And Yet Even More Wrist-Slitting News on Climate Change

Gil Friend points us to a New Yorker ad from Architecture 2030, a group working toward green architecture, something I fully support. They rightly point out:

Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions... The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort.

There are a mere 151 coal-fired power plants in development in the United States.

Thus, the planting of all the trees we can is completely meaningless in fighting global warming so long as we continue to demand more energy use and are happy using coal to fulfill our insatiable lust.

NFL 2007 Week 2: AFC Edition

Things start to get more clear in the second week of the season and, while it's early yet, it seems that the cream is rising to the top more quickly than usual. Plus, I nearly fall dead once again.

AFC East: The Patriots may be cheaters (along with every other team in the league in one way or another, so who really cares), but they are quickly establishing themselves as the best in the AFC, even if the rest of their division looks simply terrible. They dismantled the Chargers like nobody has in two years. When it was 24-0 at the half, they quit trying and still kept the second half score tied. The Jets lost to a good team, and put points up on a really good defense, but with their quarterback troubles, they aren't going anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see that Pennington has played his last game in New York, given that he was supposedly good to play on Sunday but didn't. Buffalo looked even worse yesterday than they did a week ago, and got none of the breaks they did at Denver. It's hard to say who will be at the bottom of the division at this point, since the Dolphins also have looked exceptionally bad. The Cowboys are looking like a good team but, next to the Dolphins, they look better than they are.

AFC North: The Steelers have outscored their opponents so far 60-10...that is ridiculous. They didn't look quite as sharp this week as last, but this team is an offensive and a defensive machine. The rest of the division can fight it out for a wild card. I don't care what happened yesterday, the Browns will have nothing to do with a wild card berth. Derrick Anderson was barely capable of handling college football, let alone the pros. He took advantage of an opportunity and a very poor defense to do little more than fool fantasy owners into believing he's worth a damn. Guess what...he isn't. Just wait until the next two weeks until he's benched for Brady Quinn. The Bengals must shore up their defensive issues or they're going to have "half a hundred" hung on them every week. What looked decent in week one turned into garbage into week two. Their fate may be more questionable than any other team in the league. The Ravens have the best chance to be second here. Their defense is still dominant and they'll win the same way they've won for a decade. They don't look like an elite level team, but they're going to hurt some offenses over this season.

AFC South: I can't believe I'm writing this but the Texans, after the second week, still look like a real team. We'll see, since they have to play a lot of good teams, but they're impressive so far. If Andre Johnson can't play for a couple of weeks, they'll be in trouble. They have the Colts this coming week which will be a test I don't think they'll pass, but they are showing a lot of potential. Is it possible that Indy is a better team than they were last year? That's hard to believe, but they've been dynamite on all levels. The Titans played a spirited game against them, but they're just not in the Colts' class. Vince Young is looking better every week and the threat of Chris Brown and LenDale White is formidable. They should be tough for anybody who they play. Less tough will be the Jaguars, who may be 1-1, but have had one of the most inept offenses over those two weeks. They are going to be mauled in the division and likely outside of it. What happened to Jones-Drew? Defenses have figured out that he can run, so they guard against him and he can't break a tackle. Without anything else to hang their hat on, there won't be much going for Jack Del Rio besides his wardrobe.

AFC West: The Broncos may be 2-0, but I'm 2-0 for heart attacks this year too, and I wish it would stop. They are first in the NFL in total offense with 455.5 yards per game and second in defense with 218.5 per game, but they just can't seem to make it into the endzone. This must stop. Where are the Chargers this year? With Norv Turner as coach, they're exactly where they belong. When a coach can't call plays that net LT a hundred yards total in two games, you're doing something wrong. They are the big disappointment of the NFL (even if I'm thrilled). They've played two very tough teams, and they won't be so pathetic against worse teams, but they have some hills to climb. Speaking of failing running backs, Larry Johnson's looking as bad as his team. Maybe they need to start handing the ball off every down again, but Huard looks terrible and if Brody Croyle was worth anything, he'd already be in there. Given their age, these guys will be failures for years to come. But no failures match that of the Raiders. Yes, they put up a fight in Denver, but what they really did was take advantage of the opportunities the Broncos afforded to them. They will compete closely with the Chiefs for worst in the division, but not to worry Oakland, your team will win out.

The Road on Film

According to Kurt Halfyard, Cormac McCarthy's The Road is set to become a film directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and starring Viggo Mortensen.

