It’s Dead Motorcyclist Season Again
Late spring to early summer marks Dead Motorcyclist season. It’s the time of year when fatal encounters between motorcyclists and motorists are particularly apt to happen. Many bikers are seasonal…
The Mound of Sound
Volkswagen’s Too Cool Autostadt
If you live in certain parts of Europe, you can get a Volkswagen directly from the factory. Your car is built to order and then stored in one of these…
Coming Soon to Canada, "Fortress B.C."
The CBC’s Stephen Smart sees rough waters and rocky shoals ahead for Ottawa-B.C. relations after Tuesday’s provincial elections. Perhaps for the first time in his reign our eastern ruler may…
Too Stupid for Satire?
Is political satire too risky for American consumption? Luke O’Neil argues in The New Republic that fake news has to go. Did you hear the one about the racist NRA…
No Warts, No Boils – Yet
No boils. Not a wart to be seen. I was a little worried about what I might discover when I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror this morning. Yesterday…
"Untermensch" Enters the American Right’s Political Dialogue
The Heritage Institute – neo-conservative America’s premier think tank – is warning Americans that Hispanics are way too intellectually inferior to be accorded U.S. citizenship. In High German I think…
What Must Prince Charles Think of Canada’s Prince of Darkness?
If there’s one bunch of Canadians who adore the monarchy it has to be Conservatives. That’s why it was no end of fun to see the Royal next in line…
When You Think Bitumen, Think of the World’s Poor and Needy
Who knew? It seems the Harper government’s support for the high-carbon, Athabasca Tar Sands is actually compassionate, even altruistic. We’re just doing our best to help out the world’s poor…
Opium – "A Source of Stability" Says U.S. Army
If the mightiest military in the world is okay with the opium trade then what are we doing busting kids for pot? The current opium policy of American forces in…
Too Hot to Handle
When we think of nuclear screw ups it’s usually the Soviet Union/Russia that comes to mind – Chernobyl, submarine accidents, old nuclear reactors jettisoned at sea, that sort of thing.…
Keeping Population In Perspective
Mankind now numbers well in excess of 7-billion and we’re expected to reach 9-billion before long. Here are a few stats to help you keep that in perspective. When Columbus…
Strange Bedfellows Indeed
The British government’s energy and climate change secretary, Ed Davey, is fighting back against climate change skeptics within the ranks of his own coalition government. Davey is a Liberal Democrat.…
Living Within Our Skin
It’s a core tenet of our Western industrial/capitalist/democratic orthodoxy that something in the range of 3% annual economic growth is the benchmark of a healthy society. That’s 3% compounded growth.…
Arctic Ocean Acidifying Rapidly
Oh well, we probably won’t even think about this once the oil spills begin but it turns out that cold sea water is especially absorptive of CO2. And, that is…
Insanity is Not Funny, Until It’s Political
At times having to watch America’s seemingly endless death spiral becomes utterly depressing. These are crazy people who have somehow been allowed to rise to positions of authority – people…
Check Out Solar Impulse, Live, Online
Think of it as an aerial solar panel. The aircraft, Solar Impulse, is now winging its way across the United States. It’s currently on the San Fransisco to Phoenix leg…
The Face of Globalization
When you’re racing for the bottom dollar, it eventually costs some people their lives.
Why Bother With Climate Change? The World is Ending Soon Anyway.
Apparently an awful lot of Americans have embraced “End Times Theology”. As they see it, the world is ending soon anyway so there’s no point worrying about trivialities like climate…
The White House Ponders an Ice-Free Arctic Ocean
The domestic and international security implications of an ice free Arctic ocean will be briefed at the White House this week. The meeting is bringing together Nasa’s acting chief scientist,…
Naomi Klein Attacks Big Enviro
There’s dissension in the ranks of the environmental movement. Naomi Klein has written a piece in The Guardian attacking some A-list environmental groups that, she claims, have been of more…