Morning Coffee (126)

Good Morning Coffee Drinkers. I hope that today’s Cup of Java finds you well and in good spirits. I write you today with a gallimaufry of feelings; joy and some sadness. Joy because, as some of you might already know, tomorrow is my last day at work. I have accepted a new job in a new place doing what I hope is exciting things with quality, professional people. I have not had that experienced the latter part of that sentence in quite some time. Suffice it to say that I have not found the last year and a half particularly rewarding professionally, and if I may be frank, the quality of people with whom I’ve worked during this time has been rather lacking if not nonexistent. So joy is the order of the day.

But I also write with some sadness. For one, this new job will take me overseas, away from family and normalcy. Away from my own bed which is comfortably and, once again, reliably warmed by my dearest wife. I will greatly miss her and the quite companionship, the comfortable presence that has developed over the years between two people who’ve grown to know and love one another more than they ever thought possible, through good and bad. I will be away from my son, who with his boundless energy and the unfettered enthusiasm and curiosity of a young child is the source of endless amusement and he is surprisingly the subject of some doting on my part. I will miss my dog, whose age is showing, but who always draws a smile when I look at her goofy bulldog face and dried out tongue; I’ll even miss the obnoxious snoring that often keeps me awake into the wee hours of the night. I will miss my parents, who I see and speak to less often than I’d like, and who, along with my grandparents, are a main reason why I am going; they taught me to do the right thing, to do what needs to be done, even it it’s difficult. I will undoubtedly miss countless other, unnamed things, as does any person who must leave for a period of time.

If that weren’t bad enough, our Coffee dates may become few and far between. Let’s hope that I will be able to Brew with the same amount of (ir)regularity that I have been of late. If I can Brew at all, it may take some time to get the Pot ready, as I will be in transition for a time. However, as I do not start my new job until 02 Jun, I’m hoping to get some in while I enjoy some much needed time off.

Having thoroughly depressed you all, I find no reason to tell you that Earth is trying to kill us all with her damned cyclones, earthquakes and volcanoes; I’m sure you’ve seen the news.

Word of the Day: Fetter (noun): 1. A chain or shackle for the feet; a bond; a shackle. 2. Anything that confines or restrains; a restraint. I will soon be UN-fettered.

On This Day in History: Dante Alighieri was born (1321). Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony (1607). Delegates meet in Philadelphia to write a new Constitution for the United States (1787). Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination (1796). Lewis and Clark begins its historic journey (1804). Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at age five (1939). The Warsaw Pact is signed by eight communist bloc countries (1955). Skylab, the first US space station, is launched (1973).

“I’m finished!” – Daniel Plainview.

Morning Coffee (125)

Four days. Four Morning Coffee’s. Imagine the fury; the hard-hitting commentary. If you can imagine it, it can happen. Because it did. Maybe you didn’t even notice. Maybe that hard-hitting commentary forced you into a Coffee-induced black out. Maybe your mind was so utterly blown by the impressive content that you were unable to remember one day from the next. Luckily, I number these things for you, so when you become overwhelmed, you can easily go back and relive the glory. Or ignore the glory. The choice is yours. Here at the Morning Coffee, we believe in empowering our readers; posing serious moral dilemmas and stuff.

Myanmar Cyclone:

Those of you in a Coffee-induced coma might not be aware that there has been a major natural disaster in the far off land of Burma, also known as Myanmar. Many of you might not be able to find it on a map, but you surely know of it now. Regarding names, Burma’s name was changed to Myanmar by its military leadership (no democracy) in 1989. The US and others have not recognized this change, so I will refer to it as Burma despite the media’s use of Myanmar. Moving on.

A cyclone by the name of Nargis hit Burma on 03 May. Initial reports on the fourth suggested that 10,000 people had been killed. Within 12 hours, that number went up to 40,000, with 70,000 missing. By the next day, the numbers kept getting higher and higher throughout the course of the news day. Eventually, the estimate reached 100,000 dead and 70,000 missing. This estimate was made by a US official stationed in Burma. I’ve also read somewhere that 65% of Burma’s rice farming industry had been eradicated by this storm as well. I’m not sure what, if any, impact this would have on rice prices worldwide.

