Human beings are the ultimate natural resource

A guy named Julian Simon said that there is a meaningful sense in which we will never run out of any raw materials. He backed up his claim with scads of data and references. His book "The Ultimate Resource II" is loaded with good news for the human race and for the environment. And his web site makes the text available for free.

Ultimate Resource II online

One of the chapter titles is "Why Are Material-Technical Resource Forecasts So Often Wrong?"

My favorite story about Julian Simon is the one where he made a bet with a famous doomsayer, and Julian won the bet.

David Oakey

Opiophobia -- Superstitious fear of narcotics may kill people

People can die from the mass hysteria I call Fear of Narcotics and some others call Opiophobia. In an earlier post, I noted that there are links between racism and the earliest bans on drugs in the USA. However, even after the strength of the racism slacks off, the harm from these bans remain. I have known some people who suffered from pain when they were dying. Would proper doses of pain killers eased their suffering? My guess would be that they would, but I'm no doctor. Still, I would rather that real doctors' options were not limited by law, especially if the cause for the limitation is superstition.

David Oakey

Got Milk? Calcium Builds Strong Bones

Here's another humorous commercial in the "Got Milk?" series, but to view it one should have a fast internet connection.

Got Milk? Calcium Builds Strong Bones

Mass Hysteria, part one

When I was a teen, I played a harmless game with my friends. The game was unfamiliar to most people, and rising in popularity among youth, which made many people suspicious of it. But the suspicion level rose high due to a certain incident which badly hurt my hobby. The game was Dungeons and Dragons, and the incident was "the kid who disappeared while playing Dungeons and Dragons in real tunnels, and he died."

I resented the damage done to the reputation of my hobby. People unfamiliar with the hobby now had ludicrous misunderstandings of it.

It turns out that a detective concerned with the reputations of two kids connected to his investigation decided that it was best to risk the reputations of tens of thousands of kids he didn't know and, in effect, he spread lies about the game.

The origin of Hysteria against Dungeons and Dragons

It isn't the first time lies ruined a reputation. Consider Wertham's post hoc ergo propter hoc testimony to the U.S. Congress against comic books. The U.S. comic industry never recovered, and it was surpassed by the Japanese comics industry. It won't be the last time a reputation is damaged by lies.

David