I'm pretty opposed to the filming of this book because I can't see any way to transfer what McCarthy does here to the screen. The story is about the father and son and I can't help but believe the movie will be all about the apocalypse and violence. I didn't much care for The Proposition either, but Hillcoat did do a good job transferring the western into what was basically a horror film. I doubt he'll treat The Road all that differently. Viggo Mortensen seems as good a choice as any to star. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and it'll be great.

He also refers to a Ridley Scott directed adapation of Blood Meridian. That could be interesting, though also hard to film. I heard Tommy Lee Jones owned the rights to the book, but who knows.

Via GreenCine Daily

Another Post on Global Warming

Berlin Niebuhr reports on a conference where Global Environment Fund president H. Jeffrey Leonard (presumably no relation to the former Giants outfielder) was very skeptical of efforts to stop climate change. His four points:

1. Aggregate global use of fossil fuels will not fall in the next two decades.
2. American "energy independence" is an unrealistic pipe dream driving bad policy.
3. The Biofuels Initiative won't achieve anything environmentally speaking, and is a grotesque example of pork barrel politics.
4. Consumer and lifestyle steps being taken by Americans are all but irrelevant.

Yep, that about says it. This is why I believe we are so screwed when it comes to climate change. No one is willing to cut fuel consumption. Energy independence is not really possible. The little things we are claiming to do mean nothing in the face of massive global warming. There is little to no real pressure to make the changes necessary to forestall the worst effects of climate change. It's not even a major issue in the presidential campaign.

It's about time

Randy e-mailed me some good news yesterday, buried at the bottom of this NY Times article:

"LARRY ROHTER, who has just completed eight and a half years as chief of the Rio de Janeiro bureau of The Times, is on leave, writing a book about Brazil."

I've hoped for this for a long time. Now, maybe we'll finally get somebody competent to report on Brazil for the Times (even if it is not permanent).

Historical Image of the Day

Shah with General Fazollah Zahdei, who spearheaded 1953 coup with CIA help to place the Shah on the throne in Iran.

Bangkok

The worst thing about Bangkok is the most well-known in the West--the sex trade. It's definitely there, but as a traveller, you can also avoid it pretty easily. Or you used to be able to. This article discusses the expansion of the sex trade on Khaosan Road, the traditional backpacker haven.

Khaosan Road is not a very nice place really. It's cheap and that's the main reason to stay there when travelling through Bangkok. It's great in some ways, particularly the wonderful street food located there. But it also represents the worst of the backpacker culture--dredlocked and shirtless French guys in their mid 30s hitting on any woman within shouting distance, groups of backpackers discussing different ways to save every last dime, Europeans claiming to be getting away from home while sitting with their friends from home watching American movies blasted out of every bar. But for all that, you could avoid the sex trade pretty easily there. It's hardly surprising that prostitution is expanding there with Thailand's international reputation, increasingly prosperity, and cheap prices compared to the more upscale districts. But it's also a bummer because it will be harder to justify staying there next time I'm in town.

On the other hand, once you've spent a few days in Bangkok, there really isn't very many good reasons to go back to that sweltering, polluted, urban expanse if you can help it. So maybe I'll figure out a way to avoid it all together.

Congratulations...To Me!

I want to congratulate myself on my fantasy baseball victory yesterday. I am a member of the Mountain Top Keeper League, an intense league of 12 (soon to be 14) teams. We have a 25 man major roster and a 50 man minors roster. Thus, my knowledge of minor league baseball is unhealthily high. This was my 6th season in the league. I took over a horrible team, stripped it down and started over. Yesterday, all my work paid off. My pitching staff of Peavy, Carmona, Escobar, Haren, and Meche dominated for me at the end of the year, particularly important with Colon, Willis, and Capuano having bad years. I also have a pretty solid offense with Russ Martin, Chase Utley, Mark Teixeira, Jimmy Rollins, Lance Berkman, and Eric Byrnes. Key free agent acquisitions Meche, Carlos Pena, and Aaron Rowand all worked out.

Basically, I'm the man. Now if I could only figure out how to draft a decent team, maybe I could win my yearly drafted league.

Historical Image of the Day

Charleston Sketch Club, 1933

Holding the Catholic Church Responsible in Argentina

Twenty-four years after the end of Argentina's military dictatorship that killed perhaps as many as 30,000 people, at least one member of the Catholic Church is being held responsible. The trial of priest Christian von Wernick wrapped up last week (with a decision being made in the next few months). The fact that this trial was even brought forth is important, even if it could end up being the only one of its kind. Unlike in Brazil and Chile, where the Catholic Church initially supported the overthrow of the state but came to be a major campaigner for human rights (particularly in Brazil), the Church in Argentina was always far more approving of and participatory in the regime in Argentina, never coming out to condemn the absence of democracy or human rights violations. Nor have they ever really even apologized for their role in supporting the military regime in Argentina (again, in contrast to the Church in Chile and Brazil). Thus, the fact that even one priest has been brought to trial matters.

