The news of the day seems to require commentary
Watching the evening news on ABC, a couple of stories caught my attention. They led off the broadcast with the skyrocketing price of gasoline, to the point that the reporter, at the end of the taped segment, said "Look at that. Just in the three minutes our tape was playing, the price of gas at this gas station in Los Angeles went up ten cents a gallon." Of course, she didn't tell us if any gasoline had just been delivered, or (far more damning, and far more likely) the gas station had just raised the price of the stuff that was sitting in its tank. (The science fiction writer in me keeps wondering where Heinlein's Daniel Shipstone is hiding, and when he'll be ready to go public.)
A little later in the broadcast, they did a story in their continuing "Made in America" series, lauding a few firms which moving their manufacturing and offices from China back to the United States. The concept is great, and I applaud those companies bringing the jobs back to the US. But combining those two stories in my mind makes me wonder how long the job infusion can truly last. As the price of gasoline keeps climbing, it eats into the supposed savings the interviewed executives claim to be finding in the States (one said the rising salaries demanded in China, combined with the greater of US workers, made the move logical).
Another continuing story that caught my ear was the mania in Afghanistan over the military burning some old Korans. The locals apparently went ape-shit over this desecration of their religion, so ape-shit, in fact, that CNN's report has at least five people killed in their riotous "response" to the burning. Really? These books were more valuable than five people's lives? Online, ABC quotes this AP report: "They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith," Mohammad Hakim told the Associated Press outside of Bagram. "They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Koran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body." They're willing to die because they don't like the way someone else is treating this book, which for all they know might have been printed by heathens, and be full of typos? Could they declare their inhumanity any more loudly? Once again, it makes me wonder if the human race wouldn't be better off without any religion whatsoever.
And in disappointing, though not unexpected, news, a couple of flaws have been discovered in last year's experiment that seemed to show neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light: story.
Finally, Solar Eclipse, Seen Only By U.S. Satellite.
A little later in the broadcast, they did a story in their continuing "Made in America" series, lauding a few firms which moving their manufacturing and offices from China back to the United States. The concept is great, and I applaud those companies bringing the jobs back to the US. But combining those two stories in my mind makes me wonder how long the job infusion can truly last. As the price of gasoline keeps climbing, it eats into the supposed savings the interviewed executives claim to be finding in the States (one said the rising salaries demanded in China, combined with the greater of US workers, made the move logical).
Another continuing story that caught my ear was the mania in Afghanistan over the military burning some old Korans. The locals apparently went ape-shit over this desecration of their religion, so ape-shit, in fact, that CNN's report has at least five people killed in their riotous "response" to the burning. Really? These books were more valuable than five people's lives? Online, ABC quotes this AP report: "They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith," Mohammad Hakim told the Associated Press outside of Bagram. "They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Koran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body." They're willing to die because they don't like the way someone else is treating this book, which for all they know might have been printed by heathens, and be full of typos? Could they declare their inhumanity any more loudly? Once again, it makes me wonder if the human race wouldn't be better off without any religion whatsoever.
And in disappointing, though not unexpected, news, a couple of flaws have been discovered in last year's experiment that seemed to show neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light: story.
Finally, Solar Eclipse, Seen Only By U.S. Satellite.