Here we are sucking up leaves in January.
It almost looks like we’re sucking up the whole ground with it!
After the warmest decade on record, we seem to be having the warmest year on record.
It’s 52 degrees out, and we’ve been reaching up into the high 60’s so far this month.
Global warming or the big fires in Australia or action with Iran are heating things up here in Washington, D.C. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I love when people can communicate through pictures effectively.
Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words–probably more.
This was a simple drawing to depict I assume global warming.
– 2000 some nice mountain glaciers.
– 2020 the snow is melted.
It’s like the person didn’t have to say a word.
But I get it.
Also, I know there is supposedly a lot of scientific evidence for global warming.
But for me personally, I don’t see it or feel it.
The summers, if anything, feel cooler and the Winters feel colder to me.
I know that is anecdotal and not representative of the world.
However, it is hard to reconcile what the scientists say, when your own eyes aren’t seeing it.
Granted, I’m not in Alaska where, for example, the glaciers are melting,
Still wouldn’t we be feeling something here?
Maybe a few degrees really isn’t perceptible.
I guess time will tell us for certain.
Hopefully, by the time we do see it, we won’t get run over by the speeding train. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So Antarctica is the 5th largest continent of 7 in the world.
It is 5.4 million square miles, and it is larger than both Europe and Australia.
But it has only a temporary population of 5,000 people, mainly researchers.
About 70% of the world’s fresh water is held in the Antarctic ice sheet, which is 90% of all the world’s ice.
And the ice there extends 7,000 feet thick.
If all the ice would melt, the global sea levels would rise 2,000 feet!
Despite 95% of models over the last 30 years predicting the ice sheet melting due to global warming, it actually continues to expand.
It’s a paradox for the science community, but one of the explanations is that as ice shelves break off, they actually forms a protective barrier for the new ice being formed along the main ice landmass.
Even with global warming, the average temperature in Antarctica is still -35 degrees Fahrenheit, and most parts never get above freezing.
So here’s an idea–rather than fear global warming, is there an opportunity to use it and advance it, if only we can channel the effects of it for the good of humanity.
The Antarctic Treaty System prevents nuclear weapons explosion there, but wouldn’t that be a cool way to melt some ice and get some fresh drinking water for this thirsty planet or even to somehow move to MARS for colonization there?
Also, we could place solar mirrors in space to redirect sunlight to melt the ice–that’s either some probably some pretty big mirrors or the dispersion ray of a space laser(s).
The key now is to get the water to where you want it to go and not to destroy by massive flood our worldwide seaboard cities–and that’s where a mass molecular transporter comes along.
There is still much to discover and invent, but when it’s done, I think we will definitely be heading to Mars and beyond.
Really, we have to, there is no other long-term survival choice for humankind.
And perhaps, G-d placed the survival pod for us right under our feet at literally, the southern most point of the world, Antarctica! 😉
(Source Photo: here via Wikipedia)
This is a advertisement around Washington DC alerting people to the dangers of global warming.
“I’m Too Hot”
And
“9 of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 2000.”
Wait a second, for some (or many) a little extra heat may be considered a good thing especially if you live up north with generally freezing cold and miserably snowy winters.
So don’t just tell us about it getting hotter, but tell us how hot is it actually going to get and what will happen when it does–melting glaciers, rising oceans and catastrophic flooding of cities, weather abnormalities and violent natural disasters, and so on.
We need to move on to the substance of this.
Just like with the national debt, we keep talking about it going up (and up).
Well what’s so bad about that if we can just print some more greenbacks and pay for more stuff, maybe it’s a good–or great–investment in our country and future?
Here again, the message that isn’t getting out clearly is what is going to happen when the debt becomes unsustainable and printing or devaluing dollars will not solve the problem and may actually exasperate it by creating run-away inflation, a downgraded or junk credit rating, and higher debt payments possibly tanking our economy and people’s savings.
Yeah, we don’t want to cause a panic.
But shielding people from vital information on the dangerous paths we are on will only lead to going further down into the abyss of non-action and potential for cascading calamity.
Let’s face it–it’s unpopular to talk anything doom or gloom–financial crises or natural disasters or especially anything with WMD–but if we aren’t the adults in the political room, who will be?
For once, I’d love a leader who tells it straight, who helps us face our own worst nightmares, and actually gets us back on track again, rather than keeps the wool pulled over our eyes for another term or two.
Leadership is lost in rosy glasses, vote counting, pundits called upon to obscure the truth from the people, keeping a false calm, and creating wildly inflated legacies.
