Canada Day Run Out of Everything

Greetings, friends,
First of all, I'm pleased to announce that my poem "Perpetual Nicotine" (which some of you might remember..."This cigarette is your last" etc.) will be published in the next issue of the Curbside Review; my poem "Hollywood Hopeless" will be published in the Summer 2006 (!) issue of the HazMat Review. I'm glad I didn't decide to make my living as a poet.

Today is many things: it's the birthday of young Adela C-W, my eldest non-teenage ward, it's the day before CANADA DAY, it's four days before INDEPENDENCE DAY, it's the day I'm leaving for the northern climes (please call my cell phone 323 317 2248) and best of all, it's the day that the Cassini Probe goes into orbit around the planet Saturn.

THE PLANET SATURN:
Can we just meditate on the planet Saturn for a moment? The planet Saturn is REAL. It's out there, spinning, right now, and thanks to the planning of the eggheads at JPL (and the financial contribution of the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION; think it's funny? Then wonder why all the probes we have in space now dwindle to nothing in a few years) we will be treated to the show for possibly the next few years. NOTE MY ENCLOSED PHOTO. That's no painting, that's a photo. WOW!!! Stop the killing and build that hotel in Saturn's orbit NOW. Whenever I get down, I have a place to go to in my mind, and it's OUT THERE for quirkyalones like moi.

Here's Saturn:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

And here's the rest of the Solar System...WOW! Check this out if you're down:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

By nobody's request, these two articles from the BBC are informative to those desiring more information about the EU Constitution, which was recently approved:
** Q&A: EU - myths and realities **
BBC News Online looks at some of the myths and realities of the EU constitution.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3825521.stm >
** What the EU constitution says **
A guide to the EU draft constitution, explaining what it says, and why people are arguing about it.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/2950276.stm >

The man who helped shoulder the EU Constitution is a great mid-table negotiator; he brought Ireland through the panic of the hoof-and-mouth crisis (which I witnessed in 2001) and established Ireland as a reliable peace partner to the Unionists and IRA in Northern Ireland, to Tony Blair in England, and to the EU and NATO in Kosovo and Bosnia. Yeah, I have a soft spot for jolly Bernie Ahern:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1243568,00.html
Inside Europe
Ian Black
Monday June 21 2004
The Guardian
Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, had every reason to look pleased with himself on Friday night when he announced that the Brussels summit had done a deal on the EU constitution. Ahern faced a hugely difficult task in January when he took over the union presidency from Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who seemed to have given up without really trying.
But it was the sort of challenge relished by a man famously praised as "the best, most devious, most skilful, most cunning of them all". Ahern began political life shinning up Dublin lamp posts with Fianna Fail flyers, and has been negotiating and conciliating his way out of trouble ever since: how hard could it be to get Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair to agree on the future of Europe?

Bernie did, however, let the US use Shannon Airport as a refueling stop, and the large protests in Ireland made it clear he had no support for that policy. This reaction is amazing; if there is one country on Earth that is rock-solid in love with the US, it's Ireland. But not our idiot President:
You, sir, are no Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton
Nuala O’Faolain NYT
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
http://www.iht.com/articles/526262.html

Because if there's something else the Irish don't like, it's idiots.

Onto the screed, and for this Canada Day, I've been saving up all my articles on the one commodity that has caused more trouble in the last hundred years than any other: OIL. Just last week, I was explaining to another goggle-eyed ward, young Xochil Z, that not only do animals get stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits, but the Tar Pits were animals themselves...dinosaurs! And since there were only so many dinosaurs, there's only so much tar and oil! This child (a month shy of 6) made the leap that we're running out of oil! PLEASE INFORM YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE!

