Originally Posted by Tim Walker

My '58 cohort brother Scott has taken an interest in ancient Egypt. (Actually, his spiritual interests remind me a bit of Eric Meece). He recently returned from his 2nd trip to Egypt and sent me a cartouche. A cartouche is a small metal strip. The translated meaning of my name is on it in the form of hieroglyphics.

Scott e-mailed me these comments:

"Egypt was great. Lots of miracles for me. However, the number of guard towers and uniformed men with machine guns around is unnerving. I doubt Americans will be safe there in the near future."

I was there a little over 22 years ago, and saw the same thing, FWIW. To be exact, I saw machine gun nests on quite a few street corners in Cairo, with troops stationed in each one. I also found the sight rather disquieting.

...that if you hold a guinea pig upside down by the tail...his eyeballs will fall out?

Originally Posted by Tim Walker

...that if you hold a guinea pig upside down by the tail...his eyeballs will fall out?

Uh, there ain't much of a tail to hold, truth be told.

************************************************** **************

Originally Posted by Tim Walker

refers to a band of middle of the road stars on a chart . There are outlyers such as white dwarves, neutron & quark stars, novas & supernovas. Our sun is a Main Sequence star.

I don't care what you say, your guinea pig is still queer.

A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.

The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.

Is there a Swedish Guinea Pig Team (this assumes that Mr. Love's assertions are true) that could help? If there is any need for help.
Or, any wish for help (NTTIAWWT).

Originally Posted by Peter Gibbons

Originally Posted by Tim Walker

refers to a band of middle of the road stars on a chart . There are outlyers such as white dwarves, neutron & quark stars, novas & supernovas. Our sun is a Main Sequence star.

I don't care what you say, your guinea pig is still queer.

This guy is picking on a poor, helpless rodent.

Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.

The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.

Is there a Swedish Guinea Pig Team (this assumes that Mr. Love's assertions are true) that could help? If there is any need for help.
Or, any wish for help (NTTIAWWT).

Penguins and guinea pigs don't mix. There'd be bad blood and all sorts of awkward situations.

Originally Posted by Tim Walker

Originally Posted by Peter Gibbons

Originally Posted by Tim Walker

refers to a band of middle of the road stars on a chart . There are outlyers such as white dwarves, neutron & quark stars, novas & supernovas. Our sun is a Main Sequence star.

I don't care what you say, your guinea pig is still queer.

This guy is picking on a poor, helpless rodent.

Who's picking on anything? I'm just sayin'. :wink:

Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.

The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.

Is there a Swedish Guinea Pig Team (this assumes that Mr. Love's assertions are true) that could help? If there is any need for help.
Or, any wish for help (NTTIAWWT).

According to the March 2005 issue of Scientific American northern Alaska hosts a disproportionately high distribution of gays and lesbians. Makes you wonder what queer things go on around the poles (NTTIAWWT).

--Croakmore

Originally Posted by Croakmore

Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.

The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.

Is there a Swedish Guinea Pig Team (this assumes that Mr. Love's assertions are true) that could help? If there is any need for help.
Or, any wish for help (NTTIAWWT).

According to the March 2005 issue of Scientific American northern Alaska hosts a disproportionately high distribution of gays and lesbians. Makes you wonder what queer things go on around the poles (NTTIAWWT).

--Croakmore

"Beavis, he said pole. Heh heh heh eeeh heh heh."
"Yeah, yeah, Butthead, let's drill there, ehh ehh ehh ehh. Drill. Ehh ehh ehh."

Bill Strauss and Neil Howe 8 years ago, made a prediction of what society was going to be like circa 2005. When I read the predictions now, their predictions were distributing accurate, most predictions about the future are generally way off.

In the same book The Fourth Turning, they painted a picture of where society will be like around 2015.

By then the Boomers will be clearly in command of the institutions (The Presidency, Congress, The Supreme Court), the last Silents would have left public life years ago. The X'ers would have entered the midlife stage and beginning to become a presence in the institutions. The Millennials would have come of age and people will be hailing them as the Greatest Generation.

The structures like Social Security and the United Nations we rarely give a second thought now, will be either destroyed or changed beyond recongintion. There might have been a nasty economic downturn or depression which prompted a new economic deal for the Millenial generation. Taxes would have been made more progressive, funding for seniors massively slashed, spending for young adults massively increased. The incomes of Americans will be a lot more equal than today. The Millennial Generation

There will be probably be a lot less movenment of goods and people between international borders than today and a lot less immigration with Iron fence policy around the US borders.

The culture will be a lot more wholesome than it is now, the vulgarity that dominates media outlets like MTV will be a thing of the past. Old Silent titans in Hollywood will be retired or passed on. The new generation of Hollywood moguls will probably be the people who are now making films for companies like Pixar or directing blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings.

