WAR FOR OIL

A reader writes:

About the 'war for oil' argument: We (the USA) are already expecting to pay 75 billion dollars on this war. It is going to go up if the Iraqi's don't start a popular revolution soon (I expect it, once the brown shirt thugs who are intimating people to stay in line, are put down). So, if this drops world oil prices a dollar a barrel (below where it was before it all started) how long is that going to take to pay us back? I have not done the math, but, I'm guessing it won't add up as a good investment.

Anyway, the leftists want it both ways. They want to point out that Bush is an oil man and doing it for his friends in the industry. Well, if they have oil wells, they make more money when prices are high. So, keeping Iraqi a police state with international sanctions is in their interest. It reduces the amount of oil on the world market, thus keeping prices higher....

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FROM A CELEBRITY WHO REALLY IS OUTSTANDING AT WHAT HE DOES

It's rather a surprise coming from a "celebrity", but here we have a very well-balanced comment on the war from a decent man, Tiger Woods:

Obviously, no one likes war. Our Congress and President tried hard to avoid the use of force, but ultimately decided it was the best course of action. I like the assertiveness shown by President Bush and think we owe it to our political and military leaders, along with our brave soldiers to be as supportive as possible during these difficult and trying times. I just wanted to take this opportunity to let our forces know that I am thinking about you and wishing you and your families the best.

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MISUSE OF SCHOOLCHILDREN BY LEFTISTS

In response to this article in "Spiked", a reader writes:

Instead of teachers' unions, principals and governments getting all high and mighty about students rights, they should just say that attendance at demonstrations is unauthorised absence from school. Period. If their parents bring a note, there is probably not much a school can do about it. Although I know of an anthropology professor who used to make himself unpopular in the 1970s by scheduling spot exams during Vietnam protest days. This issue has nothing to do with students rights. If they really feel strongly about an issue they can demonstrate on the weekend. The trouble with that weekend demos, as organiser know, is that they are less disruptive to the working city and that the teen turnout on weekends is poor . Kids would rather be doing something else. The "children's crusade" is cannon fodder tactics. I heard a radio interview with one of the organisers of the Wednesday demo in Sydney this morning (Friday). He said they ran mid-week demos to encourage "civil disobedience" (i.e. skipping school) by school kids.

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DARWINISM AND SYMBIOSIS

A reader writes:

Matt Ridley is an excellent commentator on Darwinism. In this NYT book review he discusses symbiosis in evolution, an oft neglected part of the whole evolutionary story. Some commentators (including left anarchist Kropotkin) see symbiosis and mutualism as justifying 'socialist cooperation' versus ' capitalist competition'. In fact symbiosis is actually closer to the "positive sum game" (mutual advantages) of free trade than is traditional Darwinian competition.

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LEFTIST CAMPBELL BLAMES THE VICTIMS

A reader writes:

Beatrix Campbell retains a regular paid slot as UK commentator on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live program hosted by Phillip Adams. Apparently no other English leftists are available for the role.

When Campbell is not out witch hunting "paedophiles" she offers her views on international affairs. For a noxious example see the verbatim quote reproduced here.

"...In Australia, the English radical feminist Beatrix Campbell, a resident commentator on the ABC's Late Night Live radio program, claimed "the victims of September 11 are also the architects of a mess of their own making and that's what has to be sorted out". In other words, those killed by the terrorists -- including the women and children -- brought their deaths upon themselves. This grotesque piece of blame shifting brought not a murmur of dissent from the host of the program, Phillip Adams...."

I heard the original broadcast and in order to verify what was said, caught the repeat broadcast the next day. I sent a letter of protest to the ABC and the Minister. The producer of the show in an insipid reply tried to argue that she meant the US government, not the NY victims, and that 9-11 was all 'blowback'. This is not what she said and it is not what is usually meant by the term 'architect'.

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ELSEWHERE

Chris Brand considers what Britain might do about its troublesome Muslim minority.

