The World's Most Famous Man throws it down, bringing the scorn to the 2012 Academy Awards and Seth McFarlane: in the thick of the “We Saw Your Boobs” song, which must have lasted five minutes all by itself, this line jumped out at me: “Jodie Foster in ‘The Accused’”. And I thought to myself “wait,Continue reading “Seth humiliates Charlize in front of a billion people”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Huge NextEra windfarm opens for business: Eagle dies
Can't resist a good picture of a threaened eagle: Turns out that in late January at a huge wind farm near Mojave operated by a company called NextEra, just a month after operations began, an eagle was found dead. U.S. Fish and Wildlife wasn't too happy about the project from the start, but Kern CountyContinue reading “Huge NextEra windfarm opens for business: Eagle dies”
Climate change: it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity
At least when it comes to working outdoors. An interesting study published this month in Nature looks at how rising levels of heat and humidity will impact work in military and civilian sites, and draws a broad conclusion: By 2100 under active mitigation (Fig. 1c), the high stress of present-day India (green Fig. 1b) expandsContinue reading “Climate change: it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”
The environmental regrets of James Fennimore Cooper
In the first of the famous Leatherstocking Tales, a novel called The Pioneers, in the introduction the author mentions a regret about the arrival of the white man to the Otsego region of upstate New York: Though forests still crown the mountains of Otsego, the bear, the wolf, and the panther are nearly strangers toContinue reading “The environmental regrets of James Fennimore Cooper”
50 Shades of love and sex/Valentine’s Day 2013
From my cover story in this week's Ventura County Reporter: Since the genetic basis of our species, Homo Sapiens, stabilized approximately 100,000 years ago, the reproductive nature of the human body has not substantially changed. But in the last few years, human sexual experience has substantially changed, especially among the adventurous. For Valentine’s Day, andContinue reading “50 Shades of love and sex/Valentine’s Day 2013”
Contrarian environmentalist: George Monbiot on nuclear
The case for nuclear power. from Fred Pearce, following the lead of George Monbiot at The Guardian: "The problem is the same in the energy debate. Many environmentalists who argue, as I do, that climate change is probably the big overarching issue facing humanity in the 21st century, nonetheless often refuse to recognize that nuclearContinue reading “Contrarian environmentalist: George Monbiot on nuclear”
Orwell on the rules of story-telling in non-fiction
A review of Zero Dark Thirty includes this gem of a quote, one writer in effect overhearing arguably the first great modern non-fiction writer, George Orwell, talking about what we today call literary non-fiction, and what fictionalization he allows in a non-fiction story. . There were few more minute observers of fact than George Orwell.Continue reading “Orwell on the rules of story-telling in non-fiction”
Avoiding over-reaction by any means necessary: NYTimes
Evidently the media adults in the room — excluding The Weather Channel – are going out of their way to underplay the big winter storm hitting the East Coast this weekend. The Times and the Post are not putting it on top of the front page and are avoiding calling it by TWC's name. Meteorological services too are emphasizingContinue reading “Avoiding over-reaction by any means necessary: NYTimes”
A blizzard that looks a little like a hurricane: Nemo
And the wind cried…Nemo? One model's vision of the blizzard-to-come…. very hurricane-like. twitter.com/EricHolthaus/s… — Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) February 8, 2013 That's from The Weather Channel…but isn't it NOAA's job to name storms? Related articles Just How Much Snow Will We Get? The Weather Channel Taps Social Media for #Nemo Blizzard Bracing for NemoContinue reading “A blizzard that looks a little like a hurricane: Nemo”
Falling love with a lone wolf — via a GPS tracker
Great op-ed yesterday in the New York Times about how GPS data is helping bring us closer to other species. In recent years, there has been much pontificating about how modern communications technologies are changing the way that we relate to other people. Less discussed is the way these advances are reshaping our relationships withContinue reading “Falling love with a lone wolf — via a GPS tracker”
Kit Stolz 