North Korea Nuclear Test

As is being reported all over today, “North Korea has drawn widespread condemnation after conducting a nuclear test in defiance of international bans – a development signaled by an earthquake detected in the country and later confirmed by the regime.”  This is N. Korea’s third nuclear test; the others occurred in 2006 and 2009The Guardian Quotes Dr. Leonid Petrov as saying, “‘The world is now a much more dangerous place.'” Indeed.

And Wired discusses how N. Korea’s weapons are getting bigger based on seismic readings.

The Flood This Time: Some 2012 Weather Links

2012, by all accounts, was the warmest year on record. Among many other responses to the disastrous 2012 (w/r/t weather) both The New Inquiry and Jacobin: A Magazine of Culture and Polemic have published some excellent pieces on climate change, disaster, and our contemporary sense of an ending. Among them are Alyssa Battistoni’s excellent, “The Flood Next Time: Life After Emergency” at Jacobin. The New Inquiry has devoted an entire issue to weather , including a nice editorial, and an essay from the incomparable Gerry Canavan, “Après Nous, le Déluge.”  (This is all also coming in the wake of this nonsense.) These magazines, along w/ my good friend Alexander Provan’s Triple Canopy, also just had a very nice writeup in The Guardian. Enjoy.