I don't know if you'll all understand how this proves my point, but it does.

go here to see a map of Alberta ecoregions things may be dry, but they're not desert.


oh, and on an entirely different note, isn't it wonderful when you introduce yourself to someone and they react with a voice full of dread and "oh shit"? I had that distinct pleasure today, at SU council, which I thankfully did not have to stay through. I introduced myself to one of the people sitting near me who first introduced himself to me, and as I said my name, Steve Smith, sitting nearby then said "ECOS Director, right?" to which the introducer then responded with oh shit... it was quite, um entertaining considering he's interested in doing some, um, peculiar things to ECOS.

every time i see "Kobayashi" I think of the Usual Suspects...

Anyway, about the whole Global Warming, Climate Change debate... sure we get some of those things right now, but not all the time. The essence of Global Climate Change is that whatever happens now will be magnified to the extremes. So we'll have dry spells, but they'll be blistering, and they'll last longer, and then they'll be followed by floods... or there will be deep-freezes... stuff like that. I know we're experiencing things like that right now, and maybe they are "normal" but you have to think about all the records we've been breaking, and the trends we've been following lately... drier, warmer etc. etc.

And yes, you have to take greater global trends into consideration as well, general warming and cooling of the Earth over time. Sure we were in the "Little Ice Age" a couple hundred years ago, but it's not about whether or not this is a general warming trend, it's the speed at which it is happening that is the greatest concern. Nothing in nature has happened this quickly unless it's caused by a freak event like a gigantic meteorite or enormous volcanic erruption. And nothing like what we're doing now has ever happened that so much carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere. Sure, millions of years ago, the atmosphere had a lot more CO2, and the trees were different, and the animals were different, but it's taken millions of years to change from that to this (giving us our coal and oil deposits along the way), and we're putting it all back into the atmosphere in a matter of decades. It's not just about trees, and it's not just about driving your car, or industrialization, it's everything. Nothing has happened on this scale, at this speed before.

And, AD. I must clarify something for you: Alberta was not a desert, nor were all of the western states. Not the way you describe it. I've taken enough ecology classes to say a thing or two on this subject! The plants in these areas have adapted evolutionarily over hundreds of years to (yes) reduced moisture conditions and to grazing, but nothing is true desert. Sure some of the plants, particularly in the states are incredibly desert-like, and you can find pockets of desert here and there, or true "desert plants" like the prickly pear cactus, but none of Alberta ever was (since the last ice age) a desert. The grasslands are just that: grasslands, and they are entirely separate from desert. they may be close on the grander scheme of things (versus forests), but if you want to talk about deserts, go to the tundra, or the Sonoran or maybe Texas. Alberta is not desert. (I don't think even the Athabasca Sand Dunes count as desert.)

Didn't LIME have a song about this?

And now you can search bit torrent.

1000 MB, unlimited bandwidth, no ads, no pop-ups, all free???

Too good to be true?

Ralph Michael Stein (lawprof@pipeline.com)
New York, NY


Date: 17 June 2004
Summary: "Control Room": An Eye-Opening Milestone in Documentaries

Michael Moore is getting much publicity, largely self-generated, for his "Fahrenheit 9/11." Whatever its merits, and there well may be many, it follows (from the trailers I've seen) his usual pattern of film-making, that is he's at the epicenter.

Receiving far less publicity is director Jehane Neujaim's "Control Room," an in-depth and riveting look at Al Jazeera, the TV news network run by Islamic directors, reporters and technical staff. Virtually all of the film focuses on the satellite station's coverage of Iraq since the U.S. invasion.

The pictures are ugly, the dialog often alarming, the relevance breath-takingly important.

Al Jazeera began in 1996 and it's been slammed by some Arab governments as being pro-U.S. or, to be politically correct, pro-Coalition. But the non-Nielsen polls show, clearly, that Arabs from the high reaches of government to customers in tea rooms and barber shops rely on Al Jazeera for news and "Control Room" convincingly shows why. It fills a void-it provides a service never before available in the Arab Mideast and desperately needed to offset the state-controlled media in most Arab countries. Al Jazeera provokes thought and questioning as well as, inevitably stoking already roaring fires.

Al Jazeera claims it covers all sides and the clips shown reflect both on the spot videotaping of violence, including anti-U.S. protests, in depth as well as full coverage of statements by President Bush, other administration officials and military spokespersons. The Al Jazeera reporters may vow to be neutral, indeed many claim to have inherited the mantle of the best aspects of Western journalism, but they have a daily reality that the other news services wholly lack: each reporter and on-screen commentator is a Moslem and many are Arabs As one young reporter responds to the gentle urging of a senior colleague that he must be neutral, he replies with obvious distress that it is very difficult when his ethnic and national ties can't be shed, a problem U.S. and European reporters often don't have.

