Saving the Dinosaurs

So, Detroit is crying because they are feeling the financial pinch and want Federal bailout money.

Tough.

I sympathize. I really do. Everybody is hurting, and the lure of piles of money is tempting. But what they want the money for is so that they can continue doing things the same old way.

Back in the 1980s, Japan started coming out with extremely fuel-efficient cars. Why? Because they saw what happened in the 1970s, and decided to prevent it from happening again. Detroit put up a fuss, trying to prevent the cars from being allowed in the country. Why? Because people were buying them! Rather than adapt and improve, their instinct was to circle the wagons.

Fast forward to current days. Japan retains their reputation for safe, reliable, efficient cars. Detroit continues to bank on large, inefficient vehicles it sells by waving a flag in their commercials. Toyota got so frustrated at Detroit's slow progress, that they actually lobbied for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards.

It shouldn't have taken a collapse to show this is what the world needed, and Detroit had two decades to prepare. Part of the problem was that unions were entrenched, and it is near impossible to deal with them. When automobile leaders wanted to cut wages rather than lay off people, the unions refused, necessitating a larger bailout.

The most vivid example I have of their refusal to change is Saturn. It was touted as a new, better way to build cars, and for a while it was. It got rave reviews from analysts and consumers. Then GM brought them back into the fold, and the rave reviews stopped. Now, GM has just announced that it will stop making Saturns- the car that was supposed to save Detroit.

What do I suggest? Let them die. Let Detroit dry up and fade away into history; the environment will thank us. It will be painful, I have no illusions about that. But I think the stimulus money would be better spent starting a new company that will begin where Detroit hopes to end up. Let us put our billions into hydrogen cells, or hybrids, or vegetable oil, or solar. It will only be painful in the short run. The long-range benefits will be worth it.

And it will be a great example for the future: improve, adapt, or get out of the way.

Don't blame them; they're only human

So, Pope John Paul II excommunicated four bishops. Pope Benedict XVI reinstated them, claiming that it hadn't been done correctly. Then it was pointed out that one of the bishops was a Holocaust denier, and Benedict reversed himself, and re-excommunicated him.

So much for Papal Infallibility...

Sexual Revolution

I don't believe in homosexuality.

But then, I don't believe in heterosexuality, either.

I believe we are merely sexual. The largest organ in the human body is the skin, and it is packed with touch receptors. Anything that makes it feel good will get a strong reaction in our brain. When you scratch a dog's belly, why do you imagine its eyes roll back and its leg starts shaking? They evolved to expect claws; our soft fingers must be amazing to them.

The same happens with humans. It doesn't really matter what the stimulus is, as long as it feels good. Just as smells evoke different emotions in people, different touches will evoke a different response. For some, it will be strictly heterosexual. For some it will be homosexual. For others, it may be omnisexual, or zoosexual, or different at different times in their life. It even explains fetishes.

I think we have traumatized too many people who didn't conform to our own narrow preference. It seems such a silly thing to worry about. Who is getting hurt? How is two people making each other happy an affront to you?

The world could use a few more happy people.

Bred In The Bone

I was recently involved in a conversation over at The Plaid Sheep (http://theplaidsheep.blogspot.com/) about whether or not our essence is immutable or variable.

One person suggested that while events may layer, or reveal aspects, of ourselves, the fundamentals don't actually change.

I disagree.

This started because of one of those lists with an admonition to 'be yourself.' That isn't a bad thing, but I pointed out that it was nearly impossible. I have different public faces for different situations. I have different moods. If I am to grow, I take each experience and add it to my body of knowledge. (And the only reason for doing that is to alter my future self, presumably for the better).

As we grow, we change. I hope I'm not still the awkward, irrelevant, obsessive teenager with insecurity and pretensions (oops- I just looked at the name of my blog). While some octogenarians have the enthusiasm of youth, not many of them do.

There are also medical situations that change you. Brain trauma is a notable one (Phinneas Gage is just the most noted example). Various disease and tumors and change personalities.

It is also possible for people to have an epiphany (think Scrooge), particularly after a near-death experience.

So while it is admirable to be honest and true to yourself, don't expect that to mean the same thing every time.

Engineering A Miracle

On Jan 15th, flight 1549 went down in the waters of New York. A flurry of ferries were on hand, and everyone was rescued with minimal damage or trauma. The media took to calling it a miracle.

I think that's foolish.

Don't the material researchers that created a plane that was strong enough to land in water without breaking apart get any credit? What about the engineers that designed an airtight craft that was balanced so that the front door stayed above water, and the passengers could step out onto the wing to await the boats? What about the NTSB that insisted on redundant safety features? What about the pilot, that spent untold hours training for just such unusual circumstances?

If god really wanted to save these people, wouldn't it have been better to keep the geese out of the engines in the first place?

Memorium

It was just announced that Patrick McGoohan has died, and television is just a little bit dimmer for it.

McGoohan did many things (including the movie Silver Streak, with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor) but he will be most fondly remembered for the series The Prisoner. It was an amazing achievement at the time, and remains thought-provoking and relevant. Overall, the series deals with the rights of an individual versus the government. In the late sixties, it reflected the growing social unrest. It showed automatic doors, wireless telephones, forced medication, and constant surveillance. Once outrageous, these are becoming more common.

That he had specific parameters in mind is obvious; there are only seventeen episodes. Neither the protagonist or antagonist were ever named, and things got increasingly symbolic as the series went along. The last two episodes remain one of the densest, most mind-twisting finales ever.

Rather than drag things out to satisfy advertisers (see the X-Files), everything led to a conclusion.

Here's to making a grand exit.

Auld Lang Syne

So I recently went trudging through the moors of memory. I had a friend that I haven't heard of in over a decade, and wanted to see what the mighty search engines could pull up on him. His name was Ragnar Miller, and we were great friends in high school. Then came college, and we followed different paths. Yes, there was a woman involved. I made the wrong choice as to which one of them I should keep.

To my delight, Ragnar's name came up- but by somebody else who had a very similar story. They knew him, had heard that he went into the Navy (which I knew)- and then nothing. He married a girl name Debbie, but I don't know more than that.

Is he dead? Hiding? Undercover? Pissed at the world? A woman? Colluding with our insect overlords?

If anybody has more information, I'd love to hear from you.

Until then... he is not forgotten.