Gwobow Woming Wuds

fun with words at the supreme court:

"Isn't it intuitively reasonable to suppose that with some reduction of the greenhouse gases, there will be some reduction of the ensuing damage or the ensuing climate change which causes the damage?"

“So the harm is already occurring. It is ongoing, and it will happen well into the future.”

“Why do they have to show a precise correlation? It is reasonable to suppose that some reduction in the gases will result in some reduction in future loss.” It was “a question of more or less, not a question of either/or,” he said, adding: “They don’t have to stop global warming. Their point is that it will reduce the degree of global warming and likely reduce the degree of loss.”

“Would you be up here saying the same thing if we’re trying to regulate child pornography, and it turns out that anyone with a computer can get pornography elsewhere?”

now these:

"There's something of a consensus on warming, but not a consensus on how much is attributable to human activity,"

“You have to show the harm is imminent. I mean, when is the cataclysm?”

"I think it has to endanger health by reason of polluting the air, and this does not endanger health by reason of polluting the air at all,"

motor vehicles account for only about 6 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, even aggressive federal regulation would not be great enough to make a difference

“That assumes everything else is going to remain constant, though, right? It assumes there isn’t going to be a greater contribution of greenhouse gases from economic development in China and other places that’s going to displace whatever marginal benefit you get here.”

“Congress has not authorized it to embark on this regulatory endeavor.”

[T]he federal government should not be forced "to embark on the extraordinarily complex and scientifically uncertain" global issue of greenhouse gas emissions. "Now is not the time to exercise such authority."


::

So global warming has reached the supreme court. I'm not sure where this case is at this point. there was a lot of reporting on it about 1 week ago, and I haven't heard much since then. The stakes may or may not be that big for the larger issue of energy. I think the best to hope for is that the supreme court orders the EPA to reconsider their policy--not much of a threat, but these legal precedents have a way of becoming influential, no?

What's with the China/rest of the world argument? Why would that ever be an argument? It's as if he's ignoring one simple fact: if it can work in america, it can work anywhere, just like democracy or free markets. Ok bad examples, but you get the idea--we play some kind of alleged leadership role in the world. It's not that the rest of the world will obediently fall in to step. But if it makes money in america, a lot of money, everyone will notice. The new energy project, some say, can make a lot of money. I think it could potentially create a bigger economic impact than the internet (or internal combustion? steam power? ceramics?).

So what's the problem? If it's going to be such a good thing and make all kinds of money, why aren't people just striking ahead. Well, some are. But the thing is they don't really have to right now. "It's" not really a problem right now. Many businesses are dipping their toes in mostly due to the buzz surrounding greater energy efficiency. The argument here seems to be whether or not dipping our toes is adequate, or if instead we need to clamp down with some federal regulations (mind you it's still not really "diving in" because this case is only about car emissions. I'm not even sure if this includes truck and bus, and I know it doesn't include factories).

So let's not dally with whether or not we should do anything because 'what's it going to matter anyways no one else is going to do anything.' We should do something, of course. Scalia is right by framing the argument on imminence, but why does he pitter patter about stratosphere versus atmosphere? The issue of imminent doom is an interesting one in this case. The case for invading Iraq also hinged on imminence--sadaam posed an immediate threat according to our intelligence. But climate change is not the same as WMD's. I think by the time global warming is an imminent threat, there will be nothing we can do about it. Perhaps there is nothing we can do now, but I still think we should try.

media updates and PVDS

some very interesting things recently online. Two interviews with reclusive and mysterious musicians reveal two very normal guys that seem... pretty nice.

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/55757

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/39683/Interview_Interview_Tom_Waits

check em out, good reads. Jesse, catch the merkin reference in one.

secondly, let me just say that PBS is the shit. I know that I talk smack about television almost on a daily basis. I despise television. I judge people that regularly watch television. I think quality of life is inversely related to amount of television watched, more specifically amount of advertisements ingested. (Don't think that you can avoid my judgement simply by muting the commercials. Product placement is out of control--advertisements work in incredibly devious ways.) This isn't to say that I'm completely outside of it either. I've had shows--Arrested Development, Battlestar Gallactica--that I've watched on DVD. It's just as bad; it's terrible. It's like a drug state.

But PBS is the shit. This is what television was envisioned as when it was invented--educational. Ok, some of the british comedies are not too educational or even fun. Believe me, I sat through an entire 12 minute episode of "Never The Twain" last night and it nearly killed me. But by and large PBS delivers. This Old House, Ask This Old House, Frontline, Car Talk, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, and the show about old timey wood working are all quality programs. You learn when you watch them.

