esrosedotblog

Environmental terrorists.

Well, at least trouble makers, until something goes wrong.

Night Moves (2014) with Jesse Eisenberg.

Jesse moving on to serious roles. Older, not wiser in this one.

What goes wrong is that one of their attacks, blowing up a dam, has consequences and he is on the run.

There is not a lot of plot. Mostly character study. Eisenberg and the other perps.

I didn't dislike the film. But I was not moved by it. The "moral" of the story is to balance the consequences of such acts before taking them.

Labels: ecology, films, terrorism

PERSPECTIVE

Thank you: Ark

Labels: ecology, nature, technology

OPTIMISM THWARTED

Or something.

I generally feel that people, humans are good despite all the evidence to the contrary.

I can make a pretty good case for this by focusing on humanitarian efforts, ecological activism and humane treatment of animals and other living creatures.

I am also on the side of good triumphing over evil and think that this happens. Is happening. That our evolutionary curve is toward goodness.

Of course, this takes some effort sometimes and I am frequently down hearted by the callousness of some politicos and others who rant. But I still believe that regular people are kinder, gentler and strive to be good.

But when I read something like this, it not only breaks my heart but it shakes my basic beliefs.

College Student's Turtle Project Takes a Dark Twist.

There are people who actually try to kill turtles caught on the road. I suppose I knew this. We have seen this kind of terrible irresponsibility before.

Somehow, the turtle seems as though it might be immune from the atavistic response.

I guess not.

What a bunch of bastards.

I guess that people who would push supposed muslims under a subway train or shoot up little kids or go nuts with a gun in a movie theater are mental cases. But these are normal people. And fucking students!

OK.

I am still optimistic. And it still breaks my heart that people could be so cruel.

Labels: animals, ecology, nature

GREEN POWER

Usually algae are a pain in the ass.

They are out there now, in my fountain, creating a scum that I will have to knock back with bleach which will, in turn, turn off the humming birds who like to drink there.

Algae is ubiquitous and thrives on less than perfect conditions.

It loves certain pollutants and will grow when other stuff falters.

So now, something positive for algae to do.

Exploring Algae as Fuel

I sort of majored in microbiology when I went to school. Well, food processing with the microbes thrown in.

So I am interested in this.

The obvious problem is that algae is so un-dense that it would take a lot before you would have enough to get a good burn. For one thing, it takes a lot of water to get it going. And then it has to be suspended. It isn't like the corn thing which is inefficient enough.

It is interesting though. At this point, I think that anything that offers even a dim possiblity should get a shot at solving the CO2 problem. Algae eats CO2 incidentally.

Actually, it will probably be here long after we are.

Labels: ecology, global warming

PULP WITHDRAWAL

We are now a week without the morning hard copy LA Times

It has not been an ordeal to detox from the daily ritual.

I called to cancel on Saturday, little realizing that they would pull the plug immediately.

That meant the Sunday Edition would not be delivered. Whew. The biggest pulp pile of all.

At least a tree. Well, no. More like 1/2700th but still.

Actually, it is the Sunday paper that had become most disappointing.

The magazine long gone, the California section relegated to pr and puff pieces from reduced staff, the ads piled high and those awful half page over folds that make you tear your hair out while you take them off the fold. I moved through the Sunday faster than the daily.

Then, the dailies have not been that tough. I am learning to navigate the web version.

I miss exactly two things. I have not gone to see "Zits" at the Washington Post although it was my intent. (The LAT does not have comics on its web page) and I missed a columnist I always read this morning. But I will find him.

So it has not been too bad.

Even easy.

I am still reading my way through breakfast. (I know. I should be doing mindful chewing)

I am reading The New Yorkers that have stacked up a bit and now I am even with the week. Also the weekly New York Times Book Review which we still subscribe to.

And I always have a book or two going.

I will manage.

Labels: ecology, life, reading

WANKERS

Some guy has decided to build a toaster from the ground up.

I mean from mining the materials to making the plastics from oil. All that.

He hopes to show the futility of capitalism. Or something.

As far as I can tell, he is showing the futility of being a wanker.

I, Toaster

I love living in a world that such nonsense can be seriously addressed.

I am right with him on the so-called evils of capitalism but when you come right down to it, I will use my toaster several times a day and to hell with him and his bullshit.

This article does remind me of a wonderful piece of work which I read a few years ago.

I, Pencil which makes the opposite point quite effectively.

Well, as it turns out the pencil probably causes deaths in Uganda as well. Not something that I am going to think about as I jot a note to myself. (In No.2 lead incidentally as the Oriole model shown).

Thanks Andrew Sullivan

Labels: ecology, economy

EASY DAYS

We are getting back to normal schedules and easy days.

I have been going to the gym at 415 every day this week and today, Booker said goodbye to me. Wiggles and pets. And didn't bark. Progress.

