What If It Breaks? The landill economy by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

What If It Breaks? The landill economy

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, March 13, 2022 11:56
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 883
PAGE 1 of 1

Saturday, March 12, 2022 6:58 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Very few people ask: what if it breaks? It's a question we can ask of a great many things: touchscreens, motherboards, tools, vehicles, supply chains and entire systems: what if it breaks?

The first thing we notice is the great number of things which can't be repaired, they can only be replaced. Good luck repairing the touchscreen or motherboard in your vehicle. Oops, the puncture in your tire is in the sidewall, no repair possible, buy a new tire.

The entire economic system assumes two things: 1) there will always be replacements for everything that can't be repaired and 2) there will always be substitutes for everything we want. Beef too expensive? Then buy fake-meat. If that's too expensive, substitute chicken. And so on: there will always be a substitute that can scale globally that will get cheaper as it scales.

Unfortunately, both assumptions are false. There are no replacements for oil and fertilizers. What we have are ifs: if we build 1,000 nuclear reactors, then we can convert this electricity into hydrogen which will be the fuel of the future. And so on. If, if, if. Nice, but getting beyond if is non-trivial: oops, we need hydrocarbon energy to build the 1,000 nuclear reactors and all the complex equipment to convert seawater into hydrogen on a scale large enough to matter.

Not only are there no substitutes for many things, there are no replacement parts, either. Too bad about your entire Smart Home system going down. The vendor of the do-hickey that's connected to your hub went out of business and so there's no replacement parts or software upgrades. Looks like you'll have to replace the entire system. But since the software was out of date anyway, it was time to upgrade anyway.

The problem is we can't replace entire systems when they break down. Sewage treatment, delivery of food, manufacture of medical supplies and medications, delivery of feedstock for plastics manufacturing--the entire global economy is now a tightly bound system with few replacements for anything that matters and no substitutions for all the things that matter.

One of the few positive movements of the past few years is right to repair. The idea here is to outlaw corporation's favorite trick to speed your old product's pathway to the Landfill by sealing the device to make it impossible to open and voiding the warranty should anyone attempt to repair what was designed to be unrepairable.

The foundation of the Landfill Economy is to make stuff that can't be repaired and is designed to fail so you have to buy a new one--and soon. But repair is not guaranteed. If you happen to own a vehicle which was manufactured in the millions, there will likely be third-party suppliers for parts. But time and cost both erode the availability of replacement parts. There is no guarantee replacement parts will be available. Yes, some can be extruded in 3D printers, but there are a great many things that can't be fabbed on 3D printers: specialty wires, computer chips, alloys, etc.

Moving on to larger scale systems: where's the replacement parts when democracy breaks? How about the systems that deliver oil and fresh food over thousands of miles?

The dependability of these unrepairable systems has given us a false confidence in their permanence and durability. As more things become sole-source, as supply chains stretch and add additional points of failure, as the dependency chains increase in complexity, all these systems--political, technological, logistics--become more fragile--the opposite of durable.

The "buy a new one" faith in the infinite powers of substitution has stripped the economy of resilience and the ability to fashion workarounds. Since things can no longer be repaired, nobody knows how to repair anything. Since everything is sealed, nobody even knows what's inside the system. Since we're assured everything can be substituted and replaced, we no longer know how anything actually works. The best and the brightest have never seen a green bean growing on the plant or considered how all the goodies that make their "money" useful-- as in, there are things available for your "money" to buy--were fabricated or grown, cleaned, packaged, shipped and delivered.

As I explain in my book Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States, tightly bound systems and centralized systems are essentially designed to fail. Load the system with dependency chains choked with points of failure for which there are no fixes or substitutes and then stretch those chains across the globe and you get a system optimized for fragility and failure.

What if it breaks? What's your Plan B, your workaround, your fix? What if you can't buy a new food delivery system off the shelf, or a new democracy that all you have to do is unwrap and plug it in? Where are the cheap, abundant substitutions for everything that's now chronically scarce because there are no substitutes?

