I can't travel, and so spend time watching news & videos from around the world. I'm struck by how people who have nothing else, have cell phones. And by how many children have them. Recently there were estimates of 5 billion cell phones, with no guarantee for how many still work, what belonged to companies, etc. Sorry not to provide a link, I didn't know this interesting article would be popping up. I mention this because I think there are many clues that point to lower population numbers than we're given. Demographics and statistics are used and abused in many ways. As a vintage human 🙂, there's not too much I believe any more.
I long ago came to the point where I decided anything "official" and "authoritative" was a lie unless I could prove otherwise by myself or with trusted non-official sources.
I've been to 57 countries on 6 continents and I know from personal experience that there's a LOT of empty space out there. The vast majority of folks live in big cities and easily believe the world is overcrowded, especially when the media only show city scenes. One can come to believe that the world is packed with people, but it ain't so. Drive through West Texas and you'll quickly feel very isolated.
So thee are 5 billion phones in use. I have 4 collected over the past 20 years, but I only use one of them. If I am the average, then only 1 of the 5 billion are actually in use. The others are collecting dust in the used electronics box.
I'm willing to have my mathematics shot full of holes, and I'm sure it could be, but I used "official" numbers and developed common sense formulae to do my calcs. In any event, I KNOW I don't trust the "official" head count.
Well now--very interesting article here Mr. Farside. Of course, I have long known that official narrative is just another word for lie, so don't believe much of what I read or hear, and even suspect the old eyes at times. Fortunately, here on the ranch the population is limited to just me, along with all the various critters that make the place a ranch, This has been a good week--had an appointment over in the county seat on Monday, and another coming on Friday, but the rest of the time, the only trips out the front gate have been to collect the mail from the box down on the FM --a half mile down a caliche drive. Personally. I really like the solitude this part of Texas provides a guy who really doesn't like being around other two legged critters very much at all--possible the end result of being raised up in one of those big east coast city row house neighborhoods.
You highlight a reason why I think people buy the "official" numbers without question. So many folks live in row housing, piled on top of each other in big city ant hills, they completely forget that there's an entire empty world out there. Being connected all the time also re-enforces the perception that we humans are everywhere. Add on top of that, no one ever checks the checkers. We just swallow the myths as truth, never giving the bastids the stink eye. There are still wide open parts of Kansas with roaming herds of gazelles, though, and when you actually experience that, you realize just how empty the planet really is.
I'd take the ranch any day, though. I'm a bit of a misanthrope on the best of days.
An eclectic romp through another likely anomaly; Gov’t manipulation of ‘facts’!. It is as well widely held that China’s population is closer to 300-400M, extended to be really scary. To be the ultimate skeptic, what can you beleive, it's all a fabrication! Keep ‘those cards and letters coming in…’ - can you attribute this renown ‘sign-off '?
The sign-off is what Dean Martin used to say at the end of every show. There may be another, but that's the one I know.
I didn't include it in my article, but I ran the calcs for 2025 on China and India for their top 500 cities by population, and didn't come anywhere near 1-1.2 billion. Indonesia claims Jakarta has 20-25 million, but I live here and I can attest there's nowhere near that many folkls, even including the Jabodetabek (wider metropolitan area). I need to go check how many cars and motorcycles are registered in Jakarta. My guess is 5 million, maybe 6 or 7. Some richer folks register 2 vehicles so they can get an odd and even license plate, and so ignore the traffic restricted areas.
In any case, if a government type was standing in front of me, I'd call him/her a liar before they even spoke.
My oldie memory has Arthur Godfrey signing off, just after his Korea soldiers extolled over the cups of tea derived from one tea bag -those oldies and goodies.
You're probably right. In fact, it sounds like something Godfrey would say. It could also be Deano picked it up and ran with it. A lot of that era gets jumbled together for me. I was still a whuppersnapper back then.
I really enjoyed "Dead Planet" but then, anything with Diane Cilento merits a watch. I will look out for "What Happened to Monday?", but my experience of newer films tends to be one of disappointment. Perhaps being a teenager in the 70s predisposes me to a liking for that "70s weirdness".
