HAIRY BITTERCRESS: EARLY TO FLOWER: TINY WHITE, HARBINGER OF SPRING

Have you seen inconspicuous, tiny, white, flower-clusters rising mysteriously over the brown of winter lawn and garden? These are likely specimens of Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) .  This minute, common plant is the earliest to bloom in our area of northeastern, USA. While other wild plants are simply struggling to open their swelling buds and produce a few tiny green leaves, Hairy Bittercress has already produced flowers and set seeds.  During this year’s mild winter I have observed it blooming in my lawn and still-barren garden and growing luxuriantly in the wide cracks of a concrete walk as early as late February . 

The minute white flowers on thin long stems are only @ 1/8 inch or a few millimeters across, and occur in a whorl.  The flowers vibrate on their long stems in every zephyr of the cool late-winter air.  This movement may aid in self-pollination, the means by which this plant pollinates and forms seeds. You will need a hand lens to see the flowers clearly. But if you do, you may easily identify the family to which the plant belongs as the “crucifera”  (meaning “cross bearer”) since the tiny petals (when opened) form a distinct Christian cross pattern. 

The cruciferae (or mustard family, now also called  Brassicacea) are a large group of wild, and domesticated plants and vegetables such as wild mustard, winter cress, cabbage, broccoli,  Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, turnips, and kale.  

The ground hugging leaves of Hairy Bittercress (called the “basal rosette”) is formed  by an emergent ring of pinnately compound leaves, composed of seven or more rounded leaflets, each often ending in a sharp terminal point. Thin stems arise from the rosette and branch. Some of these stems carry flowers and may also bear leaves which form on the stem above the rosette. These “stem leaves” are also pinnately compound, but with five to seven elongate leaflets. Pollinated flowers form unusually  long, thin, seed pods called siliques.  Later in the season, when most flowers have formed their long, dark-blue or violet colored siliques, the plant takes on a “hairy” appearance which may be the origin of the “hirsuta” (hairy) species name.  When mature, these seed pods split open violently in a coiling action that launches the seeds and spreads them widely, (a property known as “ballistic seed dispersal”). This adaptation likely reduces competition with the parent plant.  It is reported that this action may also tend to repel small herbivores and thus protect the plant from herbivory.

Research on this inconspicuous plant, often of only two centimeters (2 cm) tall, indicates it can disperse its seeds by “ballistic seed dispersal” as much as two meters (2 m)or @ 6.6 feet from the parent plant.  To put that feat into perspective, compare it to a six foot tall football quarterback who with a similar ability would be able to throw a football 600 feet, 200 yards, or two football fields ( i.e. 2 cm/2m as 1/100 as 6ft/600ft). (Note: World champion quarterback, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs claims (brags?) he is able to throw a football about 75-83 yards.) This very effective method of spreading seeds, as well as its early emergence in late winter, when moisture is abundant, and competition limited may in part explain why this minor plant is so common.

Like others in the crucifera group Hairy Bittercress is also good to eat.   The leaves, flowers and even the long, thin seed pods are edible. The plant is not bitter, as the name seems to suggest, but is pleasantly tangy.  Herbalists, wild plant foragers, and others often include this species on lists to collect as an addition to a salad, or to be added to a sandwich in place of watercress, arugula or radicchio.  (Though in most circumstances, where found along modern walkways or maintained lawns, collecting this plant for consumption from these locales is not advisable. )

 Like the other crucifera, Hairy Bittercress has health benefits. It is a good source of vitamin C, beta carotene and also has a compound known as glucosinolate, a supposed cancer fighting component, as do all the vegetable crucifera.  Though this species  is so small that enormous  quantities  would have to be consumed for any practical health benefit.

Glucosinolates are plant-produced chemicals found inside plant cells. When the cells are damaged, the cell can use the glycosinolates to synthesize isothiocyanates which are toxic to most animals. This tends to protect crucifera from herbivory.  Ironically, these same substances when consumed by humans may help regulate inflammation, act as antioxidants, and have beneficial antimicrobial properties. Some claim anti-cancer effects as well.   But like many other plant metabolites excessive consumption of these “cyanates” may have deleterious effects. 

BIDEN: ONE OF CARLYLE’S GREAT MEN OF HISTORY?

 The Great Man Theory of History, first proposed by Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle in 1840, suggests that all history can be seen as the result of the impact of “great men”.  Carlyle stated: “the history of the world is but the biography of great men”. He viewed these great men as influential leaders, who due to their superior intellect, ambition, courage or leadership qualities had an oversized impact on the course of human events.  He wrote: ”they were the modelers, patterns, and in a wide sense, the creators of whatsoever  the general mass of men contrived to do or attain.” 

Many historians, and others (and I include myself here) took Carlyle’s theory with a grain of salt.  Perhaps Carlyle was focused only on  the likes of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Charlemagne, or even Napoleon Bonaparte, or in modern times..Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu.  But many other great positive historic events must have been initiated by the common folk working in concert for some goal. Then too there were powerful women like Cleopatra,  Joan of Arc, Queen Boadicea, some would add Margaret Thatcher. 

 But a major lacuna in Carlyle’s theory is the fact that history is also punctuated regularly by incompetent, insane, evil, aged, or simply stupid leaders who somehow gained a position of power and during their ascendency caused chaos, human hardship and other  disastrous consequences. We can clearly see now after only two years of the Biden Administration that the Carlyle hypothesis’s needs some revision.  Not that it is wrong all together. Indubitably there are those who impact the world around them in an oversized way. They are transformative ….but what Carlyle got wrong was that like Roman Emperors Caligula (37-41AD) and Nero (54-68AD) and second century AD Emperors Commodus and Caracalla these “modelers” and “creators” could just as well be horrible, disasters, which cause financial ruin, instability, wars, death, plagues and generalized decline and fall.

As a day to day observer of events in the USA in the last two plus years (2020-2023)..we are all witness to the kernel of truth in Carlyle’s theory. Individuals in positions of power can and do influence historic events. In fact Biden’s administration has in a matter of a scant two years managed to bring a nation to its knees socially, economically, and in relation to the threats of the world at large.  But how did he do it? 

President Biden’s foolish plan to undermine and weaken the nation’s fossil fuel industry led to a price spike of  near universally used commodities— gasoline and fuel oil. Then he poured “gasoline” on the fire with a two trillion dollar spending spree generating a  broad based inflationary spiral peaking at 9% and which still haunts us today at 300% above accepted  levels. Inflation has forced the FED to raise interest rates, causing weakness of long term treasuries held by many of our local banks which has in turn led to unprecedented bank failures. His deadly and chaotic  retreat from Afghanistan projected his  uncertain leadership. This perceived weakness, abandonment of efforts at diplomacy and failed leadership drew us into a foreign policy conflict and military quagmire in Central Europe which he has no strategy for ending and his incremental escalation with advanced weapons systems which runs the risk of nuclear war. His sanctions polices against Russia has had little effect on its target nation but led the entire world into an economic downturn. The Biden fossil fuel polices led to global scarcity, which spread the inflationary spiral and threat of recession world wide. His disastrous foreign polices have forced  two of our most powerful world competitors Russia and China to join in a dangerous threatening partnership. This alliance of competitors has threatened loss of reserved currency status for the US dollar.  