Making your entire economy a Landfill Economy dependent on the fantasy of infinite replacements and substitutions is the height of hubris and folly, right up there with war is a solution that will fix everything that's broken.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/03/what-if-it-breaks.html?m=
1

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 9:44 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

What if it breaks? What's your Plan B, your workaround, your fix? What if you can't buy a new food delivery system off the shelf, or a new democracy that all you have to do is unwrap and plug it in? Where are the cheap, abundant substitutions for everything that's now chronically scarce because there are no substitutes?

Making your entire economy a Landfill Economy dependent on the fantasy of infinite replacements and substitutions is the height of hubris and folly, right up there with war is a solution that will fix everything that's broken.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/03/what-if-it-breaks.html?m=
1

Charles Hugh Smith is only thinking of worldwide supply chains and dinky little technology, but bigger, heavier tech, even when the tech is all made locally, is just as fragile and unrepairable as consumer electronics. Or democracy.

Signym, I have seen enough explosions and fires in petrochemical plants to know that there is NO PLAN B. The equipment closest to the fire is ruined. There is no repairing it. It will have to be replaced with all new. Meanwhile, your plant is shut down for months because there is NO PLAN B. A nation can survive the loss, but maybe not the company. There are some losses that a nation may not survive and there is NO PLAN B. Here is one:

U.S. Risks National Blackout From Small-Scale Attack
Federal Analysis Says Sabotage of Nine Key Substations Is Sufficient for Broad Outage
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-risks-national-blackout-from-small-sc
ale-attack-1394664965

There are plenty of details, and NO PLAN B, at
https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+grid+vulnerability+to+transfo
rmer+saboteur

If the power grid fails because saboteurs destroy transformers with explosives, or ordinary rifles, those transformers can't be repaired. New transformers, which take months to build, will have to replace the destroyed ones. Meanwhile, the nation has no operating power grid. Until a nation can build two or even three power grids to back up the main power grid, that's the way it's gonna be -- NO PLAN B. Live without power, except for your portable generator or solar power.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 9:52 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I know that this was more a thread about the breakdown of the global supply chain with no contingency plan in place (Thanks Six Sigma), but I have a few little example to add...

As you know, I make a habit of mending things with duct tape and bubble gum if necessary. A lot of the stuff I own is fairly old though, and pre-dates the blatantly intentional obsolescence we see in tech, cars and modern appliances, so there is a certain level of things that the owner can do themselves.

My $25 coffee maker broke a few years ago. It wasn't sucking the water up properly from the tank, and even though you poured 12 cups in the back, it would take over an hour to make about 3 or 4 cups and the rest evaporated.

So I was going to open it up. I wasn't going to let the fact that the 5 or 6 tiny screws on the bottom being set in tiny holes 6 inches deep stop me. Even if they were Torx or Allen or some even more obscure types I'd have to look up before telling you their names. I've got the tools for that...

Or do I???

If you haven't met before, allow me to introduce you to the permanent one-way screw.

They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.

Sure, I have a few drill bit sets that can remove stripped screws that might be capable of getting these things out, but it was a sure thing that none of them were going to reach down 4 to 6" into the tiny little holes where these screws were set. The only way I was going to be able to open this thing to see the insides was by taking a hammer to it and cracking it open like a piggy bank.

So when my step mom was getting rid of a perfectly fine coffee pot because she didn't like the color anymore, I told my old man to bring it over here so I've got another backup shitty coffee maker to replace the new shitty coffee maker when it breaks as it was designed to.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 10:16 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.

This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 10:33 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.
This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.

That's exactly what they want you to do.

And the fact that I don't do what they want me to whenever I get a chance is why I won't have to do much working for anybody else for the rest of my life if your party doesn't destroy the value of the dollar before then.

Had I been able to open the coffee maker like I should have been able to, it's possible that all I needed to do was clean out the line. I used to do this thing where I'd brew the coffee twice after an old friend of mine got me to try it and I did like the results. But I figure that was probably gunking up the works so I don't do it after that one broke.

Here's another example. I had to buy a new printer before I could do my taxes last year, so as much as it pained me to do it, I bought the cheapest one I could find that was on sale for $60. It was a Cannon. It also has a scanning bed on it.

