Baloneyium 210; Litvinenko to Berezovsky to Neil Bush and Beyond

A FEW SHORT weeks ago, most Britons had never heard of Polonium 210. Now, many are wondering if they can ‘catch’ it from someone who’s been exposed, or if — even worse — he or she might inadvertently have been directly exposed at one of a half-dozen Polonium-210 ‘positive’ sites named by British Police.

Never mind that PO-210 is a known carcinogen present in cigarette smoke — or that PO-210 is the main component of ionizers used in manufacturing environments — ah, but that’s another story.

Boris Berezovsky
Today’s lesson begins with a Russian ex-patriot named Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky is a billionaire businessman with rumored connections to the Chechen Mafia. During the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of Russian businessmen snapped up infrastructure and manufacturing companies. In turn, these new oligarchs invested their money in supporting Boris Yeltsin’s presidency. Boris Berezovsky began as a software engineer, but he took full advantage of the failing Soviet state to gain control of state-owned companies such as AutoVaz, Aeroflot, and even several oil companies.

Transhumanism, Trek, and Trotsky

Part III of Hollywood and the Coming Apocalypse: How the various peoples of the Star Trek worlds reflect a growing trend toward genetic ‘enhancement’ and how the ‘collective hive mind’ of a corporate meta-human organism is the natural outgrowth of the politics of Neo-Conversativism.

I am he as you are he,as you are me and we are all together– John Lennon, I Am the Walrus

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. That’s what we’re told.

If you’re not familiar with The Borg or The Dominion, both of Star Trek fame, I recommend spending a few weekends immersed in Star Trek Next Generation films and episodes.

In short, the Borg are a group — a collective — that assimilates civilzations. This hive mind consists of millions of humanoid beings from different planets — each one enhanced after birth with mechanized appliances that connect to a centralized queen. Borg do not think or reason as individuals. Assimilated races receive nanoprobes that erase all sense of self.

The Borg Queen acts as a central control for the ‘many’. In Star Trek: First Contact, she has the unique ability to act as an individual, even going so far as to travel alone — through time — to interact with and tempt Data. The temptation undergirds the queen’s identity with Satan, especially since she pretends to be God. (She declares that she is “the beginning and the end”, and that she alone can bring “order to chaos”. She might be compared to the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Masonic opera, The Magic Flute. Her claim to be “the one who is many” reminds one of Mark 5:9, where a group of demons calling themselves Legion — for we are many is forced to depart from a human and go into pigs.

Fracking Democracy

IT’S ENOUGH to make you want to move to another country. Trust me when I say that I love America — the home of red-white-and-blue, dyed-in-the-wool folks who believe in a day’s work for a day’s pay — who would stand in line for hours to cast a vote for democracy because it’s the right thing to do.

I love an America whose roots reach back to soil enriched by the blood of our forefathers. I love an America that says each and every man and woman has a voice — and that each voice carries equal weight.What kills me is that this America — the one I thought I lived in — doesn’t exist.

If you have access to HBO through your local cable or satellite provider, make a point of watching the documentary called Hacking Democracy. But one caveat: Prepare to be disillusioned. The documentary exposes the fragility of our voting system — a system heavily dependent upon insecure if not intentionally corrupt software.

Ha! NaNo Day 9: 25,000 Words!

MY NAILS ARE BREAKING, but the wordcount is steadily climbing.I’ve never had beautiful nails, but they’re servicable — they keep the ends of my fingers from hurting every time I hit a keystroke. About an hour ago, I hit the magic halfway mark for NaNoWriMo — 25,000 words — so I’ve decided to take off the remainder of the day. I’m listening to Derek interview Lou Dobbs right now (boy, Derek gets some high profile guests! Go Derek!) while working on my lousy manicure.

If you type much, you will understand how tapping all day long can chip away at the tips of your nails. This summer, I spent two months with acrylic nails — don’t do it. They look great, but they’re thick, and you can’t pick up coins very easily. Removing them left my nails screaming for their top layers, and only now have they pretty much grown in.

One nice thing about the acrylics though was that those tough tips just didn’t chip! Of course, they contributed to more than my fair share of typos.

I’ve always had a split brain — half scientist, half artist — and this may explain why I write stories that use science as a basis.White Skies continues this trend for me. I’m really pleased with the way it’s turning out. My original intention to center on Daniel Tohe’s character has shifted as Maggie Taylor horned her way into the cast. If you recall Donald Yarber, the DARPA agent from Armageddon Strain– he’s back, and he plays a much more important role. I’ve enjoyed developing his background further over the past couple of days.

Well, back to work! I have to apply a second coat of nail polish to these sad little nails.