I'm finally returning to the real world after having worked 33 hours in two days.
Yep, that's a lot. Do the math.
So, what did I miss?
Islamic terrorists are still working overtime with threats and propoganda/coded messages. I'm with Ed Morrissey on this one:
So what's new? Jihadis have been making these threats since the 1990s. Most of them turn out to be busts or vaporware altogether. Other times, the threats meant nothing until after the attacks. We have to remain vigilant at all times, regardless of whether the Dadullahs of the world decide to shoot their mouths off to willing journalists.
Better yet, let's drop a Tomahawk on Dadullah's camp next time he pops his head up for his 15 minutes of Western fame.
On the plus side, the stock market seems to be doing fine.
Why can't more headlines be as quirky and charming as this one?
And here's another terrific piece, but with the wrong headline: How the world would thrive without mankind.
I expected to find a self-loathing story about how humans should just improve the world by dying off, but it's not really about that. It's a serious glimpse into mankind's lasting legacy on earth and in the solar system and universe. If you can get past the first paragraphs without taking offense, the rest of the piece is fascinating.
Six-and-half billion - and rising. That is how many humans crowd our Planet Earth. And there is no doubt that we are wreaking terrible damage on our world.
So much so that scientists talk about the "Anthropocene" - the destructive Era Of Man.
Our gases are polluting the atmosphere and warming the skies. Our chemicals taint the seas and the rivers; our farms and cities gobble up the landscape, pushing flora and fauna aside like sand before a bulldozer. Our green-and-blue world is still beautiful, but it is far from pristine.
Our mark is everywhere.
But just imagine what would happen if we were all to disappear, each and every one of us, tomorrow. That's right - think what would take place if every single man, woman and child were to vanish off the face of the Earth in an instant.
That is the bizarre premise of a new book which speculates what would happen in the days, months, years and millennia ahead if homo sapiens - surely the most extraordinary species ever to have evolved - were suddenly to be swept away.
The author, Alan Weisman, of Arizona University, does not speculate on the cause of the disappearance; this is immaterial, as this is not a book about the end of the world but about an imagined beginning - the beginning of The World Without Us, the title of his book.
The results of this huge thought-experiment are both fascinating and surprising. Fascinating for what they tell us about the impermanence of the works of man, and surprising for the simple reason that it soon becomes clear that our world would carry on regardless, indifferent to our demise.
In fact, the first things to happen after the disappearance of humanity would be very dramatic - and destructive.
Within a week, the emergency fuel supply to the diesel generators that circulate cooling water around the world's 441 operating nuclear reactors would run out.
After that, one by one, the reactors would overheat, burn, melt and in some cases explode. Several hundred Chernobyl disasters would play out, simultaneously, across the deserted world. Huge quantities of radioactive material would be released into the air, rivers and oceans.
What effect this would have on animal and plant life is unknown.
But much to everyone's surprise, the flora and fauna around the Chernobyl disaster site has thrived. The ecologist James Lovelock, a pro-nuclear Green, argues that wildlife, by and large, does not notice radiation.
Certainly, from then on, planet Earth would probably give a sigh of relief at our passing, as a spectacular environmental recovery would begin to take place. Quickly, the oceans would cleanse themselves; similarly the air, the streams and the rivers. In a remarkably short time, Mother Nature would reassert herself over her old dominions.
In the new, human-free world, a few species would do badly - the rats, cockroaches and starlings that cling to our coat-tails would suffer. So would cows, sheep and other farm animals. The human head-louse would become extinct within a year, and HIV would vanish.
In Africa, an orgy of feasting would take place as an exploding lion and leopard population guzzled its way through the continent's millions of cattle, no longer protected by the herdsmen's spears and guns.
It gets even more interesting from there. Read whole article here.
If you want to buy the book, here's the link at Amazon.
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