Ever wonder if leading politicians and bureaucrats have actually been briefed, that they actually understand how completely humans have fucked the world, but are just playing along to avoid a general panic and rebellion?
All of those still out there "informing the public" and trying to get politicians on-board: what if they already know, and are just pretending they don't get it, keeping up a front, so that great changes wont happen in their life-time, and they can go on comfortably as before. After all, they are very comfortable in "power", with big pay-checks, position, homes and families--why rock the boat? Maybe they just want to live out their days in the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed...
You would think they would get a decent briefing when they take office...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
60 minutes: string of mishaps and bad calls caused Gulf disaster
Eye witness report from before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and expert analysis: watch vidio from CBS 60 Minutes. Reported problems in the weeks and days before the explosion set the stage for the tragedy, given the bad management responses.
Now an internal BP-document shows that the company has estimated that as much as 100,000 barrels of oil (about 16 million liters) may be gushing from the well every day--much higher than the numbers the Government has been quoting.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Can't make it right
How are you going to compensate the birds and the fish, the invertebrates, and the animals that live in the marshes and eat the fish and the crustaceans? Sadly, the delta, the Gulf, and the marshes were pretty screwed even before this oil spill. The last thing they needed was this. The Resistance is long overdue.
Read "The Most Important Fish in the Sea", by H. Bruce Franklin. For a primer on the Resistance, read Derrick Jensens "As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial". (See Environmental Books.)
But most of all, don't stay in and read: GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING!
Naomi Klein on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf: http://bit.ly/9xLwVb
Oil stained wave
Read "The Most Important Fish in the Sea", by H. Bruce Franklin. For a primer on the Resistance, read Derrick Jensens "As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial". (See Environmental Books.)
But most of all, don't stay in and read: GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING!
"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
One brave deed is worth a thousand books."
-Edward Abbey
Naomi Klein on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf: http://bit.ly/9xLwVb
Oil stained wave
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Physics envy
Norbert Wiener on economists:
The success of mathematical physics led the social scientists to be jealous of its power without quite understanding the intellectual attitudes that had contributed to this power. The use of mathematical formulae had accompanied the development of the natural sciences and become the mode in the social sciences. Just as primitive peoples adopt the Western modes of denationalized clothing and of parliamentarism out of a vague feeling that these magic rites and vestments will at once put them abreast of modern culture and technique, so the economists have developed the habit of dressing up their rather imprecise ideas in the language of the infitesimal calculus... To assign what purports to be precise values to such essentially vague quantities is neither useful nor honest, and any pretense of applying precise formulae to these loosely defined quantities is a sham and a waste of time.
(Norbert Wiener, 1964. God and Golem, Inc. MIT Press)
The success of mathematical physics led the social scientists to be jealous of its power without quite understanding the intellectual attitudes that had contributed to this power. The use of mathematical formulae had accompanied the development of the natural sciences and become the mode in the social sciences. Just as primitive peoples adopt the Western modes of denationalized clothing and of parliamentarism out of a vague feeling that these magic rites and vestments will at once put them abreast of modern culture and technique, so the economists have developed the habit of dressing up their rather imprecise ideas in the language of the infitesimal calculus... To assign what purports to be precise values to such essentially vague quantities is neither useful nor honest, and any pretense of applying precise formulae to these loosely defined quantities is a sham and a waste of time.
(Norbert Wiener, 1964. God and Golem, Inc. MIT Press)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
New heat record for Asia
Wednesday May 26 the town of MohenjuDaro, Pakistan, set a new heat record for Asia: 53.5°C (128.3°F) (Pakistan Meteorological Department).
The human death toll has been high recently in the heat wave affecting South Asia.
(http://planetsave.com/blog/2010/06/05/hundreds-killed-in-india-from-heat-waves-new-hottest-temperature-record-in-asia/)
The human death toll has been high recently in the heat wave affecting South Asia.
(http://planetsave.com/blog/2010/06/05/hundreds-killed-in-india-from-heat-waves-new-hottest-temperature-record-in-asia/)
Friday, May 28, 2010
Ah for the sound of frogs...
One week birding in the Hungarian puszta, in Hortobágy National Park, among red-footed and Saker falcons, spoonbills, stone curlews, white-winged and whiskered terns. Every heron but the cattle egret...