The Burmese government, a military regime, hasn’t been too keen on letting in aid workers, refusing visas to most of them. They’re willing to accept aid, just not the people who would administer that aid. The regime hasn’t been too welcoming of much of anything for quite some time now. Not too long ago, a bunch of Buddhist monks got a bit angry at the whole regime thing and protested. They were no match for the military. Unarmed men in orange robes usually don’t stand much of a chance against soldiers. Numerous nations condemned the actions of the regime, but Burma’s neighbors (China) refused to do so as well. Money’s money. That should give you an idea of the reasons why the Burmese government doesn’t accept aid. Oh, I forgot to mention that several generals proclaimed that bird flu would never reach Burma because infected birds wouldn’t fly over the mountains. We’ll call him General da Vinci.

While the estimate made by the US official may very well prove correct, which would might mean a death toll in the neighborhood of 150,000 once the missing are accounted for, I really wonder about the veracity of such an estimate by such a person. Since he’s a US official, and the US has placed pressure on the government in Burma before, this number could be rather arbitrary. I’m not sure how one goes about estimating casualties in a major disaster, or what sort of training you might need for such a job. The Burmese want the number lower, and have reported rather low numbers, so it’s possible that the US has inflated the numbers to put pressure on the Burmese to allow aid workers to come in and help. It doesn’t really matter; I just wonder how the guy gets his numbers. He came out with 100,000 before anyone else did. Even 10,000 is a huge number compared to storms that hit the US, so 100,000 would be hard to fathom.

Natural Disaster 101:

But 100,000 isn’t unimaginable or even unrealistic. Wikipedia’s list of worst natural disasters lists several events that are far worse than the highest estimates associated with Cyclone Nargis. In 1931, China’s Yellow River flooded, killing 2.5-3.7 million people. This is the same river that flooded in 1887, killing 900,000 to 2,000,000 million. Guess they didn’t learn their lesson the first time. In less than 50 years, flooding on the Yellow River may have killed 5.7 million people. Nargis isn’t even the deadliest cyclone. In 1970, Cyclone Bhola killed a half a million in Bangladesh. In 1839, a cyclone in India killed 300,000.

The earth needn’t be left out. An earthquake devastated the city of Antioch in 526 in modern day Syria. It killed 250,000 people. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China killed 242,000. This is the official figure. Estimates place the death toll of this quake to be as high as 655,000. Cheaply constructed buildings near the epicenter of earthquakes equals bad news for your peasants. This isn’t even the worst quake in China. In 1556, 830,000 died in one quake.

What about volcanos? If you’re afraid of being killed by volcanic debris, don’t live in Indonesia. Five of the top 11 volcanic disasters have been located there. In 1851, 71,000+ were killed by Mount Tambora, which is less than the famous Krakatoa (1883 – 36,000). In 1783, the volcano Laki killed about 25% of the population of Iceland (9,350). Interestingly, 70 years prior, 1/3 of the population was killed by smallpox too. But that’s not the grand-daddy of volcanoes. The supervolcano at Lake Toba (also in Indonesia) erupted about 74,000 years ago, and may have been responsible for the deaths of 99% of the global human population, reducing a population of 60 million to less than 10,000. Since this volcano killed about 59,990,000 people, I think it takes the cake. Toba may have also been the largest explosive volcanic eruption in the last 25 million years. How about six inches worth of ash over the entire subcontinent of India? Six hundred seventy cubic miles of ejecta? Toba’s got it all.

I feel like I’m hosting a show on Discovery, but I’m fascinated with our planet’s power to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of destruction. And it’s my damn newsletter.

Word of the Day: Moiety (MOY-uh-tee) (noun): 1. One of two equal parts; a half. 2. An indefinite part; a small portion or share. 3. One of two basic tribal subdivisions.

On This Day in History: Ghandi begins his 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India (1933). V-E Day (1945).

“Grunt, grunt, grabba grunt grunt.” (Translation: “Uh, it sure is getting dark out…”) – Said by primitive man to his woman-friend approximately 74,000 years ago, right before they became very hungry.

Morning Coffee (124)

It was a beautiful day today. At least it was for the 15 minutes I saw it during my drive to work. Now I sit in a building with no windows, in a cubicle with little ventilation, where the temperature is presently 76 degrees and rising. Anyway, I’m sure it’ll be lovely today. Go out and enjoy it if you can. Get some fresh air. Then rub it in.

