Bizarre Beasts explains 'What Both Doomed & Saved The Galápagos Giant Tortoises' for International Day for Biological Diversity on Flashback Friday

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity and Flashback Friday! I'm revisiting de-extinction today, but in a different way than Colossal Biosciences is doing. Watch Bizarre Beasts explain What Both Doomed & Saved The Galápagos Giant Tortoises for how.

Galápagos giant tortoises once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with at least thirteen species. But now some of those species are gone forever and the same forces that doomed those tortoises might have ended up helping save others.

No need for geneetic engineering and cloning — old-fashioned selective and captive breeding could re-create species thought to be extinct. That's good news for today's biodiversity holiday!

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of two posts from the back catalog that relate to today's topic.

Happy Nowruz and happy 15th birthday to Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 15th birthday of this blog! This year's celebration feels different because of the war with Iran. Fox 5 Morning News in San Diego anchor Shally Zomorodi felt it, too, in Happy Nowruz!

Fox 5 Morning News celebrates Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

I'm with you, Shally.

I'm moving on to the blog's 15th birthday, because lingering more on Nowruz would make me even sadder. On that note, I'm sharing a childhood memory in video form, Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake - Sheriff John Birthday Song sung by Bruce Kaplan (Claudia and Bruce).

Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan perform their version of the Sheriff John Birthday Song aka the Birthday Polka. If you're from Los Angeles and grew up in the 1950s and early 60s, you very likely know this song.

Unless you grew up in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s, you probably don't know who Sheriff John is, so I'll let Wikipedia explain.

Sheriff John was an American children's television host who appeared on KTTV in Los Angeles from July 18, 1952, to July 10, 1970, on two separate series, Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade and Sheriff John's Cartoon Time. He was played by John Rovick[1] who served as a radio operator-gunner in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, surviving 50 combat missions in the European Theater of Operations. After the war he became a radio announcer, moving to television in its early days. He developed the program's concept himself.

As Sheriff John he began each program entering his office, singing "Laugh and be happy, and the world will laugh with you." He then said the Pledge of Allegiance and read a safety bulletin. He showed cartoons including Q.T. Hush, Underdog, Crusader Rabbit, and Porky Pig; he was often visited by farm animals.[2] An artist, Sketchbook Suzie, drew pictures requested by viewers; he would complete squiggles sent by the children and make a squiggle for them to complete. He also gave them lessons on safety and good health habits.

The show's highlight was the birthday celebration. Sheriff John read as many as 100 names, then brought out a cake and sang the Birthday Party Polka ("Put Another Candle on my Birthday Cake").

I used to watch this show every day after school and have fond memories of it, so when I saw YouTube recommend this video, I knew immediately that it would be today's song. I especially couldn't resist because Claudia and I dated in 1987 when we both worked at the Tar Pits.* It's good to see her again.

That's a wrap for today's double (triple if one counts today as Twitter/X's 20th birthday) celebration. Stay tuned for Marche du Nain Rouge as the Sunday entertainment feature.

*Yes, Claudia is an ex-girlfriend, but she's not the ex-girlfriend I usually mention. As I've written many times, the latter lived in Canada while we were dating, while Claudia and I were both living in Los Angeles. Coincidentally, both have since moved to the San Francisco Bay area. I would find it ironically funny if they have encountered each other while not knowing they both know me.

Nowruz Pirooz and Happy 14th Birthday to this blog!

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 14th birthday of this blog! After emphasizing the blog's birthday last year, I'm giving Nowruz pride of place today, beginning with FOX 5 San Diego's Celebrating the Persian New Year at Balboa Park.



FOX 5's Heather Lake reports.
This video earned the featured position because it had the best combination of preview image, location reporting, and studio shenanigans. The next video, CBS 8 San Diego reporting Millions around the world prepare to celebrate Persian New Year as spring begins had an even clearer explanation with less silly studio interactions.

Families celebrate Nowruz by gathering around a Haftseen table to mark the start of Spring and the Persian New Year.