I wondered if anyone had seen ZPG/Dead Planet. Diane is severely underrated and mostly forgotten these days. I vaguely remember when it came out during the population collapse/global ice age panic of the 70s. Films like this serve as a reminder that the PTB generate new existential threats every decade or so to keep us all in a constant state of anxiety and willing to hand over our souls for "security".
I may have that one in my collection, though admittedly it's been a while. Charles was a titan, and there's a wonderful story about he and John Cleese working together on "A Fish Called Wanda". Good call. I'll hunt it down.
He had an interesting career, with movies like Fantastic Voyage and Ben-Hur, but my personal favorite is Lady Dracula. :) So terrible it's hilarious. It's a shame it was one of his last appearances. I can think of worse ways to go than a heart attack on the golf course, though.
Quelle surprise. I don't know about the various government statistics, but I'm with Charles Krauthammer on the UN. It's a sandbox full of dictators. Speaking of Charles, God rest his soul, I believe he also originated the term Bush Derangement Syndrome, now morphed into TDS.
Back to the UN, I ran across a nice meme a couple of days back. A photo of the dreaded Blue Helmets -- something like "we're coming" (to execute ICC mandates) -- followed by another photo, one of a granny pointing a shotgun out a window and saying, "Well, hurry up. I got a pie in the oven."
It's very weird that a bunch of people that have never done anything but inherit money and scheme therewith have hatched this dream of controlling everyone on the planet. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of trouble controlling myself.
When you have so much money that daily survival is not a concern and you can have anything you want when you want it, the only frontier left is using humanity as your toys. When you have multi-generational wealth, you've never worked a day in your life and you've never done your own chores. There are servants for that. You lose touch with the reality most of us live in.
When you're a trillionaire, you dream of colonizing other planets, rather than fixing the one we're on.
Hard for me to say what they think. I've never had enough money to hob knob in that realm. Judging by what they do and how they act, it sure looks like they are shallower than a baby's bathwater. What incentive do they have to look beyond the surface, when the surface for them is pretty comfy?
My guess is that your #'s are very accurate. When viewing any government stats from anywhere coming from government bureaucrats, I am reminded of the saying, paraphrased thusly, you can tell they are lying when they open their mouths.
Zackly right. I struggled to get through university statistics class, but I learned enough to smell a rat when it comes to "official" statistics. As Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."
I don't discount the possibility, but we just haven't been breeding at rates that get us from less than a billion in 1800, to 8.3 today. And that's not even factoring in wars, disease and pestilence. If you are et the center of a crowd of a million people, you might think the planet is wall-to-wall humans, but it you're out on the edge, you have a somewhat clearer picture of reality.
....Morlock or Eloi...?...I think I'll opt out of that binary choice...mmm, seem to remember i got a 5th of Jameson hidden out beyond the chicken coop back of the woodshed...think i'll dig it up and contemplate the future...or at least decide what to cook for dinner...
Well, you have excellent taste in whiskey. I suggest making a Jameson cream sauce with cremini mushrooms over rib-eye or pork chops, or add blue cheese and drown a steak or two, then use the rest for ponder potion. I find my pondering is far more productive with a full stomach AND good whiskey.
“Figures lie and liars figure.” So the eugenicist have found their solution to reduce world population and control breeding by reducing the stock through starvation. Constricting and destroying the flow of oil is their weapon of choice. The EU has been attacking farmers and forcing a reduction in production by controlling fertilizer in the name of Climate Change . If one looks around the clues are everywhere. Definitely won’t be 283.33 million living in 12,000 cities.
Don't forget water. The two things no life can survive without are food and water. Notably, those are precisely the two things the basitds are after. The two continents under heaviest attack are South America and Africa, since we just can't have all those valuable resources controlled by the natives. If they can't be bought out, then they'll be starved and thirsted out. It's an effective weapon and one that is hard to defend against without a little farmland, and even then the bastids probably own the water rights.
I can't travel, and so spend time watching news & videos from around the world. I'm struck by how people who have nothing else, have cell phones. And by how many children have them. Recently there were estimates of 5 billion cell phones, with no guarantee for how many still work, what belonged to companies, etc. Sorry not to provide a link, I didn't know this interesting article would be popping up. I mention this because I think there are many clues that point to lower population numbers than we're given. Demographics and statistics are used and abused in many ways. As a vintage human 🙂, there's not too much I believe any more.
