[KaiserJeep]

Late August through Mid October is the Silly Season. I used to hate it when I was in the USCG, because during this period, relatively normal people do silly things in boats, and we had to go out and fetch them back, or at least their bodies.

My personal theory is that the Silly Season is a remnant of our hunter-gatherer existence, the last chance the males have to impregnate a female who would give birth in time for the child to survive the following year. Manic risk taking and a "who gives a sh!t" attitude prevails.

Silly Season corresponds to that period when politics plays intensely in the USA. We are all cringing already, because this is the once-every-four-years cycle when Silly season lasts all of 14 months, from now until the presidential election on November 6, 2016.

Here at PO.com, Silly Season is when the Doomers have free reign and nobody curtails their silliness. I counted 14 threads on the first page in "Member View" this morning, assorted dooms according to the obsessions of the OP, mostly flavors of "the end is here, maybe as late as next month". I never really kept track much, but that is about 3X the usual number of "we are gonna die" threads.

Folks, the world is not ending this year, nor next. We have between 60 and 120 years before anything even gets serious, and lest you forget the central theme of PO.com, it's not AGW that will really hurt, it is running out of cheap oil and gas to burn. I'll remind you of this a year from now, and the year after that.

Now everybody go to work and file your taxes on time. I'll be collecting Social Security and Medicare in a couple of years, and you need to keep on plugging at BAU.

[Lore]

The only thing silly I can see so far has been you starting this topic.

[hvacman]

KJ

I'm frequently corny-ish, being a solar guy, energy efficiency advocate, and EV driver, but ironically, by declaring "Silly Season" because of the doomers, you really pulled me off my seasonal high and sent me down the doomer rat-hole. In your post, you cited how we don't have to be so doomerish, as things won't get serious for 60-120 years. And you cited all the other other things that may be even bigger problems than AGW by then. And mentioned for everyone to hold onto BAU as long as possible to cover your SS, etc.

"60-120 years from now" recently quit being a hypothetical time set long past my death. My first grandchild was born last March. In 60 years, when "things are getting serious", she'll be about the same age I am now. "60 years from now" for me, has a name. Elowyn. What will 60-year-old Elowyn's world be like? AGW effects raging. The oil gone. Social Security and Medicare gone. How's my corny fantasy of tweaking at the edges with PV, efficiency, and EV's gonna prevent that future?

I may just continue down this doomer rat-hole and re-read my copy of James Hansen's book, "Storms of our Grandchildren".

Talk about a doomer-thoughts....

[hvacman]

Thanks Pete - you made me laugh and popped me out of my doomer funk:)

But that was in 2005. In the near future, office showers would not be required. High school locker room showers are now rarely used . After-gym stink is the norm. It's a generational thing that we baby boomers can't relate to, as we all HAD to take showers after gym. Within a few years, Doomerville businesses won't require showers just because those former high-school-kids-now-adult-workers are overnighting at the office. Office-stink will be the norm.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Thanks Pete - you made me laugh and popped me out of my doomer funk:)

But that was in 2005. In the near future, office showers would not be required. High school locker room showers are now rarely used . After-gym stink is the norm. It's a generational thing that we baby boomers can't relate to, as we all HAD to take showers after gym. Within a few years, Doomerville businesses won't require showers just because those former high-school-kids-now-adult-workers are overnighting at the office. Office-stink will be the norm.

An interesting observation (which I was unaware of).

So does this mean that while:

1). Looking "cool" with that $500+ smart phone and a $100ish data bill for it and
2). Claiming they can't possibly pay for their college loans because they are simply starving to death while spending on the above, the McMansion, late model high end cars, European vacations and all the trappings to support that "lifestyle".
3). Advocating for more government programs to support that lifestyle like Obamacare subsidies for those that make even more than roughly $90,000 per year.

The reality is the younger set that blames all the problems on the baby boomers are also often too lazy to bathe? I guess I just don't understand what "hip" is, any more. (Yeah, I know, using words like "personal responsibility" gave me away right away. Objective standards can be so TRYING, you know).

[KaiserJeep]

hvacman, my two brand new twin grandchildren are named Lorelei and Killion, aged 12 weeks.

60 years from now is an eternity in the tech world, and the rate of change is still increasing. I started my electronics hobby at age 10 with a crystal radio, and had graduated to vacuum tubes by age twelve, and worked two part-time jobs after school to pay for a series of "transistor" projects in Popular Electronics. I have just retired after a career that spanned the entire age of digital computing, at least so far. I remember the original IBM PC and the Compaq luggable suitcase computer and the entire age of mobile electronics.

I remember flying in a Boeing 707 and thrilling to think "jet". I remember old green railroad coaches, built during WW2 mostly of wood, still in service behind vintage Pre-WW2 Baldwin 4-6-4 steam locomotives. I remember when you either had a clean "crew cut" or were a disreputable, untrustworthy "greaser". I remember how shocking the Beatles were, with hair down almost to their collars, on the original B&W Ed Sullivan broadcast. I remember staying up all night to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the Moon. I remember how terrifying the Cuban Missile Crisis really was.

My point would be that nobody really knows what the world 60-120 years from now will be like. It could either be better, worse, or about the same. However, nobody knows the details, and nobody knows what mankind will be capable of by then. The difference between then and now is akin to the difference between an old, direct-wired electro-magnetic dial telephone, and the latest smart phone. I have seen 60 years of technological progress, and the reality has exceeded my imagination - and I have been a science fiction fan since 1958.