I find out a year later from a YouTuber who has been fighting for Right To Repair in courts for years that the line of Cannon products that I have in my home right now has DRM chips on their ink cartridges. So not only can't you use any other type of ink in them, but if you run out of ink it's programmed to disable the scanning bed that has NOTHING to do with printing too.

Where the fuck do they get off telling you that you can't scan documents until you pay for their overpriced ink cartridges?

Using your example, that would be like metal spikes coming up from the bottom of your shoes until you replaced a broken shoe lace that was made by the cobbler. You don't like stepping on painful spikes while you're walking? Buy my $35 pair of replacement laces. The $4 ones on Amazon won't remove the spikes.

Joke is on them though. After the chip shortage happened and people weren't able to buy their overpriced, chippped ink cartridges anymore, they had to come out with a software patch that would remove their DRM so you can use their new non-chipped ink cartridges they were forced to produce. The side effect being that now you can put any ink you want to in there and you can still use the scanner bed even if the printer is out of ink.

Fuck Cannon. Last Cannon printer I will ever own.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 12:55 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Quote:
Originally posted:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.
This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.

Obviously, unclear on the concept of this thread. And clueless.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 1:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.
This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.
Obviously, unclear on the concept of this thread. And clueless.

Must be a day that ends with "day".

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 1:06 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.
This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.
Obviously, unclear on the concept of this thread. And clueless.
Must be a day that ends with "day".

The caliber of cluelessness is staggering.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 1:08 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that.
This is like complaining that the cobbler at the local shoe hospital can't resole the glued together boots you love. Throw the boots and coffeemaker in the trash, 6ix.
Obviously, unclear on the concept of this thread. And clueless.
Must be a day that ends with "day".
The caliber of cluelessness is staggering.

A side effect of chronic TDS, no doubt.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 1:36 PM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Fcksk - just clean the damn thing. You probably use water from your tap (no problem) which is probably hard, and calcium deposits are blocking the flow. Decalcify it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 3:05 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by CAPTAINCRUNCH:

Fcksk - just clean the damn thing. You probably use water from your tap (no problem) which is probably hard, and calcium deposits are blocking the flow. Decalcify it.

Oh my god G. Common sense is lost on him. You'll make his head explode. Which is a part of Russia's problem going forward.

The current Russian 'brain drain' of academic, finance, and tech workers 'might be the most important problem' for its economy, experts say

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 3:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Looks like the two other resident dumb shit knuckleheads ran out of dumb shit to say in the other threads too.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 3:12 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Very few people ask: what if it breaks? It's a question we can ask of a great many things: touchscreens, motherboards, tools, vehicles, supply chains and entire systems: what if it breaks?

Ukraine’s population of around 40 million is around 40 times larger than Chechnya’s and 20 times that of the Crimean peninsula. The second largest country in Europe by area (after Russia), it will be a very expensive place in which to sustain an occupation.

Today, although Russian losses are a military secret, Ukrainian estimates put the material cost to Putin from the destruction of tanks, planes and weapons at around US$5 billion for just the first two days of the war.

tick tock

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 3:15 PM

THG

The damage is done. The Russians face an economic point of no return. The very bleak economic warning clouds gathering over Russia will only matter to a leader who cares about the long-term impact of the war on his fellow citizens. Putin does not.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 4:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Off topic idiot is off topic.

Don't you have enough poison all over these boards to litter, shitheel.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 4:54 PM

THG

Tear em up...

T

The Ukrainian special forces announced it will not spare Russian troops in response to the brutal shelling of civilians.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, March 12, 2022 10:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Imagine a future where so-called Democrats pile on and tell you that you should just fill up a landfill and buy more disposable, non-biodegradable shit made in China rather than fix it and keep it working.

Oh. You don't have to imagine that. The future is now. It's right in this thread.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 8:49 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Imagine a future where so-called Democrats pile on and tell you that you should just fill up a landfill and buy more disposable, non-biodegradable shit made in China rather than fix it and keep it working.

Oh. You don't have to imagine that. The future is now. It's right in this thread.

Yep. You just did that:

6: "They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that."

You're a Democrat?

