Green Violet

Sixteen year old kid goes asks for help in getting job because dad’s out of work and mom’s sick. Yeah: the country’s doing great.

Al Gore throws down the gauntlet: 100% self-sufficient on electricity in 10 years.

From friend TB, small (houses) are the new big thing.

From friend TB, air travel response/vent. [Ed.: where is my train?!]

Things Creationists hate. “If you are reasonably cognizant of science, or theology, or even simple logic, you can probably think of others.”

In the Washington Post, an article on “The Impassive Bystander“. We - most markedly when in a group - shrug off responsibility for helping. Two recent examples to be added to Kitty Genovese, et al.

And from NY Times: the push up is the “put up or shut up”, “got it or don’t”.

Based on national averages, a 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16 push-ups and a man the same age should be able to do 27. By the age of 60, those numbers drop to 17 for men and 6 for women. Those numbers are just slightly less than what is required of Army soldiers who are subjected to regular push-up tests.

The sweet and perfect fruit, the banana, is in in danger of demise.

Not long after Panama Disease first began to kill bananas in the early 20th century, United Fruit’s scientists warned the corporation was making two errors. They were building a gigantic monoculture. If every banana is from one homogenous species, a disease entering the chain anywhere on earth will soon spread. The solution? Diversify into a broad range of banana types.

The company’s quarantine standards were also dire. Even the people who were supposed to prevent infection were trudging into healthy fields with disease-carrying soil on their boots. But both of these solutions cost money – and United Front didn’t want to pay. They decided to maximise their profit today, reckoning they would get out of the banana business if it all went wrong.

I’d be interested in getting one of these little puppies. All electric town car would fit the ticket for much of the tootling around we do.

Came across this link to Air Emissions (ie: pollution, smog, etc.) data, wherever you live in the US, down to your county, but the data for CO is from 2002 and the data for lead is from 1999. Way not helpful.

I’ve not been enamored of Clinton. My 25-words-or-less objection is that she’s made herself over as “see, I’m just as tough as a man” which is old-think. I think she’s using an old playbook rife with negativism and divisiveness and snappy ‘good for the moment’ cliches.

This was a change; at first I thought of Obama as a bit of youth-y pop fluff. But then I read more about him. All that aside, if McCain gets elected we’ll just timeshift to a Kubrick film. Back to Hillary. Tenacious is one thing. But what is the point now?

McClatchy describes Clinton as “broke and politically battered,” and adds she’s “reduced to pursuing two potentially divisive options that could hurt the party: Magnify the racial fault line in the party by stressing Obama’s inability to win white working-class voters and press the party to change its rules and seat unsanctioned delegations from Florida and Michigan at the national convention in August.”

Now averted. Looked at old style manual grinders, both here (Peugeot) and here (Zassenhaus) — wouldn’t that be fun — but settled on a quick trip downtown to Macy’s on my bike and picked up this Cuisinart. Hoping my experience matches the happy rather than the disappointed reviewers’.

Interesting little tale being told about Spitzer and the sub-prime mortgage mess. Banks are our friends, and sexual indiscretion is the End of Civilization.

American Drug War: The Last White Hope (2007) is an excellent documentary on how flawed the machinery and method and mission is and why it is doomed to stay this way. Superb.