Expansion

[Auzgurl]

ok a little one..there was technology..

[boxy]

Nice try at insulting the human race by calling us animals, Mantra.

It's not an insult... it's a statement of fact

If we were really so smart we would not have to explore other planets to ensure survival of the species..earth has provivded us with untold bounty.

And unless the species gets off the planet, one day an inevitable comet (or some other catastrophe) will come along and end us... much more efficiently than we ever could.

Expansion into as wide a range of environments as possible is the best way to ensure a specie's survival. It's what all animal species do (if they can).

And we call the "less evolved" races of the world stupid.? Ind pple lived here for approx 40-60,000 yrs and enviromental destruction was NIL. "Stupid is as stupid does" ( Forrest Gump)

Pure greenie propaganda, bullshit, Auzgurl. Indigenous Australians changed the environment markedly in the habitable areas.

[Auzgurl]

Pure greenie propaganda, bullshit, Auzgurl. Indigenous Australians changed the environment markedly in the habitable areas.

seriously boxy..you cant think past the end of your nose.

Whos talking about the last 200 years Einstein?

[boxy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-stick_farming

[Jovial Monk]

yup, slash and burn, the aboriginal burning etc

but none of them used fossil fuels!

[Outlaw Yogi]

Whatta ya'z talkin about?
Fire farming changed/altered the entire ecology of the continent.
Both Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand Mouris learnt sustainable environmental management the hard way ... after suffering the ecological consequences of destructive environmental practices.

[boxy]

Clowns.


From the steamin Mekong delta
To the shores of Tonkin bay
Bombs of yellied gasoline
Is making night as bright as day
And the mogul's hard tank masters
Adore their new grenades
And the D.A.D. find their 9" shells
Are great for border raids

Yeah! I'm superfurious
I've done it again
I reach 50 when I count to 10
Jihad, I'm getting mad
And there's no fuel left
For the pilgrims
Jihad, I'm getting mad
And there's no fuel left
For the pilgrims

And you can shake your fist at the T.V. set
And you can slam your hand in the table
And you can cry and curse
Through tightlocked teeth
Just as hard as you are able
But you can't run away from trouble
'Coz there ain't no place that far
No fuel left for the pilgrims
Yeah! That's just the way we are

'Coz I'm superfurious I've done it again
I reach 50 when I count to 10
Jihad, I'm getting mad
And there's no fuel left for the pilgrims
Jihad, I'm getting mad
And there's no fuel left for the pilgrims

This is tower again, do you read me? You can get the girls & the
videomachine but the fuel you asked for... You cannot have!

What?! Blow me to heaven!!
Jihad I'm getting so mad I'm getting so mad
..Who's mad I'm mad, so mad
Jihad I'm getting mad
And there's no fuel left for the pilgrims.

[Auzgurl]

boxy..relevant how?

[boxy]

Resources should be allocated towards the pilgrimage, rather than for infighting and internal consumption for consumptions sake.

[JW Frogen]

I had not read Cynik’s entire post on the subject until now, I just responded to Boxy’s quote.

It is an interesting post in that the unifying thought (behind almost all Cynik's posts) is one of helpless despair.

Some one is always manipulating us good people, controlling us, telling us lies, making us live in a manner we really do not want to live in, but we are, of course, too helpless to live otherwise.

In this case it is the diabolical combination of stockbrokers, nature haters, space explorers and the media.

All in some insidious plot to make us hate nature, worship greed, watch CNN and defile the virgin purity of outer space. (He forgot to fit in the evil Jews this time or the Catholic Church, but this must have been a simple matter of time or medication limitation.)

The premise that people love nature and nature is being stolen from us is a dubious one.

Ever since humans have been humans we have evolved and created technology to master nature, so that we are not simply slaves to nature, subject to the brutal whims of nature. From the invention of fire and tools to help us survive the onslaught of predators, the invention of agriculture, to control what we eat and when we eat it rather than just hope the good Moma Nature will provide abundance, to the industrial revolution where we developed technology to mine nature’s wealth and provide us with a better life.

Sure people like to walk in the park, or go to a nature reserve, or float down a nice stream or river, but they usually do so in the comfort of knowing they have some dominance and or control over that environment, that they are not totally submissive to it, be it roads, or emergency rescue teams, cell phones or planes that take us back to our cities.

Place one stranded at sea during a life threatening storm, or freezing on a mountain peak with no heating technology, lost in a desert with no commutation device, and “nature” sort of looses her Eden-like appeal.

One reason naked Serengeti lion wrestling has not taken off as a sport.

We find the similar and strange Cynik combination of Pollyanna innocence and self indulgent despair in his view of space exploration.

In Cynik’s world this is a mad exploitation of the Universe based solely on greed. One propagated by US culture. Never mind there was a Space race during the Cold War, for much of that period the Soviets actually led the race, or that emerging powers such as China and India now too seek to explore space.

Forget that the moon landing did more to unify the consciousness of “mankind” in that “one small step” than the UN has ever done, or that the only cooperation Russia and the US now seem capable of, at present at least, is on the International Space station, these facts do not matter in Cynikland.

Space to him is just one more reason to despair and feel helpless.

That there has never been environmental stasis on Earth (see mass extinction events before humans ever were, this has in the long term always been a violent, ever changing planet), makes space exploration one more step in humanities struggle for survival (as all life must), a step that is both necessary and exhilarating, one that may actually unify human culture some day.

This never occurs to the Cyniks of this world. Any great human endeavor must by definition be exploitation of the rest of us who lack the imagination to endeavor.

As for stockbrokers.

Well, I make no apology for them.