The idea of providence
Is belief without evidence

Dogma and doctrine can be difficult to flee
But if you just seek it, the truth can set you free

I’m stunned, to say the least. I just read an article over at DesktopLinux.com that describes one of Michael Dell’s (as in, Dell Computer’s CEO and founder) personal workstations. It is a Dell Precicion M90 running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (apparently he’s been keeping up with the betas).

To be precise, Mr. Dell, in addition to running the latest version of Ubuntu, which is still scheduled for final release on April 19, is also running the VMware Workstation 6 Beta, OpenOffice.org 2.2, Automatix2, Firefox 2.0.0.3, and Evolution Groupware 2.10.

He also has four other high-powered systems at home running Windows but the fact that he’s using Automatix2 along with the pre-release version of Feisty (which is due out today) leads me to believe that he’s spent a considerable time using it. Why? Two reasons:

1) Automatix2 doesn’t come with Feisty. He would have had to do some fooling around on the web to find and install it (even if it was only a cursory trip to the Ubuntu forums or the Ubuntu Guide).
2) Feisty hasn’t been “officially” released yet. You’d have to have a real interest and be “into” Ubuntu to even know about Feisty before today (I’m sure the major computer news outlets will be blasting it).

This is very good news indeed. Dell has promised to ship consumer laptops and workstations running Linux some day “soon”. When that happens I’ll definitely start recommending Dell to my friends and coworkers. I’m dying to see how pre-loaded Linux systems from such a big vendor will have on the market (and Microsofties). It will certainly make it harder for people to say, “Linux isn’t ready for the desktop”.

It is often said that “the market will sort it out.” What is often not said is that “this is not necessarily a good thing.” As an example of why this is, I’d like to point out Charlie Crist’s announcement yesterday regarding the critical water shortage in south Florida.

South Florida has undergone some of the most rapid growth (population and economic) in the U.S. over the past 25 years. The amount of baby boomers moving there is enormous and the local economy benefited greatly by way of those retiree’s retirement savings. Because of the demand for living space for these retirees, huge swaths of land were clear-cut and replaced with houses, condos, strip malls, grocery stores, and golf courses (“The only sport you can play when you’re 80”). Then there’s the resources all these people take up… Electricity, gasoline, food, and water.

If you were a gambling man 25 years ago, which of those resourced would you guess would be stressed first? Surely in FLORIDA there could never be a water shortage! Especially in the south where it rains nearly every day.

As it turns out water is going to be the first resource to go. Why? People are taking water out of the aquifer faster than it can replenish itself. Not because we’re a thirsty bunch, no. More than 50% of all water used by Floridians is used for landscape irrigation (specifically, lawns). But water is a renewable resource! Surely we can cut down our usage temporarily until the water shortage goes away? It isn’t that simple and here’s why: There’s too many libertarians and old farts in south Florida who don’t give a damn about the environment. Or to put it even more bluntly, people who will “let the market sort it out” and people who are “too old to care”—about the environment OR looking when they back out of their driveway.

There you have it. But don’t you worry, the market actually will sort it out! Even if irrigation bans are put into effect these people will still demand their lush, green lawns and golf courses. They won’t comply. Even if you have a mass-marketing campaign talking about the water crisis and that they should conserve, they won’t. Even if you double the cost of water, they’ll still pay and will still keep using too much water. Then the water supplies will have collapsed and they won’t have it anymore.

Wait a minute… How can a water supply “collapse”? Surely it will just renew itself—eventually—after it runs dry? Actually, it will never run dry—it will just be infiltrated by the ocean and will be salty and useless. Once that happens, it will take a decade for the aquifer to desalinate itself. It is one of those “market forces” that just suddenly appears with no impact on supply or demand until it is gone. A perfect example of how the “invisible hand of the market” can strangle.

How will the economy of southern Florida be effected by a sudden loss of its primary source of fresh water? Well, I’m sure it will sort itself out. Of course, there will be one hell of an economic (and environmental) crash first and it will be followed up by the kind of environmental regulations that give laissez-faire capitalists nightmares.

I’d never heard of ciguatera until today. I discovered it in this article over at Wired Science. What is ciguatera? It is a potentially fatal (and scary) kind of food poisoning that you can get from fish and cases of it are increasing primarily due to rising ocean temperatures. Here’s a quote from the AP article

Within hours, all six fell deathly ill. So did two dozen others from the same neighborhood. Some complained of body-wide numbness. Others had weakness in their legs. Several couldn’t speak or even open their mouths.

Here’s how warming oceans leads to this kind of food poisoning: Due to warmer ocean temperatures and increasingly greater levels of carbon dioxide (as a result of burning fossil fuels) the incidence of toxic algae blooms has increased. This toxic algae is eaten by fish (it isn’t toxic to them) who are then eaten by bigger fish. These toxins persist in the fish and eventually humans eat them (us being the top of the food chain).

Now for the real problem with ciguatera: “Currently, there is no reliable way to detect whether a fish has ciguatera. The molecule is extremely complex and differs markedly from region to region. There also is no antidote.” No way to test for it and no antidote, brilliant.

But how much of a problem is this? “In the United States, ciguatera poisonings are most frequent in Florida, Texas and Hawaii, which has seen a fivefold increase since the 1970s to more than 250 a year.”

Semi-related and very interesting: The AP article is actually chock full of all sorts of interesting and painful information that isn’t necessarily related to ciguatera. Check out this quote regarding a potential extinction vortex going on with fishing in general:

Still, Hong Kong diners pay a premium for the risky fish. Rare species like the Napoleon wrasse fetch nearly $50 a pound. The fish are increasingly shipped live from Southeast Asia and as far away as the South Pacific, raising concerns from the World Conservation Union that many species, especially groupers, could be fished out of existence.

Fishing groupers out of existence? Surely they must be joking, you say? If you’re skeptical, I recommend reading up on the passenger pigeon