Hortobágy, grasslands and marshes, like stepping back into a quieter time. A time still sane.
Where people don't have such obscene amounts of money, and better things to do with their time than watch flat-screen TVs and go shopping. Where a good peasant meal can still be had any day of the week, and with beer or a glass of good wine, and coffee, costs (much) less than the glass of wine would at home.
Where trains run to nearby towns, and cross-country, frequently enough to be an option--or where one can afford to wait for the next one. Always on time, because each stop is a long one.
Where old men ride bicycles, even to and from the fields with their scythes or pruners over one shoulder. With hardly any cars, and small unobtrusive ones at that. Where the postman still rides a bicycle. Slowly. And knocks at every gate. Small, neat houses with neat yards, sheds with tools, vegetable gardens, geese and ducks.
Where a diversity of frogs serenade in the reeds, and bitterns boom. Where storks nest on platforms atop light posts on every street, or on chimney tops. Where ancient sheep and cattle breeds graze the steppes, and every other house rents out a spare room to travelers should one happen by.
Where nobody wears expensive clothes; no cheesy designer labels. No cell phones ringing, and absolutely no iPhones (except mine, and it is in airplane mode). Time for a beer at the local café.
Hortobágy, grasslands and marshes, like stepping back into a quieter time. A time still sane.
Where people don't have such obscene amounts of money, and better things to do with their time than watch flat-screen TVs and go shopping. Where a good peasant meal can still be had any day of the week, and with beer or a glass of good wine, and coffee, costs (much) less than the glass of wine would at home.
Where trains run to nearby towns, and cross-country, frequently enough to be an option--or where one can afford to wait for the next one. Always on time, because each stop is a long one.
Where old men ride bicycles, even to and from the fields with their scythes or pruners over one shoulder. With hardly any cars, and small unobtrusive ones at that. Where the postman still rides a bicycle. Slowly. And knocks at every gate. Small, neat houses with neat yards, sheds with tools, vegetable gardens, geese and ducks.
Where a diversity of frogs serenade in the reeds, and bitterns boom. Where storks nest on platforms atop light posts on every street, or on chimney tops. Where ancient sheep and cattle breeds graze the steppes, and every other house rents out a spare room to travelers should one happen by.
Where nobody wears expensive clothes; no cheesy designer labels. No cell phones ringing, and absolutely no iPhones (except mine, and it is in airplane mode). Time for a beer at the local café.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Yo, Obama! Get out of oil!
The disaster that is the Gulf oil spill is indescribable. I could care less about human consequences--humans deserve whatever they get for allowing this hellacious development. But the fate of the innocent birds, mammals, turtles and other marine and riparian species in the Gulf should weigh on us all, particularly those with the power to do something about it. Get off fossil fuels immediately, and get us out of offshore drilling! I supported you throughout the campaign and was giddy with the hope for meaningful change, but I have seen none, and Interior has done nothing to be proud of. Perhaps it is time to get a powerful Department for the Environment. Interior has too many interests in hand, and too many of them are in conflict with environmental causes and with trying to ensure that there is a future to speak of. Salazar sure isn't doing much for sustainability or for other species. Get serious about meaningful change for other species, particularly the endangered ones! They will all be endangered soon, or extinct, if meaningful change does not come under this administration!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Ecocide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/ecocide-crime-genocide-un-environmental-damage
Ecocide>Speciecide>Genocide.
Good on you, Polly!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Robin Hood Tax
The Robin Hood Tax, turning a global crisis into a global opportunity. When you are done with that lets confiscate the banksters' ill-gotten gains ("loot").
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
(Inter-)National ignorance, and refusing to engage in a battle of wits with unarmed opponents
http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010/02/31656-just-gimme-some-truth.html
Speak truth to power. But where is that power? We have created such a diffuse system that nobody knows how to shift it when we need to...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Stop Norwegian salmon farming companies
Get those damned tanks on land!
Go to http://farmedsalmonexposed.org/2009/multimedia.html to see the whole film etc.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Earth Hour 2010
Turn off your lights, Saturday March 27, 2030-2130 (830pm-930pm). Put it in your calendar! Pass it on...
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