Global warming strikes Kyiv. An SOB gets his comeuppance. Eddie in the kitchen
If Ukraine wants to get with the program and join the European Union, they had better learn how to report the weather. Isn't this the most boring presentation you have ever seen of a 10-day forecast?
They should really report the weather in Fahrenheit. It makes the numbers much bigger and more frightening. And the white background looks like snow or ice. Doesn't it work much better with a more colorful background? One that emphasizes that the temperature is forecast to exceed an astounding 80 degrees two days out of the next ten?
Now this is the kind of weather reporting that will bring Ukraine in step with the West!
You may have noticed my comments on Bob Homans yesterday to the effect that the FSB – the FBI/CIA equivalent – had put out an arrest warrant for a Mr. Rabinovych on a charge of treason. I worked for that Vadym Rabinovych back in 2009. He was the most unpleasant SOB I have ever had for a boss.
My immediate supervisor was Peter Dickinson, now working for the Atlantic Council. Rabinovych was always screaming about something. One day in the presence of the whole office he gave Dickinson the most demeaning dressing down I have ever heard. It was enough that my friend Mark, who had recently joined our staff, quit on the spot. I gave Dickinson my notice about a week later, telling him as well that I didn't want to work for such a tyrant.
The organization was Jewish News One, intended to be an answer to Al Jazeera. Our job was to scour the newspapers for relevant articles and made voice recordings to be used on radio. This was my first exposure to professional level broadcast equipment and procedures. We worked out of the offices of some of Rabinovych's Ukrainian broadcast undertakings.
Rabinovych was interesting in another way. He and fellow oligarch Igor Kholomoisky thought that the Western European-based international Jewish organizations weren't doing the job. They founded the European Jewish Union as an alternative, creating strains within the Jewish community here in Kyiv. The two of them struck me as cynical opportunists in everything they undertook. I doubt that there was an iota of genuine religious conviction in either.
My conclusion would be that Rabinovych handicapped Ukraine's chances versus Russia and decided to cast his lot with a winner, which he presumed would be Putin. He probably wanted credit for having done so early. Bad move. Ukraine really, really doesn't want the Russians and Rabinovych is showing up to be exactly the two faced charlatan that he is. The articles to which I link in yesterday’s comment say he is on the lam, presumably hiding out in Israel.
Eddie came running to me this morning to announce that the mama cat had caught a magpie in the backyard. I had written recently that the cats here seem to leave the birds alone. Not this time. Maybe she was showing the kids how to hunt. 15 minutes later Eddie came in to ask me what to do about the bird.
I had thought that the cats had eaten him and that was that. Not so. They had mauled him badly but were not interested in eating him. He was still alive and suffering on the back porch. That's the kind of problem that dad is no better prepared for than anybody else, but it falls to him. I told the kids that food was undoubtedly the last thing on the poor bird's mind. It would want to retreat to someplace safe to recover its health. However, I didn't hold out much hope for it. The way it was moving I was pretty sure that legs or wings were broken.
I got a pair of garden gloves and picked the poor thing up. He had strength enough to raise its head and squawk a bit, but didn't have any fight left. I carried him out to a thick Evergreen hedge too thick for the cats to get into and set him down to recover if he could. I noticed as Eddie went out an hour or so later to give him some food anyhow. Eddie asked me over dinner if we should bury the bird. I offered the opinion that if he's deep in the bushes the scavengers will got him and we don't have to bother.
Eddie is making progress on his math problems but not much else in the way of summer homework. Especially not the literature he is supposed to read. I don't recall schools ever being terribly serious about holding people to account for summer reading. I'm sure he'll be okay.
Eddie is both busy and very creative in the kitchen. We have a vast abundance of apples. I was skeptical when he found a recipe for apple zephyrs – to me zephyrs taste like sugar and nothing more. Eddie's, however, are softer, moister and heavier, and do indeed taste like apples. They are quite good.
The incipient cold I wrote about a couple of days ago is gone, and Oksana is properly pleased with herself for the result. Though I find it impossible to imagine that her vitamin concoction is responsible, I will certainly agree to the same course of action next time. Sometimes you gotta believe in magic.
Don, a subscriber who lived through the Russian occupation of Kherson, has written a book about it. I received an email today asking about editors and publishers. If anybody is interested, please write and I will put you in touch. I have volunteered to read it myself and contribute editorial and other help as I can.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the family is bearing up very well under the scorching 70°, sometimes (gasp) 80° temperatures that global warming has brought upon us. Some days it's almost enough to drive us to the beach.
Here in Berlin, we are dealing with a very scorching 18 degrees and rain. It's overcast and cloudy, but still warm which means that global warming is wreaking havoc on the climate. Do you know that last year on this date it was 15 degrees which means that temperatures are rising dramatically and from last year to this year it's hotter by almost 20%. My god, the sky is falling. I was just looking up and you can see it falling on our heads. Run for cover.
If only I could do math, I could tell you exactly how much warmer it is this year than last year, but I don't do math. I am left to guess, very unscientific. But thank god the worshippers of St. Greta are gluing themselves to the roadway to prevent commuters from getting to work. We've got to stop oil. After all, next year, it might get as high as 20 degrees in Berlin and that would be a catastrophe. Someone might get a sunburn if it's not raining. Let's go throw some canned soup on the Mona Lisa to let Climate Deniers know that we're facing extinction in five years. Didn't St. Greta say that we had only five years to live ten years ago?
I am in great favor of Net Zero, myself. I think suffering is good for the soul. We now have abundance for a huge number of people on the planet, but we don't deserve a good life. We'll only earn our place on the planet by deprivation, recycling, and misery. If Mother Nature doesn't make us suffer properly, then the WEF and Bill Gates will make sure we suffer. After all, they are the anointed, so they know best what's best for us.
Let us bow down to our betters at the WEF. They are the masters and we are the peasants. We should do as we are told and shut up. We all know that there are too many people on the planet and it is unsustainable, so we have to reduce the population numbers. Of course, the rich and powerful must stay, but the peasants like you and me, we are expendable. Just ask Paul Erlich. I recommend his best seller from 1969 called The Population Bomb. I laud Erlich for his prescience. He was wrong about everything. You can't do better than that. So far, St. Greta is his rival. Everything that she has said so far has been wrong, but it's not our job to point our errors in thinking. Ours is to do and die, but die quickly so the WEF can get on with their agenda of getting rid of us all.
That horrid 68 degrees, it's really awful. I'd rather have it ~ 75 given my cold sensitivity. My days of short sleeves in a lab held at 68 degrees, 50% rh are long ago. I recall in HI when the temp dropped below 75, all put on sweaters and in the UK at 82 degrees it was sweltering hot, course in the tube it really was miserable. Here we finally are seeing 80-90 but RH at 5%, course even in the Spring with temps in the 60's the sun was quite warm. This Spring was chilly so my fruit trees have done poorly; looks like minimal harvest this August.