Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

So please, stop telling me Mexico is dangerous. Yeah, I may be from the land of Dudley Do-Right, but if I can handle America I think I can handle Mexico just fine. Philadelphia may not be Fallujah, but by the numbers it was still far more dangerous than BCS. Here is what a friend of mine just wrote me about where we're staying for the next few months (if not much longer):

The Sea of Cortez is where blue whales hang out. I'm more of a plant person than animal person I think, but there are two kinds of animals that are universally A-OK in my book: pigs and whales. I don't know why. In many ways, my favorite movie is in fact Whale Music and I empathize immensely with Desmond's character (of course I'm also a huge Brian Wilson fan; I consider Pet Sounds one of the greatest albums of all time). And of course Rachel has traveled here from a distant planet to save me.

The weird thing about Whale Music is how many online reviews simply don't get it. I spent a while trying to find one to link to, but they all so utterly mischarictarize the movie that I stopped reading them after a while. One of the interesting things about art is that the purer it is, the less people are able to recognize it. Most people are afraid of God as well, which is pretty damn silly since one of the only shared qualities that “God” has across different faiths is immense amounts of love…

But I'm rambling.

I had a good dinner today with an old business partner… We're talking about firing up a system we were working on a few years back; a few of the right pieces are in place and if we play it right we can walk away with fifty million in the bank at year's end. I wonder what I'd do with fifty million dollars?

Had another meeting earlier in the day as well (wrapping up loose ends as I go). He's no fan of BME and in fact I think finds it reprehensible, but is of the mind that it's not his problem and doesn't really mind me doing it — “But you know what bothers me Shannon? Two guys can get married these days, and I can't even smoke my cigar in public any more!”

(Before anyone says something, I really don't give a damn if someone is personally disgusted by me or my lifestyle as long as they support my right to live my life as I see fit).

Anyway, as much as I do appreciate the humor in being allowed to smoke marijuana in public in Canada but not cigarettes and cigars, it's pretty clear that there has to be a balance between individual and group rights, and I'm not comfortable when that balance swings too far over onto the “group” side. While I am very supportive of Canada's social programs and policies in general, I am uncomfortable with the current direction the smoking ban laws are moving.

Other than that, the FCC has done another insane fine, leveling $220,000 in fines against a Kansas radio station for “naked twister”. Let me be clear. Radio station. Ever hear the joke, “you've got a face for radio?” As far as I'm concerned, fining someone a quarter million dollars for saying they're naked when you can't even see them is insane. It gets even more insane when you realize that only one person complained to the FCC about it (more).

What continues in this entry is actually from something I wrote a few days ago but never posted. I write a lot here, but the sad truth is that I write probably triple this amount and just never post it. I don't think this entry is very good, but what the hell — if you've read this far in this entry, you're OK with that.

I have a confession! Because I didn't prepare early enough to be able to drop it off at a food bank, I've thrown out a lot of canned food that could have been put to good use by people who need it. I feel really bad about it — although I admit that the joy of tossing heavy objects down almost thirty stories of garbage chute was somewhat rewarding.

But it reminded me that I should repeat some of a conversation I had with Marty a few days ago about the future of compassion. We were talking about the temperature effects of the Gulf Stream stopping or altering course. For a simple, simple explanation, check out the map below:

While it's not quite this simple, if it becomes apparent that the Gulf Stream is altering or stopping, the temperatures across Europe and especially northern Europe would drop to what we have in Northern Canada, and while Canada is largely prepared for it because we've always had this problem, Europe does not. Few homes in much of Europe are insulated to the point where they can winter at sustained ultracold. There is no conceivable way to retrofit this many homes — the fuel alone simply doesn't exist.

So what happens if this scenario plays out? 500 million people would become homeless within as little as a two month window.

Anyway, I said I was talking about the future of compassion. If this really does happen, can a half a billion people be relocated? It would be the largest humanitarian effort in all history, and could redefine how we think about compassion… To move that many people the rest of the Western world (if not Africa) would have to open its arms and say, “yes, I will let you live with me in my home rather than die.”

Either that or war I suppose.

Get 'em while they're vulnerable.

That said, I've left out a lot of variables in my little “Chicken Little” game above. As much as the ocean would be cold off Europe it wouldn't be that cold, and unless prevailing winds drop, temperatures will be closer to what you'd get in Anchorage, Alaska which is about 15 Celsius (or 60 °F) in the summer and negative 10°C (or 14°F) in the winter — still cold, but not “Canada Cold”, and certainly not “evacuation cold”. The other big variable I've left out is that one of the larger contributors to Gulf Stream shut-off is desalination of the ocean. Personally I think that our destruction of the fresh water systems is going to force us to put in such large desalination systems just to survive that we'll balance out that change with our own shortsightedness.

Well, I've got to go to bed now.