Was It Something I Said Or Did I Forget to Take a Bath

Hi. I’m an Amoeba. I heard that the Rock wrote a piece in here about how great it was to be a Rock [Editor’s note -“This Could be of Biblical Proportions Or Maybe Not”]. I haven’t read it because by the time I had, I’d have gotten gobbled up. So, I’ll say my bit anyway before I get eaten by a brother (or sister – they are all the same – it could be a mother/father – they’re the same too. I just can’t understand Freud). I Amoeba, therefore I am. Gotta move on now. Can’t sit still or I a goner – ha, ha – that’s a pun, a little one maybe, but I’m a little one too. I just thought of a funny line, “Feed the family”. I must Amoeba on if I don’t want to feed the family, ha ha. (I’m a real comedian). But before I go, I wanted to say, being an Amoeba is just fine by me. Wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m off to meet my maker,  another pun or did that one fly by you too. They say the pun is the lowest form of humor and I’m certainly a low life, ha ha. [Editor’s note – I wish something would come along and gobble him up quickly (and in his case very very slowly) as he’s an awful arrogant little bastard, no pun intended].

This must be spring break – so many campers are staying through Monday. I’m not used to having any neighbors. Trail Dog is excited about all the dogs in camp. The wind is too strong to go out fishing. Golf carts are becoming camping necessities like a satellite dish and the boat. A little boat you can pull behind the RV. Either that or a trailer in which to haul a motorcycle. But for a bass boat you need another truck. Toy-haulers are popular with a their big tailgates, and you can use the space after you download the ORVs to set up bunks. I’m sure that up-north they use them for ski-mobiles but it was cold enough this winter in the south. For jet-skis you need a trailer that you can back into the water because you can’t drive them down (or up) the ramp. You don’t want to back your RV into the water.

We forget what we say much more that what we hear, what we write more than what we read, what we send much more than what we receive, that is why we barely count the insults we hand to others, unlike those dealt out to us – Javier Marias – Fever and Spear, 2005 p199

16% of American men pay for sex. 28% of the men who patronize prostitutes and nearly half of those who employ call girls are frequent customers. Two-thirds of the frequent customers repeatedly use the services of a particular prostituted more than 50 times. A quarter to those use her (or it could be his) services more than 100 times.

The new does not occur within time, true time is newness itself, the eternal production of transformation – Clair Colebrook – Gilles Deleuze, 2002 p63

In Latin American the informal (meaning – off the books) economy employs 60% of the workforce and supplies 80% of the new jobs. Worldwide the informal working class is about one billion strong. This ‘informal sector’ was not even on the academic radar until 1973. This informal workforce is not as some wishful thinkers claim, just ‘oppressed extralegal small entrepreneurs’, this is the rapidly expanding class of an ‘oppressed legal proletariat’. There is no mobility for this class. It is not simply a problem of redefining slums as “strategic low-income urban management systems”.

Women and children comprised 40% of the US manufacturing workforce prior to the Civil War.

Jesus, tell my father

          I’m wearing clean underwear

Tell him, don’t let me shout in vain

          Don’t leave me along the highway

Let my automobile go speeding on

         Without me

Jesus, tell my father

          I want to be among that number

And Lord I am constantly scolding the kids

          To keep their assets clean

The fundamental project for economics based on the concept of the individual is to rid itself of any actual individual

The best road to happiness goes right though Stupidity. Then turn left. It’s paved all the way. You can’t miss it. It a well traveled highway.

89.7 FM – Bluegrass all the time – this is Kentucky – Bluegrass country. Jesus – born of the spirit. Washed in his blood. This is my story. This is my song.

The other person is not just like us, with a few character difference. The other is another possible world of difference – Clair Colebrook – Gilles Deleuze, 2002 p83

Any solution that does not solve the cause of the problem makes the problem worse in the long-term – such as geo-engineering solutions for global warming and non-fossil forms of energy. Less energy, less pollution – that’s the solution. But who would buy it?

The city of Kinshasa with a population of ten millions has no waterborne sewage system at all. The slums of Nairobi have only one working pit latrine per 4,000 people. ‘The Scud Missile’ is one way of disposing of the waste. Put it in a plastic shopping bag and sling it on top of a building. At least they are practicing recycling. Less than 10% of the homes in metro Manila are connected to a sewage system. Only 17 cities in India have any kind of primary sewage treatment. Private sanitation efforts are encouraged by aid agencies. Use of a private for-profit toilet would cost an average worker 10% their earnings. That’s expensive shit.

We might … worry about whether mainstream economics can be about human individuals… One thing that we can say… is that mainstream economics has certainly been applied to human individuals – John B Davis - The Theory of the Individual in Economics, 2002 p42

Saturated fat consumption is not correlated with coronary disease risk. Unsaturated fat is, if thickening agents are used in it, as for example margarine. Eggs have almost no effect on blood cholesterol. There are a lot of erroneous food myths build into health recommendations because ‘industries’ have arisen around them. An industry is a vested interest. Expert advise generally conforms to the political norms.

Billionaires squaring off against each other isn’t remotely a democracy – Robert Reich

Infant males (both human and primate) choose toys that related to skill development for hunting and mate selection. Such toys as can be propelled though space and promote rough-and-tumble play. Infant females (both human and primate) tend to select play objects that hone the skills they will one day need to nurture their own young. This is the hypothesis and there is some evidence to support it. We come out of the womb with some cognitive sex differences built in.