Michael Darby reminds us of the less brueaucratized and less troubled age in which many of us grew up.

In this academic paper from my past I once again point out how unscientific modern-day academic psychology is. The theory was at one time put out that people who are chronically busy are more likely to get heart attacks. There is now a large amount of evidence that shows that theory to be entirely false but some psychologists still write as if it were of some importance. I suppose it is some comfort that my paper did at least get published in a prestigious medical journal.

I have just put up HERE a collection of fun photos showing bureaucracy at work and my Picture Page has some very pretty new pictures too!

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PEACENIK VIOLENCE

One of the most revealing evidences of the dishonesty and hidden agendas of the Left is the way that “peace” demonstrations commonly erupt into violence (e.g. here). Leftists are clearly such violent people that they cannot restrain themselves even when it makes a mockery of what they claim to stand for. They truly are Stalin’s heirs.

I have my own personal recollection of this. In the Vietnam war era I was a student at the University of Queensland and one of the very few students who outspokenly supported Australia’s involvement in the war. As in Iraq so in Vietnam Australians fought alongside Americans. The Australian conservative government came up for re-election in the midst of the affair and the peaceniks made a huge effort to have it defeated at the polls. There were huge anti-government demonstrations of all sorts. When Prime Minister Harold Holt came to Brisbane I was one of his party members and so was invited to attend his Brisbane campaign launch. Various university Leftists known to me, however, forged entry tickets to get into the hall in which the rally was held and created such a din that the meeting was severely disrupted.

We few pro-war students decided to take our revenge for this. Next week the leader of the Australian Labour Party (A.L.P.) came to Brisbane for HIS campaign launch and we were there in the hall. As the party leader (Arthur Calwell) stepped up to the microphone and before he could open his mouth I shouted out in a very loud voice “All at sea with the A.L.P.” Pandemonium erupted. The Special Branch of the Police had been tipped off that there would be disruption and were there to protect our freedom of speech but otherwise we would have been murdered. Half the hall jumped up and tried to get at us -- thus thoroughly disrupting their own meeting. Whenever they settled down we would just shout something again and restart them at enraged shouting back at us. The meeting became a shambles. The police pointed out to them that they had disrupted our meeting the week before but the Leftists saw no justice in that of course.

Anyway, after the meeting, the police escorted us across the road to the police station for our own safety while a mob of Leftists gathered outside waiting to get us as soon as we emerged. I don’t know how long they waited, though, as the police let us out after a while through a back entrance that the Leftists obviously did not know about.

When the Leftists disrupted the government meeting they did so in no fear for their own safety and thought that they had a perfect right to do so but woe betide anyone who tried to do the same to them! In good Stalinist fashion their resort to violence when faced with opposition was immediate. Can anyone doubt that it is hate and not compassion that is their real motivation?

Incidentally, in the subsequent election, the conservatives were returned with a landslide majority.

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ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

In this academic article from my past I look at the popular theory among psychologists that national economic affluence reflects the ambitiousness or achievement motivation of the people in the nations concerned. The idea is that poorer people are less ambitious. I show from survey research results that this is the reverse of the truth. Poorer people desperately WANT TO BE RICH. The reason some nations are poor and others are not goes then back to politics. Practice socialism and you will be poor. Practice capitalism and you will be rich. Get the wrong one of those two systems and you will be poor no matter what. Though it may be true that the smarter the people of a nation are, the more likely that nation is to make the right choice between those two alternatives. The article concerned was never published on paper but it summarizes earlier articles of mine that were published in the academic journals.

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BRITISH POLICE

A reader writes:

You regularly criticise the British system of Justice in DISSECTING LEFTISM, Peter Hitchens has some ideas on what went wrong with the police force, which in per capita manpower terms is larger now than ever. See here and
here. Quote:

"....When they patrolled on foot and were among us, our police used to belong to us, enforcing laws we supported, sharing our views, taking our side against trouble. ..Now they are a distant and politically correct service belonging to the liberal elite, which puts the human rights of criminals above the rights of the rest of us to live in peace, and which even now has no idea of the scale of the disaster it has caused...."

