And you wonder why...

...i think we humans are playing with stuff beyond our abilities.

We live in a fragile world, and yet we try to manipulate it as if it were within our control.

Antibiotics get thrown around everywhere, and we wonder why bacteria thrive and resist them.

In years past, chemicals were thrown around to kill insects, and we wondered why fragile ecosystems were affected.  We still use huge quantities of chemicals to try to control the world, and bugs, and fungi, and our health, and everything else, and now it's showing up in our drinking water and we wonder how safe it is.

We build nuclear reactors, then they melt down when there is an earthquake or disaster.

Or, a rat.

What?

Yes.  The Fukushima reactor, the one affected by the massive earthquake in Japan two years ago, suffered another problem over the weekend, with cooling systems going offline for 30 hours.

The cause?

A rat that ate through a power switchboard.

We think we know so much and can control so much.

We know little and control less, and are getting ourselves in over our heads.

Sorry for the philosophical musing on the first day of spring, but this one floored me.


Today is:

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day -- Camp Fire USA encourages everyone to send a note or letter to a young person today, telling him/her exactly what an incredible kid s/he is!

Aizu Higan Shishi -- Aizu Wakamatsu, Japan (lion dances to mark the end of winter)

Back Badge Day -- Gloucestershire Regiment, British Army

Birth of Benito Juarez, a Fiestas Patrias -- Mexico (trad.)

Cumbre Tajin -- Veracruz, Mexico (Tajin Summit, alternative therapies, art, music, and dance; through Monday)

Festival of Houses and Gardens -- Charleston, SC, US (a rare opportunity to explore the private homes and gardens of historic Charleston; through Apr. 20)

Fragrance Day and Flower Day -- the first full day of spring

Harmony Day -- Australia (managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship)

Human Rights Day -- South Africa

Independence Day -- Namibia

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination -- UN

Memory Day -- internet based, to examine the use of memory aids throughout history

Mother's Day -- most Arabic nations

National Common Courtesy Day -- guess it's not so common any more, someone had to declare a holiday to try to foster some

National Festival of the West and Log Home Show -- Scottsdale, AZ, US (Western lifestyle fun, shopping, music, chuck wagon cookin', and more; through Sunday)

National French Bread Day

National Tree Planting Day -- Lesotho

Paper Dress Day -- the paper dress was introduced as part of an ad campaign by the Scott Paper Co. on this day in 1966

Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens -- Savannah, GA, US (tours of Savannah's historic homes; through Sunday)

Shunki-Korei-Sai -- Shinto (rite to honor ancestral spirits)

Single Parents' Day -- sponsored by Parents Without Parners, on the date of their inception in 1957

Spring Fairy Fun Day -- Fairy Calendar

St. Nicholas of Flue's Day (Patron of councilmen, difficult marriages, large families, magistrates, parents of large families, Pontifical Swiss Guards, separated spouses, Switzerland)

Ultimate Sport Show -- Grand Rapids, MI, US (sports enthusiasts from around the US and Canada gather for buying and selling equipment, seminars, demonstrations, and displays; through Sunday)

World Down Syndrome Day -- UN

World Forest Day/International Day of Forests and the Trees -- UN

World Poetry Day -- UNESCO

World Puppetry Day

Youth Day -- Tunisia


Birthdays Today:

James T. Kirk, 2233
Ronaldinho, 1980
Kevin Federline, 1978
Matthew Broderick, 1962
Rosie O'Donnell, 1962
Ayrton Senna da Silva, 1960
Gary Oldman, 1958
Eddie Money, 1949
Timothy Dalton, 1944
John D Rockefeller III, 1906
Florenz Ziegfeld, 1867
Modest Mussorgsky, 1839
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685


Today in History:

The Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the "True Cross" to Jerusalem, 630
Accession to the throne of Japan by emperor Antoku, 1188
3,000 Jews are killed in the Black Death riots in Efurt, Germany, 1349
n Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake, 1556
Czar Peter the Great begins his tour through West, 1697
Fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1788
With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché, 1800
Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law, 1804
The Bahá'í calendar begins, 1844
An earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000, 1857
The Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first in the US, is incorporated, 1859
Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone, 1871
Loretta Walsh becomes the first female US Navy Petty Officer, 1917
Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight, 1928
Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans,' 1935
Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio, 1952
Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, 1965
The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, 1970
Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research, 1985
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon, 1999