A GOOD DAY FOR PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY

Part 2 on the Future of Energy will be posted tomorrow.  For today, let's look at the good side of life.

1.  Tomorrow will be our last official day in Iraq.  American troops are leaving Iraq cities to local security.  Mind you, there are still more than 30,000 of our forces in that country.  In 13 months, we are also supposed to depart from Afghanistan.  This month became our longest war, ever, at 104 months and counting.  Cost so far?  Apparently, more than $3 trillion.  Mind you, we got rid of Saddam and oil prices have sort of stabilized.  According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the current December 2018 price of oil should be $91.65/barrel.

2.  Hurricane Alex is, indeed, turning West towards Mexico, sparing the oil spill area.

3.  Branjelina staying together, at least according to the latest report.  Jolie and Pitt have six children, three adopted, from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Viet Nam.  She has been married twice, he to Jennifer Aniston, but Brad and Angelina are just living together in sin.  She finally reconciled with her father, Jon Voight earlier this year.  They split their time on acting, their children and humanitarian causes.  Why is this good news?  Well, why not.

4.  U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (Hawaii-D, with Senator Daniel Akaka on the right) is now the longest serving senator and #3 on the succession chain to the Presidency as President Pro Tempore.  I remember three decades ago when I worked in the U. S. Senate about Senator Robert Byrd already being old.  Turned out his condition had something to do with a chemical imbalance, and pills kept him going for almost thirty years.  Byrd was once a high ranking Klu Klux Klan leader and filibustered against the civil right bill in 1964.  He is a good example of someone who somewhat changed.  Now that Byrd and Senator Ted Stevens are gone, Dan Inouye is the unquestioned champ of pork.  Senator Inouye, at the age of 85, will run for re-election this Fall, and will pass Byrd as the longest serving congressional member if he serves anywhere close to a full next term.

5.  I wonder why, but I was about the 3 millionth person to purchase an iPad.  It only has G3 capability, and the latest iPhone is into G4, so I should have waited.  However, terrific battery life and shows potential for something.   Haven't figured out what yet.  I did add The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest into my iPad, but learned that I should read The Girl Who Played with Fire first, as this is number two in the series, following The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  So both are now ready to be read.  Interesting, but neither could be obtained through Apple.  I had to add the Amazon.com ap, and the price of each averaged about $8, cheaper than the book form.


6.  The University of Hawaii Board of Regents approved building the billion dollar 30 Meter Telescope (TMT, to become the world's largest telescope) on Mauna Kea.   Led by Canadian and California universities, with Japan, China and India as partners, the team chose Hawaii over Chile, and will design a system capable of viewing the beginning of the Universe.  Construction is scheduled to begin next year, but with Hawaiian and environmental activists wary, you just never know.

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The Dow Jones Industrials sunk 268 (-2.65%) to 9870, with world markets all down.  Shanghai crashed 4.27% and the Japan Nikkei fell 202 to 9368.  This is also good news, sort of, as a couple more days like this and I will buy a few choice stocks.  Gold edged down a buck to $1241 and crude oil is just under $76/barrel.

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Tropical Storm Alex should soon attain hurricane strength, then make landfall Wednesday evening south of the Rio Grande in Mexico.  Both Celia and Darby have dissipated in the Pacific.

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