These motives for now are stronger than the determination to deal with the threats we face, but not forever, and then the pendulum will most abruptly swing in the other direction, precariously late for the ensuing global effects. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The the other day, I was walking through the grass.
I came across these toys horses that had been left in a pile.
I thought about the innocence and beauty of children.
How nice it is to just sit in the green grass and play with your horsies.
Today, I was downtown and GWU has a big graduation going on.
This guy wrote on the bottom of his cap, “If youre reading this, I just graduated.”
Of course, this is America, and so he left off the apostrophe (‘) in you’re (you are).
Oh well–neither STEM nor spelling is apparently part of the education curriculum anymore.
But how quickly the kids grow up and before we know they’re college graduates.
From childhood innocence and dependence to adulthood independence and its colorful assortment of sin.
All grown up and what we hope happens next…
…off to start a big career, continue with graduate studies, marriage and kids of their own…the sky is the limit.
We need smart and enthusiastic people coming of age with big ideas, teamwork, and precision execution to solve the ginormous problems we face.
Still huge debts, hunger and poverty, dreaded old to frighteningly new illnesses, a unsustainable use of our planet with tongue in cheek efforts to change, rising social inequity and racial tensions, and raging terrorism and WMD that is making a global and more deadly comeback.
I have no grads this year, but we sure as hell need every person coming off the assembly line to step up and make a difference.
Right now, the leadership in the world (commercial, spiritual, and government) is overwhelmingly deadwood (people lacking in caliber and integrity like Steve Jobs, the Lubavicher Rebbe, Nelson Mandela, and Ronald Reagan).
From failing products and falling profits, to “religious” sex abuse, demagogues overseas, and plenty of lying and corruption at home.
We need and should expect more, demand more, perhaps in the young people there will be more–that is our hope and saving grace.
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
Andy Blumenthal talks about three technology imperatives for 2016.
1) Medical technology
2) Counter-terrorism technology
3) Space technology
Enjoy and happy New Year!
We are continuing to see the number 613 (a critical number representing G-d’s commandments to us in the Torah).
I wrote about this in my post last month (Nov 26).
Yesterday, I randomly looked up at this guy cleaning in front of one of the GW University buildings and there it is…613.
On Sunday, we stopped for something to eat (see receipt total with the scrambled 613 in it)…$16.38.
The principle of divine intervention in everything we do in our lives is a paramount religious belief, and in Judaism, we learn that not a leaf falls from the tree without it coming from G-d.
The times we are living in is certainly not normal with terror and war on nearly every horizon (ISIS, Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China to name just a few around the globe), a growing threat from WMD, the economy in shambles, government debt exploding, energy, mining, and other commodities in free-fall, and global warming continuing to heat things up.
Further, with immense conflict and political dysfunction in how to deal with these challenges, and amazingly little to no resolve to seemingly even address many of them at all, the views and positions are moving toward extremes and the people’s emotions seem to range from generalized frustration to genuine fury.
The story isn’t over on all these fronts for America or the rest of the world, but I believe even if leadership’s heart is hardened and progress seems almost completely stymied in the face of emerging global chaos, G-d is watching and guiding things very closely at this historic time. 😉
(Source Photos: Andy and Dossy Blumenthal)
Over 7 long years, the promise of “hope and change” has given way instead to the disappointment of chaos and dysfunction.
Just some 30 examples off the top of my head…
1) Nuclear IRAN
4) Taliban resurgent AFGHANISTAN
5) Militarization of SOUTH CHINA SEA
6) Nuclear missile NORTH KOREA
8) Resurgent aggressive RUSSIA
10) Streaming crisis of REFUGEES
11) Broken system for IMMIGRATION
12) Sharply rising MURDER RATES
13) Growing and largest PRISON POPULATION
14) Rising RACISM
16) Worsening polarization in POLITICS
21) Failing system of EDUCATION
23) Growing insecurity of CYBER
24) Infringement on PERSONAL PRIVACY
25) Falling participation in LABOR FORCE
26) Slowing ECONOMY
28) Shrinking affiliation with RELIGION
29) Epidemic of SUICIDE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Now, one of our main hopes has to be genuine change for the better.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I have never ever heard so much talk about doomsday as I am these days.
Earlier in the year (January 2015) the Doomsday Clock moved up to 3 minutes to midnight–that was a full 2 minute move or 40% advance to the end of times.
The cited reasons by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:
– “Unchecked climate change”
– “Nuclear arms race”
Essentially, these “pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity.”
