what happened to Bird Flu?

I was tidying up at home and came across a free bi-monthly rag that I picked up in Moab. The general topic for that issue is the looming fact that this nation's population will reach 300 Million this month. That's a lot of people, especially when you consider than the last 100M were added in the past 35 years. The organization formerly known as Zero Population Growth is now known as "Population Connection" and has some interesting/surprising facts here. True, the USA doesn't have as high a population growth as developing nations, and some western european nations actually have negative growth. But the situation... well, it ain't good, folks. Developing nations, some of them gripped by famine, civil war, insufficient infrastructure and lack of clean water, are just churning out children like crazy.

Some would say that this might all be because we haven't had any population-adjusting catastrophes (i.e. Mathusian Catastrophe) which otherwise would act normally on the population. So was bird flu the potential bubonic plague of the 21st Century? And what the hell happened to the Grand Pandemic? Could it be that some other Fear Politicking took the stage? Yeah, I guess so.

Examples of population excess closer to home: (ok, it's just animals, but anyway) transmission of bovine TB to wild deer, and how diseased Michigan's deer population is. Did you know? The population of does is more or less ballooning, for two reasons: 1) Many hunters want trophy racks (does ain't got antlers, don't ya know) and so few hunters even go after does, and 2) Suburban sprawl produces an excessive amount of "edge habitat" which is where deer live, and where residents like to bait deer to attract them to their backyard. That bait brings deer closer to each other than they normally are in the wild, increasing disease transmission. My suggestion to you? Either go out and get a doe permit and control the herd, or STOP BAITING DEER, you fucking morons [sheesh].

Rained Out of Silence

Today (in case you missed it) was a thing known as the Ride of Silence. Alas, in this neighborhood, with lightning flickering on the horizon right when we were about to set out at 7:00, the safer choice turned out to be the wiser choice as wicked (dare I say heinous?) storms passed through town. Besides, who wants to suddenly be a bad news story? ”Today in an ironic twist of fate, 6 cyclists in Champaign-Urbana were killed while riding through town in an annual ride intended as a memorial to cyclists injured or killed on the road” Not us, that’s for sure. Next year though, a little cooperation from the weather would be good. I hope it went well for the folks in Ann Arbor on the first annual ride for AABTS / AAVC.

For all you cyclists out there who might be interested in joining with others to remember fallen cyclists, maybe engage in some non-confrontational & low-impact cycling activism, have a look at rideofsilence.org. Ask around your local community, spread the word, participate. (If there’s no local ride in your town maybe even start your own?)

For all you motorists out there - please remember: Cyclists Are Everywhere. The cyclists don’t mean you any harm or ill will just like you probably don’t mean them any harm or ill will. Tempers can flare, but let’s all Try To Get Along. If the road is narrow, we’ll gladly move over if we can. Please don’t run us over. Thanks.