Congratulations to me on the occasion of my being named a "CUNY Distinguished Professor of English" at Brooklyn College. Professionally speaking, it's just about the best thing that's ever happened to me. (Though it's not in the press release, I am also a Professor of Journalism at the new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where I'll be teaching the "journalism of ideas" in the fall.) While I [naturally] think I deserve it...
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more at:
<http://mediamatters.org/altercation/200707100002#1>
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>From the Wikipedia entry on Venus:
Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide as it has no carbon cycle operating to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. It has become so hot that the earth-like oceans the young Venus is believed to have possessed have totally evaporated, leaving a dusty dry desertscape with many slab-like rocks. Worse still, the evaporated water vapor has dissociated and hydrogen has escaped into interplanetary space.
[...]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus>
Well, that's pretty damn hot.
And yet, I imagine a bone crushing, flesh searing afternoon on Venus would be delightfully comfortable in comparison to a minute spent within the superheated plasma blown corridors of Sir Alterman's mind.
.d.