Could this be how it all ends?

5-90 said:
Did you know that a large group of crows is called a "murder?"

Food for thought...

Forgot to ask - can you scan the original? I'd like to read it, but I don't get GQ...
I'll either get it scanned in for you or re-type it. The scanner tends to kick my tail on a regular basis... ;)
 
Now that I've seen another point (I'd rather read the whole thing than an excerpt - so I just scanned the excerpt...) something else comes to mind...

Note the increase in frequency of attacks on hikers as well - by bobcats, mountain lions, bears, what-have-you.

Plot that trend against human world population. Hell - we're up to, what, almost seven billion souls now?

And I've been saying this rock has been getting overcrowded for the last 15-20 years or so... This only serves to help prove that point.
 
Here's a link to a somewhat more organized "review" of the article. I'm still working on getting a transcript of it online somewhere. GQ doesn't even have it on their website. And for that I hate them...:D
Commentary
 
Hm. I'd still like to read the original, if/when you get a chance.

However, I'm inclined to think this "increasingly aberrant" behaviour is caused largely by the overpopulation of H. sapiens on this mud ball, and the constant encroachment of H. sapiens on the territory of wildlife. I still think it would be instructive to plot "aberrant activity" against "human population trends" and see what comes up.

It's like when AIDS came about in the 1980's - we were starting to get overpopulated then. It was Nature's way of "cleaning house" - come up with a fatal disease that is transmitted by the act of indiscriminate procreation in an attempt to reduce the birth rate. AIDS didn't work - so now it's "when animals attack." I call it Nature trying to balance the book.

I find some small truth in Agent Smith's monologue in the first Matrix movie, wherein we were compared to virii. Of all the species on Earth, we're the only ones who don't achieve a "balance" with available resources (among the higher life forms - chordata would be the taxonomic cut-off point, I think.) Virii & bacteria exhibit similar behaviour - mainly due to a lack of intelligence. We're too smart for our own good - "we're so smart, we're dumb."

The solution is quite simple, but no-one will come out and say it. We need to achieve negative population growth, as a planet, for about fifty years. Get global population back down under four billion, and we should achieve balance.

I recall a logistical exercise a group of us did when I was in high school. "Assume that the Earth's resources are finite. (They are.) What would be the population of H. sapiens that would be in the greatest balance with available resources, assuming no alternate territory (undersea habitats, space colonisation, terraformed planets) presents itself? Prove your answer."

I wish I could find that paper we wrote, but a detailed analysis of resources at the time showed that we were already overcrowded at the time in a logistical sense (this was ca. 1988.) "Balance population" was determined to be 3.75-4.25 billion people - and we were already upwards of 4.5 billion.

This was taking into account not just logistical factors (food supply, water, housing, &c.) but also psychological factors - the need for "space" among adult humans. Overcrowding need not be merely reflected in resource shortages.

How much farther will we go before people attacking people for no good reason becomes commonplace? Who is to say that serial killers, for the last 20-25 years, haven't been yet another attempt by Nature to "balance the books?"

Damn global warming - if we keep breeding like virii, the race won't be around long enough to deal with global warming anyhow. Meanwhile, we should probably all acquire a taste for Soylent Green...
 
Bringing back an oldie here with a few links. Sorry 5-90, still no scan or transcript. I tore out the pages to scan then delayed and lost them long ago...I'm contemplating ordering a copy of the magazine again, or even seeing if you can order back copies of individual articles. We shall see.

Also, thank Beej for translating my jumbled ugly block of letters into a decent paragraph. :D

http://teawithlemon.blogspot.com/2008/01/rib-it-possibly-plotting-revolution.html

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25822/newsDate/2-Jul-2004/story.htm

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1097676540403B234

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/n....php/Beaver_attacks_swimmers_in_Swedish_river <-------A frickin beaver attack?!

http://stevereads.blogspot.com/2008/01/in-penny-press.html <-----May be a repost from earlier in the thread.
 
Hmmm. Been seeing a lot of crows in groups recently. I wonder.....

At least we're far enough inland to avoid the giant atomic lobsters.
Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, which uses ocean water for cooling, is only like 75 miles from me :( I'm screwed.
 
I guess it was the elephant feeling a little "horny" for change...

kastein, it's been nice knowing you. Hopefully the giant atomic lobsters will be kind and kill you quickly rather than a slow excruciatingly painful death...;)
 
This is why animals should have no rights and should be kept in cages. Down with PITA.
Hey I like PITA.
PITA is a double layered flat or pocket bread, I think you mean PETA which stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"
Or as I call it
PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS...
sixer
 
Last edited:
The world is ending...in the West, honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate...no bees, no crops...

In the East, bats are disappearing fast...expected to go extinct in our life time...what do they do for use...kill (eat) tons of bugs...especially mosquitos. No more bats...don't go out when the sun sets...

Google it if you like.

And just yesterday...I saw a pig fly...pigs fly...no bacon...damn it!

But seriously...the bees and bats things...should be a concern...
 
I read a story a while ago about a woman at a scenic overview of a river with her husband. She leaned over to get a better view and up jumped a salmon, smacked her in the face with its tail, knocked her out and she fell over. After pulling her out they found she had a fractured cheek bone. Beware the Ninja Fish!!!

I would pay to see an elephant rape a rhino BTW.....
 
And just yesterday...I saw a pig fly...pigs fly...no bacon...damn it!
it's true. Just check the news as of this April, apparently swine flu.
 
Back
Top