The Greenbelt

Unknown hawk

2009-11-22T12:38:00.002-05:00

It's a very gray day today. (In fact, it's started raining, my father just announced.) Not quite an hour ago, just before noon, a large bird caught my eye settling into a tree well down the western slope of Black Oak Ridge. A hawk of some sort - I don't know what. He was really too far away to be sure of his size, but bigger than a sharpie, that's for sure. Big. The distance and branches hid his tail, and the gray washed out his color, but he was very pale on the underside of his wings as well as his breast.

a game with "good moral values"

2009-11-22T07:38:00.002-05:00

Okay, I know this is Elly Patterson, and it's futile to hope for much from her, but still. Checkers has "good moral values"?

ummm

2009-11-21T11:48:00.003-05:00

Hmmm.

First, I'm not sure that telling a little girl - how old is Gracie, anyway? 10? - she might be too young to apply to college counts as "deprecat[ing]" her. Second, do colleges really only care about vocabulary? And third, since when does "expostulate" mean "deprecate, disparage, demoralize" or "sell short"?

Sky Watch: a floating sky

2009-11-19T21:11:00.004-05:00

A half an hour after dawn on Tuesday, these clouds float over the still-dark trees.

more Sky Watchers here

ORLY?

2009-11-19T18:34:00.002-05:00

She's wearing a tshirt that says "Dear God: Why do you allow so much violence in schools? - concerned student""Dear student: I'm not allowed in schools. - God"

What's she doing? "Praying that God will answer some prayers" and let slots come to Arundel Mills Mall.

Happy Birthday, Margaret

2009-11-18T05:50:00.001-05:00

Today in 1939, in Ottawa, Margaret Atwood was born.

I've read a lot of her work, but this remains my favorite:

Variation on the Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center.
I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

the perfect is the enemy of the good

2009-11-16T18:34:00.000-05:00

He who waits to do a good deal of good at once, will never do anything.

attributed, at least, to Samuel Johnson

the end of the world

2009-11-16T17:17:00.000-05:00

Back in January, Jeremy had trouble worrying about 2012.

Today, Brewster falls prey to the same thing.

Monday Science Links

2009-11-16T05:56:00.008-05:00

Here's this week's science:

Martin at Aarvachaeology offers us a silver figurine from storied Lejre in Denmark: She's wearing a floor-length dress. And a shawl. And four finely sculpted bead strings. This is a standard depiction of an aristocratic lady of the later 1st Millennium. The Lejre figurine is a direct counterpart to the Aska pendant (below), which is universally understood as the effigy of a goddess. The high seat is Odin's, allright. But the occupant is most likely Frigga or Freya. Or maybe, just maybe, Thor in drag during the hammer reclamation mission. That is so cool! This find will mess with everybody's mind!

Kim at All Of My Faults Are Stress Related discusses earthquake triggers vs. causes: There have been a number of studies in the past decade or so that suggest that earthquakes can be triggered by little things, such as the passage of seismic waves. The studies are fascinating, in part because the triggers seem so small in comparison to any other force (like the weight of the rock). How could such a little thing unleash an earthquake?

David at Irregular Web Comic muses on computer voice recognition: I know it's a hard problem to tackle from a computer science point of view. But I can't help feeling that we are puny ants on the face of an edifice of such size and elegance that we can't discern the patterns for which we seek. That computer science is tackling the problem of voice recognition in completely and utterly the wrong way.

Ed at Not Exactly Rocket Science tells the story of FOXP2, the 'language gene': Several years on, and it is clear that talk of a "language gene" was premature and simplistic. Nevertheless, FOXP2 tells an intriguing story. "When we were first looking for the gene, people were saying that it would be specific to humans since it was involved in language," recalls Simon Fisher at the University of Oxford, who was part of the team that identified FOXP2 in the KE family. In fact, the gene evolved before the dinosaurs and is still found in many animals today: species from birds to bats to bees have their own versions, many of which are remarkably similar to ours. "It gives us a really important lesson," says Fisher. "Speech and language didn't just pop up out of nowhere. They're built on very highly conserved and evolutionarily ancient pathways."

