What the Frozen Hell?!? Friday

All those things that were going to happen when  .  .  .

Well - they can happen now.

Farming

Marginally arable land, rural golf courses, and millions of acres in the federal Conservation Reserve Program are being farmed.  Farmers are tearing down fences and structures and uprooting trees,  to be able to get in a few more rows of planting.  This is immediate dangerous to land and water, and unsustainable over time.    Read about it here.

The force pushing more land into production is the rise in crop prices: in the past five years corn prices tripled and those for soybeans doubled because of swelling worldwide demand, including demand for ethanol production. At the same time yields have spiked because of genetically engineered crops and improvements in farming technology, which are also allowing farmers to grow in previously inhospitable areas.

I just read somewhere yesterday that 60% of the corn grown in the U.S. is a recently developed hybrid that is toxic to corn root worm.  The high use rate is due to the resistance this hybrid offers, without requiring the use of pesticides.  This is part of the reason for the high yields mentioned in the quote above.  The downside is that the root worm - quite predictably - is developing resistance, and re-invading the corn fields. I can't find where I read about it, but you can read about it here.

Maybe my reptile brain is taking over and I'm getting needlessly alarmist.  But I'm connecting these dots with a global warming dot. Unsustainable farming practices, failure of pest-resistant hybrids, and a changing global temperature pattern could combine to cause some sort of massive systemic failure.

What chance do you see for a major world-wide food crisis in 5, 10, or 20 years?

I think the chances are quite good that the outcome will be really bad.

What The Hell?!? Friday - Sustainable Living Architecture Edition

This is pretty amazing.




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Shadow Shot Sunday - 1/30

More Winter sunshine

Casts a morning shadow on

The way to my door.

Here is an Autumnal view.

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Shadow Shot Sunday

What mysterious

Creature leaves a line in the

Snow without footprints?

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Shadow Shot Sunday - 12/05

Spindly branch shadows

Cast a dark lace tapestry

On the square brickwork

Taken last Sunday  For the same view 16 days earlier, see here.

Fortunately, bright fall sunshine both days.

Mellow Yellow Monday

 

A fine autumn day

To honor senior athletes;

But then - those Badgers . . .

Shadow Shot Sunday - 11/22

My new friend and I

On a perfect autumn day

Cheering now, "Go Blue!"

What The Hell?!? Friday - Very Wet Edition

Storm Drain Overflow from crackchecker on Vimeo.

According to the brief write up on Vimeo, "This is in South Minneapolis on I35W and 38th street bridge.
3 or 4 storm drains converge at this point."

H/T to Sharon.

1066

October 13th is the anniversary date of the battle of Hastings, when William the Bastard defeated King Harold Godwinson and conquered England.

(Oops - it was on Oct. 14th.  I'm a day early.)

This unfortunate event was mentioned in a nice L A Times x-word by Mike Paluso, back in July.  Words in CAPS refer to that puzzle.

Both Harold and William had claims to the English throne - though, even if you accept medieval notions of inherited kingship - neither is very convincing.  

The battle of Hastings was really bad luck for King Harold. William's army sat on the shore of Normandy for the entire Summer waiting for the wind to change, (talk about a TIME KILLER) so they could cross the SEA - well, channel - and BARGE in.

Everyone was at the end of their patience and resources. If the weather hadn't finally shifted in Oct. the entire course of English history would be different. William would never have been able to raise that army again. See what we OWE TO weather!

Harold and his MATES had just fought a fierce battle two weeks earlier at Stamford Bridge, against his DRIP of a brother and a Danish Viking army, then had to march about 200 miles to take on William's forces.

During the battle of Hastings he took an arrow in the eye (or so the story goes) and the rest is, as they say, history.

There once was a King they called Harry

Whose luck wasn't bad, it was very

Awful we've found, then when Bill crossed the sound*

He wound up in the cemetery

* Well -channel.

Six Word Saturday 9/4

Performed Outside In High Wind - Yikes!

I've played outside at least 40 times.  I've had rain delays and rain cancellations, but never a wind like this, with gale-force gusts.

Even for a grizzled veteran like me, it was a challenge.   Some of the string players who have no outside experience were overwhelmed.

Still - we brought off a really good performance under very trying conditions.  Made me proud.

Six Word Saturday 7/24

Concerts rained out two straight weeks.

Lots of rain in the long range forecast, too.  And the humidity is oppressive.  Yuck!

Today's Moment of Irony

Or perhaps it is zen.




I drove past this thing a couple of months ago.  Them righteous uprights was pretty impressive, kinda, sorta.  In a way . . .





But plastic burns. Who knew?





Do you suppose the iconoclasts were right?

H/T to my lovely wife for the HP link.

Six Word Saturday - 5/08

Rainy, WINDY - Feels like a monsoon.


Not so beautiful in my neighborhood.


(Tree fell on my neighbor's house.)

Global Warming Hoax Continues - Pt 3

Used to was, 1998 had been the warmest year EVAH, so George Will and other AGW denialists could cheerily cherry-pick that year and say, "It was so much warmer then, it's cooler than that now.   Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

But them flip-floppers at NASA say it's not 1998 any more - It's 2005, by a slight fraction of a degree over 2009.   Well - what do you expect; they're part of the Gummint, and therefore pinko socialistical Librullz who can't be trusted.  And never mind they've been saying it since January, 2006.  Repeating a hoax doesn't make it true.  At least not for Librullz

Now here comes that infamous Keynsian, Paul Krugman, saying that 2010 is even hotter, as if he's a freaquin' expert.  Well, hell - when has HE ever been right about anything?  He posts this absolutely silly graph, when we all know that it snowed during the Winter, so global warming is either a Librull plot to kill the economy and steal our freedoms, or just so much hot air; and Al Gore (as a letter-writer to my local paper so lucidly pointed out when it snowed LAST Winter) "can go suck eggs."

Here is the aforementioned silly graph.  Krugman says the yellow line is 2005.

Yeah.  Like that's supposed to prove anything.  We all know how liars can figger!

And 2009, that 2nd hottest year - why, it was scarcely any hotter than 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007!  That's what them NASA people said.

So -- are we screwed, or what?

For Pt. 2, see here.
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Six Word Saturday 2-06

No snow here - storm missed us.

Shadow Shot Sunday - 1/10

Long, lithe limbs of trees

Naked in the winter chill

Capturing sunlight

Mellow Yellow Monday

The mesh lights on my bushes cast enough heat to cause a waffle pattern in the snow.

Alas, neither picture captures the visual effect of seeing it in real life.

Dimples in the snow:

Small cavities of sparse light

And even less heat

Shadow Shot Sunday - 1/03

Shadows falling on snow.

This was taken on 1/1/10 through the window of my family room.  Foreground fence is mine.  Everything else belongs to the neighbors.

The sun, bringing light

But no warmth, casts images

Of bare trees on snow

Sunday Music Blogging - Post-Christmas Edition

Despite the relentless positivism and terminal perkiness, I rather like this song.  And with Brenda Lee it's actually perfect.  If you don't believe me, go to YouTube and catch Dean Martin singing it.

And for the jazz lovers among you, a great Thad Jones tune:


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