Scooter Rage - It's a mod thing

What is it about the general (generally stupid) public that they feel they have the duty to accost scooter riders and make motherly obtuse comments about our riding ability or behaviours? Not to mention moronic retards driving several tonnes of metal who think it their god given function in life to run you off the road because you sneaked ahead of them in a queue.

I mean for fucks sake if I was on a Triumph Bonneville 850 they wouldn't dare come near me.

Riding to work this morning at a round about a queue of traffic was banked up, my usual behaviour in this situation is to carefully pick my way to the start of the queue - gods sake, that's the reason WHY I ride a scooter. As I slowed scooted my way to the front a car in front of me spotted me and move forward and right to stop my progress, this just made me laugh because I simply ran the diagonal directly behind her and continued up the left hand side of the stationary traffic.

I glanced in the passenger side window as I cruised past only to see this haggard frustrated middle aged cow who's spent far too long sunbathing in her youth mouthing obsenities that I had no chance of hearing - her head was doing figure 8 movements with irritation at the fact that I didn't have to sit like her in a non-moving vehicle.

Anyway - the story continues. I stopped at pak-and-save for a muffin, they do the best muffins, great price too. As I emerged with my muffin, there she was, she was visiting pak and save too. She let rip with this tirade about how I ought to be careful - blah blah blah. I just laughed and scooted off.

***

I think it was Nietzsche that said the 'ideal world' is lie concocted to deprive reality of its value, its meaning, its truth. How can people bear to move through their lives with this collectively imposed ideology of mediocrity. Why should I want to live by the ideals of others, others that hold no importance or significance to me. I feel sorry for that woman, living her life with little more than the empty blandishments offered up via her motherly chastisements and passionless asceticism.

Ok, enough - I'm going to eat my muffin now.

A couple of post-scripts

Seems like nobody needs or wants Tamiflu anymore - " Thousands of doses of bird-flu medication languish on pharmacy shelves after the public ordered them in a state of pandemic hysteria – but never bothered picking them up."

Doh, wasn't this supposed to be the pandemic that wiped the fucking earth clean? Rush out guys, tamiflu on special at your local pharmacy.

Oil is almost $100 a barrel. Um... I think I mentioned a couple of years ago that by 2007 we'd be looking at $100 a barrel oil. Interestingly mainstream media are still oblivious to the issue, fascinated with pop-gun terrorists in the far north and Heathrow hotel All Black shennanigans. Before long NZ's answer to exburban redneck bogans and their soccer mom wives, "Straight Outa Riverstone Terraces" will be whinging and moaning about the cost of filling up the VW toe rag. The cost of transporting the kids to school 2 blocks away suddenly went postal. How the hell will mum with her 2 hour daily commute to her $35,000 pa job on the Terrace afford the weekly petrol bill?

And to think everyone thought Robert Atack (http://www.oilcrash.com/) was a fruitloop. He told us years ago to expect this... and there is more to come soon - stay tuned folks.

A Previous Comment

I did say it, back in February actually, that I thought blogging was pretty dull. As one might guess from the temporal gap between this blog and the previous, my actions are reconciled with my fingertips.

I think blogging is dull - I just felt like saying it again. It's had it's day. Please note - this doesn't mean I think all bloggers are dull, although most are, I know one that is not.

I've moved to a new more expressive, yet less precise medium. I've always been novelty driven - so call me shallow, do I look like I care.

I suppose I won't be able to help myself and pass comment as I see fit. However, currently I've stuck to minimalistic titles and left interpretation up to the viewer. Mostly this is where I hang out these days. You get the picture, follow the link.

Planet of Slums

Jeremy Harding gives a great review of Mike Davis' Planet of Slums - here is a snip:

Homogeneity, Davis would argue, is what late capitalism does: already a billion people live in roughly the same extraordinary way in roughly similar environments. Vast, contiguous slums are the habitat of the future for even larger numbers, yet the future looks more and more like it did the day before yesterday.

By 2015 there will be at least 550 cities with a population of more than one million.

