Einstein: His Life and Universe

Do we need another book about Einstein? Doug Brown’s review of Walter Isaacon’s Einstein: His Life and Universe (April, 2007) says the answer is yes:

The Nation – Surviving The Climate Crisis

Via email from The Nation:

As we approach Earth Day the good news is that ecological consciousness is at an all-time high. The bad news is that we really need it. As Mark Hertsgaard writes in The Nation‘s just-released special issue on the environment and the emerging climate crisis, “We must accept, unfortunately, that the battle to prevent global warming is over; now, the race to survive it has begun.This race will continue for the rest of our lives, testing human ingenuity, institutions, and values as never before. Losses are inevitable, but the situation is not hopeless.”

The special issue subjects faddish solutions such as ‘clean coal’ and carbon offsets to serious scrutiny, and introduces radical new proposals: James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, outlines a 5-point-plan for transforming our energy infrastructure and Christian Parenti says Green utilities are growing, but they need to grow much faster. Doug Henwood wonders if the ruling classes can save the world from global warming. There’s also a dispatch by Matthew Gilbert, a ember of the Gwich’in tribe of northeastern Alaska, offering a rare perspective on the devastating effects of climate change on his people’s way of life and n essay by Elizabeth Economy, Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, who considers the “nightmarishly bad” implications of China’s development strategy while chronicling the country’s search for a green path to growth.

Realacoaster or Roller State?

This needs no explaining, a must see if you are buying or selling your home or enjoy roller coaster simulations: The Real Estate Roller Coaster.

Reading between the pixels…

Visualization available at Many Eyes:

* Global Population and World Religions, by country (use the options)

* World population prospects (predictions for 2050)

* Genoicide by Country

If charts fail, words about our dark nature work too: Eliminationism in America.

Though, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War sounds like a sure bet for late night reading:

Brooks tells the story of the world’s desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts “as told to the author” by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace.

Scientist says cremation should meet a timely death

I always suspected that the purpose of life is to make fertilizer.

Yahoo News and The Nation (Bangkok’s Independent Newspaper) carried this story today (added emphasis mine):

An Australian scientist called Wednesday for an end to the age-old tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributed to global warming.

Professor Roger Short said people could instead choose to help the environment after death by being buried in a cardboard box under a tree.

New Solar Panel Design Traps More Light

From International Business Times:

Sunlight has never really caught fire as a power source, mostly because generating electricity with solar cells is more expensive and less efficient than some conventional sources.

But a new solar panel unveiled this month by the Georgia Tech Research Institute hopes to brighten the future of the energy source.

The difference is in the design. Traditional solar panels are often flat and bulky. The new design features an array of nano-towers – like microscopic blades of grass – that add surface area and trap more sunlight.

Off to Tralfamadore…

– Kurt Vonnegut, whose novels included “Slaughterhouse Five” and “Cat’s Cradle,” has died at 84, his wife tells The Associated Press.

Stuck in the diddle with you.

Editorial-style:

For the next two years, Bush wins. His “stay the course” rhetoric has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and, based on his defensive speeches, is unlikely to change.

Worse, no honest Progressive or Humanitarian can thoughtfully call for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq and ignore the inevitable ethnic cleansing and religious wars that are certain to follow. It isn’t hard to imagine that a million or more people (fellow humans!) could be killed if we pulled out of an unstable Iraq.

I do, however, find it hard to imagine a future president, regardless of party or political pressure, ordering a full retreat: there are simply too many intelligent, hard working, civil servants in the Pentagon and various think tanks (of both political persuasions), who advise policy makers and recognize the consequences of a withdrawal and the future importance of permanent regional military bases and oil security.

We may be stuck in Iraq for a minimum of 5 years if we continue with “surges” attempting to strengthen an unpopular government tucked away in the safety of The Green Zone. In the worst case, fighting with a counter-insurgency mindset and tactics could last for 10 years; as occurred, for example, during the Philippine-American War.

David, a friend and student of history, predicts Iraq is headed for a strongman (LÚ.GAL) government, a mini-Saddam headed by a secular Shī‘a commander, possibly positioned by a US-backed military coup, as the only thing which can stop the current spiral; though, he also notes civil war is highly likely further down the road.

Another remaining option, one Bush entirely dismisses, is a partitioned state separating the Kurdish, Shi‘ite, and Sunni populations. The country we know as “Iraq” doesn’t have a very long history: Let’s not forget that the British and French Empires carved out Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and others from the defeated Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I — each new nation created from artificial borders bounded by neither ethnic nor cultural heritage requiring theocratic or dictatorial governments to glue them together.

Though, history also shows that partitioning isn’t a long term solution and often leads to further wars. Just consider the history of India and Pakistan (once a larger India and currently enemies) and Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia (once Yugoslavia and still capable of exploding). Partitioned states often hold grudges. Ancient religious hatreds always manage to find ways to release their wrath. Ultimately, all we can hope to do is delay the apocalypse and limit the bloodshed.

America wants out of the war and David’s prediction of a strongman government who we control to protect our interests will certainly get us out of Iraq faster, though, who knows what circumstances await the Iraqi people?

There must be realistic solutions worked out by our greatest minds within existing institutions. Plans which can be explained, in better language than Bush is capable of sputtering, why sorting out Iraq is our responsibility, why no one except the US can fix Iraq, and why we may need to stay in Iraq for some time to come.

We need a leader who can engage the American people with wisdom instead of fear, anxiety and simple-minded rhetoric. Someone who can explain the honest details of the situation; Americans will get it.

Climate Change

I’ve studied the issue as much as any non-scientist. Could climate change be yet-another end of the world scare? We do like to scare each other! The press certainly enjoys a good apocalypse story every now and again.

However, the carbon data is compelling and in the words of that great spokesman, Fred Sanford:

Oooo… Its the Big One… You hear that Elizabeth…

I think it’s too late and there probably isn’t much we can do beyond preparing for future change — something we humans are also good at (else we’d not be here, right?).

Here’s J-o-e-y

I’m apparently back — not sure who to thank beyond the general concept of honesty and people with integrity.

I don’t want celebrity; only to be able to talk freely. Nothing more. I intend to put my version of the facts related to the “Kathy Sierra Incident” online; some are now at misobserver.wordpress.com.

The War Heads design a new Warhead!

William J. Broad’s story in the New York Times, New Design for Warhead Is Awarded to Livermore, brings to mind some additional questions, such as:

Why would the Bush Administration rely on such simple minded deductive thinking, ie: no new testing and no additional yield means no new threat to China and Russia? Who are they trying to convince, them or us?

Iraq’s Death Squads

Last month I watched a good documentary titled Iraq’s Death Squads presented and investigated by Deborah Davies for UK’s Channel 4 “Dispatches” program. It originally aired on November 7, 2006.

From the detailed description in the URL above:

Return of the Badr Brigade

Immediately after Saddam was toppled in the Spring of 2003 thousands of Badr Brigade militiamen flooded back across the border from Iran, along with their political leaders who’d spent years waiting for this moment. They wanted the new Iraq to become a pro-Iranian, Islamic country where the Shia, who are 60% of Iraq’s population, would also be the dominant political force.

Iraq insurgency for beginners

A good article over at Salon, titled:

The Iraq insurgency for beginners

A leading expert on the insurgency clarifies who is shooting whom in Iraq, the growing power of al-Qaida, the influence of Iran, and the only thing left for the U.S. to do.