Category: Nature & The Environment
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Our forefathers were responsible for global warming. I don't know if this article belongs in Joe's friend's blog, NCBI ROFL.
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The longest total solar eclipse of this century started in India on Wednesday morning and is sweeping eastward. The New York Times has a report by a blogger who is chasing the eclipse. My previous post on total solar eclipse is here. As per Anna's suggestion (see comments), I have since then read Annie Dillard's essay, "Total Eclipse."
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1. I imagine the average music listener has as much trouble teasing apart the different musical lines, instruments and voices in a symphony (say) as I do. Why isn’t there a product category on the market where the different voices in a piece are all recorded individually? With a suitable software interface, you’d be able…
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Summer has arrived early in Houston this year. June, usually a much cooler month than July and August, is sizzling. Most years around this time, it feels more like late spring or early summer with temperatures in the mid to upper 80s. Instead, the thermometer has hovered around readings more reminiscent of broiling mid-summer for the past several weeks. After a long spell of near 100 degree temps, there…
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Apparently lamb is a particularly bad (i.e. high-carbon) food because sheep burp a lot of methane. They're actually worse than cows. On the other hand, lamb is delicious. And I can't stop laughing at the thought of choosing food based on how much methane it burps.
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I am sure everyone saw this item in the news yesterday on TV or on the web. There is really nothing chemically or nutritionally yucky here. I guess one just has to get used to the idea. At the international space station, it was one small sip for man and a giant gulp of recycled urine for mankind. Astronauts…
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I was going to write two posts about matters musical, but it’ll wait. First, Krugman has an NYT column about global warming and China, where he says the Chinese need to cut back on emissions, and should face economic sanctions if they don’t voluntarily do so fast enough: As the United States and other advanced…
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Less than a year ago, I recounted my experience of living through a hurricane both before and after the storm. Although Ike was technically a Category 2 hurricane (falling 1 mph short of Cat 3), it has been repeatedly described as a monster storm and the devastation it wreaked on the cities of Galveston and Houston qualified it…
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It is April in Texas and my friend Linda has again sent out some spectacular pictures of wild flowers ablaze in the countryside. This year, there are no surprises among the blooms as there was last year. Enjoy. (click to enlarge)
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So apparently there’s some other CO2 problem that doesn’t get talked about as much as rising temperatures. CO2 forms carbonic acid when it dissolves in water, and the oceans are soaking up more and more of it. Recent studies show that the seas have absorbed about a third of all the fossil-fuel carbon released into…
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In the last few weeks since Ike struck the coast of Texas, you have heard a lot about my thirteen days without electricity, entire neighborhoods without power and water and massive havoc wreaked on the infrastructure of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula. All that pertains to man made edifices of modern living. Ike was a…
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Today is the sixth consecutive day that our house is without electricity. We are minimally functional with borrowed electricity from our neighbors through an extension cord. After six days, I am getting used to it and learning to improvise around the limited access to electricity – a situation which would otherwise have been a debilitating…
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Every few months, along with the water bill, I receive a little brochure from the water company that assures me that the level of coliform and fecal bacteria in the water that flows through the taps has been tested at well below required levels. Ditto for the amounts of lead and other heavy metals and…
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Thanks Sujatha, for putting up the post about Ike – that was very accurate reporting. Thanks also to everyone who had called or emailed to enquire after our safety – many of them fellow bloggers. I have access to the computer today. So a quick update on Ike and Me. Most of you have seen…
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I just spoke briefly with Ruchira a short while ago.While they are currently without power, there’s no structural damage to the home and the water is still on. It may be a few days before Ruchira gets back online, though. She said that it was a very bad storm, the worst that she has ever…
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