Snortblog

James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Science, and a long time nemesis of the second Bush administration reportedly published a story in the September 26 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to this report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Earth was now within about 1C of the maximum estimated temperature of the past million years.

Lifehacker.com had a post about sending broken manufactured things back to the manufacturer to get them fixed. When you have to buy new, look for products with lifetime manufacturer’s warranties. You generally have to pay return postage, though some manufacturers provide free return envelopes. For example, after buying and throwing away lots of cheap earphones, I found that KOSS earphones have a lifetime warranty, they’ll replace them for $6, they were reasonably priced and sound a lot better then cheap headphones (i.e. the multiple pairs of $6 headphones I bought new that lasted a few weeks at a time). I’ve always gotten a replacement back and feel better about it because I’m supporting a company that stands behind their product. I can only cross my fingers and hope that they’ll reuse the parts I’ve returned. I doubt it, but from an environmental and consumer standpoint, quality trumps quantity.

If you really want to cool down, take a break and head to Barton Springs. Dive into the water, don’t test the water or you may lose the will to chill. Stay in the water as long as you can, preferably until you get goosebumps. Rinse and repeat as needed. I find that I feel comfortable for an hour or more afterwards when biking and for a few hours when not moving much.

I was asked who I was looking forward to seeing this year. While there are many bands I know I like, I’m more excited about the band that I’ve never heard of that blows me away. In years past the bands that have stolen the show for me have been Café Tacuba, Los Amigos Invisibles, and Zap Mama.

More tips here and here.

What I learned to bring today:

• Water with a screw on cap. I brought in a apparently outlawed gallon of water, which the security team must have missed. It had a snap on cap, which snapped off in my backpack, thereby drenching everything I had.

Bands we saw:

1. Terri Hendrix
2. Gnarls Barkley–a highlight of the day
3. Thievery Corporation — eclectic, sitar followed by rap
4. Oliver Mtukudzi & Black Spirits — an acclaimed popular singer from Zimbabwe, also an actor. They performed infectious tunes in English. Their dancing imitated motions made when working, digging, hoeing or winnowing grain.
5. John Mayer
6. Van Morrison — by the time we made it to Van Morrison, we succumbed to gravity, too tired to stand.

The bike ride home reminded me of why I love Austin. As I made my way east, the music from the ACL music festival gave way to music in Fiesta Gardens, and then farther north, I encountered a neighborhood party at a Catholic school.

Hatred is a disease like no other. It’s spread by leaders seemingly immune to its deadly touch, and innocents die. This feeds further hatred and the cycle continues, spawning more bloodshed. 5 years after September 11, 2001, more Americans have died in Iraq then were killed on September 11.  More then 40,000 Iraqis have been reported to have been killed, and many thousands more on all sides of the conflict have been maimed or injured. No one wins in war, everyone loses.

We have a sun oven that we love. We’ve had it for a few years, and it works great. It usually gets up to around 275 degrees Fahrenheit (135 Celsius), but tends to sit at 250 F. (121 C.) once it has food in it. In the summer, when eggplant is prolific in central Texas, I really like to eat baba ghanoush, a tasty cold paste that goes great with chips or pita bread. I throw about 5-7 small eggplants into a clear glass dish, close up the sun oven, point it approximately where I think the sun will be about an hour before I want to remove the contents, and walk away for 3 or 4 hours. On the outside, a sun oven is mostly cool to the touch. I would never leave a gas or electric oven in a building unattended, but with the sun oven, I don’t have any worries at all. It makes great baba ghanoush, and you don’t heat up your house making it.

Dick Cheney is comedy fodder for the banal evilness that characterizes this administration, the first administration to make Nixon look good. It hurts so much you have to laugh. Dick Cheney’s permanent evil smirk has clearly spread to George Bush the Second, our imperial frat boy in chief. Did they have a collective stroke? Is Bush the Second permanently drunk? Comedy–last refuge for those who care. I read a Tom Tomorrow cartoon where “the enablers” explained away travesties of this modern presidency. One was the discovery that Dick Cheney had a secret ranch where he would hunt and kill human beings. My friend had seen the Lord of the Rings recently and recalled a scene where an Orc was sniffing the air, saying “man-flesh” in a hungry way. First person to do a mashup wins.