BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...

Subject: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:23 PM

Well, well, well...

Looks as McDonald's ain't got nuthin' on the US of A as today the population topped the 3,000,000,000 mark!!!

So congrates to US, I quess???

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:27 PM

Um, Bobert, according to the stories I have read the number you mean is 300 million, or 300,000,000. For example, the Intenrational Heral Tribune says:

"PLANO, Texas America's population passed the 300 million threshold on Tuesday, marking a period where immigrants have arrived in numbers not seen for nearly a century and a time of explosive growth in suburbs such as this one north of Dallas.

Driving the expansion has been a steady birth rate, people living longer largely because of medical advances and, most influentially, a historic influx of foreigners that harks back to the country's melting pot roots.

At America's 100-million population mark, in 1915, about 14 percent of the residents were immigrants. At the 200-million mark in 1967, the number dropped to about 5 percent. Today, at nearly 300 million, it is back to 12 percent.

But as the U.S. population continues to surge -- researchers predict another 100 million people will arrive within 37 years -- handling residential growth and conservation of resources could become a more pressing national priority, particularly as increasing energy consumption intersects with tighter supplies of fuel and water."

A

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:32 PM

Maybe Bobert is countin' the Chinese who make most of the stuff we wear, and the Indians who answer all our tech support calls...they're almost like family, now.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:36 PM

One of the few countries in the world where the population is growing.
A bit worrying when you think that the US consumes most of the world's food, along with the highest energy consumption per capita in the world.
Sort of the more the less, as it were!
G.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:42 PM

Momentum...that's the secret...momentum!

(but when I get the law passed to implant timed-release contraceptives in 12 year old girls, we'll ease up on our growth...so you can all relax!)

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:42 PM

I heard earlier today that the population of the U. S. rolled over to 200,000,000 sometime in the 1960s. And here, a mere fou decades later, it's up to 300,000,000. There are 100,000,000 more people in the country now than there were back then.

No bloody wonder traffic is freakin' gridlocked!!

OUT! OUT! Some of you! GET OUT!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:44 PM

Yeah, what Amos said...

...grrrrrrrrrr... Wes Ginny Slide Rule got me again...

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 02:46 PM

Just one more aint gonna make that much difference eh?

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 03:00 PM

My Daddy used to ask us kids..."If you were carrying all the feathers you could carry, could you carry one more?"

I have never been able to answer it satisfactorily.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:05 PM

The answer is "Not unless I put one down first." Tautological.


A

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: kendall
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:19 PM

But Giok, we also GROW most of the world's food.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:31 PM

I know from tautologies...but the real answer is "it's hard to tell when you have too many"...yas, yas, it distorts the precision of the question...but....

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:37 PM

You also invented the 'Doggy Bag' Kendal, a very conspicious symbol of over consumption. Has anybody thought of reducing the portion sizes?
America also grows, and pushes to the rest of the world GM rice, and maize which does not produce viable seeds, so the poor farmers in India and Africa have to buy new seed every year, instead of saving seed from this year's crop, for next year, thus they fall into the clutches of Monsanto and their friends. They apply pressure to other countries like the UK who won't take GM crops by making trade in other goods difficult or impossible.
Anyway I find it interesting that the only western country with a growing population can't find enough taxes to properly finance their social services budget. While other countries with a better social safety net are struggling to finance them on a dropping population.
G.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:57 PM

" Has anybody thought of reducing the portion sizes?"

sure they have! Then their competitors advertise with pictures of larger ones. The limit seems to be only what will cause lost profit. We have the concept of "supersize" used as a verb...and you can almost not find ANY product sold in size 'small'. A 'medium' drink is the smallest, and it is often more than I want.

We seem to be the epicenter of eating contests, too! Setting records over how much too much can be stuffed into a body without dying in the process! (But a couple of Japanese kids have been winning)

The USA has had one of the best locations in the world for being able to produce food, and it was easy to assume that 'more' = 'better'.

We are beginning to learn otherwise, but the idea is still ingrained in both the culture and the language.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 05:31 PM

I know quite a few people -- including my wife and myself -- who will make an entree out of an appetizer.

For instance, a cup of soup and a quesadilla or a souvlaki can be quite enough.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Cruiser
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 06:24 PM

Bobert must have been athinkin' of when that there science guy said when countin' stars n' galaxies: "That's a Billion with a B."

So Bobert shud 'av thot: "That's a Billion with a M."

"Wes Ginny Slide Rule got me again"

Uh, Bobert, do the kids in Wes Ginny use the same kinda slide rool in skool as you got? Wonder what the Standardized math scores are if so or if they even have a math sillybus (syllabus) in them thar deep dark hollers.

Bobert and Bill D (both gems) are a must for enjoying the "Mudcatteryness" of the BS Section. They alone are worth the trip down in these 'sheer otherwise muddy depths of depravity.

Anyway, your typo (at least I trust is WAS a typo) got me to read this thread…the clones should not change the title or it would ruin the thread.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: kendall
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:32 PM

Jeez Giok. I'm properly chagrined and you are dead right.
We have something called the BUFFET restaurant. Eat all you want, one price, and it seems like 9 out of 10 who go to them would dress out around 250 pounds and up. I saw one woman who needed two chairs!

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: pdq
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:44 PM

In the US, the number one health problem of the poor is obesity.

The most commonly purchased food using federal food stamps is potato chips.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:45 PM

Hey, like I siad, the Wes Ginny Slide Rule amde me do it... I protested and said, "Hey, wait just a danged minute here. # Billion folks is a lot of folks" but would the WGSR listen to me???

Heck no, it wouldn't...

Ahhhh, as fir WGSRs being assigned to Wes Ginny kids in school... I hoope that never happens 'cause the one I have is not only a pain in the butt but has gotten me in more pickles than Carter has liver pills...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 08:52 PM

Kendall,

Well, you went there to get buffeted, dincha? What's yore beef? :D

Love,

A

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 09:07 PM

Hey, don't knock those doggie bags; the wife and I have been known to get two more good meals apiece from those leftovers. I wouldn't dare go to all-you can eat buffets more than rarely, though; between my inclination to get my money's worth, and my plain lack of self-discipline, things could get ugly.

Then again, there is the approach to buffets that a couple who were co-workers with me practiced and bragged about; go in with shopping bags, eat all you can, and smuggle out all you can in the bags. (If you had known these people, you probably would have wished you didn't).

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: Old Guy
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 11:51 PM

Better do a recount Bobert.

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 09:54 AM

Sigh...
When I was a boy in the fifties/early sixties the world population was said to be 2 thousand million; now it's 3 times that ...and in only fifty years..so what's the logical conclusion of this population growth across th world?
You KNOW there will be one hell of a collapse soon - in the next fifty years say - whether it's by attrition or nuclear conflict.

And still we have people claiming it's their right to have kids by artifical insemination etc, it's still ok to practice the kind of economic bullying described by other posters above; it's still ok to squeeze everybody else to get the resources you need.

Don't have to wait for global warning - all you have to do is look around now at the simple supply/demand equation and extrapolate.

If there were two rabbits on a small island, it would be simple enough to calculate their breeding rate and to figure out when they would run out of food;when they would have destroyed their environment with their waste products damage and to crops, plants etc.We too inhabit a closed environment of limited and finite resource.
Why has nobody analysed this for the planet we all are trying to share?
Hmmm....maybe they have.
Good luck - and thanks for all the fish!
Dáithí

Subject: RE: BS: 3 Billion an' Countin...
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 04:42 AM

Too depressing to contemplate further?
Sheeesh!
D