Already this aggregate population is growing ‘by a million babies and migrants each week’.


The peak will come in 2050, when ten billion people, by then the great majority of humankind, will be living in cities: ‘95 per cent of this final build-out of humanity will occur in the urban areas of developing countries, whose populations will double to nearly four billion over the next generation.’ ...



On another front I picked this superb little article up from Antonio Lopez's blog Media Mindfulness.

Saudi Oil Production Down 8%

Matt Simmons, peak oil guru is on record as saying "once Saudi peaks the world has peaked" (End of Suburbia). If he is right the the Reserve Bank won't have to worry too much about quelling the volatile housing market with interest rate hikes - hyperinflation will be the wolf at the door.

Yet breaking news that Saudi oil production figures are down 8% for 2006 has barely registered in the mainstream (braindead) media.

The other day I responded to an "associate professor" (Jason D Scorse) who with all the critical analysis skills of my first year computing students, claimed peak oil was debunked because he spotted this article in the New York Times. "Sure looks that way from the available evidence. it's comforting that, yet again, the doom and gloom crowd gets it wrong." Scorse declares. To be honest as is typical in this debate, it appears Scorse is expressing an emotional response, usually associated with those that wish (upon a star) that life will continue "business as usual" @ 3.5% growth per annum. Anything that doesn't fit within the happy go motoring/shopping future as imagined by people like Scorse is just ridiculed and dismissed with lashings of fuckwittery that all 1st year philosophy students would see through immediately.

It's lucky Associate Professor Scorse isn't one of those first year students - he'd fail his assignment.

Here is the guts.

To make the claim that peak oil is debunked you have to claim that oil production will continue to grow annually forever. In debunking peak oil one must necessarily assume that oil is an infinite resource. If Scorse believes that then not only is he a bloody idiot, but he probably shouldn't be an associate professor.

The debate isn’t about whether the peak oil observation is true or not. It is! As is evidenced time and time again with every oil feild, every country, every region on the planet that has already passed peak. Please check out the BP Annual figures for the empirical evidence supporting this claim. It isn’t up for debate. It is merely a fact.

The issue, as many of us have said time and again, is not if there will be a peak but when will the world peak?

And, it looks possible, if Matt Simmons is correct that that date has arrived. (Unless of course Saudi intentionally cut production)

If it is indeed so then the last pint in the pub has been consumed, and we are faced with scrounging around the cupboards for half empty bottles of sherry. And the drunks are brawling on the pavement outside.

Clueless Fuckwittery Continues Unabated.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued Friday argues that the effects of anthropological emissions on climate will be with us for 1000 years. Worst case scenarios involve millions dead and trillions of dollars lost, extreme weather, droughts, wildfires, melting ice sheets, sea level rises, hurricanes - roll out the usual suspects.

However those clinging to a business as usual fantasy still don't get it. NZ Business Council for 'sustainable' development - read that as sustain economic growth at all and any costs, view the report as "an exciting opportunity" what a pack of clueless fuckwits - this is like arguing complete and utter chaos and anarchy is an exciting opportunity for looters, thugs or, freely accessible Rohypnol an exciting opportunity for sexual predators.

The Business Council for Sustainable Development says "a gloomy attitude towards climate change is not helpful". Oh dear me, somebody should tell those pesky scientists that reports like this just ain't good for business. Can they please tart up the message or at least hire Satchi to market the report with a positive spin.

Responses such as this just go to show how much the gap between science and popular culture has grown. We live in a world where personal success is determined by how much money you have, or how big your car or house is. Where technology like the calvalry will come to our rescue, where "they" will come up with something "won't they". Opportunity and sustainability have been hijacked by those seeking to increase their wealth out of others misfortune.

Far Quitery Knows No Bounds.
or, please do not post pointless points in my comments

The biggest flaw of the pseudo-philosophy called "objectivism" is that its principle tenents are a priori inalienable self-evident truths. Essentially this is a necessary condition for the belief that any particular act is objectively right or wrong. Additionally not helping the cause is the fact that the dogma is overly represented by juvenille pimply faced boys whom after discovering it promptly annoint themselves all knowing rational pedants ready to comment (logically of course) on everything and anything.