The presenter should look familiar; she's Neda Iranpour, who I featured in 2022 and 2023. Welcome back to the blog!

At the risk of being redundant, I'm sharing the most viewed of the videos about the holiday today, KCAL's Celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

Bita Milanian, Iranian American community organizer, joins KCAL News anchors to share some ways to celebrate Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year. Milanian explains how the new year is a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings.

That was worth sharing just for the closing comment about the Women of Iran, Time's Heroes of the Year for 2022.

I conclude by wishing Happy Birthday from the Swedish Chef to this blog.

To help celebrate your birthday, the Swedish Chef is here to whip up some party snacks!

HAHAHAHA!

Stay tuned for World Water Day.

Company Man explains the song rights to 'Happy Birthday' for the 13th birthday of the blog

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 13th birthday of this blog! I'm changing the emphasis a bit for today's celebration because this blog is now a teenager. Birthday first!

I found just the video for today's observance, Company Man's Happy Birthday - Song Rights. Take it away, Company Man Mike!

It's a song we all know, yet we were unable to sing it on TV, in movies, or even in restaurants. This video explores why this was the case and why this is no longer the case.

This is a story I should have shared years ago, but I'm happy to spread good news whenever I learn about it. If my readers already know about it, great! If not, I hope they learned something and feel the same I do about any day I learn something new, that it's a good day.

With that, I'm once again wishing my blog a happy 13th birthday!


Before today, I didn't realize that "Happy Birthday" has 13 letters. Count the letters and candles yourself.

And to everyone who celebrates it, Nowruz Mubarak, happy Persian New Year!


Stay tuned for World Water Day tomorrow, followed by more celebrations of the 13th year of this blog.

Company Man explains 'Crazy Eddie's Crazy Fraud'

As I explained in the first post, I named this blog after "Crazy Eddie," a legendary character among the Moties in Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Niven and Pournelle were almost certainly inspired by a real-life story, which Company Man Mike told this June in Crazy Eddie's Crazy Fraud.

Crazy Eddie was an emerging chain electronics store in the 1980's, most known for their wild commercials, advertising their insaaaaaaaaaane prices. Sadly, what seemed to be a promising business, turned out to be a giant fraud. This video details that fraud.

I'm connected to this story beyond it appearing to be the inspiration for the character I named the blog after. Sam Antar and I follow each other on Twitter (now X, but that's another story). It's a small world.

With that, it's time to resume grading final exams and submitting grades. See you tomorrow!

Happy International Day of Nowruz 1402 (2023) and happy 12th birthday to Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 12th birthday of the blog! As I have the past two years, I'm sharing a video from KFMB Channel 8 to begin the celebration, CBS 8 explains the traditions of Nowruz, Persian New Year. One of those traditions on my blog entails embedding CBS 8 San Diego's videos!

CBS 8's Neda Iranpour explains how Persians celebrate Nowruz also known as the New Year. The celebration involves gathering around a table known as a Haftseen an elaborate sight, prepared several days in advance with "Haft" or seven items that start with "Seen" or the letter "S."

Foozool Khan left a comment reminding the station and its viewers that other people outside of Iran celebrate Nowruz.

I am an Iranian-American, thanks for celebrating Norooz and educating your audience. However, please be mindful that Norooz is not just celebrated by Iranians. Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and all around the world, people of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and many more, all are celebrating Norooz. Let's not exclude them from these great traditions.

Thanks for the reminder! Also, the Wikipedia entry for Nowruz lists even more countries that celebrate today.

By the way, not only is today Nowruz, it's also the start of the astrological year.* 8SA covered that in Astrology Day (March 21), Activities and How to Celebrate Astrology Day.

Astrology is a system of beliefs and practices that seeks to interpret and influence the positions and movements of celestial bodies in relation to human affairs and natural phenomena. It is based on the idea that the positions of the planets, the sun, and the moon at the time of a person's birth can have a significant influence on their personality, character traits, and life events.

