This Should Scare the Crap Out of You

If the thought of half of all guns in the world being in the United States today doesn't give you pause...then maybe this video about the cavalier way that we have treated atomic weapons will. 

I want to give credit where it is due - I was alerted to this by the Restricted Data blog.  As Alex Wellerstein notes, the date on the video is almost certainly wrong since the US was in the middle of a nuclear test moratorium in 1959.  The more likely date seems to be about 1952.   I will leave it to Alex to make his observations, as they are much the same as I would make...plus:

1. What were we thinking?
2. Is it somehow OK to use military personnel as guinea pigs?
3. Did we really believe that ducking down in  a WW I trench would be protective/effective?   (Maybe that explains in itself a lot of the Pentagon's failings since then as well as those asinine "duck and cover" drills I was subjected to during the Cuban Missile Crisis...right in front of the "window wall" that was one side of our classroom).  

 


And just by the way...the US has more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world's nations combined that admit to possessing them, which of course excludes good "friends" like Israel.   This should make me feel better about it...but since we are also the only country that has ever used them in war......

Cool Job!

This guy has got one seriously cool job!

Watch Best of Science Correspondent Miles O'Brien on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Obama Was Right, Just not Polite About It

If anyone is still wondering if Obama's open criticism of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision during his 2010 State of the Union speech was justified after this last election which was a wholesale disaster both for truth and thinkers as a result of that inexplicable decision, here is another view slightly more local to our part of the country . 

Hopefully some other states will follow the lead of Montana and Colorado in repudiating this decision through legal means and provoke a more sane re-review, when maybe there are a couple of  more justices with a better sense of what American democracy really means to look at it again.

 

Led From Down Under?

The land of Fosters, kangaroos and 'shrimps on the barbie' made firearm regulation history many years ago - first by acting decisively (unlikely with the US Congress), and making a significant dent in firearms deaths that has continued.  

Reclaiming the Republican Party

If we are forced to have political parties at all, it works slightly better if there are two relatively inclusive parties with a healthy spectrum of views within each -- including moderates.   Frankly I long for the "old" Republican party that was actually functional. Unfortunately, except for an occasional refreshing exception...the current  party is a clueless mess.

Tom Friedman (as he usually does) wrote a nice summation in his Sunday piece this week.

National Retrograde Association?

Ever since a not-all-there Charlton Heston did his '...cold dead hands' speech, I have really wondered if there was some form of insanity running through the NRA.

I guess after today Wayne LaPierre removed all doubt.   Even his staunchest Republican backers are having a hard time swallowing this one!

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Senator Lieberman

It should not surprise anyone that I have almost no current politicians that I really respect or admire, but one of the rare exceptions is (sadly) retiring from the Senate.  Not only did he have the foresight and wisdom to become an Independent (i.e. thinker) about six years ago - this interview shows him to be every bit the level-headed, thoughtful leader that this country needs.   While I don't agree with him on everything (i.e. unqualified support for Israel's shenanigans for example), I would definitely trade him for any 50 of the newly-elected or reelected crop of partisans in Congress.

"Like Manhattan Breaking Apart Before Your Eyes"

The huge loss of the ice at the North and South poles of the earth is going to have a profound (and none too pleasant effect) on the earth's climate.   The only question is when. 

The new documentary 'Chasing Ice' is one I definitely need to see - this clip is from the film:

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I Miss the Republican Party

The one that used to make some sense of course.   Not this one.

The Learning Revolution

Sir Ken Robertson spoke at a TED 2010 event as a followup to his earlier talk that I posted -- in many ways it completes the first one...and should give educators the world over pause for thought. It will be a radical shift for most educators, but it is necessary, and I really wish it had happened before I had been forced to slog through our incredibly boring, unchallenging, and largely irrelevant public education system.

The World is....Hilly?

I just saw another of the TED talks - this one hits a general theme that is a favorite of mine - the wildly inaccurate perception of "everybody knows" topics, as well as the specific debate about a flat world, globalization, etc.