And at The White Coat Underground, PalMD looks at the resurgence of mumps: The resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases is a fascinating, if unwanted, phenomenon. Pertussis, measles, and now mumps are cropping up after long periods of quiescence. Mumps has been generally very well-controlled since the adoption of wide-spread vaccination, with no nation-wide outbreaks, but there have been a number of regional outbreaks, most notably in 2006 and now again in 2009. ... The vaccination rate among those infected was significantly lower than the average for New York state, but still somewhat high (around 72% for those in whom vaccination status was known). This is below herd immunity rates, but obviously raises questions.

Enjoy!

The Week in Entertainment

2009-11-15T23:53:00.006-05:00

TV: House: "You drugged me, you took my pants, you stole my paper... you don't ask what I want, you ignore me, you drug me-" "I'm waiting for you to name something new to our relationship." It does indeed sum up the House/Wilson relationship. The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming - I'm a sucker for this movie; every time I see on the guide, I have to watch it. Both The Mentalist and Numb3rs were good, especially Numb3rs. Family Man, which unlike several of Cage's recent films, wasn't bad. They lost me an hour and fifty minutes in, though: my disbelief couldn't quite handle the idea of there being only one "Kate Reynolds" in all of Manhattan. Definitely, Maybe which is quite a wonderful movie, really.

Read:Finished Nashi and Giants From Eternity, both of which are, in their very different ways, highly enjoyable. Began Jade Lady Burning, by Martin Limón which is so far fascinating (GI investigators looking into the murder of a Korean girl).

"Impact on the economy"

2009-11-15T14:44:00.006-05:00

The ad shows us Gramps flying off to visit his daughter and grandkids. The voice over reads the giant print:

Walmart saves the average family $3,100 a year, no matter where you shop.

And at the bottom of the screen it says

Based on Walmart's impact on the economy

Now, what does that mean? Are they telling us that Walmart depresses the local economy and drives prices down everywhere? (And if so, are they taking into account the job loss and depressed salaries as well?) And not just the local economy, but the economy of the whole country, "no matter where"? That would be a massive impact, indeed.

Actually, what they're doing is lying. I know, what a shock. The study by global Insight

talks about measuring the “cumulative price impact” of Wal-Mart since 1985. If the average American family has saved $3,100 over that time, that’s about $129 a year, not $3,100.

And that's assuming, which you really can't, that Walmart is actually responsible for the entire "savings". As Jim Ledbetter says,

the study also measured the impact on prices of many things that have little to do with Wal-Mart: energy costs, population growth, and unemployment. As I read the study, those factors combined are responsible for 89 percent of price variation. Wal-Mart and other factors are crumbs by comparison.

Ledbetter adds a rider on the whole concept that this is even a good thing:

And so if you believe that Wal-Mart’s lowering of prices is “good for the economy”—that’s how CNBC framed the discussion on Wednesday—it follows that the much larger downward pressures on prices are even better. Unemployment, in particular, seems to be very good at lowering prices. So if we like prices when 10 percent of Americans aren’t working, we would love them if 25 percent of Americans weren’t working! Clearly there is a problem with this line of thinking, and I think it’s evident to a junior high-school student: Lower prices are helpful to consumers, but they are only one piece of a larger economic pie. They are not, in and of themselves, the only economic good, and indeed if prices get too low—at Wal-Mart or anywhere else—it almost certainly means that something else is out of whack. (In Wal-Mart’s case, infamously low wages, perhaps, but that’s another article.)

Go over and read Ledbetter's whole article - he has some nice things to say about CNBC in general. And by nice, I mean critical.

Magical thinking

2009-11-14T10:28:00.008-05:00

I guess it's not surprising.

Some people commenting on the WDEF story about the highway 64 rockslide seem to seriously think the government's bombarding the moon caused the rockslide.

Of course, folks who live around there know better. As one local firefighter said, "It's pretty common to get rocks coming down, but it's the size and magnitude of this one. We had one three or four years ago that shut it down for, I guess, about a month." (Quote and photo Chattagnooga Times-Free Press)

But it's disheartening to see people leaping to magical thinking like this. Seismic events are pretty well understood, especially when mixed with heavy rain. The I-40 rockslide that happened last month is even worse: 40-50 feet high and hundreds of yards long, it will take months to clear (back in 1997 one took three).

Hitting the moon with a rocket doesn't cause rockslides on Earth. Driving a road through mountains in a temperate rain forest in an active seismic region does.

