Don’t Bother Watching

Premonition.

If this warning comes too late to you: I feel your pain.

Q: How many climate sceptics does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None. It’s too early to say if the lightbulb needs changing.

Robert Butler tackles the the humourless subject of climate change for The Economist’s More Intelligent Life magazine.

[youtube] “We Will All Go Together When We Go” – Tom Lehrer

Ghosts I-IV

Nine Inch Nails has released the album Ghosts I-IV, 36 tracks of instrumental goodness.

You can download the first nine tracks for free from the NIN website. No doubt the entire album can be found in darker corners of the Internet as well. If you have a heavy wallet and a conscience to match, there are a range of ordering options, from $5 to download the album to $300 for the (sold out) Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package.

Ghosts I-IV has the same dystopian, Blade Runneresque feel common to all NIN, but at the same time it’s very different from hits like The Hand That Feeds or Capital G, which might be the only exposure most people have had to NIN. Judging by the free tracks, I doubt there will be much radio play.

Despite the absence of pop hooks or, less painfully, fashionable politics, you should still give it a listen.

Image Problems

I much prefer when the Tories are playing Liberals Lite (“Now with accountability!”) to when they indulge their darker anti-intellectual tendencies.

[link] Feds Axe Book Centre – Laura Czekaj, Ottawa Sun

[via] Political Boulevards

Wide Open Spaces

Chicago and Toronto are in pretty good shape relative to their Rust Belt neighbours. As far as I can tell from the Wikipedia numbers, the urban agglomerations on the south shore of Lake Michigan and the west shore of Lake Ontario are by far the most populous in the Rust Belt. The relative prosperity of Chicago and Toronto may in part be due to their critical mass which allows them to function independent of their surroundings.

Smaller cities like Cleveland struggle in isolation because they are not as self-sustaining. The only physical connections between Rust Belt cities and beyond are expensive airplane tickets or interminably long journeys by road.

The upcoming Democratic primary in Pennsylvania had drawn some attention to the contrast between Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in the west. Ryan Avent asks, why is eastern Pennsylvania so much more prosperous than the west?  His answer, after the break.

Surgite

“Surgite” (press on) may have been the dying words of Upper Canadian war-hero Isaac Brock. The eponymous, middling univeristy which I attend has appropriated this rarity in Canadian history – heroic mythology – and wrung it of any genuine heroism.

But enough of my whining and pretentious criticism – as if I didn’t Google half of that. It’s not what I sat down to talk about.

A serious underestimation of how long two projects would take meant that I had to press on Thursday night, battling sleepiness, boredom, and APA style. It’s less heroic than repelling an American invasion, but at least I wasn’t fatally wounded. (I didn’t get a monument built in my memory either…)

In case you too have to suffer as I did, here is part of the wakeful playlist that helped me get through the night:

Kanye West – Stronger

Stevie Wonder – Higher Ground

Band from TV – You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Melajube – Montréal -40°C

Arctic Monkeys – The Bad Thing

The Saint Alvia Cartel – Don’t Wanna Wait Forever

Moondog with Orchestra – Stamping Ground

I know “Stronger’ is so six-months ago, but this is a keep-me-awake playlist, not a let’s-fall-asleep-but-at-least-I’ll-have-blog-cred playlist.

“Stamping Ground” can be found on the soundtrack of The Big Lebowski. Speaking of soundtracks, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” came with the House soundtrack.

One song I wish I could have listened to is the new one from LCD Soundsystem. It didn’t even occur to me to listen to Sounds of Silver, which is a shame. I could have put in an extra hour of work.

[photo] “280” by jan_postma

Evil Birds

 

Birds are inherently creepy creatures. They are frighteningly intelligent but lack all the warm fuzziness of mammals. You can see it in their eyes.

I came across some seagulls today, and they were up to no good. They were standing in place, all facing the same direction.

The seagulls were all facing the same direction. Immediately, I know this was something the world needed to see. I reached for my camera, but the birds were two fast; they flew off.

Stunned, I stood still for a while and pondered what I had just seen. What were the seagulls doing? Practicing military drills? Waiting for more birds to join in before they took Buffalo?

It occurred to me that maybe the birds were all facing west because it was windy out and their light, aerodynamic bodies probably get tossed about like the garbage they eat unless they put a lot of effort into it.

But then the birds came back. Whatever purpose facing west served, it was important, because they did it again. (They must be like the T-rex in Jurassic Park: if you stand perfectly still, they can’t see you.)

This time I moved made slow, non-threatening movements to free my camera. You can see the picture below.

A Google of “evil birds” returns only 840,000 blog-heavy hits. We are normally a vocal group. Spread the message of warning! The birds are up to no good.