msb-0372 And we're off


 

 

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Episode Name msb-0372 And we're off

 

Direct Link to episode -> http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/msb-0372_And_were_off.m4a

 

YouTube Vids

 

"Johnnywise" by: "Modern Caveman" www.moderncaveman.com via "Una Prosel"

. YouTube plugin error .

 

Horse Racing Movie

. YouTube plugin error .

The song is actually "Out Of My Head' by: "Mobile" http://www.mobiletheband.com/

 

Intro

 


Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

 


Survey

 


FeedBack comes first, so...

 

At the front of this episode's posting is another excellent video from Sweden, once again suggested by Una Prosell.

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I think that's more a function of, uh, advancing years than MS, but I still remember the fun I had at a "Race for MS" with a difference at the "Rideau Carleton Raceway", back in 1988, (or was it '89)

The took charity to new heights, the restaurant at the grandstand, and put the fun in fundraising.

Hence the second video.

But the band is actually"Mobile" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_%28band%29 ] from Montréal, Québec, Canada, my old haunts until the autumn of 1983.

i just down loaded a freebie .mp3 from their site and I'm going to play it last.

---- "The Race" by: "The Goldstars" http://www.thegoldstars.com/

 


FeedForward

 

This rightfully belongs in the Feed Forward segment.

I am starting to expand msbpodcast.com into an actual web radio station.

Starting in January 2010, msbpodcast will have an interactive component which will be called MS Web Radio [ http;//www.MSWebRadio.com ]

Right now its not operative and its only a repeater to bring people to the msbpodcast.com site but I'm going to retool the web site to handle the web radio component.

It will also be podcast so if you don't get to it, it will still be available after the airing.

MS Web Radio will be held for a half an hour every Sunday afternoon at 3PM (15:00) my time.

I will be taking my definitely, uh, unusual show and opening it up to everybody.

I'll keep you posted on my progress as it happens.

The website redesign looks like crap so I have to come up with some other design approach that allows me to get what I want done done...

----

I just want to say I have been enjoying my chats with "Tingly Feeling" [ http://www.tinglyfeeling.com/quality-life/various-updates/#comment-12021603 ] who's really newly diagnosed and finds it all still a bit bewildering, (my world and welcome to it "Tingly") and with Carla [ http://beyonditall.net/ ] who seems to be a smart MSer with a good taste in canes.

---- "Birds in a Rat Race" by: "Mountain Mirrors" http://www.mountainmirrors.com/

 


FeedMe 

 

I now have TWO sponsors.

I told you, way back when, getting the first one was the toughest.

Now I have two and it didn't take another three years and several thousands more dollars of spending on my part.

The links are synchronized with the messages on the m4a right now.

It you're listening on this through iTunes or through a web browser, just click on the image for the sponsor and I'll take you right to the appropriate web page.

If you're on an iPhone or an iPod touch, you should be good to go too.

----

The first sponsor, you should be all familiar with and maybe even have bought some t-shirts.[ http://www.artoshirt.net/servlet/the-MS-Artists/Categories ]

I'm still in love with my T-Shirts,

There is one called "At the Back" by Karolina Wojdak [ http://www.artoshirt.net/servlet/the-370/MS/Detail ] which is beautiful in a deeply intriguing way. I am always fascinated by the way artists perceive the world.

They see the same thing we mere mortals do but they seem to take away a very different mental image from the same landscape my ultra- or magic-realist eyes merely sees.

I would try to out texture a fractal. That's why I'm glad to be involved in audio. (Although back when Wendy was Walter, I played with the shapes of sound waves and how that affected our auditory perception.)

I hope you folks out there are buying these because I'm not going to be outside much to look at them once the heat hits.

----

I received the CADDi in the mail, and, after trying it out, I feel that I can honestly recommend the CADDi by BARBCO. [ http://barbco.biz ]

The picture of the CADDi in use sort of says it all.

BarbCo is very generously giving a dollar of  off  every order they process to a bunch of causes and YOU select the cause.

[ http://barbco.biz/MultipleSclerosis.htm ]

I'm talking with her, well we're Twittering and emailing back and forth, about having promo code for MSers.

The CADDI is for non MSers but it ought to be for us too.

---- "The Rat Race" by: "Julia's Window" http://www.juliaswindow.com/

 


Thesis:

 

I'm not doing a review or a critique of the book  "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by "Joseph A. Tainter (ISBN: 978-0-521-38673-9 ) [ http://www.gettextbooks.com/search/?isbn=978-0-521-38673-9 ]

I'm just giving my take on it and what thoughts the book sparked in me.