Now, I like to think of myself as a philosopher, but unlike Paris Hilton I don't always go out wearing my makeup. Generous helpings of narrative bullshit, satire, illogical mutterings, irrational polemic piffle, and off the cuff thoughts and notions is all wonderful stuff. Living your life with the stupid attitude that prompts you to attempt to logify every sentence you write or utter is about as boring and pointless as it gets.

The reductio of this position is inherent in this little gem by Kane Bunce. Now I don't know much about Mr Bunce other than what can be gleaned by his posts (and his occasional comments on various blogs) but by a strange paradoxical reason that just occurred to me governmental control is most certainly needed such that utter fuckwits like this don't get to make any decisions about matters of public and private good. Bunce is a cartoon of his own ideology. His ridiculous comments policy stands against everything his ideology stands for.

For your amusement I have assembled a brief selection of quotes from Mr Bunce.

• "Why is it that Iran and North Korea are merely considered rogue states? Both are more than rogue states. They are a threat to the West. Western nations should pull out of Iraq and send their troops to these two countries instead. ... And while they are at it why not deal to Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon?" (get in touch with the redneck within) These people are terrorists and the world would be a safer place without them, were gonna bring these suckers to justice!!!
  
  
• "To teach a child, or an adult for that matter, that they have a responsibility to others will lower their mental health not raise it" What lower it below their nose, or below their crotch?
  
  
• "No person has any responsibility to others" Oh, I wish I could apply this to my son sometimes.
  
• "Is the extinction of great white sharks a travesty for humanity? No, I don't think it is. It is not a species we rely on to survive, so it is no travesty to humanity." It's just lucky we NZers rely so heavily on the kiwi.
  
• "And he said a world without tigers would not be worth living in. Clearly he values tigers above humans." I think I might be overly valuing porn and alcohol.
  
• "And as the science gets older it gets safer, like all scientists" It's just a shame the chemist that developed thalidomide wasn't 85.
  
• "So we here in New Zealand will receive local cooling, which is contrary to global warming" Oh, this science obviously isn't old enough yet! What a relief.
  

nb. I think free speech is overated - therefore I have comment moderation turned on - I do not have a comments policy - I just make it up as I go along. I reject capitalism per se as a farce and a joke nevertheless I have little option but to participate in it - however I can think of better ideas, I have issues with democracy just because a majority of individuals believe something, it does not necessarily follow that it is either true or good. And I certainly do not believe in a fundamentalist approach to private property rights. That is overall I typically disagree with capitalism's consequentialist approach to ethics, in favour of perhaps a combo of deontological and virtue or character based approaches. Sometimes the ends never justifies the means. And if you disagree with that, well, you simply aren't thinking about it.

Peak Oil and Mirage Realism
PowerLess NZ Press Release. 13 April, 2005

Realism is the philosophical notion that what our scientific theories tell us about the world are more or less, or approximately true. Scientific theories are generally considered to be the pinnacle of human knowledge. Although ultimately fallible and always up for revision the scientific method for discovering knowledge has, certainly in the West been shown to be instrumentally reliable. If the “realist” gets ill, the “realist” is more likely to visit a medical doctor than a soothsayer or faith healer.

Normatively then we might argue at least that being a realist is a position one might hold if one believes that the knowledge forwarded by our best theories is approximately true. This claim presupposes that we look toward science for answers to questions we might have about the natural world. To some extent being a realist is a matter of pragmatics. Panglosian arguments held by politicians and economists may serve to comfort us but such reassurances rarely stand up to logical scrutiny, natural laws or scientific evidence.

Optimists amongst us are plentiful, and their reassurances are familiar however, merely wishing or hoping something to be true, particularly in the face of evidence to the contrary, doesn’t make it true. We might call this position “mirage realism”. We explain and present two examples but first some background.

