I like to read. It’s a bad idea. I’m sure Fenris would agree. It confuses the mind with information and various viewpoints, removing the clarity and focus of my preconceived notions.

Recently, I saw an article in a magazine I read, called, “Learning from the internet.” The author is a respected venture capitalist, a Mr. Robert Metcalfe. It was in a special interest issue of Scientific American, Earth 3.0. These guys are environmental bull terriers, deadly. They always have “ their ducks in a row.”  (more…)

Build Me a Machine.

Technology is a mighty tool, a terrible master and a marvelous servant.

A gun is a mighty tool. People are the dangerous things. To attack an inanimate object as being dangerous is to engage in magic thinking. Our tools can be used for great good or great harm. 

The result lies in the hands of the user. A hammer can be creative or destructive.

It can be used to commit murder or sculpt marble. To take away all hammers is to make the world a somewhat safer place. The outcome is ridiculous. We cannot build an inherently safe hammer and those who would employ hammers must accept the risks. Perhaps a law to require hammers be properly secured when not in use would work.

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Magic Thinking

The pretty lady does a pirouette, and asks, “ Am I not beautiful? ” and what else can a gentleman say??

“ My dear, you look radiant. “

Radiant?? Hmmm I looked it up in the dictionary and saying she is radiant is a little bit of a stretch. Poetic license. Repeating what you saw in a movie.

 I am not Scrooge!!

 But this is an example of magic thinking. The ad man at Lever Brothers is trying to sell shampoo, and he knows that it will not make her hair “ radiant. ”

 That would probably be dangerous. And we all know that the ad is a bit over the top. If you believe the ad man, though, her choice in shampoo is the most important choice in her life, with her future success as a woman hanging in the balance.

 The ad man knows that if he can “ push “ her buttons, she will buy his shampoo.

 “ Buy my car.” You know, the one with the drop dead gorgeous blond in the passenger’s seat. Almost every car commercial is full of pretty women. What use is a Mercedes convertible coupe??? Picking up girls. Who said that??

Yah, right. If you believe anything else, you’re lying to yorself.

The saleswoman knows that if she can “ push “ his buttons, he will buy her car.

They’re all real people. That’s just human nature. Laugh Out Loud 

But, don’t be guilty of magic thinking.

If you own a convertible, don’t show this to your wife. She will not believe what you and the car salesman say. 

An ad man, a salesman, has his own agenda. He has a boss who keeps him motivated, who teaches him what to say to those awkward questions. The best salesman is, surprise, the one who believes his own pitch. 

Everybody is selling his own gig, all sincere as hell, and the way forward is muddy as hell.  

Where am I going?

The environmental movement is chock a block full of salesmen and magic thinkers. Just go ask Mr. Suzuki. He’s doing spots on the weather network to get the message out. Hmmmm

How can we move ahead ??                       Professor Bob

All At The Same Table

Been there, done that, got the bumper sticker. I’m on the leading edge of the baby boom and, like many of my cohort, I felt a need to sort out the environment, end the Vietnam War and ban the Bomb. 

The war ended. The Cuban Missile crisis, Doctor Strangelove and the JFK tragedy all confused the issues of the cold war and politics. Welcome to reality. The Yankees believe they are the protectors of the free world and, realistically, there is some truth to that. No magic thinking allowed. 

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Just Say No 

Sometimes it pays to be dogmatic, sometimes it doesn’t. . It is a choice. It is a tactic that is part of the various ways that people interact and negotiate. 

The father of a teenage girl says no to co-ed vacations. Period. The issue is closed, permanently, negotiation is not possible. “ When you live under your own roof!!” 

There is the default option. What to do when you don’t have the time to think about what to do. A choice made in advance. 

To a soldier, the default option when someone starts shooting is to hit the deck and shoot back. Hesitation could be fatal. Later on, you can refine the training, if your soldier survives. “ When the unexpected happens, do this. “

The decision to employ these tactics in our interactions is just that, a decision. We can decide not to go there. As tactics, they both lack the ability to be flexible, and adapt to new data and changing situations. The weakness is obvious in classical situations. 

The teenage girl says,“ Martha and Kim got their own place. They say I can move in with them. “ 

The reporter reporting on the war says,“ …And in another friendly fire incident…”

 Dogmatism and default options can damage your own cause.

