Every time I think of Reagan, I think of Chance the Gardener of Being There as both were perceived by power brokers and politicos alike to be great communicators even though the notion of innate gravitas was totally absent in both individuals by every stretch of the imagination.
A bomb has gone off but it's only the beginning. When will the so called Repugs actually acknowledge the fact something's rather remiss. Just pray to god the east coast doesn't get a strong La Niña to amp up hurricane season to the max with assistance to rising ocean/air temperatures courtesy the continued burning of fossil fuels to the nth degree.
When looking at this latest anomalous instance of GW, the WTF moniker applies as per a quote given to me by a close friend of mine who has far more knowledge about all things relating to climate than yours truly: "These idiots in Washington have no idea what's coming but I do and it's scary, scary as hell, particularly for future generations who will reap the whirlwind of a man-made catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen."
BRT has often waxed poetic about phase transitions where two or more conditions give rise to profound changes in a given environment like that of ice covering a pond when the temperature hits 32 degrees because the day before the pond is completely covered, 50% of the pond's surface remains ice free, which mirrors, in statistical fashion, fluctuations in the stock market, interaction of predator/prey populations in a pond or growth patterns of trees in a tropical forest located next to the Amazon. To whit...
This Dilbert's wonderfully nonsensical verbiage is not as powerful as schlonged but it will do in terms of mimicing all the ignored and ignorant bloviating about all things related to governance, foreign policy and science the other GOP candidates are spouting off while Trump get all the free airtime one could possibly want, based on a Yiddish term that fits in perfectly with George Carlin's famous seven words one cannot utter on tvbut canbe as The Donald well knows.
A short clip with emphasis on water is the theme of this video. The oil on water part was shot on town land trust property so chances are, it's either a natural phenomenon or a small spill from long ago. Enjoy.
Sound familiar? NONE of the bozos ranting at the last Republican debate have ever served in the military yet they talk tough and act as if they know what theyy're doing. The only one talking sense was Rand Paul in stating just how important it is to use discretion and intelligence when discussing the effective ways of countering an enemy as virulent and intelligent as that of ISIS, an entity the US created when "W" stupidly invaded Iraq based on a lie whereupon he DID NOT HIRE THE PEOPLE YOU CONQUER, the policy the Brits used to great advantage when they had an empire back in the day where the sun never sets.
From this "debate", where skin in the game does NOT apply to the participants in question, the reaction of the military, who do, is most profound and thoughtful, something these fools did not anticipate when trying to show America that they are the ones who should be invested with power that can end civilization with a touch of a button.
Last but not least, yours truly served so listening to the Repugs spouting off, without knowledge of all things relating to the military, makes me rather skeptical as to the overall competency of this sorry crew when it comes to leading a nation that's in serious trouble in more ways that can be articulated in a post such as this.
End of Rant.
Getting sustained fusion to work has been fraught with frustration, expense and failure, something that maybe finally coming to an end thanks to a bizarre design that just may work.
Seen below is the stellarator. Gotta love the insane design set made possible only by visionary use of supercomputers and manufacturing of precision hardware that borders on the supernatural. :)
Yet another TL but this one's pretty cool without question. I guess this is the pre-xmas eye candy show from BRT as seen by the last few posts from the blog. Enjoy. :)
The grandeur of nature, when distilled down to limited color sets like red & black with a touch of yellow, gives one pause as to just how powerful reality truly is. enjoy. :)
BRT has quoted the great GC many times as Carlin made you laugh and cry at the same time while describing the human condition that was prescient to a fault. To that end, here is a small snipped of 50 quotes of this modern day philosopher courtesy The Thought Catalog.
Century of the Self, a ground breaking British Documentary, is a very long video of which seeing just short snippets of same, tells volumes about how PR, aka Propaganda, when skillfully applied, generates public consent in all things related to war, commerce and politics using sophisticated techniques espoused by men such as Gustave Le Bon, Sigmund Freud and Edward Bernnays, among significant others.
Sounds familiar doesn't it as we see the continual push for never ending war beginning with Making the world "Safe for Democracy", the slogan Bernays created for Woodrow Wilson when he declared war with Germany on April 2, 1917.
Back in 2008, BRT talked about how dams kill rivers. Here's a video showing why this is so.
Addendum: The State of the World's Rivers enables us rubes to check out the health of the 50 great river basins of planet earth. Pretty stellar without question.
BRT posted a blurb about the DOD spending a cool 43 mil on a gas station in Afghanistan. Adding fuel to the fire is news about 150 mil spend on luxurious accomodations to make sure the well connected live large on our money conducting a war that cannot be won. Awesome don't you think?
BRT has talked about environmental degradation quite often as a result of pollution and overshoot, now comes a frightening scenario regarding food production vis a vis our continued assault on planet earth driven, in part, by GW, fossil fuel use and habitat destruction in the form of soil erosion to the max.
Click here to download the Sheffield study that shows how man can change this path to something sustainable before it's too late. Click here to go to the Sheffield site. You will not be disappointed.
Old birches, nearing the end of life, are magical with bark so delicate, resembling crumpled up book endpapers that long ago, resided on the finest books made long before the advent of the computer.
A forgotten bit of history is no longer forgotten, thanks to an insightful article in Salon describing how the proposed UN 1948 Palestine partition never happened.
Seems the cleansing continues ever onward as Israel continues to build illegal settlements (300+ and counting) while pushing out more Palestinians on land that is unquestionably theirs.
Question, what are the odds this story shows up on mainline NOOZE in any way, shape or fashion given how biased the US is regarding this tragic state of affairs. For this rube, < then 0 sounds like a plan to me.
How Much comes through again with its take on economic collapses beginning way back when. The elements of collapse is multi faceted as seen by the HM listing seen below. Check this out as this may be where the world's heading given just how much debt the world has incurred over the past 50 years, not to mention the spectre of climate change, environmental degradation and resource/population overshoot as additional prime drives of potentially making this a grim reality to civilization in its entirety as we move further into the 21st century.
When you think about it, this Jesus & Mo'toon' not only applies to religion but also to freedom of speech as freedom of speech, in Salman Rushdie's words, begins with a question and ends with the perfect answer, What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.as FOS is the one indispensable concept that's being suppressed not only in universities in the US but also in countries all over the world, something most disquieting to say the least.
Fall 2015 was extraordinary due to, as stated before in BRT, the weather gods conspiring to get the color out at the right time to enhance autumnal light in ways that have not been seen in NE for quite a long time. Enjoy. :)
Another giant of the computing industry just died, Gene Amdahl, the architect of IBM's System/360, the most successful mainframe in history, passed away at 92. In looking at his singular accomplishments, the one thing that stands out is the fact his code is still being used after 50 years, something simply unheard of in the age of the digital computer.