LIFE IN FAST FORWARD
PHOTO FROM JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY
A WORRIED WHY?
The "hot line" direct communication link between Moscow and Washington went into service on this day in 1963. It took 12 hours to decode, translate and respond to Nikita Kruschev's message months earlier during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
By the time the hot line was on Jimmy Carter's desk, the technology had evolved. The dinosaur phone in the picture, once was the picture of modernity.
49 years after the groundbreaking channel of instant communication we have come to this:
YouTube's Election hub, a child of the internet, which has revolutionized communication. Social media fueled the "Arab-Spring" and now Phillip DeFranco, the lad on the left who began his program in his basement, has more viewers than Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and even Jon Stewart's daily show.
DeFranco is one of the multiple offerings on YouTube's election site which puts the director's call of what to air into your hands, truly at your finger tips and on the screen of your choice.
SO IN SUCH A WELL WIRED WORLDA WORRIED WHY?
The story of shrinking arctic sea ice, the largest melt since tracking data began, was reported two days ago and barely drew a notice. Arctic sea ice is disappearing more quickly than any time we know of and more rapidly than predicted.
Graph courtesy of Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and THE WASHINGTON POST
The increasingly warm summer trends indicate earth's warming and the probability the sea ice will disappear in a future summer. Warmer Arctic waters can cause Greenland's ice sheet to melt and that can lead to many problems. The shrinking of the Arctic Sea Ice and the diminishing of Greenland's Ice sheet will likely lead to more extreme summers and winters everywhere.
Man made? Nature's cycle? A combination? Don't you think it's worth exploring? Still you had to search to see or hear anything.
About the time the hotline was established a network of radio and television stations, produced a docudrama. Set in the future it was the story of how a news organization covered an environmental and ecological disaster that threatened all human life. In one chilling passage the anchor does a voice-over of historic clips, listing a litany of warning signs of impending doom, sighting years, and failed international conferences. Warning after warning went ignored while the people occupied themselves with buying and wanting more. Until it was too late to hide from the impending end.
How are we using or listening to our great communication tools? Is mother earth calling our hotline?
DAY FILE
A CORNER OF THE STUDIO
I was looking around Lana's studio when I became intrigued by the corner near the window. It's got "personality."
See you down the trail.
