For the past few weeks, it seems as though Western civilization has been coming unglued at the seams. There’s uncontrollable civil war along our borders (Libya, Yemen, Ivory Coast). Our political system seems deadlocked and bankrupt (inability to fix health care and Social Security, inability to find a place to dispose of nuclear waste). Our financial situation is verging on the edge of bankruptcy (after a housing and mortgage collapse and the US and European sovereign debt crises). Unemployment is up and energy and food prices are way up (that’s quite evident). <\/p>\n
Technology, scientific management and capitalism, once the holy trinity of our prosperity, now seem a threat to our well-being (global warming, the Macando oil well disaster, the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown). Their promises for a better tomorrow (bio-genetic engineering, alternative energy, nanotechnology, cyber networking) aren’t delivering what we had hoped for. Our physical infrastructure isn’t what it used to be (too many bridges and roads are in bad and even dangerous shape). Other places in the world now produce most of the stuff that we use in daily life, better, faster and cheaper than we can (China, India, Brazil, etc.); and can even do the smarter stuff (write computer programs, analyze x-rays). No longer is the future so bright for our kids that they gotta wear shades.<\/p>\n
I wish I knew how to change all of this. But I don’t. Instead, random thoughts keep rolling through my mind. Here is a quick sample of this week’s catch:<\/p>\n
1.) I’m upset about the recent switch by many vitamin manufacturers from hard pills to gel caps. I’m a vegetarian, and thus I don’t appreciate the fact that gel-cap vitamins are made of gelatin, as much of an animal product as a T-bone porterhouse. But even beyond that, I just don’t like the look and feel of gel caps. In the bottle, they look like a yucky, oily combination of gummy bears and fish roe. However, the \u201cvitamin market\u201d seems to be swinging towards gel-caps, and I’ll just have to accept the inconvenience and expense of searching for hard-cap pills so as to get my fix of Vitamin B, D, Lutein and other stuff.<\/p>\n
2. ) I wonder why some of the big trucking companies use people’s names. E.g., J.B. Hunt, Duie Pyle, Dick Simon and C.R. England. I wonder who those guys are. Guess they started successful trucking companies, given all the trucks you see on the roads with their names on them. But I can’t think of any other transportation industry that use names like that. There is no \u201cJ.T.’s Airline\u201d or \u201cArnie’s River Barges\u201d or \u201cBilly’s Railroad\u201d or \u201cKatie Smith’s Bus Lines\u201d. So why does it work for trucking companies, but not for any other form of transport?<\/p>\n