His domestic policy on illegal immigration has been a catastrophic failure. His policies have in fact encouraged illegal immigration, and in effect he has become a partner with the human traffickers who are making millions of dollars  on their business of escorting illegals to the US border where Biden’s agents take over and permit them to disappear into the national heartland. In our cities they are housed in hotels given cell phones and support not offered to our own homeless 

As President Biden continues to divide the nation by race and gender (or self confusion about it) and those in his Administration push wokeism, diversity, equity and inclusion, the nation struggles with surges of illegal immigrants marching across our southern (and northern) borders, while domestic crime surges, inflation flares, banks fail, and dangerous foreign enemies become more aggressive. 

Biden has become a dangerous  existential plague on the nation and the world at large. History will rank him up there with the worst “‘Great’ Men of History”.

US DOLLAR AS A GLOBAL CURRENCY.

 THE US DOLLAR AS WORLD RESERVE CURRENCY. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

March 23, 2023

The first US dollar was printed in 1776. Nine years later in 1785, the US began printing bank notes using the “$” sign.  (The “$ “ sign for US currency was adapted from the Spanish peso symbol—which was an “S” with a “P” for “peso” superimposed. The US dollar sign was an adaptation of that idea, printed as an “S” with a “U” superimposed to signify “US” and to create: $, originally with two vertical lines. ).   

By 1913 when the US economy had grown to be the largest in the world the Federal Reserve Bank was created, and a year later in 1914 the “Fed” began printing $10 dollar (Jackson ) Federal Reserve Notes. To insure confidence in the national currency, each note was backed by gold bullion held in Fort Knox, Kentucky.  (In 1914 gold was valued at     $ 20.67 per oz, so turning in a “Jackson” got you one ounce of gold!).   The USA and most western countries at this time held to what was known as the “gold standard”.   The USA backed up bank notes with gold and noted that with the printed guidance on each note: “redeemable in gold on demand”. (Until 1933 when FDR made holding gold in the US illegal). This gold-backed paper helped to create confidence in the currency and facilitate trade and ease international monetary transactions for US businesses and traders.  The gold standard of pegging the value of a currency to the price of gold avoided the pitfall of “fiat” currencies. Fiat money had no intrinsic value.  Its value was based only on the promise that the issuing government would honor the value of the note. Fiat money had the problem that issuing nations could simply print up more “paper” in times of economic stress and manipulate the value of their currencies to enhance trade or attempt to control economic cycles.  This often led to disastrous bouts of inflation and economic chaos. Devaluing a nation’s currency could also impact fair trade relations. The gold standard avoided  this significant problem. 

During early years of WW I and WW II the USA, remained a neutral nation, supporting the allied belligerents as a  major supplier of war materiel. US allies paid for weapons and supplies mostly in gold. But as the war wore on, many had to revert to paper (promissory notes ) or fiat money.  As a result of this favorable export trade, the US mint at Fort Knox accumulated gold bullion.  Even at the present time, the US is claimed to hold over 8,000 tons of this heavy (19 x heavier than water), soft, yellow, shiny stuff. 

As WW II began to come to a close, western allied nations attempted to plan for the economic recovery in the post war period. They were faced with the realization that the war had drastically altered  the stable gold standard system that had served them so well in previous decades.  In most allied nations , gold bullion reserves were badly depleted, as a result of war expenses. On the other hand, the US repository for gold at Fort Knox was overflowing  with bullion as a result of its favorable trade balance during the two world wars.  This drastic imbalance of gold reserves  with only one nation holding most of the gold bullion made a return to the old and stable system of backing up all national currencies with gold impossible. 

Near the war’s end in 1944, delegates from 44 allied nations met at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire to decide on how to manage  paying for trade and other foreign exchanges under these new circumstances in a way that would not severely disadvantage any one country. 

The solution at Bretton Woods was a simple one. Since the US dollar was  backed by gold, the other world currencies could be pegged to the value of the dollar and rhus be indirectly  linked to the value of gold.   The Bretton Woods agreement was a compromise that permitted member nations to retain some of the stability of the former gold standard under new, post war circumstances.  It was in this way that in 1944 at Bretton Woods the dollar became the world’s global currency..its reserve currency. 

The nations signing the Bretton Woods Agreement promised  to each establish a central bank that would fix the exchange rate between its national currency and the dollar ..and in turn the US agreed to continue to redeem US dollars in gold on demand. The attendees set the value of gold at $35 dollars per ounce.

This made the US “greenback” the world’s reserve currency. Instead of hoarding gold, countries could simply accumulate reserves of US dollars.  They could store their dollars in US Treasury Bonds (securities). Which at the time came to be seen as “safe as gold”. 

The result was that money flowed freely from abroad into US banks and the Fed, as foreign banks purchased and accumulated treasury securities. The demand for US bonds and other gold backed securities  was so great that these securities could be offered at low rates of interest at maturity.  Thus US treasuries and other US securities became a source of cheap borrowed money for the US government. This system had a negative aspect in that the demand for dollars made borrowing money cheap (interest rates were low) and thus  encouraged government borrowing and deficit spending.

The US government’s perennial penchant for spending much more than it annually collected in tax revenue—known as deficit spending—eventually caused trouble.  Massive deficit spending by the  U S  government to finance foreign wars (the Vietnam War) and President Johnson’s “Great Society” resulted in the government printing more paper money than it had gold to redeem the notes with at Fort Knox.  Foreign nations becoming aware of these circumstances began to lose confidence in their holdings in US treasury notes..and slowly began a move to convert their dollars into gold.

By 1970mUS government spending and over printing of money had outstripped the amount of gold held in Fort Knox.  By 1971 government treasury officials officially warned that the dollar was “overvalued”.   This led foreign investors to fear that the US government would  devalue the dollar.  Such a move would generate huge losses for many investors who held large amounts of the dollars as reserve currency. That fear of devaluation in the early 1970 led to a collapse in confidence, and the beginnings of a full scale sell off of US securities and calls for redeeming their value with gold.  But the US did not have enough gold reserves. 

To avoid this “run” on the Fed,  President  Nixon, in 1971, on his own recognizance and with no warning, acted to decouple the dollar from gold.  The immediate result was that billions of dollars held by individuals and foreign national banks were no longer redeemable  in  gold. The run on gold at Fort Knox ended but this act also ended the gold standard for US currency—converting the US dollar into a “fiat” currency. Foreign investors and others were unhappy with Nixon’s impetuous and one-sided decision, but had no recourse. The dollar, now, no longer backed by gold was valued  only on the basis of the US government’s ability and  promise to honor its debts  has remained as the world’s reserve or global fiat currency since then.