I long ago came to the point where I decided anything "official" and "authoritative" was a lie unless I could prove otherwise by myself or with trusted non-official sources.
I've been to 57 countries on 6 continents and I know from personal experience that there's a LOT of empty space out there. The vast majority of folks live in big cities and easily believe the world is overcrowded, especially when the media only show city scenes. One can come to believe that the world is packed with people, but it ain't so. Drive through West Texas and you'll quickly feel very isolated.
So thee are 5 billion phones in use. I have 4 collected over the past 20 years, but I only use one of them. If I am the average, then only 1 of the 5 billion are actually in use. The others are collecting dust in the used electronics box.
I'm willing to have my mathematics shot full of holes, and I'm sure it could be, but I used "official" numbers and developed common sense formulae to do my calcs. In any event, I KNOW I don't trust the "official" head count.
Well now--very interesting article here Mr. Farside. Of course, I have long known that official narrative is just another word for lie, so don't believe much of what I read or hear, and even suspect the old eyes at times. Fortunately, here on the ranch the population is limited to just me, along with all the various critters that make the place a ranch, This has been a good week--had an appointment over in the county seat on Monday, and another coming on Friday, but the rest of the time, the only trips out the front gate have been to collect the mail from the box down on the FM --a half mile down a caliche drive. Personally. I really like the solitude this part of Texas provides a guy who really doesn't like being around other two legged critters very much at all--possible the end result of being raised up in one of those big east coast city row house neighborhoods.
You highlight a reason why I think people buy the "official" numbers without question. So many folks live in row housing, piled on top of each other in big city ant hills, they completely forget that there's an entire empty world out there. Being connected all the time also re-enforces the perception that we humans are everywhere. Add on top of that, no one ever checks the checkers. We just swallow the myths as truth, never giving the bastids the stink eye. There are still wide open parts of Kansas with roaming herds of gazelles, though, and when you actually experience that, you realize just how empty the planet really is.
I'd take the ranch any day, though. I'm a bit of a misanthrope on the best of days.
An eclectic romp through another likely anomaly; Gov’t manipulation of ‘facts’!. It is as well widely held that China’s population is closer to 300-400M, extended to be really scary. To be the ultimate skeptic, what can you beleive, it's all a fabrication! Keep ‘those cards and letters coming in…’ - can you attribute this renown ‘sign-off '?
The sign-off is what Dean Martin used to say at the end of every show. There may be another, but that's the one I know.
I didn't include it in my article, but I ran the calcs for 2025 on China and India for their top 500 cities by population, and didn't come anywhere near 1-1.2 billion. Indonesia claims Jakarta has 20-25 million, but I live here and I can attest there's nowhere near that many folkls, even including the Jabodetabek (wider metropolitan area). I need to go check how many cars and motorcycles are registered in Jakarta. My guess is 5 million, maybe 6 or 7. Some richer folks register 2 vehicles so they can get an odd and even license plate, and so ignore the traffic restricted areas.
In any case, if a government type was standing in front of me, I'd call him/her a liar before they even spoke.
My oldie memory has Arthur Godfrey signing off, just after his Korea soldiers extolled over the cups of tea derived from one tea bag -those oldies and goodies.
You're probably right. In fact, it sounds like something Godfrey would say. It could also be Deano picked it up and ran with it. A lot of that era gets jumbled together for me. I was still a whuppersnapper back then.
I really enjoyed "Dead Planet" but then, anything with Diane Cilento merits a watch. I will look out for "What Happened to Monday?", but my experience of newer films tends to be one of disappointment. Perhaps being a teenager in the 70s predisposes me to a liking for that "70s weirdness".
I wondered if anyone had seen ZPG/Dead Planet. Diane is severely underrated and mostly forgotten these days. I vaguely remember when it came out during the population collapse/global ice age panic of the 70s. Films like this serve as a reminder that the PTB generate new existential threats every decade or so to keep us all in a constant state of anxiety and willing to hand over our souls for "security".
Recommend you watch The Third Secret with Diane Cilento, Stephen Boyd and Pamela Franklin, directed by Charles Crichton (an Ealing man).
