time comes undone

I am a long time reader of slashdot, and particularly the discussion comments. Slashdot’s userbase has reached a level of sophistication and saturation that the comments that mod to the top are frequently more interesting than the news story itself.

Recently I found this response to the recurring magical market thinking people employ in response to the problem of resource scarcity:

clipped from news.slashdot.org

Supplies of Rare Earth Elements Exhausted By 2017

Re:supply and demand - no real problem

The market doesn’t govern the physical universe. At all. The amounts of material and energy present on Earth are in no way related to the laws of supply and demand. The universe is indifferent to your over-applied, unfalsifiable theories.

Sometimes ‘cheaper alternatives’ just don’t exist. This is why your precious markets have never got to grips with spaceflight. The markets reaction has always been “Wait till it is cheaper” on the assumption that all technology gets cheaper - ignoring the fact that there is a physical constraint on what you must do to get into orbit.

The fact that the price of a commodity increases when it’s in short supply doesn’t cure the shortage or make it less of a problem; it merely allocates what supplies remain to those who are willing to pay the most.

Stop treating economics like it’s a theory of everything.

Yes people, the market can’t make something out of nothing! We live on a finite planet as I like to say. There is not an unending supply of ANYTHING. Why is that so hard to understand? This ain’t medieval geography. The earth is a sphere, with dimensions and boundaries. And the stuff that we care about is all in the thin upper layer. And most of that layer is covered in undrinkable water. Not very much stuff to go around at all, when you think about it.

I understand the cognitive dissonance surrounding this point, because once you understand that, you realize that the way we live is insane. We are gorging on an energy bonanza that can’t last forever.

I was recently watching a CNN panel on gas prices, and the guest expert said something shocking. He admitted that he doesn’t see any other solution to the oil problem other than a drastic curtailment of our lifestyle, with driving a rare privilege. He made all the other talking heads uncomfortable. I thought, “this is a notable moment.” Now even the people who routinely lie to us (mainstream media) are shrugging their shoulders and averting their eyes!

Right now, oil production is about 86 million barrels per day. Demand is about 85 million barrels per day. And oil production declined slightly last year [Source]. I’ll let that sink in.

We’re meeting current demand by a sliver, and look at where gas prices are. Just imagine what will happen when demand outstrips supply. It ain’t going to be pretty. Economic prosperity maps in a direct, inverse proportional relationship to the price of energy. Price of energy go up, prosperity go down. Price of energy shoot up exponentially, prosperity dives into a toiletspin. That’s right, a tailspin crossed with a shitstorm! A flaming death spiral of unmitigated chaos and desperation. Like Christmas Eve at Walmart, but worse!

One thing’s for sure. If society breaks down, I am FUCKED without Lasik! Just like Piggy in Lord of the Flies! I think it’s my biggest fear in life to end up blind and helpless in a post-apocalyptic world.

Oh well. Maybe Obama can sprinkle enchanted hope dust on us and solve this complicated issue! Or we can shed the greed and entitlement that’s poisoning our minds and our planet. There is so much fat to trim in our lifestyle. Literally and figuratively. Perhaps there is enough wiggle room in scaling back the gratuitous energy orgy that is modern living, for us to do so while sustainable alternatives are introduced.

Of course that would require self sacrifice, and as Ken Burns so eloquently put it, sacrifice and duty are two words we don’t know the meaning of.

Listen to this story about China from NPR’s The World yesterday (or read it). It’s about how China went from being a bike riding, pedestrian accessible, friendly neighbor society, to a car driving, subdivision-building monument to pollution and isolation.

While listening to this I was thinking “wow, this is a great piece of radio,” and simultaneously, “wow, they know how to edit this to speak directly to my bleeding-heart tree-hugging NPR-listening attitudes!” I think both are true.

China Urbanization on The World from PRI

The point here is that even a huge city like Beijing once thrived without dependence on cars, and that urban planners are trying to reverse gears on the wasteful design choices that have sprung up to support the car culture.

The quote from the teenager at the end is priceless.

Question: is there anything wrong with towers, shopping malls, hustle and bustle?
Answer: nothing comes to mind…. oh yeah, the environment!

Sha totally! Like, dude, where’s my earth?

Last night I was of a melancholy mood, and found myself listening to a long time favorite, Dead Man’s Will, by Calexico with Iron & Wine. It’s the last and best track from their collaboration EP, about a man promising his gifts away to his loved ones after he has passed. This inspired my own morbid thoughts of death and love, and I wondered, as the song poses, will the people who I love and haven’t told know that I do, when I’m dead and gone?

May my love /
Reach you all /
Please say it’s not too late /
Now that I’m dead and gone

Some of them have been told but don’t know, some of them know but haven’t been told, and some of them just have no idea what a gift they are or were in my life.

But wrapped up in the morose thought was the same awestruck feeling I sometimes indulge when listening to music so deeply satisfying and yet so unassuming — music that is perfect without trying to be. And Dead’s Man Will and so many others are perfection in song, and they fill my existence with value beyond measure, even as I contemplate whether it’s worth anything at all.

The way that I came to love this particular song is that a certain local hero and radio DJ named John Aielli plays it frequently on his show. Just a short while ago, I got into my car in order to drive home for lunch, and I turned the radio to his show. I was instantly arrested by the sounds of vintage jazz, and I didn’t start the engine, and I didn’t return that phone call, and I didn’t release my fingers from the dial. I listened and savored the sounds of something unknown and beautiful to me, and waited patiently to hear the back announce of what this great thing was.

When John returned to the mic to talk about it, he said, “So many things in life are so terrible, and yet there are things like that that are so wonderful … just divine. That was Duke Ellington and Mark Strayhorn.” He echoed the essence of my ideas about the soul sustaining power of music, that I had been thinking to myself not even half a day ago.

This is why John Aielli is so beloved here in Austin. He has a passion for music that he communicates with such a plain, unpretentious sincerity that it is infectious. It’s also because music is lonely without the experience of sharing it. At the end of the song, when both listeners find themselves sighing in unison, it marks a kind of mutual intimacy that needs no words. The radio DJ and the listening audience can have this kind of relationship; and having been a DJ myself, I understand how rewarding it is to play a selection that sparks that kind of connection, whether you know for sure that you have reached someone or not.

Today I have reaffirmed my personal promise to announce my appreciation to all who have earned it, now, while I’m still alive and here. So to John Aielli, I wish to say that you are a treasure and a joy. I will continue to fuel my life with the musical gems discovered while listening to your show.

In general, you can expect to hear a solid block of Christmas music on the radio today. Even NPR bows in to this tide of obligatory holiday programming. And yet, I noticed while driving around deserted Austin roads this morning that there is one holdout on the FM dial. The greatest radio station ever: Jammin’ 105.9.

While other stations take a more traditional approach to Christmas day, Jammin’ 105.9 continues to give us a steady stream of Paula Abdul, New Kids on the Block, and pre-jiggy era rap straight through the anniversary of the birth of our Lord. Cause nothing says yuletide to me like C+C Music Factory, Real McCoy, Positive K, and other one hit dance wonders of the 80’s and 90’s. I love the Jam! It’s like a party in my car®!

Please don’t mistake this post for irony. My love for 105.9 is pure, as Crystal Waters would say.

Sample a taste of radio gold by viewing the following advertisement:

The running man dance pictured above really just says everything you need to know about this fine radio station.

Join the craze.