One of my personal favorite myths is the "everyone is on the Internet" mantra.  When I ask "then why does only 34% of the world's population have access to the Internet?"  I get a blank stare ... and then they go back to 'liking' everything in sight on Facebook.  

Pankaj Ghemawat's video is informative and worth watching (I think there is an implicit case in here for requiring a history/economics/facts test for all voters as well !).




The implicit debate between Tom Friedman's view and this video is not as stark as it may seem.
I found Tom Friedman's books on the subject to be compelling although it is difficult to quantify into hard data the exact degree of 'flatness' such as he describes.   Much of his evidence is 'macro' in scope and based on the perception of the Western world as to markets and economic forces which have certainly shifted to some degree to a 'flatter' view.  

Regardless, I find listening to this type of discussion one of the real rewards of being a thinker rather than a blind follower of trends.....

 

Do Not Break Into Small Groups!

“There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” — Susan Cain

I have written elsewhere about TED as a source of inspirational, educational talks for thinkers.  I did not expect to find this video however - Susan Cain very clearly speaks to my own experiences in her talk.
   
Throughout my college education and business career, I have been subject to the pervasive 'groupthink' preferences and 'cattle car' office organizations.  I have strayed (I told myself ventured?) a few times from the 'introvert' path, and it has almost always been to my eventual detriment.  This went right to the top of my favorite 'TED Talks' and I don't think anything is going to match it any time soon!!!

It is very inspiring to hear someone speak about why the suppression of introverts is perhaps not the best way to go .....



I plan on reading her book very soon - it is on the way from Amazon - look for the review on Goodreads or here (and watching hthis video a few more times!).

Update: Well, perhaps not right away -- I decided this book was going to be a Christmas present to me...so I probably won't dive into it until....oh sometime early on the morning of the 25th!  But I do plan on watching her TED Talk at least four or five more times before then!

Canadians Saying No to F-35?

I have always admired the way Canada's government works.  They have some anachronistic practices for sure, some of which we don't understand in the US at all (and they have way too many political parties, but any number greater than zero is too many).  Their results however (at least for the last 30 years or so) always seem to work a whole lot better and be much more "adult" than many of the infantilisms that come out of the US Congressional stink-pile.

And as this article discusses, they have a serious "get things done" attitude in their Parliament, and a culture of much less pretense, self-importance,  and politicization than the US Congress which undoubtedly is a big contributor. 

In fact, it turns out that some MPs are tired of the more than the usual amount of smoke blown around (using Canadian standards) about the F-35 and the seemingly out-of-control costs currently funding the lifestyle of many American "1% ers" in the military-industrial complex. If you don't remember, this was the "war" plane that was delivered to the US Marines sans guns and way over budget. 

It looks like the Canadians may be about ready to pull the plug on it entirely.   Good job, eh?

Fiscal Cliff ? - Lets Get Real!

Shields and Brooks on PBS NewsHour this week were their usual erudite selves....but again I noted that in the entire "fiscal cliff" dicussion there was no mention of the real "gaping maw" at the bottom of the cliff -- the Defense budget which has doubled in the first decade of this century...to no discernible improvement on our military that I can see.  (Other than we have even more over-budget, non-working weapons systems than before).    

Still...an interesting and worthwhile discussion as always....

Watch Shields & Brooks on Jobs Report, 'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.


 

What Were They Thinking, Part 2

The second part of Michael Berens Sunday piece in the Seattle Times on elephants in captivity arrived today. 

The story doesn't get any prettier I am afraid, but it should give food for thought to thinkers about our assumptions concerning what we perceive as the 'lesser' life forms.

Great, Great, Grand Canyon?

When you reach a certain age...it is sometimes comforting to hear a debate about something, or someone, that is a  WHOLE lot older!

Watch Grand Canyon May Be 60 Million Years Older Than Thought on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

What Were They Thinking?

Every once in awhile, someone (frequently a dedicated journalist) uncovers a story that makes you wonder....what WERE they thinking? 

There is such a story beginning today in the Seattle Times by Michael J. Berens - I recommend you read it and view the accompanying video.