The Third Week of August

"For us the Korean question is not simply a question concerning Korea, it is related to the Taiwan issue... From the information we got, they wanted to calm China first and after occupying North Korea, they will come to attack China."

- Hao Yufan and Zhai Zhihai "China's Decision to Enter the Korean War: History Revisited."

Source: NYT, Wikipedia

This generation will probably see the demise of the Great Barrier Reef unless humanity acts with far more urgency to rein in climate change, according to scientists in Australia who released new research on heat in the surrounding ocean.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world and is often called the largest living structure on Earth. The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that recent extreme temperatures in the Coral Sea are at their highest in at least 400 years, as far back as their analysis could reach.

Source: NYT on Tipping Points, Reef Death

"Hey wouldn't it be awesome if we dragged that giant rock and built the biggest thing ever mentioned in any song ever?"

- A source close to my imagination

Source: Editor of a British Archaelogical magazine summarizing a Nature paper on X

Coda: This post is a new format I'm playing with. Here's last week's post. Let me know what you think! My goal is to provide a bit of perspective (not least for myself!) on the daily spin cycle of news and national psychodrama.

(If an image or other part of this post or any on Pioneering Spirit inadvertently infringes on copyright, the author will gladly take the offending item down upon request.)