shimmer

ABC News: Scientists OK Gore's Movie for Accuracy: By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON Jun 27, 2006 (AP)— The nation's top climate scientists are giving 'An Inconvenient Truth,' Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.

The former vice president's movie replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book.

But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of fossil fuels."

Read the whole story...

Posted by Jean at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

Why sure, because as you can see on my 43 Things list (in the sidebar), one of my goals is to "keep improving the design of my blog and start blogging regularly."

So I got myself on over to Blogger Templates and picked up a little something nice for myself. Bright and cheery... I like it! I hope you do too. If you have suggestions for the blog's design, feel free to offer them.

The new template made my black heart art really big! I was going to try and make it smaller, but then I decided I liked it.

More coming soon... probably even after lunch!

Posted by Jean at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

Over the last weekend, I saw the film An Inconvenient Truth, featuring the U.S. President-in-Exile, Al Gore.

Damn, I wish he'd run again. I like him.

Anyway, whether you like Gore or not, this movie is really a must-see. We are heating the earth up, and we are the ones who will live with--or die from--the consequences.

One of the arguments skeptics of global warming often make is that the earth routinely heats up and cools down. Well, this is true. However, the planet is heating up more and more drastically, due to the massive amounts of CO2 (carbon dioxide) we humans are putting into the atmosphere.

The amounts of CO2 now in the atmosphere, due to human activity, are dramatically higher than ever before (we learn this from analyzing the ice core, as well as other geologic science). The earth's temperature directly correlates with the amount of CO2 in the environment; the CO2 captures the radation from the sun, which heats the planet. Of course, we need some of that, but too much is not good for us!

I don't want to wreck the movie, and I'm not really that great at explaining scientific phenomena anyway... but this movie lays out the evidence, dispels the myths the oil companies and others try to feed us, and demonstrates that we really need to make some changes.

But allow me to show just one photo that helps demonstrate the effect of global warming:



This is Mount Kilimanjaro. The yellow lines are where the ice cap was in 1962. You can see how far it's receded. In case you're wondering, that's not normal behavior for this mountain.

So, uh, go see the movie already. Then make some changes in your life.

Posted by Jean at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

Several months ago, I saw the book Mason-Dixon Knitting at a big chain bookstore. I'm a big believer in independent bookstore, but you know, sometimes the big ones are just easier to find stuff at.

Anyway, I perused the book, and really liked it, but didn't want to spend the money on it that day. But I went back out and bought the book a few weeks ago, and now I CAN'T STOP KNITTING!

I'm knitting these "warshcloths" like crazy.

I also bought several skeins of Blue Sky cotton in tomato, stone, fern, and toffee. My idea was to make a log cabin blanket. I can't decide, though, whether I should knit the Moderne Log Cabin from the book (plan A); log cabin style covers for the throw pillows in our front room, as a test (plan B); or throw caution to the wind and just start log cabining with this lovely yarn (plan C). But that's OK, I can always knit more warshcloths while I'm making up my mind!

Anyway, love, love, love the Mason-Dixon knitting!

Posted by Jean at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments

I knew it had been a while since I'd posted, but how time does fly!

Life has, as usual, been exceedingly busy. Death has been visiting us again; a friend, just 41 years old, finally lost her long battle with breast cancer. Hubby's mother died a week ago, leaving him a mess of unresolved emotion and legally cut out of the homesteaded land he grew up on, to boot. It's a fucked up deal at best.

My inititation journey moves along, slowly as ever. I'm told my progress is quite good, but I'm... not... quite... there... yet. Part of my journey has definitely been about PATIENCE.

I had a sinus surgery just a few weeks ago... what fun! OK, no it wasn't. It was similar to a surgery I had in 1994. That surgery was a nasal polypectomy... that means I had little nasal growths which needed to be surgically removed. Yuck! After that surgery, they packed my nose, which basically means they stick huge nose-tampons way up in your sinuses. Not very comfortable, I must say.

Still, for a couple of years before that surgery, I couldn't breathe out of my nose at all. In addition to removing the polyps, the surgeon cut away some additional tissue to clear my nasal passages. After the surgery, my breathing was clear as a bell.

I'd been having sinus problems for some time now, so I suspected I had polyps again. My ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist said it looked like one big polyp this time, but he also recommended a septoplasty, as my septum was leaning to one side, and a turbinate reduction, in which they burn these little swelly bits in your nose, so that they don't swell up quite so much anymore.

The polyp turned out to be a cyst, but the treatment was basically the same: get it out of there! No packing this time, but I got splints, which seemed equally nasty. These were flat, banana-shaped pieces of silicone, about the length of my index finger. Once the surgery pain settled down (about five days after surgery), the splints were the worst part. They came out one week after my surgery... what a relief that was!

Then, my daughter graduated from high school. She is so beautiful and grown up! I'm very proud of her. I got really weepy after the graduation. For one thing, my nose still hurt. But mostly, it was seeing my baby all grown up, and the knowledge that these days, when my children are still at home and close to me, are almost gone. It felt very bittersweet.

But I guess that's always true: These days are always almost gone.

Posted by Jean at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments