Even the Great John Cleese Had a Limited Shelf Life
In his heyday, John Cleese and his sardonic wit had great appeal, not only with the Brits, but even with Americans. It’s unclear how all this would play in today’s dumbed-down U.S. society.
The Loss of Our Nation’s Honor Is Devastating to Some, But Certainly Not All
Watching one’s country disintegrate is most certainly painful–if you’re an honest intellectual like David Brooks.
The problem arises when we realize that, for every David Brooks, there are several hateful morons, and perhaps a few amoral rich Trump donors who are thrilled to have a corrupt president who will lower their taxes.
Tagged with: Loss of Our Nation's Honor
Is Ocean Current Energy Commercially Viable? Let’s Apply Some Logic Here
Please take a moment and think about the graphic at left.
If I showed you a six-year-old tuna whose heart had been beating continually since it was hatched, would you conclude that the energy in a live tuna heart is “commercially viable?” I hope not.
Tagged with: ocean current energy
“Knowledge of Immeasurable Value that Belongs to All of Us”
Counter-factualism is a huge part of life in the United States right now. That can mean re-writing the history that is (or was) on display in the Smithsonian Museum, climate change denialism, or the rejection of vaccine science.
Most of us thought that would begin and end with the QAnon morons, but when Trump strengthened the movement and bolstered the MAGA crowd, we knew we had real trouble on our hands.
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Let’s Not Forget: There Are Two Varieties of Trump Supporters
The words at left come from American musician Jack White.
I would say that he’s mostly correct, though he omits an important fact: Where most Trump supporters are intellectually deficient, a significant number are simply morally defective and would happily trade in American democracy and a planetary environment that supports life for a few more million dollars.
Biodegradable Plastic
I just met a very bright young chemical engineer who’s working on plastic containers that biodegrade at the optimum rate.
Obviously, you can’t store milk in a bottle that disintegrates in a few days; it needs to last, say, at least a month. The problem is that our current solutions will still be in a landfill hundreds of years from now.
Tagged with: biodegradable plastic
Purging U.S. History
Of all the distasteful elements of American life today, perhaps the whitewashing of U.S. history is the most offensive.
In all honesty, our reporting on the subject was never good. Unless you read Howard Zinn in school, which some students did, it would have been impossible for you to piece together how brutally non-whites have been treated over the centuries.
Now, of course, the whole situation has gotten far worse than it ever was before.
Tagged with: Purging U.S. History
Discussing Climate Change in Wyoming
I had to laugh when I came across this meme. Does that woman look like a climate change denier from America’s great plains region, or what?
It’s gratifying to know that the good people of Wyoming object to being lectured on science by a right-wing Republican woman whose college major was business administration.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a woman just yesterday who asked me, “Do you believe in climate change?” I responded as I always do, that climate change is not the object of belief; studying the subject is pursuing a science. One either understands that branch of science or one doesn’t.
One can believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, or that Lou Gehrig was the greatest baseball player of all time. One cannot be properly said to believe in organic chemistry or the germ theory of disease.
Tagged with: Discussing Climate Change in Wyoming
Bill Gates and His Amazing Accomplishments in Philanthropy
Upon giving away almost all his fortune, here is Bill Gates: ‘I don’t want people to say, ‘He died rich.'”
Good going, sir. The world thanks you.
At least most of the world does.
If there is a funny part to this, it’s that America is home to uncountable numbers of QAnon morons who believe that Gates’ ambition is to enslave and poison as much of the world population as possible with unproven, dangerous vaccines.
Tagged with: Bill Gates and His Amazing Philanthropy
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