Category Archives: Astronomy

Epistemological Comment

Posted on December 18, 2016 by M. Meo

In the last post I spoke of how the citizens of the United States are asked, by our intelligence services, to believe a whipped-up story of Russian hacking affecting the recent election.  The C.I.A., the White House, the Congress, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Astronomy, Education, Elections, Empire, Free Speech, Friendship, Global, Gun Control, Pacific Green Party, Police, Ronald Reagan, Scott Green, Seth Woolley, Spiritual life, Uncategorized, War | 2 Comments

From the Crooked Timber of Humanity

Posted on December 14, 2016 by M. Meo

This morning a post by the ex-CIA agent and Christian anti-war activist Ray McGovern reminds us of the lessons to be learned from the “Red Line” Affair of 2013, when the current Administration warned the Assad régime in Syria that … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Bradley Manning, Empire, Fascism, Free Speech, Global, Marxism, Spiritual life, U.S. Constitution, Uncategorized, War | Leave a comment

Prague Manuscript, part II: Gott mit uns

Posted on July 11, 2016 by M. Meo

Lomonossov [that is, in the French-language transliteration of the original Cyrillic] was not content to state just once in the Prague Manuscript, that Peter the Great, the one who made of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy a modern European power, … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Education, Inequality, Paul Forman, Seidel, Spiritual life, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Struve’s Exact Words: to Peter Abrahams

Posted on March 16, 2016 by M. Meo

Dear Friend and Colleague! In the matter of the actual intentions of Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve in purchasing what is referred to as the “astronomical repeating circle” (for 1082 rublei) and “two 3 1/2 foot passage instruments” (800, the two), that … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Diffeomorphisms on a manifold, Empire, Paul Forman, Uncategorized, Vali Balint | Leave a comment

Pam Brown Appears

Posted on March 11, 2016 by M. Meo

Six people gathered around two tables slid together at the Random Order Cafe earlier this evening, as the sun gave a multi-colored show in the west before departing for the day. The usual suspects, Dave Westerlund, Charlotte Miller, Herschel Soles, … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Bradley Manning, Empire, Fascism, Free Speech, Friendship, Inequality, Local government, Marblehead, Pacific Green Party, Police, Spiritual life, U.S. Constitution | 1 Comment

The First Meeting in March

Posted on March 4, 2016 by M. Meo

As the sun sank slowly in the West the Cascadia Chapter convened its weekly meeting at Random Order cafe in Northeast Portland.  Dave Westerlund, Charlotte, Miller, Herschel Soles, and Your Intrepid Reporter were there promptly at 6:30 p.m., the scheduled … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Elections, Empire, Fascism, Free Speech, Friendship, Inequality, Local government, Mathematics, Pacific Green Party, War | Leave a comment

I Said It Couldn’t Be Done

Posted on February 11, 2016 by M. Meo

For the entire life of the Large Interferometric Gravitational Observatory, just down the road here a ways and founded and directed by my old teachers at Caltech, I said the effort was a complete boondoggle, since the sensitivity of measurement … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Diffeomorphisms on a manifold, Education, Friendship, Mark Seibold, Mathematics, Paul Forman, Seidel, Spiritual life | 2 Comments

What Is the Islamic State, in Historical Perspective?

Posted on January 19, 2016 by M. Meo

The eminent twentieth-century British historian Arnold Toynbee observed in his 1948 Civilization on Trial (pp. 164-187 of the 1971 paperback edition) that, once the Westernizers [whom he labels “Herodians”, after the loyal-to-Rome king of Judea in Jesus’ time] and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Astronomy, Don Gavitte, Education, Empire, Iran, Israel, John Schweibert, Mathematics, Permaculture, Saudi Arabia, Spiritual life | Leave a comment

The Paranoid Style

Posted on January 12, 2016 by M. Meo

The Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Paul Krugman points out today that the following chart describing employment decisively refutes the claim of that dishonest mouthpiece for the Corporate Interest the Wall Street Journal, that there is significance to the decline … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Astronomy, Brian Willson, Economics, Elections, Empire, Fascism, Floy Jones, Inequality, John Schweibert, Lloyd Marbet, Local government, Pacific Green Party, Permaculture, Police, Scott Green, Seth Woolley, U.S. Constitution, Uncategorized, Vali Balint, War | Leave a comment

A Sicilian Resister

Posted on December 10, 2015 by M. Meo

The Nuclear Resister came today. Its lead story follows (are you a participant in the Plowshares tradition?): Barefoot, pacifist Turi Vaccaro scaled a fence in a Sicilian cork oak reserve and was undetected as he entered the inner security zone … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Bradley Manning, Brian Willson, Cameron Whitten, Dan Handelman, Education, Elections, Empire, Free Speech, Global, Gun Control, John Schweibert, Pacific Green Party, Police, Scott Fernandez, Scott Green, Spiritual life, War | Leave a comment