July 27, 2005
Current Playlist
| Doves - Sky Starts Falling >> |
| Neutral Milk Hotel - Everything Is >> |
| Gordon Lightfoot - Don't Beat Me Down >> |
| Bob Dylan - Went To See The Gypsy >> |
| Belle & Sebastian - Don't Leave the Light On Baby >> |
| Josh Rouse & Kurt Wagner - 65 >> |
| Pernice Brothers - Waiting for the Universe >> |
| Interpol - Take You On a Cruise >> |
| Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Easy Money >> |
| Lloyd Cole - My Other Life >> |
| R.E.M. - I've Been High >> |
| Brian Eno - This >> |
| Brian Eno - Just Another Day >> |
| Okkervil River - Kansas City >> |
| Arcade Fire - Une Annee Sans Lumiere >> |
27 Jul 20:10 | Link | Category: Music
July 14, 2005
Tourists and researchers contributing to gorilla deaths
This news item confirms something I've been hearing for several years: An unsettling percentage of mountain gorilla deaths are due to diseases spread by visiting humans. Respiratory diseases are second only to poaching as the cause of death for mountain gorillas. Of 100 gorilla deaths dating back to 1968, 24 of them were caused by respiratory diseases, including influenza A and parainfluenza viruses.
Tourism is one of the Catch-22s in mountain gorilla conservation. It's one of the best ways to raise awareness and funds. Additionally, without tourist revenue, governments would have little incentive to maintain the park's integrity. (In Rwanda, for example, farmland stops only right at the small park's edge.) But at the same time, tourism disturbs the habitat (though probably not as much as the alternative) and apparently spreads deadly viruses, which is a critical problem when mountain gorilla population consists of perhaps 600 individuals).
So... a very tricky situation indeed. It's probably true that the only hope for preserving the gorillas (which is a long shot at best anyway) inevitably includes ugly Western tourists (like yours truly) as a big part of the equation, and it's sad it has gotten to that.
14 Jul 23:11 | Link | Category: Human/Primate Evolution & Behavior, Science
The Speech the President Should Give
Sarah Vowell has been writing clever, funny op-eds for the New York Times (temping for Maureen Dowd who is on "book leave" and hopefully taking her sweet time to finish that book). I really enjoyed yesterday's piece, Vowell's take on John Kerry's recent The Speech the President Should Give.
I particularly liked what she said about Jimmy Carter's ominous "malaise" speech in which he tried to break the hard truth to Americans, noting that "There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice":
Those frank words, coming out of a presidential mouth, are shocking. It will be difficult, but think back and try to remember an America dependent on foreign oil, an America with high gasoline prices, an America consumed with crises in the Middle East. And imagine you feel there is nothing you, the average American, can do. Then your president goes on TV and instead of saying you can do something vague like "stay the course," he tells you that there is something small and practical you can do. You can carpool!
These days, there's just something refreshing about reading through Carter's clear-eyed political suicide. Daydreamer though I am, I have never expected a president to solve our chaos. It's just nice to know that once, one of them acknowledged it.
14 Jul 22:58 | Link | Category: Opinion & Thoughts
Your tax dollars, hard at work...
Another depressing case of a politician being hoodwinked by mystical/pseudoscientific con men.
Four years ago, Florida was hard at work trying to eradicate citrus canker from destroying trees. Officials rejected unproven methods, saying they would "waste precious time and resources."
However, at the behest of Secretary of State Katherine Harris (remember her?), they did pursue one alternative method - "Celestial Drops," virtually the same thing as mystically blessed Kabbalah Water. (Ask the celebrities if you're unfamiliar...)
Anyway, Ms. Harris (now a US Congresswoman... ugh) was introduced to one of the product's promoters, New York Rabbi Abe Hardoon, in 2000. She believed his claim that he was working closely with Israeli "scientists" and "stepped back and allowed Hardoon and the state to work out the details."
Surprisingly, Celestial Drops proved useless against citrus canker.
14 Jul 0:03 | Link | Category: Politics, Science
July 13, 2005
Sleep Paralysis
5-7 years ago, I had recurring instances of sleep paralysis. In my case it was hypnopompic paralysis, a very unsettling state in which one feels that he/she has woken up but is completely unable to move. This is often accompanied by a sort of waking dream or hallucination. Sleep paralysis is a common phenomenon experienced by many people. Luckily mine was pretty mild, so my experiences weren't too vivid. But they can be downright terrifying. Check out this article.
Although my episodes were never severe and I never resorted to any supernatural explanation, I was still baffled and scared by what I thought was some sort of disorder in my brain. Luckily, at the time I happened to be reading a book by Carl Sagan when I came to a chapter in which he discussed sleep paralysis (and its relation to the alien abduction / supernatural claims). I immediately knew that's what I was experiencing and was greatly relieved to know it was a normal brain 'malfunction'. (Some years later, I brought the subject up with my brother and found that he had experienced sleep paralysis a few times. Once while he was doing missionary work he had even thought it was some sort of 'evil spirit'.)
I experience sleep paralysis very rarely these days. I think my original bout had something to do with the odd sleep schedules (alternating between a lack of sleep and too much sleep) and perhaps stress I had at the time. (See: possible causes)
In my case, I have found that I'm able to recognize when I'm experiencing paralysis, so I can avoid the panicky feeling by controlling myself, relaxing, giving in to the sensation, and trying to go back to sleep. Then I usually wake up quickly and normally without much agitation.
If you've been lucky enough not to experience sleep paralysis, keep in mind that it's estimated that most people will experience it at least once or twice. So just wait.
Sweet dreams...
13 Jul 23:20 | Link | Category: Misc. Tidbits, Science
Lab-grown meat?
Scientists are starting to talk realistically (though the devil's always in the details) about lab-grown meat for human consumption. According to this news brief, the intriguing (if somewhat odd and creepy) paper in Tissue Engineering discusses "the prospects for industrial production of cultured meat." Chew on that.
13 Jul 23:11 | Link | Category: Science
Live 8 Video
I didn't watch Live 8 because... well, no need to delve into the reasons. For those of you who also missed / avoided it, you can watch online videos (in the convenient form of downloadable QuickTime movies) courtesy of AOL.
Frankly, most of the performances seem a bit uninspired. There are a few interesting clips, though. There was a good deal of buzz about Pink Floyd reuniting for the show... the performances didn't do much for me, except perhaps "Wish You Were Here". (Roger Waters tends to annoy me, but his warbly aged vocals actually add something to the tune.)
Also of note is the video of Peter Gabriel and Geoffrey Oryema performing (somewhat uncomfortably) Geoffrey's beautiful "Land of Anaka," a longtime favorite of mine.
13 Jul 22:36 | Link | Category: Music, Video
Photography Links
13 Jul 19:50 | Link | Category: Photography