Astrology has been practiced for thousands of years in many different cultures around the world. It is often used as a tool for understanding oneself, relationships, and the world around us. Astrology can be used to gain insight into various aspects of life, such as career, love and relationships, finances, health, and spirituality.

There are many different types of astrology, each with its own unique traditions, techniques, and beliefs. Some of the most commonly practiced forms of astrology include Western astrology, Vedic astrology, Chinese astrology, and Mayan astrology.

The narrator shows less respect for astrology in the video, calling it a pseudoscience. That fits with my official positions on astrology, "astrology is bunk, but it's fun bunk" and "harmless but fun nonsense that I'm presenting for entertainment purposes only."

Finally, it's the twelfth anniversary of my posting First post: Why this blog? I have a new birthday song to celebrate, Happy Birthday from Stevie Wonder.


I'm surprised it took me this long to find and use this. It's been up for almost five years. I might also re-use this for MLK Day next year.

I'll continue my celebration of completing another year of blogging and starting another with statistics followed by retrospectives on (Wayback) Wednesdays, (Throwback) Thursdays, (Flashback) Fridays and selected Sundays through the rest of this month and probably all of April. Those will start after I observe World Water Day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

*This is not a coincidence. From the Wikipedia entry for the Solar Hijri calendar: "Each of the twelve months corresponds with a zodiac sign; their names are the same as ancient Zoroastrian names from the Zoroastrian calendar – in Afghanistan on the other hand, the names of the zodiacal signs are used instead."

Happy International Day of Nowruz 1401 (2022) and happy 11th birthday to Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 11th birthday of the blog! Like last year, I'm celebrating Nowruz first with CBS 8 San Diego's The New Year | Persians celebrate Nowruz on the first day of spring.

On the first day of spring Persians celebrate Nowruz, also known as the New Year. On Sunday at 8:33 a.m. it will be celebration time among thousands of families across San Diego and millions across the world.

Before the New Year, Neda wanted to share some of the rich traditions and meanings behind them. So as a Persian herself, she says “khosh omadeen” which means thanks for being here. We hope you enjoy a little taste of Iran.

“Har Roozetan Nowruz, Nowruzetan Pirooz.” That’s the wish for a happy new year from the Persian Cultural Center of San Diego. The Persian Cultural Center of San Diego (PCC) is dedicated to sharing the rich history and culture of Iran with San Diegans.

Shahla Salah, President of the Persian Cultural Center says, “Persian culture is such an ancient culture and it has really influenced culture around the world.”

I've watched a lot of explanations of the holiday over the years and I can say that I really enjoyed this one. Good work, Neda Iranpour!

I'm continuing the Persian theme by embedding Tavalodet Mobarak (Happy Birthday) by Jalal Hemati.


It's about time I featured a Farsi happy birthday song for my blog's birthday.

I'm not through celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my posting First post: Why this blog? I'll continue with statistics followed by retrospectives on (Throwback) Thursdays and (Flashback) Fridays all the way through April. Those will start after I observe World Water Day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Happy International Day of Nowruz and happy 10th birthday of the blog!

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 10th birthday of the blog!* Since I have concentrated on celebrating this blog's birthday the past three years while downplaying Persian New Year, something I foreshadowed in 2017 when I wrote "I'm going to miss celebrations of Nowruz at The White House," I'm going to reverse my emphasis by sharing material about the holiday first, beginning with BBC News' Nowruz: How 300m people celebrate Persian New Year from 2019.

About 300 million people across the world will celebrate Persian New Year - or Nowruz - on Thursday.

The 3,000-year-old festival begins on the first day of the year in the Iranian calendar, and is also a celebration of Spring.

People in countries including Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey and Iraq will be welcoming the start of the year 1398, explains the BBC's Samar Salekipour.

Since 2019 in the common era calendar was 1398 on the Persian Calendar, that means that that today (or actually yesterday, because the actual celebration is on the Vernal Equinox, not today) is now 1400, the end of one century and the beginning of another. That alone justifies the attention to the holiday that I've neglected to give it the past three years.