These shits, who should be thrown into the La Brea Tar Pits, will probably go into narcotics peddling when we run out of oil:
Enron Traders Caught on Tape: "He Just Fucks California"
By Vince Gonzales
CBS News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060304A.shtml
More Enron Tapes, More Gloating
CBS News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061004D.shtml
More Incriminating Enron Tapes
CBS News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061804J.shtml
Enron Tapes Hint Chiefs Knew About Power Ploys
By Jonathan Peterson
Los Angeles Times
Washington - Enron Corp. employees spoke of "stealing" up to $2 million a day from California during the 2000-01 energy crisis and suggested that their market-gaming ploys would be presented to top management, possibly including Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay, according to documents released Monday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/051904F.shtml

That day is coming soon:
Is the World's Oil Running Out Fast?
By Adam Porter
BBC
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060904F.shtml
and (yes, thanks, Paul at last):
read on:
http://dieoff.org/page171.htm

Ain't gonna happen until we're long gone, you say? I say, read on, and wonder how you'll get around with no car when you're 65:
The following appeared on Boston.com:
Headline: World Oil Demand Growth at 24-Year High
"Global economic expansion is fueling the biggest increase in world
oil demand for 24 years but extra supply from producing nations is
gradually replenishing consumers' stocks, the International Energy
Agency (IEA) said on Thursday."
http://www.boston.com:80/news/world/europe/articles/
2004/06/10/world_oil_demand_growth_at_23_year_high

I mean, this should make you nervous; the CEO of Dutch Royal Shell getting "worried". HE'S WORRIED?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1240566,00.html
Oil chief: my fears for planet
Shell boss's 'confession' shocks industry
David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday June 17 2004
The Guardian
The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".

Some places (in fact, I might say ALL places) are better prepared than the US for this inevitable end to the oil economy:
Why Europeans remain calm as oil prices soar
Mark Landler/NYT
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Some in Europe see $40-a-barrel oil as a chance to redouble Europe's campaign to wean itself from fossil fuels.
http://www.iht.com/articles/522683.html

For some clever people, it's a green business opportunity:
Designer Ecosystems are Now in Vogue
By David Suzuki
Environmental News Network
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061004G.shtml

Better hurry, because it's CANADA DAY and Canada might the only livable place in North America pretty soon:
Pollution Shifting Rain Patterns in Sierra, Worldwide
By Don Thompson
The Associated Press
Sacramento - As he flew high above the snowy Sierra Nevada this spring, atmospheric scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan saw confirmation of what he'd both hoped and feared to see: Big, dark storm clouds that weren't producing any rain.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061404G.shtml

But not everyone is concerned as the CEO of Shell:
Six Firms Control, Exceed U.S. Oil Leases
By David Pace
Associated Press
Washington - A single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law intended to prevent such concentration, federal records show.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060104F.shtml

And almost every problem on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper will reflect the oil junkies that we've become.
Islam's Soft Underbelly
By Charles Lambroschini
Le Figaro
There are two reasons for Osama bin Laden's relentless assault against Saudi Arabia. This country constitutes a strategic target. It's also a "soft belly".
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060104H.shtml
and for you Michael Moore fans...more oil for the fire:
The Great Escape: 300 Saudis in 55 Planes
By Craig Unger
The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060304F.shtml

But it's comforting to know that if our ecosystem collapses and our grandkids don't get to take a vacation to the Saturn Hilton on Titan, something will be around for posterity:
Bacteria found in Hanford waste
Scientists studying the soil beneath a leaking Hanford nuclear waste storage tank have discovered more than 100 species of bacteria living in a toxic, radioactive environment that most would have thought inhospitable to all forms of life.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/175015_bugs26.html

And finally, for Trisha: something completely different; horrible torture experiments performed on PEEPS!

Marshmallow Peeps: Those Resilient Little Birds
Humorous "educational tour" that characterizes Marshmallow Peeps by investigating their reactions to cold, heat, solubility testing, and low-pressure environments. Also analyzes the risk of "the effects of smoking and alcohol on Peep health," explains the daring surgery to separate conjoined Peep quintuplets, and investigates Peeps' fear response. Includes a literature review.

Vive le Screed!