bogen.org

Fresh material hasn’t been seen in this space for some time now.  Unfortunately, it will be even longer until this space features new opinions, ideas, rants, facts, and lies.  Sarah and I are moving to Madison, WI and I just don’t have the time to update this site at the moment.  So, it will be at least 01 Aug 02 before new material is seen on this site.  However, given the vagaries of moving into a new house, securing Internet access, and looking for a job, it could be even longer until I get the time, opportunity, and setup to write again.

Until then, remember the immortal words of Elaine Dickinson in the movie Airplane!:

“There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?”

Since Bush/Cheney was elected, the party line coming from the administration on the topic of global warming was that the "science was bad."  Yesterday, the EPA (part of the Bush/Cheney government, remember) released a report on the topic of global warming.  The conclusions drawn by the EPA from data in this report:  global warming is real; climate change is happening; get used to it.  What sorts of climate change can we expect over the next few years?

For example, changes in temperature and precipitation of the magnitude being projected are likely to cause shifts in the areas occupied by dominant vegetation types relative to their current distribution. Some ecosystems that are already constrained by climate, such as alpine meadows in the Rocky Mountains, are likely to face extreme stress and disappear entirely in some places. Other more widespread ecosystems are also likely to be sensitive to climate change. For example, both climate model scenarios suggest that the southwestern United States will become moister, allowing more vegetation to grow. Such a change is likely to transform desert landscapes into grasslands or shrublands, altering both their potential use and the likelihood of fire. In the northeastern United States, both climate scenarios suggest changes mainly in the species composition of the forests, including the northward displacement of sugar maples, which could lead to loss in some areas. However, the studies also indicate that conditions in this region will remain conducive to maintaining a forested landscape, mainly oak and hickory. In the southeastern United States, however, there was less agreement among the models: the hot-dry climate scenario was projected to lead to conditions that would be conducive to the potential breakup of the forest landscape into a mosaic of forests, savannas, and grasslands; in contrast, the warm- moist scenario was projected to lead to a northward expansion of thesoutheastern mixed forest cover. (See additional discussion in the Forest subsection.)

Basically, changes in land cover were projected to occur, at least to some degree, in all locations, and these changes cannot generally be prevented if the climate changes and vegetation responds as much as projected.

Even in such regions as the Southwest, where vegetation is expected to increase as a result of increased rainfall and enhanced plant growth due to the rising CO2 concentration, an important potential consequence is likely to be a heightened frequency and intensity of fires during the prolonged summer season. Increased fire frequency would likely be a threat not only to the natural land cover, but also to the many residential st ructures being built in vulnerable suburban and rural areas, and later would increase vulnerability to mudslides as a result of denuded hills. Considering the full range of available results, it is plausible that climate change-induced alterations to natural ecosystems could affect the availability of some ecosystem goods and services.

Climate changes that affect the land surface and terrestrial vegetation will also have implications for fresh-water and coastal marine ecosystems that depend on the temperature of runoff water, on the amount of erosion, and on other factors dependent on the land cover. For example, in aquatic ecosystems, many fish can breed only in water that falls within a narrow range of temperatures. As a result, species of fish that are adapted to cool waters can quickly become unable to breed successfully if water temperatures rise. As another example, because washed-off soil and nutrients can benefit wetland species (within limits) and harm estuarine ecosystems, changes in the frequency or intensity of runoff events caused by changes in land cover can be important.

What does the Bush/Cheney administration want us to do to protect the US from these changes (which should occur by the end of the 21st century)?  Nothing.  That’s right, nothing.  The deserts of the SouthWest will disappear and we will do nothing about it.  Entire species in the ocean and on land will become extinct and we sit around doing nothing.  Why?  Because doing nothing is an easy bureaucratic way out of any mess.  Nobody can impugn you for doing nothing.  If Bush actually acted to try and counteract climate change, he’d annoy his campaign donors/brain surrogates (read: oil, gas, automobile, logging, and other big industrial interests).  Instead we’re all supposed to fiddle while the Earth slowly warms, entire ecosystems disappear, and many industries and ways of life are forever changed.

We saw Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones yesterday.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I don’t want to spoil it for you with my review below.  So, if you want to read my review, highlight the text below that is currently the same color as this page’s background.  That will make the text visible to you.  However, there are spoilers in my review so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, and want to be surprised, don’t read the review.  You have been more than adequately warned.

Like most everyone who has seen the film, I came away with mixed feelings about the end product.  In many respects, this is one of the best Star Wars movies.  In other ways, the movie drags and drags until nearly everyone in the audience is yelling, "Get on with it already!"  First, the good parts.  We saw the film as Lucas wanted everyone to see it:  with digital projection.  There aren’t more than 19 theatres in the country that have digital projectors, so we considered ourselves lucky to see the film at one of the nineteen.  The film looked incredibly sharp in digital projection.  The colors were rich, and there were absolutely no scratches or other blemishes due to repeated showings of the film.  If at all possible, I encourage you to go out and see this film in a theater that has a digital projector.  The battle scenes in the movie were very cool.  I can’t begin to imagine the amount of time that went into creating and rendering those battle scenes (not to mention the rest of the movie).  In many scenes the background is just as alive and realistic as the action in the foreground of the scene.  In no other Star Wars movie are there so many Jedi knights, and in no other movie do those Jedi knights do so many cool and interesting things.  Also, we get an interesting glimpse of big city life in Lucas’ universe in this film.  In the other Star Wars films, most of the city life that we’re shown is on backwater worlds like Tattooine and less populated worlds like Naboo.  Yoda:  very cool and very powerful.  Note to self:  do not mess with Yoda.  Yoda’s lightsaber duel with Count Dooku was unexpected and, while Dooku ultimately escapes, Yoda gives a very good account of himself.  The introduction of the Clone Army gives us a very clear look at where the Stormtroopers came from.  Also, with the killing of Boba Fett’s dad, Jango, at the hands of Mace Windu, we can see what drives Boba Fett now.  C3PO and Jar Jar Binks failed to fall into a black hole in the ten years between Episode I and Episode II, so we’re stuck with their idiocy in this film.  The movie really needs a Han Solo-style swashbuckling character that isn’t Anakin Skywalker.  Samuel L. Jackson is wasted in this movie, as is Natalie Portman.  The horrendous dialog that Lucas seems content to serve us allows them to do nothing with their acting skills.  Lucas seems to feel obligated to drive home the fact that Anakin and Padme are falling in love with several jackhammers.  We got it, George.  Lucas spends way too much of the movie showing them falling in love.  Ugh.  If I wanted to see a bad romantic movie, I’d watch CBS on Sunday nights.  The hand that Dooku chops off Anakin is the same hand that Darth Vader (nee Anakin) chops off Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back.  Both Luke and Anakin get robotic replacements, though Anakin’s replacement doesn’t have the look of a natural hand like Luke’s does.  It wasn’t a waste of time, nor was it a waste of money to see this movie.  However, it also wasn’t Empire Strikes Back, which is still the best Star Wars movie in many ways.

Sensational Media Coverage of Shark Attack Season opened yesterday.  A surfer was attacked off the coast here in CA and it was front page news in both the local paper, and on CNN.com.  As covered in this space in September of 2001, your chances of being injured by lightning, buckets and pails, toilets, or squirrels are significantly higher than your chance of suffering a shark attack.  If those in the media could spare us a summer of unnecessary hyperbole about shark attacks, I would appreciate it.

After a few nice summer-like days, we’re back to the usual here in the Bay Area.  Today is cold, cloudy, and windy.  Whee.  Oh, well.  I’m about to take off to take in a sand castle building contest on the beach here in Alameda.