Warning: Apocalyptic talk can be addictive

"People who study the Larger Picture are bound to get depressed. Environmentalists are a gloomy bunch, not so different from the fundamentalists I grew up among. They were never so interested in the beauty of lilies or kindness to strangers as they were fascinated by visions of The Tribulation, Armageddon, the Last Judgment. The world was about to end -- they alone were privy to this information -- and the imminence of it excited them, as if they were in a darkened theater watching the opening titles of a movie in which all hell breaks loose."

-Garrison Keillor, in an essay I clipped out of the Funny Times a long time ago

Fairly obviously, this kind of attitude is unhelpful and to be avoided if possible. Yes, in its way, catastrophic climate change would be a great adventure. But as a character in Charles Stross's novel Accelerando points out, "an adventure is something horrible that happens to someone else." We need to do our absolute best to keep eco-Apocalypses in the realm of science fiction.

More Iran insanity

Administration contacts say a military strike on Iran within six months is likely.

I'm thinking the Precautionary Principle applies here: they might not do it, but I should still move to Canada right away just in case they do (in which case there will seemingly be no option but to draft many thousands of new soldiers).