Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 63

The Way Back

Back to world headquarters today, via the skies. Many thanks to the Grand Empress for the excellent packing job.

Before They Were the Enemy

Okay, so maybe our species doesn't really kill 100 million sharks per year, as is so widely reported. But even if the true figure is closer to 26 million, that's still a heckuva lot of fish—and far out of proportion to the number of humans who annually perish in shark attacks. Blame Jaws if you must, but it's obvious we have little respect for the sharp-toothed kings of the sea.

And so it's instructive to note the relationship that Hawaiians of yore had with sharks, which could be accurately ...

Tokamak Dream

As part of Wired's latest cover package, I've got a short piece up about why, exactly, our dreams of nuclear fusion power have never come to fruition. In a nutshell, the problem is that plasma is really devious—we can get it plenty hot enough to produce fusion, in the style of the Sun and other stars, but we can never quite seem to keep it where we want it. Our only reliable means of doing so is to build bigger and bigger containment facilities, though that strategy has obvious limits...

The Joys of I-5

I'm out here for work as well as pleasure, which means I'll be spending the lion's share of the day's remainder on the Southern California freeways. Back tomorrow with more nukes-related polymathism, as well as (time permitting) a brief history of 19th-century Irish banditry. In the meantime, please enjoy a highlight from a World's Fair of yore. Alas, I wasn't able to locate any footage of Elektro's canine sidekick.

Lessons from Vela

Yesterday's cross-country plane ride gave me the chance to catch up with Jon Lee Anderson's sobering dispatch from Iran, which pretty much cements the notion that the Islamic Republic will never give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Not that I didn't already know that on some level—as Anderson so eloquently puts it, Iran seems hard-wired to strive for membership in the global elite:

In the Iranian imagination, a nuclear weapon is essential if the country is to assume its rightful place...

In Transit

En route to Los Angeles. Back to blogging as soon as I can reorient the brain box.

The Journey West

A bit hectic today, as I'm packing and prepping for a trip out to my hometown of Los Angeles. Haven't been out there since early 2006, before I added the Grand Empress and Microkhan Jr. to the fold. Should be interesting to see how I view the city that made me through a family man's eyes.

Don't worry, Microkhan will still be going strong during my Western sojourn, even if I have to dig up my ol' VIC Modem 1600 out of storage. In the meantime, please content yourself with the legend of Senda, ...

Someday Our Prince Will Come

It takes a hard heart indeed not to be intrigued by the intricacies of a Vanuatuan cargo cult, especially one as puzzling as the Prince Philip Movement. The small sect believes that Queen Elizabeth II's husband, a native of Greece known primarily for his verbal gaffes, is actually a Vanuatuan spirit in disguise, and that he will someday return to the South Pacific nation to bestow unfettered joy on the populace.

And what does Prince Philip think of all this misguided adulation? According to

The Leaf of Allah

Whenever Somali Islamists have managed to carve out some measure of political influence in the Horn of Africa, one of their first legal maneuvers has been to outlaw the chewing of khat. Their stated rationale is simple: Khat causes pleasure, pleasure leads to decadence, and decadence is the enemy of piety. It is exactly the same Puritanical logic the Taliban once used to deprive Afghanistan of musical instruments.

This means that not only are al-Shabab and its allies tremendous killjoys, but ...

If You're Feeling Sinister

Last night, I finally started working my way through The World at War, which I've long heard is the be-all and end-all of World War II documentaries. With only a single episode under my belt, I'm not yet equipped to verify the veracity of that statement. But there's no disputing the filmmakers' skills at digging up devastating footage. The series debut is chock full of haunting clips, depicting precisely choreographed Nazi youth festivals, a frolicking Eva Braun, and young girls screaming...