I may have that one in my collection, though admittedly it's been a while. Charles was a titan, and there's a wonderful story about he and John Cleese working together on "A Fish Called Wanda". Good call. I'll hunt it down.
I have often regreted the early death of Stephen Boyd. He was a fine actor.
He had an interesting career, with movies like Fantastic Voyage and Ben-Hur, but my personal favorite is Lady Dracula. :) So terrible it's hilarious. It's a shame it was one of his last appearances. I can think of worse ways to go than a heart attack on the golf course, though.
Occasionally, you come up with something that makes me thin̈k you went to school. Keep it up. Cheers
Them's fightin' words where I come from. Next thing I know, you'll be calling me rational or something.
Quelle surprise. I don't know about the various government statistics, but I'm with Charles Krauthammer on the UN. It's a sandbox full of dictators. Speaking of Charles, God rest his soul, I believe he also originated the term Bush Derangement Syndrome, now morphed into TDS.
Back to the UN, I ran across a nice meme a couple of days back. A photo of the dreaded Blue Helmets -- something like "we're coming" (to execute ICC mandates) -- followed by another photo, one of a granny pointing a shotgun out a window and saying, "Well, hurry up. I got a pie in the oven."
It's very weird that a bunch of people that have never done anything but inherit money and scheme therewith have hatched this dream of controlling everyone on the planet. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of trouble controlling myself.
When you have so much money that daily survival is not a concern and you can have anything you want when you want it, the only frontier left is using humanity as your toys. When you have multi-generational wealth, you've never worked a day in your life and you've never done your own chores. There are servants for that. You lose touch with the reality most of us live in.
When you're a trillionaire, you dream of colonizing other planets, rather than fixing the one we're on.
Indeed. But doesn't it even cross their minds that this might not be, for that matter is unlikely to be, all there is?
Hard for me to say what they think. I've never had enough money to hob knob in that realm. Judging by what they do and how they act, it sure looks like they are shallower than a baby's bathwater. What incentive do they have to look beyond the surface, when the surface for them is pretty comfy?
My guess is that your #'s are very accurate. When viewing any government stats from anywhere coming from government bureaucrats, I am reminded of the saying, paraphrased thusly, you can tell they are lying when they open their mouths.
Zackly right. I struggled to get through university statistics class, but I learned enough to smell a rat when it comes to "official" statistics. As Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Tou lost me the first time you mentioned maths, but I'll wager a pint you're closer than the bastards ever will be. Good piece, mate.
Speaking of pints, we need to drain a couple in the near future. No doubt we'll have to claw our way through a vast sea of humanity to do it, as well.
Alien hybrids and zombie bots might make up the difference. Sounds like school funding based on attendance= Present and accounted for.
I don't discount the possibility, but we just haven't been breeding at rates that get us from less than a billion in 1800, to 8.3 today. And that's not even factoring in wars, disease and pestilence. If you are et the center of a crowd of a million people, you might think the planet is wall-to-wall humans, but it you're out on the edge, you have a somewhat clearer picture of reality.
....Morlock or Eloi...?...I think I'll opt out of that binary choice...mmm, seem to remember i got a 5th of Jameson hidden out beyond the chicken coop back of the woodshed...think i'll dig it up and contemplate the future...or at least decide what to cook for dinner...
Well, you have excellent taste in whiskey. I suggest making a Jameson cream sauce with cremini mushrooms over rib-eye or pork chops, or add blue cheese and drown a steak or two, then use the rest for ponder potion. I find my pondering is far more productive with a full stomach AND good whiskey.
“Figures lie and liars figure.” So the eugenicist have found their solution to reduce world population and control breeding by reducing the stock through starvation. Constricting and destroying the flow of oil is their weapon of choice. The EU has been attacking farmers and forcing a reduction in production by controlling fertilizer in the name of Climate Change . If one looks around the clues are everywhere. Definitely won’t be 283.33 million living in 12,000 cities.
Don't forget water. The two things no life can survive without are food and water. Notably, those are precisely the two things the basitds are after. The two continents under heaviest attack are South America and Africa, since we just can't have all those valuable resources controlled by the natives. If they can't be bought out, then they'll be starved and thirsted out. It's an effective weapon and one that is hard to defend against without a little farmland, and even then the bastids probably own the water rights.