26 July 2010

ancient organisms


we get all excited about a 200 year old oak ---- here's a woman that is trying to document in photographs the world's oldest organisms --- what an excellent way to set an itinerary --- i'm not sure i believe the 500,000 yr old siberian actinobacteria, but the 9,000 yr old spruce in sweden or 3,000 yr old llareta in the andes are impressive enough ----

very sad

Ted Haggard now claims that he has "over-repented" for his encounters with rentboy Mike Jones, that he has no same-sex attraction, and that what occurred between he and Jones was merely "a massage gone awry."
"gone awry"? does that mean that the massagee did or did not have a happy ending?

23 July 2010

22 July 2010

dead hand of history

A paper by Diego Comin, Erick Gong, and myself was just published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. We collected crude but informative data on the state of technology in various parts of the world in 1000 BC, 0 AD, and 1500 AD. . . .1500 AD technology is a particularly powerful predictor of per capita income today. 78 percent of the difference in income today between sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe is explained by technology differences that already existed in 1500 AD – even BEFORE the slave trade and colonialism.

21 July 2010

g'evening

cobb county, georgia

interstate driving is a bitch --- hemmed in by semis, raining cats and dogs --- i'm glad i'm home

new tennessee rest stops

i saw two under construction --- interesting faux-vernacular architecture

larue county, kentucky

a whole lotta corn going on --- beautiful fields, even it if is all a conagra monoculture, with little signs along the way to prove it

startled by some of those horse-and-buggy christians (mennonite, amish?) in the oncoming lane --- clop, clop, clop --- no image :(

another benefit of tax cuts for the rich

the rich get richer, don't you know

20 July 2010

your morning crazy

crazy and homophobic

joys of traveling

fox news and a mcpaper for breakfast --- makes me want to go back to bed

17 July 2010

220 yr old champagne!

"It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak," Ekstrom said.
that gives another dimension to "vintage" --- like the 1820 canned ham that was opened in 1938 and found to be in more or less perfect condition

yup

the president, this morning:

... too often, the Republican leadership in the United States Senate chooses to filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress. And that has very real consequences.
like expiring unemployment benefits, and the disaster that is for a whole lot of people today

16 July 2010

big 'un

an 83 lb flathead catfish from the altamaha --- they can weigh up to 125 lb --- i guess i did not know they could get so big --- still wouldn't eat one

chattahoochee

a little canoe trip on the hooch today, from the dam to settles bridge --- only turned our boat over once --- the water is very cold, since it's all from the bottom of the lake

15 July 2010

the park




a great american elm has been dying for a couple of years and, coincidentally or not, so has a fairly pitiful water oak in the background --- both have been marked for destruction --- sad to see the old-timers go






however, the rudbeckia is/are spectacular

a cowardly, worthless woman


she's come a long way from her run for fulton co. commission ---

and then there were ten!

ten nations with justice for all
 2001 Netherlands
2003 Belgium
2005 Spain
2005 Canada
2006 South Africa
2008 Norway
2009 Sweden
2010 Portugal
2010 Iceland
2010 Argentina

i hope i live long enough to celebrate that in the US of A

"ice patch archeologcy"

Warming temperatures are melting patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years in the mountains of the Canadian High Arctic and in turn revealing a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools.
and not just prehistoric tools either --- how creepy is "blood falls"????
















14 July 2010

more tea-party crazy

at least the tag line is correct: "radical leaders" do in fact "prey on the fearful & naive" --- it's since been taken down --- kinda ironic since it was iowa that booted up obama's campaign in the first place --- i wish these people at least knew that socialism was the last thing hitler's germany was about --- also, for their purposes, stalin would have been a much better choice than lenin --- but, hey, we don't need no stinking facts to screw up our demagoguery, do we?

better late than never i guess

although we may have heard this before, there is once again talk of a "multi-modal" passenger station across forsyth from five points station, near the site of the old union station (1930) --- this might be serious, however: ga. d.o.t. is involved ---

DOT legally can't use its gas tax, its major source of state funding, for rail projects. Yet state leaders said there is a new respect for transit at the agency and new activity. DOT has taken the lead on the terminal project now through its program for public-private partnerships.
plus, the report tells us that the station "would allow for bicycle and pedestrian access" --- as if that were a great leap forward rather than just typical dumb gdot

bastille day

vive la france!

09 July 2010

rainy evening

miller union

excellent eats on brady avenue --- i will dream about the key lime–blueberry semifreddo

"animais da guerra"

orange kittens, no less

everyday view

old rich's building

views



from the 21st floor of 34 peachtree

heat is on

that 100 degrees yesterday tied the record, but it was entirely bearable since the humidity was in the low 20s --- still i'm glad i wasn't out roofing houses in it

"an irrational prejudice"

hawaii's republican (surprise!) governor vetoed that state's civil unions law, but that doesn't matter so much now since a federal judge has ruled that the so-called "defense of marriage act" is unconstitutional --- a huge victory for our side --- sooner or later justice will be served:

As an irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold that Section 3 of DOMA . . . violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

07 July 2010

seen at margaret's bank

the crape myrtle are so very fine right now --- the blossoms are, of course, the best part, but the branches, too, are great as they shed last year's bark

relentless

the mockingbird hates dog more than people i think --- we either have a lot of mockingbirds in the neighborhood or this one has a much bigger territory than i would have thought

04 July 2010

independence day


















but one in five of us don't know from which country we declared our independence

mid-80s, low humidity ---

for atlanner in july, the weather does not get any better than yesterday and today --- and a fine day for basking in the sun's carcinogenic rays

and still they come . . .

from about an hour ago --- only there are not very many running at this point in the parade ---

sweaty people

50,000, but these were the first --- gebre gebremariam of ethiopia the winner --- they were way out in front of the pack that will pour down peachtree this morning ---



02 July 2010

atlanner

after kuntsler and david byrne went and hurt all of our feelings by poor mouthingour fair city, it's good to see another stoopid list that puts us in the top something --- or nearly top --- a global city, beta class --- the only other american cities ranking above atlanner are new york, los angeles and chicago --- hasn't been that long since we were ranked gamma poot or whatever --- of course that just means we are above average in our ability to toady to the ruling class