 

A nation having a “reserve” or global currency has great advantages. Major commodities like grain, feed stocks, fertilizers, meats, and especially petroleum products  are traded in dollars. Since most nations hold large amounts of dollars, trading in dollars facilitates, simplifies and reduces risk to traders.  Since trading nations must replenish their dollars …..It also makes it easier for the US government to access loan money at low rates of interest….and thus to spend freely and at times irresponsibly.   

Note: April 1,  2023

I read today that China and Brazil, the former the largest economy in the world, and the latter the largest economy in South America, have agreed to abandon the dollar as a reserve currency and use their own currencies in their $150 billion dollar annual trade. China and Brazil thus join Russia, India, South Africa and several other former USSR nations which have or are planning to abandoned the dollar. 

RON DeSantis FLIP FLOPS ON UKRAINE (AGAIN)

Governor DeSantis changed his mind again. In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson he sounded like a MAGA Republican.  The next day the Dems and GOP hawks attacked him as if he was “Ron Trump”.  He could not take that amount of heat. Back peddling at high speed, in an interview with Piers Morgan yesterday, he flip flopped again on foreign policy and now supports the GOP war hawks and Biden’s ‘blank check’ on Ukraine, vowing to “win” the war with Russia. Whatever that means. 

Today, March 22, 2023, I read with dismay that in a Piers Morgan interview Governor Ron DeSantis just back peddled or flip flopped (again) on his Ukraine policy.  He simply could not take the heat from the Swamp Dwellers.  This is a major mistake.  Waffling on foreign policy is the “third rail” in GOP politics.  The 74 million-strong Trump voters will not support  a “George Bush (daddy) style” GOP waffler.  So who will support him?  This may put DeSantis in the single digit poll category of ‘also rans’ Pence and Haley.

On Tucker Carlson’s recent show a few days ago, Ron sounded like a real MAGA Republican claiming that the Ukraine War was a “territorial dispute” and disagreeing with the “blank check” the Biden Administration has given Zelenskyy. Perhaps he was only attempting a typical politician deception by “threading  the needle” between the establishment hawks and the majority of rank and file voting Republicans who do not favor an escalating war in Ukraine..and whom he must win over.  It did not work. 

Ron now appears as an untrustworthy candidate, a still a ‘wet-behind the ears’ country boy from rural Florida, who does not have foreign policy experience, or the cojones to stand up for his convictions and fight back.  But worse, he could not take the heat from the main stream  media and the GOP “establishment” politicians in DC, who pummeled  him mercilessly as an “isolationist” and worse. He capitulated.  But for the rank and file Republicans this was the worst possible out come. They know that  these folks will be the very people he will have to put down and control were he ever to become an effective President. This is definitely not a good place to be in so early in his campaign.

If Ron can not ‘stand his ground’ now, he does not have the necessary qualities needed to clean out the Augean Stables in DC. The nation needs a real street fighter, one who could divert the flow of the Potomac River to deal with the incompetence, corruption, deception, nepotism, self-emolument, media-Justice Department collusion,  and worse, infecting that horribly corrupt and decadent city, where the earth trembles each day from violent rotations emanating from the tombs of the Founding Fathers.  

IQ SCORES: PERILS OF RELIANCE ON OUR “OTHER BRAIN”

 PERILS OF RELIANCE ON OUR “OTHER BRAIN”

A recent study from Northwestern and Oregon Universities published in:”Intelligence” (a neuroscience journal) on March 10, 2023, indicates that IQ scores have fallen for the first time in decades.  Since 1932 when the test was invented and widely used, scores have regularly risen a few points with each generation. That is until recently. .  

One wonders why not?  All the the other mental test scores have fallen recently too…reading, mathematics, comprehension, foreign language skills..etc.etc. Most kids today can not even read the nation’s most revered and iconic political document…the US Constitution (or Declaration of Independence) since it is written in script.  Sadly, our modern youngsters can not complete the mental gymnastics needed to recognize those artfully and beautifully hand crafted script letters. 

I wonder could this frightening  “dumbing down”  result from the ubiquitousness and massive expanding reliance we put on our iPhones and other electronic tech gadgets?

 

In earlier times, we had to LEARN oh, so many things just to survive.  In school we were forced to memorize, our ‘times tables”’, the rules of math, and of the unpredictable, irregular English language spelling and pronunciation. Then too there were those confusing synonyms, parts of speech, nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and laws of sentence construction.  Some of us had to commit to memory Bible verses and prayers as well. 

These bits of information were  “hard wired” into our brains by difficult, time consuming and onerous mental effort. Now such efforts are no longer required….they are abandoned and called obsolete— anachronisms. 

Too many of these former mental activities  are now relegated to our “other brain”..that slim, rectangular, metallic and glass device you are now grasping in your hand.

 

Our brains, like our bodies are organic machines which thrive and prosper on regular usage. Disuse results in dysfunction. 

 The result: today’s youngsters may not have as many active synapses…and neural pathways in their cerebral cortex..and fewer stored memories and concepts —and thus less ability to make those critical (IQ rated) comparisons from one stored concept to another. 

Simply stated, our “other brain’ ..the one in your hand—is taking the place of our neocortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. These lower  IQ scores suggest our “organic brain” may be  simply withering away. 

That mass of about 5 or 6 pounds  we carry around above our necks may eventually become more of a “switching-station” organ, or ganglion center —like that of an earth woorm—only useful for sending neural messages from one body part to the other. 

Or will it evolve into a vestigial organ like the appendix. Once that organ functioned to digest fibrous foods when our primate predecessors were pure herbivores. But when more easily digestible foods, such as meat became available, this organ fell into disuse and simply withered away to the size of a baby’s pinkie. 

So perhaps can we expect in future, as our iPhones become larger and more complex, our brains will continue to shrivel to the size of a satsuma or kumquat and IQ scores will continue to fall or disappear all together. 

Perhaps if social and government policies continue as they are..some government agency will simply declare IQ scores “inequitable” and thus “invalid” and eliminate them altogether and thus assuage any fearful, unsettling concerns. 

But at least for those in the top 1% IQ  this will continue to remain a major worry for our future generations..

RON AND DON TELL THE TRUTH ON UKRAINE

 Ron DeSantis does not support the war effort in Ukraine. Most Republicans agree with him. 

The Democrat press..that is essentially almost all of the media..loved it. They gleefully and in multiplicity reported that  the most popular (not Trump) Republican,  Ron DeSantis was being  pummeled by his own Party.  Or rather it was the “Republican establishment” who took Ron to the woodshed for having the audacity, the nerve, the temerity, to state the actual facts: “the Ukraine war is a territorial dispute,” and “the USA does not have a vital interest in Ukraine” . 