What makes you think "they" - the coffee makers - would build in obsolescence and assume you would buy another one of THEIR coffee makers? Wouldn't making a pos make you buy someone elses?

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 10:12 AM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by CAPTAINCRUNCH:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Imagine a future where so-called Democrats pile on and tell you that you should just fill up a landfill and buy more disposable, non-biodegradable shit made in China rather than fix it and keep it working.

Oh. You don't have to imagine that. The future is now. It's right in this thread.

Yep. You just did that:

6: "They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that."

You're a Democrat?

What makes you think "they" - the coffee makers - would build in obsolescence and assume you would buy another one of THEIR coffee makers? Wouldn't making a pos make you buy someone elses?

All 6’s posts show a lack of critical thinking skills. All his posts show he doesn’t possess background information beyond that which allows for anything but an emotional knee jerk response. Nor does he post any comments that show he possesses knowledge of a topic beyond knowing the name of the topic.

His posts are on par with a 13 year old bully. Apparently, for unknown reasons along with his alcohol consumption, his mental growth was stunted at that age. Which means what? It means he is a troll and nothing else. Clearly his alcohol consumption has deteriorated his brain. Lord knows we’ve suffered through years of his active drinking. Only he knows if he is still sober, but I believe that is in doubt. It’s unfortunate he staggered onto our firefly site.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 10:23 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by CAPTAINCRUNCH:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Imagine a future where so-called Democrats pile on and tell you that you should just fill up a landfill and buy more disposable, non-biodegradable shit made in China rather than fix it and keep it working.

Oh. You don't have to imagine that. The future is now. It's right in this thread.

Yep. You just did that:

6: "They REALLY wanted me to just buy a new coffee pot when their piece of shit broke. And unfortunately, being the caffeine addict that I am, it wasn't very long before I did just that."

Yeah. I DID do that. After discovering that there were one-way screws set in so deep that it would be impossible to open without breaking it. Screws that any one of you idiots are going to pretend to know existed before I posted about them in this thread, but screws that none of you knew existed before this thread.

Also, after dealing with this problem with the coffee maker getting progressively worse until it got to that state. This didn't happen overnight.

If I could have fixed it I would.

That same year, I was under my mid nineties Toyota with a metal blade on a reciprocal saw, hacking off the rusted out flex mesh and then having a guy weld a new one on. A mid-90's Toyota that still only has 170,000 miles on it. A mid-90's Toyota that I'll be working on again this year because even though it drives fine the check engine light is on again.

Quote:
You're a Democrat?

No. I'm talking about the three of you coming in here and trying to shame me for attempting to fix a coffee pot rather than buy a new one.

Quote:
What makes you think "they" - the coffee makers - would build in obsolescence

Because EVERYBODY puts planned obsolescence into their products in our throw-away economy. Also because of the one-way screws. That is the ONLY reason for one-way screws.

Even Apple does it now, but instead of one-way screws, they now fill every cubic inch of air space in their products with epoxy.

Quote:
and assume you would buy another one of THEIR coffee makers? Wouldn't making a pos make you buy someone elses?

It will, and DID make somebody like me buy somebody else's piece of shit. There will never be another Hamilton Beach coffee maker in my house.

But from the replies in this thread, it's obvious that none of you would care.

Now we get to see if Mr. Coffee has one-way screws when I attempt to open this one up.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 10:27 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
All 6’s posts show a lack of critical thinking skills. All his posts show he doesn’t possess background information beyond that which allows for anything but an emotional knee jerk response. Nor does he post any comments that show he possesses knowledge of a topic beyond knowing the name of the topic.

His posts are on par with a 13 year old bully. Apparently, for unknown reasons along with his alcohol consumption, his mental growth was stunted at that age. Which means what? It means he is a troll and nothing else. Clearly his alcohol consumption has deteriorated his brain. Lord knows we’ve suffered through years of his active drinking. Only he knows if he is still sober, but I believe that is in doubt. It’s unfortunate he staggered onto our firefly site.

Coming from somebody who wasn't just putting their own inferiority on blast with their post, this might be an insult.

