I Read The News Today …
Actually, I have been paying attention to more than the race, and a number of things caught my eye:
Yet another politician who held power when I was in San Diego, has legal problems. Maureen O’Connor replaced Roger Hedgecock, after he was finally convicted of his part in a financial scam, in 1986. She has managed to blow a billion dollars gambling, with several million of that money not actually belonging to her.
Along with ‘Duke’ Cunningham, Joe Scarborough, and most of the recent officials in Okaloosa County, I’m beginning to suspect that I attract politicians with a less than ethical bent.
While people are still reacting to the Chelyabinsk meteor, John McKay thoroughly covers the the Tunguska event of 1908. Russia seems to have the same problem with meteors that I have with politicians.
I saw in passing that one of the buses that was being used to take the passengers of the Carnival Cruise floating septic tank broke down about midway between Mobile and the Big Easy. If it wasn’t for bad luck, the people on that bus would have no luck at all.
The $9 minimum wage is better than a sharp stick in the eye. It still doesn’t come up to the $1.25/hour minimum wage I made in 1964 as far as purchasing power, especially when you take into consideration that the FICA withholding tax rate is twice as high now than it was in 1964.
2 comments
Re: Chelyabinsk and Tunguska… read Fire on Earth, by John Gribbin. This sort of thing happens more often than you (or I) might think, and theories about why it happens are truly intriguing. Gribbin is his usual superb self as a science writer… even waaay back in 1996
If you look at the surface of the moon it is obvious that there is a lot of stuff whizzing around and smacking planets. As we map from satellites with multiple types of detection systems you can see craters on earth that have been overgrown or beneath the sea.
The bit that people forget is that every time there is a near miss, the gravitational pull of the earth is making the next orbit a little bit closer, so those misses will be hits at some point.
Too bad no one wants to do anything about it.