Sprawling two cultures as his girth overlaps any chair he inhabits, reporter and producer Hassan Ibrahim is the link between a Coalition spokesman, Marine 1/LT Rushing, a sensitive, probing and highly intelligent man, and the region now occupied by powerful Western forces. The developing dialog (and friendship) between Rushing and Ibrahim is presented throughout the film. The young lieutenant clearly broadens his viewpoint as he honestly attempts to engage in a multi-part conversation that goes beyond his assigned duties.

Quietly eloquent, Rushing clearly hates war but sees no alternative to the present conflict. He opines that in the U.S. hardly anyone links Iraq with Palestine while in the Mideast almost everyone sees just one issue. Ibrahim patiently tries to educate the officer but the power of this documentary is its unrolling of an exchange between two decent men who reach a point beyond which they can not enlighten each other. Ibrahim is hardly anti-West: he's married to a U.K. woman and his cell phone ring tone is "Scotland the Brave."

As I watched Rushing and Ibrahim talk I thought to myself, as a former Army officer with national command level experience, "this Marine is gonna be in trouble when the honchos see this film." Two nights ago Ibrahim appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" where he remarked to host Jon Stewart that Rushing had been "silenced" (Luckily in our country that doesn't mean execution: Rushing, promoted to captain according to the end titles, is probably a recreational supplies officer somewhere.)

Many Al Jazeera reporters and studio staff speak. Their thoughtful comments alternate with silly babble from the witless Donald Rumsfeld who attacks Al Jazeera with predictable regularity and consuming ignorance.

Especially striking, given the often monochromatic image of Islam and Arabs beamed to our sets, is the broad diversity of the Al Jazeera staff. Men and women work together. Some wear traditional dress, others sport garb that could have been bought at Wal-Mart. A particularly perceptive and witty young lady with a British accent might well have studied at Oxbridge. And a chain-smoking producer in a business suit plans to send his kids not only to study in the U.S. but to live here. A diverse, interesting group.

One searing scene is unforgettable. An Al Jazeera reporter is shown on the roof of his hotel wearing a steel helmet. He is obviously frozen with fear, body motionless, terror inscribed on his face. The cameraman is ordered by phone to switch to the cityscape. Minutes later he is dead, killed by a now famous and controversial U.S. air strike on the hotel. Whatever the justification for the missile launch, and there might well be one, this man's death humanizes a grotesque tragedy and the weeping, mourning Al Jazeera staff are surely not the image of a fanatic culture we're too often told predominates.

As insight into the Iraq war the documentary is very valuable. As a history of the surprising but welcome rise of an independent Arab TV station that deserves to survive in the tradition of unbiased journalism, "Control Room" will become one of the most remarkable documentaries of this fragile decade.

www.controlroommovie.com/

happy birthday peoples. you know who you are. there's a drink with your name on it- for which and you can thank Percy for.

debt free alberta?
[2]

Raj the Vote!
holy shit. Pannu's 71 years old?!? that's crazy. my favourite Soc Prof told me he was a pretty awful professor back when he was teaching at the U.

Happy Birthday, Birthday-Weekend-ers! Even though it's not the weekend, and I'm not a hundred percent sure who's birthday is on what day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Happy Birthday to Mary yesterday, (Par: sorry, Mary) Pete (and Deanne, though she probably won't read this) today, and Ed and Scott tomorrow, and Mary on Thursday. Depending on who you are and if I got that correct, you either share a birthday with Rembrandt, Captain Picard (well, the actor who played him), or ... uh... Gerald Ford? So, uh, hail to the chef:

Takeru Kobayashi of Japan achieved an unprecedented fourth victory at the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, setting a new world record of 53.5 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes.

The event, which was broadcast live as part of an hour-long show on ESPN, attracted more than 5,000 fans to the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Nobuyuki Shirota of Japan placed second with 38 hot dogs and buns and American Sonya Thomas placed third with 32, a new American record. Rich LeFevre of Nevada put in an enormous performance, placing fourth with 27 3/4. Eric Booker and Cookie Jarvis tied for fifth with 27.

Personal bests were notched by Carlene LeFevre with 22, Jim Reeves of Buffalo, NY, with 21, Joe LaRue of Florida with 20 and Allan Goldstein of Plainview, NY, with 19.

Abraham Jeremy

She's in Mean Girls? Oh, I'm SOOO watching that movie now.

And then there's THIS.