The Sethmosphere

Dear Friends,

Even with my eyes closed the lightning is brilliant. Thunder quickly follows. It’s 12:37 AM and like many of you around here I’m not sleeping. It’s more than the sound of the storm that is keeping me up…It’s the fact of it. Something is wrong. Something is dearly wrong. It’s February in New England. This is the second thunder and lightning storm in less than a week and the third in less than two.

Remember last year we had thunder and lightning combined with snow, and Weather.com introduced a new term, “Thunder Snow”? They even had an icon for it. It was as an amalgamation of the lightning cloud image combined with the snow flake image. It was an icon I’d never seen for a phenomena I’d never experienced. What will be the icons for ice sheet collapse and sea level rise?

I’ve lived in New England since 1969, back when we used to have something called winter. February was cold. Thunder happened in July. The Charles River between Boston and Cambridge would freeze and we would skate on it near the shore of the Esplanade. Dumb yes, but we did it. Temperatures near zero for days and up-to-a-week at a time were common. You would step outside and the mucus in your nose would freeze. The big Arctic Chill would wax in from Canada and sit on us like a Sumo wrestler. We were in Deep Freeze lock down. Yes, it was winter in New England. The two used to be synonymous.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, and the weather cast her vote. Regarding the tornadoes and “super cell” storms that disrupted the election process in numerous states and left an unprecedented trail of wreckage and death, Stu Ostro, the senior meteorologist at Weather.com, wrote what happened was “a historic February outbreak given the number of tornadoes and amount of casualties. It is one of the most prolific and deadliest outbreaks on record for the month”. Note, we were not even one week into the month.

It seemed that the storms stole the “thunder” from the election coverage. They kept interrupting the Romney versus McCain blather to show the extensive tornado damage…a campus torn apart, a mall collapsed, a gas fire, a house with a family of three pulverized, 51 others killed. And of course, many voting stations were closed,…err…evacuated. All of this was in sharp contrast to the slick New York studios were manicured pundits harrumphed over which Red contender was the righteous conservative.

What’s the weather voting for?

- s
2:26 AM. 2/7/08

A New Year’s Observation

By Seth J. Itzkan

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, each New Year’s Eve I spend a few hours in meditation. The objective is to discern within myself the theme of the previous year, and it’s trajectory moving forward. Sometimes I walk by myself, sometimes I join in Boston’s First Night, or other festive events, but always with an eye toward discovering the single image, sound, theme, or otherwise “signature” of the previous year.

On this New Year’s Eve I was struck. I found the most important such “sign” ever in my annual quest. It hit me with the magnitude of a Nor’easter. And now as I finally find the time to write about it, a week later, I am still taken aback. What was this sign, and what does it foretell?
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Hi Folks,

Please see my Miracle on Merrimack Street article from the December 2006 issue of The Valley Patriot, and posted on the Innovation Vally site.

There is a miracle occurring on Merrimack Street in Lawrence.

On less than one mile of riverfront property, the seeds of a new economic revolution are taking root. The world’s largest green condo development is underway in the conversion of Wood Mill. This is a 1.3 million square foot retired wool factory that, when built in 1905, was a cornerstone of industrial prowess in America. Today it is becoming the cornerstone for Lawrence’s revitalization and helping to set the mold for how old industrial cities can reinvent themselves with green sustainable thinking. In doing so, the project is showcasing the tenacious power of Northeast ingenuity.

Read full story.

Letter to the editor: Five minutes for democracy
This is a letter to editor I wrote to the Globe. A similar letter was sent to The Herald and the MetroWest Daily News
- s
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Jill spoke at the Beacon Hill Friends’ Meeting House on November 7th. My parents and friends were there. It was a great event.

Pictured here, left to right: Karl Thidemann, Ray Conte, Susan McLucas, Jill Stein (in blue), Richard Callogero (in back), Irving Itzkan (in back), Annette Itzkan (black coat), Shirley Kressel.

Karl Thidemann showed off his Solectria electric “No Gas” car at the ASPO-USA conference (Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas - USA).

Link: http://www.aspo-usa.com/

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