Colony Collapse Syndrome: are we feeling it begin for us?

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Friday, August 30, 2024 14:46
VIEWED: 3256
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CHRISISALL

Sunday, February 25, 2007 7:27 PM

Bees. Are they our 'canary in the mine shaft' for the 21st century?
http://www.localnews8.com/story.cfm?nav=ne...mp;storyID=1026

Been wondering, as I have, why businesses and government seems to be run like s**t lately?
Computerization. Information Overload might be another cause of ADHD, or is it just the straw for it? So much at our fingertips, and so little time to process it all. What used to be in the turn of a page is now in a file in a sub-file in an access-limited, pass-worded, maze of letters and numbers.
Ever see Johnny Mnemonic? Are we getting this disease for real? Is autism on the rise, or just it's diagnosis?

Question for the adults (not the little kids born after Star Wars came out): didn't things work better pre-computer?

Another factor: competition. It's good, right? But not if you're out to KILL. Profit is not limitless. Profit means someone, somewhere is losing a little. Usually it's an entirely tollerable loss. But after 911, it seems to me businesses have become insanely fixed on maximizing profit- to the extent of nearly cutting their own throats. Profit cannot be held in higher regard than longevity. But longevity is falling out of the picture in so many places. One big fat fish in a pond can enjoy it's victory only for a limited time....

Is our hive in danger?

Curiousisall

SUCCATASH

Sunday, February 25, 2007 7:51 PM

"Gott kann dich nicht vor mir beschuetzen, weil ich nicht boese bin."

CANTTAKESKY

Monday, February 26, 2007 1:47 PM

Oh another good thread. You're just the threadmaster!

Don't stone me, but I'm gonna toss out something that sounds like a baaaaad sci-fi movie. You know the govt had experimented with MKUltra and mind control, right? Well, way back when, they also did animal studies on controlling minds through direct electrical stimulation. They got so far as being able to turn a nurturing mother monkey into a stone-cold stranger to her own baby by stimulating a certain part of the brain. Stimulating another part got a monkey to engage in a complex pattern of meaningless behavior over and over again.

So here is the baaaad sci-fi movie part. What if they have progressed to being able "stimulate" people's buying behavior? What if they are now able to do it wirelessly? What if "they" is not govt, but some private hi-tech "advertising" firm?

I've been reading a lot about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the human body. There is actually quite a bit of research done on this, and quite a bit of documentation that EMR's put a hidden stress on our immune systems. I hypothesize that a good number of our immune dysfunction diseases, including autism, might be related to the overexposure to EMRs. One recent Cornell study actually found a correlation between TV watching and autism. Now that isn't proof, and we are far from getting proof of actual EMR harm on humans. But it's an interesting research direction, I think.

OK, baaad sci-fi movie aside, it is no wonder that with the barrage of advertising and a general fierce consumer culture that we would constant think about things we want to buy. But it isn't just individuals--it is our govt too, which is spending on credit just as badly as a credit card addict. Our country is probably at a point where we can barely make the minimum payments, where we're only paying on the interest of our huge deficit, and drop nothing toward the principal. It is just a matter of time before we become completely enslaved by our debtors if our govt keeps spending this way.

Oh, completely off-topic: did you see that Ennio got a special Oscar last night? That was so very cool, seeing that little montage of the best Ennio clips.

Can't Take My Gorram Sky

--------------
Nullius in verba. (Take nobody's word.)

CHRISISALL

Monday, February 26, 2007 3:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:

I've been reading a lot about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the human body. There is actually quite a bit of research done on this, and quite a bit of documentation that EMR's put a hidden stress on our immune systems.

In Johnny Mnemonic it manifests as an actual full-blown disease that becomes deadly. I see no reason why this won't happen.

And, in general:
The climate is changing.
EMR is more intense every day.
Wildlife is disappearing.

It doesn't take a genius to be able to see what's happening (but it does take a NeoCon apologist moron to deny it

)

No apologies Chrisisall

DESKTOPHIPPIE

Monday, February 26, 2007 3:39 PM

Dammit! Now you have me thinking about all that creepy viral marketing Nine Inch Nails are doing for 'Year Zero'!

*starts watching the skies carefully for The Presence*

Banners, avatars and other fun stuff at www.desktophippie.com

ANTHONYT

Monday, February 26, 2007 5:03 PM

Things didn't work better before modernization, electronics, and computers.

They just worked differently. And people had different priorities about what needed to work, too.

There are still societies in the US that live without all the modern stuff, the electronics, the computers, the TV.

They work just fine. But I don't think they are necessarily better. Better at some things? The things they care about? Doubtless.

But I have different priorities. I need different things to work well.

Technology doesn't just get implemented because it's there. There have been plenty of technologies that died through lack of consumer.

Technologies are implemented because society decides it wants certain things. If everybody wants The Simple Life, technology will change again.

But that's not what our society is after.

--Ant

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

MALBADINLATIN

Monday, February 26, 2007 9:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:

Question for the adults (not the little kids born after Star Wars came out): didn't things work better pre-computer?

Ummm....let me check

Oh god...it's all coming back to me...paper...file cabinets..."lost in the mail"...pencils...weeks long research in the basement...gotta go to the library to find out...it'll take 4-6 weeks...exhaustion...world growing dark...

Ummm...NO!

"You can believe your eyes...or you can believe me." -Groucho Marx

CHRISISALL

Monday, February 26, 2007 9:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Malbadinlatin:

Ummm....let me check

Oh god...it's all coming back to me...paper...file cabinets..."lost in the mail"...pencils...weeks long research in the basement...gotta go to the library to find out...it'll take 4-6 weeks...exhaustion...world growing dark...

Point taken, as computers were designed for inventory purposes initially. And they were useful for that. Now they run everything- with inadequate or half-assed programs. Unless you're one of the lucky ones working with a program that was designed to do sort of what you're using it for, or better yet, a program designed by peeps familiar with the actual needs of the company and it's customers.

Unlucky one Chrisisall

CITIZEN

Monday, February 26, 2007 10:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Point taken, as computers were designed for inventory purposes initially.

Erm, actually no. The first 'modern' computer was designed by Charles Babbage in the 1800's to produce logarithms vital to accurate navigation at sea, which is why the British government threw money at him for decades. The first electronic computers were used for calculation, in fact many early examples were used to calculate trajectories for Anti-Aircraft emplacements during the second world war, and were also used for code breaking. Inventory work is actually one of the latest uses, prior to the cheap computing revolution of the late 70's/early 80's due to the microchip computer time was simply to expensive to be wasted on something trivial like inventory work, not to mention the extreme limitations on computer space. I remember the first IBM compatible PC I used being an Amstrad 286 in the late 80's. It had a massive 40Mb of hard disk space.

Quote:
Now they run everything- with inadequate or half-assed programs.

Most programmers just aren't very good. Add to that the fact that most project leaders are executives with little if any real experience or knowledge in the field and you get unrealistic design goals heaped on incapable people. Not to mention the fact that the customer rarely if ever has a bloody clue as to what they actually want.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

CHRISISALL

Monday, February 26, 2007 10:25 PM

Thanks for the correction on their origin.
But my analysis of their current problems was close enough.
GRRRRR

Still unlucky Chrisisall

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