Lots of lake effect snow!

We have had over a foot here in Kalamazoo, and the closer you get to the lake the deeper it gets. In Buffalo NY they had 76 inches YESTERDAY! Maybe another 3 feet today. Can you imagine trying to shovel that?

On a brighter note, the world is running out of fresh water, and Michigan is stuck right in the middle of about 15% of all of the fresh water in the world...That is why we get so much lake effect snow! I love it. This will be one of the wealthiest areas in the world when the water starts to dry up. One barrel of water for 3 barrels of oil. They can go pack sand over in the middle east.

When you consider the vast amount of solar energy that is not used, I think its conceivable that fossil fuel with eventually be replaced in its entirety. Food production methods will be altered to rely less on land and local conditions, hydroponic farming will continue to advance, and populations will continue to skyrocket.

I think water will one day be that resource of greatest value, ie: why both the worlds largest food company (Nestle) and a well known oil/gas baron (T. Boone Pickens) have diverted significant portions of their investment to water.

Only time will tell....

But those Great Lakes wont be so great if Canada shuts off the fresh water supply. All you have to do is stop the inflow by the amount necessary to shut off Niagra falls and suddenly you are on your way to living next to the Great Seas instead of the Great Lakes. The water problems with solar are not well known. www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/.../20100117water-solar0117.htm...

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

wywoody: You might do better writing reports on why surviving roofing company owners are suffering from bruised foreheads or why they are leaping off of roofs.

Maybe you can write up procedure manuals for installing a band-aid. Maybe market disposal containers for used band-aids to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens.

Classic case of a runaway bureaucracy feasting on unlimited budgets.

Wow, lots of topics here.

Energy management is hopeless because nobody in government is thinking 10 to 20 years ahead. They think they're thinking 50 to 100 years ahead and that their responsibility is to hasten that vision. So we get ruled by a mindset of "people need to be forced out of their cars". Instead of what's obvious, the cleanest, most efficient transportation is MOVING vehicles and adding roads that will be needed for as long there are cars, roads are intentionally allowed to clog.

We have excess natural gas and it would be an ideal, cleaner burning alternative to supplant gas and extend the time we can burn fossil fuels. Within 10 years almost all mass transit could be natural gas with existing technology. But that's not acceptable to those that think they need to manipulate the future. These are the same people that ere looking so far ahead, fracking came as a total surprise.

We have hydro power here. Excess water and power flows over 1/3 of the year. Yet we now have to pay the solar (wind) companies for the power they are NOT making when we're using hydro, even though we have had it as "free" power since the 30's.

I'm for voluntary population control. If abortion is used for population control, have the honesty to acknowledge the fetus. "A woman's right to choose what to do with her body" needs to revised to "with her bodies".

I now don't worry about what I might be healthy to do after retiring from roofing. I'll go to California and write reports on knuckle scrapes for any surviving roofing companies down there.

Mike Hicks is predicting that population will continue to skyrocket.

Seen-it-all is predicting that population will peak and then begin to fall.

Twill is reporting that lumbermen are consuming their capital just to stay afloat.

Copperman is worried that his tactilely-gorgeous workmanship will be criticized as not looking "commercial" enough.

Clover points out the Aral Sea. California has its Owens Valley and Hetch-Hetchy dam.

Here is my two cents. Three Gorges Dam.

I'm putting my faith and hope with Seen-it-all.

I love what humanity brings to the universe, some of it that is, discounting for Charles Manson, Jeffrey Daumer, Islamic fundamentalists, Adolf Hitler, etc. but at seven and a half billion and growing, the earth has already had more than enough of a good thing and if the human population keeps growing I will personally be more than ready to make my exit when my time comes.

Dependence on an ever-expanding economy is the pathway to oblivion.

Abandonment of the elegance of geometry for the impersonal abyss of pure mathematics is the pathway to oblivion.

Preference for "commercial" over old-school tactile richness is the pathway to oblivion.

There is no turning back, of course, but we need to steer things away from the commoditization of Life, period, in every way possible as often as possible. We either grow or die and at this point it is a spiritual matter as much as anything.

I hold this to be true on the grand scale, of course, but equally on the small scale. Let me cite a recent example of the small scale:

"Dear Policyholder: (that must be me, one seven and a half billionth of all the people out there)

The Worker' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) requires employers to report all claims to their insurers, even those considered first-aid or small claims. To fully comply with WCIRB's reporting requirement, effective January 1, 2015, State Fund will begin reporting first-aid claims to the WCIRB, and all claims that you report to us will appear on your loss history.

California Labor Code, Section 5401(a), defines "first aid" as "any one-time treatment, and any follow-up visit for the purpose of observation of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, or other minor industrial injury, which do not ordinarily require medical care."

Let me put it bluntly. Kiss my ass.

My brother spent his whole career as a bureaucrat for the California Department of Education. How do you keep billions of dollars from irrigating the field of growing young minds? Build a six-story building and fill it up with seventy-thousand dollar a year paper-pushers. That's a start.

When you see a truck-mounted paper shredder disgorging mountains of shredded documents you are witnessing a mathematics-dominated culture in the act of vomiting itself up.

Too much and too little fused together as the building block molecule of a robotic society.

We are mammals, not robots. Let's get with the program.

Ok, that's more than two cents. But that's its value on the open market, so I'm going to insist on calling it two cents anyway.

:woohoo:

Seeing what Russia did to the Aral Sea will hopefully teach the world not to trifle with water too much Ruined a huge community to say the least.

World population will peak and then decline in number. The more affluent a country becomes, the lower the birth rate. Mortality rates may increase but when you have an IPhone in your hand, people find more to do than just have sex for fun.

I don't think you will ever see more than 50 stars on Old Glory. The future Keystone XL will be transporting water, not oil.

When you consider the vast amount of solar energy that is not used, I think it's conceivable that fossil fuel with eventually be replaced in it's entirety. Food production methods will be altered to rely less on land and local conditions, hydroponic farming will continue to advance, and populations will continue to skyrocket.

I think water will one day be that resource of greatest value, ie: why both the worlds largest food company (Nestle) and a well known oil/gas baron (T. Boone Pickens) have diverted significant portions of their investment to water.

Only time will tell....

But those "Great" Lakes won't be so great if Canada shuts off the fresh water supply. All you have to do is stop the inflow by the amount necessary to shut off Niagra falls and suddenly you are on your way to living next to the Great Seas instead of the Great Lakes.

That is doubtful. Clean water is valuable, though, and will become more and more prized until about seven billion people start wising up a little more.

I have written this about 4 times already. Hopefully it will post this time. Michigan is sitting right in the middle of 15% of the fresh water in the world. Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron completely surround us and we but into lakes Erie and St. Clair too. Like Mike days, Canada supplies most of the water, but we "own" it. Who does "own" it though. I know that Nestle has a large plant about 100 miles north of us that bottles water and they sell millions of gallons of Michigan water all over the world. When push comes to shove, we will sell a barrel of water for 2 or 3 barrels of oil.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. The Great Divide is very close to the southern border of the Great Lakes. Canada controls most of the watershed that feeds the lakes. We could be buying our water from them.

Although, given things that have been done over oil, if it comes down to water, perhaps our biggest problem will be redesigning Old Glory to hold 60-62 stars, depending whether we consolidate the eastern island provinces.

:unsure:

I have written this 4 times already. I will see if it posts before I do it again

Hey that water in your creek is quickly being bought up so watch out!