Hitchens is the author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRIME

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ELSEWHERE

Another feminist myth goes up in flames???
"....Between a fifth and a quarter of those executed for witchcraft were men. This is not news to historians; they just don't want to know about it...."

Under the heading: "The Mind of George Bush", Richard Brookhiser has a good short biography of the President. I liked his comment that one of the benefits of GWB going to Business School was that it meant that he did not go to Law School.

The Wicked one has a good post on the wastefulness and stupidity of bureaucracy.

Chris Brand reviews what we know about the psychology of politics.

Michael Darby has a story about a leftist who finally saw through it all.

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EXLAINING THE WAR TO LEFTISTS -- BRIEFLY

I recently sent the following email to some Leftists. I HOPE it is in terms that will get through to some of them. One can only try.

Why the US is taking out Saddam:

Simple: Once both Saddam and the Taliban are gone other Muslim leaders will get the message loud and clear that they must co-operate in the fight against terror or else. Simple and rational and highly desirable.

If it was about oil why did the US intervene in Kosovo? No oil there. They intervened there for purely humanitarian reasons. If it was about oil they would have taken over Saudi Arabia. It produces more oil, has an army of only about 7,000 men and could be taken over in an afternoon. Which is why the Saudis try to be friendly of course.

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FRENCH SOFT ON ANTISEMITISM

French Synagogues are regularly attacked and individual Jews are regularly assaulted. And the French government response? They acknowledge verbal assaults only and pretend a booklet will cure it!

France's education ministry last month launched a campaign to stamp out anti-Semitism and other types of racism in schools. Education Minister Luc Ferry acknowledged that verbal insults are becoming common..... He introduced 10 measures to combat the problem, including the creation of a monitoring committee in Paris, the appointment of a team of mediators for the worst cases and the publication of a booklet

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The "worst cases" get only mediation? As Cronaca says: "Apparently protecting the victims and punishing their attackers would be an unacceptably simplistic approach.

But I am sure they will publish a most tasteful booklet! And a monitoring committee in Paris will certainly be good for some long lunches if nothing else.

Just for contrast let us see what Jacques Chirac says about SMOKING in schools:

"I want to insist on one priority: the war on tobacco. The law will be applied without exception, notably in public places. We have got to ensure respect for the principle of tobacco-free schools," the president said.

Summary: You can beat up Jews but don’t DARE smoke!


(Crossposted on Israpundit)


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SOME BRITISH REALISM

Britain’s Daily Mirror is a Leftist rag in general but their columnist Tony Parsons seems to be a man of sound instincts. This column from 6 months ago in which he praises the enormous restraint and decency of the United States is very alien to anything else you will ever read from Leftist sources. And this extract from his latest column (March 24th.) is good too. Commenting on the recent upsurge of support for the war in Britain, he says:

"War is never the answer," we are still being told. But, of course, sometimes war is the only answer. Especially when a war has begun. There were people cheering Tony Benn's speech on Saturday who would be against war if the Waffen-SS were gang-raping their granny. It is no longer the dwindling peace marchers who seem to hold to the high moral ground. It is the British soldier and his American allies. We seem to be bending over backwards to make this a good and righteous war. Civilian casualties are being kept to a minimum. Our soldiers are not allowed to raise their country's flag in victory. They are told to treat the Iraqi people with dignity and respect. The realisation is dawning that those who were against this war were, quite simply, wrong. The Iraqi people seem bloody delighted to see British and American troops. They seem fantastically relieved to know that Saddam's days are numbered.

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ELSEWHERE

The US ambassador to the United Nations walked out of a debate on Thursday after Iraq's ambassador accused the United States of trying to exterminate the Iraqi people. Let’s hope for more such walkouts.