The vast majority of films that Hollywood produces will be G or PG films, R or NC-17 films will be probably banished to the low budget, indy, art house sector. A strict film and television code like the Hays Code would have been put into effect.

Society would have become more conformist and less approving of people having publicly outrageous lifestyles. Abortion will be discouraged and the Roe vs. Wade decision overturned. The gap between Males and Females will widen, that will affect a lot of areas from example women staying home to look after their children until at least school age and fashion showing off the differences between Males and Females. While I do not see a serious backlash against homosexuals, a lot of the more extreme homosexual subcultures will go underground.

Religion will have more of an influence on public policy than it does now and people in general will agree that it is a generally good thing. The political differences between Conservative Christians and New Agers (especially among Millennials) will be narrowed. Many Conservative Christians will switch sides from the Republicans to the Democrats and some New Agers will do the opposite. The political discourse will have turned away from the culture wars and towards outer world issues, especially issues like environmental sustainability and the shape of the emerging global order.

I might go on more about my predictions later.

If anyone has seen the 2002 version of 'The Time Machine', with Guy Pearce and Samantha Mumba, it raises an extremely interesting question: will we ever go too far with our technological advancement, and if so, how long will it be before we do so (and suffer the consequences)? :shock:

One could make the case that, ITO nuclear weapons, we have already advanced too far, as of 1945. If so, then the only reason that civilization hasn't already destroyed itself as a result is the very limited distribution of nuclear weapons capability (limited to people who were sufficiently afraid of them to not use them after 1945) - a factor that is ceasing to apply to the situation with alarming speed. If so, then look for this to be the 4T that ends (at the very least!) civilization as we know it. :cry:

Dear Tristan,

Originally Posted by Tristan Jones

Bill Strauss and Neil Howe 8 years ago, made a prediction of what society was going to be like circa 2005. When I read the predictions now, their predictions were distributing accurate, most predictions about the future are generally way off.

In the same book The Fourth Turning, they painted a picture of where society will be like around 2015.

By then the Boomers will be clearly in command of the institutions (The Presidency, Congress, The Supreme Court), the last Silents would have left public life years ago. The X'ers would have entered the midlife stage and beginning to become a presence in the institutions. The Millennials would have come of age and people will be hailing them as the Greatest Generation.

The structures like Social Security and the United Nations we rarely give a second thought now, will be either destroyed or changed beyond recongintion. There might have been a nasty economic downturn or depression which prompted a new economic deal for the Millenial generation. Taxes would have been made more progressive, funding for seniors massively slashed, spending for young adults massively increased. The incomes of Americans will be a lot more equal than today. The Millennial Generation

There will be probably be a lot less movenment of goods and people between international borders than today and a lot less immigration with Iron fence policy around the US borders.

The culture will be a lot more wholesome than it is now, the vulgarity that dominates media outlets like MTV will be a thing of the past. Old Silent titans in Hollywood will be retired or passed on. The new generation of Hollywood moguls will probably be the people who are now making films for companies like Pixar or directing blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings.

The vast majority of films that Hollywood produces will be G or PG films, R or NC-17 films will be probably banished to the low budget, indy, art house sector. A strict film and television code like the Hays Code would have been put into effect.

Society would have become more conformist and less approving of people having publicly outrageous lifestyles. Abortion will be discouraged and the Roe vs. Wade decision overturned. The gap between Males and Females will widen, that will affect a lot of areas from example women staying home to look after their children until at least school age and fashion showing off the differences between Males and Females. While I do not see a serious backlash against homosexuals, a lot of the more extreme homosexual subcultures will go underground.

Religion will have more of an influence on public policy than it does now and people in general will agree that it is a generally good thing. The political differences between Conservative Christians and New Agers (especially among Millennials) will be narrowed. Many Conservative Christians will switch sides from the Republicans to the Democrats and some New Agers will do the opposite. The political discourse will have turned away from the culture wars and towards outer world issues, especially issues like environmental sustainability and the shape of the emerging global order.

I might go on more about my predictions later.

This is a sensational summary. It's one of the best things I've seen
I'd really like to put this essay on my web site. Would you be
willing to finish it up, and perhaps fill it out with a couple of
sentences here and there explaining how you arrived at your
conclusions?

Incidentally, the only thing you wrote that stands out as something
that I wouldn't have written is that Roe v Wade will be overturned.
I agree that abortion will be discouraged, but a Supreme Court
decision is way to uncertain and political to be predicted. Also,
the abortion issue is going to be subsumed into a whole range of
biotechnology issues, including cloning humans.

Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com

Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

This is a sensational summary. It's one of the best things I've seen
I'd really like to put this essay on my web site. Would you be
willing to finish it up, and perhaps fill it out with a couple of
sentences here and there explaining how you arrived at your
conclusions?

You have my blessing in putting up on your site. I can get the essay finished up, it will take a while (one of two weeks). Mainly because I am busy in planning in moving from Bendigo to Melbourne in a couple of months.

