Fennel Battle
Thirty minutes in, this is the tastiest-looking episode of Iron Chef America ever.
= June 2006 = Main = August 2006 =
Thirty minutes in, this is the tastiest-looking episode of Iron Chef America ever.
I don't do a very good job of keeping up with Hollywood, so people may already be well-aware of the amazing news I'm about to reveal. But for others out there like me... did you know they're making Flatland, the Movie!?
Martin Sheen and Buster Bluth are onboard, and everyone's favorite scamp Kristin Bell is voicing the precocious young hexagon. This promises to be some action-packed edutainment in both polar and rectangular coordinates.
I can only assume that this was the last and only novel which had not yet been adapted into a movie. The end of an era.
Marie and I went for a double-whammy of liberal porn this week, seeing both An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car? with some other like-minded, effete Berkeleyans. And boy are we outraged!
Actually, both were highly enjoyable, but I was especially fond of the ... Electric Car, which was one of the better documentaries I've ever seen, though I've seen embarassingly few. Al Gore gives a good talk, to be sure. I wanted to see real numbers on more of his ordinates, but all-in-all it was some excellent powerpointery, (and I can say that in full confidence, having seen an ever-growing number of exceedingly bad powerpoint presentations). And of course, it's an incredibly important message which everyone should think about seriously, but for my movie dollar the EV-1 is just too cute to be denied. While it's a similar tale of corruption and greed, Electric Car remains lighthearted with a more redeeming ending. The good guys just might kind-of win, you think, and GM's comeupance seems all but assured. Contrast this to Doomsday Al, who leaves us with the sobering message that we might... just maybe... if we try hard enough... keep everyone from dying. Hardly the feel-good movie of the summer.
Anyhow - two thumbs way up to Electric Car. There's no mention of the Stonecutters, (highly suspicious!), but Mel Gibson is sporting *the* 2006 Beard of Summer.
And with that, I end my months-late movie commentary. It's been swell.
Marie and I have had remarkable success with our houseplants here at the new apartment, so a couple months back we took the plunge into produce and bought ourselves a few cherry tomato plants. They're growing great, and from the looks of things we're giong to have a pretty sweet harvest in a few weeks.
That is, if our troubled neighborhood will let us. They're just starting to redden, and there was this one monster guy who was just about ready this morning, but when I arrived home from work this afternoon he was gone! Stolen! It wasn't on the ground nearby, no evidence of an animal or other pest. Just gone.
The plants are regrettably in plain view from the sidewalk, and with all the homeless people wandering around this town I'm a little concerned. What's the bum equivalent of a scarecrow?
A few weeks ago Amber began subletting a room in a house with a few other Cal grad students, and I must say I'm fascinated by the scene she describes. Her roommates home-make everything from bread to beer, and even have a few chickens clucking around the backyard garden. Every tuesday the house holds an open-invitation potluck dinner for people to share their locally-grown whatevers.
This is all very Berkeley, but what amazes me is the musical side of the whole operation. They have a piano and a few guitars in the living room, which are enjoyed regularly, but occassionally actual touring bands will make appearances. For instance, this Friday two bands from Vancouver will be playing a free "show" during a pot-luck dinner. Do they realize that this really is just a five-bedroom hovel in south Berkeley? The house is even listed as a venue on myspace! Sure, they have a big living room, but wtf?
Well, I'm heading over there this friday - this hippy enclave has some 'splaining to do.
I guess this was the most fitting way to break the streak. Ohwell.
"The Earth's got a fever, and the only prescription is more sulfur."
I was walking up Shattuck wearing my Ithaca Is Gorges t-shirt this morning when some crunchy-looking guy outside of Cafe Gratitude asked me if I was from the area. Turns out he grew up in the bustling metropolis of Danby, New York. We exchanged pleasantries and I went on my way, but as I walked off he yelled to me, "Long live the Haunt!".
I thought that was a weird thing to be nostalgic about.
You may now resume your internetery.
Everyone out there in the Blogscape makes a point of posting about hot(t) new music, rock concerts attended and that sort of thing. I have little to contribute in that department, but I do read books sometimes. So why not post about that?
