Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sunday reads

From the solar-powered "Night Garden" in Jerusalem

Some excellent bits and pieces from around the internets:
  • Deborah Pearlstein on the problem of post-acquittal detention os US war prisoners.
  • Andy Worthington and Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld "shatter" the credibility of the Guantánamo military commissions.
  • Roger Burbach on the Honduran coup.
  • Rortybomb on the non-GDP costs of global warming.
  • James Hansen dumps on the Waxman-Markey climate bill. (Probably unfairly and certainly unhelpfully, since he doesn't seem to have much of a grasp of the obstacles in crafting policy. As director of NASA's Godard Institute and a long-time proponent of serious action on climate change, he's a big name on the issue, of course. But be careful to take his piece with a grain of salt).
  • If the G8 countries get serious on climate change, developing countries say they will also act, although this must include China and India. This has been obvious for a long time, but it now seems to have entered the skulls of the G8 leaders, thus belying one of the main justifications for not acting to mitigate carbon and other GhG emissions.
  • Happy 11 millionth birthday, Amazon River!
  • Brilliantly evocative piece in the Sunday NY Times on the changing relationship between whales and humans.
  • For music fans with a particular taste, Unrest offers a a terrific list of the 95 best (and often quite obscure) French prog and psych albums. (An index to musician Dominique Grimaud's books, Un Certain (?) Rock Français, volumes N°s 1 & 2).
  • From The Onion, "Baseball Fans Delighted by New Between-Innings Fuck-Cams." (Go Nats!). I don't think anyone can better express eternal recurrence baseball despair.

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