Category: del.icio.us

Business opportunity for warming denialists:

Reading an article about the current snow shortage in Europe’s ski resorts , I came across the following passage:

“Already banks are refusing to offer loans to resorts under 1,500 metres as they fear for their future snow cover.”

This surely presents a tremendous money-making opportunity for global warming “skeptics”. If the banks won’t lend these resorts money, then there’s a gap which the denialists could exploit and thereby make themselves rich. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, I’m waiting to see the investment pool fill up on this one.

Technorati Tags: climatechange

Photomedia Center 2006 Holga Show:

This is the piece that appears in the show: by all means, check out the rest. Some nice work there.

Looks like I made an Amazon Associates sale:

First Vegetarian Meal:

“Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day” (Moosewood Collective)

Well, I’m a lousy cook, but decided to have a go at it today.

Two days ago, my Moosewood cookbook arrived per Paul’s suggestion. I have decided to make corn scones and black bean soup for dinner tonight.

I made the scones early, and they turned out really well. Actually, they taste great, but look funny. I couldn’t quite get the shape right.

I’ll just have to heat them up for dinner. I’ll start the soup in a few hours.

Thought I should go check up on my Amazon account and see how I’m doin’.

Hmm. Looks like the $.49 from that book sale is my total for 2006. Go, me.

I guess I’ll take my satisfaction from the thought of someone broadening their horizons, food-wise, that getting rich off the web of intertubes.

Genderification of Genre:

Genre fiction seems to be a tool to lock in to a specific segment of the audience, but it’s also an effective way to lock out an even larger audience, because we’ve all got these biases.

I have mentioned this once or seven times: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Starting to bore myself with it. I can only imagine how any regular reader must feel.

Intermittent Network Problems:

If you’ve been using Flickr today, you might have noticed intermittent problems: slow loading, pages failing to load complete, strange or incomplete results and things like that. These are the result of networking problems at our primary data center which have been recurring all day. And all day, we’ve believed those problems to be at the point of resolution, but then they turn around and bite us again. Ouch!

I read Stewart’s warning before I had a problem: what exactly is a “flickery recent Gen?”

I could learn to like this.
I may have to rent one of these DSLRs for a weekend and see how I like it. My experience with digital cameras has been with point and shoots, of various sizes, and it’s always dissatisfying. There’s just not enough there, not enough focal length, control, whathaveyou. I see too many good images to think that digital is by definition bad, and as much as I love working with film, the immediacy appeals. This D40 is priced pretty well @ $349 w/ lens (says a guy who finances his activities through embezzlement from the household budget).
Hmmmmm.

slow death, immense decay, showers that cleanse you of your life:

Let’s say you’re an antisemite. Why would you deny the Holocaust? Wouldn’t you consider it the most awesome thing that ever happened?

Discuss.

Urbanspoon:

urbanspoon.com lists 53 restaurants in my ‘new’ neighborhood, more than any other online restaurant review resource. The site bears watching.

My ‘hood doesn’t even exist on their map, even though they list places that are named for it. And some of the listings are for places that have been closed, bulldozed, and rebuilt since I have lived here.

Citizenship: Can you Pass the Test?:

What is the rule of law? What is an ‘inalienable’ right? If you’re not sure, you might have a trouble with the new naturalization test.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is rolling out a pilot test program in 10 cities, including Yakima. We’ll hear more about it, and your stories. What path did you take to citizenship? If you are a citizen, what does that mean to you? We’ll take your questions about the new test and hear your thoughts and stories about the meaning of citizenship.

Tomorrow on Weekday: Ask the Animal Behaviorist

I’ve added a poll in the left sidebar: what do you think about this? Do you think being born here is enough to make you a responsible citizen of the most powerful nation in the world? Part of this assumes the educational system(s) are imparting a solid understanding of how this country came to be, what it was founded on and what its founders and early citizens rejected. The jury is out on how well that’s going.

I may have been irritated at the recent story in the Times about irresponsible cyclists, but today’s letters (not online yet) were stronger in tone than my complaints: “overfed chucklehead” as a label for the “hyper-skilled” cyclist drinking a PBR on his tallbike? Wow. And mentioning the name of the mathematician riding with a Beck’s beer is sure to help his job search when someone does a reference check.