Der Spiegel’s attention-getting cover article this week announced that Germany developed and built submarines for Israel, along with nuclear-capable cruise missiles (June 4, 2012).  Germany has supplied Israel with three subs at a substantial discount—thus helping the Israelis pay for the subs.  Three more are scheduled to be delivered to Israel in the next five years, and there are talks about ordering three more.  The next generation craft, set to be delivered in early 2013, will have a new fuel cell that allows for quiet submersion for up to 18 days (ibid.).

A power outage, however brief, causes a lot of consternation. Lights go out, computers are down, refrigeration ceases and life as we know it with all our modern conveniences grinds to a halt. This happened in our city recently during a busy lunchtime, disrupting the schedules of thousands of people who were having their noon break. Restaurants and other enterprises lost business and customers went hungry. Happily, the power outage lasted only a short time, but long enough to remind everyone how dependent we are upon the power grid that supplies our communities.

June 1 marked an historic event between close trade partners—Japan and China. Japan is China’s largest trade partner and the two nations are growing closer together.  On June 1 the two began trading directly in their own currencies instead of in U.S. dollars.  This direct currency exchange will bolster their relationship and could be used by China to press for the eventual replacement of the dollar with the yuan as the world’s reserve currency (Agence France-Presse, May 29, 2012).

The last notes of the “Big Band” music hung in the air, and—as hundreds of us gazed upward expectantly—a slender column of flame arched high into the evening sky. Our small English town’s shining beacon was just one of 4,200 similar beacons that were lit around the world at 10:00 p.m. on June 4, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently voted overwhelmingly to urge the U.S. Navy to name a vessel the “USS Harvey Milk.”  Harvey Milk was one of the first openly homosexual politicians in the U.S. and served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  In order to determine if the idea was a good one, the Board consulted the spirits.