One picture = 1 million words....

[Junkdrawer]

Background:

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes's first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flaxand papyrus cables of the bridges: Xerxes ordered the Hellespont (the strait itself) whipped three hundred times and had fetters thrown into the water. Xerxes's second attempt to bridge the Hellespont was successful.

And THIS is our problem:

At the Man vs Nature soccer match, the score is:

Nature: 10,000

Man: 2

and we break our arms patting ourselves on the back because we put 2 points on the board.


Don't get me wrong: If my boy has a serious infection, I thank my luck stars we found antibiotics. But, in the same breath, I'm horrified to find how casually the Beef/Poultry industry feeds antibiotics to livestock so they can squeeze a few pennies more in profit.

Kudos to Trajan and sofa king for bringing this to my attention on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2836438

[BlueStreak]

1. And re: those animal antibiotics, let's understand what that is about.

It is not about limiting disease in the herd. The farmers don't care about that because the animals are slaughtered before they would live a long life anyway. The only reason they feed them antibiotics is to kill the natural organisms in the animals' guts that consume part of the nutrition. The antibiotics mean that more of the food is digested by the animals, and that saves the farmer money. Killing those organisms makes the animals LESS healthy.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Arrogance, greed, and STUPIDITY will kill us all.

[DetlefK]

2. Oh, you dirty water! You like that?

[Junkdrawer]

4. And if anyone thinks polytheism is ONLY part of our dark past...

New Law in North Carolina Bans Latest Scientific Predictions of Sea-Level Rise

A new law in North Carolina will ban the state from basing coastal policies on the latest scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise, prompting environmentalists to accuse the state of disrespecting climate science.

The law has put the state in the spotlight for what critics have called nearsightedness and climate change denial, but its proponents said the state needed to put a moratorium on predictions of sea level rise until scientific techniques improve.

...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-bans-latest-science-rising-sea-level/story?id=16913782

[Ikonoklast]

5. "Putting Fingers In Our Ears" legislation never works out very well.

That damn thing known to the rest of us called "Reality" always wins out in the end.


I suppose only when a citizen of Raleigh can purchase beach-front property on the Atlantic Ocean without having to move will these ignorant science-hating rubes in their legislature see things differently.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Rulers who believe themselves gods battle "opposing" gods....

And it happend in past, too.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Or...as Ian Andersen put it....

So you ride yourselves over the fields and

You make all your animal deals and

Your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.

[GliderGuider]

8. It's ironic

The very intelligence and self-awareness that has let us understand how the the world works, has kept us from understanding how it really works. At least insofar as recognizing our role in it, anyway.

[Junkdrawer]

9. As time goes on, the positions you have posted on the energy and the environment forum....

seem less and less "radical" to me....

[GliderGuider]

10. To me too, unfortunately... nt

[Junkdrawer]

11. If we make it through by the skin of our teeth....

I GUARANTEE that picture will sum up how we're perceived.

On edit:

And THAT is being charitable

[Junkdrawer]

12. Take physics, for example.

Poor and mediocre physicists are comfortable in their certainty.

Only the best understand just how tenuous that certainty is - although, in my lifetime, that is changing for the better. Probably because that "certainty" has been blown out of the water so many times.