Bloom County is back, but maybe so is 1990

July 28, 2015

Surely you fans of Opus and the cast of Bloom County have heard that cartoonist Berkeley Breathed revived his comic-strip-before last in an on-line format. It’s available on Facebook. I’ve not found other venues, if there are any.

This one from July 17 is just so . . . so . . . apt. Perfectly adequate.

Bloom County, July 17, 2015. Yes, Opus and the crew are back.

How much of our current fascination with penguins can be traced back to this old strip?

This strip also reminds me of that old pro-Reagan story that circulated in 1980, about the senator stopping off at Roosevelt Island on the way home, and Teddy Roosevelt’s statue coming to life to ask how things were.  Anybody got a good copy of that story?

Tip of the old scrub brush to Mary Almanza.

3 Comments | Cartoons, History | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Are those flames? Is that fiddle music I hear? Greenland is melting faster (Annals of Global Warming)

July 28, 2015

Discover Magazine caption: Greenland as seen by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 29, 2015. (Source: NASA Worldview)

Discover Magazine caption: Greenland as seen by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 29, 2015. (Source: NASA Worldview)

What is the price of our delay?

Greenland’s ice is melting faster than scientists predicted a few years ago. Incredibly, a sizable bloc of people work to stop action against climate change, claiming that it’s not occurring, or that it’s natural and shouldn’t be stopped, or that we can’t afford to save the planet this time.

Polar oceanographer Mark Brandon calls our attention to a good lay article in Discover Magazine’s .blog Imageo, by Tom Yulsman:

As brutal heat grips parts of Europe, Asia, North America and South America, another place is also experiencing a spike in temperatures — one that you may not have heard about.

It’s happening in Greenland, and high temperatures there over the past two weeks have caused a sudden jump in melting at the surface of the vast ice sheet (seen in that great expanse of white in the satellite image above).

Science critics argue the warming is slowing down, and will soon stop. Wish they were right. 18 years of their being wrong makes me skeptical.

Caption from ImaGeo: In the graph above, the red line traces a sudden increase in the extent of surface melting in Greenland. (Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center)

Caption from ImaGeo: In the graph above, the red line traces a sudden increase in the extent of surface melting in Greenland. (Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center)

In the meantime, as Galileo might have said, “Eppure, lei si scalda!” — still, she warms.

More:

Greenland is Melting, band graphic

Greenland is Melting, band graphic

1 Comment | Climate change, climate_change, Global warming | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Today in history memory: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, July 28, 1914

July 28, 2015

101 years ago today. Let us remember, and never forget.

Wikipedia photo and caption: Austro-Hungarian troops executing captured Serbians, 1917. Serbia lost about 850,000 people during the war, a quarter of its pre-war population.

Wikipedia photo and caption: Austro-Hungarian troops executing captured Serbians, 1917. Serbia lost about 850,000 people during the war, a quarter of its pre-war population.

According to the Associated Press, today is the anniversary of the declaration of war that really got World War I started: Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.

Serbian South slav nationalists assassinated Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofie in Sarajevo, the traditional a Serbian capital then held by Austria, the previous June. After a summer of demands on Serbia by Austria, which Serbia could not or would not meet, Austria declared war.

As more nations declared war on each other through August and the rest of 1914, most people expected it to be a “short” war.

Peace is difficult. It must be worked on every day. But war is disaster.

More:

Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.

Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.

5 Comments | 1914-1918, History, World War I | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell