Who’s mighty now?

Not so mighty: Mississippi at record lows, forces ligher barges..
Mississippi River dropping in Memphis..
Receding Mississippi exposing historic relics..

The Midwest is suffering its worst drought in 50 years.. Could this be the ‘new’ norm? Will the United States go from bread basket of the world to the dust bowl of the planet? Will the record warmth continue? More and more hot records relative to cold records have taken place for some time.. The past two years have seen many more hot records as opposed to cold records. These recent heat waves have made this drought much worse—after a winter of almost no snow in much of the United States. Global changes are in full effect. Big economic impacts will be coming this fall, expect that at a grocery store near you. The fires that we saw this year may be a new norm, too.. Earth changes will get worse and worse.. Greenland has lost 97% of its ice. Even the highest points in Greenland are melting. Major transformations of landscapes coming—coastal area flooding? worst case could be a massive sea rise? 

But planes still fly and cars still drive. If manmade impacts are the reasons for warming, then humans seem not to care. If it’s the earth itself, humans are in for a wild ride—one not seens for centuries.. 

The drought that is occurring has some ominous signs for our future.. In Illinois, people are beginning to become alarmed with just how dry and hot things have been.. The drought in the United States is also going to cause problems for China..

The drought and constant heat waves that have hit the United States this summer have been only intensifying and shows no signs of receding.. According to one report, the drought size has increased by the ‘size of Texas’..

This summer’s horrid weather will have one extremely negative ramification for this world.. for our wallets.. for us: Food prices will skyrocket until at least 2013..

Street view named desire: Google broke its promise

Google got caught illegally obtaining street view information. It told regulators it would delete the data. Google said sorry when it admitted that it didn’t delete some of what it said it would..

Street view named desire: Google broke its promise

Some rough storms rolled through my mountains and maybe your mountains or skylines too. Hope all is safe, they were vicious..

New information: James Holmes sent his notebook to his psychiatrist detailing plans on how he would massacre a movie theater.. it went unopened in the University of Colorado since July 12

If true, this is very unsettling..

New information: James Holmes sent his notebook to his psychiatrist detailing plans on how he would massacre a movie theater.. it went unopened in the University of Colorado since July 12

Olympics, 2012 style

It’s tough to put on a show in the modern age. Sure, the Olympians are trained and ready and they even have thousands of condoms at their disposal, but it takes a flag mishap to cause a major diplomatic fiasco before the games even begin (officially)

So here is how things went down. As a soccer match between North Korea and Columbia was set to begin, the South Korean flag was mistakenly displayed. The North walked off the field and wasn’t seen for an hour. When the game delay was over, they went on to win 2-0. 

The National Olympic Committee offered up an apology to the newly married Kim Jong Un. No word on whether he is on a honeymoon..

The USA beat France 4-2, no one walked off that field.

And Lil’ Kim Jong Un is not a bachelor anymore.

Olympics, 2012 style

Interesting new wrinkle in the Internets: YouTube wants your full name when you comment on videos

Who needs SOPA or PIPA when you have Youtube!

Interesting new wrinkle in the Internets: YouTube wants your full name when you comment on videos

Thank you so much for mentioning Fine Art ... i'd never heard of the site before, so happy to be able to listen to old Art Bell shows. I fell in love with show many years ago, and one of my favorite episodes is "Mel's Hole". Again, thank you!

Thanks for reading, number one. 

As far the FineArtStream.com, it’s a great website. 24/7 Art Bell.. nothing can beat that. I often listen and place myself back in the time when the show was on, wondering what I was doing.. and contemplating how I have changed and how life has changed since then. But the more it all changed the more it was the same.

Read your site a bit today, too.. Love the poetry.

I started the book

The book I am writing. I will update as I go..

Hope it is worthwhile in the end.

An amazing summer melt.. should we be worried? Satellites recorded an unprecedented rate of ice sheet melt in Greenland this month. Over the course of four days in July virtually the entire surface melted—an area larger than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations.

Should we be worried?

Yes.

An amazing summer melt.. should we be worried? Satellites recorded an unprecedented rate of ice sheet melt in Greenland this month. Over the course of four days in July virtually the entire surface melted—an area larger than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations.

JAMES HOLMES WAS GIVEN A $26,000 FEDERAL GRANT

JAMES HOLMES WAS GIVEN A $26,000 FEDERAL GRANT

what's your deal?

Wow.. finally a philosophically great question. What indeed is my ‘deal.’? I don’t know. What’s yours.. what is anyone’s? As a matter of fact, what is a ‘deal’? Deal or no deal? … TBA at a later date.

Penn State Pride.. Happy Valley.. welcome to the new world

Happy Valley couldn’t be sadder today. Penn State University has been hit with unprecedented penalties by the NCAA.

The ‘death penalty’ was not imposed on the football program, but it may as well have been.

The NCAA ordered:

• No bowl games for four years


• Scholarships reduced from 25 to 15


• $60 million fine


• 14 seasons of football victories from Paterno taken away

The online world.. the cable television world. .the sports world.. the bars of America.. all will be talking about today’s news concerning Penn State. Few will talk about the victims of sex scandals. 

We will.

Jerry Sandusky was accused, prosecuted, and convicted of systematically using a charity to get underprivileged kids into his sex ring. He showered with them, and brought them to his house to rape them. The underage boys were also not helped by the University and Joe Paterno after a cover up ensued because top officials wanted to protect the name and reputation of the school… and now, due to their actions for years, the reputation of Penn State and the football program lays in ruins. Yes, this is why these penalties were imposed. 

This is why.

Who's that Joker?

On Saturday, the New York DAILY NEWS reported that Colorado shooter James Holmes was screaming at guards, spitting, and calling himself the Joker.

Today a whole new ‘Joker’ was revealed at court, causing confusion over initial reports of his wild-attitude. Instead, today, the only wild thing about Holmes were his eyes. He appeared listless and even drugged at points, with his head slow motioning back and forth.

When Holmes appeared in in court today, he appeared with bizarre reddish red hair.  He spoke no words. He is set to be arraigned next week.

Jumpy audience members fled from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES after a fight broke out in the theater

In the wake of the midnight massacre in Colorado, people seem jumpy. I am awfully curious, did the events of this past weekend cause you to think twice about going to see the movie, or is it business as usual?

Jumpy audience members fled from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES after a fight broke out in the theater

This is James Holmes as he appeared in court today.. wide-eyed and sporting red bushy hair. His face looking deranged.. He didn’t a word..

Some want the games to begin. Others are just ready for them to end.

The Olympic planning committee must be a paranoid lot. I’d join were I to know how to. They are worried about volcanoes and earthquakes during the games.. flooding and other mass casualty events. But it seems most pressing this year is something that may be realistic: An international event that could send the games spiraling into a political realm.. As a matter of fact, a TIMES OF ISRAEL article is reporting that the London Olympic planning committee is worried that Israel may strike Iran during the 2012 games... Londoners are worried about Iranian missiles that are reportedly capable of reaching the city..

Yet another report says that London is on high alert for terror attacks.  While this was likely and predictable, here is the part that is raising eyebrows: Israel fears that an Iranian terror squad is in London to attack Jewish athletes.

The games are set to begin. And with them will come pageantry and honor, decency and pride (and a lot of condoms, I think I read athletes are getting about 15 per person for a sex-ramped up romp double week of lust)… Hopefully the world will remain at peace. Hopefully the only battles will be on soccer fields or tracks.. or swimming pools or basketball courts. By God, the last thing this world needs is more anarchy and violence.. We are a small pale blue dot. We are tiny compared to this universe. And one filled with hate war.

The lost generation: Poverty in the United States is now on track to be at the highest since the 1960s

In related news. The Federal Reserve has plans to keep pumping. And the economy has its own plans. Apparently earnings now show that whatever ‘recovery’ has been going on is sputtering and another recession (as if we have not been in a depression for years!) is about to take place.. Hold on to your hat, coat.. undergarment, whatever you can still afford in this messy new life.

The lost generation indeed. Millions will grow up in a class lower than the middle, as the middle keeps shrinking, the lowest keeps peaking, and the highest keeps shrieking. This is our new life America.. 

The Great Society is back.

The lost generation: Poverty in the United States is now on track to be at the highest since the 1960s

They were people. Faces in a crowd. And now they are victims to madness

James Holmes is now known by most of the world now as the shooter and monster of the Midnight Massacre in Aurora Colorado during the DARK KNIGHT RISES. But the victims, as usual, will be forgotten in the dust of the justice system and publications in a 24 hours news cycle. So Coal Speaker will just pause for a moment in time to recognize lives that are lost.. I read these names and reports of their deeds on an LA TIMES dispatch this morning.  Clearly, the other 58 who were victims but not deceased deserve space, too. I hope we see more profiles on them soon.

The dead:

Jessica N. Ghawi, 24

Micayla C. Medek, 23

John T. Larimer, 27

Alex M. Sullivan, 27

Alexander J. Boik, 18

Gordon W. Cowden, 51

Alexander C. Teves, 24

Matthew R. McQuinn, 27

Jonathan T. Blunk, 26

Jesse E. Childress, 29

Rebecca Ann Wingo, 32

Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6

Some striking things about the list. Veronica Moser-Sullivan was in the audience with her mom for a ‘girls night out’ .. Her mother is one year older than the shooter, and now remains in critical condition with bullets in her abdomen.  

Alex Sullivan died protecting others in the theater—it was his birthday and they were at the film to celebrate. 

But maybe most chilling to me is the tale of Jessica Ghawi. She was the same age as James Holmes. And just a month ago in June, she walked out of a Toronto mall before a shooter came in and shot over a dozen people, leaving two dead. Ghawi had a person blog and she wrote these profound words:

“I was shown how fragile life was… I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end.”

Let that sink in. 

There is something bugging me about these Colorado shootings

Well, more then one thing.

First off, the media announced John Holmes as the murderer. I noticed this weekend that changed to James. Is it because John Holmes was a porn star and web searches were freaking out?

Secondly.. I am tired of how we spend about 1000 words on 12 dead and 58 wounded while the shooter will get 10,000+ words a day. I know that is the nature of the media beast, but I think a week of silence would be in order. There’s time for the trial and the story of how James Holmes was a ‘nerd’ who even gun lovers were freaked out by.. and how neighbors ‘never saw it coming’ even though lots of explosives and ammo was arriving by the day… yes, we will hear it all. But how about we stop and pause a bit for the victims. A man celebrating his birthday? A 6-year-old? They deserve a bit more than they get.

And finally I am tired of all these crappy and ridiculous DARK KNIGHT memes floating around on Facebook and the Internet. Listen, yes, we get it, you’re as upset as me. But you posting a stupid picture of BATMAN with a strange ribbon aside of him doesn’t do anything.. and BATMAN praying over a movie theater? Now that is tacky. 

Just mourn like normal humans did before the moving GIFs and crappy JPEGs of the net.. please? 

And we should mourn. Because this was a horrible weekend for good people. I hope all who are dealing with it find some sort of beauty in life again.. a monster took it away for a while. But it’s still there.. minus out all the hate and carnage and sickness of the human mind, I swear beauty is still there. 

Changing times.. changing rooms

Did a few creative maneuvers in the homestead this weekend. Switched some rooms and altered the surroundings. Those things get tough with a 2 foot person moving all about the room you’re trying to clean. And I noticed something, he was shocked things looked different. My son Ayden even seemed a bit angry at how we moved his toys, moved his books.. And I think that’s good. It was the first shake up of his 17-months of life. This was a big one. He faced it with anger but perseverance. 

I personally think, after living 31 years, life changes a little too much for me. Maybe that’s because no one ever moved my toys from one room to another. Hope we help him deal with a future of constantly evolving things.