Friday 8 January 2010
pnw'd
Thursday 7 January 2010
these kids today with their y2k...
catagories: ๐พ
Wednesday 6 January 2010
i'm a little flake-y
Monday 4 January 2010
finery
catagories: holidays and observances
Saturday 2 January 2010
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:
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.
catagories: ๐จ๐ฟ, ๐ฎ๐น, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐ญ, economic policy, holidays and observances, labour
Thursday 31 December 2009
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:
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.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ฑ
Wednesday 30 December 2009
nackt
snow patrol