We might think, as we become more open, that it's going to take bigger catastrophes for us to reach our limit. The interesting thing is that, as we open more and more, it's the big ones that immediately wake us up and the little things that catch us off guard. However, no matter what the size, color, or shape is, the point is still to lean toward ( Read more... )

The First Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the foragers, was followed by the Second Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the farmers, and gives us an important perspetive on the Third Wave Extinction, which industrial activity is causing today.  Don't believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony ( Read more... )

Not a surprise but we are not storing fuel.  We figure the roads will be toast also so who needs it?  Might want to top off our propane tanks for the cookstove, though.

“Is there any worse soil in Portland that we could have built on?” she asked.

Wang, an engineer with Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, known as DOGAMI, wrote a ( Read more... )

Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.
--Lily Tomlin

The take-home message
is that we should blame religion itself,
not religious extremism
- as though that were some kind of
terrible perversion of real, decent religion.
--Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion

This engineer (ironically named Mix) knew that the 4/20/10 BP oil geyser was bigger than the company had told the media, and they're arresting him for deleting 300 text messages on that subject. Not to be totally uppity but I KNEW at the time that the guesstimated amount was likely to be false and low. Anybody with half a brain knew the number ( Read more... )

Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.
--HG Wells

This is where I am going in less than 2 weeks. My friends there are traumatized.

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Wild how big an issue this flow has turned out to be. And how they keep switching units on us. How about reporting in CFS or CMS, so I'd know without calculating how much oil that is, huh? I don't think in barrels. The latest from the WSJ:

The government's Flow Rate Technical Group estimates that the BP well is now leaking 35,000 to 60,000 ( Read more... )

After the recent series of earthquakes around the world, and a news article I read interviewing a Portland City employee about what will happen here when the fault pops loose. It's the same fault that San Fransisco sits on. He thinks the big one will happen here within a century. It could be tomorrow. I am not ready. When I mention it to ( Read more... )