Later in the morning we had two people over to chat and, of course, to see Booker.

He is the perfect host. Gentle. Quiet hellos. Hanging around to "get" if they want some lovin' and if so, providing it.

He doesn't go very far from the action.

I got to spend a lot of time catching up on the internet today. All the news and political stuff.

I have not been missing much. After all the mock battles over the Supreme Court nomination, the real thing seems to have been an anticlimax for the wing nuts and the lefties.

It seems that there is a solid middle of support with an understandable curiosity about the details which, of course, we will get in tons and tons of talk.

I am not tired of it but it is quite predictable in many ways.

The market took back most of what it gave yesterday. The bond market fell and somehow affected the stock market. I have never understood bonds. Why they cost more or less or how they effect the equity markets. Or is a bond a form of equity?

One would think that having all my money tied up in market funds I would understand this but I do not. I guess that is why I have a managed account and an advisor and have to pay a lot of money a year to get the management and advice. It pays for itself when the market is going up. When the market is sliding, not so much.

I skipped the movie today. I have a couple of long ones coming up and I was getting pushed or felt pushed for time.

The only other big event is that the garbage guys didn't pick the recycle stuff today. Irate, I called the hot line and a recording reminded me that they took Monday off and the schedule is offset by a day all week. Tomorrow we recycle.

And with that, I will recycle the day.

Labels: Booker, ecology, economy, gay life

AGREEMENT

I am a little to the right of Paul Krugman. Smug Krug. Win a Nobel Prize and you think you are so smart!

Recently we have not been in synch with one another.

This does not seem to bother Dr. Krugman but it does bother me as I read enough of his "not enough" stuff in the NYTimes column. As Rahm Emanuel said "why not write a column about how to get the votes you need in the Senate? Or how to get Franken's election declared.

But today, we can be happy together.

Climate of Change

The new budget is what has brought us together. Perhaps not for the same reasons.

But this is the genius of the budget. It has something for everyone to like. Everyone, that is, except the people who have been riding the rest of us, the wealthy, the well connected and the people who do not give a fig for the general welfare of a warming earth.

The Obamas are stirring the pot just the way we asked them to when we voted for them.

Labels: Administration Obama, ecology, economy

GREEN WIPE

I read this in the NYTimes yesterday:

Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests

You know, I am a fairly environmentally aware person but this was a shocker. I thought they had mostly recycled paper in it.

We buy the best. Mostly because "the best" used to be my clients. I always bought from clients.

Then I went and looked at the story on recycled paper.

A Shopper's Guide to Home Tissue Products

Our grocery has a line of green and organic products. So there was the paper today. I got some. Soon the test.

It doesn't look weird. It is white white and looks puffy not hard.

And it is about half the cost. A good thing. Most things that are good for the environment cost more. Not in this case.

I will report later on our use test.

Labels: ecology

NO BATHTUB RING?

We went to Lake Powell during a grand trip through the National Parks some years ago. Maybe 1993.

We rented a boat. You could travel all over the Lake at that time. We got maps and learned the general layout and took off.

We had a great time. We saw the Rainbow Bridge. Took our time wandering in the small canyons.

But at some point we realized that there was something wrong. There were canyons that didn't show on the maps and the buoys didn't seem to line up with the diagrams.

What had happened was the Lake had dried up. Lost its countours. It was as though we were in a totally different Lake than was on the map.

We finally figured out what was wrong and did a triangulation with the Navajo Power Plant (lots of smoke polluting the area, it has now been closed) and some other landmark. We got out.

It was a great adventure that I wouldn't want to repeat.

Now, it seems, the water is coming back and covering all those extra inlets and particularly covering the bathtub ring—mineral deposits left by the water as its level decreased.

And the maps will be good again.

Amid Dry Times in the West, a Lake Raises Spirits

Labels: ecology, nature

HARD TO BE GREEN

They are changing the whole system of recycled trash here in Palm Springs.

Up to now, we were the ones to segregate the containers from the paper from the plastic bags.

Now, we all get a big ugly blue container and throw everything into that container.

"They" now do the segregating.

The thing is, apparently, that these barrels will be loaded into the truck with a motorized conveyor. No lifting.

How come I think that this whole thing is based on less work for the trash men or some insurance company/workman's comp issue?

Anyway.

We got our barrel. I threw everything in. I set it out. And then 'they' didn't pick it up.

Until I called. And called again. An left a message.

The guy came last night and took the trash.

He had to manually upend this fucking heavy barrel into his barrel onto the truck.

If that didn't give him a work related injury, nothing will.

He tells me that they just 'forgot' to come down our drive.

OK.

We will try it again next week.

Another improvement that isn't.

Labels: ecology, life

GASSED UP

I paid 4.57 a gallon for gas this morning.

I don't like it, personally, but I am all for it publicly.

We have been getting a free ride folks.

