JPL has a mission called Kepler that is searching for habitable planets in the Milky Way by looking for the diminution of a star's light as the planet crosses the star — the "transit method." So far what the mission has found is about a bazillion stars not visible to us here on earth…
Monthly Archives: April 2009
The Movies: Why We Love Them
This post has absolutely nothing to do with the climate, but, after all, it is the weekend, when we are most likely to go to the movies…and what do we go to the movies for? It's simple, really. If only solving the climate crisis were as uncomplicated…from critic Dave Kehr.
Tar on Your Foot: Oil in Ventura County
The down and dirty about Ventura County’s oil legacy (cover of the VCReporter) By Kit Stolz 04/16/2009 Anyone who has ever lived in the Ventura County area and walked barefoot on the beach has probably at some point felt something sticky on his or her foot and found a black substance commonly kno wn asContinue reading “Tar on Your Foot: Oil in Ventura County”
Climatologists, Economists Equally Popular Today
Dilbert gets it….
Somalia: How Environmental Piracy Led to Pirate Attacks
Yesterday Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ) mentioned on NPR's All Things Considered that the pirates operating off the Somali coast grew out of chaos that descended on the region in the l990's. He said one of the costs of that chaos was environmental piracy — overfishing and toxic dumping. To wit: "What's happened in the country,Continue reading “Somalia: How Environmental Piracy Led to Pirate Attacks”
Hollywood’s Best/Worst Director to Make New Lousy Film
LOS ANGELES—In the largest deal ever made to shit out a movie, Warner Bros. and director Michael Bay announced a landmark $50 million agreement this week to monumentally fuck up ThunderCats. "I couldn't be more excited to completely fuck this up," said Bay, who plans to begin production on destroying the live-action adaptation next month.Continue reading “Hollywood’s Best/Worst Director to Make New Lousy Film”
The Smell of a Serial Killer
A young woman reporter from Vancouver known as raincoaster recounts her all-too-close encounter with Canada's worst serial killer. What she remembers best about pig farmer Robert Pickton is the way he smells: My family has farms, I know what pigs and pig farming smell like, and I know what a shower can do for that.Continue reading “The Smell of a Serial Killer”
Hopeless Optimism (by Billy Collins)
When it comes to preserving the climate we have come to know and love, this blog has documented in exhausting detail over the last five years reasons not to be optimistic. This documentation comes out of a desire to do the right thing for the planet that has given us life, not — of courseContinue reading “Hopeless Optimism (by Billy Collins)”
Geo-Engineering the Climate: Are We Just Not Cynical Enough?
The Virginia Quarterly Review, arguably the best literary journal in the country, has the nerve this quarter to take on an urgent issue, and dispatches Pat Joseph to look at geo-engineering the climate. He avoids stating his conclusion, but does a masterful job of laying out the facts. See here: The Obama administration will noContinue reading “Geo-Engineering the Climate: Are We Just Not Cynical Enough?”
Nature Notes: The World Economy, by Peter Brookes
Peter Brookes of the Sunday Times offers a field guide to the world economy. Funny stuff, about a not-so-funny reality. That's a feat… (h/t: Andrew Sullivan)
Kit Stolz 