Arctic ice. Fast on the heels of last week's UN report on global climate change comes news of one of the lesser known impacts of global warming: likely changes in the Arctic Ocean. Melting ice is opening the way for greater access to not only the sea lanes, but also to the area's as yet unrealized mineral and oil potential. Governance of the Arctic and Antarctica are vastly different. This article from Wikipedia gives an indication of the situation for the latter, the world's fifth largest and most southern continent. Wikipedia also delineates the north polar region.
A lamented passing. If you have ever wondered "what's wrong with my car" or just been fiddling with the radio dial on Saturday morning, you may have bumped into Tom and Ray Magliozzi, "The Car Guys," NPR's Boston-based, on-air mechanics on "Car Talk." Those humorous discussions with their call-ins provided NPR listeners with more than a few chuckles, as did their ever changing sign-off litany of imaginary sponsors, e.g. their legal consultants, "do-we-cheat-them-and-how." Sadly, Tom passed away last week from complications of Alzheimer's disease. His zany antics will be missed!
Red is the new color. That's the color sweeping across Capitol Hill this post-election November. We will see if there are any truly fundamental changes.
On the Senate side of the Capitol, the very non-dynamic Harry Reid (D, NV) was replaced by the equally lackluster Mitch McConnell (R, KY). Not much dynamism at the top for either party.
The House will be even more solidly Republican-red. Perhaps you are old enough to remember the McCarthy anti-communist era when red was not a color of choice. In those days, what would we have called a Republican-dominated congress?
In his weekly Friday column, Charles Krauthammer remembered the President's comment in October that every one of his policies were on the ballot. Krauthammer continued, "They were, and America spoke. But it was a negative judgment, not an endorsement of the GOP. The prize for winning is nothing but the opportunity for Republicans to show that they can govern — the opportunity to seize the national agenda." Stay tuned.
President Obama's legacy. Sadly, what began with great hope has soured with time. It is possible that the President's greatest legacy may simply be: America's first African American president.
The really BIG problems. Following the elections there will be much said in Washington about problem solving, but what really matters down the road will probably not be part of the mix. The recent UN report on climate change pointedly alluded to a "tipping point," when the consequences of present day climate-related choices will become irreversible.
From Foreign Policy comes this past Wednesday's segment "A Small Step Backward for Mankind." There have been two recent steps backward for the American space program. The resupply shuttle for the International Space Station blew up just after lift off at Wallops Island, VA, and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Two space plane disintegrated while gliding back to earth from its mother ship. The article notes,
Both [accidents] are examples of what sociologist Charles Perrow famously dubbed "normal accidents": catastrophes that should properly be blamed not on the proximate cause -- a loose lever or jammed valve, say -- but on the inherent complexity of technologically intricate systems. As he wrote, "Risk will never be eliminated from high-risk systems." In fact, Perrow argued that singling out the particular thing that has gone wrong can be counterproductive: "Since [redundancy] is often added after problems are recognized, too frequently it creates unanticipated interactions with distant parts of the system that designers would find it hard to anticipate...But make no mistake: Nothing is simple in spaceflight. Unless you see a rocket launch in person, you miss just how improbable it is that the contraption works.While reading about the resupply shuttle explosion, a friend (a commercial aviator), his cockpit colleague, and myself were all remembering the famous short film we had seen years ago: a compendium of America's early space failures: rockets lifting off, only to crumple and disintegrate, falling sideways off their launch pads amid immense fireballs, the deadly Apollo capsule fire, etc.
What now? If the planet is indeed in danger from our own economic activities and a growing population, our human-generated dynamics have to change. The Earth's future may well lie with something as yet only dimly imagined. Experimentation -- with its normal accidents -- must be continued. To whit, the successful landing of the European Space Agency's Philae on Comet 67P after a more than 10-year, 3-billion mile odyssey.
