Archive for July, 2009
The question of whether clouds are a positive or a negative feedback is one of the biggest remaining questions in climate modeling. A new paper in the journal Science is another piece of evidence that clouds will amplify the effects of climate disruption instead of dampen it.
The authors of the study analyzed two unrelated observational methods and found that both showed a decrease in cloud cover over the Northeast (NE) Pacific as a result of climate changes in sea surface temperature (SST), sea level pressure (SLP), and two measurements of the troposphere (the lower atmosphere). Full story »
 There are many people and organizations in the United States who oppose the American Climate and Energy Security Act (ACES), and many of them have mailed letters, written emails, and called their Representatives and Senators in an effort to convince their legislator to vote against ACES. Some of ACES’ opponents have deep enough pockets that they can afford to hire lobbying firms to lobby against the legislation, and did so. But someone took it much farther. Someone hired public relations and lobbying firm Bonner & Associates to mobilize the grassroots to contact their legislators, and according to a Charlottesville Daily Progress article, at least one Bonner employee forged letters from two minority groups in an effort to convince U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia to vote against ACES. Full story »
 So the Rev. Joseph Lowery is among the many fine individuals newly awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for 2009.
The good reverend has had a long and storied career, with a recent highlight being his poetic excoriation of the Bush administration with President George W. Bush himself sitting behind Lowery as he spoke at Coretta Scott King’s memorial service in 2006.
What will the loquacious Lowery say at his Freedom Medal acceptance speech?
I can imagine it’ll go something like this: Full story »
Earlier this week, for the first time in at least eight years, I revisited one of my favorite places on the Earth that I’ve yet experienced. It’s a snowmelt-filled, glacier-carved alpine lake just below treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s surrounded by tall cliffs and you have to scramble over boulders to get to it (something that my wife didn’t exactly appreciate when I tried to show it to her). Sure, it’s close to one of the favorite places for tourists in the park, but most of the time I don’t mind a few other people so long as they’re being polite and not too noisy, and the people eating lunch around the lake were generally OK.
This lake and I go way back, back to when I abandoned my Catholicism in favor of a neo-paganism of my own creation. It helped me find myself and a new spirituality in a period of my life when so many things were changing that it felt like the best I could do is hang on. And I feel that it was this lake that saved my life one very, very strange night in a strange town in central Pennsylvania.
I feel a spiritual connection to this lake, like I can feel its presence with me when I concentrate.
When I arrived at the lake, though, I discovered something that saddens me. Eight years ago the lake looked like liquid glass it was so pristine and clear. But yesterday it was green. Full story »
UPDATE: As of noon Thursday Cream holds a tight lead over John Mellencamp, with the rest of the competitors well off the lead. Polls close at midnight Friday – let us know who you want to see move on…
______________________________
Results: Kudos to the very dedicated fans of The Church, who turned out in force to assert that their band is the best in the world. In the end, though, Eric Clapton becomes the first seed of the tournament to actually win a match. The full results are: Clapton 49%; The Church 46%; Guns ‘n Roses 3%; King Crimson/Robert Fripp 2%; Ted Nugent <1%. Clapton advances in the Fillmore region.
Our next pod, which takes place in the Red Rocks region, is hosted by the Springsteen of Small Town, #8 seed John Mellencamp. Full story »
I hope it’s cooler in your part of the world today!
The end result will probably not be what I would have crafted, but the careful and deliberate formation of health care reform is admirable. For two-and-a -half hours last night, 180 House Democrats went line-by-line through the entire 1000+ page bill that is still being hammered together. During this time they were told to sit down and shut up until their aids got through the whole thing. After that they went another two hours through all of the questions they had. As one Representative put it, “No one’s going to say we haven’t read the bill.” Full story »
Before it was dredged and cleared for flood control, Rock Creek cut a pristine path through the heart of Lewisburg. Well, maybe pristine isn’t the proper adjective for a flowing body of sludge that had a more scatological name than the one the maps gave it, but it was close enough to the Park for us to consider it our personal creek. There were crawdads aplenty down there, and frogs and turtles and large blackish things that might have been rats. Rock Creek was also prone to washing away the occasional carnival from the empty lot on Second Avenue, giving rise to infrequent sightings of gigantic pythons and rogue clowns, but we considered this a small price to pay for being able to fish two blocks from home. Full story »
The Cash for Clunkers program is now open for business. Theoretically, you can trade in that old pile of crap currently defacing your driveway for something shiny and new with up to $4,500 of government money. The idea is sound. It worked well in the European countries that did it in 2008. It could be a shot in the arm for car manufacturers, dealers, and all associated with the auto industry. It might even prod consumers towards more efficient vehicles that would lessen our oil dependence and help clean up the environment. Unfortunately, the plan was cobbled together by our esteemed representatives, proving that if you have a good idea that you’d like ruined it’s best to give it to Congress.