Now, a quick change. A fictional meeting about the fictional McAdams mine takes place in fictional Dirkland Lake. Very quietly, discretely, incognito. The mayor, the banker, the barber and a few close friends. They golf together, curl together, fish together and talk. Their parents are buried In the same graveyard and their kids shop in the same stores. 

There are important guests. Their presence must be kept under wraps. The guests are the owner of the McAdams mine, the president of the fictional Wild Goose Railway and the mayor of fictional Hogtown. 

The mayor of Hogtown says that trucking garbage hundreds of miles is breaking the highways, and polluting the air and farmland. The Railway man says he can do a much better job of moving the garbage. 

The Mayor of Hogtown says that recycling only goes so far, and buying existing landfills makes the locals angry and leaves mountains of garbage scattered around. The owner of the mine looks at the mayor of the town and says,

“ What will we do if the environmentalist find out? You can’t talk to them and they can cause so many problems.”

And that’s their biggest problem. Hmmmmmm.          Professor Bob  

 That is so a couple of years ago.

 Yah, yah, I know. Brian who & Karl who? How much cash??

 Do some math with me. A number I recall, from the time, was $ 250,000,000.00, some legit, some mysterious.                    

 Some promoted Canada to Quebecois. Some disappeared.

 Exclusive of land, services and fees, a modest one bedroom unit in a modest apartment building in modest area of Montreal could have been assembled at the time, for, lets say, around $60,000.00. If you like another number, use it.

Help me with this, now. How many homeless people off the streets??

How many retirees out of cold dark basements?? How many?? 

How many modest brass plaques proclaiming who to thank??

How many permanent reminders to our friends and brothers of just what the rest of Canada feels toward Quebec?? 

Yah, yah, I know. One bunch is as bad as another. I agree.

G. D. politicians. 

So what’s broken, what needs fixing??                Professor Bob

I knew a lady, single, two kids. She is blond, slim, smart and good looking. She lived on welfare in No Dad City, up on the west hill in Owen Sound, in Ontario. I met her on a beautiful August evening, perfect for sitting with the neighbors on the patio, sipping beer, talking and smoking. I heard her laugh before I saw her.

Later, as the evening passed, we talked. Music, dreams, likes and dislikes.

She believed in the money tree. She thought that “ they “ should provide better schools, clean up the environment, provide “ good jobs “ and end racism.

She had been told, I guess, that with her brains and good looks, she would be a success. She was hanging out, going to school, volunteering, waiting to get hooked up to the money tree. Don’t ask about the man she married, right out of high school.

Maybe Prince Charming is supposed to have a Money Tree in the garden of his castle ???

All the politicians have one.

OJ got off and “ they “ put Martha Stewart in jail.

Hmmmmm.                         Professor Bob

Peel & Stick Light Fixtures

Sorry, but they’re not on the horizon. Unless you use a battery or some sort of broadcast power system, then wires and generators, and everything in between are inevitable.

Really, we are spoiled here in North America. The lights work, 24/7, 52 weeks a year, all across the continent. It takes a major malfunction to cause the lights to go out for long, or over a large area.

North Americans and Europeans use electricity for industry, food processing and preservation, transportation, and lighting. Without a moments thought. The professionals who make it happen are so good, we forget that they are there.

If we build a new house, we assume that we can hook up and turn on. If we build a new factory, we expect that the power to run it will be available.

This isn’t inevitable. There is no natural law.

And an electrical system is different from other kinds of supply system.

Water pipes can be topped up from water towers and reservoirs if the pumps are down for a while. When there is a break in the Superbowl action, the system can handle the simultaneous flushes, even if the pressure drops a little. Natural gas systems are the same. Fluctuations and changes in volume are no problem.

Within limits, you can’t store electricity. A very large system is more stable and can handle minor variations better, but within tight limits. There is no “ give.”

We must make exactly the right amount of power at exactly the moment we need it, Too much and the magic smoke comes out of your TV. Too little and the system collapses completely, within seconds.

There is a fine balance to maintain. And therein lies the rub.

Solar and wind and tidal only work when the sun shines or the wind blows or the tide is running. They will not serve as base load.

If they are not available, you must have sources available to step in; sources that come on line when needed, as fast as the wind drops. Otherwise, the system collapses completely.

Not like a water system. If the pressure drops for a moment, no-one cares. Well, maybe the guy in the shower, but no big deal.

Electricity is a whole different kettle of fish.

I, Professor Bob, wrote this.