Atreyu Stars in: The Never Ending Election:

In Morning Coffee 119, published on 26 Mar 08, I prophesized (sarcasm – it wasn’t a huge leap) that Clinton stood no chance of securing the nomination. Since none of my five readers will call me on my botched political assessments, I can do that sort of thing here at the MC. But anyway, it doesn’t look like Clinton did much to prove me wrong yesterday. As we all know (or don’t), North Carolina and Indiana held their primaries. As was expected, Obama won North Carolina rather handily, by 14 points (yesterday’s prediction was off by one point), and Clinton took Indiana rather narrowly. Nevertheless, Clinton vows to continue on. It’s like this: I wouldn’t be surprised if today she holds a press conference ceding the nomination to Obama, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if she’s running for the 2008 election in 2010. I’ll even shamefully admit that I’m rooting for the ole lass. I’m a sucker for the underdog (who’d have thought Clinton would be the underdog nine months ago?), but this also makes for an interesting experiment. Both candidates have made seemingly fatal missteps, and both seem to have recovered. For me, this offers remarkable insight into the human condition, both in looking at the candidates and the people who vote.

Don’t get me wrong though. My rooting for her is not saying I hope she’s the next President.

Tree Older than the Earth Found in Sweden:

Miraculously, a tree in Sweden was found to be roughly 9,550 years old, making it older than the Earth itself, which comes in at a comparably youthful 6,000+ years old. Creationists are understandably baffled. With a little “creativity”, this discovery is easily reconcilable though. Like all those ancient dinosaur fossils, God simply placed it here to test our faith. Or maybe the tree’s not REALLY 9,950 years old; God just made it appear to be that old through manipulation of the physics of carbon dating. Maybe this tree was grown in God’s private garden, and He teleported it hear soon after He created Earth. This tree could even be an embodiment of God. Maybe the tree is God. Perhaps the Earth grew from this tree. Or maybe the Earth really is four billion years old after all.

This tree is a remarkable find. Granted, this tree hasn’t been in its same bark and trunk for 9,550 years as one might think. Since it’s a spruce, it basically makes genetic copies of itself and has the ability to make new trunks to survive various stages of earthly inclement weather. Or at least that’s how I understand it. And because we can examine that fallen bark, we can determine the age of the tree via carbon dating rather than having to harm the current trunk. Regardless, this tree has been around in some manner or another since roughly 7,542 BCE; since the 8^th millennium BCE. The Ice Age had just ended. Agriculture had only recently (in relative terms) become practical in the Fertile Crescent. There were perhaps 5 million people on earth. Total. It predates the mythical Moses by 6,000 years. Think about how old that is. It’s unbelievably old. People were barely beginning to form permanent settlements. Humankind’s last known close relative, the homo floresiensis, had only become extinct about 2,500 years prior to the birth of this tree. Remarkable. I hope it lives another 9,500 years.

Word of the Day: Contrite (adj): 1. Deeply affected with grief and regret for having done wrong; penitent; as, "a contrite sinner." 2. Expressing or arising from contrition; as, "contrite words."

On This Day in History: The dome of the Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople, collapses (558 CE). Justinian I orders it rebuilt immediately. The tree in Sweden laughs at man’s feebleness; it is roughly 8,100 years old. Despite pulling an arrow from her own shoulder, Joan of Arc leads the final charge at the Siege of Orléans (1429). This is the turning point in the Hundred Years’ War, which is but a moment in time for our Swedish tree. The German submarine U-20 sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people (1915). Many formerly pro-German Americans turn against Germany and the US will soon enter WWI. The tree thinks that all man does is fight wars. Nikita Khrushchev announces that the Soviet Union is holding U-2 pilot Gary Powers (1960). The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered (2007).

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” – Satchel Paige, baseball legend.

“By the time I have money to burn, my fire will have burnt out.” – Unknown.

Morning Coffee (123)

Greetings, Coffee Drinkers.

Singing Fat Lady Proclaims It to be Over for Roosting Chickens:

Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Someone else opined that, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” Others have made comments about chickens coming home to roost. Then, there’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. More still have asserted that it was the final nail in a particular coffin.

Well today, for Hillary Clinton, that fat lady might start singing, and it might be over. Clinton’s campaign has for weeks been fueled by the notion that she has more electability than does Barack Obama, and she has survived one contest at a time. But she has faced an uphill battle, against math and inevitability. She has had to win - and win big - every contest for quite some time now and today might be the real beginning of the end. North Carolina holds its primary today (an epoch from the first in this cycle) and Clinton is expected to lose by as much as 15 points. Of course, she might stay in until next Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia. It’s even possible, but even more unlikely after today’s probable loss, that she could win the Democratic nomination. Who really knows except god and Yogi Berra (and a few hundred “superdelegates”)? I’m no expert, so I won’t predict her demise. The woman seems to have more lives than a Hindu cat, and an indomitable will so you can’t really count her out. It’s admirable, frankly. I don’t necessarily agree with the manner with which she seeks power, nor do I agree with her politics, but it sure is admirable. Would she make a better President than either of the two men still running? I suppose the voters will (or will not) decide.