Who were these so called “Republicans” attacking DeSantis?  They are the old guys ( the Senate minority leader McConnell is 82 years old)  that never supported  the Trump revolution.  They are the “neocon establishment” of the far right..the “war mongers” who only a few years back supported an illegal war of choice  conjured up  by Bush junior and his evil Rasputin, Dick Cheney. A dangerous pair, who  blazed a continent-wide swath of death and destruction— all across the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria,)  first in pursuit of non-existent weapons of “mass destruction”, then foolish, vengeance for 9-11.  The madness continued with “reaper” drones used by President Obama (who one thought he should have known better).   

What was the outcome of that war of choice?  We wasted trillions of dollars, created mounds of US debt, ended millions of lives, revealed our nation’s deepest and worst character flaws, and dumped billions of tons of carbon  into the atmosphere to increase global warming.  We achieved: Niente’, nada, rien, tipota’, nichts!!!  

The US has thankfully retreated from those bloody “theaters of war”, leaving behind billions of dollars in assets, millions in weapons, lost technology and war materiel, but with absolutely nothing to show for it…except an onerous and debilitating war debt, and the broken bodies of our young men and women who gave their all for their nation. 

The real Republicans are the registered members of the Party who  clearly disagree with their so called “leaders” and who wisely favor DeSantis and Trump, as candidates both  of whom do not support the massive war effort in Ukraine.  And how popular they are! 

The most recent CNN polls suggest just what the GOP voters are thinking about Ukraine and wider wars.  In a March 15, 2023, a CNN 2024 Republican Presidential national poll of Republicans revealed: Trump and DeSantis —both known to favor less support for Ukraine—received a total of 76% (DeSantis 39%, Trump 37%) while the “establishment” GOP candidates, Haley (4%) and former VP  Pence (7%), were both in single digits.  Not a good sign for the establishment wing of the Party.  

The GOP voters have learned from our recent past and the Bush-Cheney wars that no benefits accrue from policies which aim to “create democracy by the muzzle of a gun”.  These efforts cost thousands of billions and what do we the tax payers get for our sacrifice?  Nothing!  We are now well aware that the GOP “hawks” are not going to send their own children to war, or build the border wall along our southern border to control illegal immigration, or protect our cities, or improve infrastructure, or support healthcare, or our schools, or clean up East Palestine, Ohio and the polluted waterways —.  

After, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria we know that that these GOP  “establishment types” are not into “wall building” , or making America great again.  These politicians ARE in the business of supporting policies which bring lucrative contracts and US tax revenues to the US Arms manufacturers like: Lockheed Martin (government arms contracts = $36 billion), Boeing ($31 billion) , Northrop Grumman ($28 billion) and more $ for UK and foreign firms too. These are the companies that make a massive profit from wars like Ukraine. More death and destruction, the better for them.  Of course one hand washes the other and the arms contractors in turn  support their Senators and House-members. 

Ukraine is to these companies like the “chum” barrel of blood and guts, is to the deep sea shark fishermen, who dump chum over the side of the boat to draw predators into a feeding frenzy.  The blood attracts the long grey predators, then seawater roils with red foam, snapping jaws and swirling tails. Soon the chum is all gone and the hungry,  blood-crazed sharks begin attacking each other.  

In DC and some cities in Europe this “war monger” feeding frenzy results —like at sea — in death and destruction. It is Ukraine, that is being torn apart.   More weapons to Ukraine satisfies the likes of Boeing and Grumman and the  “establishment” war monger Senators who take PAC money from them…but in Ukraine there is no electric light, no heat, and hundreds of young men die in the muddy blood streaked trenches each day.  

End the madness…end the war, stop the escalation with new weapons which only extend the feeding frenzy.  As DeSantis stated, we have no vital interest in Ukraine,  our only vital interest in Ukraine should be to end the killing. But no effort is being made to that end…In DC the effort is only for greed, war manufacturer’s profit and politician’s reelection cash. 

BIDEN ESKALIEDR DEN KRIEG IN DER UKRAINE MIT EINER SPIONAGEDROHNE

 Diese Bilder von Joe, der wiederholt stolpert, als er versucht, die „Lufttreppe“ zu erklimmen, um in die Air Force One einzusteigen, sind ein Paradigma seiner Präsidentschaft.  Es ist ein Debakel nach dem anderen für Joes Team, all diese streng geheimen Dokumente, die in seiner Garage gefunden wurden, dann einen chinesischen Spionageballon nicht abzuschießen, dann ihn abzuschießen (und auch Spielzeugballons) und jetzt unsere eigenen Spionagedrohnen abschießen zu lassen  Gewässer, in denen US-Hochtechnologie von russischen Tiefseetauchern gesammelt und wahrscheinlich vom Iran reproduziert wird.

 Am ahnungsvollen Tag der „Ides of March“ (dem 15.) wurden wir wieder mit einem weiteren Beispiel von „Stolper-Joe“ konfrontiert.  An diesem Tag erfuhren wir von der US-Reaper-Drohne, die sich jetzt auf dem Grund des Schwarzen Meeres befindet, was für Joe und sein Team eine große Peinlichkeit darstellt.  Die unbemannte, unbewaffnete Foto- und Audio-Spionagedrohne wurde bei einer Begegnung mit russischen Jets während einer geheimen Spionagemission für die Ukrainer direkt vor der Küste der Krim abgeschossen.

 Die Spionagemission für Selenskyj war eine ungerechtfertigte und unkluge US-Eskalation des Konflikts in der Ukraine.  Das Endergebnis war peinlich, als ein russischer „Top Gun“-Jetpilot den Propeller der Drohne fachmännisch mit dem Fahrwerk seines Flugzeugs streifte.  Die behinderte Drohne, deren Stütze abgeschert war, ging in Gewässern unter, wo die Russen sie sicher einsammeln werden.

 Der Drohnenabschuss war ein weiteres Beispiel für die gleichen fehlgeleiteten Treppenschritte unseres gebrechlichen, gealterten und geistig behinderten Präsidenten.  Ein Mann, der weit über seinem Kopf steckt … und einer, der dummerweise in den Dritten Weltkrieg stolpert, während er herumwirbelt und sich in eine Eskalation eines Stellvertreterkriegs in der Ukraine stolpert, für die er maßgeblich verantwortlich war.  Vergessen Sie nicht all diese ukrainischen Todesfälle, Bevölkerungsverschiebungen, Zerstörung der Infrastruktur, verlorene Ernten, Munitionsverschwendung, massive Zunahme des atmosphärischen Kohlenstoffs, ökologische Katastrophe, die durch Joe Bidens gepriesene Fähigkeit zur Diplomatie hätten vermieden werden können – alles, was er zu sagen hatte  war NEIN zur NATO-Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine – was er ignorierte.

 Kein vernünftiger Mensch will einen dritten Weltkrieg oder einen nuklearen Schlagabtausch mit Russland.  Ein solches Ergebnis wäre eine humanitäre, wirtschaftliche und ökologische Katastrophe von enormen Ausmaßen, die die Menschen dazu bringen würde, sich die guten alten Zeiten des „einfachen Klimawandels“ zu wünschen, um den nuklearen Winter auszugleichen, den ein solcher Konflikt verursachen würde.

