Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Like Grains of Sand Through the Hourglass...



...so are the days of our lives? Well, I'm sure you get the idea and I swear one day soon I'll come up with a bettter title for my daily roundup. For those who aren't aware, these links are to stories I'm talking about on my daily AM radio show here in Montreal. The links are essentially proof that I'm not making things up and that it's not just my opinion that MSM lies, obfuscates and doesn't serve us well at all. We do need a real 4th estate and near as I can tell the blogs are it.

There was so much to cover on the BP Valdez that it garnered a post all its own. I do want to begin with news about climate change as NOAA reported yesterday that things are hot -- hottest on record in fact, and that includes ocean temperatures which does not bode well for hurricane season.


Science news that relates to AGW (anthropogenic climate change), Lake Tanganyika, the second oldest and the second-deepest lake in the world showing unprecedented warming ...which has affected its unique ecosystem that relies upon the natural conveyance of nutrients from the depths to jumpstart the food chain upon which the fish survive. A reminder that there's little chance this is some vagary or natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time. You also might want to know that climate change was the cause of a mass extinction 50,000 years ago.
What me worry? Shell offers reassurances on drilling in Arctic Ocean.

One day soon a Wind Energy gold rush will ensue. Until then it'll move in fits and starts no doubt but one thing is clear, Europe is ahead of the US on this.

I've never understood the US's desire to impose "crippling sanctions" against Iran for their uranium enrichment program which Iran claims is for peaceful purposes. Despite claims to the contrary this has never been disproven. Iran does not seem to have the capacity to bring uranium up to weapons grade capacity which is 90% and higher. They don't even seem to be able to bring it up to a 20% grade, which is used for medical isotopes as well as fuel rods, and so yesterday they struck a deal for 3rd party enrichment with Turkey and Brazil. This however has not stopped the US from forging ahead with the 4th round of sanctions against the regime and this time they say they have both China and Russia on board.
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My real question is why do the Cold War rules of MAD (mutually assured destruction) not apply here? With one enormous caveat: the destruction would not be mutual if Iran used a nuclear weapon against the US or an ally - it would be Iran's and Iran's alone. That would make it suicidal and highly unlikely.

Attack in Afghanistan kills 6 NATO troops, 5 Americans 1 Canadian. Antiwar.com (a very reliable source) says that this attack likely signals the informal start of summer violence in Afghanistan, which is always dramatically higher than the rest of the year.

To close out for now, Rush Limbaugh is creepy and quite possibly insane, while Glenn Beck is creepier and most definitely mad.

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