The BBC News video did a good job of portraying how Nowruz is celebrated during normal times. These are not normal times. France 24 English shows how people are celebrating Nowruz in Persian New Year Nowruz festivities go online because of the pandemic.


I didn't see a message from The White House, but I did see Prime Minister Trudeau's message on Nowruz, so I'm sharing that.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wishes everyone celebrating a happy and healthy Nowruz.

Nowruz Mubarak to you, too, Mr. Prime Minister.


Ten years ago today, I posted First post: Why this blog? Since then, I've written 4,673 entries including this one. That's worthy of a bigger celebration than I'm giving it today. Don't worry. I will give the anniversary the attention I always do, with statistics on Tuesday, followed by retrospectives on (Throwback) Thursdays and (Flashback) Fridays all the way through April. That will begin after I celebrate World Water Day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

*Today is also the 15th birthday of Twitter, sort of. I'll celebrate that event when I write about the blog's year on Twitter next month.

Happy 9th birthday to the blog and Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year) to my readers

Happy Birthday to the blog and Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year)!  Once again, it's time to celebrate the end of one year of blogging and the beginning of another.  I'm going to be good environmentalist and recycle Birthday by The Beatles from An early happy 9th birthday to Coffee Party USA and Happy Irish Coffee Day!


Happy Ninth Birthday to the blog!

I'll be back later today with a special election report to replace the post I had planned about the now-cancelled Marche du Nain Rouge, then tomorrow with World Water Day followed by statistics on Monday.  I have my blogging work cut out for me.

Happy Birthday to the blog and Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year)!

Happy Birthday to the blog and Twitter and Happy Nowruz!  Once again, it's time to celebrate the end of one year of blogging and the beginning of another.  I'm going to be a good environmentalist and recycle Broken Peach singing Happy Birthday from Happy Irish Coffee Day and Happy Birthday to Coffee Party USA!



Happy Birthday!
Thanks, ladies!

I'll be back tomorrow with World Water Day followed by statistics and Marche du Nain Rouge.  I have my blogging work cut out for me.

Happy Birthday to the blog and Twitter and Happy Nowruz!

Nowruz Mubarak!  Happy Persian New Year to my readers, a happy 12th birthday to Twitter, and a happy seventh birthday to this blog!  I already found a cake for both Nowruz and this blog's birthday.  Now for a birthday song with a birthday cake.  Here's Katy Perry - Birthday (Lyric Video).


Yum.  I'll be back tomorrow with World Water Day followed by statistics, Earth Hour, and Marche du Nain Rouge.  I have my blogging work cut out for me.

R.I.P. Jerry Pournelle

I've gained a lot of readers since this blog's first post in which I explain the source of the name.  That's still part of this blog's description, which I haven't changed since I created it six-and-one-half years ago.*  One of the co-authors of "The Mote in God's Eye," where Crazy Eddie comes from, at least in science fiction, was Jerry Pournelle.**  He died yesterday at  the age of 84.

Former SFWA President Jerry Pournelle (b.1933) died on September 8.
Pournelle had a PhD in political science and worked with politicians throughout his various careers. He worked in the aerospace industry and consulted with various politicians on space related technology. While working towards his PhD, Pournelle published science fiction using the pseudonym Wade Curtis. In 1973, Pournelle served as the President of SFWA.

In the 1970s, Pournelle began publishing under his own name, starting with A Spaceship for the King. This began his long running military science fiction series. He collaborated with Larry Niven on The Mote in God’s Eye, Inferno, Lucifer’s Hammer, and other novels. While Niven was his most frequent collaborator, the two also collaborated at times with Steven Barnes and Michael Flynn. Pournelle also collaborated with Dean Ing, Roland J. Green, Charles Sheffield, and S.M. Stirling.

In addition to his solo novels and collaborations, Pournelle edited several anthology series including There Will Be War, Imperial Stars, and War World. He co-edited Nebula Award Stories Sixteen with John F. Carr.

