Obama’s State of the Union address
“China’s not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany’s not waiting. India’s not waiting. These nations aren’t standing still. These nations aren’t playing for second place. They’re putting more emphasis on math and science. They’re rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.”
There are 2 very interesting programmes coming out of that speech:
Alternative Fuels and New Energy Vehicles 2010
We have some catching up to do with the Chinese.
Save our Tigers
I’ve joined the Save Our Tigers campaign. India has the largest population of tigers in the wild: a mere 1400-odd.
I will blog, I will speak up, and I will do all I can. I request every reader to do the same. More to follow.
Ghost fleet of the recession
From the Big Picture:
The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.
Tetra-Pak recycling
Not a perfect closed-loop recycling process, but a good way to deal with that biggest of package-recycling headaches, the Tetra-Pak
From the Best in Packaging blog. Click to read.
September 12, 2009: Two Bunuel Movies
Needed a break, and got one. I spent my afternoon/evening watching these:
- The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe): Luis Bunuel, 1954. An English-language adaptation of the Defoe classic. Amatuerish, un-Bunuel-like, very Disney-like. Disappointing. Anyhow, if surviving in a deserte tropical paradise is that simple, I want an island of my own. Along with a ship-ful of provisions, among which is an endless stash of booze and tobacco (as the film would have us believe). Very disappointing.
- Le Voiee Lactee (The Milky Way): Luis Bunuel, 1969. The exact opposite of the previous film. Brilliant stuff. The story revolves around two pilgrims making their way across France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain (a popular medieval pilgrimage route). On the way, they come across a whole host of heresies (atleast as Catholicism defines it) and other characters – free love Catholics, Jansenists, the Marquis de Sade, the Devil, the Virgin Mary, Jesus himself, the Spanish Inquistion, assorted clerics, and a prostitute. The director and producer compiled a list of the reasons (loopholes in Catholic theology) leading to most heresies, and the list that they came out with suggested no obvious linkages or structure – so they just dramatized all the instances/heresies. The movie zips between early Christians, the Spanish Inquisition, the Jansenists and 1960s France/Spain. It also has the distinction of getting the most number of what the fuck/where did that come from expressions from me . Must-watch, but not when sober. Pass it if you are an idiot (which goes for most).
Music: Slania (Eluvetie, 2008)
Clearing forests for conservation
From the ClimateArk:
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=137279
The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) is accused of causing massive environmental damage as it seeks to clear hundreds of acres of non-native confireous woodlands to restore traditional heather habitats.
For me, it reflected a larger question: that of so-called plague species in non-native habitats. In this case, it is just human stupidity which has created the problem in the first place.
Joseph Stiglitz on bailouts and much more
Two dripping-with-awesomeness articles from the one-and-only Joseph Stiglitz:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95b492a8-a095-11de-b9ef-00144feabdc0.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYdgQkXu9eBg
FishChoice.com
Launched in 2009, FishChoice.com (www.FishChoice.com) is the first-ever comprehensive online sourcing tool for seafood products that meet the sustainability criteria of six globally recognized environmental organizations. FishChoice.com is a free, non-profit service connecting commercial seafood buyers with easy one-click access to an increasingly comprehensive and constantly expanding database of suppliers of sustainable seafood products. FishChoice.com also helps sustainable seafood producers connect with the rapidly growing marketplace of buyers seeking environmentally-responsible seafood alternatives.
Home-coming for a tragic diaspora
Their ancestors were taken as slaves to Somalia and the Arab world, over 300 years ago. Now they are back in their ancestral homeland. Read more here.
