pnw'd

The creation of the US Department of Homeland Security and other various agencies of angst have succeeded in deputizing an army of untrained goons with a dangerous sense of authority.  Such organizations too have dismal track records when it comes to implementing new technologies that mean to keep us safe.  I am sick to death of seeing pervy and gross pictures of people in x-ray vision.  The unlucky models for the body-scanners all look like that creature from Pan's Labyrinth.  I wonder what fly-by-night contractor threw these together and stand to make a tidy profit.  It is like the electronic voting machines that supposedly make democracy better or taking away our USB drives at work and giving us something called "data armour" that seizes up at random and requires eight minutes to open an email--or the $2 500 toliet seats that the Pentagon is wont to purchase.  What is worse is that some believe that such flashy contraptions are more than show and could actually prevent an attack.  Nothing's gained, expect maybe a false sense of safety, and we'll never get back are thumb-drives, cigarette lights, paper chads, potable water.

these kids today with their y2k...

The millenial bug after dire predictions a decade ago has reared itself again in some 30 million automatic teller machines, bank cards and point-of-sales registers all across Germany, leaving vacation-goers without access to cash and causing undue embarassment and worry in checkout lines.  A mistake in programming causes an error when the card or device processes the 2010 date.  YYMMDD--100101, DDMMYY--010110.  Computers don't make mistakes; people do.  I wonder if all the focus and patchwork that went into preventing the crash in the year 2000 contributed to this.  Technicians are being deployed to fix the problem and replacement ATM cards being issued, but it makes me wonder what else might not be Y2KX compliant--I don't think I've turned on TomTom since New Years, and who can say what other surprises might be in store when one finally gets around to one project or another after the holidays.

i'm a little flake-y

So far this season there have not been any snow days yet.  Snow days are always more objective that calling it in because one is sick, although there is more potential for getting myself in trouble on snow days, when one is excused on account of the weather and not for feeling generally lousy, which is a subjective matter.  Today is Ephiphany, Drei Koenigs Tag, and I wish I felt better to enjoy the day off with H but I suppose that had I felt better, I would have gone to work.  I still get a little stir-crazy when confined to bed, and I guess that same potential for mischief is there, as on snow days.  I have been monitoring the weather, expectant of the front that has got the rest of the northern hemisphere in its grips--surely Mother Nature's retribution for Nopenhagen and is turning the UK into a panic-state and spoiled my boss's Florida vacation, to roll in any time now.

finery

This holiday season has been very dear to me with good friends and family, hectic but in a fun way and with time for reflection and gratitude.  Plus, I got a lot of really fine gifts and I hope that I was able to give in kind.  I really liked everything that I got--so often Christmases, even for all the fretful planning and talk of meaning, still sometimes are not as memorable.  Regular readers will understand why I was so jazzed to get this bath/door mat, and the virtually safe skateboard is really cool and the Bailey's and the great horned-lamp and the art deco milk pitcher, etc., which I should showcase later.  I received in the post a New Year's greeting card from my online graduate school, which was a nice greeting--though I very much enjoyed having the Winter Break from the Kant Generator.  Not to spoil the sentiment, since it is a nice card, but I noticed that in the side text that expresses "peace" in the languages of the world easily rendered in Western alphabet, there was a wish for "eace-pay."  Now I have to wonder about the academic standards of an institution of higher learning that uses pig-Latin.  I suspected that Fandriampahalemana was Malagasy but I had to make sure it was in fact a real word.

MMX

Remember how feisty John McLaughlin would get with his guests, especially for the predictions segments?  "Elinor Gee-I-think-You're-Swelinor Cliff, political forecast for next year?" "..."  "Wrong!"  Let's see how well my prognostication fares.
The Virus who Cried Wolf and Related Matters:

Individuals and governments, weary of pandemic projections, will not take kindly to the latest walrus and meerkat strains, but they will still prove profitable and grist for the blogging mill.  Airport security, just aching to be proven right, that one should err always on the side of outrageous caution, will institute even more draconian measures that will extend to domestic flights and public transportation until we are all nude and baggage-less.  This will create a new sort of locker-culture and backpack cult. 
Just when amateurs felt it was safe to loiter in the stock-markets, the world wide economy will take another culling swipe, though this time, fuel and commodity costs will be artifically buoyed up.  Some markets will implode because there's no cheapness in manufacturing to offset unemployment and other financial strains.  This second blow may lead to calls for cesession and repartitioning and reorganization of tax revenues in America.
Astronomers and researchers will be free to provide hard evidence of extra-terrestial life.  Interestingly enough, the discovery will be made and PR handled through the Specola Vaticana (the pope's observatory in Castle Gandolfo).  The resulting shift in people's priorities will almost be overwhelming--though people are very resilient when it comes to pursuing petty hang-ups.

Politically, the past decade was hardly predictable, at least from an American point-of-view, but I think those manouevers, even a resulting Republican renaissance, will appear less and less relevant, on the global and universal scale, as India begins to determine world policy.
Developments in the scientific arena, especially with the infusion of alien technology, will present some risky, ethically challenges, as it always does, but humanity's gentle introduction and prep-work through sci-fi and escapism turns out to serve us well.