I preferred Niven to Pournelle; the latter's politics were too right-wing for my taste.  Just the same, he was a brilliant man and a great writer.  I might have more to say except that I'm not feeling up to it.***  Instead, I'll let someone more in tune with his politics talk for me.  Take it away, Jeffrey McArthur!


I honestly couldn't have said it better.  R.I.P.

*Although I've been tempted.  One of the ideas, which shows up on the blog's Facebook page, is "A blog about sustainability with a science fiction slant and a Detroit perspective."  It certainly is still about science fiction and sustainability, but I'm writing for more of a national audience, so the Detroit perspective, while still there, isn't as strong.

**The real source was "Crazy Eddie" Antar, the infamous electronics retailer in New York, which the legendary figure was named after.  I once tweeted something about being a Crazy Eddie.  Antar's nephew liked it, thus completing the circle.

***I am in the hospital for diabetes and Grave's disease, which is why I didn't post yesterday.

A very late celebration of World Population Day

While I was celebrating National Mojito Day with Tipsy Bartender recipes, I was missing another holiday far more worthy of attention on this blog, World Population Day.

World Population Day is an annual observance which occurs on July 11th and is used to raise attention issues concerning global population – mainly, the effects of overpopulation on the world and that our current rate of population growth will not be able to be sustained into the future.

This is what happens when I rely mostly on National Day Calendar and Facebook's "On This Day" feature.  The former's International Days page is under construction and therefore incomplete and missing this day.  Also, I have only mentioned World Population Day once before on this blog in Sustainability news from Michigan's research universities for the week ending July 16, 2011.  Since I never used the name of the holiday in the title of any of my entries, Facebook never successfully reminded me of the day's existence.  Sigh.  It really is time for me to put together a page on this blog with a calendar of all the days I celebrate here.

That written, I first mentioned World Population Day six years ago yesterday, so this is an anniversary of sorts.  In addition, I'm not the only person celebrating it today.  The Mosaic Project/Girls Empowerment Project is holding an event today in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

GEM will be conducting a series of events in partnership with Good Food Brampton and IMPACT Leaders Fund, to connect all Peel youth to learn about local and global sustainable practices.
On July 22nd, 2017, from 1-5 pm in Brampton, we will be hosting a workshop commemorating World Population Day (on July 11th), which aims to increase people's awareness on various population issues. For this workshop, we will talk about how to integrate sustainability into our everyday lives and highlight current environmental issues.

At least I'm not alone in being tardy celebrating the holiday.

Enough meta.  Follow over the jump for three videos about World Population Day.

Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year) and Happy Birthday to the blog

Happy Persian New Year to my readers and a Happy Fifth Birthday to this blog!  I begin this year's celebration with President Obama’s Nowruz Message to the Iranian People.

President Obama sends best wishes to everyone celebrating Nowruz, March 20. 2016.

Like the President, I celebrate the nuclear deal with Iran.  I think it's a good thing, including holding oil prices down.

Follow over the jump for more on the holiday from Vox.

Popular entries from the back catalog for the fourth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

It's time to finish this series.

I concluded Reactionary movements for the fourth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News with the promise of one more post.

That completes this look back at the 20 most read entries of the past blogging year.  Stay tuned for the final installment about posts from the back catalog that made big moves on the leaderboard last year after a celebration of Earth Day.

That echoes how I concluded the retrospective series of the previous year's entries in Social media for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

That's all for the entries from the the third year of the blog for this year.  Maybe next year I'll describe how one or more broke out of the pack to get into the top ten list, but that's next year's problem.

Let's see if I can tackle both in this entry.