Full story »
 Results: In our search for the greatest band of all time, being a high seed is proving fatal. In the last pod unseeded Creedence Clearwater Revival waxed #9 Metallica (which wound up third). The final numbers: CCR 33%; Talking Heads 28%; Metallica 17%; The Raspberries 15%; Stone Temple Pilots 7%. CCR moves on.
In this pod we move to the Fillmore bracket and #6 seed Eric Clapton defends against a formidable quartet of challengers.
Full story »
 I’m not someone who demands scientific authenticity in my movies. I’m far more concerned with whether or not the movie is good entertainment than I am with whether the science is right. For example, Deep Impact and Armageddon both came out in 1998. Deep Impact is by far the more scientifically accurate of the two. Armageddon, however, is a more entertaining movie. And Armageddon has enough details accurate, or at least plausible, that the geeks among us are generally satisfied and can maintain our suspension of disbelief.
Unfortunately, some movies get it so bad that you just can’t take them seriously. The husband of a friend of mine noticed a serious oversight during the freeway scene in Matrix: Reloaded that destroyed his suspension of disbelief: at least one of the computer generated cars was missing the drivetrain entirely. I didn’t notice, so I found the movie fine. He did notice, and from that point on wasn’t able to take Reloaded seriously.
I just finished a movie that I couldn’t take seriously, even as mindless entertainment, because the director got the science so wrong it was laughable. I just watched The Day After Tomorrow, directed by Roland Emmerich. Full story »
 Earlier today I got a call from the University of Colorado, where I earned by doctorate. It was one of those periodic fund-raising calls that probably every alum gets, and the young woman on the other end of the line was incredibly polite and winning. She asked a few questions about how I was doing, what I was doing, had I been back to campus lately, and so on. You can’t just pass the offering plate right away, even though everyone knows the ritual.
Eventually she worked around to asking me for $500. Which wouldn’t be unreasonable under most circumstances, I suppose. Even though times are tight out there I do have a good job and it would be easy enough to argue that my degree from CU certainly didn’t hurt me any in getting the job or in the performance of my duties there.
But there won’t be a check. Full story »
When I began reading an article by Kevin Sack in Friday’s New York Times entitled For Public, Obama Didn’t Fill in Health Blanks, my preconceptions about the American public broke from the gate and were off to the races.
True, as the Financial Times reported, President Obama’s performance in his press conference about health-care reform may have been “uninspiring”: “His points may have been true but they were not new, and he restated them in an uncharacteristically lackluster way.” But maybe he’s tired of trying to convince us to accept what may be, to his mind, benefits he seeks to bestow on us.
After all, hasn’t the public been to hell and back with health-care costs and policies? How much more suffering from inadequate care, including the needless losses of loved ones, does it take before we agree to health-care reform? Full story »
UPDATE: Polls close Sunday (7/26) at midnight. As of Saturday night our seeded contestant is in trouble, as Metallica trails both Creedence Clearwater Revival and Talking Heads (and they’re just barely ahead of The Raspberries). If you haven’t yet voted in this round of the ultimate greatest band of all time tournament, listen and make your opinion known in the poll below.
______________________________
One match, one upset. In our kick-off contest unseeded Frank Zappa defeated a talented pack headed by #12 Van Halen. Full story »
Even though I was recently on vacation I kept an eye on clever things to share with the S&R readers. To that end I bring you the Hoshizaki Beer Dispenser.
Full story »
Cronkite Called War “Illegal from the Start,” Slammed Network Silence and Would’ve Spoken Out Again from Anchor Desk
Walter Cronkite believed his “proudest” moment as a journalist occurred when he told the nation that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, despite rosy rhetoric from the Johnson White House and Defense Department. Following his death last week, various network news tributes replayed footage of Cronkite’s influential ’68 on-air editorial. Yet scrubbed from the memorializing were similar instances of Cronkite’s journalistic candor regarding Iraq, such as his 2006 call for withdrawal from a war he went on to describe as “illegal from the start,” initiated on “false pretenses” and a “terrible disaster” serving “no purpose” that has “probably made us less safe.”
But the most revealing omission from these tributes — especially in context to the pageant of eulogies extolling Cronkite’s journalistic integrity — may be his response to a reporter’s question during a 2006 news conference. Full story »
Quick, point your twitterers to @owillis right now. Oliver Willis has apparently had enough of Harry Reid’s cluelessness and is just going nuts on him. This is the most fun anybody has had at the expense of a public official since the Iraqi Information Minister.
Just when the news cycle of Harvard professor Henry Gates’s arrest was winding down, President Obama gave it another spin. By accusing the Cambridge, Massachusetts police of acting “stupidly,” he leant support to those who speak out against racial profiling (as he also did while serving in the Illinois state legislature).
Some might still think Gates over-reacted. But, as John McWhorter, who characterizes himself as a conservative Republican, writes in a New Republic blog, “That sort of thing has not been typical. . . of Gates. He has even been assailed by black writers lefter than him [as] an accommodationist. … Gates has never been a rabble-rouser.” Full story »
|