 Die Fakten.  Die USA und ihre Bevölkerung scheinen vereinbart zu haben, die Ukraine bei der „Verteidigung gegen die russische Aggression“ zu unterstützen.  Das hat dazu geführt, dass Waffen im Wert von 100 Milliarden Dollar an diese Nation geliefert wurden, die sie bis an die Zähne mit High-Tech-Waffen ausrüsten.  Dennoch haben sie den Krieg nicht „gewonnen“.  Kein US-Staat hat sich verpflichtet, „Russland zu besiegen“ oder „die Ukraine bis zum Ende“ zu vertreten.  Die Ausnahmen sind ein paar Kriegstreiber, die zu vergessen scheinen, dass sie Amerikaner sind, und mit geteilter Sympathie oder doppelter Loyalität handeln, während sie die Zwillingsflagge der USA und der Ukraine am Revers tragen.  Sie sind keine Patrioten.

 Materielle Unterstützung zu leisten ist eine Sache, aber tatsächlich in den Kampf einzugreifen – in die Kampfzone zu fliegen – um sie auszuspionieren und dann die Ukraine mit Informationen zu versorgen, ist eine ganz andere Sache.  Das Betreten der Kampfzone und Spionage für die Ukrainer, um über Truppenstandorte usw. zu berichten, ist ein offen feindseliger Akt, der sicherlich eine unerwünschte Eskalationsreaktion der Russen nach sich ziehen würde.

 Wollen wir die Russen wirklich zu weiteren Eskalationen dieses Krieges aufstacheln?  Will die Biden-Administration einen Atomkrieg?  Haben sie wirklich eine Strategie für den Ausgang dieses verheerenden Konflikts im Herzen Europas?  Haben sie einen Plan?  Es scheint nicht.

 Sie stolpern einfach herum wie Biden auf dem Rollfeld und versuchen, in die Air Force One zu steigen.

 Hör auf mit der Dummheit!

BIDEN INTENSIFIE LA GUERRE EN UKRAINE PAR DRONE ESPION

 Ces photos de Joe trébuchant à plusieurs reprises alors qu'il tente de gravir «l'escalier aérien» pour entrer dans Air Force One sont un paradigme de sa présidence.  C'est une débâcle après l'autre pour l'équipe de Joe, tous ces documents top secrets trouvés dans son garage, puis ne pas abattre un ballon espion chinois, puis l'abattre (et des ballons jouets aussi) et maintenant faire abattre nos propres drones espions dans  des eaux où la haute technologie américaine sera récupérée par des plongeurs russes et probablement reproduite par l'Iran.

 Le jour inquiétant des "Ides de mars" (le 15), nous avons de nouveau été confrontés à un autre exemple de "joe trébuchant".  À cette date, nous avons appris l'existence du drone américain Reaper maintenant au fond de la mer Noire, ce qui est un embarras majeur pour Joe et son équipe.  Le drone d'espionnage photographique et audio sans pilote et non armé a été abattu lors d'une rencontre avec des avions à réaction russes lors d'une mission d'espionnage secrète pour les Ukrainiens, juste au large des côtes de la Crimée.

 La mission d'espionnage de Zelenskyy était une escalade américaine injustifiée et imprudente du conflit en Ukraine.  Ses résultats finaux ont été embarrassants, lorsqu'un pilote de jet russe "Top Gun" a habilement brossé l'hélice du drone avec le train d'atterrissage de son avion.  Le drone désemparé, son hélice arrachée, est tombé dans des eaux où les Russes vont sûrement le récupérer.

 La chute du drone était un autre exemple des mêmes pas errants dans les escaliers de notre président fragile, âgé et souffrant de troubles mentaux.  Un homme bien au-dessus de sa tête… et un qui trébuche bêtement dans la troisième guerre mondiale alors qu'il se soucie et se fraye un chemin dans une escalade d'une guerre par procuration en Ukraine dont il était en grande partie responsable.  N'oubliez pas que tous ces morts ukrainiens, les dislocations de population, la destruction des infrastructures, les récoltes perdues, le gaspillage de munitions, l'augmentation massive du carbone atmosphérique, la catastrophe écologique, auraient pu être évités, grâce à la capacité de diplomatie tant vantée de Joe Biden - tout ce qu'il avait à dire  était NON à l'adhésion de l'Ukraine à l'OTAN, ce qu'il a ignoré.

 Aucune personne sensée ne veut une troisième guerre mondiale ou un échange nucléaire avec la Russie.  Un tel résultat serait un désastre humanitaire, économique et écologique aux proportions énormes qui ferait rêver les gens au bon vieux temps du « simple changement climatique » pour compenser l'hiver nucléaire qu'un tel conflit entraînerait.

 Les faits.  Les États-Unis et leur peuple semblent avoir accepté de soutenir l'Ukraine pour « se défendre contre l'agression russe ».  Cela s'est traduit par la livraison d'armes d'une valeur massive de 100 milliards de dollars à cette nation, l'armant jusqu'aux dents avec des armes de haute technologie.  Pourtant, ils n'ont pas « gagné la guerre ».  Aucune politique américaine n'a signé pour « vaincre la Russie » ou pour « l'Ukraine jusqu'au bout ».  Les exceptions sont quelques marchands de guerre qui semblent oublier qu'ils sont américains et agissent avec des sympathies partagées ou une double loyauté alors qu'ils arborent le drapeau jumelé des États-Unis et de l'Ukraine sur leurs revers.  Ce ne sont pas des patriotes.

 Fournir un soutien matériel est une chose, mais entrer dans la mêlée - voler dans la zone de combat - pour espionner, puis fournir des renseignements à l'Ukraine est un autre acte.  Entrer dans la zone de combat et espionner pour que les Ukrainiens signalent l'emplacement des troupes, etc., est un acte ouvertement hostile qui entraînerait sûrement une réponse d'escalade indésirable de la part des Russes.

 Voulons-nous vraiment pousser les Russes à de nouvelles escalades de cette guerre ?  L'administration Biden veut-elle une guerre nucléaire ?  Ont-ils vraiment une stratégie pour l'issue de ce conflit désastreux au cœur de l'Europe ?  Ont-ils un plan?  Il semble que non.

 Ils trébuchent simplement comme Biden sur le tarmac en essayant de monter dans Air Force One.

 Arrêtez la bêtise !

Spring Arrives. 2023

March 15th 2023

Our last winter storm battered the Northeast with wind, rain and snow….20 inches fell in southern Vermont. Most of us don’t know it…but Spring is here.  Some of us —winter’s indoor captives— may surmise its arrival from the  oh so political news programs gearing up for the summer political season.  But even for urban dwellers, our longer days and the height of  the sun above the horizon at noon cast light through our shaded windows and may give the arrival away. 

In New York  the actual day length is just five minutes short of a full 12 hour-day already. Of course it is on March 20 the official date of the Vernal Equinox, we will arrive at that 12 hour day all over the earth.  Fron that date onward the day will grow longer—and temperatures rise 

But the natural world ignores those numbers and has its own rules and regulations. Mother Nature is guided by mostly by the length of day and the intensity of sunlight.