Primus Primary:

All this conveniently provides me with an opportunity to gripe about our antediluvian election process. I find it remarkably odd that the Reverend Wright fiasco might do nothing to shift the chances of Obama being the Democratic nominee. I am not, in this instance, passing any particular judgment on his relationship with Wright. Instead I am pointing out that many of the people who voted for Obama in months past might not have done so had they known as much about Wright as they do now. Unfortunately for them, their votes have been cast. One may say that it’s no different than someone regretting their vote for a President, but it is because Obama is not yet President. I.e. we have a chance to prevent him from being so.

Certainly, Obama’s relationship with his pastor impacts his electability. So the Democrats may field a candidate who stands little chance of defeating John McCain, and they can’t do anything about it because he has an insurmountable delegate lead because half the nation has already held their primaries at one point or another before Wright was a household name?

I’m not about superdelegates. I do not want a bunch of party officials selecting our choices in elected officials. To me, it smacks of an aristocracy. “We know better than you mere citizens, so we’ll select some people for you to vote for.” No thanks. But I’m also not about a primary season that stretches for across six months. Campaigning is one thing. Let the voters get to know the candidates. But the disparate voting times makes some votes more meaningful than others. It might make some voters wish their states held primaries later, as they find out that the messiah for change with whom they fell in deep love has held a very close relationship with a bigoted preacher for 20 years.

I say we have a good and long campaign season. Let all the wonks talk and talk about the politicians. Let all the politicians make mistakes and faux pas. Let all those wanna-be Presidents blow through the equivalent of several small nations’ GDPs in cash campaigning for two years, and then we’ll all have us a good old fashioned democratic vote on a predetermined date. Sounds like fun to me. More exciting even.

Operation Chaos:

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Like some mad experiment by some secret government agency to control the minds of bee farmers in order to sew the seeds of the New World Order. It’s not though. It’s Rush Limbaugh’s foray into screwing with the Democratic campaigns. I wrote about it a while ago, and asked you all what you thought of it. But I never got back to you. Most of the respondents to my query opined that it was in bad taste. I agree. I’m all about doing what you can to win, or to make it harder for your prospective opponents to win, but encouraging people to switch parties to vote in primaries is despicable. Sure, Republicans haven’t much to vote for in their primary, as McCain’s “the man.” But I do not like this trend. It’s meddling. If you want to switch parties because you’ve developed an ideological difference with that party’s ideology, fair enough. But to do so simply to undermine the opposition…must we make politics even dirtier?

Limbaugh’s a moron. I’ve never liked his self-important rambling. Check out the top of his webpage. See him in his disgustingness with his smug look and expensive suit and cigar. See that gold microphone, as if he’s telling us that he’s speaking to us through an instrument of the divine. I don’t agree with Al Franken on much, but I do agree with his basic assessment of Limbaugh’s character.

In other news, I’m a fan of a few fringe celebrities (authors) that you’ve possibly never heard of. Thomas Friedman is sort of one of them, but he’s more in the mainstream than say, Victor Davis Hanson. Anyway, Freidman is one of the most perceptive people writing today, I think. Read this article if you’ve the time. In it, he talks about some topics I mentioned yesterday.

Word of the Day: Amalgam (noun): 1. An alloy of mercury with another metal or metals; used especially (with silver) as a dental filling. 2. A mixture or compound of different things.

On This Day in History: Renaissance ends as Spanish and German troops sack Rome (1527). The Hindenburg, a German zeppelin, is destroyed when it catches fire near Lakehurst, New Jersey. “Oh the huge manatee.” John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque (2001). That’s hard to believe.