The charges against von Wernich are particularly insidious, even by military regime standards - "he extracted confessions to help the military root out perceived enemies, while at the same time offering comforting words and hope to family members searching for loved ones who had been kidnapped by the government". That he not only is charged with attending torture sessions, but then two-facedly and hypocritically consoling the families of the disappeared. His legal defense isn't exactly the strongest, either, as his lawyer claims that "The witnesses did not say that he tortured, kidnapped or murdered...Nobody said he participated in any act of torture," which of course dodges entirely the question of whether he was present at torture sessions. To my view, it doesn't matter if he wasn't personally involved in the attaching of electrodes to genitalia, violation with blunt objects, dunking under water, etc. - if he was even remotely tied to this, he should go to jail. Period.

Certainly, this trial may be the only one of its kind (as the article points out, many of the other priests whose involvement in torture has been documented have already escaped justice by dying). Yet the fact that it has forced the issue of the Church's involvement back into the public arena is important. With the likelihood of bringing any individuals from the Church to justice becoming increasingly difficult, making the Church uncomfortable and trying to force it to acknowledge its past (with the hope of preventing a repeat in the future) is one of the better things that could happen to the Catholic Church in Argentina

Historical Image of the Day

C. Everett Koop speech defending animal testing, 1980s

Historical Image of the Day

Pittsburgh coal mine, 1931

Things I will NOT miss about Brazil

I am sick and tired of men with microphones.

In Brazil, this is a common way to promote specials - when you go to the enormous, multi-block market in downtown Rio, there are guys with microphones, promoting their specials on t-shirts, cloth, baskets, food, etc. I absolutely hate going to the supermarket, because not only is it absurdly crowded and poorly arranged spacially, but they always have a guy talking about a lightning sale (sale good for 3-5 minutes) on something like milk, cookies, etc., and he never shuts up and he always uses the exact same voice inflections.

However, all of this is nothing in the face of the newest irritant - the drugstore in front of my apartment has decided to start doing this type of advertising to boost sales...in front of the store. There is now a guy who stands on the sidewalk with a microphone and amplifier, trying to draw passerbys, and I cannot escape his voice in my apartment. At least with downtown or the grocery store, I could try to brace myself. And I could rest easy knowing that, once I left, I didn't have to hear that crap. Not anymore. THe asshole starts at 8 or 9 in the morning every day INCLUDING WEEKENDS!!!! I am now subject off-and-on to an 8-to-9-hour assault on my concentration and domestic quietness (as quiet as it gets when cariocas are leaning on their horns, which is another gripe altogether) as he promotes shampoo costing 20 cents less this week. I quite literally have somebody standing on the other side of the street of my apartment, reading the promotional ads that come in Sunday papers in the states, every day of the week.

Damn the invention of the microphone......

Historical Image of the Day

Caleb Cushing

Historical Image of the Day

Cameron County, Texas.

I'm guessing this is the 1930s or 40s based on the cars. But I really know nothing about cars so I could easily be off by a decade.

Friday Guitar Blogging

Albert Collins.

The 2007 Women's World Cup

I suspect there isn't much being made of it (despite the U.S. Women being defending champs), but the Women's World Cup started this week. Brazil's female team is a favorite to win this year, boasting 2006's female player of the year (Marta) and just a great squad all around. The most bizarre news thus far, though, has been Argentina's performance (Brazil and Argentina are the only two Latin American teams in the 16-team tournament). Argentina's female team...well...they lost 11-0 in their first game against Germany (including two own-goals. By the goalie.) The FIFA president lamented the result, saying it was "not good" for women's soccer, but hey, he's the moron who suggested female players wear skimpier outfits to attract attention to the sport, so his opinions are clearly...meatheaded. Suffice to say, with two losses in Group A already, and a -12 goal differential (having lost 1-0 to Japan in the final minute yesterday), Argentina is all but statistically eliminated). I'll continue pulling for Brazil in this one, and enjoy knowing Argentina has gotten killed in another World Cup.

