while the getting is good

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Thursday I got in line at the supermarket at the same time as someone else and I didn't yield (-8 points). In November I gave chrysoula a life-saving blood transfusion (50 points). In April I ruled Canada as a cruel and heartless dictator (-700 points). Last Saturday I gave stickmaker a kidney (1000 points). In June I donated bone marrow to amaltheae in a life-saving procedure (300 points). Overall, I've been nice (642 points). For Christmas I deserve a shiny red ball! Sincerely, Solarbird

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A brief Science! note

I meant to post this already, but forgot. Anyway, scientists doing ice-core work in Antarctica have extended the climate data record back to 650,000 years; the CO₂ rise over the last 100 years is unparalleled in that time, both in rate of increase and concentration.

Ice Core Extends Climate Record Back 650,000 Years
Scientific American
November 28, 2005

Researchers have recovered a nearly two-mile-long cylinder of ice from eastern Antarctica that contains a record of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane--two potent and ubiquitous greenhouse gases--spanning the last two glacial periods. Analysis of this core shows that current atmospheric concentrations of CO₂--380 parts per million (ppm)--are 27 percent higher than the highest levels found in the last 650,000 years.

The ice core data also shows that CO₂ and methane levels have been remarkably stable in Antarctica--varying between 300 ppm and 180 ppm--over that entire period and that shifts in levels of these gases took at least 800 years, compared to the roughly 100 years in which humans have increased atmospheric CO₂ levels to their present high. "We have added another piece of information showing that the timescales on which humans have changed the composition of the atmosphere are extremely short compared to the natural time cycles of the climate system," says Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern in Switzerland, who led the research.

[More at link in article title]

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Ford gives in the American Family Association demands, drops all ads from GBLT media; the AFA had also demanded Ford stop giving money to all GBLT-supportive causes of any kind, whether that will happen is as yet unknown; Ford claims the ad withdrawal is "business" after initially confirming the AFA's version of the story, and now declines to comment otherwise;

Contact information from AmericaBlog for Ford's public-relations officers;

Link to Helem, a Lebanese GBLT-rights group and magazine, mostly published overseas but working towards the elimination of laws against gayfolk in their home country;

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito broke nomination-testimony pledges to recuse himself from cases with which he had direct ties while in Federal court;

NewsHounds coverage of Fox News's "Economic Disaster If Liberals Win the War On Christmas?" bizarro news feature;

Some bru-ha-ha in Indiana over state house prayers - anybody know what's actually going on with this?;

Focus on the Family's coverage of the AFA success against Ford;

Fertility clinic drags lesbian along for a year, then says they won't treat her because she's a lesbian. she sues - US appeals court allows suit to go forward, allowing religious beliefs of the doctors to be used in defense;

Concerned Women for America file amicus brief in Washington State marriage case;

American Family Association joins boycott of American Girl; Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight rants about the evils of Girls, Inc; CWA issues action item to complain to American Girl;

Alito "distances himself" from 1985 writings;

Anti-abortion forces unhappy with Centre for Disease Control over insufficiently-scary RU-486 health risks report.

( Articles and etc. )

photography and gardening

Really, one of the reasons I've held off posting this is because it's the best mushroom picture I've ever taken, and I wanted to save it and feature it prominently:


Ground Level View (Mushrooms 3)

Not a lot of interest today; I substantially rewrote my statement of purpose and it's much better now - thanks cafiorello for advice! I also did some work at Murkworks South - most particularly, I started work reclaiming the tiny entry garden I'd made that kept getting attacked by party fuckheads and was finally destroyed in that last year before we moved. It was the first time I'd really been able to approach it again without feeling terrible. It doesn't look like it used to, and never will, but it's better. It needs some mulch, and I'll buy new tall plants to replace the dead tall bamboo-like grasses, and at that point it should look okay.

When I'd finished it originally, it looked like this. As intended, the low green crawlers spread over larger areas, got lush, and occasionally put out tiny flowers. That took only a few months. The little poof of grass spread and the bamboo-emulating plant grew taller as well. I was really proud of it, as a garden; finding the right large flat stones took some heavy sorting at local stoneworks, and getting the side rocks - which I'd found in place and re-used - to stay in what appear to be perfectly reasonable positions but which are actually rather awkward for their shape wasn't easy either. The little concrete walkway beside it leading to the gate had to be re-seated too, as it had settled and sloped sharply since it was originally poured - you can see that in the "before" picture - so I just treated it like a giant stone too, and got it pretty well re-leveled before I was done.

Other people - the non-fuckheads - liked it. In particular, the occasional Japanese student or tourist or parent would stop and look confused, and one told me it reminded him of his grandmother's garden, but was nicer, which made me feel vaguely embarrassed ( *^_^*;; ) but also that it was very successful. I'd used all Pacific Northwest plants and rock; a primary principle of this sort of garden design is the use of local stone. I even built a tiny shoji screen for the lantern's main (large) light window, using reasonably correct materials and tiny, tiny joinery.

The ladle was the first casualty, disappearing after a couple of months; I kept making new ones until I gave up after making about half a dozen and having them stolen once a week at the end. Then people started trying to steal other things and failing, then smashed part of the lantern when they couldn't steal it (I repaired it with epoxy, it looked pretty good), and once threw the water basin at the house when they decided it was too heavy to haul off to the frat (or wheverever), and then finally someone came with a car and stole everything except the plants and rocks. Somewhere along the line they also trashed my tiny shoji; I made a new one, and that one stayed until the whole set got stolen.

We couldn't afford to replace the parts, once they were gone; the granite lantern and basin had been big splurges when we bought them, and when everything got taken, we didn't have the kind of money we'd had before. Plus, honestly, I was just too depressed about the whole thing, so I never tried. I'd keep it clean enough, but that was all.

I don't know if I even have a good photo of it. Not with everything still there and the plants really grown in.

Now that we've been at Murkworks North for a year, I've started planning a new entry garden. I hope that this could be one that survives.

( A quiz )