Month: January 2007

it was easy to do


Originally uploaded by Foxtongue.

Melting glaciers show climate change speeding up: UN, scientists. “New data released Monday shows that the melting of mountain glaciers worldwide is accelerating, a clear sign that climate change is also picking up, the UN environmental agency and scientists said.”

Global warming causes species shift. “U.S. scientists say as global warming increases, many plants and animals will begin migrating northward to locations with more suitable temperatures.”

Where have all the birds gone? “…this year the annual Big Garden Birdwatch has revealed how the predicted devastating impact of global warming on Britain’s bird species is taking effect… early indications appear to confirm the worst fears of bird lovers.”

Climate change hitting developing countries worst: UN. “Climate change is having an increasing impact around the world, with developing countries the worst hit and least capable of defending themselves, a top UN climate change official said Monday.”

Rising sea levels doom beaches, geologist warns. “Most of Hawaii’s sandy beaches are eroding, and the rising sea level will only make things worse.”

146 US levees may fail in flood. “The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 146 levees nationwide that it says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.”

Weather satellite fleet at risk. “Scientists soon will lose access to crucial information that helps them better understand and predict everything from hurricanes and earthquakes to global warming and environmental decay…”


Originally uploaded by Foxtongue.

The Great Barrier Reef ‘facing extinction’. “The Great Barrier Reef will become ‘functionally extinct’ within decades at the current rate of global warming, while wilder weather is set to affect property values and drive up insurance bills in many Australian coastal communities.”

Britain could go back to rationing. “Britain may need to go back to Second World War-style rationing if climate change runs out of control, environment minister Ben Bradshaw has warned.”

Survey shows 13% of Americans have never heard of global warming.

Climate change means hunger and thirst for billions: report.

Indonesia may lose 2000 islands to climate change. “Indonesia could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 due to climate change, the country’s environment minister said on Monday.”

Future flood of ‘climate refugees’ ahead? “Global climate change could pose serious challenges for police in B.C. — from public disorder during natural disasters to climate refugees fleeing flooded countries, according to an internal RCMP report obtained by The Vancouver Sun.”

Africa must prepare for climate change. “Africa must be prepared for more droughts, floods and cyclones because of climate change caused by industrial pollution, which has already damaged rural economies on the continent, experts said on Tuesday.”

Zimbabwe: quality water supplies fast deteriorating.

Water meters introduced in face of global warming. “All Londoners face using compulsory water meters after the Government gave the go-ahead to tough plans to deal with the consequences of climate change.”

Queensland to drink waste water. “Mr Beattie said that falling water levels had left his state administration with no option but to introduce recycled water in south-eastern Queensland, starting from next year. ‘We’re not getting rain; we’ve got no choice,’ he told ABC radio. ‘These are ugly decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There’s no choice. It’s liquid gold, it’s a matter of life and death,’ he said.”

Water crisis plan sinks in red tape. “A strategy to save billions of litres of water has become so mired in bureaucracy that the State Government has approved only 15 per cent of the plans to slash usage that it demanded from Sydney’s biggest guzzlers – industry, councils and its own agencies. Almost a year after most of the plans were supposed to be delivered, only six of the 37 government sites have even lodged their proposals.”

Chairman: Bush officials misled public on global warming. “The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government’s response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly “to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming.””

tonight, dinner with Aiden

On an odd whim, I’m going to a shooting range in Bellevue with Scott on Tuesday. Tuesday, of all things, is Ladies Night. “The best way to try before you buy.”

It started as a joke, an improbable way to temper the stiff sticky stress surrounding Heart of the World, but it stuck. Never having been to a shooting range, I’ve no idea what it will be like. Guns are a gray area. Normally, rifles are fine, handguns are not, with the logic being that any object made for the express purpose of rendering damage to a human being is unconscionable, but hunting for food is completely acceptable.

I know some of the basic heart-breaking rules. Never put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to fire; never put a loaded gun down without checking that the safety is on. I wonder what problems being Canadian might inspire. I suppose they’re not going to let me in with bare feet

seriously, that laugh

Sarah put up a post today that I, at first glace, took for an incredibly clever Rabbit-Hole Day entry. Thankfully, gratefully, I was wrong. here it is, in entirety, for your amusement.

I’ve found out this morning that Alan Cumming has his own cologne.

Seriously

Apparently, it’s pure Man Smell:

“Base notes of leather, peat fire, highland mud, burnt rubber and white truffle ground the scent with rugged sensuality, while the core notes of cigar, heather, Douglas fir and rubber contribute to its sharpness. The fragrance is completed with spicy top notes of bergamot, black pepper, Scotch pine and whiskey.”

The commercial is beyond priceless. It was suggested, (and I utterly agree), there should be a law that boys have to wear eyeliner.