Modern Day Quilombos and the State in Brazil

Upside Down World points us to this article on the conditions of modern-day Quilombo communities in Brazil. Historically speaking, quilombos in Brazil were communities of runaway slaves and ex-slaves in Brazil who made their way to the interior, establishing their own homes, communities, and lifestyles far away from Portuguese settlement. However, these communities did not go away with the abolition of slavery in 1888, and the racial inequalities of Brazil remain obvious in modern day Quilombos today. Virtually none of the Quilombos owns its land. Malnourishment is extreme, as is the poverty (the article claims 91% of quilombo residents don't make 190 dollars a month, and that's below the minimum wage in Brazil. And remember - in Brazil, incomes are generally measured in how many minimum wages you make a month - i.e. two, four, six minimum wages, etc. - so the fact that they are below one minimum wage speaks volumes of their poverty). And, not surprisingly, 70% of the population of the quilombos is of African descent (and, not coincidentally, these communities are ignored by the majority of Brazil's media and population).

While I'm all for the government trying to help these communities in areas like nutrition, land-ownership, and improved living conditions, I'm not sure how helpful it will be. First, there's the simple issue of efficiency - while the ends are noble, the means are complex. Added to this, there is the fact that, in order to be recognized and gain title, "the process involves experts ranging from anthropologists to land surveyors." I'm simply not quite sure how the quilombos (who again, don't exactly have easy access to things like telephones, internet, and government offices in their isolation and living conditions) are supposed to easily enter this process. It could be easier than it seems in the article - I simply don't know. Still, it strikes me as complicated. Finally, there is the question of what happens after the recognition. Will the deeds stand? And will the deeds do anything to protect these communities in case a large landowner or company (foreign or national) comes to these areas in an effort to gain some of the land of the quilomboas?

Again, I'm not saying all of these negative possible outcomes are likely - I simply don't know. And it is absolutely great that the government is trying to move forward on this (though the fact that it hasn't been completed yet is frustrating - despite the fact that Fernando Henrique Cardoso started a similar project, I'm guessing it wasn't really high on his list of priorities during his administration, to put it politely). I just hope that these communities can find some way (government sponsored or not) to improve their living conditions.

Forests, Nicaragua, and Hurricane Felix

This article from last week stresses the importance of environmental protection. I was certain that when Hurricane Felix was bearing down on Nicaragua as a category 5 hurricane, we would be looking at massive deaths, not so much from the hurricane itself, but from the mudslides that seemed would follow (particularly given how Hurricane Mitch turned out a few years ago). Although 65 people (as of now – see ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com) have died, the death toll is far less than what many (including myself feared).

Apparently, the reason for this relatively low number of deaths among the Miskitos and others in Nicaragua is simple: forests. The forests also apparently helped to slow down and reduce the hurricane’s strength by offering a natural “barrier” against which the hurricane was acting (the simple rule of physics about action/reaction). Not just that, either – thanks to the forests, the ground remained rooted, and as any elementary schoolchild can tell you, plants prevent erosion. That’s apparently exactly what happened this time in Nicaragua.

All of this just goes to show one more way in which protecting forests will save lives in the future. Erik is usually the one who points this out, but it can never be re-stated enough – we must work hard to protect the forests around the world. The benefits will go beyond the simple (though by no means trivial) issue of oxygen/carbon dioxide cycles and greenhouse effects. Forests (and other environmental “resources”) save more lives than we care to acknowledge, and the case of Hurricane Felix is just one more example of that.

Mister Trend's Random 10

I tend to disagree with Lyrad on Philip Glass – I find his soundtracks to be a bit repetive (though I don’t mind too much – it’s still good music, and if you’re going to be repetitive in your mechanisms, rhythms, chords, and volume, better to be repeating good stuff than bad stuff). However, I love his original works, be it his opera (“Akhnaten” is one of the more beautiful things I think has ever been written in any genre), his experimental stuff (“Music in 12 Parts”), and especially, his solo piano works. “Wichita Sutra Vortex” is off his outstanding “Solo Piano” album. It has what you can expect from Glass – the repeating of certain chords and passages (though I wouldn’t call it “minimalism” – despite what may seem a simple melody or façade, there’s too much going on in most of Glass’s work for it to be remotely “minimalist”). His solo album is full of emotion, though, and beauty (particularly the last two tracks, “Mad Rush” and “Wichita Sutra Vortex”), and the ways and moments in which he alternates from loud to soft and loud and soft again are simple, yet lovely.

1. “You’re Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond” – Blind Willie Johnson
2. “As Canções que Você Fez Pra Mim” – Maria Bethânia
3. “Too Too Train Blues” – Big Bill Broonzy
4. “Fighting in a Sack” – The Shins
5. “It’s Me” – Dinosaur Jr.
6. “Death Cell Blues” – Blind Willie McTell
7. “Wichita Sutra Vortex” – Philip Glass
8. “Festival in the Tian Mountain” – Anna Guo
9. “Them Eyes” – The Black Keys
10. RAMIFICATIONS para 12 solo strings (1968-1969) – Gyorgi Ligeti