Apples in the morning. Ever so much better than napalm ("Apocalypse Now"). Just a short way along my "down the hill" walk, there is a prolific neighborhood apple tree. I am not certain how many of the apples are used throughout the growing season or how many harvested in the fall. No matter, those that hit the ground in the fall provide food for local varmints whose chewing releases the smell that reminds one very much of autumn. Now if we were just permitted to burn leaves.
The 114th Congress. Here is a National Journal link to a searchable data base of the new members. Interesting possibilities; check your state.
The Berlin Wall revisited. Communism's "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" went up in short order (beginning 8-13-1961) but was dismantled even faster (10-23-1989). After its very unexpected construction, President Kennedy declared himself "a Berliner" (6-26-1963) and President Reagan famously implored Mr. Gorbachev to "tear it down" (6-13-1987). International events and the people of East and West Berlin brought it down. Here is a remembrance of the Wall's demise, 10-23-1989, by a young, not-quite-yet reporter, Christian Karyl remembers, who remembers the event very clearly. "The Wall looked strong on the outside. But that concealed a basic flaw in its design: It only worked as long as people still believed in its power. Once they stopped, it fell."
Chillingly, George Packer, who mirrors Karyl, writes in his essay, The Birth of a New Century, "It's possible to imagine Putin [an old fashioned autocrat] testing the integrity of NATO, hoping to find that it exists on paper only."
In 1965, while in the USAF, I stood at the heavily guarded and barbwire protected "Check Point Charlie;" as a tourist in 2012, I slowly strolled past an historical sign at what was now just another corner intersection.The Wall is gone and now paving stones trace its route through the cosmopolitan capital of the reunited Federal Republic of Germany.
Outmoded government. From Senator Mike Lee (R, UT), "Most systems we use to provide government services were designed decades ago, before the tech and telecom revolutions that have changed the way Americans do almost everything else. In 20 years, will we need, say, a Government Printing Office or Internal Revenue Service in anything like their current forms?" One can only wonder how many other federal departments, agencies, and programs are in desperate need of structural reform and modernization?
Money in politics, US vs UK. The 7th most expensive US senate race (Arkansas, $56.3m, $26.47/voter) cost more than the entire 2010 general election in Britain. The Economist notes that citizens in both the US and UK voice the same complaint: "Angry, distrustful British voters are convinced that democracy is being undermined by vast sums of corrupting money, to the point that elected representatives are essentially bought and paid for by wealthy special interests....[In sum]...this columnist agrees with those rooting for campaign finance reform. I just would not expect it to have magical effects on the public’s angry, distrustful mood."
Inequality. From the Economist (quoted in Foreign Policy): The most grotesque element of this existential threat to the American dream, to America's sense of itself and to its fundamental social cohesion, is growing inequality. In fact, it is inequality at historic levels. As reported in the most recent issue of the Economist, the top one-tenth of 1 percent of America's population is about to achieve a level of wealth equivalent to that of the bottom 90 percent.
Island of Romance. Have golf cart, will travel. A just completed cruise included a day on Catalina Island. You may remember the Four Preps and the lyrics, "26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina....the island of romance...." We knew our prearranged, self-tour and adventure quest of the island was via golf cart, but we were totally surprised that so many of the locals travel by cart. There is a long, multi-year wait for a permit to bring an auto onto the island; in fact, two vehicles have to be removed (disposed of?) for one new permit to be issued! A slow, wonderful day was had by all.
US Capitol, Monday, Nov 17th. A bust of Václav Havel was unveiled to mark the 25th anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution" that freed Czechoslovakia from Soviet domination. His is only the 4th bust of an international leader enshrined in the US Capitol. (Britain’s Winston Churchill, Hungary’s Lajos Kossuth and Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg)
In 1989, three months after this peaceful revolution succeeded, Havel addressed a joint session of the US Congress and emphasized the importance of morality in politics and economics, saying we should base our actions on “responsibility to something higher than my family, country, my firm, my success.” Sadly, his words seem somehow foreign in the current political climate.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a good week.
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