Fire and Ice
With all due apologies to the memory of Robert Frost (born in San Francisco; see also 1) and his wonderful poem (1923) of the same name, fire and ice have been on my mind a lot the last few days, and I haven’t written about any pseudorandom ruminations in awhile.
First it was fire.
Then, on our way to Emeryville last night (more about THAT on Friday [Update June 29, 2008: see THIS blog entry.]), we heard reports of (and later smelled) 5 attached buildings that were burning in Oakland and heard about Highway 1 being closed both northbound and southbound in an area between Aptos and Watsonville. Fires of suspicious origin (apparent multiple points of origin; there is a special place in hell for arsonists) were raging and being fought. Later in our travel, the radio informed us that Highway 1 was reopened for southbound traffic.
(Note added June 25, 2008: The Watsonville fire is now believed to have resulted from a defective automobile exhaust, according to several local TV reports. My comment about arsonists still stands.)
Then today, it was both fire and ice.
Let’s get the bad news (fire) out of the way first. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast into a “ball of fire.” I have my own opinions (and they are opinions ONLY) about what the near future holds, ever since the mysterious submarine cable disruptions (1, 2) this winter, but I won’t bore you with them here.
Robert Frost favored fire for the end of the world. Me, too.
As for ice, NASA‘s Mars Phoenix Lander photos show “perfect evidence” of water ice on Mars, according to Peter Smith, the mission’s principal investigator. The “before-and-after” photos show apparent vaporization of bright materials the size of dice (what are the odds of THAT?). Sorry, I could not resist! 
The site of the discovery on Mars has been named “Wonderland,” a development that should keep any Cheshire Cat grinning!
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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