 In this neck of the woods way back in mid February an early thaw warmed the soil above the freezing level. The  earthworm population  moved up through thawed soil to emerge. A winter rain washed them from their grassy haunts onto roads and paths where they struggled to survive.  But their early emergence foretold  the arrival of our  first flight of Robins.  Then too, about this time I noticed that our local non/migratory birds —Cardinals —were frequently observed in male and female pairs. Perhaps they too were anticipating an early spring. 

But by mid/March our local and migratory bird population were out in force. Today, I observed a pair of  Cardinals..the male in bright red mating plumage. Not far away a pair of House Finches were observed resting together on a sunny branch.  Nearby. a pair of Robins sunned themselves.  Others of this red breast species were stalked their prey spread out over the near by grassy areas cocking their  heads over the ground as they seek the early worm.  A  Carolina wren (or was it a House Wren?) sang his lovely song. As I arrived, he quit that branch and flew across the path to alight  on a branch. There he bobbed his upturned tail in its characteristic way.  

Flitting among this same thicket were a pair of Song Sparrows and not far away a pair of common Whitethroats. Along the path a few rods more I heard the distinctive call of the Redwing Blackbird. Calling to claim his  nesting place in the Forsythia thicket—a sure sign of Spring.  The dark blackbird with the red epaulettes clung  to a vertical branch where he continued his “con-ca-reee”, trilled over again from the Forsythia thicket.  

A mocking bird —was it the same one (?) I have seen all winter long   regularly sunning itself on its special branch—even on the coldest days—but today it flew by me, seeming unconcerned with all his new neighbors.  

Above, a murder of Crows with black wings flapping,  pass overhead in a bright blue sky cawing in pleasure (I imagine) just happy to fly in the bright sun and blue sky. And high above. like winged silver specks in the blue,  seagulls soared gracefully on a rising thermal. 

Spring is here..

Biden Did It—SVB Collapse—Blame Biden

 

Biden elected—high inflation—-high interest rates—jump in bond returns—-bank failures—Biden bailout—more bank failures .

Don’t let Joe back peddle away from blame for the collapse of the SVBank. Today I heard him state that the fault lay with  “the previous administration”  

Here is the truth.  Joe’s first act as President was to cut the legs from under the fossil fuel industry to placate the “greens” of his party.That act spiked fuel prices, which set off an inflationary spiral which Biden’s trillion dollar spending splurge only expanded and aggravated.  The high inflation rate ,  spiking to 9%, the highest in four decades,  forced the FED to raise interest rates. Higher interest rates drove returns on US Treasury bonds from 1.3% to 5% in less than a year. This affected all banks.  US banks  now hold some $650 billion in Treasury notes  

SVBank had deposits of $180 billion and most of its substantial  $200 billion assets in US. bonds.  (This was not responsible banking practices, a more diverse asset investment would have saved this bank.)  But the US bonds the bank held — were worth much less when newer US bonds returned almost five times the amount of the older bonds.  

A call on the Banks’s assets led to a forced a bond sale, a short fall, inability to meet deposit withdrawal  and eventual collapse of the bank. 

Biden’s ideological green policies and irresponsible politically-motivated spending led to this economic disaster.  

Biden made the situation even worse by  bailing out the depositors of this bank ..who were insured -like all US depositors—to only $250, 000.  Most of SVBs depositors (90%) irresponsibly had well over that amount on deposit in that bank.  Many had tens of millions on deposit  

Many  of these depositors were Democrat supporters.  Perhaps this had leverage in DC  where there seems two systems of justice and now two systems of banking  

Bailing out this bank makes it more likely that other banks and depositors will follow these irresponsible behaviors. 

Like Biden’s verbal and legal encouragement of millions of illegal immigrants to jump our border fences, here in the financial sector, he is encouraging irresponsible banking practices to favor a small clique of supporters and ignores the welfare of the nation.  His policies will have more undesirable, dangerous results than those that he whispered over his microphone   

  

BIDEN’S “DIVERSITY INCLUSION EQUITY (DIE) —DISASTROUS TWO YEARS—LEFT WING IDEOLOGY GOES DOWN IN FLAMES

 

DIVERSITY—INCLUSION—EQUITY—ROUTE TO DECLINE AND CHAOS 

It started with ideology and dogmatism taking the front seat from common sense and practical sound statesmanship. It has ended with the Biden  administration proving  the shortcomings,—nay existential threat—to any national  state which would populate its leadership ranks following now debunked left wing social goals of diversity, inclusion and equity—or “DIE”. 

Biden let the young ideologues run the show and run his administration and our great nation into the ground.

On the stump (in his basement hideaway) Biden bragged  he would populate his administration with the most women, most people of color, and the most sexually diverse members in US history.  He succeeded eminently in that goal.  But at what cost?  This diverse, incompetent group of “firsts” has brought us to a point of existential threat to the nation not experience since WW II! 

For the first “oldest, physically and mentally challenged” President in US history, Biden himself…has proved that we do need a change in Federal legislation to protect the nation  from physically frail, mentally failing old codgers with stenosis of their carotid arteries who simply will not give up the scepter of power.  They would prefer to die in office and thus bury all their errors, corrupt practices and malfeasance with them.  

Even prior to his election, Pres. Biden’s choice of VP was a sign of his irresponsibility.   In the fullness of his years,  and with his physical impairments he should  have chosen a VP candidate— clearly capable of actually taking over the reins of power were he to die in office. (he had the choice of many excellent women candidates in his party). His choice of incompetent, Kamala  Harris to fill the VP slot—tossing a bone to the diversity, inclusion, equity crowd in his party —- was his first act of dangerous irresponsibility.  We could have predicted the outcome of his disaster years at that point.  

After election, Biden went on to fill his administration with the most incompetent, dogmatic, impractical, ideological, wet behind the ears, and simply unprepared group of administrators in US history. (some exceptions are noted here, i.e HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge).  From his bumbling, giggling. always unprepared, “border czar” VP, who studiously ignored the massive immigration crisis;  to his incompetent Press Secretary (who proves the point of this piece each day) ; to his “do nothing, absentee,” first-gay Secretary of Transportation; his “weak, compliant”, AG Garland, who we all thank never made it to the Supremes; to his “silent general” at the Defense Department—a poor fit for leader of the that department; to his “ Blinken” disaster-prone Secretary of State, who with his similarly challenged wife ( also a Biden Cabinet member), have presided over one foreign policy disaster after another,  from death and disaster in Afghanistan to “no end in sight and no plan” Kyiv, to blowing up  Nordstream, to a possible nuclear exchange with Russia, collapse of U.S. prestige in the Middle East, to war drums with China, and the almost laughable Chinese Spy Balloon saga;  then at Treasury, Biden slotted in “old gal” Yellen, who has presided over the continuing domestic economic disaster wrought by Bidenflation.  This disaster initiated by Joe cutting off our fossil fuel industry at its knees, an act  which sent fuel prices sky ward, tipped off an inflation spiral and morphed  into  high interest rates, thus causing  bond rates to soar,  which then brought  on the collapse of SVB and the fearsome specter of wider bank failures,  economic collapse and recession. Janet rode these events out—not in command but more like being carried along as flotsam on a flooding stream  

The only positive outcome we can claim from this old man’s disaster-laced two year presidency so far, is that we are now certain that we should never again, elect an old guy, especially one who thinks that merit and meritocracy are bad words. 