The most read entry for the history of the blog according to the default counter as of March 21, 2015 and still the current number one is Eye spy the gas price rollercoaster about to coast down like a parachute, posted on September 2, 2012 with 1988 page views, which it still has now.  The post currently has 2916 according to the raw counter.  This entry was not among the top 20 for the second year of the blog on March 20, 2013, and not among the default top ten as of March 20, 2014.  It began its rise during the second half of 2014, when gas prices began their long, deep slide from $3.50 to just under $2.00 and a lot of web searches retrieved it as one of the results.  The entry was in the monthly top ten for six months running during that time period, enough to move it from not on the list to the top of the leader board.  Amazing how a change in economic conditions can revive the fortunes of an old post.

Follow over the jump for more revenge of the back catalog.

Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Nowruz) and happy birthday to this blog!

Happy New Blog Year!  Today is the fourth anniversary of the first entry on this blog, making it this blog's birthday.  Since it is also Persian New Year, I wish all of my readers a happy Nowruz, just as I did last year and the year before.  I could be an environmentalist and recycle, but since I like videos so much, I instead present Nowruz (Simply Explained!) from FactXTract on Youtube.

How much do you know about Persian New Year called Nowruz? Did you know that there is an equivalent for Santa Claus in Persian culture called Uncle Nowruz? Or did you know that you might have guests at your home at 3 a.m., right after the arrival of Nowruz?

I'm not the only non-Persian celebrating Nowruz in the U.S.  Follow over the jump for two videos of the First Family celebrating the event as well.

Popular retrospectives for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

I know I promised three times to write an entry about how The Archdruid has helped my blogging develop.  Unfortunately, my promise to make it the next in the series was based on my not being consistent in which page counter I was using.  According to the secondary page counter, the headline entry of that retrospective ended up in fifth place, not fourth place, among the entries I posted during the third year of this blog.  Don't worry, that retrospective is already one-third written and I'll post it before the month is over.

The actual fourth most read entry of the third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News is Second Year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Examiner.com, posted on March 25, 2013.  According to the secondary counter, it has 1138 page views.  However, according to the primary counter, it has only 486, well behind the most read entry about The Archdruid with 638.  According to the primary counter, this puts the retrospective of my entries about my Examiner.com articles in third place for the year and ninth for the history of the blog, while the top Archdruid entry in second place for the year and fifth place overall.  That's the source of my confusion.

As for how this entry got so popular, it's another mystery to me.  I posted it during a time when I did not promote specific entries at Kunstler's blog, I don't recall posting the link anywhere besides my Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter accounts, and I don't see any search terms that would lead readers to that entry.  Just the same, it got as high as sixth on the all-time top ten list according to the primary counter.

It followed right behind the headline entry of the retrospective, Examiner.com article on Michigan Supreme Court nominees posted on September 12, 2012.  A year ago, it had 372 page views the primary counter and 814 according to the secondary counter.  As of March 21, 2013, it has 833 according to the primary counter, enough for fourth all-time, and 1913 views according to the secondary counter.  That's right behind the number two entry according to the primary counter, Dungeons and Dragons alignments for Game of Thrones characters with 1915 page views according to the secondary counter, and well ahead of the number one all-time entry according to the primary counter, Happy 4th of July from James Howard Kunstler's Tea Party! with 1277 page views according to the secondary counter.  Obviously, the entry has maintained its popularity over the past year.

Another entry I mentioned in Second Year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Examiner.com has also been on the move.  Follow over the jump for its story, plus one for popular retrospective from the second year of the blog and the entry it looked back on.

Happy Nowruz and happy birthday to the blog

Last year I wished Happy birthday to the blog and Happy Nowruz to all of you.  Since I'm an environmentalist, I'll recycle.

Today marks the second anniversary of the first post to this blog.  I already wished the blog a happy birthday last year, so I decided to do something different this year--appropriate Nowruz, the new year of Iran and its neighbors as an official celebration on this blog.

Although the holiday actually coincides with the Vernal Equinox, the United Nations has conveniently declared March 21st as the International Day of Nowruz.

