Some of you know of the theory of Peak Oil. It says there is a limited amount of oil available, and that sooner or later we will run out of it, or it will cost more to extract than it's worth. There is a lot of complicated economics once you dive into more detail, and I don't propose to do that here. You can thank me later.
For years I've thought that we had reached peak stupid, and then someone would come along and say, 'hold my beer.' Then Donald Trump showed up and took us to new heights, or depths of stupidity. Over and over again. It's infecting everybody else, especially other politicians. Just about everything in politics right now is not just stupid, it's stupidly, insultingly stupid. A bright child could see through the lies and logical fallacies. More than ever I want to see 'none of the above' on the ballot. I dream of a real time fact checking panel controlling a flashing sign saying, 'liar liar pants on fire', and after some small number of lies the pants really are set on fire. Preferably on whatever the replacement is for live network television.
The news lately makes me want to hide under a rock. Way back in 2012 (here) I talked about the space aliens being in charge of network television because they like the taste of human tapioca brains. Now I'm guessing they are impatient, and have taken to politics. Maybe this is the high heat for a crusty finish after a low and slow barbecue session. Or maybe they want to increase the size of the herd. I can't help but think the harvest has to be coming soon.
As a digression, don't mind point 2 in that blog. I no longer love those social media sites.
Another digression. I just looked at the candidate list for my riding in the current federal election. So far the incumbent Conservative is the only confirmed candidate. Supposedly the Greens, and (ick) the PPC have a candidate working on their paperwork. As I've mentioned before, this is Stephen Harper's old riding, one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. I suspect we will get a Liberal and an NDP candidate, mainly because they consider themselves national parties and that means they run a candidate in every riding, no matter how hopeless it might be. I admit to wondering what the Liberal and NDP parties have to offer someone to run in this riding. So far all we've seen are big blue signs for the Conservative candidate. No lawn signs.
One wag has suggested I run, what with my 'high profile' experience on the local community association. It is to laugh. I do not want to spend the next 4 or 5 years of whatever time I have left, sitting on an airplane flying to meetings where lots of hot air is the best that can be hoped for.
Another digression, and a joke for you. A group of people get together for a meeting. Assuming you know each individual person's IQ, how do you calculate the IQ of the group? The best case is to take the highest individual IQ and divide it by the number of people in the group. At worst it is the Nth root of the highest IQ in the group, where N is the number of participants.
Which leads to the observation that nobody really knows what the various IQ tests are measuring, or how valid they are. The last thing on this topic is that if you have to tell people that you're a stable genius, or a tough negotiator, you are not.
This seems to me to be a good illustration of what has happened to schools of political thought.
Of the Day
Driftwood (NZ)
That tiny little dot off in the distance might be Linda.
Film
I've been watching Mythbusters lately, and this looks like something after one of their episodes.
Linda
Newfoundland
Polar bears
Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did
90 days, or so ago
You might recognize these rocks from late Feb.