Morning Coffee (122)

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Most people don’t know the history of this day, which celebrates Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, the Mexican general who defeated the French at the Battle of Puebla on 05 May 1862. But the hidden history is even more intriguing. General Seguin was placed in command the day prior as his boss General Cesar Delgado became ill after consuming bad sardines with salsa. Interestingly, Mexico has a long history of naming famous victories after the favorite condiments of the general in charge of said victory, and General Seguin’s favorite condiment, much to the chagrin of his troops, was not salsa, but mayonnaise. Had Delgado not been struck ill by his afternoon snack on 04 May, we may well have been celebrating Cinco de Salsa! In the spirit of Seguin’s victory, today is the day which all good and decent people should consume a Fifth of Mayonnaise! Use it on sandwiches, or in a good potato salad.

It is possible that, because I do not speak Spanish, I may have mistranslated “History of Cinco de Mayo,” which is in Spanish. Comprende?

The Rise of Post-Americanism:

I’ve lately read a number of articles on what I suppose should most accurately be called post-Americanism. Apparently, this topic is en vogue at the moment. In all of these articles, the author discusses the “post-American world” but always spins it in one particular way; every single article discusses how this “post-American world” isn’t something to be feared, but welcomed.

What does a post-American world look like? Well, according to most of these authors, the US still has political and military hegemony over the nations of the world, but these nations are achieving parity in areas such as economics, cultural influence, personal affluence, individual prestige, and grandiose public works. Basically, the US is still dominant militarily, but it no longer has the most impressive buildings or most impressive billionaires.

This article, by Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, describes some of the seemingly superficial areas in which the US has lost its once prodigious lead. Zakaria contends that the post-American world is not so much the depression of the US might, but the rise of the rest of the world. He also contends that US hegemony, which he calls Pax Americana, has been the enabling factor for this rise of the rest.

Is all this a good thing? Zakaria posits that it is. I’m obviously skeptical. I am a patriot, but more importantly, I suppose I could be qualified as a nationalist, which means that I am very “pro” my nation being superior in all endeavors, to include the superficial. Foolish as it may seem, I want my nation to net the greatest haul of Gold Medals at the Olympics. I want my nation to have the most impressive buildings. I want my nation to have the most billionaires even. To cede the lead in any area is to me a further erosion of civic pride and virtue. I do not mind losing so long as we don’t throw our arms up and then give up. Because such apathy is much like any disease: viciously contagious. Zakaria reports that 81 percent of Americans believe that the country is “on the wrong track.” Eighty-one percent. Presented differently, that’s 19 percent that may or may not believe that the US is on the right track. Granted, a lot seems to be going badly at the moment, with gas prices and a “sputtering” economy and a massively unpopular war. It’s not surprising then to see such numbers. But maybe the situation is deeper than that. Perhaps our nation is mired in some sort of national malaise; some sort of melancholic rut from which we can not easily extricate ourselves.

When I am an old man, I fear that I will be able to look back and recognize that I saw my nation’s power peak, and that I lived the last half of my life in the waning stages of that power. We must remember that things are never as clear in the present as they are through hindsight. Will we be able to pick specific events that eroded American might as we can with the Romans? Will we look back with regret our unwillingness to oppose the growing might of China? Will we look back longingly at the wealth squandered on ill-conceived conflicts? Will we wish that we would have done things differently? Let’s hope that we can avoid such a fate altogether, at least for another 100 years. I want my son to be able to grow up in the nation I grew up in, and if he can say that of his son, and then that son to his, perhaps the future won’t look so troubling.

Hey, at least we’ve still got nukes, right? They can’t take those away from us…yet…

Poor, Poor Pain:

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you make less than $30k a year, you will spend 20% of your life in moderate to severe pain. But if you make more than $100k, you’ll have to spend a mere 8% of your life in the same type of pain. And you thought that money was the only thing that separates class. Okay, this is nearly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read, and I can’t read it anymore. Its absurdity is causing me moderate to severe pain.

Word of the Day: Fustian (noun): 1. A kind of coarse twilled cotton or cotton and linen stuff, including corduroy, velveteen, etc.; 2. An inflated style of writing or speech; pompous or pretentious language. (Adj): 1. Made of fustian; 2. Pompous; ridiculously inflated; bombastic.

On This Day in History: Columbus lands on Jamaica, and to the dismay of the natives, claims it for Spain (1494). Afrikaans is established as an official language in South Africa (1925). West Germany gains full sovereignty (1955). The 27^th Amendment is ratified, 202 years after its initial submission (1992). Strange that it took so long to ratify a simple amendment governing Congressional pay…

“We find that the Romans owed the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training, exact observances of discipline in their camps, and unwearied cultivation of other arts of war.” – Flavius Renatus Vegetius.