Last night I tuned in to Charlie Rose and he was having a very interesting conversation with the CEO and Founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. This man was amazing. Some of you may know that energy is my number one political/social issue, so of course my interest was skewered. But this guy was a great speaker--articulate, calm, metaphorical in a fresh way. I want to go work for him. As a bonus, the Rocky Mountain Institute is located in Snowmass, CO. Probably not a bad place to work. Unfortunately I hold no advanced degrees in architecture or engineering. However, Amory B. Lovins, Chief Executive Officer of Rocky Mountain Institute, if you're reading this, and I hope you are, me can read real good and me can write decent too. Also, I really care about energy, so please hire me.

Some interesting notes from Mr. "Alternative Energy" Lovins, apparently the Pentagon is his number one pick for leading energy independence. The military is apparently leading the way for alternative energies, because 70% of their total energy usage is spent on "logistics," of which most is dedicated to transporting (vulnerable) fuel to operations centers. What else... he had some very interesting ideas on how to make cars 3 times more efficient (hybrid, lighter materials, fuel cells), and he grows banana trees in his house despite not having a furnace (the home is heated with solar and other fun power sources). The coolest thing about his whole shpeel is that he is very market oriented--all of his solutions apparently turn profits. This is really the only way that this whole deal is going to work, in my mind, because the type of innovation needed will only be driven by competition.

Anyways, he says it all better so check out the links.

Lastly, I am suffering from Post Visitor Depression Syndrome (PVDS). Visitors left on saturday, sunday I was a shell of a man. I've done essentially not a single thing since saturday. It's hard coming home to no one smoking on the patio and no one to anticipate plans of reverie for. Oh well, Molly and I will pull on through. Probably the cat will get a lot of attention this week. Anyways we had some really good times last week. Notably, the organ hike, high desert (which shows up as 'high dessert' on your bill), amazing yardwork, radium, gila awesomeness, thanksgiving awesomeness, that italian joint, and on and on. Thanks for coming one and all, and let that be a message to you non-visitors--come come we'll have fun.

class, carrie, clear channel

I talked to my friend Alex last night for about 1 hour on the phone. Very nice guy from Minneapolis. He worked on Ellison's campaign (first muslim in congress, I think?), and he had some interesting things to say about the whole process. He agreed with what I was saying in my blog yesterday and summed it up very succinctly. "Some people are entirely too attached to the word 'democrat.'"


Class has been building steam lately. It's strange to see the (circadian?) ups and downs of energy in a large group dynamic. Because there are weeks where everyone is down, and then there are weeks like these last two weeks where people are just amped. I wonder if it has something to do with city water additives or some type of waste gas from the secretive white sands missile range. But then am I affected too? At any rate class was very fun today. Students were off the wall and laughing and talking smack to eachother--but most importantly actually working on their projects in a somewhat convincingly involved way.


I'm at a good stage with them where I give lots of slack and space for them to do what they want, but at the same time I have a shadow of authority. In other words, they are starting to understand that I can and will fail them for the semester or send them to the office if they piss me off--either of which would result in lengthy and painful parent/teacher/student conferences. Nobody wants that.


A few of my more jovial students have taken to calling me April. I told them that my parents thought at one point that I was going to be born a girl, and if so, I would be called 'April.' Is this story true? I think so, but maybe that's just something I had a dream about when I was very young and it perhaps became a memory. Mom, was I going to be April? Or was I just supposed to be born in April? Anyways, some of my students think it is hilarious that I was (am) supposed to be a GIRL! And to top the sweet cherry pie of humiliation, I have LONG HAIR! None of this really bothered me too much, but they would not let it go. Everyday, "Hey April!" "What's Up April!" On and on to the point of well defined disrespect. So yesterday I point at the 3 of them in turn and christened them female names. "You're Monica, you're Lisa, and you're Stephanie." They stopped calling me April today.


Last night I read Stephen Kings, _Carrie_. Molly had brought it from Onate because it is one of the possible book club books for her kids, and she can get hours for reading it. It is a short book so it's no major feat to read it in one night, but by about 20 pages in I knew that I would have to finish it in one sitting. What a great story. Typical King in its awkward phrasing and sometimes ham-fisted plot development. But always with King there is a spark of something really special. The brunt of his quality comes in the sheer spectacle of most of his stories. He has an audacity or flair in the substance of his stories--an alien clown terrorizing children from the sewers, a werewolf priest killing the town's teens, or a high school girl who develops incredible telekinesis. Nobody is (or was) writing about this stuff. The other thing I always appreciate about King is his attention to little details that really flesh out a character. Usually these details build to a character that is 1 or 2 dimensional--but the dimensions are clear and effective for what he needs them for. There are too many to start to list and my memory isn't that good, but when you do read one of his stories it might strike you--'oh, that's wicked, only a truly evil weirdo would put rubber gloves on in this part--or something like that.