My friends in France and the UK pay twice what we do and look at our situation with great glee.

After all, we are finally joining the great world market.

And market forces are doing this.

Supply and demand.

We use more and more each year. The Hummer society.

Now we are paying for it.

In the end, it is my opinion that only 7-8 dollar gas will have us face reality and cut down on wasteful use of petroleum. We will ride buses and trains. This is already happening in LA.

It is the only thing that will work.

Nothing in any politician's energy policy will save us, and the world, from asphyxiation. Only the market itself.

Of course there are some alternatives but not for cars.

The plug in vehicle plugs in to an oil based generation system. Maybe wind will do it. Or nukes. But probably not.

This is the first symptom of global warming that is eco-regulating.

The world is taking action where we will not.

Yeh, I know that's a stretch. But if we won't quit burning fuel, the world will just stop us from taking the fuel out of the ground.

I really do not mind paying the right amount for gas. I am not entitled to a fixed price.

Neither are you.

Labels: ecology, environment, global warming

TOXIC WASTE

When we cleaned out the house closets a few weeks ago, we gathered all the shit we had accumulated along with the construction waste in one spot in the carport.

Then we called 1-800-GOT JUNK to come get it.

They came and did the estimate, then run over the estimate, thing which so many vendors do now. Just plan on a 20% bump. They don't get that we would have tipped 20 per man if this had not happened. Or care, I suppose.

I digress.

They did take all the junk except the ABOP stuff.

That would be anitfreeze, batteries, oil and paint.

We have the previous owner and our own in this category.

The junkies can't take it. Not allowed.

We have to take it over to the ABOP center.

You have to go and get in a line, fill out papers and you can only drop off fifty pounds at a time although you can drive back through again.

This kind of bureaucratic shit goes against my grain. I don't do lines. I don't like forms.

If it is so fucking important to isolate this stuff, why do they make it so difficult to do the job?>

So we have a GI can out in the carport filled with hazardous waste and it will sit there until we get the ambition to take fifty pounds, box it and go to the center. Or find someone to do it for us.

The open at 7AM in the summer. Maybe that will work. No lines.

We will see.

What galls me is that the state will not allow any of this stuff in the regular trash and you will get cited for one can of paint.

In the past I have sort of seeded it into the regular trash. I might do it again.

A few bottles at a time.

But what if I get caught?

Will I have to pay a fine? Go to jail? I want to know the risk.

I know.

My attitude sucks.

Who said it didn't? Not me.

I am more than willing to 'do my part' as long as it doesn't inconvenience me.

A moral failing I suppose.

But there it is.

I have a feeling that I wrote about this before. If so, I am still unrepentant.

Labels: ecology

BAGGY

This is what we gotta do.

Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags

I just ordered my second set of resuables.

This time I am getting the heavy canvas kind.

Ecobags. See image.

The ones I got from my market are fine enough but they are already getting a big beaten up.

I am going to phase them out and put them in the cars for other places than the grocers.

This plastic bag thing is one of the worst environmental dangers.

They blow, they scatter, they will not ever deteriorate.

They get into the oceans.

They are killers.

Props to the Irish.

Labels: ecology, nature

ROLLER COA$TER

The stock market has been doing one of those tummy turning up and down things over the last couple of weeks.

For someone whose occupation is 'nest egg keeper', this can be a bit trying.

It would be a lot more trying if I was only in stocks and if I managed my own portfolio.

But I am not and I do not.

I am spread, as they say, and the portfolio is managed by real people for a flat fee. No commissions.

They do pretty well.

I have managed to continually withdraw a good living from my savings with them remaining more or less constant.

The ever-full granary.

And I have been through more turbulent times than this.

But this is the one I am watching now. Hence. Well, 'hence' not much.

I don't get all twisted about it anymore.

Last week I took a paper loss equivalent to half a year of retirement living. This week I got a lot of it back.

I only look at the results once a week.

Today it is up and down.

I told those silly ass bastards not to give high risk mortgages but do you think that they would listen?

I have friends who were flipping houses. I sort of told them too.

Now the rest of us are going to get our asses kicked because of a few greedy bastards.

Such is the ecological balance of the economy.

But, I have come to believe that what goes down must come up as what goes up must come down.

The theory of cycles. Unremitting cycles.

Hey. Look at this!

Labels: ecology, economy

NO PLASTIC

There is a strong movement to ban plastic bags in stores.

Pressure Builds to Ban Plastic Bags in Stores

We used re-usable bags way back when we shopped in Boston.

Then we came out here and somehow the discipline collapsed.

But I am back on board.

The stores here are promoting reusable cloth bags. They look like paper bags complete with the store logo.

99 cents at Staters.

I have mine.

I think that I wrote about this.

They not only save the plastic but they hold more. They stay put in the Cherokee. They keep cool things cool.

They are way better.

Labels: culture, ecology