One irrepressible man's squint at the metaphorical signposts, songbirds, soapboxes, street musicians, and hot dog stands of life.
Criticism, lyricism, polemics, performance, and making change... all with mustard.
According to almost every online source that commented on it, the round disk in the sky on the last day of 2009 was a “blue moon,” a term commonly used for the second full moon in any calendar month.
Commonly—and erroneously.
The internet offers near-instant access to information. It is ironic that in some cases this easy of access decreases accuracy.
Wikipedia explains the term clearly and correctly:
A blue moon is … Continue Reading
Hundreds of millions of people will watch Avatar. They will walk out with an overwhelming neuronal experience, some of it very bad…and I suspect James Cameron is unaware of what he has done. This is not about the film’s B-movie plot; I railed about that here.
Once the eye candy is consumed—and it is uniquely delicious—a residual trace will be left in the wiring of those multimillions who sat down to be entertained, but were unconsciously lulled into the comfort of Cameron’s non-reality. I am not referring to his alien worlds. It is the triumph of the little man over the futuristic military-industrial juggernaut that poisons.
While Cameron is over-stimulating audiences with the endorphin rush … Continue Reading
What a movie! I could not find a single negative review. Everyone thinks this is a fantastic film in every regard.
I don’t.
Avatar—no doubt about it— takes filmmaking to new heights. The visuals are without parallel, and it is worth the ticket for the unprecendented, 3-D eye experience alone. But the story…
Since July, I have been studying and following the progress of a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) as it has been tested by Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy at The Geysers, an active geothermal field just 12 air miles from my home in Northern California.
A week ago, New York Times reporter James Glanz wrote that Altarock Energy “has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned.” 
Only one day before this report, the controversial Basel, Switzerland, project that was supposed to lead the EGS technology parade was also abandoned.
Obama’s Department of Energy was a financial sponsor of the AltaRock venture. Google and others had invested. Yet AltaRock’s website makes no mention of this major corporate setback.
There will be more news, I suspect.
My earlier posts are:
Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes—7/2/09
Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes (Part 2)—7/16/09
Enhanced Geothermal Energy Project Halted in The Geysers—9/3/09
Is the Production of Geothermal Energy in The Geysers a “Public Nuisance”?—9/27/09
Just arrived: an email announcing the “the launching of a State Vaccination H1N1 Program.”
It commands: “you need to create your personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the Centers for Disease Control website.” Purporting to come from CDC in Atlanta <Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <h1n1@cdcdelivery.gov>, mine actually came from
Peru.
It’s phishing. Trash it without opening the attachment that asks you to, “create your Personal H1N1 Vaccination Profile” by clicking a link that opens a Trojan horse … Continue Reading
In a previous post, I spoke about “Little Songs on Big Subjects,” tunes of tolerance written by Hy Zaret & Lou Singer and performed by The Jesters.
The album, recalled with great nostalgia by many, was recorded in the late-40s. It is long out of print and almost completely unavailable. The album was widely played on radio and was used in cartoons shown on early regional television. Here are the lyrics to one of the “little songs, “Ol’ Commodore Gray, and below, a link to its musical cartoon … Continue Reading
Earlier this year Buffy Sainte-Marie released her 18th album, Running for the Drum.
Her first album, It’s My Way, for which she was awarded Billboard’s Best New Artist in 1964, included Universal Soldier, which has become an anthem for peace. Her song, Until It’s Time for You to Go, was a huge popular success and has been covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, and Cher.
Effectively blacklisted during the Johnson and Nixon administrations because of her outspoken politics, she was a regular on Sesame Street for five years beginning in 1975. And in 1982, She won an Oscar for Up Where We Belong from the film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Nonetheless, many have forgotten her.
I’m reminding.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, orbiting Saturn, has sent back some astounding photographs from a distance of nearly one billion miles. Click here for a couple of dozen that will amaze and intrigue.
It’s ironic, maybe even macabre, that while Sarah Palin and some other Republicans raised the spectre of Health Plan Death Panels (even though they did not exist…see my previous post), actual Death Panels have lurked in the catacombs of the Texas Health and Safety Code (Section 166.046) for a decade.
A 1999 bill signed by then-governor George W. Bush … Continue Reading
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