One other thing that struck me about Carrie is the parallels between it and Lars Von Trier's film, _Dogville_. Both stories feature a persecuted female lead who realizes a position of power in the end of the film. What sets both stories apart from most other stories of this kind is the utter lack of sympathy or forgiveness that the persecuted leads have for their assailants. Both of these stories end in complete destruction for the people that brought harm to the leads. I think this would strike most of us as amoral; we are supposed to turn the other cheek, and forgiveness is the highest form of love and all that. These two stories really challenge all that because we the viewers share in the delight of the main character as they kill off everyone that fucked with them. We get to the breaking point and we know what's coming and we want it to happen--we want complete destruction. Is this a skillful manipulation on the authors' part, or is it simply an exposition of something deeper within us, something that goes directly against forgiveness?


I talked to a conspiracy theorist a while back in Minneapolis (not Jesse), and he was rapping to me for a long time about how christianity is a slave religion dreamed up by pharaohs and dictators to control and subjugate the masses. The meek shall inherit the earth, turn the other cheek, basically don't fight back no matter what because life sucks now but you'll get something good when you die. Keep the slaves in line. It's an interesting idea that this major religion is a purposely constructed social device, and I think there might be something to that. However this goes completely against the idea that Jesus actually did walk the earth and that he did preach neighborly love and forgiveness. Not sure where I stand on that one. Obviously the issue is more complicated that this summary, but I do like the idea of neighborly love and forgiveness... but what if something got omitted from Jesus' message (by "the dictators")? What if he said 'yes, but up until a certain point. Then you kill the bastards because they're pure evil anyways.'


It's an interesting opposition anyways--to leave the killing and judging up to 'god' or to take matters into your own hands (and at what point). Check out Carrie and also I highly recommend Dogville, even though it is challenging and disrupting and hard to watch and 3.5 hours long. This all ties into my business idea that addresses the need for a destructive outlet within (or without) our thoroughly utilitarian culture (I can't say anything more, and please tentative board of directors and shareholders out there--stay quiet).


In recent news, clear channel was bought out by some type of consortium that includes some company called the Bain Group. So now Bain owns clear channel. We live in Gotham City. Estimated value of the deal is 25 BILLION DOLL HAIRS. Things have not gone through all the way yet--we are still at the "we've accepted the bid" stage. There will most likely be congressional hearings and other investigations. What does this mean? I'm trying to imagine a worse state of mass media... I guess it's possible. I used to work for clear channel.

election results

I suppose a blog on the elections is a little late in the coming as far as the blogosphere is concerned... but I did have a brief collection of thoughts. The dems won. I didn't vote. I suppose I could've voted absentee in Minnesota. If I wanted to vote in New Mexico, we would've had to have registered more than a month early. There is no same-day registration in this state. Not that registering is that hard, but when you're not on a campus you don't really think about it in september.

So yeay! We have the first female speaker of the house, which is a kick for gender equality. That racist weirdo with the noose and the 'macaca' was ousted in virginia--most likely quashing his bid for the presidency as well. In minnesota the first muslim representative was elected to the house--Keith Ellison. My friend from MLAC--Alex--worked on his campaign. So there are some things that I am excited about.

However, I really don't feel like the 'tide has turned.' I really did get freaked for a while with the way civil rights were being threatened in the last couple years. I also worry about our image and reception abroad--as a person who wants to travel the world and not be persecuted. So it seems good that those things have perhaps been corked or have a better chance of not increasing if the dems control at least some aspect of governance. But at the same time, the dems are not my saviors. They seem as a group too irresolute or just too resolute on hating republicans. Still there is no political party that is seriously talking about or funding or solving the problem of foreign oil. Still we have no unified vision for the need of environmental protection. And don't even get me started on foreign policy. For all the rhetoric about protecting poor people at home, it seems the democrats are no better than anyone when it comes to ending poverty on a global scale. (Considering the inter-global workings of our country this century, this is not an unthinkable goal.) When it comes to actually doing something about poverty, the US christians, in various groupings, take the cake. Don't get me started about Darfur and the dems.