Instead, it's just one more reason to laugh at you, Ted.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 11:08 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

What are graves, other than part of the landfill economy?

Here are a few words from a sci-fi story by Brian Aldiss about Human Obsolescence. It hints at the wrongness of repairing the old rather than replacing them with new.

Tu Fu was withered even then. Yet his words, and the spaces between his words, will never wither. As a person, Tu Fu was the most civilised and amusing man I ever met, which explains my long stay in that epoch. Ever since then, I have wondered whether the art of being amusing, with its implied detachment from self, is not one of the most undervalued requisites of human civilization. In many epochs, being amusing is equated with triviality. The human race rarely understood what was important; but Tu Fu understood.

Although the sage was ill, and little more than a bag of bones, he desired to visit White King again before he died.

"Though I fear that the mere apparition of my skinny self at a place named White King,” he said, "may be sufficient for that apparition, the White Knight, to make his last move on me.”

It is true that white is the Chinese colour of mourning, but I wondered if a pun could prod the spirits into action; were they so sensitive to words?

"What can a spirit digest but words?” Tu Fu replied. "I don’t entertain the idea that spirits can eat or drink — though one hears of them whining at keyholes. They are forced to lead a tediously spiritual life.” He chuckled.

This was even pronounced with spirit, for poor Tu Fu had recently been forced to give up drinking. When I mentioned that sort of spirit, he said "Yes, I linger on life’s balcony, ill and alone, and must not drink for fear I fall off.”

Here again, I sensed that his remark was detached and not self-pitying, as some might construe it; his compassion was with all who aged and who faced death before they were ready — although, as Tu Fu himself remarked, "If we were not forced to go until we were ready, the world would be mountain-deep with the ill-prepared.” I could but laugh at his turn of phrase.

- The Small Stones of Tu Fu by Brian Aldiss continues at
https://archive.org/stream/Asimovs_v02n02_1978-03-04/Asimovs_v02n02_19
78-03-04_djvu.txt

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, March 13, 2022 11:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Are you trying to make a spiritual argument for throwing non-biodegradable shit in landfills because you're too lazy to fix things?

Recently, I helped a friend haul a cargo van worth of shit to the dump, where they'd weigh your vehicle before and after you dropped the shit on the ground for them to bulldoze and charge you by the ton.

Garbage as far as the eye could see.

I saw a lot of old cabinetry in there. Built like tanks like they did in the old days... not that pressed wood shit that people pay upwards of $20k+ for today.

Like the ones I have in my house. The ones that look better and are a hell of a lot sturdier than any of the shit people buy today to replace the old ones because they're too lazy to do it.

Whenever possible, I try to keep whatever I can out of a landfill.

Maybe that's a hidden luxury I have for living the life that I do. Not only am I walking the walk when it comes to having a low carbon footprint, but it makes financial sense for me to do so as well.

When rich white Democrats are faced with this decision, it is financially a no-brainer to pay somebody else to gut their house and replace it with new garbage.

I've also only put an average of less than 2,500 miles on my car in the 14 years that I've owned it (and done my own work to keep it from being scrapped). 40% of those miles were from the first 4 years, with the other 60% being in the last 10 years.

Unfortunately, unlike rich white Democrats who can offset Democrat's high gas prices, I can't further minimize the amount of driving that I do. I don't go on trips, I don't joy ride, and I already bundle necessary driving as efficiently as possible, going so far as to write down all the places that I'm going and making sure that it's as many possible right turns with the shortest possible distance traveled.

Fortunately, I fill my tank so infrequently that the extra money I have to pay for Democrats high gas prices isn't going to hurt me like it hurts most of the working class who is getting stuck with the bill for Democrats being in power.

Until I pumped $4.25 worth of gas in my tank last week, the last two times I used the pump it was $3.18 and $2.38 before that.

Meanwhile, Joe* decides that right now, while gas is more expensive than it's ever been in America.... NOW is the time that everyone has to stop telecommuting to work and they should get in their cars and fill up our empty and dangerous Democrat-ran shitholes we call our big cities.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

YOUR OPTIONS

SHARE THREAD

NEW POSTS TODAY

USER	POST DATE

USER

POST DATE