Water supply problem of Olympic proportions

Now I am going to feel guilty just watching the Beijing Olympics.

The diversion of water to Beijing for the Olympics and for big hydropower projects threatens the lives of millions of peasant farmers in China's north-western provinces, according to a senior Chinese government official [who] warned of an impending social and environmental disaster because of overuse of scarce water resources.

In a critical tone seldom heard from Chinese officials, Mr An called on Beijing to provide compensation to the provinces that have been told to pump their cleanest water to the capital in order to ensure potable supplies during the Olympics....

Beijing will need an estimated 300m cubic metres of additional water just to flush out the polluted and stagnant rivers, canals and lakes in its central areas to put on a clean, environmentally-friendly face for Olympic visitors, according to municipal officials. (Financial Times)

Nader returns

Sigh.

Nader Announces New Bid for White House
By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will "shift the power from the few to the many."

"Hang tight, I'm sending you a miracle worker"

Tilda Swinton took the prize for the weirdest speech last night,accepting her Oscar for best supporting actress in Michael Clayton. But, still--nice acting, and cool dress (I think).

We are all totally screwed, as usual--especially you mollusks

Along with polar bear cannibalism and the giant heap of dying walruses, ocean acidification and warming have got to be some of the most viscerally icky consequences of climate change for critters.

According to a new UNEP report released today, half the world's corals may die by 2050 due to rising ocean temperatures. By 2100, mollusks will likely have trouble forming their shells because of ocean acidification from carbon dioxide emissions.

Barack Obama is coming for our precious bodily fluids

Did you know that the next president of the United States might be a...Communist?

According to Lisa Schiffren on the National Review's "The Corner" blog*, it is highly likely that Barack Obama is a certified "red diaper baby." How can she be sure? Because he was born to a black father and white, reputedly Jewish** mother in the early 1960s, thats why. And we all know how those people are!

Are you serious? This is hilarious. I can't believe it actually made it onto the (web)pages of the National Review. It sounds like a rant from somebody's crotchety, bigoted, 85-year-old aunt. Calm down, Mildred, and have a sherry.

Watch out--if Mr. Obama succeeds and the Communists take over, they might attack our civil liberties, imprison people without cause, and trash our economy.

Just remember, as Schiffren writes,

Political correctness was invented precisely to prevent the mainstream liberal media from persuing the questions which might arise about how Senator Obama's mother, from Kansas, came to marry an African graduate student. Love? Sure, why not? But what else was going on around them that made it feasible?

*Via Wonkette, of course.
**When she wasn't being Muslim

Trenchcoat mafia still recruiting

Please tell me. Is this happening more frequently, or are we just hearing more about it?

February 14, 2008
Gunman Opens Fire at Northern Illinois University

DEKALB, Ill. (AP) -- A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from a stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 18 people, four critically, before he killed himself, the school's president said. (AP via NYT)

From Columbine through the horrible day at Virginia Tech last year...just last week it was a random shooting at a college in Baton Rouge. What's up? Because all of this is some seriously scary, collapse-of-society, end-times shit.

"I'll take 'Unfortunate Surnames' for $1000, Alex"

Do you remember that one episode of Seinfeld?

Unable to remember the name of the woman he is dating, Jerry tries to pick up clues to solve the mystery. Given the clue that her name rhymes with a part of the female anatomy, Jerry and George try to come up with possible candidates: Aretha (for urethra), Celeste (for breast), Bovary (for ovary), and Mulva (for vulva). The pay-off of the joke comes at the end of the episode when she presses him to say her name. Jerry guesses Mulva, causing her to storm out of Jerry's apartment. In a flash of insight, Jerry runs to the window and yells out, "Dolores!" (for clitoris). (Wikipedia)

Funny. But--truth is always funnier than fiction.

James J. Mulva Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer James J. (Jim) Mulva is chairman, president and chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips.

(ConocoPhillips website)

Just call me coppertop

This is excellent.


A Canadian scientist has designed a knee-brace-like generator that can produce 5 watts of electric power by harnessing the energy of a person's stride. (NYT)

So could I strap on a couple of these 3.3-pound devices (whoa, kinda heavy) and power my iPod as I run? Sweet! Actually, the article mentions several more serious possible uses, including helping soldiers in the field keep their equipment powered, and powering prosthetic limbs.

Not to mention the following creepy fact: "The energy stored in body fat is the equivalent of a battery that weighs more than a ton."

Home Sweet Gentrifying Home

All the tragedy and hilarity that you'll read on the highly entertaining Mt. Pleasant neighborhood forum has found its way onto the pages of the Post.

Mount Pleasant's Growing Pain
An Outdoor Trash Bin At a Latino Restaurant Proves an Unlikely Trigger Of an Ideological Clash In a D.C. Neighborhood

I live across the street from Don Juan's, the Latino restaurant at issue in this article. I've been there and like the place. Of course, I'm often awoken by the sounds of drunken arguments and vomiting in the street when Don Juan's and the other bars close. But unlike certain members of the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, I always chalked that up to what happens when you live on the main drag of a neighborhood full of bars.

Is the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance racist? There certainly seems to be an element of that. But I suspect that if the rowdiest bars in Mt. Pleasant were frequented mostly by college students, they'd be anti-college-student instead. I'd characterize them more as "anti-party" and encourage them to move to Ballston if they have a problem with life in a real city.