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Brain Eating Fungus?

October 12, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Just finished reading I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis. (gift link) and realize now that there is a brain eating fungus out there that has manifested itself in key spore producers like MTG and Loomer et al. At … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene, Trump, Uncategorized Tagged: delusion, Hurricane Milton, Hurricanes, Loomer, misinformation, MTG, transgender, Trump

Democracy awakening : notes on the state of America

September 6, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Nov 15, 2023 I finished “reading” Democracy awakening : notes on the state of America by Heather Cox Richardson recently. I use quotes for read because she, as a historian, tells the story of our democracy from about 1960 onward, which spans my experience, so I was able to skim much of the text while … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, What I Read Tagged: Bush, Clinton, Democracy awakening, Gingrich, Heather Cox Richardson, Nixon, Regan

In praise of failure : four lessons in humility by Costic? Br?d??an, 2023.

May 26, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In praise of failure : four lessons in humility by Costic? Br?d??an, 2023. I just finished this quirky little book (273 p) and am left with more than a few things to think about – birth, death, humility, human frailty, hubris, genocide, madness, disease, senility, poverty and wealth to name a few. He uses the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Obituaries, Politics, Sea Stories, Thinking about, What I Read Tagged: birth, books, Death, disease, Emile Cioran, failure, genocide, Hitler, hubris, human frailty, humility, madness, Mahatma Gandhi, Osamu Dazai, philosophy, poverty, Seneca, senility, Simone Wiel, Stalin, Yukio Mashima

20 years ago on 9/11/01

April 28, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

On September 11, 2001, my wife and I were living in Switzerland, having moved there in November of 1999. At the end of August of 2001, my sister Theresa and nephew Thomas joined us, they arrived from Seattle, we met them in Zurich and brought them home to Neuchâtel. We celebrated my 50th birthday, it … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Politics, Thinking about, Uncategorized Tagged: 2001, Geneva, Lamporo, Neuchatel, Senigallia, September 11, Switzerland, the Trade Center

The world of Colonel Wingnuts

March 28, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The Press Democrat, Monday, April 21, 1986 1B   Photo Caption: Colonel Wingnuts at the microphone of radio station KOZT in Fort Bragg The world of Col. Wingnuts Ex-Air Force lieutenant part showman, part meteorologist By PAT McKAY Correspondent FORT BRAGG – Can you believe a weatherman by the name of Colonel Wingnuts really is … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Flying, History, Politics, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: 1986, astronomy, climate change, Colonel Wingnuts, Fort Bragg, futuristics, KOZT, Mendocino Coast, meteorology, The Press Democrat, Walter J. McKeown, weatherman

Russian Exceptionalism

March 25, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

(The events in Moscow unfolded as I wrote this, it isn’t aimed at the current events except tangentially.) I finished this review in the New York Review of Books and wanted to share it. It is a long review, but rather fascinating for someone who knows next to nothing about this history, it filled in … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Politics, Racism, Thinking about, What I Read Tagged: 2024, Aleksandr Dugin, Charles Clover, Dugin, February 22, Gary Saul Morson, Gennady Seleznev, Halford Mackinder, Hans Sievers, Jafe Arnold, John Dunlop, John Stachelski, Mark Bassin, Moscow, New York Review of Books, Nikolai Berdyaev, Nikolai Trubetskoy, Russia, the Duma, The Foundations of Geopolitics, The Legacy of Genghis Khan, The Russian Idea, Yeltsin

Don’t Even Think About It

March 10, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

I wrapped up “Don’t Even Think About It” by George Marshall and I want to write my notes up before I go off and kill myself to do my bit to reduce our carbon debt. Yep, it’s that kind of book, I just finished chapter 37 “Degrees of Separation – How Climate Experts Live With … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Politics, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about, What I Read Tagged: anthropogenic climate change, carbon, carbon debt, climate, climate change deniers, Climate Experts, Don't Even Think About It, George Marshall, the future

Risotto crisis

February 29, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/29/risotto-crisis-the-fight-to-save-italys-beloved-dish-from-extinction-aoe The age of extinction Risotto crisis: the fight to save Italy’s beloved dish from extinction After drought devastated prized arborio and carnaroli harvests in the Po valley, new rice varieties offer a glimmer of hope. But none are yet suitable for use in the traditional recipe By Ottavia Spaggiari

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Faits Divers, Future of Work, Politics, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about, Uncategorized Tagged: 2022, 2023, arborio, carnaroli, climate crisis, drought, extinction, Ottavia Spaggiari, Po valley, RICE, Risotto, The age of extinction, The Guardian

Christo’s Running Fence

February 21, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In an article written in 2016, 40 years after the Running Fence was erected, Sonoma Magazine ran this article: Christo’s Running Fence

Posted in: California History, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, History, Politics, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene Tagged: 1976, California Coastal Commission, Christo, Christo’s Running Fence, Estero de San Antonio, Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence, Sonoma County, Sonoma County Planning Commission, the Marin County Planning Commission, Valley Ford

Charles V. Hamilton, an Apostle of ‘Black Power,’ Dies at 94

February 18, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Charles V. Hamilton, an Apostle of ‘Black Power,’ Dies at 94 He popularized the term “institutional racism” and, with Stokely Carmichael, wrote a book in 1967 that was seen as a radical manifesto. “Equitable distribution of power must come from mutual self-interest, not altruism or guilt feelings,” Dr. Hamilton wrote

Posted in: Faits Divers, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: Black Power, Charles V. Hamilton, Civil Rights, Columbia University, Dr. Hamilton, institutional racism, Jeh C. Johnson, Kwame Ture, manifesto, N.A.A.C.P., political scientist, Social Welfare Policies, Stokely Carmichael, Tuskegee Institute, University of Chicago
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