A blog about Marinwood-Lucas Valley and the Marin Housing Element, politics, economics and social policy. The MOST DANGEROUS BLOG in Marinwood-Lucas Valley.
As independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont announces his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, we speak to former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. "We don’t want a coronation of Hillary Clinton," Nader says of Sanders’ run. We also talk about his new book, "Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015." The book is dedicated in part to the workers of the U.S. Postal Service.
A member of the endangered subtype of human, who possesses the unusual abilities to calmly reflect on situations and view the world from others’ perspectives, is reintroduced into the population.
ITHACA, NY—In an ambitious attempt to revive a population long considered to be on the brink of extinction, scientists announced Friday they have slowly begun to reintroduce normal, well-adjusted human beings back into society.
According to officials at Cornell University, where for the past 18 years conservation researchers have operated an enclosed sanctuary for humans who are levelheaded and make it a habit to think before they speak, the endangered group is being cautiously reintegrated into select locations nationwide in hopes that they can reestablish permanent communities and one day thrive again.
“We’ve worked for years to stabilize our society’s dwindling population of sane, generally reasonable people, and within the safe confines of our refuge we’ve finally seen their numbers start to bounce back a little,” said Josh Adelson, head of the Cornell research team, which moved the remaining members of the group into a protected habitat in 1998 to keep them from dying off completely. “Now, we can very gradually begin to release this rare breed of rational humans back into the general public. With luck, they can survive and prosper.”
“Even if this small group of humans able to deal with their negative emotions in a nondestructive manner manages to flourish, there’s still no telling whether the next generation will be able to survive.”
“Our hope is that within a century or so, the traits for making sound long-term decisions and being able to tolerate people different from oneself will propagate and begin to reemerge within the species at large,” he continued.
Prior to the conservation efforts, it is believed that even-tempered people with sound judgment and the ability to put the needs of others before themselves had dwindled to less than 150 within the country’s borders, and had gone completely extinct in the nation’s businesses and civic institutions. Experts widely agree that without isolation, protection, and captive-breeding programs, the remaining thoughtful, foresighted individuals would have been totally wiped out.
While admitting that the project’s reintroduction phase would be complex and its success far from assured, Adelson stressed that such measures were nevertheless absolutely necessary if responsible and emotionally mature humans able to see beyond the immediate gratification of their basest desires were ever to reestablish a foothold in society.
“Obviously, we have taken great precautions before releasing these individuals into an environment where demonstrations of good sense, open-mindedness, and basic human empathy are perceived as signs of weakness and quickly preyed upon,” said Adelson, who noted that to ease the transition during their first month acclimating to society, the endangered population would be kept away from television, the internet, advertisements, and all other forms of media. “For example, we’ve trained them for the inevitable encounters they will face with large groups of people incapable of separating emotions from arguments.”
“It hasn’t been easy,” Adelson continued. “Last month, members of our trial group were confronted by several aggressive and predatory individuals, and another was nearly torn apart by angry hordes on social media within just 48 hours of being reintroduced into a metropolitan area, forcing us to bring them back to our refuge immediately.”
Though researchers have expressed cautious optimism for the reintroduction program, many leading scientists have noted that the number of areas in the U.S. capable of sustaining well-adjusted humans has drastically decreased. According to experts, there is almost no chance the population will ever thrive again anywhere in the state of Florida.
“Even if this small group of humans able to deal with their negative emotions in a nondestructive manner manages to flourish, there’s still no telling whether the next generation will be able to survive,” Adelson said. “There are a lot of unknown variables, and we realize we’re taking a big risk here. But this program is our last, best hope of ensuring that people who are willing to go out of their way to help someone who can’t immediately offer them anything in return remain a part of our world.”
Top researchers confirmed that it was already far too late to halt the country’s dominant breed of humans—assholes—from spreading uncontrollably to every region on earth.
Marinwood got burnt with their Solar Deal from the Solar SEED Fund at least DOUBLE the cost of similar projects. Fortunately, it is not too late to fix it.
Portland, Seattle top list of nation's worst traffic cities BY KATU.COM STAFF WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23RD 2016
Seattle traffic - SBG photo
For those living in the Pacific Northwest, it should be no surprise to see Portland and Seattle among the cities with the worst traffic in the nation.
The TomTom Index of Traffic ranks Portland as the 9th worst city, while Seattle placed 4th on the list.
The new survey ranked cities based on the ones with the most traffic-clogged highways. It estimated it takes about 30 percent longer for drivers in the top cities to get where you need to go due to traffic.
Look what ABAG has been planning for Marin since 2001. Note how much mixed use development is planned. North Novato, San Marin, Green Point, Kentfield and Ross is almost entirely Mixed use. See the original full size Map HERE
Inverse condemnation is a term used in the law to describe a situation in which the government takes private property but fails to pay the compensation required by the 5th Amendment of Constitution. In some states the term also includes damaging of property as well as taking it. In order to be compensated, the owner must then sue the government. In such cases the owner is the plaintiff and that is why the action is called inverse – the order of parties is reversed, as compared to the usual procedure in direct condemnation where the government is the plaintiff who sues a defendant-owner to take his or her property.
Top Policy Analyst Tells TED What’s Really Solving Global Poverty By TIMP Staff - Mar 20, 2016
Image: PBS
By Connor D. Wolf – A leading expert in the world of free markets took the stage recently to give a Ted Talk on how advances in trade have done more to solve global poverty than any one thing in human history.
American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks used his time Thursday to showhow extreme poverty has been decreasing worldwide thanks to globalization, free-trade, property rights, rule of law and entrepreneurship. TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading unique ideas by hosting a range of different speakers.
“There has been an 80 percent decline in poverty since I was a kid, and I didn’t even know about it,” Brooks told the audience. “It was the free enterprise system spreading around the world after 1970 that did that. Now I’m not naive, I know free enterprise isn’t perfect and I know free enterprise isn’t everything we need to build a better world, but that is great and that is beyond politics.”
Brooks said he started his career with no interest in politics and simply wanted to figure out how to solve poverty. He first asked whether poverty had increase since he was a child and was surprised to find out it has actually decreased. The startling revelation set him on a journey to find out why, and that journey led him to economics.
“Here’s what I learned, here’s the epiphany, capitalism isn’t just about accumulation,” Brooks continued. “At its best its about aspiration, which is what so many people on this stage talk about. The aspiration that comes from dreams that are embedded in the free enterprise system and we got to share it with more people.”
Brooks said knows addressing poverty through free markets can become a bipartisan solution if it’s allowed to rise above politics. President Barack Obama himself, Brooks recalled, even told him that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty that any other economic system ever.
“This is the solution to the biggest problem facing America today,” Brooks added. “Its coming together around these ideas, liberals and conservatives, to help people that need is the most.”
The United Nations found through its own research that extreme poverty has indeed declined since the 1970s. The Libertarian Fraser Institute found that over the decadeseconomic freedom has also increased worldwide. The decline in worldwide poverty is not true across the board, however, including in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau found poverty nationally has increased from roughly 11 percent in the 1970s to 14.5 percent in 2013.
A member of the endangered subtype of human, who possesses the unusual abilities to calmly reflect on situations and view the world from others’ perspectives, is reintroduced into the population.
Seattle traffic - SBG photo