---- "Rat Race" by: "The Groove Mine" http://www.myspace.com/thegroovemine

 

 


Synthesis:

 

Though the book was extremely interesting, the complete lack of guidance into applying this book to the present and possibly the future was one of the first things that I noticed on this, my second pass at rereading  the book, (I've already dog eared the book on pages I found, uh, interesting. It now looks as interesting as I'd found it to be.)

Of course that was expected from a book put out by an organization dedicated to "New Studies in Archaeology".

It discussed the civilizations of

• "Chou China",

• the "Old Babylonian Period",

• the "Third Dynasty of UR/Sassinian Period",

• "Old Kingdom Egypt",

• the "Harappans",

• the "Hittites",

• the "Mycenaeans",

• the "Mauryan Empire".

• the civilizations of "Monte Alban",

• the "Hohokam" and

• the "Haurii."

It utterly ignored "Angkor", "Ayutthaya" and other so called "jungle civilizations."

While not reflective of the current civilizations, I believe it shed a great deal of light on the newer civilizations, such as the "Khmer", dynastic Russia, the "Soviet Empire", my own "Québecois" civilization, the "Cuban" under Fulgencio Batista and then under Fidel Castro, and countless others.

It discussed these in terms of "declining marginal returns" and it made one very telling point, that, and I'm quoting here, "collapse occurs, and can only occur in a power vacuum" and "What may be a catastrophe to administrators (and later observers,) need not be to the bulk of the population. It may only be among those members of a society who have neither the opportunity nor the ability to produce food resources that the collapse of administrative hierarchies is a clear disaster."

It covered declines and falls in terms of :

• "resource depletion",

•  "new resources",

• "catastrophes",

• "insufficient responses to circumstances",

• "competition with "other complex societies",

• "intruders",

• "confllict/contradiction/mismanagement" by the "soit disant" power elite,

• "social disfunction"

• "mystical" causes,

• the '"chance concatenation of events" and

• "economic explanations'

The book ends with a list of trends to watch for in terms of:

• agriculture,

• minerals and energy production,

• research and development,

• investment in health,

• education,

• government, military and industrial management,

• productivity of GNP for producing new growth and

• some elements of improved technical design.

All in all, it was a most illuminating read.

---- "Nitro - The Race Leader" by: "Dr. Awkward" http://drawkward.net/

 


Conclusion:

 

So we've come to the end of  "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by "Joseph A. Tainter (ISBN: 978-0-521-38673-9 ) [ http://www.gettextbooks.com/search/?isbn=978-0-521-38673-9 ]

I hope I haven't bored you too much. Read it yourselves and tell me that i've missed things (I always do,) and whether or not you think I'm full of pie in the sky or just plain crap.

There is a quote from Branett and Morse  at the end of the book which I just love:

 

"No society can escape the general limits of its resources, but no innovative society need accept Malthusian diminishing returns."

No, its got nothing to do with MS.

That is not the point of these podcasts anyway.

They're supposed to be about how we're "coping" with life while providing a platform for advertisers to reach out to us MSers with the products they are selling to make our lives better.

Tomorrow is the "Fourth of July", so to anybody who is uploading it today tomorrow or this weekend, I wish you a happy fourth.

---- "Electrolove" by: "Mobile" http://www.mobiletheband.com/ 

Outro

 

Theme and 'incidental music' from:

"msb_theme",

 by: "Guy David",

 http://www.guydavid.com/

 no album,

 via personal contract

 

YouTube video list:

"Johnnywise"

 by: "Modern Caveman"

 http://www.moderncaveman.com

 picked for me by Una Prosell

"Out Of My Head'"

 by: "Mobile"

 http://www.mobiletheband.com/

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

Song list:

"The Race"

 by: "The Goldstars"

 http://www.thegoldstars.com/

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

"Birds in a Rat Race"

 by: "Mountain Mirrors"

 http://www.mountainmirrors.com/

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

"The Rat Race"

 by: "Julia's Window"

 http://www.juliaswindow.com/

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

"Rat Race"

 by: "The Groove Mine"

 http://www.myspace.com/thegroovemine

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

"Nitro - The Race Leader"

 by: "Dr. Awkward"

 http://drawkward.net/s

 album: "none"

 via: music.podshow.com

"Electrolove"

 by: "Mobile"

 http://www.mobiletheband.com

 album: "Tales From The City"

 via: http://www.mobiletheband.com/

 


PhotoCredits:

 

 All images, synchronized with the songs, are of the artists and come via music.podshow.com except when they aren't. :-)

 


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