2009 rewind (MMIX)

What a banner year!  H and I have done a lot, including getting a posh new apartment on the little river bank, went to Rome, career-development and returning to school (both as an alumnus and a new student), traveled to Washington DC and New York, getting a new car and many other fine fittings and adventures. 
Here are a few other world happenings, as best as I can recall, though I am prone to make stuff up and fill in my own details:

January:  Russia cuts off natural gas supplies to Europe through the Ukraine; Obama is inaugarated as US president; Iceland becomes the first national victim of the burgeoning financial crisis; Virgin Galactic is founded near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; the Eagle Eye weapon nearly causes a worldwide technological black-out through an electromagnetic pulse; Ricardo Montalban and John Updike pass away.

February:  US and Russian spy satillites collide in orbit and dust Siberia with debris; Iceland, hobbled by bankrupcy, kicks out its old regime and elects a lesbian as chancellor; the financial crisis in the housing and automotive industries picks up tempo; Natasha Richardson dies after a skiing accident.
March:  The International Criminal Court in the Hague issues warrants for the genocide in Darfur; NASA lauches a space telescope to search for extra-solar planets; England and the US start quantitative easing to spur the economy.
April:  The UN introduces the World Digital Library; the swine-flu outbreak in Mexico prompts worldwide panic; stratetic arms reduction talks between the US and Russia fail; Bea Arthur and JG Ballard pass away.
May:  North Korea ratchets up its nuclear warhead program; Russia's once and future tsar becomes more and more assertive; it was revealed that Don Rumsfeld advised George Bush's Iraq-a-attacky-two with Biblical prophesy; a giant, angry Elizabeth Taylor attacks New York City, later to be known as Cloverfield 8; Dom DeLuise and Roh Moo-Hyun pass away.

June:  The WHO calls H1N1 pandemic and progress is monitored closely as nations compete for access to vaccine supplies; Greenland becomes more emancipated from the Kingdom of Denmark; Michael Jackson and Fara Fawcett and David Carradine pass away suddenly.
July:  The Uyghur uprising continues in China; the fragility of worldwide economy is exposed on several fronts; Swiss banking laws are made more transparent; Karl Malden and Walter Cronkite pass away.
August:  A typhoon devastates Taiwan; 2009 is a year of anniversaries, including the 60th of the founding of NATO and the 20th of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tienamen Square protest; Corazon Aquino and Eunice and Teddy Kennedy pass away.
September:  Members of the G-20 gather for a third time this year in Pittsburg to prevent a second financial collapse; Sarkosy announces he will not seek a second term as the job of the French president is fatiguing; Niel Bohr and Patrick Swayze pass away.
October:  ESA astronomers announce the discovery of many exo-planets, including two outstanding one's that fit the anthropomorphic, Goldie-Locks' criteria; Claude Levi-Strauss passes away.

November:  The CERN super-collider goes back online after failing to cause a rip in space and time; former PM Tony Blair is denied the first permanent seat as European Union president, with Merkel and Sarkosy opting for lesser luminaries; the Czech Republic joins the EU; the aspirations of Dubai were proved to be not viable, as the city-state asked to be forgiven its massive debts; NASA finds significant deposits of water on the Moon.

December:  The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is of uncertain success; Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Prize for Peace; "unstable" persons abush Silvio Berlusconi and the Pope; Obama is criticized for failing to protect America from the underpants bomber, while meanwhile Russia prepares to launch a rocket to destroy an asteroid which may come close to Earth in 2029; Kim Peek (the Rainman), Roy Disney and Brittany Murphy pass away.

nackt

While I believe that it is far better and more dignified to submit one's self to a full body scan--the process, however, was not so effective for the Governator in Total Recall--rather than squirm in one's seat or soil one's self during the last hour of a flight or to curtail necessities in packing or divest one's self of carry-on items altogether, Europe's compliance with the scanners is disappointing.  It makes me think about those legendary office-parties where some drunk secretary makes a photocopy of her backside.  She was not worried about personal privacy and the image abused on the internet.  I wonder about these early-adopters for the full-body scans--at least they have the good sense to blame America and make measures only mandatory for flights there and not across the board.  This sort of escalation is no different than Putin's rebuttal to Obama that Russia needs more weapons to keep the US in check, so America cannot do whatever it wants.  One should be accountable if one makes itself a victim or a promising target.

snow patrol

The weather has been generally benevolent, gentle and seasonal, but a heavy, wet snow slogged down yesterday afternoon, snarling the light traffic of people still going to and from work.  I crawled through the hyperspace blizzard of snow flakes, listening to the news station on the radio.  Lo and behold, the traffic report announced an accident and snarl on the relatively peacable and incident-free stretch of Autobahn that I drive.  This was the first time I had heard my drive on the radio, and a part of me did not want to miss the accident and rubberneck--perhaps checking for timliness and accuracy, though I knew that I should avoid it if I was able to--after all, such warnings are issued so cars will steer clear of the scene.  H heard the report too and called immediately, to make sure I was OK.  I trudged on slowly, on the look-out.  When I didn't come across any evidence of an accident, I started to worry that perhaps this rare report of activity was a missive from the future, directed at me.  Mush, mush--the tedious work of plowing and skidding can engender strange thoughts.