Bob Dylan Becomes Artist At Age 75 Updated

Bob Dylan, nee' Zimmerman, who supposedly took his professional name from generally intoxicated poet Dylan Thomas, has moved on from oddly popular and over-rated music to the world of similarly obscure art. In this case he's constructing a piece called Portal, a gate that's going to serve as an entrance to a new casino in Maryland, per this account in ARTNEWS.



The masterpiece hasn't been put in place yet but from its appearance it very much resembles the sort of thing that bored farmers assemble in the winter months from pieces of obsolete equipment and then use to decorate their yards.

Of course, if Mr. Dylan was one of those farmers, his found-art project would be of little interest to anyone except the neighbors down the road. 

tripsavvy.com 

The clever folk art Dylan piece now graces the entrance to the MGM National Harbor Casino Maryland.

World Health Organization Laments Lack of Physical Activity

The World Health Organization has released a report concluding that lack of physical activity has produced significant health issues world-wide.  The report says that this situation will result in a cost of $27 billion annually between 2022 and 2030 for the 500 million individuals that will be affected by non-communicable diseases like hyper-tension, diabetes, heart disease and many others.

 

A major contributor to the problem has been the response of governments to the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes advice to stay at home and not engage in physical activity in group formats. In the US, home of the generally most obese population on earth, a sedentary life style is more common than in less developed countries where daily life that includes walking and physical labor is normal.

 (Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

In fact, almost any technological "advance" that can decrease or eliminate physical effort is greeted with enthusiasm by the Yankee. School children ride buses or are delivered to classes by their parents rather than walking or riding bikes. The parking lots of commercial gyms and fitness centers are filled with the cars of members who have driven to those locations rather than having walked. Riding lawn mowers enable the suburbanite to sit down while trimming the grass. Recreational boating requires expensive watercraft with sophisticated and powerful engines rather than oars or paddles. Bicycles are considered children's toys, rather than alternative forms of transportation.

Foremost among the retreats from physical activity is the concept of "handicapped parking". Government requirements that spaces near commercial locations reserve parking spots for those that have talked a physician into providing them documentation of a "handicap" flies in the very face of the WHO conclusion. These spaces indicate an acceptance of the idea that those handicapped in a particular way benefit from a lack of physical effort, that the handicapped don't need exercise. This is ridiculous. The very first treatments for stroke and injury victims is physical therapy, which is usually uncomfortable, at least in the beginning. Walking from the Prius to the front door of the supermarket and back might be the only exercise of the week for some people.

Don't expect the WHO report or this post to have any effect on the majority of developed world residents. They are generally devoted to sloth and reluctant to engage in personal physical effort, being more enthusiastic about the vicarious thrill of watching professional athletes.   

From Thongchai Thailand, a BBC Analysis From 25 Years Ago

 

PAST PERMAFROST MELT ALARMS

1. 1997, THE BBC MAKES THE CASE FOR THE KYOTO PROTOCOL
   Twenty years of hard data from meteorological stations and nature show a clear warming trend. Growth rings in Mongolian and Canadian trees are getting wider. Butterflies in California are moving to higher ground once too cold for butterflies. Stalactites in Britain are growing faster. The growing season for crops in Australia is getting longer. Permafrost in Siberia and Canada is melting. The evidence is there anywhere you look. A warming rate is one 1C per century is enough to wreak havoc. The cause is the greenhouse effect of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels as well as CFCs and HCFCs that trap heat. The effect is being compounded as deforestation simultaneously removes trees that absorb CO2. Some scientists are skeptical but the majority view is that the greenhouse effect is real and it requires urgent action. This conclusion rests on the results from sophisticated computer simulation models that give the best possible information on this topic even though they are not perfect. These models are giving us scary accounts of the future and we should be paying attention. The IPCC tell us that melting ice and thermal expansion of oceans will cause the sea level to rise one meter by 2037 and inundate low lying areas and island nations. Extreme weather events will become common. El Nino and La Nina cycles will become more extreme. There will be millions of climate refugees driven from their home by global warming. Some regions of the world will become hotter, others colder, some wetter, others drier. Entire weather systems will be dramatically altered. The Gulf Stream will switch off making Europe colder. Tropical diseases such as malaria will ravage the world as vectors migrate to higher latitudes and altitudes. Some wheat farmers may be able to grow more wheat but the net effect of global warming is overwhelmingly negative  https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/04/22/nox2013/
   

Where Are The Bomb Shelters?