So it seems that our country took a small step in the right direction for people that "love freedom." But really the victories were by and large not landslides (they haven't been for the last 10 years), and corporate control is still the rule of the land.

I will have true hope and optimism when someone in power starts saying something like this:

1. Free energy research rooted in healthy environmental policy.
2. Education in America (pre-university) sucks and we need to make it not sucky.
3. (fantasy) AmeriCorps should lead to greater, more hassle-free college debt relief.

Scientists are amazing.

Seriously, how do they come up with some of this shit? Today an article in the nytimes described a newly discovered crater in the indian ocean. A rogue group of scientists believes this is THE crater that caused the "biblical" floods of circa 2000BC. There are "legends" and myths from all over the world that indicate massive and catastrophic floods from around that time. So this group of scientists starts using Google earth to scour satellite photos in search of a particular land formation called a "chevron." The found several chevrons in madagascar that all pointed towards the indian ocean. next they scan the surface of the ocean using satellites again, to detect changes in "sea level" on the scale of fractions of an inch. Certain patterns in the changes of sea level indicate certain underwater geological formation; one patter corresponds to the "crater." Next, they go down and take earth samples from the crater. They predict and eventually find a number of indicators for "cosmic impact," such as certain fossils fused together, ratios of certain metals, and certain rock formations...

What the fuck? Who thinks of this stuff? It makes me feel like a caveman when I read about stuff like this. "no, you can't go to the bathroom, you went twice yesterday," "no, you can't put coins in the kiln," "don't you have anything you can work on?" "I think I'm going to make a little bowl with a funny lip. ha ha." That's my life. Not, hmmm... I wonder if I isolate a certain clay polymer and transition if laterally via the throwing wheel while at the same time mixing a carbon slip in my centerfuge and listening to free jazz... I can perhaps create the worlds best vessel ever. Some artists are very scientific (Mark Pharis, mata ortiz potters)... not me. I just try to make funny things that I think are interesting and there is no need for internal logic.

Just imagine if artists switched roles with scientists. First of all there would probably be a lot more work lying around the ceramics studio, and you would probably see a much greater connection or linear movement from piece to piece. Next, you would probably see much more rigorous working methods, a cleaner studio, and pots that were actually finished through to the end. Now let's go over to the science lab where the artist is working. Look! He glued those two beakers together and there's some type of chemical mix bubbling over there in the corner! Hey artist, did you come up with any advances for humanity today? No, I couldn't really think of anything... but I did arrange everything in the studio from biggest to smallest. And the furniture is rearranged too for maximum "breathing room."

Honestly my money is with the scientists. I feel like if I went back to school I would've liked to pursue that botany interest I had my freshman year... except I really think about it and I don't really have the tempermant to be a scientist. In fact my only hope for the future lies with the scientists and the politicians that fund or don't fund them. By this of course I mean the utopian "manhattan project" for free energy--cold fusion or some such thing. Perhaps a pipe dream but in my mind the only true hope for a sustainable future. At any rate, the ceramicists will not be contributing to that project. Oh well, we can't really choose what or who we love. I'll take Steven Stills advice on this one.

In other personal news, we are having our first visitors this weekend--Jesse and Katie. Whew they won't come soon enough. This is a good time for visitors. We need people to come see us. We were actually talking about having someone from minneapolis move down here with us to help lower costs but also to help make merry. It's not all that bad though. MOlly and I do a pretty good job, with the help of olive, of keeping eachother entertained. Roy and Nan will follow on their heels on tuesday of next week. so we'll have a grand party. Strange how I use all of your first names, considering you are 4 of the 5 people that read this blog. The fifth being Uncle George. So, George, roy and nan and katie and jesse are coming out.

what else what else,,, funny stories think of a funny story. I think funny things happen to me but I don't catalogue them for future sharing. This often happens with Molly and I. She'll do something really wacky and funny that's pretty inventive and I'll just go, "yeah, that's good." This is because my weird meter is set pretty high. You really have to do something strange to register on my weird-dar. Oh, I know something weird! I had a cold last week, and once I cleared out both barrels in the shower and the effluent hung from my nose to my hip! Isn't that something? Shit, I told myself a long time ago that this blog wouldn't become a record of my bodily functions... I've let down my ancestors today.

Reading: portrait of the artist as a young man, a room of one's own, the awakening.

Listening: sonic youth murray street, deerhof, sleater kinney the woods

Internet recommendation: www.zefrank.com