International Nowruz Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/64/253 of 2010, at the initiative of several countries that share this holiday (Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

Inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as a cultural tradition observed by numerous peoples, Nowruz is an ancestral festivity marking the first day of spring and the renewal of nature. It promotes values of peace and solidarity between generations and within families as well as reconciliation and neighbourliness, thus contributing to cultural diversity and friendship among peoples and different communities.

I celebrated Nowruz with my now ex-girlfriend once.  We went with one of her co-workers, a Baha'i woman, to what she called a "Persian New Year" celebration in Canada about ten years ago.  We had a great time.  In memory of that occasion and the remarkable coincidence that the blog's birthday just happens to fall on the day the U.N. declared for the holiday, I wish all of my readers a Happy Nowruz!

I do so again for the third anniversary of the first post to this blog.  Happy New Blog Year and Happy Persian New Year!


I'll have the past year's statistics tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

The Archdruid and I have a conversation about science fiction

Cover art for The Pastel City.
At the end of I inspired The Archdruid to write about Steampunk, I observed that Greer's next essay is about Fascism.  That's up and I've responded to it, but while I'm waiting for my comments to be approved and Greer to respond to them, I'm going to revisit an earlier entry of his, Return of the Space Bats.  In it, Greer reminisces about his favorite genre of science fiction and how it might be useful for telling narratives about the future that he sees coming.  He then challenged his readers to a science fiction short story contest taking place in a post-collapse future.  While I'm a science fiction fan, I'm working for a different future than what he expects.  That didn't stop me from participating.  After all, in the very first post, I promised "expect digressions about post-apocalyptic science fiction."  Follow over the jump for the conversation.

WXYZ follows up on DIA

In Detroit's Emergency Financial Manager asks for appraisal of DIA's collection, I promised to follow this story.  WXYZ has made it easy for me by summarizing the major points in Can the DIA be protected?


In addition to the DIA, the report mentions Belle Isle, the water system, and Manoogian Mansion.  Of those, the one that would have the greatest impact would be the water system, which I pointed out during the first month of this blog in Water wars, Detroit style, plus a programming note.  Privatization of the water system could lead to a situation much like that I described in Greenfinger.

Suez, a Vivendi affiliate, actually took over the water supply in a city in Bolivia, then lost control as a result of massive protests.

That would affect not just the 700,000+ people of Detroit, but the 4,000,000 people in the service area, which covers nearly all of Metro Detroit and then some, as parts of Washtenaw and Genesee counties get water from Detroit.  It's one of the reasons why I expressed interest in Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner; whoever occupies that position would be on the front lines of dealing with the issue, particularly if the solution is a regional board, not privatization.  Here's to hoping that Jim Nash, the new Commissioner, is up to the task.*

The report concluded by mentioning the millage to support the DIA.  I voted in favor of that and said that I was in favor of it last August.  The millage passed and, as WXYZ reported, it's having the intended effects of secure funding and increased attendance.  Selling off major parts of the collection would be a betrayal of voters like me from all three counties.

I'll conclude by repeating something from the very first post I wrote for this blog, which I quoted in Save the libraries, save civilization,the first fight over saving local cultural institutions I covered, then following up with how that applies to cultural institutions in general.

[S]aving the libraries might strike some people as frivolous, but remember that the way the humans in the book [The Mote in God's Eye] discovered the truth about [M]oties was by stumbling into a museum designed to speed the rise of Motie civilization after the next collapse.  Another example involves Canticle for Leibowitz, the plot of which revolves around a monastery that includes a library the mission of which is to help revive civilization after its collapse.  So, it's not as stupid an idea as it seems.  Thanks to that suggestion, you can expect posts on saving cultural institutions during collapse, not just for how to keep yourself fed and safe.

I continued in that spirit while spreading some Christmas cheer last year, and repeated it while recounting how I warned the Glassmen these times were coming.

I may be wishing you all a happy holiday, but this is still a blog about collapse.  Be prepared for a lot of your favorite things, especially cultural institutions to go away, or to fight very hard to keep them.

Here's to the DIA successfully fighting off Detroit's creditors.

Follow over the jump for the footnote about a future entry.