Under the heading “America the Liberator” Jeff Jacoby has a good summary of the war so far.

"We are all anti-war -- and American troops in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf represent the kind of protest that terrorists can understand." --Thomas Sowell via The Federalist

Michael Darby reminds us about the “other” China.

Chris Brand summarizes the issues in the psychology of ethnic and racial differences.

The Wicked one has a hint about avoiding telemarketers.

In this academic paper from my past I deal with a common theory among psychologists to the effect that intolerance of ambiguity is a bad thing. I point out that the evidence for this is so poor that you have to be very intolertant of ambiguity to accept such a theory!

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GREENS AS A MESSIANIC SECT

A reader writes:

I get the feeling that as the Limits to Growth forecasts have proven to be wrong, ...and even later 'follow up' reports from the Club of Rome were generally more optimistic, ...that the global warming models of the IPCC were "taken over" to provide new justification for the same agenda by the faithful.

There are of course parallels with millennialist sects which make confident predictions of the end of the world, and when it fails to happen, shift the date out, after a new revelation. Like the millennialists, there is also some "wishful thinking" in their end of the world predictions. They are really quite keen to see the sinful old world go. When greenhouse sea-level concerns first made a splash, there were predictions of the inundating of coastal cities, melting ice caps etc.

Although they still argue that sea levels are going up, most of the scientific greenhouse people have, in recent years, substantially lowered the expected increase. When the newer figures came out, many greens seemed a bit disappointed, as if sinful industrial man 'deserved' ecological punishment. Similarly if you mention to greens, the advances in carbon sequestration or the Tom Gold hypothesis that petroleum may be abiotic and thus may be much more abundant than previously thought, ...their first reaction is almost of disappointment. They so much wanted to impose sackcloth and ashes on everyone. Energy conservation or recycling to many of them is not so much a policy option that may or may not make sense, so much as punishment and penance. "Save energy, save a soul".

As Lewis Carroll, wrote in Alice in Wonderland "No! No! Sentence first - verdict afterwards!" Just as energy use is 'bad', trees are 'good'. Evidence is not required. So we hear the mantra that tree planting, old growth forests and paper recycling are "good for greenhouse".

I like trees and forests too, but only young rapidly growing plants actually absorb atmospheric CO2 and even then only temporarily. See here. If you wanted to use trees (why not bamboo?) to fight greenhouse, you would plant new trees, chop down old ones, turn them into paper, ban recycled paper and require that all paper waste be buried in poorly designed landfills (or kept in attics) to prevent biodegradation. Arizona garbage archaeologists (!) have shown that newspapers buried that way are good enough to read decades later. See here

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AUSTRALIA’S REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RELIGION OF PEACE

WITH bottles and knives in their hands and hate in their hearts, a mob of violent troublemakers yesterday ambushed a student anti-war rally to lead a vicious rampage through Sydney streets. A group of young men, described by police as "Middle Eastern males", created havoc by throwing chairs, rocks, bottles, eggs and golf balls at police and media during several hours of chaos in the CBD.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

The “Carnival” is up again with lots of good reading at Dancing with dogs

Good to see that there are some decent Canadians who appreciate the generous giant to their South.

Jim Ryan’s comment on recent events:
“I don't speak of the shame of the French and Germans. They are shameless, and there is no point speaking about shame in their connection. They are morally dysfunctional societies.”

Limbic nutrition has an excellent extract showing that Leftists NEED their current antisemitism to prop up their worldview.

Opponents of the "Greenhouse" theory have always said that any climatic fluctuations on earth are due to fluctuations in solar output. There has long been indirect evidence of fluctuations in solar output from geology and other sources but this article reports direct measurements of fluctuations in solar output in recent times.

One of my readers has also been reading up on history. He writes:
"What people tend to forget about the German Nazis is this: not only did they appeal to AntiSemitism and Racism, yet they also appealed to the grievances of the Working Class. If one reads their propaganda, one finds that it is chock full of references to the evils of International Finance Capital and Banking Cartels. In this respect, the Nazis, strangely enough, resembled their Communist enemies!"

