Peter Ward

AUTUMN ANALYSIS: BAD: Punkin’ chunkin’ did not feature prominently in the news this autumn; GOOD: I enjoyed eating the new Kit Kat Counts, shaped like the familiar Transylvanian count

image of a woman levitating in the air in a yoga position, in Tikal at sunrise, with a sign Welcome to November, with a monkey; created by Microsoft Bing AI

Welcome to November! Image by Microsoft Bing Image Creator AI.

AI generated image by Microsoft Bing of a woman levitating in the air in a yoga position, next to the Great Salt Lake at sunset, with a sign Welcome to October

Welcome to October! Image by Microsoft Bing Image Creator AI.
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Bloomberg: "Russia remained the top supplier of nuclear reactor fuel to the U.S. last year, even after a ban on enriched uranium imports from the country became law in May, data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows."

Russian language term for spacecraft is “cosmic ship” космический корабль. Made me ponder English language use of “craft.” Used for aircraft, watercraft, & spacecraft, but no terrestrial equivalent. Closest is landing craft but that is referring to arriving from the water. Image by Google Gemini AI

A boy of Scottish fold!

1970s Polaroid photo of people in rabbit costumes in a coastal New England town, with a sign Welcome to September; created by Microsoft Bing Image Creator AI

Welcome to September! My request to Microsoft Bing Image Creator AI was for "1970s Polaroid photo of people in rabbit costumes in a coastal New England town, with a sign Welcome to September." The image is from February 2024.

Livin' the life.

Reuters: Exxon, the top US oil producer, has held numerous discussions w Russian state-controlled oil firm Rosneft about re-entering the Sakhalin project after receiving approval from US Office of Foreign Assets Control under the administrations of both former Pres. Joe Biden + Pres. Donald Trump.

Home sales are falling through at the highest rate in years. More than 15% of home purchases fell through last month, the highest July rate in records dating back to 2017, according to new Redfin analysis. That’s up from 14.5% a year ago and 12% before the pandemic. Source: The Hill

Outrageous. U.S. company expanding its Russia business.

Federal judge in Philadelphia orders CVS Caremark to pay $289.9M in damages + penalties after it overcharged Medicare for prescription drugs. Last month, a Manhattan federal judge ordered CVS' Omnicare unit to pay $948.8M in a separate whistleblower lawsuit alleging fraudulent billing.Source:Reuters

Editorial: That meeting was sickening. Putin loved it Sickening. Shameful. And in the end, useless. Those were the words that came to mind when we watched the Alaska Summit unfold. On our screens, a blood-soaked dictator and war criminal received a roy...

Sickening. Shameful. And in the end, useless.

Those were the words that came to mind when we watched the Alaska Summit unfold.

$16,400 of taxpayer funds was spent on a banner of Trump and a banner of Lincoln at USDA building in Washington D.C.

The meeting is in Alaska, not in Russia. How could you make such a mistake? How could your editor not catch the mistake?

I saw the movie "Weapons" (2025) in a movie theater. This is the first movie I have seen in a theater in years. I was really intrigued by the trailer. What happened to the children? I liked it. I think it needs a sequel in order to explain a few things.

The population of Russia's Far Eastern Federal District continues to decline and at a rate three times that of Russia as a whole, 3.5 percent annually as opposed to just over one percent, says Elena Li, demographer at Eastern Center for State Planning in the Russian Far East; via Window on Eurasia

Russian occupiers in Ukraine created an online "catalogue" where Ukrainian children are offered up for adoption sorted based on physical traits like eye or hair color, the head of a Ukrainian NGO said on Aug. 6, denouncing the practice as child trafficking. Source: Kyiv Independent .com

Outrageous! ... Reuters: the U.S. and EU still import billions of euros worth of Russian energy and commodities. The EU continues to purchase oil, natural gas, nickel, fertilizer, iron, and steel from Russia. The U.S. continues to purchase fertilizer, uranium, plutonium, and palladium.

Welcome to August! Image by Microsoft Bing Image Creator

Crisfield, Maryland lost out on $36 million in flood-prevention funding when FEMA canceled its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program in April. Canceling that one FEMA program cost the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed nearly $1B in federal funding, Chesapeake Bay Journal reported.

Trump Administration has denied Maryland’s request for $15.8 million in disaster relief funds from FEMA to pay for repairs after heavy floods in W Maryland in May. Maryland’s need met federal thresholds that typically trigger public assistance from FEMA.Still, the state’s request for aid was denied.

Killer Train: Brightline death toll surpasses 180, but safeguards are still lacking Brightline trains have killed 182 people, significantly more than publicly known, an investigation by WLRN and the Miami Herald has found.

Read Part 1 of the special report by @brittanywallman.bsky.social ,@aaronleibowitz.bsky.social, @shradhadinesh.bsky.social, @semerriam.bsky.social, ‪ @danielrivero.bsky.social and @joshceb.bsky.social: www.wlrn.org/killer-train...

VIDEO: When French astronaut Sophie Adenot arrives at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026, she will dine on French gastronomical classics such as lobster bisque, foie gras and onion soup prepared especially for her by a chef with 10 Michelin stars

Welcome to July! Image by Microsoft Bing Image Creator

Too bad we don’t have any indigenous monkeys in the United States. And personally, I wish alligators lived in a few more states. Fact: there are more tigers living in captivity in Texas than there are living in the wild in the entire rest of the world.

I have been wondering what kind of fork has the most tines. It looks like manure forks out-tine potato forks and hay forks. When they were being hand-forged, I can imagine the person thinking, no, that’s not enough, I gotta add more tines!

As of April 2025, two-thirds of Canadians considered the U.S. to be "unfriendly" or an "enemy," and 61% say they have started boycotting American companies. Source: NPR

Nice sentiment, Governor, but I'm not a fan of popular-in-the-moment expressions like "holding space." Wikipedia tells me that phrase gained a rise in popularity in November 2024 as a result of an interview with celebrities.

As a kid in 1970s my favorite snack was popcorn, but I also really loved Chipos Potato Chips, a General Mills product that sadly did not make it into the 1980s. Sold in foil pouch inside a cardboard carton. I think about them wistfully at least once a year, so fair to say I miss them & their crunch.