Oil production worldwide is close to peaking. That is, we are close to the point where the all time maximum amount of oil can be pumped from the ground. After this point it is expected that oil production will decline at a rate between 3% and 7% per annum (suggested by the empirical evidence provided from existing oil fields that are already in decline). The evidence for “peak oil” as it is called is indisputable. Oil production in a variety of regions and states that are now in decline can be predictably graphed as a bell shaped curve. The first significant example was when the United States peaked in 1971. More recently the North Sea, with Norway close at its heels have peaked and are in permanent decline. Collectively the world will follow soon.

A prominent mirage realist to emerge in recent weeks is Larry Baldock, transport spokesperson for the United Future NZ party. Mr Baldock proudly announced his plans to lay asphalt in the form of a big wide double laned freeway from Kaitaia to Invercargill. Either Larry Baldock is ignorant to the issue of peak oil, an issue that the prestigious Deutsche Bank argued last December ought to be of primary concern to forward looking politicians and company chiefs, or he is wishing it will simply go away. His ignorance does not excuse his culpability but to the mirage realist bullshit is bitumen – sadly under the spectre of peak oil a single cent spent on such a project is an investment in an infrastructure that has no future. We suggest a name change for Baldock’s party. United No Future.

Yet another mirage realist to stick his neck out this week was National’s Bryan Sinclair, Special Advisor to Don Brash leader of the opposition. We think Don Brash ought to consider seriously any future advice from Mr Sinclair given this comment in an email exchange on the subject of peak oil.

…we would be happy to receive any material (from you or from anybody else) suggesting that the forms of alternative energy that are developed (and there are obviously a number of these, already in development, including solar powered road vehicles and hydrogen powered road vehicles, but two examples) will somehow reduce the need for proper roading.

(Bryan Sinclair, April 2005)

We can only assume Mr Sinclair has decided not to participate in our knowledge society (at least certainly not the knowledge society that is predicated by any received rendering of logic).

Consider the following. Given that spaghetti junction is already gridlocked (every rush hour) with internal combustion engine vehicles, and Mr Sinclair seems to be arguing that either a demand or supply reduction in oil would not reduce the requirement for building more roads it follows that if we do not build more roads, spaghetti junction will become gridlocked with hydrogen and/or solar powered vehicles. Mr Sinclair’s mirage realism seems to extend to the ridiculous myth that the endless expansion of global economies is physically possible. Sinclair seems confident that human ingenuity combined with market forces will meet any forthcoming energy crunch or environmental emergency.

The futuristic scenario from mirage realist Bryan Sinclair will never occur because the energy equation for both hydrogen and photovoltaic solar cells results in marginal if not negative net energy returns. It takes more oil equivalent energy to make a solar cell than the cell ever returns in its lifetime. Hydrogen requires large amounts of natural gas, which we are currently running out of.

The demand for roads is directly connected to oil and the internal combustion engine. Less oil will result in less demand for roads. As oil becomes expensive and scarce and as we experience shortages, much to the National Party’s dismay cars will disappear from roads.

The godfather of mirage realism has to be the International Energy Agency (IEA) whom in the face of recent prices near US$60 a barrel oil, claims by OPEC that they are pumping at capacity, evidence that the mighty Saudi Arabian fields are peaking still hope and wish that oil will peak in 2037.

However just in case, the IEA are preparing a special report due to be released in a week or two that aims to prepare member nations (which includes NZ) about the need for urgent and extreme energy conservation measures if the worlds oil supply is disrupted or reduced by one to two million barrels per day (we currently consume 84 million barrels per day). Such bizarre measures suggested by the IEA include bans on privately owned motor vehicles, reduction of the working week and imposition of lower speed limits.

New Zealand’s energy minister, the Hon Trevor Mallard, currently frantically keen to comply with the IEA’s strategic 90 reserve day requirement by building dozens more oil storage silos will want to seriously consider the IEA’s latest report since he will be the one breaking the news to New Zealanders that “Carless Days” is not a Mexican folk singer.

Steve McKinlay
for PowerLess NZ