And let’s never forget the danger of focusing on meaningless externals such as skin color, gender, sexual orientation when we choose our candidates for higher office…or any office.  We always want the best.  Picking from an artificially restricted pool of talent as Biden did leads only to disaster. 

The proof is right before us everyday!

 

administrators from 

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INDONESIA: VOLCANIC WONDERLAND—MT MERAPI ERUPTS!

Indonesia’s Fabulous And Deadly Volcanoes 

March 11, 2023.  Indonesia’s most active volcano, Mt Merapi, erupted on Saturday spewing ash, shattered rock, lava and hot gases that blocked out the sun and carpeted the roads and shrouded the houses in eight villages near the base of the volcano with ash. Local mines on the slopes were closed and all tourist activities were halted as the eruptions continued through Saturday.  At one point,  after the eruption spewed clouds of hot ash hundreds of feet into the air, a pyroclastic cloud of ash and hot gases poured from the vent and surged  4 miles downslope to threaten villages and residences near the base of the volcano. 

Not all of us know where Indonesia is…or that it is famous  (or infamous) for its deadly volcanism. 

Indonesia is an island-archipelago-nation lying close to the equator, north of Australia, between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Oceans. Its southern boundary is a two-thousand mile long, east-west oriented, archipelago of volcanic islands. With a population of  nearly 300 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous in the world.  However, with most of its 17,000 islands uninhabited and with its mix of mountainous islands, blue sea, and lush tropical forest, Indonesia ranks number one (1) out of fifty nations acclaimed for their natural beauty.  Its lovely and attractive mountainous landscape is a major part of its allure, but obscures the fact that Indonesia is also the land of the most active, most dangerous and most well-known volcanoes. Note that Meropi is erupting as I write today. 

Indonesia’s mountainous islands are almost all volcanic in origin. Of its total 128 volcanoes, 80 are actively erupting today, while five of these active ones are mostly unseen as submarine volcanoes.   Of the active volcanoes, about 40 have caused almost all of the the nearly 200 deadly eruptions in Indonesia over the past nearly 2000 years of human records.  During the historic period, a total of more than 57,000 people have died in this area as a result of earthquakes, lava flows, ash deposits, nuee ardent, pyroclastic flows, tsunamis, and other related disasters associated with these eruptions. 

Southern Indonesia, which comprises a narrow almost two thousand mile long, east-west trending arc of volcanic islands, is the site of the most frequent, powerful and well known volcanic eruptions in the world.    Mt Toba, located in western Indonesia’s North Sumatra, erupted violently some 73,000 years ago; infamous Krakatoa located about 700 miles east of Mt Toba, in the Banda Strait, famously erupted violently in 1883; and Mt. Tamboura, sited about 871 miles further to the east  on the island of  West Nousa  erupted as a “super volcano” in 1815.  This 1815 eruption is claimed to be the most violent ever recorded in world history.   And finally in the category of presently active volcanoes,  Mt Merapi in central Java, located only about  360 miles east of Krakatoa, is considered to be the most deadly active volcano in modern history, 

In fact, two of the most infamous and destructive of all known volcanic eruptions occurred in Indonesia. The best known was the well known eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. But less well known but of greater violence and more damaging was the world’s most violent and destructive historic era eruption ever recorded, which occurred when Mr. Tambora erupted on April 10 to April 15, in 1815.  

In terms of destruction of residences, financial damage, climatic impact, and human deaths the Tambora eruption is unparalleled. It  is considered the most violent eruption in human history and resulted in the direct deaths of 11,000 people. However the   long term climatic effects of the eruption had a world-wide impact  causing deadly floods, crop failures which led to famine and more hundreds of thousands of death. The year 1816 is known as the “year with no summer”. In several temperate parts of the world snow fell in the month of July, and July temperatures dropped into the low 30s. Crops failed, and famine plagued large area of the world.  The cooling effect on the celibates has been estimted to have caused 

Volcanologists have established a “violent eruption index” ( or VEI) for these exceptionally violent sometimes called “super volcanoes”. The  oils t eruption index or VEI has a 0 to (8) or 10 range based on how much material was ejected for how long the eruption lasts. 

Several super volcanoes in earth history have produced massive eruptions that have had global implications.  The eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano in Wyoming, USA, about 640,000 yers ago ranked an 8 on the VEI. Then 73,000 years ago, Mt Toba in Indonesia erupted with a possible VEI rank of 9.  But in historic times it is Mt Tamboura that has been the most destructive and most violent.  In 1815 Tamboura But it is  Mt. Tamboura in Indonesia which erupted in April of that year with a rank of VEI 7 which remains the most violent volcanic eruption in human history.

Prior to April 10, 1815, Mt Tamboura on the island of Sumbawa in Ιndonesia was that nation’s tallest mountain, with its vent at an elevation 14,100 feet. After the violent eruption of that date Mt. Tamboura topped at only 9350 feet.  (14,100-9,350 = 4,750 feet).  The eruption blew the top 4,750 feet of Tamboura into dust, rock fragments and fine ash. That was followed by hot ash and gas flows (pyroclastic flows) streaming down the lower slopes toward the sea. The plume of debris was blown up into the atmosphere and estimated to rise to about 21 miles above the surface. The top nearly one mile high cone of the volcano was turned to fine ash, estimated to comprise about 35 cubic miles of fine dust and rock debris which was driven high into the upper levels of the atmosphere and remained lofted for long periods of time.  The ash cloud was carried around the globe reflecting sunlight and darkening the sky .  Global temperature dropped a full degree Fahrenheit the following year. 

Why is all of this violent volcanic activity located in this linear island archipelago of southern Indonesia? As we will see below it may well be the result of the rapid rate at which the Australian plate is undergoing subduction  below the Eurasian Sunda plate…and the types of rock materials involved in the process. 

The earth’s crust is divided up into seven (7) major crustal plates that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and are constantly moving over the earth’s surface, jostling each other, crumpling up their margins to produce mountain ranges, or colliding then driving down into the Earth mantle  to produce earthquakes and  in some places like the margins of the Pacific Ocean and Indonesia violently erupting volcanoes.  

Much of the cause of Indonesia’s intensive vulcanism lies with neighboring Australia. 