I just finished an interesting little book entitled "Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production". I thought it was going to be a biography of Fritz Haber, the German chemist who pioneered the production of synthetic ammonia. Sounds exciting, no? Well he's also called the "father of cheimcal warfare" - that do anything for you?
Anyhow, turns out I was slightly mistaken. The book was less of a biography and more about scientific examination of the role of nitrogen in the biosphere, and how the development of synthetically-fixed nitrogen seriously pushed back the limits of agricultural productivity. It's fascinating stuff, though I can accept that people outside the world of chemical engineering might not appreciate the lengthy discussions of process control in ammonia plants, or how you design a carbon steel reactor to withstand corrosion from hydrogen at 600 C and 200 atm, (answer: very carefully).
The interesting take-home message is that, aside from water, the rate-limiting step of protein production (i.e. building life) is the conversion of nitrogen from N2 gas into something usable. The author goes on to crunch a long series of numbers, calculating the total nitrogen flux from natural sources - there aren't many - as well as recyclable amounts from manure, etc. He concludes that natural ecosystems can only replace so much nitrogen, and that this rate falls far short of what's necessary to supply amino acids to six billion humans worldwide. So there's something to the tune of 2.4 billion people who simply couldn't be fed through traditional, organic farming, no matter how efficient you were. I won't go into all the details of his calculations, but it was kind of a hit to my hippy sensibilities. I have no basis by which to judge the accuracy of his numbers, but he seems to have done his homework. And this assumes that just about all of the world's cultivatable land is already in production, which is only kind-of true. If anyone knows of any counterarguments out there, I'd love to hear 'em.
Plus, the appendices are filled with all sorts of nifty facts, such as the elemental makeup of guano deposits on various South American islands. Amazingly, that was something farmers were concerned with back in the 1860's.
I've held my tongue on this issue for a while, but I've got to get this out there. I almost feel guilty saying it, because I've really enjoyed Nelly Furtado's last two albums, and once or twice in college I may have drunkenly argued in favor a potential collaboration between her and the other Nelly. (What's he up to these days, by the way?)
So I was all set to love Miss Furtado's first earnest foray into the world of hip-hop. But isn't this song "Promiscuous" kind of... not good? Downright bad, in fact. It would be comforting to know that I'm not alone on this, but based on radio airplay or whatever America clearly disagrees. I just hope that Timbaland's saving the real heat for Justin Timberlake's upcoming release. (The Timb* collabo clearly makes more sense.)
As I type this, new neighbors are unloading their U-Haul outside my window. This makes Marie and I the third most junior tenents in our apartment building, and from the looks of things we've ushered in a new age of all graduate students, all the time. Who knows what kinds of crazy parties Milvia Street will see by the end of the summer.
I've been wearing the same glasses for about five years now, and I'm thinking it's time for a change. While, unlike Tommy, I'm not especially keen on the idea of lasers burning holes into my skull, I would like to jump on this oppourtunity to pick up a new gadget or two.
So... what does the world think about Transitions lenses? I'm highly intrigued by the idea of not having to carry around a second pair of prescription sunglasses, but I'm worried that they might get annoying in practice. Do they transition fast enough? Do the lenses ever tint in unwanted situations?
I'm very particular about things that go on my face, so I don't want to blow a few C-notes on something that doesn't actually work very well. Advise me, internet!
Did everyone have a good Canada Day? I know I did. Marie and I celebrated at a pre-wedding party in a hotel bar outside of Toronto. Old friends, free drinks and the so-bad-they're-good band made for a highly enjoyable evening.
That's about all the blogging I have the energy for at the moment. Travel fatigue is starting to set in, so Marie and I are looking forward to our trip home tomorrow, provided the US border patrol lets us get to the Buffalo airport in time. Naturally, we have lots of photos and pithy observations about our quirky neighbor to the north to share, but I'll save that for once I'm home in the warm bossom of California. Suffice it to say, it's weird up here. Hamburgers eat people.
