Notes From A Bear's Journey

     As mentioned over and over, history is one of my weakest subjects, which is ironic because I do enjoy both reading and hearing about it.  But I am little more than a tourist listening to a guide when learning history.  For while it is fascinating to hear about the past, even to take copious notes, if you give me a quiz the following week or month, little of it remains.  And within a year, only a tiny detail or two is there, the entirety of the scope of the person or place or culture somehow as lost as a solo part of a 1000-piece puzzle.  What were the main ruling empires in 200 BCE?  The Assyrians ruled for how long, and where?  Did the Persians, Roman's, or Greeks come first?  Good grief...where's that white board to graph it all out?  And yet, somehow I keep reading history.    Photo: Zhengze Xu of China      Quick quiz: which Cleopatra married Marc Antony?  Wait, there was more than one Cleopatr...

     Remember that old mantra of "never assume?"  Corporate talks would later break down the word into "never assume" as it will make an "ass" of "u" and "me."  It's a good thing they didn't use "presume" or a lot if HR people would be struggling to find a catchy phrase.  What's the difference?   Well, I presume you already know (or should that be, I assume you already know?).  Then again, we can be conned into thinking we know, but then we're entering a world of con-sume.  Ah, those assumptions, and presumptions, and consumptions...so let's dive into the Supreme Court (wait, what??).      Author Sarah Isgur wrote in her book, Last Branch Standing , that despite what it may seem in today's world --as she notes, what seems a slanted conservative court that wipes away voting rights and a few basic freedoms-- the Supreme Court is actually right in line with what it's always been.  More to the poin...

     Depending on which part of the country you are in, this has been a hotter than normal year.  Scientists credit the larger El Nino effect , the ocean currents slowing and the warmer waters shifting, producing ever-larger hurricanes and typhoons and rains, while drying out other areas with heat and a lack of water (NOAA said it is the strongest El Nino effect since 1950).  Here in the semi-west state of Utah (a desert land similar to Nevada), the high-pressure "heat domes" are keeping our temps near the 100F degree mark day after day, week after week.  There is now little difference between our south and north as nights hover near 80F, and drop to 70F only in the wee hours of the morning for a half hour or so before heading back upwards.  Air conditioning units and water-flowing "swamp" (evaporative) coolers seem to never shut off, that is until the utility bill arrives.  And yet, residents seem willing to pay up and ignore the costs, over...

   Photo: Las Vegas Review Journal      Here's something new to me: the number of above ground nuclear tests done in Nevada in the 40 years since 1951.  What number would you guess?  One or two?  Maybe a dozen?  Keep in mind that these were bombs detonated above  ground, powerful enough to light the skies 400 miles away.  So your guess?  Surely by the late-80s we knew the dangers of radiation.  So what do you think?  Maybe 20 or so, as in one test every few years?  Would you have guessed over 100?  And would you have guessed that an additional 900 bombs --most of them larger than those dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki-- were also detonated underground during that same time period?  In Nevada! (and a few in Arizona)  Or that the radiation from those above-ground tests drifted onto the land and water, and thus the grasses that fed cattle, which was how the "downwind" effects of that drifting st...