Musings: Pinging

The clouds were streaks and puffs of pinkish-orange, so I thought we were going to get a good sunrise show, but they all turned gray while the dogs and I were out walking this morning. A song and a cackle filled the air, here and there, as the birds woke, but mostly I was aware of a loud buzzing, as bees hung about 10 feet overhead, like stationery helicopters, occasionally pinging off somewhere.

I often wish I knew what they — and the human race — were up to.

I was talking to my St. Louis sister about the most recent shooting spree in Colorado and she said that same weekend, her local newspapers reported that six or seven guys had been shot and killed on the city's streets from gang violence. “But it's not on page one. It was on page two or three.”

Interesting, how one set of circumstances is deemed a tragedy worthy of personal attention by the President and a movie star, while another is just violence as usual.

Meanwhile, Colorado folks are reacting to the mayhem by buying more guns. As Democracy Now! reports:

The number of potential gun owners seeking background checks increased 43 percent over the weekend from the week before.

It seems to me that one of the biggest problems with guns, despite their propensity to maim and kill, is that a lot of the people who are so attracted to them are the last ones who should have them. And they justify their wackiness by the Second Amendment.

You know how folks justify the pesticide-spraying, gene-modifying seed companies because they provide important agricultural jobs? Well, here's your chance to sign up with a temp agency, which means no benefits, as a corn pollinator with a “premiere employer.”

Job requirements? “Ability to work at a steady pace in warm temperatures.

Ability to bend and stoop regularly.” Pay? “$10.00/hr to start”

I've been told that just two persons attended last night's public safety meeting with Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Councilman Mel Rapozo. Meanwhile, 50 people were counted holding signs for prosecutor candidate Justin Kollar at KCC yesterday.

A certain Hawaiian activist made it clear on Facebook that she was none too pleased about being asked to hold sign for the same candidate who prosecuted her for protecting iwi from desecration..... Apparently Shay does prosecute her friends. Or at least, some of them....

And remember how I mentioned on Monday that it's not gonna be 40 or 50 years before we see substantial sea level rise? Yeah, seems the Greenland ice sheet melted at an unprecedented rate this summer. As The Guardian reports:

The rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed scientists, and deepened fears about the pace and future consequences of climate change.

In a statement posted on Nasa's website on Tuesday, scientists admitted the satellite data was so striking they thought at first there had to be a mistake.

It was the second unusual event in Greenland in a matter of days, after an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke off from the Petermann Glacier. But the rapid melt was viewed as more serious.