Chris Brand looks briefly at the literature on social class and has a quiet laugh at low Leftist sociologists both need and abjure the concept.

Michael Darby looks at the heroic optimism of the Zimbabwe opposition.

The Wicked one has a rather non-feminist joke.

China hand is most impressed at the range of furniture available for sale in his area of China. Luxury and economy are equally available.

In this academic paper from my past I respond to an alleged proof by Leftist psychologists showing that Leftists are more morally mature than conservatives. I point out that they get such a result only because they define moral maturity in a Leftist way.

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SOCIALIZED MEDICINE JUST GOBBLES MONEY

A good quote from Peter Cuthbertson: "Scotland's spending on healthcare, for example, is the same as the European average, and this goes largely unprotested by the electorate. So clearly many Britons are willing to pay the price - but equally clearly, given the fact that Scotland's health service is worse than England's, paying this price does not bring a better state sector at all."

It is hard to imagine anything worse than the English National Health but there you have it. The English even have to export a lot of their patients across to Europe in order to get them treated. That fact is presumably why the article Peter was responding to claimed that Europe does socialized medicine better than Britain does.

That may still not mean much however. I know an older woman here in Australia who had dental implants (artificial teeth) to form permanent new front teeth in lieu of dentures. Dental services are almost wholly private in Australia so it was simply one of the options she was offered. Whilst on holiday in France, however, she fell and broke one of her implants. She wanted to get it fixed immediately of course and had traveller's insurance which would have paid for it. But she was told: "We don't yet do that sort of work in France". She had to wait until she could get back to Australia to have the work done that the French could not. It would seem to take capitalism to provide the most advanced medical services.

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HOMEBIRTH AND PERINATAL CHILD ABUSE

In response to my academic paper on homebirths (mentioned yesterday) , a reader (a medical specialist) writes:

Concerning home births - there is just no place for them outside of the most remote areas. With helicopters, women can be transported to hospitals from far away; those who deliver on the way probably don't need doctors. Briefly, every pregnancy is a high risk pregnancy - something goes wrong about 5-10% of the time, and when things happen, they happen fast. Rapid access to surgery, drugs, anesthesia, is essential; there simply isn't time to act from "home births". Those who crusade for them are simply stupid and/or greedy.

To demonstrate just how serious this is, rapid bleeding often occurs during difficult deliveries - the patient can die in minutes at home - and many have.

The idiots who quote infant mortality in the US don't tell the whole story. The system is good - but the same low IQ people who score poorly on tests and commit most of the crime don't take advangtage of it - those with drug and alcohol problems damage their child before they are born, and afterword; and then some bleeding heart liberal says we "owe" the child because its mother neglected it. Just nonsense.

Recently, some liberal female pediatrician claimed her study showed that cocaine in pregnancy wasn't so bad - because the post birth environment caused most of the damage. How could you separate out this scientifically? It just can't be done. In cases like this, you just have to believe basic science and common sense. Rats and dogs and monkeys that are given drugs don't produce healthy babies; why should people be different? I believe that these "coke moms" need a good dose of their own medicine - incarceration for child abuse.

In South Carolina, a group of "coke moms" filed a suit (with the help of a liberal NYC female attorney) against the Charleston Hospital District for reporting these "coke moms" for incarceration if they refused rehab; they sued for "violation of their privacy" in abusing their babies.

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ELSEWHERE

Funniest bit of Muslim propaganda yet: "Iraqi peasant shooted an american helicopter with a gun when he saw US Navi soldiers raping his goat". Via Limbic nutrition

A final gift from Saddam to his people: Mines. COALITION forces are doing their best to de-mine the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to break a bottleneck delaying badly needed humanitarian aid efforts, the White House has said.