 

ebay.com

 

In the fifties and sixties the threat of nuclear war drove the US to install thousands of ballistic missiles all over the US, keep loaded B-52s on perpetual standby, base fighter-interceptor aircraft world-wide and monitor millions of square miles of air space with sophisticated radar to counter the threat of being taken over by the Godless Commies. 

There was also a country-wide effort to survive any possible nuclear war by the construction of private "bomb shelters", hardened sanctuaries stocked with water and food that would allow far-sighted citizens to emerge into the post-atomic landscape and rebuild the great and wonderful US.

But there never was a nuclear armageddon and normal folk failed to keep track of the stored water and soda crackers that were never needed.

Now, some 50 years later, if the bomb shelter fixation of the cold war zenith made any sense then, it certainly does now, with crazy eastern Europeans talking about bombing the world 12,000 years into the past and many more nations possessing the ultimate weapon.  Yet we hear nothing about a rush order bomb shelter program for ordinary Yankees. 

The US is spending billions of dollars to massage the ego of a millionaire Ukrainian entertainer who's making olive drab T-shirts a fashion statement but not a centavo on subsidies for overhead protection of American children and grandmothers. Why is this the case?

Do Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan know something that the rest of us do not? Are they convinced that a proxy war against Putin can't result in any real harm to the US? Or are they willing to accept a serious amount of death and disaster in exchange for world-wide hegemony? After all, the Japanese quickly got over their August 6, 1945 lumps and started selling motorcycles and then cars all over the place. A quick rebuild and Uncle Sam will be able to put the Chinese in their place, too. 

The wealthy already have their survival spots set up for a possible conflagration. They'll probably be better off without the underlings anyway.

Lewis Mumford Talks About Walls

     Definition and classification were the very essence of medieval thinking: so that philosophic nominalism, which challenged the objective reality of classes, and presented a world of unrelated atoms and disconnected events, was as destructive to the medieval style of life cannonballs proved to be to the walls of the town. 

     The psychological importance of the wall must not be forgotten. When the portcullis was drawn and the town  gates were locked at sundown, the city was sealed off from the outside world. Such enclosure helps create a feeling of unity as well as security. It is significant--and a little disturbing--that in one of the rare modern communities where people have lived under analogous conditions, namely  in the atomic-research community of Oak Ridge, the protected inhabitants of the new town grew to value the "secure" life within, free from any sort of foreign invasion or even unauthorized approach--though it meant that their own comings and goings were under constant military surveillance and control.

 

Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1961) 299-314  

Seaman Found Innocent in Bonhomme Richard Fire

On July 13, 2020 the US Navy LHD-6 Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship was destroyed by fire while docked at US Naval Base San Diego.

 

 heysocal.com

Nineteen-year old seaman recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays of Ashland, Kentucky was charged with arson in the destruction of the $1.4 billion vessel commissioned on 15 August 1998. The ship was undergoing repairs at US Naval Base San Diego at the time of the fire, which raged for 5 days and resulted in it being sold for scrap.

 The legal action against Mays was primarily based upon the testimony of another seaman, Kenji Velasco. No physical evidence connecting Mays to the fire was ever presented. However, the fire, its causes and aftermath, resulted in more than 20 senior officers and sailors being disciplined.

Mays was found not guilty by a Navy judge in the case after a two-year investigation and trial. While he is still a US Navy seaman it remains to be seen where his career goes from here.   

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Speech, Sept. 30, 2022

Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave this speech to the press in a joint appearance with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

 https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-canadian-foreign-minister-melanie-joly-at-a-joint-press-availability/