We COULD all be dead in 60 years. We COULD still be complaining about politics, the price of darned near everything, and sports - never having noticed much that the oil is getting too expensive to burn, or that the globe is warming, having overcome those small impediments with as-yet-unimagined technology. I admit, I feel pretty doomer-ish myself sometimes, but I see the entire range of possible futures, and I know for a fact that nobody can possibly predict with any certainty what will happen by then.

Damn, I wish Silly Season would end. In the end, Clinton, Sanders, and Trump are all pretty f'ing BORING. As is the constant Silly Season refrain of DOOM DOOM DOOM at PO.com. I think marinating your consciousness in DOOM is like a collie dog rolling in rotting carrion.

Edit: My 2nd count of the day: 20 out of the 50 threads on page 1 of member view are DOOM related.

[zoidberg]

Its a debilitating mental pollution like online pornography viewing.

[Newfie]

KJ,

USCG?

I was in Sept 72 through 76.

Aviation, Elizabeth City, NC. AT.

You?

[Keith_McClary]

Soon the Silly Season will be over and we can get back to serious stuff like Space Colonies.

[SeaGypsy]

Yeah where is the SDP (Space Donut Party) polling in all the silliness?

[Cog]

If you want to remember a truly boring election, google-fu the Bob Dole versus Clinton election. Had all the excitement of watching paint dry or waiting for peak oil to happen.

[KaiserJeep]

KJ,

USCG?

I was in Sept 72 through 76.

Aviation, Elizabeth City, NC. AT.

You?

Sept '71 to '75. LORAN-C, Port Clarence AK and Nantucket MA, ET.

Did TAD at Cape May as an ambulance crewman unloading the SAR helos, then electronic repairs at Hawaii (Big Island) and French Frigate Shoals following a typhoon and later on a buoy snatcher that went from PTC to Point Barrow and back.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Its a debilitating mental pollution like online pornography viewing.

Given your views on a woman's right to control her own body, I can only assume you are serious, and this bias comes from "the church".

When online porn viewing does, say, 1% of the damage of the Crusades or the anti-birth-control rules of the Catholic church, or a huge number of religious wars, get back to us.

[Newfie]

KJ,

USCG?

I was in Sept 72 through 76.

Aviation, Elizabeth City, NC. AT.

You?

Sept '71 to '75. LORAN-C, Port Clarence AK and Nantucket MA, ET.

Did TAD at Cape May as an ambulance crewman unloading the SAR helos, then electronic repairs at Hawaii (Big Island) and French Frigate Shoals following a typhoon and later on a buoy snatcher that went from PTC to Point Barrow and back.

You got around a good bit. I was in Lizard City almost my entire enlistment. First A school then my posting until I got out. I did have about 2 months at Curtis Bay right after boot camp, cleaning heads and laying bricks. I did C school for Loran C.

I did a year at Atlantic City as a reservist but gave it up quickly.

ET I presume?

[zoidberg]

Its a debilitating mental pollution like online pornography viewing.

Given your views on a woman's right to control her own body, I can only assume you are serious, and this bias comes from "the church".

When online porn viewing does, say, 1% of the damage of the Crusades or the anti-birth-control rules of the Catholic church, or a huge number of religious wars, get back to us.

I'm not religious. Planned parenthood is brutally murder ing babies for profit. I dont need a god to tell me that's bad. Contraception is good I never said otherwise and women do ultimately have control over their bodies but it needs to be a last resort done as quickly as possible into the pregnancy before the fetus can feel any pain. That should be basic ethics but apparently not...

At any rate porno wrecks a males ability to connect meaningfully with women. Not all at once but you'll see as time goes by how the younger generations fail to form stable family units, much worse than today. We're liable to die off entirely if sex robots get perfected, but that's a different topic.

Similarly focusing on doom and collapse impares your ability to plan for a future leading to depression and mental illness. You need hope and positivity to be healthy. You Cant full yourself with evil and despair and be unaffected.

[zoidberg]

I've been through the mill I'm actually trying to be helpful, I'm old school peak oil I feel what your feeling.

I hope I at least give food for thought.

[Keith_McClary]

Planned parenthood is brutally murder ing babies for profit.

Assuming you have a for-profit medical system.

[KaiserJeep]

-snip-

You got around a good bit. I was in Lizard City almost my entire enlistment. First A school then my posting until I got out. I did have about 2 months at Curtis Bay right after boot camp, cleaning heads and laying bricks. I did C school for Loran C.

I did a year at Atlantic City as a reservist but gave it up quickly.

ET I presume?

Yeah, ET2 when I got out. I spent the two months after Boot Camp as an ambulance crewman waiting for the next ET class. Then I went to "A" school at Governor's Island, NYC, followed by 12 months at Port Clarence, AK. While at PTC there I volunteered for TAD in Hawaii after a Typhoon took out the LORAN-C transmitter on the Big Island. I just wanted to get away from the snow and cold. I volunteered again for French Frigate Shoals which was a mistake, the place was worse than Alaska, just an airstrip above water and some buildings at high tide. Back in AK I again volunteered to work on the buoy snatcher when their only ET burst his appendix. After AK I went to "B" school, again at NYC. Then I spent the last 18 months on Nantucket which was really a very nice place. I married a girl from the island and now I have retired and we just had twin grandkids.