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​31 January 2018

  Today is a rare total eclipse of a Super Blood Blue

  Moon. It augurs transformative change and power-

  ful flows of psychic energy that bring to complet-

  ion a long karmic cycle.

  Watch it live.  

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​13 October 2017

On the occasion of the United States withdrawal

         from UNESCO we call attention to one of the 

        singular American initiatives with the agency,

the wonderfully engrossing World Digital Library 

19 June 2017

Scientists ​consider the case for an ancient postulate: a sentient universe

6 June 2017

         27 minute clip from Bob Dylan's shaggy dog 

     (but mesmerizing) Nobel Prize speech in 2016.

         Recorded  on 4 June 2017 in Los Angeles, CA.  

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30 May 2017

                          Mad Magazine has aserendipitous cover 

                     with Jared Kushner as its "What, me worry"

                                                          mascot Alfred E Newman

​28 May 2017

 Women in politics 2017 map (Download)
The women in politics 2017 map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, depicts global rankings for women in the executive and parliamentary branches of government as of 1 January 2017. It shows slow progress towards gender equality in these areas at regional and national levels, but with a slight drop (from 19 to 17), of countries with a woman Head of State and/or Head of Government. However, if we look back to 2005 when IPU first compiled the statistics on women heads of State or government, there has been a significant rise, from 8 to 17.

12May 2017

The World Meteorological Organization came into existence in the 19th Century to facilitate the telegraphic sharing of newly systematized weather observation to improve safety of ships at sea. At the WMO web site today there is aCloud Atlas worth looking at.  On 15 May, WMO launches the Year of Polar Prediction with a Press briefing at the UN in New York. It will be webcast.  

10 May 2017

From The Atlantic:

​"Happy 29th birthday to Rose, who was born around the time a NASA scientist told the Senate that global warming had started. And happy 49th birthday to Amy, who’s never lived in a world without the Super Bowl. From Curt, happy 52nd birthday to Harriet; the two of them got married about half her lifetime ago, the same year the World Wide Web was born. Philip, a numerologist, wishes a happy and especially auspicious birthday to Sally, who was born on 05/10/51 and is now turning 66 (a little younger than credit cards). And happy birthday to Ryan, who’s twice as old as the euro, one-fifth the age of The Atlantic, and is Rachel’s “witty, brilliant husband and dorky best friend.”

2 May 2017

Illicit financial flows from poor countries large, persistent (download GFI report)

1 May 2017

Watch reindeer migrate in Norway and listen to catchy Sami Boy music

16 April 2017

Video + Text:The remarkable impact of releasing 14 wolves in Yellowstone Park 

15 April 2017

Video: New perspectives on Americanand Indian national anthems. And Mojo's Euro-weighted "Top Ten" national anthems  

10 April 2017

On 176th anniversary of Karl Marx's doctorate: a letter about qualifications of UN SGs

8 April 2017

How Science Fiction depicts lawyers

4 April 2017

Terms and conditions: the graphic novel

3 April 2017

Video: UN Ambassasdor Nikki Haley speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations

31 March 2017

Ronald Reagan and the Black List  podcast

​26 March 2017

Daesh destruction of Mosul shrine reveals much older temple

19 March 2017

Groundhog Day to be Play

18 March 2017

Read this to understand why Europe has no vision. Jean-Louis Guigou, president of the Mediterranean World Economic Foresight Institute and Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former Spanish foreign minister offer a long term vision for Europe that admits no European responsibility for the current state of Africa and the Middle East. None so blind as those who will not see.

New Yorker on the death of Derek Walcott and Walcott reads at the Library of Congress

Video from NYT: Declassified pix of US nuclear tests 

16 March 2017

• NYT Video clips: watch especially Kim Han-sol whose father was assassinated recently for being half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 
• Women in Politics 2017: Interactive map from the Inter-Patliamentary Union
  
• CFR podcast: Interview with academic who seems something of an idiot about the end the "Asian Century"   
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15 March 2017

• VideoParis Fashion Week: dancing models, a Chanel rocket ship, goofy clothes
• Patricia Arquette face of new UN campaign on equal pay for women

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14 March 2017

• Video: women enter politics in Saudi Arabia NYT
  
• Video: THAAD deployment begins in South Korea CNBC
  

​And at length:

On 13 March 2017 the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs opened its 60th session  in Vienna. This is the first meeting of the Commission, a subsidiary of ECOSOC, since the UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem in April 2016. That session marked an attempt to steer drug policy away from the prohibitionist model set more than a century ago by the 1912 Opium Convention. Our coverage here 

Secretary-General António Guterres in a video message called the reoriented policy framework “rich and forward-looking” and urged Governments to “build on the momentum with joint action to honor commitments.”

The Commission has drawn some 1,500 delegates from Member States, inter-governmental organizations, and civil society. 
Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), presented his agency's activities in a developmental and security context. UNODC was helping to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote peace and security through alternative development in the countries most affected by illicit crop cultivation. 

He said the next UNODC World Drug Report, set to be issued this summer would focus on the nexus between the drug problem and transnational organized crime, corruption, illicit financial and arms flows and terrorism, which are of increasing concern to the Security Council and the entire international community.

Among the participants at the opening of the Commission was Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO). UNODC and WHO have recently signed a new agreement to promote health and science-based and rights-based approach to drug challenges.​​