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January 28, 2006
A town in Italy that's inside a deep valley doesn't get sunlight during several months of the year, and they've come up with a horrific "solution": installing a giant mirror on a neighboring mountain to reflect sunlight into their town's piazza (that's Italian for "town square").
Even worse, we're informed that other cities in Canada, the U.S., and France are looking into similar plans.
Obviously, attempts like this will simply exacerbate global warming, reflecting the sun back to previously cool areas, heating the Earth and leading us to a global catastrophe. Some cities are even considering sawing the tops off mountains to get sunlight.
However, these plans set me to thinking, and I've asked several members of my Arcata Project to look into this matter.
What if we installed giant mirrors on high mountains, and had them reflect the sunlight back into space? We could even use the Hubble Space Telescope to carry giant - but lightweight - foil "sun reflectors" so some of the Sun's heat doesn't reach the Earth.
Of course, this would just be a stopgap measure until we can elect President Gore in 2008, then we can finally ratify the Kyoto Accords and start to work on a real solution and stop the coming global superstorm.
Posted by Lori Gold to Lori Gold
at 01:54 PM
January 26, 2006
The Washington Post reports on Virginia Delegate John S. "Jack" Reid who claims to have accidentally fired a gun he was carrying in his office. The bullet - miracles of miracles - hit his bullet-proof vest which was hanging on a hat rack. Reid is - of course - a Republican.
Something about this story doesn't smell right. The WaPo treats this as a joke. Some joke: a gun being fired inside the heart of Virginia's state government. And, what are the chances of an accidental shot finding its way to a bullet-proof vest?
When all other claims have been discredited, one finds the truth. That truth the WaPo overlooks seems to be AB 717, the Virginia bill that would condemn global warming and support the "Kyoto 2" treaty. While, of course, Virginia has no power to propose or directly support Kyoto 2, it's the thought that counts. World leaders from Hugo Chavez to Fidel Castro to Kofi and Kojo Annan to Al Gore and Jimmy Carter support AB 717, but Reid is a strong opponent of this bill. Could - and I stress this is only speculation - could he have been trying to send a message to his Gaia-friendly colleagues?
And, where is the Washington Post in all this? Making jokes, as if global warming is a laughing matter. Shame on them.
Posted by Ariadne to Ariadne
at 11:25 PM
January 15, 2006
*** HUFFANDBLOW EXCLUSIVE ***
Earlier today I spoke to my friend Alec Baldwin about the recent anti-pr0n crusade of his brother Stephen Baldwin. From his new home outside Paris, France, Alec told me that he completely disagrees with the actions of the "outlaw" Baldwin brother:
On Friday, Baldwin, 39, stood outside the "adult entertainment" shop and photographed workers and their vehicles as they got the store ready to open, according to an account in the Journal-News of White Plains, N.Y. Baldwin told the paper he planned to stand outside the store every day and photograph the license plates of the store's patrons to aid in tracking down their identities. He vowed to take out a full-page newspaper advertisement once a month to publish those names.
Alec told me that he was limited in what he could discuss due to pending legal action. They're currently trying to not only disown Stephen, but have him forced to legally change his last name to something else. "How about Stephen Bush? That has a nice ring to it", Alec told me.
"Senator" (as I call him) Alec said that in general he and his brothers completely oppose Stephen because of his various reactionary views. "He's an Xian, and he's a neo-con conservative right-wing reactionary. We completely oppose his views. Not only that, he's a blue-nose. We fully support the rights of small businesses no matter their nature. If I were mayor of Nyack, I would not only put an end to his 'crusade', I would encourage more small businesses to open there."
Developing...
Posted by Ward to Ward Beecher
at 01:25 PM
January 13, 2006
I'll save you reading this week's Rolling Stone feature on the top news stories of 2005.
One of their choices involves a close friend of mine: Rupert Stix. You've probably seen his name in relation to the "strange" doings at a horse farm in Enumclaw, Washington State. One of our common friends - Edgar Hoffenstein - was, in effect, thrown off a horse at that farm and died. According to Rolling Stone, this tragedy is apparently funny.
It isn't funny to those of us who love horses, and in a most intimate fashion. The love that dare not utter its name is more widespread than Jann's rag would like you to believe. "Sexual identity is part of the genre of narrativity," says Foucault. The without/within distinction depicted in Madonna’s Material Girl emerges again in Sex. It could be said that Derrida suggests the use of Marxist socialism to challenge the status quo.
Indeed.
Edgar hadn't done anything wrong, but you might not know that from this piece which focuses on the statements of the local district attorneys and various so-called "animal rights experts". Edgar loved horses, he wasn't out to infringe on any of their rights. Sontag promotes the use of textual objectivism to read and analyse sexual identity. In a sense, the main theme of the works of Madonna is the common ground between truth and society. [1] After reading Jann's attempt at yellow journalism, you might think that people practicing alternative sex and confronting their gender identity were damaged, self-destructive individuals in need of help. You might think they had a disease to be cured, kind of the way we used to look at homosexuality (and some people in Bush country still do). You might think that investigating animal love would destroy your career. [2] It's pretty sad when the magazine responsible for much of the best creative non-fiction ever published, the magazine that married music and politics, decides to go the way of a right-wing tabloid rag.
In Erotica, Madonna reiterates the pretextual paradigm of reality; in Sex she examines social realism. In a sense, if the subdialectic paradigm of narrative holds, we have to choose between social realism and Lacanist obscurity.
Let us.
Previously: "What Rolling Stone isn't telling you about Global Warming"
Posted by John Ciccilini to John Ciccilini
at 09:59 PM