The continent of Australia is unique in that it occupies its own “Australian” crustal plate. More than 80 million years ago the Australian plate and Antartica (another crustal plate) were part of a former larger  “supercontinent”—-known as Gondwana.  About 47 million years ago, for some unknown as yet reason, the Australian plate broke away from Gondwana  and began moving northward at a rate of about three inches per year (7.8 cm).  The world wide average rate of growth (or movement) for crustal plates  is only 0.6 inches per year (1.5 cm) or the rate of fingernail growth.  Thus the Australian plate is moving five times faster than the average.

It may have taken about 40 million years for it to eventually collide with the Sunda section of the Eurasian  plate.  As the result of this collision, parts of the Australian plate has been  driven under the Eurasian plate. The thrusting continued to press the slab downward into the hot mantle, undergoing a process termed subduction. As this part of the Australian plate descended, its slope and frictional drag tended to pull  down parts of the surface of the Earth’s ocean crust to form a deep ocean trench, today known as the Java or Sunda Trench. This ocean-bottom feature is more than 2,000 miles long and in places over 4.5 miles deep.  The deep,  long curving underwater feature, located about 150 miles off the Indonesian coast, parallels the shoreline of western and southern Indonesia. See a world map.

But that is not the end of the story. As parts of the Australian plate descended into the hot mantle, the rock slab of the Australian crustal plate  began to melt.  This now molten rock material, forming a mass less dense than its surroundings, created  “blobs” of molten rock or magma. The hot molten mass tends to rise toward the surface. The process is similar to what one can observe  in a paraffin “Lava Lamp” as bubbles of melted colored paraffin rise toward the top of the lamp.  

Under Indonesia the hot magma derived from the Australian plate actually melts its way upward,  slowly rising though the earth’s crust as it approaches the surface. The massive blob or magma chamber, sometimes tens of miles in diameter or more, may incorporate other rock types into its mass as it rises.  Others may come to rest  lodged close to the surface and may remain in place for millennia. Often  these buried masses of magma  tend to under go chemical and physical alterations to their composition as they age,  sometimes the end product of these alterations  produce magma or molten rock of very viscous (rich in silica)  and charged with superheated gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide gas.  

 If continuously fed by more moleten material  from below,  the magma chamber may grow larger.  The expansion cause the sloping rock surface of the  overlying volcano to swell and become unstable. Rock slides and down slope movement  (slumping) of the slopes of the volcano may reduce or release the confining pressure on the magma  and gases  trapped in the magma chamber. The instantaneous release of pressure, then may result in a catastrophic violent explosion of the magma and gases into the atmosphere and the eventual emptying of the magma chamber.  This process produces the  violent eruptions and the geologic features we call volcanoes.

I repeat myself here…  but perhaps to good effect.  During an eruption the molten, gas-infused magma may rise from depth to create or  fill a magma chamber within the core of the volcano. These swelling movements on the slope of the volcano may alter the stability of the sloping surface  producing mass wasting or landslides which rapidly expose the buried magma chamber to  the low pressure at the surface.  At this point the gases within the magma expand instantaneously, mix with the viscous molten magma  to form towering clouds of dust and gas, incorporating  lava bombs, coarse particles called tephra, and fine ash..as well as a frothy volcanic rock known as pumice which rise to gret hight above the volcano.  In cases of very gaseous magma, eruptions produce almost lol ash and these  materials fall back to earth, where they accumulate  in cone like geological features we know as cinder volcanoes.   Volcanoes make up the bulk of the landforms all along the Indonesian coast. All are the result of the process of subduction or driving of a h of Australian crustal plate deep into the mantle where it melts. 

The magma which flows into the vent of Mt Tambora  has intermediate levels of silica which make it more viscous. (Lavas can be basaltic (silica poor)…andesitic (intermediate silica)….rhyolitic (rich in silica) ). Tambora, like other steep sided intermediate or composite  volcanoes has periods when it erupts less gaseous magma to form flows of less viscous low gas (basaltic)  content lava. These eruptions form flows more quietly. These steep sided volcanoes have alternate eruptions, gaseous explosive (andesitic and rhyolitic)ones which produce violent explosions and huge clouds of ash and fine particulates alternating with quiet lava (basaltic) flows.  The result of this process is a  volcano with steep sides. 

ON VOLCANOES AND AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Except for professional geologists who climb around on the crunchy cinders and sinewy lava slopes  of volcanoes most of us would be unaware of the drama, excitement, danger and global significance of our planet’s volcanoes. That is until very recently.  

Volcanoes are at the center of a new documentary film “Fire of Love 2022” which won the 2023, 95^th Academy Awards.  The film documents the lives and obsession of two French vulcanologists, Karla and Maurice Kraftt. The Kraftts, two determined and perhaps daredevil vulcanologists, followed and photographed volcanic eruptions around the world.  The film follows the lives and professional work of the Kraftts and how they died in April 1991 while photographing the eruption of Mt Unzen, a steep, nearly 5,000 ft high composite cone located on the Shimabara Peninsula, east  of Nagasaki, on one of Japan’s most southern islands. 

The Kraftts and another geologist (Harry Glicken) had set their cameras at what they thought was a safe distance away from the actively erupting peak of Mt. Unzen. They set up their gear in the  flow channel  of a an earlier eruption close to a road about two miles from the belching, eruption at the summit of Unzen. They were not there long  when a massive explosion at the peak released a cloud of hot gases, mixed with fine ash and lava. Much of this material was driven skyward to darken the sky.  As the eruption proceeded, more hot gas (mostly steam and carbon dioxide gas) erupted and mixed intimately with fine ash rock fragments, and liquid spatter of  molten lava to form a very hot (400 F to 1300 F) and very dense cloud, much heavier than air. This material poured like hot molasses from the vent and carried by gravity, swept down the the steep slope at high speed (@ 40-50 miles per hour) following channels on the slope which enveloped the vulcanologists .  The massive cloud of poisonous, steam and burning hot dust cloud may have reached the site of the photographers in perhaps three minutes.  The Kraftt’s camera kept photographing, and has provided us all with the first detailed evidence of this deadly form of volcanic  activity. About 40 others also died further down the slope and in various lower locations.  (The deadly cloud is known as a pyroclastic flow (“pyro”=fiery,  plus, “clastic” = small broken pieces.) 

The film is a tribute to the Kraftts. It should be seen to witness  and understand one of the primal forces of nature. Vulcanism has been a major factor in the formation and evolution of our planet, it’s atmosphere and the diverse organisms which live on its surface. And they continue to do so. It was the release of these hot gases from the Earth’s interior which formed the planet’s early atmosphere.  It has continued over the planet’s  4.5 billion year history…producing bursts of CO2 gas and water vapor which have altered and our plant’s temperature. Then too the dispersion of fine ash dispersed into the upper reaches of the atmosphere have operated to  cool the planet too. Sometimes these eruptions of ash clouds have caused a following year of cold weather or “year with no summer”. But longer  periods of cold conditions have been documented as a result of prolonged eruptions which may have helped to precipitate the several glacial periods which have punctuated the Earth’s long history..