point nemo or sky of blue, sea of green

In his latest daring undertaking, Sir Richard Branson through his Virgin Oceanic venture will set out to explore the unplumbed depths of the seas in a miniature submarine, specially designed to withstand the untested pressures of such unexplored depths.  Who can tell what sorts of strange and unexpected vistas and creature he and his team will encounter?  As pointed out, more humans have walked on the Moon than have dove below twenty-thousand feet, and though science-fact and science-fiction has populated the stars with study and imagination, the bottom of the ocean has been mostly undisturbed, save for prospectors.  It's pretty keen that these rare sorts of individuals can act on this urge for challenge and exploration.

bucket brigade and bail-in

Collusion, conspiracy seems to play a big part in commercial affairs, especially when deferment, demurring on the inevitable, is playing an event larger role. Adventures in the Middle East, under U.N. sponsorship, are proving costly but sorties were inspired by the misapplication, transference of one uprising to another.

The pressure to act or react, according to a naïve paradigm, has anchored military and statecraft to a civil war or a tribal war, an internal affair, that even the rebel forces are finding awkward and unwieldy. Meanwhile, the same precedence that's potentially prejudiced with misjudgment hangs over the Ivorians, Syrians and the Iranians. Procrastination and bickering over nuance and semantics has been another form of deferment for the US government, interested in defanging, surgically certain programs. Kettled though undeterred, there is another uprising being organized, different though inspired by protests in the UK and witnessing what can be accomplished elsewhere, that aims to garner maximum attention, and make the beneficiaries of all this strife and delay take notice. There is a huge disconnection between economic health and the health of a people, of a nation--no matter what's selling, which is only proportional to the disconnection between the classes.

Solidarity and education are certainly powerful, but when fundamental problems are not addressed and too much profit is skimmed off of that dawdling, conspiring forces are invited in: with sovereign default and shutdowns looming, the spectre of meddlesome quagmire and people financially alienated, these major banks and their familiars only need the bad press of sunshine.

a working-class hero is something to be

A Washington, D.C. journal featured an important and intensely personal account of the how being out of work changes a person and a family, affecting one's dignity, attitude and outlook. It is absolutely crushing, gathering small blessing nonetheless, how the writer realizes that America has become a plutocracy, a kleptocracy and the only relatively safe careers are those that appeal to the vanities of the wealthy.

For the writer's intended audience, such transformations should be obvious and prevented, dealt with sympathetically, but just as hard as her revelations are about the state of affairs, understanding the consequences of unemployment or underemployment can be very difficult, for those spared the brutality and the insult.

The struggle is different for any individual anywhere, but it is nearly impossible to fathom for many Europeans, where the chance to live the American dream is still possible for immigrants and natives alike, who are rarely confronted with threats of eviction or a constant plague of bounty-hunter debt collectors or shudder in the absence of any sort of meaningful social safety-net, recourse or cushion. Sincerely, I hope that no one ever need to go through this, especially with the lowered expectations that globalization brings, disgust and futility with the ability and impetus to organize and protest against injustice even taken away.  One hopes, as well, that the message of this story shared is received and that awareness and empathy increases.

zusammenhalt

While world attention is focused on the urgent, unmitigated threat of uncontrolled radiation poisoning the land and sky and leeching into the sea, one has to wonder at this catastrophe three-times-over and not forget restoring basic needs to all the displaced people, rebuilding, finding the solace to begin again and honour what’s been lost through gainful, meaningful labour, is just as vital as controlling the atomic monster that’s impeding progress on those efforts. Just because international support and expertise are rallying on one front and the Japanese have been forthcoming about accepting that help, one should not assume that assistance is unneeded or unwanted elsewhere.

Those scares that bleed across borders should not overshadow the coping for destruction that was sufficient by itself. Nonetheless, the international community has come forward: a scattered fleet of enormous pumping engines, to deliver water to the reactor or, if the situation degrades, concrete to bury it, from Germany are being brought to the scene by Russian cargo planes to Japan to quell an American-designed nuclear power plant. One hopes that there could be the same concerted level of cooperation for any humanitarian crisis, recognition that we are all in this together, regardless of the potential for seepage.

sector 7G

A German broadcast network quietly announced it will practice some discretion in airing episodes from The Simpsons. In order to avoid further trauma at home and abroad, it will not be presenting shows that are centered around the Springfield nuclear power-plant.

Before the crisis in Japan and debate in Germany over the future of atomic power that has precipitated a series of documentaries on the Chernobyl disaster, what had educated (or at least introduced) the public most about nuclear issues was Mr Burns' reactor. Perhaps the network does not want to appear to be taking sides in the debate or influencing the viewers, but the same channel also showed Black Hawk Down just after the presence of US CIA operatives were working in Libya came to light, though it could be coincidental and is probably a superficial comparison since the bigger surprise would be if such agents were not already there. Hopefully, the network's selectiveness is also out of respect for the workers toiling under deadly conditions and racing against time.  This flyer seems a bit crass given the current situation--really done up for a Thanksgiving Day mini-marathon two years ago, but I have to wonder at the choice in clip-art to begin with. Cloud-Maker II does not loom over this town like that, and there are a lot of other nice landmarks to choose from.

penny-ante or tin-roof rusted

Huffington Post contributor and Former Assistant Secretary and Spokesperson for the US State Department P. J. Crowley, who resigned on principle over the shadowy incarceration of font of embarrassment and entrapment, has an excellent and thoughtful entry regarding the disposition of super-powers for a super-power without an operational government.

Whatever compromised is reached with the current quibbling certainly does not yield a balanced budget or new fiscal and monetary policies that will promote solvency and sustainability, however, cuts would remove America's ability to go questing and peddle influence through foreign aid. NATO and the UN can and probably should assume a leading role in peace-keeping, with the checks and balances of an international framework, but just as neither NATO nor any other organization can take over the administration of federal aid programs for the US, one has to wonder, what influences are filling that void in foreign policy. It may be positive or profoundly negative. Maybe the International Red Cross or the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta will never be expected to make sure American federal judges, national guardsmen and national park rangers receive their pay-checks, but the dysfunction (and bargaining that might wrest defeat from the clutches of victory) and indecision in serving its citizens and promoting the general welfare--for which no politic animals are accomplished experts, it seems--makes its emissaries suspect.  Money, after all, is not the measure of all things--including statecraft, and is a rather a tenuous shared delusion, opposed to health, well-being and dignity, and a grand unequalizer.