War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
(Illustration found here). As 2011 marches right along, and even as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill (BP high-fived the celebration by doling out big bucks to Republican ass-kissers), and try not to become too emotionally involved with Japan’s increasingly-ominous nuclear nightmare, and try not to think about air traffic controllers…
Human life does indeed travel in cycles — spring, summer, fall and winter — with birth, youth, middle age and the final and abrupt circuit, death. History also appears to move in cycles and the one we’re in right now ain’t pretty, portending a future of a poorly-dressed weird. (Illustration found here). In 1997, generational…
Peter: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Mondays, and you’re not feeling too well, does anybody ever come up to you and say “sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays”? Lawrence: No. No, man, shit, no, man. I believe you’d get your ass kicked for sayin’ something like that,…
In light of the ongoing horror in Japan — an earthquake induced nuclear meltdown — there’s been a dust-up down in my old stomping ground of central California as PG&E attempts to renew the license at its most-aptly named Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant. Although PG&E has delayed a decision on the 20-year license, no…
Just after 1 a.m., April 12, 1961, a Soviet Vostok rocket blasted off from Baikonour cosmodrome, which alerted US radars in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-three minutes later, Jerome Wiesner, JFK’s scientific adviser, was notified by telephone and the shit hit the fan. Despite the US throwing Alan Shepard up in sub-orbital space for less than…
Yeah… Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel. — Benjamin Franklin (Illustration found here via Google Images). From CNN: Gas prices have jumped nearly 20 cents over the past two weeks, approaching…
“There is nothing more wicked, more disastrous, more widely destructive, more deeply tenacious, more loathsome.” “…once war has been declared, then all the affairs of the State are at the mercy of the appetites of a few.” — Erasmus and War, 14th Century (Illustration of Picasso’s “Massacre in Korea” found here via Google Images). Despite the…
Climate change has already worm-holed its way into the tattered fabric of everyday life. The American Medical Association and its editorial from yesterday (Monday): If physicians want evidence of climate change, they may well find it in their own offices. Patients are presenting with illnesses that once happened only in warmer areas. Chronic conditions are…
Even as radioactivity from Japan’s shredded Fukushima nuclear plant has been detected all over the globe, from China to the eastern part of the US, one killjoy piped up: Lake Barrett, a nuclear engineer and former staffer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the risk of exposure from the Fukushima plant is very small,…
While the northern California coastline continues its monotonous weather — Rain showers and isolated thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce small hail — the US Upper Midwest is way-beyond the quiet isolated thunderstorm routine with a record-level snowpack. Dr. Jeff Masters has a most-excellent post at Wunderblog on the situation: National Weather Service models show this…