounds.

As an iconoclast, anarchist, free spirit, destroyer and creator, I’m unhappy that we so readily acquiesce to this sort of mind control. Are these the ideals of our society, that we should surrender our will to wealthy men, so they might reshape us into fitter instruments for their benefit? Shall we be pleased by the paltry knick-knacks we are rewarded with in return, the pablum that we’ve been taught to love?

Never mind that it’s physically ugly, to boot.

I fear I’m going to end in a bad way. One day my mind will snap, and then I’ll be, running, running for miles until I collapse, gasping for breath and clawing at the ground, trying desperately to escape what’s all around me.

Some rumor is going around that Iran is supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons. Rumsfeld made a big stink about this. This follows in a long trail of absurdist rumors (like Iran was helping al-Qaeda out and allowed them safe passage through their territory).

I’m on the downward slope this week, and the world is looking very black. So I must resist the urge to call the people spreading these incredible rumors brainless cock-knobs. Instead, Juan Cole on the subject. It makes no kind of sense for Iran to be supporting a Sunni insurgency directed primarily against other Shi’a Muslims and a friendly government. It makes no sense when their goons are comfortably in command of the situation. And yet the stories persist. Makes you wonder if they might be leading up to something…

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go find something to strangle.

So you remember that one time when your mom made, what was it, German sausages with home-pickled sauerkraut or halibut cheek crepes or some such inedible dinner and we in a teenage frenzy of carb-craving hormones snuck down to the kitchen even as she and your pop watched television and how we cooked up that pot of spaghetti? And how I needed to get it to the sink and strain it and that worked and then we were going to mix it with sauce and somehow I knocked something into somewhat and the ensuing crash could be heard across town lines? Do you remember what you said as you ran on tip-toes to your folks sitting in the parlor? Yes, you do: “Everything…is under…control.”

Which is exactly what I thought when I read this.

Jesus, this blog has been dark lately. But rather than go kill myself out of despair, I’m going to lighten the mood with some cute animal pictures.

Observe this weirdo, the colugo. She’s native to Malaysia (or thereabouts – they cover a broad range in that whole Oceania region) and is otherwise known as the flying lemur.^* Colugos are arboreal and have a membranous flap of skin that allows them to glide astonishing distances between trees. Upwards of 50 meters! For some reason, this isn’t considered “flight”.

Taxonomically they’re difficult to place. According to some mitochondrial evidence, they’re actually close to higher primates, making them near relatives to humans just after the apes. However, this evidence is disputed, and other studies show that colugos should be an outgroup to primates. Meanwhile, morphological studies suggest they’re related to bats. Aggravating, isn’t it?

I am about to be ungainfully unemployed and flailing for interesting projects. (I guess I’m not qualified to work in a growth industry. I am thinking seriously about pawning my books and CDs and climbing gear and burrowing to a more overt dictatorship like Indonesia where you at least know the fricking rules.

Why would a hedgehog abandon the nation-ship that has nurtured him through his adult life? Because it is being run into the rocks. A few items of recent horror:

• A TV network devoted to abusing religious sentiment in order to manufacture new Republicans. (Their broadcast of this pornography is just one of their absurdities. Note that their top-billed station is this pack of lies.
• Fascism on the rise.
• My growing sense that everyone I know with a modicum of conscience is on psychiatric meds, perhaps to keep themselves from committing acts that are illegal to so much as write or link to on the Internet.
• My own gradually disintegrating sense of humor. What’s that? “What sense of humor?” Good question.

Some Congresscritter needs to read this.

JIM:   It’s incredible, because every energy supply model starts with the assumption that Saudi oil is plentiful. It’s inexpensive to produce and supply can expand to meet demand. I mean, whether you’re looking at the IEA or the USGS, that’s not necessarily the case.

MATT:  Yes. What’s interesting is that we’ve based all of this assumption on no data.

About 55 million years ago, after a long period of slowly warming global temperatures, a major jolt in the global temperature occurred over the period of a few thousand years. Why? Methane hydrates in the ocean warmed, releasing their trapped methane, which rose to the atmosphere, becoming a greenhouse gas, resulting in warmer temperatures and more released methane. Many species, in the ocean and on land became extinct; those that remained became dwarfs of their ancestors. (Earth’s residents at the previous super-massive extinction event which might have been caused by released methane weren’t so lucky.)

Why am I telling you this? Because methane is now leaking from the melting Siberian no-longer-a-permafrost. Not as much as when the methane hydrates melted, but then, we’re still releasing greenhouse gases of our own volition, enough to cover the difference. Oil is $66/barrel tonight and rising fast. If only this could have happened 30 years ago, it might have been in time.
Link

A friend of mine has a chance to participate in a discussion with MIT faculty on what sort of energy-related research MIT should be doing. What helpful ideas from the bleg-o-spore?

Saurav points out this soothing Economist article which suggests that we need not necessarily fear for the future because of high oil prices. They say:

Nonetheless, relief may be on the horizon, though perhaps not as near as consumers would like. America’s Department of Energy predicts that growth in Chinese oil demand—one of the main factors driving current price levels—will moderate, increasing by 600,000 bpd in 2005 and 2006, down from 1m bpd in 2004. And there remains the possibility of a delayed reaction to current price levels, as consumers, particularly profligate Americans, turn to less thirsty cars and appliances.

Nuts to that. Check out the EIA projections, including the figure to the right. Petroleum consumption essentially means “driving” – 60% of crude goes into transportation of one sort or another (planes, trucks, automobiles). We’ve showed a pretty consistent trend since 1980; in order to reverse the natural tendency, either (a) technological innovation or (b) economic contraction has to take place. There WAS a huge round of conservation in the late 70s that produced a drop in consumption. But it followed on the heels of a terrible recession. And we happened to have people in power who were willing to make the necessary sacrifices (like impose more exacting standards on industry). It was not a purely market-imposed correction.

Also note that the Economist suggests moderation as a result of decrease in Chinese demand growth, not demand. This is just plain stupid. If demand continues growing and supply does not (which it cannot), then, obviously, price will increase. Even I know this.

This could be it.

Light, sweet crude is trading at $64 today, on speculation that a terrorist attack might happen in Saudi Arabia (based on “credible reports” by UK intelligence agencies). If one actually takes place, one can imagine that the price of oil will easily cross $70. If it resulted in a moderate disruption of the supply chain… we’ll get to see how the U.S. economy reacts to a hard punch to the gut.