According to a new report issued by the Popullation Reference Bureau the world's population will grow to 9.3 billion by 2050. The growth is not, however, distributed equally around the globe. Generally some of the least developed countries will experience the largest growth (China and India will have a total population of over 3 billion combined), while the US is one of a very few western countries to experience growth. Here's a nice little chart:



Of course all of these predictions are based on us not blowing each other up, or dying from meterological cataclysms unleashed from global temperature changes, or massive hunger... Though they have allowed for AIDS casualties, there are even some predictions (truly very sad ones) on the same page above with regards solely to the epidemic.

sidenote: thanks for the cool link to vintage Buffalo pics sqb [inlink]sqb,58[/inlink]
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The Olympics are back at home, enjoying a warm mediterranean summer. The world is watching, and much is at stake. The titles of American glory rest in the balance. The young athletes' shoulders bear the burden for all of us. We can experience our triumph vicariously through the enthusiam of our heroes. Yet in times of defeat, when our perserverance is strenuously taxed, we do not waver, for our feet are fimrly planted upon the shoulders of those who have died for the freedom we enjoy today. The mostly forgotten athletes of yore, who bravely fought in the name of American superiority. Who gave, without regret, undying devotion to the cause of complete domination. The burden is heavy but we, through they, are able to bear it.

The games are so much more than that. They represent all of us in their universal struggle towards freedom. Culture can be reduced and defined to a brave team of five. Emotions long held sealed are unfettered in raptuous support. We are the team. We are the ones winning. And if we lose... our bootstraps will survive, battered yet intact. The American Dream lies but a pull away. So we pull, and we swim, and we leap, and we bound. Guns will we trigger, and weights will we lift. Dare I say "yogas and pilates and'the room is full of hotties"?

Our team lost. Womens' gymnastics, where we had all placed our hopes! Our crown has been pulverized by the heel of some romanian gypsy tramp. What nerve, don't they know who they're messing with. I may be 15 but I have the might of the US behind me honey. So, will it surprise me if next year we find WMD in Romania? Not one bit, the foundation has just been laid. Obviously those gypsies are using WMD-propulsion units in their gymsuits. B-52 lock on...NOW!!!

You approach Satan's wretched city where you behold a wide plain surrounded by iron walls. Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell.

God, those Furies are hot! And I'm proud to be labelled first and foremost a heretic. HellYeah!

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Level | Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)| Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)| Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)| Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)| High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)| Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)| High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)| Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)| Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent/Malicious/Panderers)| Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)| Very High

Level descriptions:
Take the test:

and just you try'n stop me.

Why do it? I'm not bothering to ask myself. First reaction was, sounds fun! Buncha naked people and I get a free print. I haven't seen the terminal yet (is it really gonna do so much more damage to me naked than clothed?), so it's a good excuse to finally get there. I believe firmly that people need to get over themselves, and a great way to do that is gettin' naked. Everybody looks funny in real life. Take Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman, put'em naked on the street, and you'll soon find that they're human too. Probably got a mole here or a stretch mark there. When the only naked people you see are yourself and the people in the magazines you can't help but feel inferior. Give yourself studio lights, hair designers, and computer airbrushes and you can be that fine too.

Is he taking advantage of us for doing it? Is Ansel Adaams taking advantage of the Grand Canyon? Did Warhol take advantage of the campbell soup can? Yes, he's gonna make money from it. But so many people are making money from other stupider things. I give him credit for daring to go there in the first place (before he gained "status" he faced many hurdles for this type of art), and I don't see why it was OK when he was "on the fringe" but now that he's gained acceptance he should be shunned. Shouldn't we be happy that he cracked the puritanical armor that America has erected against nudity in general?

But, again, I didn't want to think about it so much, Ima juz gon' git nekkid.

Apparently it may have been confusing that in my entry about paradise I refered to zen. Was it because I am somehow intertwining the holy religions of the world (though who's to say they don't need a little intertwining, splicing, and advice?)? Perhaps I don't "get" Buddhism. I probably don't (the book of Taoist I Ching in my bathroom may be confusing me). What I meant though was just genreal thoughts of "spirituality". The general, who am I? where do I belong? how do I fit in? and such. I understand that a central tenet of Buddhism would be forsaking this egoist search. You must be as a pebble in the stream who, through making no effort on its own behalf, interrupts and redirects the flow. Of course the effort is in allowing oneself to be that pebble, to shirk the worldly, the pettiness of desire...

What I think, going back to the top, is that all these religions have things of vast import to impart unto the world. The problem is that people (yes people, for the most part deities have had very little involvement) have been using these religions and subtly changing (dare I say, hope I say, perverting) them. People have interpreted Christ and somehow decided that killing can be justified. People have used Buddha to enslave others in communistic non-choice. What we need is to understand that Christ and Buddha would be great friends, and would both abhor what we have used their words for. What if someday people thought you so cool that they wrote books about you. Your message of peace and understanding was so succinct, pure, and just that they couldn't help it; you spoke to their souls. And then you died (as does every prophet on earth). You watch as the words and deeds you wrought on earth are transformed before your eyes. You see as people kill each other debating the worth of your views. You see them defending slaughter with your name. You hastily check the records (you have, of course, kept a comprehensive journal of everything you tried to teach while on earth) and reassure yourself that you never sanctioned any of these heinous acts, your words were only about peace, brotherhood, and unity.

So, do you think that Jesus, or Buddha, or any of the rest, are "up there" now, wondering if it was worth it? If they had known the deeds that were to happen because of their philosophy, would they have continued? Do they watch right now (and for the last couple millenium) and weep for the pain they have caused, however unitentionally and indirectly?