spring

wisteria and dogwood blooming all over

space rocks

the black rock there is one of 280 fragments retrieved in the nubian desert---the first fragments of a known asteroid ever seen

justice

maybe the torture enablers won't get away with it after all----spain's national security court has just launched a legal complaint against several bush underlings---

the atlantic

the culprits

read this and then go find your pitchfork

The Dirty Dozen: Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis - and the officials who let them get away with it

vigilantes

Yet another unintended side effect of the web has been the birth of the Internet lynch mob. Now, everything from child abuse to bad customer service can get the online masses whipped into a frenzy of Old Testament-style vengeance.

my personal favorite in the link, "8 awesome cases of internet vigilantism," is #6 "dog shit girl"---especially after somebody left dog shit in the elevator lobby on my floor yesterday---second time---i taped an angry note to the wall, which generated a couple of more concurring opinions---what is with these people?

fear if not conscience

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group had given back their bonuses.




tour buses at their homes and mobs with pitchforks make an impression i think

poplars and the driving club

the driving club is just abuilding away---besides the parking deck hidden behind the trees at left, there's a huge building going up between the existing building and the conservatory at the botanical gardne, where they had some basketball courts and a very crappy looking hillside before----

the mockingbird

shakespeare not

you can't believe nothing anymore

it's not him

spring

it's still winter, dammit, with the red oaks, but the poplars are showing some green and another week or so and the dogwood should be in full bloom----forsythia, carolina jasmine, phlox all guady pink---the cherries defy description

guinness taking some rays

2nd amendment and the parks

Much to the relief of park rangers and refuge staff everywhere, a federal judge yesterday blocked implementation of the Bush midnight rule allowing people to take loaded, concealed weapons into national parks and wildlife refuges. What a relief.

i'll say, although i'm sure the nra is squealing about it, having already convinced themselves that obama was going to abrogate their right to bear arms

dex likes high places

sometimes he'll get the front half of his body out there, with his paws right on the edge---he can't get through the railing anymore, like when he was a kitten and went through the railing on the other side and out onto the ledge outside my bedroom window

orchidacea

in addition to the phalaenopses (is that the plural of phalaenopsis, cathi?), one of which is gorgeous and the other budding its way towards gorgeous, the maxillaria tenuifolia decided to bloom as well---the best thing about it, since the blossoms aren't all that, is the smell . . . of coconuts, which fills my office now

not your mammy's kitchen

"obama vs. marx"

i hear people squealing about obama being a socialist---they need to read this piece and learn the difference:

The world "liberal" first used in its modern political sense in 1812, when Spaniards wrote a new constitution liberating themselves from monarchical rule. As it happens, the word "socialism" originated in roughly the same period; it came into existence to describe the utopian ideas of the British reformer Robert Owen. Such timing suggests two possibilities: Either the fates of liberalism and socialism are so interlinked that one is all but synonymous with the other--or the two are actually competitors developed to meet similar conditions, in which case victory for one marks the defeat of the other.

abandoned places

if you haven't already, look at weburbanist's inventory of abandoned places, in 33 parts---

the best thing like that i've seen of that genre was the national schools of art in cuba, parts of which had been abandoned for nearly four decades when i saw it---it was almost like stumbling upon mayan ruins in the jungle---

green living . . . is the city

But cars represent only one-third of the gap in carbon emissions between New Yorkers and their suburbanites. The gap in electricity usage between New York City and its suburbs is also about two tons. The gap in emissions from home heating is almost three tons. All told, we estimate a seven-ton difference in carbon emissions between the residents of Manhattan’s urban aeries and the good burghers of Westchester County. Living surrounded by concrete is actually pretty green. Living surrounded by trees is not.

yet kunstler keeps saying that high-rise living cannot be maintained

obamania in dixie

the retarded south

favorable/unfavorable/no opinion

NORTHEAST 87 10 3
SOUTH 43 49 8
MIDWEST 74 22 4
WEST 76 19 5