Incidentally, the only thing you wrote that stands out as something
that I wouldn't have written is that Roe v Wade will be overturned.
I agree that abortion will be discouraged, but a Supreme Court
decision is way to uncertain and political to be predicted. Also,
the abortion issue is going to be subsumed into a whole range of
biotechnology issues, including cloning humans.

I came to the conculsion because I fully expect the Supreme Court to be packed with politically Conservative Boomer Judges in the immediate future.

Dear Tristan,

Originally Posted by Tristan Jones

> You have my blessing in putting up on your site. I can get the
> essay finished up, it will take a while (one of two weeks). Mainly
> because I am busy in planning in moving from Bendigo to Melbourne
> in a couple of months.

Take your time - whenever you're ready.

Originally Posted by Tristan Jones

> I came to the conculsion because I fully expect the Supreme Court
> to be packed with politically Conservative Boomer Judges in the
> immediate future.

Well, good luck with that prediction. Remember what happened when
FDR tried to pack the Court? We'll see what happens this time.

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com

Evenin' Folks!

Just found this gem (erh, that would be THIS forum) while surfing for some brainfood tonight and thought I'd join in. Looking forward to having some time to exchange a few ideas, here and there, with you Lot

'Night!

(Crawls back under rock)

Homegrown Democrat by Garrison Keillor (who did A Prairie Home Companion for National Public Radio. The book is probably too partisan for many people, but Keillor has a succint description of the 21st century economy:

"...reduce us to a low-wage no-services plantation economy run by an enclave class....

Michael Lind wrote about something similar, indeed, that in Texas there is a residue of this mind set dating back to pre-Civil War Dixie, with its plantations worked by slaves.

I liked this quote from the Economist:



"The words of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian economist of the early 20th century, nicely sum up the illusion: “It may sometimes be expedient for a man to heat the stove with his furniture. But he should not delude himself by believing that he has discovered a wonderful new method of heating his premises.”

Danger Time for America
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/opinion/dis...ory_id=5385434

Originally Posted by cbailey

I liked this quote from the Economist:



"The words of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian economist of the early 20th century, nicely sum up the illusion: “It may sometimes be expedient for a man to heat the stove with his furniture. But he should not delude himself by believing that he has discovered a wonderful new method of heating his premises.”

Danger Time for America
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/opinion/dis...ory_id=5385434

I read that this morning (in a link from Prudent Bear?). I think they're being too mild.

Originally Posted by Peter Gibbons

Originally Posted by cbailey

I liked this quote from the Economist:

"The words of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian economist of the early 20th century, nicely sum up the illusion: “It may sometimes be expedient for a man to heat the stove with his furniture. But he should not delude himself by believing that he has discovered a wonderful new method of heating his premises.”

Danger Time for America
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/opinion/dis...ory_id=5385434

I read that this morning (in a link from Prudent Bear?). I think they're being too mild.

I certainly agree ... in spades!

I lent my copy of The Fourth Turning to my mother. Afterwards I discovered she had circled key points with a pen.

We had a discussion. She was born in 1930 and has clear memories of the Great Depression.

Anyway, my mother thinks that the develped countries should do more to help the third world. I countered by saying that during the Great Devaluation the money won't be there for foreign aid. I asked her how much the U.S. Gov't. spent on foreign aid during the Great Depression, and she replied "Probably nothing."

Finally, she said that during the Depression "even the middle class was poor."

Her thinking was tempered by contact with a harsh reality.

Boomers have had no such tempering. Like the attitude attributed to the Plains Indians-there has always been buffalo, so there all ways will be-they have the uncouncious assumption that prosperity will last.

A few days ago, at a social for science fiction fans, a woman I haven't seen in months comes up to me, and the first thing she says is-"Are you working?"

(In other words, do I still have a job?)

I finally met the Grey Badger. We got together for coffee Saturday morning. It was crisp and sunny. I hadn't even known what she looks like, but her views were familiar from the web site (right, we discussed 4T stuff).

Happened to drive by a some new (and empty) houses while visiting the Santa Ana Star Center. I can imagine those houses sitting empty for years. The question came to mind-can you have a ghost town if there were no inhabitants in the first place?

Originally Posted by TimWalker

I finally met the Grey Badger. We got together for coffee Saturday morning. It was crisp and sunny. I hadn't even known what she looks like, but her views were familiar from the web site (right, we discussed 4T stuff).

Hi! I enjoyed the discussion. Pity the combination of sound track and busy-ness (paper to write - worked diligently on it yesterday after taking copious notes Saturday) cut it short.

Hope you had a good trip back. Say - did you call afterwards? I got back and had a phone message, head your voice and self-introduction, and knowing how my message machine works, thought. "Oh. That's one of the stored ones, an oldie. Delete!" Wrong - the oldie came 3rd. Hope I didn't miss anything!

Spot wants to sleep on my hand as I type.