Comments by Twister | San Diego Reader

Twister

SDG&E attempts brazen caper #2

The management suits were out playing golf on a water-sucking course, of course. I'd be willing to bet that some field or lower middle-management types tried to warn them but was overruled. Any quasi-governmental company should have to post its records for public view, on the Internet in searchable form, properly organized and labeled. I hope some of them are feeding you the inside truth. I know you're up to your ears in alligators, but you gotta answer more of your calls. Tw
— September 29, 2015 8:31 p.m.

SDG&E attempts brazen caper #2

See previous post.
— September 29, 2015 8:27 p.m.

SDG&E attempts brazen caper #2

If the Naciremas elect a blow-fish President, they should eat fish liver.
— September 29, 2015 8:25 p.m.

La Jolla Banker bought ticket to perdition

Invest proximally, divest globally?
— September 29, 2015 4:25 p.m.

Biotechs belted

You got it!
— September 29, 2015 4:23 p.m.

Biotechs belted

You got dat right! However, I suspect that the greed genes are no more pronounced in Homo sap. than any of the other species. The difference is culture. As Pogo once said, "We has met the enemy and he is us." The other point I was trying to make is that all the other animals have limits to their greed and manipulative instincts; they only use them when they need them, whereas the H. saps know no limits. They will have to peak out, which will bring down the whole house of cards. Affluenza is a fatal disease. Trouble is, it's so much fun while it lasts. Acquisition hits the pleasure centers like heroin. The spiral gets tighter and tighter until . . . SPLAT!
— September 29, 2015 4:19 p.m.

Biotechs belted

Greed is a built-in (genetic) trait. In Nature, it is self-limiting (it stops when actual needs are fulfilled (e.g. when one eagle chick hogs all the food while its sibling starves. For some reason, this does not appear to be the case with barn-owl chicks, demonstrating that certainty probably does not exist in Nature). Deception also is built-in. Consider the killdeer mother who feigns injury to draw predators away from her nest. (I fooled you, I fooled you--I got all pig-iron . . .) But this is likewise self-limiting; when the danger is past, the deception has served its purpose and does not extend to, for example, other killdeers. There is growing evidence that altruism and a sense of fairness (dare I say LOVE?) also is hard-wired, and may be MORE pronounced in other species, implying, perhaps, that since indifference to each other has been increasing in the dominant culture, that our psychotic index may be rising (I have noticed, however, that “Millennials” contain a subset that is turning around this trend—whether or not it “catches on” and becomes dominant, time will tell [if Homo sap. Survives long enough]). The more cooperative, the more social the being, the more susceptible it seems to be to the pitch and roll of the cradle-rocking predators and parasites created by culture. Culture, since its inception, has grown increasingly indifferent to individuals (actual data no doubt fluctuate, but the trend apparently continues). Individual-to-individual indifference is more difficult to “chart.” We recognize the most profound violations of social mores as asocial, but the more subtle manipulations and exploitive behaviors are more difficult for the “targets,” “marks,” or “lambs-to-the-slaughter” to see coming. Sanbox spats turn into wars. Success breeds collapse. The euphoria of booms transmogrifies into horrifying busts perhaps more severe in their depressions as the “high” that produced them. No wonder “pot” is so popular among the hoi polloi. The predators doth feed on them and the harder stuff—they want to be “up” all the time. A costly strategy, in practical terms, for them both.
— September 29, 2015 12:08 p.m.

Homines? Izzat sumpin' like home-boy? Not to impose an argumenta ad homines note to the proceedings (but hey, I couldn't resist, man). From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominini Hominins Not to be confused with Hominoidea, Hominidae, Homininae, or Hominina. Hominins Temporal range: 5.4–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Scientific classification e Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorhini Family: Hominidae Subfamily: Homininae Tribe: Hominini Gray, 1825 Type species Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Genera Subtribe Hominina Homo Subtribe Panina Pan Subtribe Australopithecina † Paranthropus † Australopithecus † Sahelanthropus † Orrorin † Ardipithecus † Kenyanthropus The Hominini is a tribe of the subfamily Homininae; it comprises three subtribes: Hominina, with its one genus Homo; Australopithecina, comprising several extinct genera (see taxobox); and Panina, with its one genus Pan, the chimpanzees (see the evolutionary tree below).[3][4] Members of the human clade, that is, the Hominini, including Homo and those species of the australopithecines that arose after the split from the chimpanzees, are called hominins; cf. Hominidae; terms "hominids" and hominins). The subtribe Hominina is the "human" branch; that is, it contains the genus Homo exclusively. Researchers proposed the taxon Hominini on the basis that the least similar species of a trichotomy should be separated from the other two. The common chimpanzee and the bonobo of the genus Pan are the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans, sharing a common ancestor with humans about four to seven million years ago.[5] Research by Mary-Claire King in 1973 found 99% identical DNA between human beings and chimpanzees;[6] later research modified that finding to about 94% commonality, with some of the difference occurring in noncoding DNA.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homines Homines (meaning "men") may refer to : The name Boni Homines or Bonshommes was popularly given to at least three religious institutes in the Catholic Church. The Portuguese Boni Homines, or Secular Canons of St. John the Evangelist were a Catholic religious institute. Homines Intelligentiae is the name assumed by a heretical sect in the Low Countries, which in 1410-11 was cited before the Inquisition at Brussels. Argumenta ad homines consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the source making the argument or claim. I hope this clears things up. Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! Tw
— September 29, 2015 11:34 a.m.