Open access... for some!

Am I wrong in finding some irony in the news that Bill Gates, Windows/ MS Office IP multi-billionaire, is insisting on nearly the most open of open access for research funded by the Gates Foundation? Anyway, good on you, Bill and Melinda. Why not provide a similar CC license for Word and Excel while you're at it?

Plastics

My Dad is a plastics expert, among other things. But that's not the only reason I love this scene, from a movie that must rank among the great creations of American popular culture. RIP Mr. Nichols...

You go, Barry!

I like his strategy of piling up ambitious executive actions on climate, immigration, and... use your imagination! Daring the Republicans to sue his ass, or run on it in 2016. If the American people don't like it, they've always got Rick Perry or Chris Christie or Sarah Palin... bring it on!

Wish I'd-a been there

Kenny G blowing... no, not that Kenny G, THE Kenny G...

Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 47

From the very first guitar riff, Nevermind announces itself as rock for the ages. Bombastic, somehow indelibly of its time, it remains as fresh, hard, painful, and lovely as ever. Not to mention the all-time classic album cover.

Night Fever

What are the words to this song? I do so enjoy the Bee Gees, but damned if I have any idea what they are singing about. I could look up the lyrics on-line, but that would take all the fun out of it, don't you think?

So, let me get this straight...

... we should be worried about the U.S.-China climate plan because it may not require China to do enough, and because it may be too ambitious for China to achieve...?

Still, many questions surround China’s plans, which President Xi Jinping announced in Beijing alongside President Obama after months of negotiations. In essence, experts asked, do the pledges go far enough, and how will China achieve them?

Realism and skepticism are warranted, of course. But I can already hear the GOP and carbon lobby talking points. There is a natural progression of arguments from the people who would prefer to do nothing about climate change: from denial of warming, to denial that humans are causing it, to it's happening but it's too costly to do anything about it, to we could do something at reasonable cost but the Chinese won't, so why bother? The next step, logically, is to claim that whatever China agrees to do will fail regardless. Sigh.

Pulgas Ridge

Dry as a bone. But the slanting afternoon light works wonders on the thickets of poison oak canes, blue oak bark... the rat nests and orb webs.