There was a comment about the asteroid threat on this blog yesterday saying: "It is fascinating that many Greens are quite hostile to the idea of taking the impact threat seriously. Maybe this reveals their anti-technology bias." Marc Miyake emailed me this comment: Actually, I think it reveals their anti-human bias. If their beloved 'Nature' sends an asteroid our way, we 'deserve' to die. I can't help but think of the Greens who have praised disease for its ability to decimate human populations.

Charles Wickwire has the latest on the 9/11 memorial that was vandalized by Leftists in La Habra, CA. Apparently the owner of the property is now being prosecuted for not having the proper permits for the memorial!

Aaron the Liberal Slayer is starting a movement for everyone to join NRA and buy a gun as their personal answer to the lying and odious Michael Moore.

The Wicked one has an interesting post under the heading: "No more Golliwogs".

Michael Darby has some news about the dramas of electioneering in Zimbabwe.

Chris Brand has some observations on sex differences and feminism.

In this academic paper from my past I point out the illogic of some Leftist psychologists who recognize the universality of racism but also believe that psychologists should be immune from it.

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THE PEACENIKS JUST FEEL SUPERIOR

A reader writes:

If the UN okayed it and if Clinton ran it, they would probably support the war as 'humanitarian' (as in Serbia, Somalia, E Timor). This seems to me to be a very shallow and superficial basis for rejection of the present war. It is almost if the only good wars are the ones where there is no national interest at stake.

I know you think that they are just anti-American but I think that they are a bit like the ancient Greeks: They didn't like technology or even experimentation, as that was 'hands on' i.e. slave work. It is as if we now have a social class who believe that the marketplace and national interest are menial work best delegated to a lower order to do all the work, pay the taxes and take the risks. The Leftist protestors will just air their superiority from the sidelines and claim the lion’s share of the rewards.

When those who carry the burden protest, the Leftists accuse them of selfishness, bigotry etc!

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DISEASE AND DISASTERS IGNORED BY GREENS

A reader writes:

Ron Bailey makes the point that we may be facing a "tragedy of the commons" with disease. In the long run, this is probably a bigger threat to globalization than terrorism. There have certainly been examples in history where expanding international trade and cooperation, and the population growth it sustains, was brought to a halt by plague.

It is fascinating that disease, a threat that has been shown time and time again to endanger the lives of millions draws less concern than the more nebulous and much less certain threats of climate change, something that is not inherently lethal. Many climate activists do of course argue that changing climate may induce the spread of tropical diseases. Their solution is to throw money at schemes like the Kyoto Accords which even to it's advocates can merely delay the feared warming for a few years. This is a pretty roundabout way of dealing with a problem. Why not just invest in fighting the disease?

Similarly the threat of asteroid impact. This is 'new' but planetary scientists have proven that impacts are common in the solar system and have happened many times on Earth. We even witnessed the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact on Jupiter. The risk is small but the consequences dwarf climatic change, something the Earth and even man has seen and survived many times.

See this article by Richerson (PDF file) for a detailed background on paleolithic man's experience with 'natural' climate change.

It is fascinating that many greens are quite hostile to the idea of taking the impact threat seriously. Maybe this reveals their anti-technology bias. This site has some discussion attempting to assess the actuarial risk of impacts and tries to guess what premium we should pay to prevent impacts.

That item from Richerson is quite interesting. He argues that climatic change was so common and extreme the Paleolithic (approx 1.5m to 10,000 before present) that agriculture was nearly impossible. Then in the Holocene (10,000bp to now) we had a period of benign climatic stability.

What is the 'norm'? Sometimes I think the Holocene stable patch may be "gamblers luck in a climatic casino": Just as "the gamblers fallacy" is to assume that past results (good or bad) will determine future results. Maybe we assume that past climates (as determined over a small baseline of a few thousand years) are normal and natural and any variation must be abnormal, unnatural and artificial (ie human induced). But the big picture says change is the norm, with or without human or industrial influences.

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