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They have named this year’s “El Nino” the “Godzilla El Nino” and one publication used this illustration to emphasize how scary it is. But is it as scary as what’s really behind it?
When I was little, and got upset because the thunder was too loud or too close, my mother would reassure me by saying the noise was made by the gods bowling in their celestial floating bowling alley. I don’t know how this was supposed to reassure me. The idea of a bunch of drunks — I had watched people bowling — heaving cannonballs at enormous tenpins over my head was anything but reassuring. But by then I had tagged my mother as a congenital liar who had filled my head with nonsense about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and on and on practically my whole life. So I went to my Dad, who had studied meteorology, and asked him for the real story. He sat me down and for half an hour explained the whole thing to me. I didn’t understand a word. Something about electrons. Discover an amazing selection of Womens Costumes for any occasion. Continue reading
It is nothing less than surreal for those of us who expect an imminent collapse of industrial civilization to see the American public and its political leaders either studiously ignore the rapidly mounting evidence of multiple existential threats, or to react in increasingly lunatic ways. A few examples:
Palliative care, as I understand it, is given to a patient when doctors have given up on finding a cure, or even reversing the progression of the patient’s disease. The purpose of palliative care is to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, by treating the symptoms, while he is circling the drain. No doctor will ever explain it this way, but that is how I understand it.