Happy Birthday, Claude

2009-11-14T08:20:00.000-05:00

Today in 1840 Claude Monet was born. One of the first Impressionists, Monet painted many series of paintings - the same subject from the same place under all different light and weather, exploring the idea that you can never really see the same thing twice. Here for instance are two from the Houses of Parliament series (above) and two from the Poplars on the Epte series (below).

(Monet at WebMuseum)

Picture vs Words

2009-11-14T08:16:00.002-05:00

You know that McDonald's commercial, the one with the guy wandering around trying to buy stuff for a dollar? The ad is careful to tell us that the sandwich or the dessert or "any of the fabulous Dollar Menu tastes" are a dollar. But what they show us is him handing over his one buck and enjoying a burger, parfait, and drink.

Four Freedoms

2009-11-13T19:25:00.002-05:00

Jeopardy! Teen Tournament ended today. (My pick won!)

The final question was His speech said "We look forward to a world founded upon" freedom of speech, of worship, from want and from fear.

Only one got it right - FDR, in case you don't remember. One said Patrick Henry.

One said ... I'm still laughing... Ronald Reagan.

Sky Watch: Red in the Morning

2009-11-13T18:12:00.003-05:00

On a gray day just before the rains set in, red maples catch what little light there is.

more Sky Watchers here

"Fans" and what they want

2009-11-13T15:55:00.003-05:00

According to TV Guide, Olivia Wilde thinks "the fans don't want to see Thirteen die a horrible death".

I admit to taking a certain pleasure in telling her that she's wrong. Oh, sure, she's using that generic plural thing, and I'm sure that somewhere out there there are indeed "fans" who like Hadley. But I don't know any. I and those I know who watch House do in fact want Hadley to die. Soon. Though if she just never came back from Thailand that would be fine, too.

On the other hand, why do shows nowadays kill beloved characters, as the producers of The Mentalist assure us is going to happen next week? Is it the kids nowadays? People have to die to hold your attention? Dammit. It better not be Cho.

Happy Friday!

2009-11-13T05:33:00.001-05:00

Listen!

2009-11-12T19:21:00.004-05:00

There was a spelling category on Jeopardy! (Teen Tournament) today. The last one was "This precedes Falcon in the name of Han Solo's vessel."

"What is M I L L E N E U M?" the first one said. "No," said Alex.

The second one rang in. "What is M I L L E N I U M?" "No," said Alex.

The third one rang in, and said, very carefully, "What is M I L L E N I U M?"

"No," said Alex. "M I L L E N N I U M. None of you got the two Ns in the NIUM part."

He was kind enough not to point out that the second and third ones spelled it exactly the same...

On Thursday - or Saturday, who cares?

2009-11-11T16:00:00.002-05:00

So, how many people were at the Congressional Tea Party? You wouldn't know if you watched Fox News' coverage... because they used footage from the 9/12 rally and pretended it was from last week's. They weren't even subtle about it: even before Jon points it out, you can clearly see the weather and the trees change.

It's just ... beyond words.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Rhea and the Rings

2009-11-11T12:17:00.004-05:00

Here's a truly stunning image from Cassini. It's raw, unprocessed, and brand new - and amazing.

more info here

Happy Birthday, Kurt

2009-11-11T08:45:00.000-05:00

Kurt Vonnegut died just two years ago, but he was born, fittingly, today in 1922. Fittingly, I say, because he was a veteran, and it was his experience in WWII - specifically and famously surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden and living through the horrific aftermath - that shaped his writing.

Veterans Day

2009-11-11T08:19:00.007-05:00

Three years I wrote a post which began:

It's called "Veterans Day" here in the States - we renamed it, I guess, when it became clear that the War to End War hadn't and wouldn't. So it's Veterans Day, now - not Memorial Day, for the dead, that's in May,... now we remember the living.

At least, we say we do. Well, I'm a veteran. I don't want just another day off work with no commitment behind it to actually give a damn about the veterans, especially those who come home from these modern wars all torn up, because medicine can save their bodies, only to find that no one in the government intends to take care of them. Veterans Day is nothing more than automobile sales, and servicemen get a 5% discount!, and wear your uniform, get in free! It's not go to a hospital and see what the price really is; it's not lobby the congress to restore the benefits cut in 1995; it's not give them their meds and counseling on time and affordably; it's not tell the VA to actively take care of vets instead of waiting for them to find out on their own what they're eligible for. And it's most certainly not the government actually giving a damn....

Since then, of course we had ever accumulating proof of that, in the Walter Reed scandal (you do remember that?); we've had "Warriors in Transition" (the catchy new name for wounded soldiers on their way to discharge via the VA and therapy); acres of missing paperwork - much of it shredded "in error"; "personality disorders" being diagnosed by the dozens so soldiers can be kicked out of the army without benefits; six months and more for initial claims to be processed; National Guardsmen brought back from Iraq after 729 days of active duty - so they don't qualify for the educational benefits that kick in at 730; and just this week a grim reminder of the rampant psychiatric problems in the military. "According to the Army, the suicide rate among soldiers in Iraq is five times that seen in the Persian Gulf War and 11% higher than during Vietnam. The Army reported 133 suicides in 2008, the most ever. In January of this year, the 24 suicides reported by the Army outnumbered U.S. combat-related deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marine Corps also reported an increase in suicides in 2008, to 41." (Roan, 11/9). ... Need I go on? I could.

Today is Veterans Day. It's not Memorial Day. It's not a day to refuse to fight wars - some wars are necessary.

But it is a day to honestly assess the price of the war - any war - to those who fight it and come home, and to promise ourselves to do the right thing by them. Because it is the right thing. Because we owe it to them. Because we sent them into harm's way, and they were harmed, and our contract with them is to take care of them. As I said before,

We don't need people paying lip service to vets while ignoring them in the VA hospitals or on the street corners. We don't need to mythologize veterans, turn them into some great symbol of our nation's righteous aggression while we forget their humanity. We don't need a holiday that glorifies war by glorifying soldiers.

Let's contemplate the cost of the non-stop, endless wars this country feels somehow called upon to fight. And let's stop all our ultimately empty fetishization of the military, like calling them "Wounded Warriors" in ordinary prose. Let's stop capitalizing Solider and Wounded Warrior and Troop - and stop capitalizing on them, too. Let's stop the relentless glorification of the figure of the soldier, and start actually caring about them. Let's stop Supporting the Troops with magnets and signs, and start some actual damned support - with money, first of all, money and beds and hospitals and benefits that actually are.

We've made a start, with last month's legislation that provides timely funding for the VA. Now they know in advance how much money they'll have, and late funding and the rationing it causes will now be in the past. But we need to do more. Funding in advance is great, but it must be adequate funding. The days of a hospital having one psychiatrist taking appointments two days a week, for instance, must end.

Also good news is the appointment of Eric Shinseki to oversee veterans' affairs. He's prepared to tackle tough problems like "the grinding problems veterans face at home. They lead the nation in depression, suicide, substance abuse and homelessness". But his willingness will need lots of money and power to make it work.

And something needs to be done about the soaring rate of PTSD, which is causally linked to multiple combat tours. If we must fight "the long, long war",

So let's save the worship for Memorial Day. Today's for the ones who are still alive, and most of all for the ones who still need us.

Last year my poem was The Next War by Robert Graves (read it here). Two years ago it was Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon (read it here), and the year before it was 1916 seen from 1921 by Edmund Blunden (read it here). This year I offer you Li Po's Nefarious War, translated from the Chinese by Shigeyoshi Obata. A key line is this: The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home. That's the kind of war we can pretend is going well, because we can't see it or its fighters. We see the joyous reunions, but we don't see the bodies or those that live but are broken...

Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan’s snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home.
Our three armies are worn and grown old.

The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On his yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out.
There is no end to war!—

In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.

Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.

The Sin of Sodom

2009-11-10T20:42:00.003-05:00

Ezekiel 16:49-50 lays out the sin for which Sodom was destroyed.

New International Version : ⁴⁹ " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

New American Standard : ⁴⁹"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.

The Douay Rheims version : ⁴⁹ Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and to the poor. ⁵⁰ And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen.

And even the King James Version is pretty clear about it:

⁴⁹ Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Happy Birthday, Neil

2009-11-10T08:29:00.004-05:00

Born today in 1960, in the English town of Portsmouth, Neil Gaiman.

Mirrormask, Sandman, Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Anansis Boys...

Thank you, Neil. Happy Birthday, many happy returns of the day, and keep writing...