3,7-dihydro-3,7-dimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione for the weak of heart

I call him the Marquis of Missionary. We met in a narrow therapeutic index, literally chronic first contact. A bitter alkaloid, now he musses up my hair on a daily basis. Ten minutes every morning, ten minutes every night, a lecture comprised of similar compounds, my heels digging into his back. Our wet chemistry excludes quantitative chemical analysis, I don’t want children until marriage. His family, caffinated, seem like other basic nitrogen-containing yuppies. Despite their frequently confusing genus, they are dull, lacking in suffix. I don’t like spending time with them, I would rather derive my pleasure down the coast to our cabin, our celluloid haven.

collecting minnows in a jerry can to borrow their gleam

Bone dry, I left out the stars like dishes on a counter. I just forgot. I didn’t mean to, I’d put everything else delicate away after, I swear. Now mother’s upset with me. I might even be grounded. None of them will twinkle tonight, she says. She says they’ll just sit there like shapeless stones. It makes me worry. I don’t know how to make new ones yet.

found out I’m two degrees from the guy who made this lovely bit of Canadiana

“The future is bleak, scientists said.” Scientists to offer an “explosion of new data” on Global Warming.

Shane stayed over last week, a day or so after his show. We watched Pan’s Labyrinth and stayed up all night showing each other treasures we’d found on-line. It was a treat, it’s been years since we’ve managed to steal so much time together. There’s always meetings and day-jobs and a hundred other things that require priority. (I hooked him up with Uminthecoil Andrew for his next album cover. I want it to work out.)

He called Monday at midnight to remind me why I miss him. He told me that he’s put my portrait up in his Grandmother’s house. I hope she likes it.

Speaking of poets, apparently a poet did a successful background check on Kyle by knowing someone that knew me, so now he has a dessert date on Thursday. I’m not sure how that works, but the general gist I got from it was that being my friend is now a litmus test of poet date-ability. A wee bit ludicrous, but not an opinion I’m in any hurry to get rid of. It’s too classic. He accuses me of placing him within two degrees of everyone interesting in Vancouver.

Breathing Earth: a real-time simulation displaying the carbon dioxide emission levels of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.

Country Mouse: Rent during reading break is a bottle of Caramel Baileys as Victoria is the closest city with any left in stock.

Third Annual Livejournal Rabbit Hole Day

crisper says:

It’s January, and that means the 27th is, once again, Rabbit Hole Day. In honor of Lewis Carroll’s birthday, let’s turn our LJs over, just for one day, and let them be used for something other than the usual crap we always talk about.

Fall down a Rabbit Hole and talk about a different sort of day for a change. Your regular life will probably still be there on the 28th!

——
For consideration: note that Rabbit Hole Day will fall on a Saturday this year. What is the first Rabbit Hole Weekend going to be like?

My contibutions: 2005, 2006.

I like the bear

Poke the bunny!

I got a realtor with Colliers International. He’s perfect. One of us all the way. We talked about Ralph Bakshi films, how to make explosives in the kitchen, and breaking me out of my apartment with a file baked inside a chocolate cake. (I haven’t been outside for more than an hour in three days. I have been only writing, responding to letters, talking to the bank and hours on the tireless phone. I’m wearing through the carpet where I sit stationed, cross-legged, wedged between the bottom of my bed and my snarling computer.)

He stayed up late to write the contract last night and we’re getting together this afternoon to go over subjects and all the important etceteras. (There’s a suspicion that he can get the price dropped even more.) It looks like we’ll have eight weeks in which to do this, maybe nine.

This means Heart of the World is still beating.

It might be early to say, as we don’t have the financing in place yet, but everything’s looking a lot easier all of the sudden. I feel like I might have a chance to finally breathe. There’s talk of a Heart of the World fundraiser happening at the VCC sometime soon. I don’t specifically know the details, only that Paul Plimley’s been talking to Sal Ferreras and Alexander Varty on my behalf.

Le Grand Content is splendid. Watch it.

highly unlikely

A “data cable” made from stretched nerve cells could someday help connect computers to the human nervous system.

Turn off the lights, it’s morning, my hair is tangled. Waking up, I’m going to a memorial right across the street for Zayn Ali, found dead only a few blocks away. Either murder or a running jump from his apartment window. I feel like I should have said hello more, but don’t know why. Appropriation, this inability to touch any grief, this length of bed under me, these red sheets, the rain hissing through traffic outside. The newspaper got the name of his brother wrong. Outside the box, I don’t know if I’m going to see anyone else I know.

Work later, the Dance Centre. Dropping by Kitsilano, staying for dinner, trying to get away before it gets too late. Something to keep the weather off, photographs of Vegas, my house after midnight.

Heart of the World continues Monday. This is all regularly scheduled programming.

some news is too good to sleep on? with? at?

George Clooney is working with the Sci-Fi Channel to make a six hour miniseries of Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.

Heart of the World: Still Beating

The project continues!

Things have been far too uncertain for any solid updates in the past few days, but as of today, that’s been rectified. We have a mortgage broker and a realtor. We’re giving this a second try as of Monday morning.