Musings

And the floor isn’t safe, either, at least off in the distance….

This is the current view from the master bedroom into the (former) master bath. That’s the edge of the sink in the front left corner, and you can see a peek of the soaking tub beyond the low knee wall (mostly intact). Then, it’s some version of the wild blue yonder where the doorway into the throne/shower area was.

We’re informed that the brown tarp is thicker, and covers lower areas with sharper pokey-uppy-things, with the thinner blue tarps in the upper areas, all of it layered like shingles.

Rain’s headed our way from Alabama if I read the weather maps correctly. So, soon this temporary buffering between outdoors and indoors will be tested.

I particularly like the (accidental, happenstance—really!) juxtaposition of the toothbrush cup and the vagrant oak leaf on the counter by the sink….

Posted at 9:39 PM | 2 Comments »

Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)?

Recent rains have whacked the pollen count, and now we’re getting a cold snap. Where’re my socks?

FYI—abbreviation: GHGe

greenhouse gas emissions

And some solid figures from Circle of Responsibility:

Researchers estimate that the average American diet produces more than 15 pounds of CO₂ per day which equals 5,600 pounds of CO₂ emissions per person per year…. Compare that number to other “practical changes” suggested by respected environmental organizations that ask individuals to cut their carbon by taking shorter hot showers or changing light bulbs. A 10-minute shower is often cited as contributing four pounds of carbon per day (or 1,460 pounds of CO₂ per year); this is only about one-third the impact of our daily food choices! [text from here…]

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on GHGe

Did I mention they’re big on dinosaurs at Fernbank?

Rainy off and on today. Which is good for plants and reservoirs (Lanier’s still almost 14 feet low and we’re still under exceptional drought conditions).

And will wash away some of the accumulated pollen.

Posted at 4:22 PM | 1 Comment »

View westward of downtown Atlanta (note Varsity sign)….

Remember the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta back on the evening of the 14th of March? Well, here’s a look at some of the remaining damage.

That’s plywood blocking windows in the Georgia Pacific building (center, brownish), and those black spots on the round Westin hotel building are more broken windows. The tornado would have come from the west(ish), so this may not be the worst of it. Some streets are still closed. Many fancy, made-to-order windows must be special-ordered, and thus will not be replaced for months. I hear the grass in the nearby parks was carefully combed to remove grass shards.

Posted at 5:52 PM | Comments Off on Downtown damage

Turtle sunning at Lake Clara Meer.

Sunny today, with temps breaking 70°F. Shall I put away the heavy winter blankets?

Techno-discovery

high dynamic range imaging (often: HDRI/HDR; slow-load Wikipedia link), a compositing technique that yields an image with an exaggerated dynamic range, now easy(ish) to accomplish with Photoshop and its imitators.

Posted at 6:48 PM | 2 Comments »

For unknown reasons (unexercised and unverbalized desire to wander exacerbated by fine spring weather?), I’ve been distracted for a time both yesterday and today looking closely at the Isle of Skye in Google Earth. I even downloaded a 1905 text from archive.org called The Misty Isle of Skye: Its Scenery, Its People, Its Story, and examined places noted therein.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered that those crazy Brits (or Scots) decided that if a Munro is any Scottish mountain more than 3K feet tall, then a somewhat smaller landform, at least 150 meters tall (just under 500 feet for you metric-challenged types), shall be referred to as a Marilyn (get it?), or, roughly, a hill. Or, and I suppose this is entirely possible, those Wikipedia wackos are totally pulling my leg!

Posted at 6:24 PM | Comments Off on Screen-based wander

…the rain came and (almost) washed the pollen away.

Posted at 5:57 PM | Comments Off on Outdoors

The ten-dollar deal! Note: contains no actual wasabi.

Seriously, this much wasabi powder must affect the global climate—and there were more piles of kilo bags, in various brands, right next to these!

Flowering update

Most of the dogwoods I’ve seen around the city are full open and brilliant, and many azaleas are nearly open; however, the white azaleas in our backyard are only about 20% open. Too overcast/rainy to photo today; maybe tomorrow.

Posted at 5:02 PM | 3 Comments »

Here’s proof that the tornado almost two weeks ago didn’t get all of downtown—yeah, okay, well, yeah, this is Midtown….

And the fogginess indicates that rain is on the way, so tomorrow’s proposed hike is on temporary delay.

Posted at 9:18 PM | Comments Off on Night life

A virus has wiped out lots of dogwoods around here, providing food for scavenger species….

Today, the number of people in the world who are highly vulnerable to drought is enormous and growing rapidly, not only in the developing world but also in densely populated areas such as Arizona, California, and southwestern Asia. Judging from the arid cycles of a thousand years ago, the droughts of a warmer future will become more prolonged and harsher. Even without greenhouse gases, the effects of prolonged droughts would be far more catastrophic today than they were even a century ago

That’s from pg. 238 of Brian Fagan‘s latest book, The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (2008)—and lacks a closing period, just as reproduced here (oops).

But what I really want to say is that Fagan’s books are far superior to publications by Jared Diamond and other non-archaeologists because of the data he marshals and how he analyzes our human past.

Still, I’d bet that the Great Warming in the title was pushed by the marketing people, because Fagan’s message really is that the changing rainfall patterns, with less precip especially in the central, equatorial latitudes, are what will have the biggest effect on human life—not the warming part, although the two facets of the changing climate are definitely linked….

Posted at 6:35 PM | Comments Off on I’m thirsty (really)