But on a daily level now–
Islamic extremism showing through post 9/11 mounting turmoil and unbelievable terror in the Middle East, including seeming non-ending ISIS brutality, Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons and advanced ballistic missiles, the Sunni vs. Shiite war for dominion centering (lately) in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen but with much larger geopolitcal overtones towards a return of a powerful caliphate to challenge the West, fighting between Muslims and Christians in countries like Nigeria, ongoing terror threats to the democratic State of Israel, and a rising tide death, casualties, and refugees.
Russian aggression in multiple countries and regions including Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, air and naval military incursions and encroachment towards Turkey, the countries in the Baltic Sea region, the Arctic, and even a Russian military satellite parking itself between 2 U.S. satellites yesterday.
China’s militarization including greater military spending on advanced weapons, Island/posts building in the South China Sea, and ongoing threatening overtures toward Taiwan and other neighbors, and cyber warfare conducted against the U.S.government and the private sector.
Frightening new military capabilities are coming online with advances in weapons of mass destruction–nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological–colonization and militarization of space, laser weapons, satellite killers, swarms of drones, armies of robots, and cyberwar.
The drumbeat of climate change and environmental deterioration (unsustainable practices of deforestation, overfishing, pollution, and the extinction of countless species) is being felt in changing weather patterns, global warming, glacier meltdown, alternating threats of flooding and drought in various part of the world, major storms and lightening patterns, and an uptick in natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornadoes), and an overall trend towards shortage and conflict.
An ailing global economy after 2 major recessions in the 21st century so far, booming national debts, stalling economies, slowing innovation, and scarcity of stable, good paying, full time jobs in an outsourcing, short-term, freelance, contractor culture, and automaton and robotization advances.
Dysfunctional political systems that are bogged down with endless indecision, infighting, bickering, finger-pointing, stalemates, shutdowns, pork barrel spending, catering to special interest groups, short-term wins at the expense of long-term goals, corruption, and a lack of strong capable leadership at the helm.
An article I read recently from Russian Times, I believe, said how the U.S. teeters just steps from potential collapse by just relatively easy societal interruptions (presumably that they could facilitate) and that with farms/food production far from major metropolitan areas, people hooked on drugs that they could not get supplies for, and other severe disruptions in our critical care needs, we would be in big trouble–the message was clearly watch out, you are extremely vulnerable.
That these tactic threats and overtures are already being made explicit is not a good sign. Just politicians and countries throwing around their weight or jockeying for position on the world stage–who knows?
But people are frail, countries are vulnerable, budgets are limited, and bad things can and do happen if we are not careful in a world ticking closer to very dangerous times and events.
The coming realization of the prophecy of a devastating world war–of Gog and Magog–is what people are saying to me.
In conversation about deteriorating world events, my wife innocently asked someone this week–“Can we avoid a major world war?” Their unequivocal response, “No, it’s inevitable!” 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Time runs out, but we are still chasing highly elusive goals (just some examples):
1) Iran – Time runs out on deadline for a nuke deal even after “the framework” was supposedly set three months ago. And as Iran’s Supreme Leader and the Iranian Parliament chant death to America, can we really believe that Iran will ever truly give up their pusuit of nuclear weapons of mass destruction (and terrorism) to use on you know who?
2) Greece – Time runs out on an extension of more Greek bailout funds, and they default on payment to the International Monetary Fund potentially leading to their exit from the Euro and the EU. With a Greek debt of $271 billion, can we really believe they will ever be able to repay this?
3) Social Security and Medicare – Time is running out on the solvency of our own social entitlement system in the U.S. For example, the Social Security Disability Trust Fund runs dry already next year in 2016, Medicare is exhausted by 2030 and Social Security by 2033. With just 16 and 19 years of funding left for these major programs that tens of millions depend on, can we really believe that magically we will dig our way out of this mega mess of a financial hole?
4) Global Warming – Time is running out on cutting carbon emissions leading to global warming and catastrophic climate change. With global warming denial still in vogue and reluctance by the industrial nations to significantly cut back on emissions in time, can we really believe that catastrophic enviornment damage will be averted?
5) War – Time is runing out as potential for eventual war looms on the horizon with China, says respected DoD Futurist, Peter Singer. With disputes in the South China Sea and with Taiwan, China bulking up on advanced weapons, and the U.S. pivoting to Asia, the fears of a serious confrontation are there. Similarly, with Russia and it’s annexation of Crimea and ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine, threats to it’s Balkan neighbors, confrontations on the European borders, and an increasingly nuclear and militant Russia, the Cold War is heating up. The last world war ended 70 years ago, can we really believe that the peace will continue to prevail with powerful adversaries in turbulent and uncertain times?
Yes, hopes and dreams are important, but real concrete action is too or time will simply run out and then what? 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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